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Sorry, the very idea that somebody might think NASA is too lavishly funded sets me off.
I'm commenting on the political reality of the situation rather than the way I think things ought to be. Yes, NASA's budget is dwarfed by something like education funding, but the American public is far more accepting of this. That is what I meant by “justifying” it. One could cut educational funding in half, but that person could very well lose a re-election vote because of it. I think it's the whole idea of spending billions on doing something which really only has a direct scientific impact (I know that there has been a large indirect benefit society from the space program) that does not sit well with many people. It's simply easier to “justify” spending on education, where you have hundreds of thousands employee who benefit (not to mention the students receiving the benefit) as a direct result.
The practical and political solution would be to task NASA and the Department of Education to work together to enhance and advance public education in math and science. NASA could be given direction to establish a 5, 10, 15, and 20 year plan to advance public school math and science curriculum – they build, oversee, and manage the evaluation and progression of the curriculum while the department of education is given some of responsibility for managing the implementation. Most importantaly, elementary and secondary math and science education would be geared toward a specific goal – a visible and measurable end state.Just a thought.
Well, we have seen what political reality gets us for the past two years. A disaster in my opinion. Perhaps it is time to start talking about practical reality instead of whatever either party can convince us to perceive. The reality is that education spending has by and large been a colossal failure while the science spending undertaken by NASA has been an overall net plus.As to conspiracy theories that we never landed on the moon, there are also people that think the Earth is flat or that Bigfoot exists. I have little patience for people that engage in those types of flights of illogical fancy unless I want to scam them out of money which unfortunately I do not.
Tonight I watched the movie Capricorn One (1977), which is pretty good but about a faked mission by NASA to Mars. Interesting cast as well.
Here's my thought on all (and I mean ALL) of these “evil government conspiracy theories” — our government can't keep a secret for sh!t. Hundreds of thousands of classified documents on Wikileaks, Valerie Plame and other “spies” outed, Watergate, Presidential peccadillos under the desk in the Oval Office… Like we could keep aliens in Area 51 a secret, let alone the well understood collusion between Hollywood and Washington! Gimme a break!
