New Mars Forums

More Bush Bashing, Bill?

VSE entails the transformation of NASA by nessesity, that in itself speaks much more then you give credit for.

The truth is that the Bush administration is now captive to the Shia coalition, not the other way around – just as earlier administrations became captive to a series of South Vietnamese presidents, from Diem to Thieu, who stubbornly refused to sacrifice their own narrow interests to serve an American-made strategy for winning the war (or, in the end, for losing it gracefully.)

As in Vietnam, the United States now has absolutely no choice but to continue financing and supporting its Iraqi clients, even if they behave in ways that are contrary to U.S. interests or desires – by imposing Sharia law, for example, or moving closer to Iran, or purging the Iraqi security forces of Iyad Allawi’s paleo-Baathist allies, or even double crossing the Kurds as soon as the ink is dry on any power-sharing deal. In the end, there is literally no place else for the Americans to go.

1. Colonist Selection Criteria

The UN would require that this new Commonwealth reflect earth population ratios. Because the city would have a one million population limit the final figures would be:

Total Mars Imigration Population Limit=1,000,000
American (USA) Population intake=50,000
Chinese Population intake=166,666
Australian Population intake=3,333
Other Earth Population intake=790,000

"Fifty thousand crowded into the only Shopping mall on Mars just to stand in the cue at McDonalds."

Bill:-

So, Shaun Barrett, the next time you bash "the Left" you are empowering a French way of thinking. Cool.

    Huh?!!  Oh the shame of it all!  :bars:
    All these years I thought I was thinking for myself and now it turns out I've been no more than a puppet of the French. 

:laugh:

You're okay in my books, Shaun.  :up:  And how ironic:  You've only visited this nation once, as a tourist from your native homeland of Australia, and more often than not *you're* called upon to defend American policies -- and at least twice have been mistaken for an American by political opponents. 

--Cindy

Lets stop arguing about "http://www.davidbrin.com/lrdogmas.html]Left v. Right" - - Brin asserts the French invented the idea of "left versus right" anyway.

*So, Bill, are you going to stop bringing up the Blue State vs Red State thing (which is another way of saying Left vs Right)?  And if you don't, are you empowering a French way of thinking?   :;):

--Cindy

Is this cuckoo? Or is our worst failing one of creativity and will? Let's experiment. I'll offer two true statements. You may, by political reflex, nod in sad agreement with one of them and seethe at the other.

The Right spent decades ignoring human-generated Climate Change. Conservatives sneer at the leading role that conservation must play in resolving this peril. Refusing to let efficiency and sustainability become Urgent Projects, they pray instead to the "problem-solving magic of markets," the way natives of Rapa Nui beseeched big statues to restore their ravaged isle.

The Left rejects any role for nuclear power, which helped lift millions out of poverty worldwide without adding appreciably to greenhouse emissions. Three generations have seen high benefit-to-harm ratios from fission reactors. Despite Chernobyl. Despite pollution that -- while frightening -- is intrinsically containable. (This outcomes-ratio stands, astonishingly, even if you include Hiroshima and Nagasaki.) Yet, liberals won't even debate adding carefully designed, next-generation nuclear plants to our toolset for crossing the Gap.

Did you fume at one paragraph while nodding at the other? Step back. Can you see a common reflex? To ignore contrary evidence and automatically say no? These "opposite" party lines share an underlying trait -- loathing distrust for the can-do spirit of modernity and science.

Of COURSE I saw that Palpatine was using the invasion of Naboo to engineer his accession as Chancellor, by getting his cousin, the Queen, to denouce the old (good) Chancellor. I just couldn't credit that the whole thing could be so stupid.

Consider these questions:

#  If the queen's so influential, able to topple the head of a galaxy, why was she earlier unable to get any help from all these political allies she's calling upon?

#  Um, so what's to keep the shamed-defeated Trade Federation guys from later on screaming "It was Palpatine! He MADE us doo eet!" The fact that the Sith Lord's eyes were in shadow? They really know nothing about a guy they've sworn fealty to and staked everything on? Some savvy traders!

#  Palpatine is clearly concerned about being hunted down by the Jedi, right? Yet he draws their newly-roused attention right to his own home planet? He couldn't have used another?

#  Oh, and why does he send Maul to kill Amidala and her escorts on Tatooine, when they are bringing her to the Senate to do exactly what he wants her to do? Does that make even marginal sense? (In fact, he'd send a space yacht to pick her up and escort her to the Senate in style, while keeping Darth Maul secret a while longer.) Now that we get right down to it, Palpatine WANTS Amidala to escape from Naboo. Or he should. If Lucas bothered to plot at all.

Oh, the scheme is dumb about forty other ways. But above all, the "success" of Palpatine's plan makes this film vastly darker than the dark but inspiring Empire Strikes Back. For even the rebel "victory" was part of Palpatine's plan! Therefore, none of Annakin's or Obiwan's heroic efforts matter in the slightest, since, as the new Chancellor, Palpatine has to be seen riding to the rescue, in order to enhance his prestige. He was planning to smash the seige anyway, to become a public savior and reinforce his rule.

So, all the dead Gungas died for nothing. They might as well have waited a week for the Chancellor to arrive and "save" the day! Their heroism's wasted.

Think about that. The Gungas, the brave pilots, the hapless traders, the futility Of Qui-Gon's death. Not one heroic action mattered an iota, even as tragic irony! It's an unalloyed bummer. Like Oedipus. Jeepers.

Some people expressed deep affinity for the PERSONAL redemption of the relationship between father & son, in Return of the Jedi. This is separate from the matter of the Galaxy at large, which owes Vader nothing for his deathbed conversion. I confess, in my focus on the latter, I may have given the former short shrift. After all, Luke Skywalker is a genuine hero. I never had any complaints about him at all... except for bad acting. His need for this fatherly reconciliation/redemption is a legitimate topic.

This recalls blowing up the shield projector in "Return of the Jedi" (which is achieved entirely thanks to the wookie -- neither Luke nor Leia makes any real difference in achieving the Rebel victory. Think about it!). Or a computer virus shutting down all alien shields in "Independence Day." Or Obi-Wan dialing down the tractor beam. Or the hero in "Logan's Run" shooting one computer console and blowing up a city. And so on. Yeesh! Are villain equipment-designers really that bad in every off-Earth empire? In fairness, this cliché is endemic. Ever notice how, in "Star Trek," Kirk talked five different super-computers into self-destructing? If the universe really is like this, we Earthlings are gonna kick butt when we get out there!