Friends, as the media fixates on its misrepresentations of the President's tweets, the "real America" (I've come to appreciate that phrase) is recalling one of the greatest moments in human history: the first moon landings in July 1969. We must not rest on our laurels, though, so the Trump administration is pushing ahead with a revitalization of our manned space program, and with a plan to put Americans back on the Moon within five years. I couldn't be more supportive! Of course, one assumes that, when the first Orion capsule puts an American in space next year, the media and the Democrats will denounce it as a fascistic stunt. And the Moon? Just one more planetoid for Trump to wreck, naturally. But you and I know better: man's destiny lies in space, and it's America, first and foremost, that will take us there. Trump and Pence are doing their part. Bravo!
https://www.foxnews.com/science/apollo-11-pence-orion-capsule
I'm sure you have come to appreciate that phrase, especially traveling as much as you do. Even with all our faults, "Home Sweet Home" is a moniker I repeat. While in Canada not long ago, I was thinking along the same lines. I was standing there in a park, looking at all the beautiful flowers and how lovely the city was and my son came up and said, "$6 for a pop!" Ah yes, goes right along with the socialist issues. As much as I love traveling, I am going to say it again, there is no place like home.
ReplyDeleteI have come to appreciate President Trumps tweets as well...and the freedoms we have to express views (even if I don't agree with some of those viewpoints). About the moon landing, I have been seeing so many topics on this. One being, it was staged. Give me a break...but you know, haters are gonna hate, Dr. Waddy, no matter what. Sad to say. I say forget the moon lets shoot for bigger and better; Mars. That is another topic for another day {{grin}}.
Dr. Waddy and Linda: Hooray for the real America! Yeah c'mon leftists, call me all manner of "isms" for saying that. I'm ready for ya's, so bring it on. Can ya hack it?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you noted the counterpoint between the redeeming thoughts prompted by coverage of the anniversary and by the petty, tawdry dreck broadcast by the MSM in their unrelenting onslaught on the President and yes, the real America. Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins vs AOC? No contest.
Dr. Waddy and Linda: Space exploration and the defeat of world communism have been the two most astonishing things I've witnessed since 1960, when I started to pay attention. In 1969, our progress in space had been so swift and unexpected that I thought we'd be out to the gas giants by now. But I can see that the interim was an extremely fruitful period in which we learned ever so much of what we'll have to know to get to deep space and that includes the almost unimaginable exit of man made, responsive machines from the very solar system (and taking pix of the whole danged thing - incredible)!Lunar transit (the wonder of which always thrills me when I think of Christmas 1968)on a regular basis will be a necessary prerequisite to Mars. Mars will be the first deep space venture and we will learn what we need to attempt the really long range stuff. For a child of the '50's its surreal to know these as real possibilities; for us it was all science fiction though we did expect it in some far future. Only pinched minds like that of Barack Obama ("aw, let's go to an asteroid and leave it at that; beside,s NASA'S main function is to get along with Islam").
ReplyDeleteDr. Waddy and Linda: I should have continued" . . . would take such a sour and dismissive view of such monumental developments".
ReplyDeleteLinda, you are 100% right about the comforts of home, and, despite all the charms of Europe, I prefer the good ole USA. The cloudy, cool weather here would get on my nerves, and you hit the nail on the head re: the price of beverages. I've never seen such tiny drinks at such inflated prices. Overall, though, the cost of living isn't massively different. At least Europe is accessible on an American budget.
ReplyDeleteMars? Sure! Why not. I'm not fussy about our next moves in space -- just as long as we keep moving. We've been idle for decades now. Well, not completely idle, but we've lost the momentum of the 60s, and that's a shame. I'd like to see Trump think even bigger in his second term...
Jack is right that our progress in the 60s was incredible -- almost literally incredible, i.e. impossible to believe. That's why some still cling to the conspiracy theories about the moon landing. We haven't quite lived up to the future dreamed up in 2001: A Space Odyssey, though. With Trump, Musk, and Branson working on the problem, however, we're sure to make major strides. I can't wait. The world should be glued to their tv screens again, as they were in 1968-69. (Strange to think that brief global unity happened in a time of such unrest.)
