Good call, but seemingly made in a "pin the tail on the donkey", in this case "ass", sort of way. And let me justify myself a bit.

Space should be explored, and will be explored. I did not say Man shouldn't go to the Moon or Mars, and I'm hoping the next Space Telescope gets up and running soon. I'm hoping the next Mars explorer, or the ones after that, either find evidence of life or don't while I can still understand and process that information.

However, the argument that it should be done for the welfare of Mankind when there are more direct, immediate, relevant and appropriate methods of improving and/or ensuring the lot of Mankind which need more, but not all, is silly at best. One needs to be both cost- and results-effective.

The argument that Man has to explore Space to satisfy some innate drive to know is good, and also a bit curious. One would hope there would be an even more powerful will to understand better the interrelationship of life on Earth with the variables which are so drastically affecting it.

Years ago I made a comment about the political situation to my former wife, a medical student at the time. She was studying, and preoccupied, and had no idea as to what I was talking.

"Don't you care about what is going on in the world around you?", I said, mildly irritated.

She looked at me and patiently asked, "Don't you care what's going on in your own body?"

As for jobs programs, we could have more intense jobs programs with more and better medical care for more, and better, people. We could have more and better jobs programs researching the world's environment, rebuilding infrastructure to meet the needs of people more efficiently, and so on. Certainly with more results per unit of spending than the Shuttle or ISS has, or ever will have, provided.

Space needs and deserves it's affectionados, people working on it full-time with a passion. Thank God for people like you who are devoted to it, whether or not the motivation is simply their own personal jobs. That's irrelevant. Space as a scientific and philosophical research medium is very worthwhile. My post was a reply to something about why America needs to explore Space. My point was that America has other matters which should be a higher priority. That's all.

Have you noticed the tendency of Conservatives to use ad hominem attacks to counter honest disagreements is alive and well across the spectrum, from Bush and Cheney and Iraq and Afghanistan down to our own Boards? It seems to an attempt to intimidate which is particularly endemic in Conservative black-and-white thinking. And intimidation does not resolve matters, but can only postpone them.

Arf