Took a look at the work of Fox's new "space commentator".

Let me clue THE Fox stockholder (Australian press baron Rupert Murdoch) into the news - attacks on US Russia/FSU ties are suddenly not fashionable here. While I don't understand all the concern about a few pieces of lost luggage, it seems there's some concern in town about missing suitcases... among a whole raft of other items...

My view is that Rupert could save himself some money, as he really doesn't need to pay Rand at all: Simberg will do the job for free if allowed to. After all, it takes a real fanatic to be as oblivious to the facts as Rand is, and one plain and certain fact about obsessives is that they will work for free if allowed to, and thus really need no monetary encouragement at all.

As for Rand's content, it's the same old Space Frontier Foundation tripe that Rick Tumlinson has been spouting for years now, all done up in a whole brand new glossy and well financed "Fox"-ie way: NASA cancels the Space Station, uses the money "saved" to buy a manned Mars flight from the "private sector" (themselves and their "buds"), and they all fly off to Mars...

Well, Okay, Fine. If they want to go to Mars, then THEY should raise the money from the private sector to finance their flight. Better yet, THEY should earn the money in the private sector, and then they can spend that money however they like. But damn it, THEY shouldn't ask me for my tax dollars to finance THEIR own personal fantasies.

If they can get the money from someone else, and not from me, then I wish them the best of luck in their flight to Mars. Good Luck and God Bless, and I'll read about it in the papers...

Hell, just to show how much I am in favor of this, I'll even help them along with their planning. For a start, I don't know if they've actually considered the return portion of their Mars flight. I'm sure that they've never considered the possibility that if they manage to pick up any Mars microbes while they're up there boucing around Mars, they'll have to drop the "return" portion of their tour. It seems US health officials are a little picky about this.

Here's where I can help. If this should happen, it might not be all that bad, as in that case many would be perfectly content to watch their bones disolving in Mars' 1/3 Earth gravity, and would even buy pay per view for the privilege of doing so - thus helping them to offset the costs of their flight, and perhaps even providing income for their survivors - and preventing them from becoming welfare cases would save everyone money yet again.

I'd love to spend just hour upon hour of my time pointing out every factual error in Simberg's piece, but there are so many of them concentrated all in one place that it would simply take too long for me to do it for free. I also don't intend to pursue it, as my assumption is that not only would Rupert or one of his minions not care to pay me money for that time, further, they would then bury the corrections as deeply as they possibly could.

BTW, does Rupert own a yacht?

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