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Will China Beat the United States Back to the Moon?
MarkWhittington writes "During an address on the space economy to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the space age, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin made the assertion that China would beat the United States back to the Moon. 'Americans will not like it, but they will just have to not like it. I think we will see, as we have seen with China's introductory manned space flights so far, we will see again that nations look up to other nations that appear to be at the top of the technical pyramid, and they want to do deals with those nations. It's one of the things that made us the world's greatest economic power. So I think we'll be reinstructed in that lesson in the coming years and I hope that Americans will take that instruction positively and react to it by investing in those things that are the leading edge of what's possible."'"
The Chinese are evil as people. Their government keeps the worst vestiges of a discredited system, though. Look at it this way: how many people want to immigrate there vs the USA or Europe to find "freedom."
None, I wouldn't imagine.
Don't the people who live in communist countries say they like the security, knowing that they don't have to stress out competing for the basics of life? I think that was pretty significant.
I seem to recall a lot about the fact that those who are administering communist societies have a responsibility to their society too. Seems the way it works is, if someone wants to step down, they can, but if they betray their trust, they are executed in a coup.
Course, we don't even dignify these ideas with lip service around here. Screwing the people who trusted you is where the paycheck comes from in our culture.
Get your head out of your ass. This culture is bankrupt. The horse has been gone so long that the shit left here doesn't even stink anymore. That's what the bloody article is trying to point out.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Tian'men Square. Right. Seems to me, there were two groups... the Union Agitators, who wanted more for themselves, with less freedoms, and the Radical Intellectuals, who wanted to overthrow the government on general principles, and because they weren't being rewarded sufficiently by the state.
Seems to me, both groups were being instigated by foreign interests, and supported by foreign interests, and that those foreigners were more interested in breaking the state controls of the Chinese economy so they could pillage the country than they were in anyones freedom.
The whole thing was reminiscent of the robber barons who raped the former Soviet Union of all its wealth and left its people for dead, while we cheered and watched our stock prices rise. Now that Putin is putting a stop to it, all the Western media is all bubbling with how he's an enemy of freedom and holding up people like Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Boris Berezovsky as martyrs for freedom.
That was the fate that was in store for China.
The people of China were fortunate that Tian'men Square happened, frankly. It was a small price to pay compared to what we would have done to their country if their government hadn't put a stop to things.
-1 Uncomfortable Truth
Of course the China will beat the US back to the moon. I will be amazed if the US ever gets back to the moon! Why? the buricratic red tape is so astounding that 50-75% of the budget used to get us back to the moon will be wasted on overhead(i.e. red tape).