God! Time and time again it comes up that yes the Islam about 600 or so years ago where great civilizations that contributed to science and art and government and blah and blah. Yes it was nice THEN, but where the fuck are the more recent contributions (not including Iran and Iraqs recent contributions to Nuclear energy and rocket science). Hell the Irish have contributed more to science recently then the Arabs.

This is like a telling a kid that just punched his younger sibling and made a mess in the kitchen you are such a good kid because on when your where 2 you gave another kid a lollipop of yours.

Stop letting the middle east rest on it laurels. Sorry I think leafy hats should come with an expiration date.

Since when is that the National Apologetics and Sucking-up Administration?

SPACE, you idiot. Space!

What is there for their islamic/arab world to feel good about when they done nothing good for mankind and when they can't even make us nonbelievers feel good or secure.
Just hope someone can stop another of one their evil international infiltration.

I'm sorry, but seriously name one advancement made by any islamic society?

Westerners have this strange blind spot - we were all taught about the dark ages sowe know how terrible it was, and so many assume that islamic countries were oasies of knowledge at that time. It isnt true. If it were europe would never have gotten ahead in the technology race.

Any and all progress arabs and persions made into science died off within a couple of generations of islam reaching the majority of a societies citizens.

islam had no laurels on which to rest - it has been, until this century been incapable of attaining any.

Whether or not enough muslims go rouge and a reformation is inacted remains to be seen, but I aint holding my breath

Rather odd that the President wants NASA to inspire others in the world. The number one item of wonder and inspiration NASA had was its space program, and that was eliminated by Obama.

What the fuck does Islam or the Muslim community currently have to show for itself other than a pile of bodies?

God Damn this current administration pisses me off. I can't WAIT until 2012.

OI! when I saw this I wanted to puke. What's your job description dude? Even if you serve at the pleasure of the prez, have some scruples, rather than being a pawn in some stupid political game that has nothing to do with space.

Lead and people will follow you, not because you are pandering to their vanity, but because they see there is someplace good to go. Then they can say they were there, that they contributed to that. To something of value. Not to a cheap speech that signifies nothing.

McGovernites in the Democratic Party have been trying to kill NASA since the early '70s. They see it as a cash cow for social spending. Looks like they're finally about to succeed.

I've heard two speeches by Bolden, one given to the American Astronomical Society. Even among scientists, he pushes the education theme very strongly. I would rather NASA not become an arm of the Dept. of Education myself as I don't quite recall that being among the prime mission objectives of the agency. I don't think Obama gives a damn about exploration, science, or technology development, more's the pity.

When I became the NASA Administrator...[Obama] charged me with three things: One was that he wanted me to re-inspire children to want to get into science and math, that he wanted me to expand our international relationships, and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

...re-inspire children to want to get into science and math....

You inspire future scientists and mathematicians by actually doing wonderful things with science and math...like going to the moon. Not by talking about how wonderful science and math are.

...[Obama] wanted me to expand our international relationships....

Isn't that why we have a State Department?

...third, and perhaps foremost, [Obama] wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

So, our chief space exploration agency is now being charged with playing psychotherapist to the Muslim world?

Good thing we've got a complete understanding of the origins of the universe, have completely explored nearby space, and are colonizing other planets.

What . . . why . . . huh? It's a *space* agency. What the holy frak does that have to do with Muslims at all?

"You inspire future scientists and mathematicians by actually doing wonderful things with science and math...like going to the moon." ConanTG

a thousand times this.

There are a ton of people in their 40's an 50's who got into engineering and science because we saw some guys bouncing around on the moon when we were kids... not because there were robots there, however fun it is to see what they see.

Because, hey, we could be there someday too. Nothing inspires exploration like explorers. And when you are a nearsighted asthmatic husky kid... you know it's unlikely that you, yourself will get there, but you might contribute. You might get to shake the hand of an old guy who went once. The biggest problem with that is simply that you can't put a price on it. You can't tell how much a generation values it.

So in good times and bad, it's a hard sell, and every prez decides to remake the thing, and... we waste lots of money that way. It ain't like dusting crops, boy...

NASA has been redirected by Obama to be a social agency. This is a form of Socialism by regulation. NASA was constructed by Congress for a purpose. Obama has repurposed NASA by decree. Obama did not explicitly go to Congress with a plan to change NASA. He has merely changed it, and a Democratic Congress is going along.

