Spend it like it's not yours: You know, timing, as they say, is everything. This makes you question how good a dancer W is. He chooses today to announce his grandiose plans for "infinity and beyond!" I'm sure W is being told this concept will pin him with the "visionary" label his handlers so desperately covet, and show that he's not just bent on world domination through military might (query whether this makes him bent on extra-wordly domination).

I just think that given how he's exploding the budget, and I don't really think anyone can argue at this point that his deficit won't be among the largest ever, maybe space exploration, while fun and exciting, is of little immediate or even mid-term use, and seeing how it's rife with failure, is a topic that could be shelved for a bit. With JFK, the moon program lifted everyone's spirits and gave a goal that people could relate to; the moon is something the average person sees every day (studies show non-average people only see it but thrice a week). But Mars isn't giving up any clues that there was life there - which we could get amped about (the supposed river bed appears to be nothing more than volcanic waste), and if to Mars, then what? Pluto? Alpha Centauri? Boy, if those don't get you worked up...

Maybe some time announcing ways to get the jobs going again would be useful. I mean, the numbers for last month were awful. Or maybe just appear interested in what goes on inside the 50 states. Anyway, I don't think space exploration is worthless (far from it), and while I understand that there will always be other more pressing needs at hand, a $15B trip to a barren wasteland most people can't locate isn't my idea of welcome news.