NASA’s “National Greatness Endeavors” – Part II

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript –  I received hate mail yesterday informing me that had it not been for the space shuttle, there would be no Sirius XM because there would be no low earth orbit satellites.  That’s right, they wouldn’t exist.  If you guys are going to take this line of reasoning and this line of thought about it, we should go all the way back to the railroad.  Had it not been for the federal government, the train would never have been invented.  If the train had never been invented, we’d all still be Fred Flintstoning across the amber waves of fuel, using our feet to pedal our all open-top convertible cars with stone wheels. Check out today’s transcript for more…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  When I tell you that the Mike Church Show fan page on Facebook, there’s a couple people posted, [mocking] “I couldn’t disagree with you more when it comes to NASA, when it comes to the greatness of the space shuttle and the space program.  We need things like this to inspire us as children.”  I even had hate mail come in over the transom yesterday from purported libertarians who were telling me, [mocking] “Even though it’s not a government expenditure that I sign off on, still, half the things we have on this planet, that we enjoy today, came from NASA.”  I received hate mail yesterday informing me that had it not been for the space shuttle, there would be no Sirius XM because there would be no low earth orbit satellites.  That’s right, they wouldn’t exist.  If you guys are going to take this line of reasoning and this line of thought about it, we should go all the way back to the railroad.  Had it not been for the federal government, the train would never have been invented.  If the train had never been invented, we’d all still be Fred Flintstoning across the amber waves of fuel, using our feet to pedal our all open-top convertible cars with stone wheels.
It’s, what’s the word here?  It’s entertaining.  It’s entertaining to read the diversity of opinion when it comes to public money spent on space, the final frontier.  You see, when you’re spending other people’s money to try and get the warp drive made so James T. Kirk can actually make a realistic rendezvous with science fiction in 2058, or whatever the year is when Zefram Cochrane invents the warp drive, this is okay, even if you’re a limited government type, because [mocking] “It inspires.  If we don’t have things that inspire us . . ..”

I was arguing with somebody yesterday over this.  This is all about the space shuttle program coming to an end.  There’s still one more rendezvous for the Space Shuttle Discovery.  It has not yet made it to its permanent resting ground.  They still have to move it from the Air Force base or wherever it was it landed on Friday, over to where the museum is going to be.  They still have to get it from point A to point B.  They can’t do it on top of a 747.  I don’t know how they’re going to get it there.  They have to move the damn thing, I do know that.

The columnist Charles Krauthammer, writing about this, about how the end of the space program is like watching American die.  Without our government-sponsored efforts to inspire us all, the space program and this, that and the other, we’re just a bunch of meandering about the countryside, knuckled-ragging Neanderthals with no lot or purpose in life.  Can you imagine?  It’s like the Dick Clark memorials.  Can you imagine what a rotten country this would be, what a horrid place to live had Neil Armstrong never gone to the moon on the government dime?

It totally, absolutely misinterprets and misstates what I was trying to say about it yesterday.  I never said that things did not come out of the space program that ultimately had commercial uses.  As I pointed out with tang, which is the one many people are familiar with, it actually existed before the space program.  That’s not what is at issue here.  What is at issue here is whether or not the government, the national government, operated under its constitutional charter, is charged with setting — how did Krauthammer put it — national greatness endeavor.  Show me in the Constitution — I feel like Richard Dawson on Family Feud.  Show me national greatness endeavors.

Mike:  The subject is Constitution.  Your family can steal this one if your answer is correct.  What do you think we haven’t covered already that’s in the Constitution about the space program?  Richard, we all got together, national greatness endeavors.  You think national greatness endeavors is in the Constitution, do you?  Well, if you do, you steal it from the Obama family and you win the game, $1 million, no, $1 trillion is yours.  Show me national greatness endeavors.  [buzzer]  Oh, sorry.  That was pretty good.  I was getting ready to hit the button and then magically out of thin air.

AG:  I got it cued up.  I’m ready to go.

Mike:  Did you see some of the Tweets that were sent out yesterday, at me, about that?  Did you see the — there was one that I responded to.  Here it is.  Dwayne Bush: “Yeah, Mike, there is no greatness, right?  Like it or not, Mike, you bash America.  Some of it might be true but possibly unnecessary.”  I explained to him that, “The greatness you lust for is misdirected.  In bashing America, I mean to question government’s claim of divine right to choose what’s great.”
I don’t mind having to debate it, but in this audience, it’s shocking a bit, shall we say, surprising that I would actually have to explain this or that there would be such emotional disagreement over it.  Let’s do this one more time.  Show me national — I have to come up with a way to say this every time.  Show me national — I forgot what I said already.  How did I put it?  Show me national greatness?  What was it?
AG:  It was greatness endowment —

Mike:  Show me national greatness endeavors.  [buzzer]
End Mike Church Show Transcript

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