Avoiding Madness, At All Costs

JOHN F KENNEDY ONCE SAID "There are three things that are real: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, let us do what we can with the third." Amen to that, brothah. Amid the pervasive human madness, there are two things that are worthwhile: the Rover vehicle on the surface of Mars, and the Cassini probe deep in the solar system. Both are working beautifully right now, and have been since they were launched several years ago. Both are doing their jobs beautifully, giving us a bountiful harvest of knowledge about the planet Mars and the planet Saturn, its moons, and the solar system. And the crazy thing is, both of them may be forced to shut down, to cease operations, due to budget cuts. It may be necessary to turn off the Cassini probe, and the Mars Rover probe. Both of them cost in the neighborhood of fifty million dollars a year to operate; mere pocket change, for the U.S. government. Common sense tells us that after going to the trouble to build, launch, and operate these space probes, to shut them down now, when they are in the middle of their missions and working perfectly, would be madness. Unfortunately, it somehow seems to be precisely the kind of madness of which the United States government is not only capable, but the kind for which it is quite well known. Obama already cut out the entire manned Mars program, a huge mistake. Surely he won't be stupid enough to allow Rover and Cassini to be turned off, in the middle of their grand advdntures. Or will he? He won't, if enough uf us let him know that we don't want him to. The United Sates recently commissioned a new aircraft carrier named the G"erald R. Ford". If the United States is naming aircraft carriers after Gerald R. Ford, the United States has too many aircraft carriers. Convert swords into spaceprobes.