NASA - A complete waste of money

Can someone please explain to me why spending $325 million dollars on the new Phoenix Mars Rover is important?

I have been trying to figure out for the past 5 years or so why NASA is still around – and not in the sense that why are they still in existence. But, why is the government still funding them? What is their purpose?

People have tried to debate me on this for a long time, and I’ve been adamant for a long time that looking into the structure of Mars is not helping the Earth, and it’s especially not helping the American economy.

If you don’t know, NASA is funded by the Department of Defense. That means the money going to these outer space missions could be going to the efforts of the war – or whatever you want to call that thing over in the Middle East. I’m tired of people telling me that it’s important for these missions to go on. In fact, every time I bring this up, I get these NASA purists telling me how necessary it is for the program to be around. Yet, no one can fully answer my question of what they’ve actually accomplished over the past 10-15 years – other than spending billions and billions of dollars looking into the structure of Mars.

Ok, maybe 30-40 years ago, it was important to go to the moon. Maybe, I say. What has going to the moon proved since that time?

Stop giving me these answers about satellites and all this technology mumbo jumbo. Yes, I know exploring space is important for those reasons – we wouldn’t have modern technology, we wouldn’t have cell phones, we wouldn’t have a lot of our favorite television programs – brought to us by satellite TV.

I get that. But, that’s not spending a gazillion dollars on exploring Mars and these other planets in the solar system. Again, what does that have any effect on us? I think we’ve done pretty well without the government jumping in to fix it. Oh yeah, this global warming stuff that’s going on – I see the government really worrying about that. Shouldn’t all this money be spent on figuring out why the Polar Ice Caps are melting? Why it hasn’t snowed on the East Coast more than once in the past 5 years?

What’s going on people? Mars is another planet. Let’s spend money first on our own planet before we go and screw up another one. It’s like I say about human beings – if we worried about what we, ourselves, are doing first before what others are doing we’d be a better society and a better planet. We probably wouldn’t have these wars going on in the first place. Deal with yourself, find out what’s going on with you – not what Joe Schmo is doing.

So to all you NASA people – get off your high horse, and get real. This program has wasted our money for the past 15 years. If we’re so much in debt, why can’t the government step in and say, ‘Wait a minute, why don’t we take some of this stored money for NASA and use it for the war?’ I’m guessing that’s a little bit too much to ask from these politicians – many, of which, probably don’t even know what NASA is exploring to begin with.

I hope this NASA Mars Phoenix Rover touches down safely, as that would just become a huge waste of money if it blows up. But let’s make this one the last.

NASA – your time has come and gone.

Mike and Mike in the Morning is the best radio show!

Driving in your car in terrible traffic, there's really only a few things that get you going. Morning radio is certainly one of those essentials - ESPN's Mike and Mike in the Morning is my medicine for the traffic blues.

Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic provide commentary on the sports and non-sports of the world; their takes are usually completely opposite, however, on some occasions, they do agree on things. This morning, I happened to catch some of their coverage on ESPN2 and ESPN Radio. Here is what they talked about today:

I was actually kind of shocked at the way both series have really turned around. But you know what got me, and Mike and Mike pointed this out - all the home teams are pretty much winning, and winning huge. Now, M&M were thinking there's a huge conspiracy with the way the refs call the games for and against the home team; they read off these stats about the number of free throws the home team is getting versus the amount the road team is shooting, and there is a huge disparity. It does seem odd that there is such a difference there...they really make a good point about that. I can't remember which one was saying this but one of them said, 'The baskets are the same size, the courts are the same size, their plays are the same.' And to some extent, he's right...I don't get it.

They were also talking about the OJ Mayo controversy - that thing is so messed up, and there seriously needs to be something done about the NBA/NCAA rules. That stuff is messed up. One way or another, it's bad for the game - either everyone's at fault or you can't fault anyone at this time. I really think David Stern is trying to do a good thing by extending the years to two for college players; there really are only one or two players a year who are ready to enter the NBA after high school or one year of college. I've had a stance on this forever - you keep it equal for all NCAA sports. Football is 3 years, basketball should be 3 years; and baseball is just weird. Teams draft kids still in high school; but the difference with that is, they don't put them into a game right away. And most of the kids are required to go to college, then A-ball, Winter Ball, then AA-ball, AAA-ball.

But in the case of Mayo and Reggie Bush, my personal opinion is USC just looks bad - I mean, two of their star athletes are accused of getting under-the-table money and the school 'doesn't see a problem with it.' Common, people! You know Tim Floyd knew about all of Mayo's 'extra bling' and 'new stuff' popping up all of a sudden; and I think the same of Pete Carroll and Bush. The guy was rolling a Bentley as a student athlete - that doesn't scream FRAUD!

Greenberg's point was there is something wrong with the system, and that everyone will go scott free. And Mayo knows he was in violation of NCAA rules, but will never admit it - and USC will never admit that they were in favor of it.

Golic agreed to a point, but as a college and pro athlete, he had to disagree somewhat. I think he took a bit of issue with the looseness of the student athlete terminology; it's really scary to think that he played nearly 20 years ago, and the rules have changed so much (and some not enough).

Anyway, I love those guys - it's a shame I really don't get to listen/watch them that much anymore. I'm at work by 8am and my commute is five minutes; I get about 30 minutes of M&M a day (and then the occasional little clip on ESPN.com). Oh well, they're still the best thing on morning radio - or radio in general.

American Idol Recap

Hey all you American Idol fans - JewReview.net's own Bradley Wren is knee deep in Idol-mania!! He's on the scene with the latest from the top 12 male and female contestants.

You can check out his recap from both nights, with the boys and the girls; and check out how his picks turned out:

Boys: http://www.jewreview.net/article.php?id=1880
Girls: http://www.jewreview.net/article.php?id=1881


And don't forget, you can check out JewReview.net for all your entertainment news!