People wonder if Obama is a Socialist. The counter argument is that Obama has not appropriated private property to be run by the state, so he fails the definition of Socialist.

The means are less important than the result. The current "Financial Reform" bill minutely directs the activities of financial companies, and so is an appropriation. The owners of those companies know that they can be individually regulated out of business at the discretion of the government, so they are going to do whatever the government wants, so they are now effectively owned by the government. Their shareholders are along for the ride.

NASA is an example within the government of what can and will happen to many businesses outside of government. And, this Democratic Congress will go along.

We are already living in a tyranny, if Obama can say "I will do the following", that action is not supported by law, and his own party will not stand against him.

A tyranny is not just one willful man, but a large faction that says the law and Constitution do not matter. If the populace is so stupid as to support or endure this lawlessness, then we have an established tyranny.

Posted by: lujlp at July 6, 2010 5:50 AM:

"Westerners have this strange blind spot - we were all taught about the dark ages so we know how terrible it was, and so many assume that islamic countries were oases of knowledge at that time. It isnt true. If it were europe would never have gotten ahead in the technology race.

Any and all progress arabs and persions made into science died off within a couple of generations of islam reaching the majority of a societies citizens."

Spot on. Much of what we "know" about the so-called Dark Ages was Protestant Reformation-era black legends expressly invented by nobles to incite the people against the Church -- 16th century equivalents of the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion". That such propaganda stood unchallenged for so long (even by academic historians) has shaped societal attitudes toward all things medieval. If you simply observe the medieval remnants of Europe -- the now-ruined abbeys, mills, burgher-houses, guild halls, etc. -- without trying to fit them into a predetermined narrative, you will notice evidence of prosperity and an overall societal wealth (at least prior to the Black Death) that belies the Monty Python caricatures.

And the supposed achievements of "Moslem civilization", upon closer examination, generally turn out to be personal achievements of a small number of the subjugated Christians and Jews. That's why the achievements do not extend to succeeding generations. After a hundred years of social and financial pressure to convert results in the conquered peoples' abandoning their religious traditions that teach the rationality of God and His universe, then the efficacy of investigation into philosophy and science dries up under the Moslem insistence on Allah's absolute and non-rational will.

Wait, wait, wait....

Until we are assured that an unmanned mission to blow up an asteroid headed for Earth can be successful, it might be handy to have a few suicide bombers around...

Until we are assured that an unmanned mission to blow up an asteroid headed for Earth can be successful, it might be handy to have a few suicide bombers around.

We're better off relying on the nobility of a few Bruce Willis and Randy Quaid types rather then the competence of the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber, the Times Square bomber, and the like.

Bizarre story if true, but not half as bizarre as the hysterical racism in evidence in these comments. A few people seem to feel the need to 'prove' that arabs/muslims (same thing I guess) are morally and intellectually inferior. Every last one of them.

"They'd surely feel loads better if they were less focused on killing the Jews and more focused on emulating them."

^I think I just facepalmed myself unconscious.

There probably may have some Arabs who are not moslems/muslims but they may have very close cultural similarities and most probably have quite close shared common links, eg economic/business ties, politically or via intermarriage. Many of the asians also declared that they are non-moslems but i note with horror how they shared so many similarities with islamic culture and were so supportive of islamic agenda!

[Obama] wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with predominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.

I heard this on talk radio tonight as well.

What not one person mentioned: What is the difference between the Titan-II ICBM and the Titan 23G used to launch satellites?

What is the difference between a Minuteman or Peacekeeper ICBM and a Minotaur/Athena satellite launch?

I have just one question of this policy: "Are you all total, ignorant, foolish, fucking IDIOTS?"

You want to essentially hand over ICBM technology to our avowed enemies.

I you have the technology to reach orbit, then you have the technology to reach across the planet. Are you trying to cut our own throats?

PS: At this point I would take Howard Dean over Obama.

PPS: We are just so fucked!!!

Theon, arabs are neither morally or intellectually inferior, muslims however are.

The very tenants of their faith make them so.

Tell me, Theon, who exactly is it my fault that islamic societies kill off innovation? And how exactly does it make me racist to point out a weel known, easily observable fact?

I also hated those islamic women who tried to misled us, nonbelievers that their life is in danger when our nonbelievers life is more in danger due to us just being nonbelievers and minding our own business. Those islamic women and those islamic men should stop all their nonsense and stop terrorising us with their islamic problem.