My rant Thursday against politicians on the John Batchelor Show
On my Thursday appearance last week on the John Batchelor Show John and I devoted the entire segment to talking about the sad state of NASA and how the partisan bickering in Congress is not only failing to deal with those problems, that bickering is intentionally disinterested in actually fixing them. As I say,
What both those parties in Congress and in the administration are really doing is faking a goal for the purpose of justifying pork to their districts, because none of the proposals they’re making — both the asteroids or the moon — are going to happen.
I intend to elaborate in writing on this subject in the next day or so. In the meantime, here is the audio of that appearance [mp3] for you all to download and enjoy.
Note that I specifically talked about the following stories during this appearance:
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Dead on, Bob. More’s the pity.
I always look forward to your segments on his show, that’s how I find myself here. (lucky you :)
What you brilliantly illustrate is that once a politician gets his claws into something of financial interest to their district, short of world wide apocalypse, it is near impossible to turn it back. There s no connection between the logic of finances and good business and the emotion of political self interest. The next example ? Obamacare.
Bob pork is what justifies NASA to the public. It by a wide margin is the only thing about the agency that will generate voters to support NASA. Been that way for a couple generations.
Now there have been cases where politicians ignored the pork for something relatewd to space they felt is important (like SLS vrs “Obamaspace” where Obama was sweetning the pie with billions of xetra pork to key Senators, adn similar to congressmen) but ni the end congress folks have to do what voters want no what they see as most important.
Sometimes I can’t argue with you.