Wednesday, July 07, 2010

wait, what?

I heard a clip of some NASA guy being interviewed on (I think it was) Al-Jezeera this morning. (The clip was replayed on the local radio news/talk).

The guy said one of the new "missions" of NASA was outreach to the Muslim world, to make them "feel good" about the scientific and mathematic and technical advances they had in the past.

Dammit, no. Even all the stuff about some branches of Islam being crazy and horrible and doing crap like stoning women to death on suspicion of adultery aside, THAT IS NOT NASA'S MISSION.

I'm so sick of a world where everyone* has to be appeased, where everyone has to be made to feel good about themselves, where everyone has to be patted on the head and patronized.

We won't be going back to the moon, 'cos it's not worth it, but we do need to do "outreach."

If I worked for NASA I'd be polishing my resume and wondering if there was somewhere in private industry I could get a job.

(*Everyone, it seems, except the people who really do deserve an "attaboy!" or an "attagirl!" once in a while. We don't DARE publish the names of honor roll kids, because that might hurt the feelings of the underachievers.)

Seriously, I'm about ready for this joke to be over. Where is the Candid Camera poised? When does Alan Funt walk out and give me my year's supply of Rice A Roni as a consolation prize?

1 comment:

Kate P said...

I know, it's unbelievable. I am so afraid to ask my grandfather what he thinks. He did consulting work for NASA for years. So let's see, so far there have been insults to his origins (his parents were _legal_ immigrants), his family was persecuted by the KKK but it doesn't count because they were Catholics (and white), and he raised a family with seven kids and we all know that's bad for the planet. I hope his heart can take it.