Crap Throwing Monkey

Not my point (when's the last time the IRA set off bombs in london, anyway? '89?) Point being, we should all know by now that the initial reports are ALWAYS fraught with confusion and and a lack of information, so why start jumping to conclusions now? We've got plenty of time to worry about "who", it's not exactly an immediate concern...

And once upon a time, we immediately would have blamed the Irish, as well...

The judicial system doesn't have codified into law "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," however.

Yeah. The Vatican has a long history of being VERY clear in that regard...

CB's definitely weren't the predecessors of SEALs...but that doesn't mean they weren't brave and dedicated as well.

Is it British? I just know it's old. And you really have to build it away from the earth's surface...for reasons having to do with the nature of nuclear blasts in atmosphere - you could actually use a less massive iron plate in vacuum than in atmosphere, and not only reduce your cost to build but get higher acceleration as well. Which doesn't do sh-- for NASA's profitability anyway. I'd rather see them design, construct, and operate an actual space transportation system before they start with anything like that or a Mars mission.

Apparently it involves sewage, algae, and math. Or maybe that was the Mars mission's environmental system...

But...but...but...you don't like me anymore, because someone other than I "slandered" you into acting like a grade schooler. So go away, I can't be bothered with your crap.

I never even really considered landing a Mars rocket on the moon...I was thinking that, to use the moon as a stepping stone, you'd have to locate a good deal of the industry necessary to construct the Mars mission ON the moon, and build it there. Let's face it...landing an entire spacecraft inside a gravity well simply to launch it back out is stupid as hell. It only really makes sense if you build it there. Although the moon does also have the distinct advantage in that you can use some form of nuclear-based propulsion (either some hypothetical yet-to-be-developed one, or dust off the old Orion plan of detonating a nuclear warhead under a huge iron plate). You'll never get the enviromentalists to allow anything like that to launch from here...hell, you can't even launch inert plutonium anymore since all the ignorant screaming over Cassini.

My brother does research for the hypothetical future Mars mission (works on designing the enviromental system - as a hobby. Professionally, he's working on his PhD in some sort of environmental systems theory specialization that he invented for himself as an outgrowth of U of MD's "Planetary Enviromental Engineering" program - basically, he's specializing in terraforming Jupiter. (The amazing thing is that, even despite that, he's still not nearly the nerd I am.) So I've been discussing this stuff with him at a reasonably professional level for about five years or so...though my focus these days is less exploration and more concerned with economical and cost-effective uses for NASA in earth orbit. I've actually got a whole 5-10 year plan for making NASA run at a profit AND reducing the cost per pound to orbit that no one'll ever see...because no one who can make a difference will ever take me seriously anyway.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. The average person does three stupid things a day. That's my first. :I starred in Brokeback Mountain:

Mine the moon? Why bother, the moon's mostly rock, any ore worth mentioning is to deep to effectively get at. Instead, find a nice nickel-iron asteroid out there, strap a space shuttle main engine and fuel tank onto it (since we'll have a suplus of THOSE pieces of crap once we scrap the shuttle program), and fly the asteroid gently into the moon. Then pick up the pieces (i.e. mine the ore from the crater and debris), and send them back to earth (i.e. put them together into reasonably-sized packages, encase them in thermal shielding made on-site from moon rocks, and fly them direct to the earth. Land them in shallow ocean regions and have ships winch them up.) Sure, it might not pay for itself for a while...but even a smallish asteriod has a lot of iron, nickel, and even gold in it. Efficiently mined, an asteroid will pay for itself...and if you can think of a more efficient way of mining it than I just outlined (and safer - I'd prefer slamming them into the moon rather than trying to gently nudge them into orbit around the earth) using given technology, feel free...

My sister's up your way working as a public defender. I've heard how "well" your police reports are written up there. People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

What...the...HELL...is this? You taking the "Beausox English Correspondence Course" or something?

Not to slight you, but my wife is adorable. And I'm not just saying that because I'm legally and morally required to...

Whoa. You're almost as cute as my wife.

True enough...and even then, not many in the Army thing MacArthur was all that great anymore. Ike, though...so he barely passed West Point. So what? West Point makes officers, but it doesn't determine their success. And like it or not, Ike was the perfect general for the job he was given. On a side note...did you know Nimitz was almost released from the service early on in his career for putting his destroyer aground? One's record at West Point, or even as a junior officer, does not determine the quality of one's generalship. Darin's right. It does sound like a porn name. And somehow, I think Chesty would appreciate that observation even as he was stomping my head into the ground for making it.

Not that he was any good to begin with. Let's face it, anyone who fries up elbow macaroni and seasons it with pickle juice is probably going to be pretty resistant to most poisons...

According to ICE...ICE.

Hell, VA's nuts just for calling Dugout Doug a "great" general.

Good point. That's kind of like losing a debate to a "Tickle Me Elmo" doll...

On the other hand, I'm sure most VPs ask themselves that at least once a day...

You were a lot more organized about it, with your list and all...

Good thing he didn't pull a kid out of the water in Illinois, he'd be a sex offender then as well. I've got to believe those charges will be dropped. I can see the police hauling him in just because they're pissed he disobeyed a lawful order...but even if some dumbass ADA's stupid enough to prosecute, I can't see any jury convicting him of interfering when he actually saved the person the police were trying to save.

But Osama bin Laden's still out there; why is Bush ignoring global terrorism?????