Maybe President Newt Gingrich wouldn't be so bad after all... if he'd really take us back to the moon:
During a campaign event on Florida's Space Coast — hard-hit by the recession and the space program's uncertain future — Gingrich talked about coming of age at the time of Sputnik, the first satellite, launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union. He recalled reading science-fiction author Isaac Asimov and Missiles and Rockets magazine.
"I come at space from a standpoint of a romantic belief that it really is part of our destiny, and it has been tragic to see what has happened to our space program over the last 30 years," Gingrich said Wednesday in a crowded hotel ballroom in Cocoa, not far from the Kennedy Space Center.
...If elected, Gingrich promised, "by the end of my second term, we will have the first permanent base on the moon, and it will be American."
Gingrich said he would encourage commercial activities in space, including science, tourism and manufacturing. And he promises, in about eight years, a rocket capable of reaching Mars [Brian Naylor, "On Florida's Space Coast, Gingrich Aims for the Moon," NPR.org, 2012.01.26].
To the moon, Callista! (By the way, Callisto is a moon of Jupiter the size of Mercury. I'll bet that name has something to do with Newt's attraction to his current wife.)
Gingrich read Asimov. He's channeling Isaac Asimov and the science-fiction icon's historically inspired vision of Galactic Empire. Gingrich wants to be our Elijah Baley. I can dig that. (Asimov also gave his characters some crazy names: R. Daneel Olivaw, Gladia Delmarre, Golan Trevize... how could a boy named Newt Gingrich not have been inspired?)
A tsunami can wipe out an island. An asteroid can wipe out a planet. A nova can wipe out a solar system. But it will take the Second Law of Thermodynamics and more years than you and I can count to wipe out the entire cosmos. If we can make it to the stars, we can live forever.
"I'm prepared to invest the prestige of the presidency in communicating and building a nationwide movement in favor of space," Gingrich said at a meeting of aerospace executives and community leaders after the rally.
"If we do it right, it'll be wild and it will be just the most fun you've ever seen," he said [Irene Klotz, "Newt Gingrich: Space Visionary and Future Geek-in-Chief?" Christian Science Monitor, 2012.01.26].
That's my kind of grandiosity. And really, does Mitt Romney sound like he'd ever bring us fun?
Wow talk about pandering to one's audience. Is he secretly channeling JFK?
As things stand now, we can't even get our own astronauts to the space station without help from other countries so how exactly are we supposed to be able to get to the moon AND build a base in under 8 years?
Interesting image, Cory... Callista orbiting a huge body of hot gas. At a minimum, it perhaps explains her attraction to him. And for sure, she has the space helmet for it.
How many moon marriages does it take to equal an earth marriage? I'm guessing three.
To infinity and beyond!
Wow, Newt is evolving from the New World Order to the New Universe Order.
Space is not geeky anymore. It's for nerds. This is Gingrich's big government works project.
...or dorks...
http://www.greatwhitesnark.com/2010/03/25/difference-between-nerd-dork-and-geek-explained-in-a-venn-diagram/
Bob Schwartz: http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2000/ast07sep_1/
Former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski offers his views on how the U.S. can best navigate the challenges of the 21st century. WAMU's Diane Rehm Show
I like it. Let's go to the moon! Remember that great movie "The Right Stuff."
Romney is blah!!!
Maybe this falls under his definition of "Job Creator". With 77,000,000 children under 18, they cannot all be satisfied with janitorial jobs. Send them to the moon to build little Oompa Loompa colonies.
Nothing like a moon base to help clear up the national debt.
Newt would be making more sense if he were talking about high speed mass transit to replace air travel in continental US.
Why rip up the Wyoming Black Hills to mine actinides when they might be readily available on the Moon or on an asteroid?
This concept is the most lucid thing Newt has said in the campaign.
Next: planetary defense.
At some point in time, don't we actually have to pay Gingrich for all of the entertaining quotes he's dished out?
But keep those check books out....Stace is on a tear and giving the establishment a little b*tch slap..
You go Stace...they got it coming...take em out back and show them that you are not to be trifled with! As you are smacking him down remind him that SD isn't run by the old boys club.
Remind them that there is a new sheriff in town and you are the one that will put the pink panties on them if they can't live up to governing for the Tea Party.
Too much Gin-grich can lead to delusional and grandiose thoughts. What his proposal for - encounter of the first kind (aliens)?
Better yet, let's do it as a joint venture among private enterprise institutions in the United States, Russia, the European Union (however long it continues to exist), China, Israel, the Arab countries -- anyone who wants to join in. Let's lay down our weapons, both hardware-based and virtual; let's deal each other straight, stop competing, start cooperating.
You might call me a dreamer, but ... you know the rest of the song. Better dreams than nightmares, eh!
Clever move by Gingrich. Political? You bet. Beat Obama to that little gold mine; and again, do it with private funds, not tax money.
Now Newt, how about a neutrino research facility in Lead, South Dakota? Come on out here. I'll take you to lunch at Lewie's, and you can listen to my pitch for this gloriously gritty old place with its ready-made two-kilometer-deep Nerd Cave.
Stay tuned, Stan: If Newt can keep from losing momentum in Florida, maybe he can propel the race all the way to the SD primary... and you and I can get front-row seats at Newt's speech in Lead!
Don't miss Rachel's wonderful Newtonian homage: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/ns/msnbc_tv-rachel_maddow_show/#46157256
When Iowa wants to hear a nice guy, Gingrich campaigns as a nice guy, when South Carolina wants a fighter, Gingrich is a fighter with all his negative adds against Romney, when Florida wants a space station he wants one. Gingrich changes campaign strategies quicker than he changes wives. Has he really changed, no, he is the same person that got into ethics problems in the House of Reps. He is just more of the same, we just do not know what the same will be tomorrow.
Brilliant! He thinks he is Captain Kirk - boldly going where no man has gone before. He is probably looking for an interterrestial hook-up with some green women.
Hey, would finding some green extraterrestrial women be so bad?