Funny But Depressing Cartoon

[mattblack]

http://images.ucomics.com/comics/sc/2006/sc060116.gif<br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p> </p><p>One Percent of Federal Funding For Space: America <strong><em><u>CAN</u></em></strong> Afford it!!  LEO is a <strong><em>Prison</em></strong> -- It's time for a <em><strong>JAILBREAK</strong></em>!!</p> </div>

 

[spacefire]

conferences <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>http://asteroid-invasion.blogspot.com</p><p>http://www.solvengineer.com/asteroid-invasion.html </p><p> </p> </div>

 

[tomnackid]

Of course once the CEV starts construction people will complain that its too expensive, too dangerous, too whatever to send people into space. Dammed if you do, dammed if you don't I guess. Frankly I'm glad NASA went with an "uninspiring" capsule. it shows they are more interested in getting the job done than playing up to a fickle public.

 

[kdavis007]

Blech....

 

[kdavis007]

Same here...

 

[spacester]

My thoughts exactly. <img src="/images/icons/laugh.gif" /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[henryhallam]

I don't think it's funny, just kind of sarcastic and stupid.

 

[mlorrey]

I think it describes the situation perfectly. The manned space program should be renamed the National Engineering Welfare Department. It is a jobs program that just barely manages to actually develop new science and technology every once in a while that is useful for something other than to pad future NASA budgets. It didn't used to be this way.<br /><br />Some people think Griffin is just what the doctor ordered: he's a pantywaist. I'd clean house.

 

[kdavis007]

Nah,, it is the anti-human in space crowd is the pantywaist... Who thinks that space is just for science is either a coward or chicken.. Don't know which one.

 

[rocketwatcher2001]

I didn't like it, I thought the Astronaut should have said, "We built a good bit of the ISS, we fixed the Hubble, again, and we've conducted about a bazillion times the amount of worthwhile scientific research that the unmanned folks have done. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[nolirogari]

Those print syndicate cartoonists have to contend with editors often in order to just show up on the page. To make matters worse, those that do so often have little or no real understanding of spaceflight- human or otherwise. Of course the job of the editorial cartoonist is to cause a reaction- with any luck, on both sides of an issue... then to get paid for it. Still, NASA cartoons published in newspapers normally reflect the superficial understanding of spaceflight by the media in general. If you wanna read spaceflight, aerospace or aviation editorial cartoons by someone who actually understands the subject- visit klydemorris.com and read my stuff. And yes, I'm syndicated and... I actually make a living at it.

 

[henryhallam]

You're Wes? I'm a big fan of Klyde, thanks for some great entertainment!

 

[nolirogari]

Yep- that's me. I try and keep a bit low so most of the flame gets thrown over me. A while back I made a person high up in TSA so mad he told one of his staff, who happens to be a loyal reader, that he wanted my head on a pike in his office- a week later I attended an event and this same TSA big wig sat one row, right in front of me and never knew who I was. There was a guy there from the NY Times that I thought was going to bust a gut over that one. When the current FAA Administrator came to visit HQ for the first time, her advanced party of management went around and made folks take down the Klyde Morris cartoons in their cube.s. One of my readers simply refused... the new administrator never noticed. On the other hand, O'Keefe actually liked me. Don't know about "Mike" yet... time will tell.

 

[priusguy]

<b>I didn't like it, I thought the Astronaut should have said, "We built a good bit of the ISS,</b> <br /><br />Which does nothing<br /><br /><b>we fixed the Hubble, again,</b><br /><br />Each time at the cost which could have paid for an entire new Hubble, to be launched on an unmanned rocket<br /><br /><b> and we've conducted about a bazillion times the amount of worthwhile scientific research that the unmanned folks have done.</b><br /><br />If he said that, he'd be flat-out lying. It is unbelievable just how little scientific research was actually done aboard either Mir or ISS. Not even NASA dares to claim what you just did.

 

[shoogerbrugge]

170 days without shedding foam <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />Always great fun reading the Klyde cartoons (not only the space ones)<br /><br />People should take cartoons a bit more lightly, if you can't laugh at a joke being made you're in one serious medical situation......<br /><br />

 

[no_way]

<blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr /><p>it is the anti-human in space crowd is the pantywaist<p><hr /></p></p></blockquote><br />i dont think this came from anti-humans in space crowd. this came from the crowd that is against maintaining a very expensive jobs program with the lame excuse of sending a select few government employees to space once in two years or so.<br />the guy in astronaut suit does not look like Mike Melvill at all

 

[nolirogari]

>>this came from the crowd that is against maintaining a very expensive jobs program with the lame excuse of sending a select few government employees to space once in two years or so<<<<br /><br />Take that anti-spaceflight divide and cancel stuff back to Walter Mondale's office and 1967 please. No one's buying it today.

