Complaining to myself...

...and to all of you lurkers out there. Seems a few new people wandered in from Anchorage, Alaska and somewhere in New Zealand.

I am reporting from somewhere in the Pacific (hint, I am on land and not on a boat, that ought to narrow it down to less than a thousand different islands).

I came across this link a while ago, but haven't bothered write about yet. It concerns something near and dear to my heart, namely leaving our cradle (Earth) and conquering the universe, or at least a couple of other rocks in the Solar System. I suppose it should come as no surprise that in this election year, as in most other election years, not a single bloody candidate cares. Check out this link from NPR:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/05/05/space_policy/

McCain vaguely mentions something on his website about sticking to the Bush plan, which while not bad, is also not tenable since it was never funded. Obama seems to think he can take money away from NASA to educate scientists and engineers (no mention of what they will do with these educated folks, since NASA and it's contractors will be downsizing as a result of funding cuts). Clinton seems to muddle along, vague and noncommittal (no doubt waiting to see which way the political winds are blowing). Clinton's only redeeming quality so far seems to have been hiring Lori Garver, whom I remember from her role in the National Space Society back in the day.

Ugh. I wanted my children to reach the stars. Hell, I wanted to put my bootprints on at least one other world before I died. At the rate things are going, I might live long enough to see the Chinese build their first moon base. Damn reds might beat us after all.

Attention candidates: Prove me wrong, please.

PS: I will try post some pictures tomorrow, just in case anyone wants to guess where I am.