In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
MARS
I find this latest diversion distressing for a whole bunch of reasons, the
primary one being that Bush is clearly pandering to Tom DeLay and Florida in
an election year with no intention of following through in any meaningful
way, which leads to distressing point no. 2, that this is yet another
example of the same politically motivated reckless spending that's crashing
the USA straight into the ground, like Enron on the national scale -- i.e.,
the so-called CEO leadership they bragged about is in reality a Rogues
Gallery of incompetent management and commonplace thievery, and if you look
at the track record of these captains of industry you'll see a long list of
companies being run into the ground with all their assets stolen, while the perpetrators
go on to greater, greener pastures, leaving nothing but rubble and suffering
in their wake. The price of loyalty -- the litmus test of a Bush
administration -- is either falling on your sword, a lengthy jail term or a
knife in the back. Somebody else always has to pay for it, which leads me to
distressing point no. 3: we as a nation are now being coerced into this
pledge of loyalty to Bush, with severe consequences to pay if we don't; in
other words, we pay the consequences either way -- in blood, treasure, or punishment -- because that's how it is
with monarchs, historically. I don't know whether you noticed, but the day
before yesterday the U.S. Supreme Court, by declining to hear an appeal
concerning the rights of a defendant -- accused of being an "enemy
combatant" -- to be tried under the rule of law and according to due process
as specified in the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, gutted said
amendment, ripped it up as it were, and by so doing suspended the writ of
habeas corpus. The government may now detain you indefinitely without access
to a lawyer and without informing you of the charges. Why wasn't this
front-page news? We were too busy talking about Mars. Distressing point no.
4 is that this diversionary discussion, especially among space scientists,
is becoming more and more fraught with Armageddonlike scenarios, viz: "When
this stage was reached [Mars colony], humanity would have a precious
insurance policy against catastrophe at home. During the next millennium
there is a significant chance that civilization on Earth will be destroyed
by an asteroid, a killer plague or a global war. A Martian colony could keep
the flame of civilization and culture alive until Earth could be
reverse-colonized from Mars." (Paul Davies, professor of natural philosophy
at the Australian Center for Astrobiology, from today's New York Times)
So now, merely one day after the Bush proclamation, nothing less than
the end of humankind is at stake if we don't go to Mars. We just have to
take it for granted that civilization on Earth will be destroyed, one way or
another. Let's all get used to the idea. Think of it as a given.
Klaatu, varataa, nicto
- Michael 10:04 AM - [PermaLink] -
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