 

[nolirogari]

Oh- and before anyone goes off off on that "What are you against private space ventures" line... I was there for BOTH X prize flights and I had an artifact aboard SpaceShipOne when it claimed the X-prize and that item sits right here on my desk (well... actually slightly above and to the left near the wall). So I'm not against any spaceflight effort. I am against those who would worm their way in, divide those making the efforts or cheering the efforts on and try and get us fighting in order to attempt to erode the spirit until finally the epoxyed to the earth crowd will have their way and nothing will happen. It's a very cheap trick that worked well in the days following Apollo 11. This time- let us not take the bait.<br /><br />Let's fight them instead with the facts and truth- All spaceflight is good. It advances our civilization and inspires our youth to reach for that which is said to be unreachable. <br /><br />Anyone have a problem with that?

 

[kdavis007]

Well consider that NASA only takes less than 1% of our national budget is hardly expensive..

 

[mlorrey]

The problem is, that the divide exists. Rutan is a noted NASA critic. When his Voyager aircraft set its record, he gave out signed photos with the caption "See what free men can do!" Beal was also a NASA critic, and I doubt that any of the other money men would be putting a dime into their projects if they were at all happy with the no-spaceflight-as-usual at NASA.<br /><br />I, who made to comment you complain about, am neither an anti-human-spaceflight, nor even anti-NASA-spaceflight. I am pro-better-human-spaceflight-at-NASA. I am heavily anti-waste, anti-corruption, anti-NIH, anti-empire-building, anti-bureaucrat, and anti-standing-army. Unfortunately, all those things I am anti-, NASA is guilty of.

 

[nolirogari]

sorry to mis-take your message- that's not how it read. As for Mr. Rutan- sure he's anti- NASA... until of course they want to charter White Knight to carry a payload, then he has no problems taking their check. As for better- well, give better a chance. I'd say if you want better in a Gov. agency- look to someplace like HUD first- each year their waste and fraud costs alone would fund the CEV. IMO- anyone who wants to pick at NASA can join Mondale in his north woods retirement. Sit in a semicircle and share some oat meal while the snow swirles outside and talk about how that money would cure all of the nation's ills. I'll be at the cape for the first CEV launch, thinking how myopic the anti-NASA folks are.

 

[mlorrey]

Cutting waste in HUD doesn't increase funding at NASA, nor will it save the taxpayer one red cent, it only increases the amount of welfare HUD can hand out.<br /><br />

 

[nolirogari]

<<<Cutting waste in HUD doesn't increase funding at NASA, nor will it save the taxpayer one red cent, it only increases the amount of welfare HUD can hand out. >>><br /><br />Dude, you should go into the arrow catching profession- you have the ability to miss the point. Or better yet- read with one eye closed- that way you wont end up focused between the lines. <G /><br /><br />We all know that any tax money cut anywhere NEVER saves... it simply goes to fat. Who cares about HUD or any other pork mill- it was simply an example. Now here's the point- and I'll type slowly, perhaps that'll help. NASA is an easy target for the vote grubs and the only way to keep it from being bled is to keep it moving fast. HUD is a sacred cow to the vote grubs- thus NASA is under the bean counter microscope, while HUD is allowed to waste billions- why? Because no one stands up and says so. When, in the late 60s vote grubs visited NASA and said "The people in my district are asking is this all worth it." NASA answered with talk of spin offs and other justification- all of which was true and solid. But no one answered with a question- "Why- are the people in your district asking that?" Why do they think that way?<br /><br />The answer has a lot of roots going in a lot of directions the core of which seems to me to be that spaceflight is a political football and a football is seen by the public at large as being only functional when there is a contest going on. The challenge today is to redefine the contest- and keep the ball moving. Like it or not, the CEV and VSE do just that. And make no mistake the flower fossils from 69 are doing their part to foster the anti-space, anti-NASA propaganda. Read the LA Times Ed. posted on today's NASAwatch.com. Thus, the big hazard is not HUD, or DOD or any other agency or department shlurpin' up tax dollars- it is the GAP. A gap in flights equates to a gap in pubilc intrest and leaves nice soil for the anti-space anti-NASA bunches to pla

 

[mlorrey]

I do not disagree with anything you've said here, except:<br /><br />Concern about waste at NASA should be seen as concern for NASA: people who want NASA around should be the most militant about making sure funds are used effectively to maximize science, build space infrastructure, foster private industry in space, and value returned to the American people. Instead, people like myself are treated by NASA insiders to a very Soviet sort of "shut up, or its off to the gulags". Those of us not in NASA who care very much about manned space flight see the insiders as more concerned about keeping the fat flowing and their jobs and career tracks in the bureaucracy secure.<br /><br />As a libertarian, I've always known there are not two sides to a dispute. Instead, as a friend of mine calls his radio show, there is "Left, Right, and Correct". Your demonizing people who dispute the business as usual jobs program attitude in NASA, as if we are anti-human-spaceflight, is being demogogic, and frankly, your attitude makes me want to see the anti-human-spaceflight people succeed if only to get parasitical empire builders like yourself out of at least one federal bureaucracy.<br /><br />The best thing that could happen to human spaceflight would be to get rid of the 10k-16k STS engineers, force them to get real jobs in private industry, and free up those who actually are motivated to make it happen in the free market.<br /><br />As far as I'm concerned, neither NASA nor HUD is a Constitutionally legal expenditure of public funds. Killing the weaker prey is an accepted strategy of combat, diplomacy, or politics.