Cotour and Edward are ‘right on!’ I really appreciate what they have written, I couldn’t have said it better myself.

I write a lot of stuff myself, mostly for my own enjoyment. My opinions and beliefs are right in line with these two gentlemen.

Thank you for your very succinct and thoughtful commentaries.

George P.
League City, TX

In 1968, Clark and Kubrick gave us a vision of a space odyssey for the year 2001. It was probably more grandiose than was really possible, but we were dreamers back then, with real plans for space stations, moon bases, and manned missions to Mars.

In the 1970s, manned space exploration slowed while the Space Shuttle was completed, but that was OK, because we had many unmanned probes exploring the solar system and landing on our next target: Mars. The space station was small and made of spare parts, but that would surely change as budgets blossomed again. O’Neal even had an idea for entire colonies in space. Plans for space devolved into ideas, waiting for the budgets that would fund them.

In the 1980s, manned space stagnated (although we learned much from our many Shuttle flights), and completion of the next space station was ten years away (it stayed ten years away for two decades). Ideas for space devolved into dreams.

In the 1990s, space enthusiasts saw that the promise of a space odyssey was false. They stopped being complacent that government would bring about anything like the odyssey and started their own commercial companies, without government contracts – and one brave soul offered $10 million that he didn’t have to form the X-Prize (a concept so powerful that NASA and DARPA now use it to encourage innovation). The dreams of the 1980s started to become ideas and plans, again.

In the 2000s, commercial space innovation started paying off. Diamandis found a donor to fund his X-Prize and a team won it. Virgin Galactic was formed to exploit the excitement and new technology created. New commercial space companies were formed, yet some of the original ones failed. (Yes, they feared failure, but not enough to not try.)

Now we have competitions that government relies upon to make access to space cheaper, faster, and better (a concept that government failed with, back in the 1990s). We all now wait eagerly for the new commercial manned space companies to succeed, as they will allow Bigelow and other commercial space station companies to thrive. Individuals, companies, and whole countries will be able to afford their own access to space for vacations, experimentation, or exploitation in space. Ideas are now shaping into plans, and plans to reality. Real people and their real companies are now planning and creating scaled-down versions of the space odyssey that they dreamed of all these decades. And the competition between them makes them work harder to make their products and services better and cheaper.

To paraphrase Yakov Smirnoff, “Competition: what a concept!” It is what made America great, and it also vastly improves every country that embraces it.

Government’s complacency and fear of failure suck.

I want to add and clarify something related to my last post and it is an essential element to understand as it relates to the individual, capitalism and free enterprise and that essential element is FEAR OF FAILURE. The fear of failure is an essential component and driver in creating excellence, attention to detail, ensuring on time performance, and survival and it is a driving component in competition.. This is a creative fear that keeps things in proper perspective and sharply focused.

In contrast there is no driver of excellence in these governmental schemes because there is no fear of failure. The money is free so just go get some more money that is not dear to anyone involved with it and the task at hand. No one gets fired or has a fear of being fired.

What will happen with the ACA? Go get more money, fix something that was never tested before it was released. This is par for the course.

There are different levels to this dysfunction and the Marxist / socialist model that this president and his administration adores, indulges and immerses themselves in is close to the worst. It is naïve and elitist and is disrespectful of the power of the individual and the individuals freedom.

Sick, sick, sick. The disinfecting sunshine is beginning to be shone on this mess. And do not by default think that because I identify this president and administration as being sick that I endorse and think better of the other controlling party, I do not! The sunshine needs to be shone on them both.

The struggle and “war” between the two is what is needed to progress, as strange as that may sound.