It's all good Jack...I can barely remember that day when the USA landed on the moon--I was only two years old, grin. Thanks for the giggle over former Obama and his thoughts, smiles.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid we did a great disservice by retiring the aging space shuttle fleet. I was there for the first launch in 1981 and the fateful day in Jan. 1986 and we were on vacation in FL. for the last shuttle launch in 2011 and it was awesome. I also think we have done a greater disservice by not following through plans to visit space. Again, there is talk about the falsehoods of space (let's not discuss those folks, sigh). I don't think those people have ever visited the Cape or Huntsville to get sense of space exploration and rocket development. Werner von Braun was a great pioneer in this field who had a very complex relationship with Nazi Germany and whom consequently surrendered to the Americans in 1945. His is an interesting story. I'm a little partial to this topic since I grew up in Florida, so forgive me for the tmi. grin
Dr. Waddy and Linda: von Braun's wartime activities might have landed him at Nuremberg but the free world had to have the benefit of his knowledge and determination - it was vital. Its unsettling to remember him talking to Walt Disney (whose memory I cherish)on Walt's weekly show but oh well. He may well have lived under Nazi threat to his family.
ReplyDeleteMy Uncle lived in Melbourne, right near the Cape and was heavily involved in the space program. I finally went down there in 1995 and of course we went to the Cape. How wonderful it was to see it all and especially Saturn V. That dang thing was as big as a destroyer. They were heroic times and I followed them closely, me and my friends. I hated to see the Mercury astronauts pass; everything seemed young and optimistic in that Kennedy era; the Kingston Trio song "New Frontier" is a good summation of the ambience of the time.
To all: I just Googled the song "New Frontier" and the original version is now on line. "New Frontier" was the term widely used to describe Kennedy's early years. Believe me, if you listen to it, you'll get a real sense of how we looked at things back then, especially the space program. Yeah, those patriotic clean cut guys would have been howled off campus by 1968, to the everlasting shame of my generation. And Kennedy proved to be an exceedingly flawed icon but he and Jackie inspired a positive and somewhat redeeming outlook in those times. I do think some of it was ill inspired since it was in part a reaction to the perceived doudy Eisenhower, who was an great American for all time, well I wot! But it was a favorable time overall and it put Americans on the moon.
ReplyDeleteLinda, I agree about the space shuttle. It was very irresponsible to retire it before we had a suitable replacement ready. That was a true RETREAT from space. Thanks, Obama!
ReplyDeleteAs for Werner von Braun, I'm glad we overlooked his incidental involvement in Nazi war crimes and made use of his prodigious talents. The Soviets would surely have done the same.
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Jack. How Western Civilization traveled so far (down the drain, mostly) in one decade continues to amaze me. It's a cautionary tale: civilization always hangs by the thinnest of threads.
Dr. Wady and Linda: I think Carl Sagan speculated that had Rome not arisen, Greek civilization would have proven more durable and that vessels bearing Greek letters might have made it to the moon in about 1000 AD. (But what about Roman engineering?). And what about successive Westward waves of tough Asian plains nomads repelled by impenetrable China? But his point is well taken; Greek progress in positive, productive reasoning, unimpeded by the, yes, advanced and Greek admiring but perhaps unpossessed of Greek philosophical power and vision Romans, might have achieved scientific advances unrealized until the Renaissance in the West.And of course, the role of Christianity and of China(technologically superior to the West perhaps until 1600 but insular in its world view: it was technol
ReplyDeleteogically able to project its power fully as well as any European power until about then) must be considered. Why do I say this? To support your view that civilization can hang on the most tenuous of threads is my purpose. A single battle, a single birth ,hinging on a mere chance, could have been decisive.
Well put, Jack! Greco-Roman society was a wonderful launching pad for the ascent of what became Western Civilization. I suspect that either the Greeks or the Romans would have been much poorer without the positive, corrective influence of the other, but who can say? Maybe in the end they held each other back.
ReplyDeleteOn another but related topic, the failure of science and technology to advance in a dramatic and self-sustaining way before 1500 is one of the great mysteries of the human story. What is it about the British in particular that permitted them to achieve something which had eluded some very accomplished, even brilliant, societies before them? Material factors alone can't account for it. We can cite reasons, sure, but reasons can be invented for why science ought to have flourished at plenty of other times. A head-scratcher, to be sure.
Dr. Waddy: As a very amateur historian I would suggest that it was the Church which exercised a restraining influence. Remember the Pope putting an Inderdict on all of England in the reign of King John and of John's understandable, if disingenuous, deference to it.But by the reign of Henry VIII, England ran that risk. Why? perhaps the English Channel.
ReplyDeleteJack, I'm not sure I agree. Science, such as it was in the Middle Ages, was conducted almost uniformly under Church auspices. The Church "owned" science and indeed education in general. What reason would it have had to fear science? The science vs. religion battles were far in the future.
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