White House Spokeshole Robert Gibbs said today that NASA Administrator Charles Bolden 'misspoke' when he told Al Jazeera last month that one of his top priorities is 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."
"That was not his task and that's not the task of NASA," Gibbs said.
Bolden said that his assignment on Muslim outreach came directly from President Obama. Bolden made a similar claim in February.
Oddly enough, the White House itself originally backed up Bolden last week when his remarks first hit the media. A White House spokesman just last Tuesday said Obama wants NASA to "partner with countries around the world like Russia and Japan, as well as collaboration with Israel and with many Muslim-majority countries."
Since Obama has essentially aborted the space program, I suppose NASA has to do something.
Ah well...
Below for your enjoyment, a particularly funny parody of your typical PBS documentary on 'The Old Negro Space Program'.Warning..some language.
3 comments:
..........there's always gots to be a louie in the mix.........
Charles Krauthammer's column on 12 Feb 2010, ' Closing The New Frontier ' , succinctly summarises the prob : ' within months, Russia will have a monopoly on rides into space ' . It can be accessed via realclearpolitics dot com ( per archives ) & elsewhere. There's a priceless quote from the Russian space programme's head at the article's head : ' We have an agreement until 2012 that Russia will be responsible for this. But after that ? Excuse me, but the prices should be absolutely different then ! ' -- dragon/dinosaur
Why should countries like Russia and Japan want to partner with America on space exploration? We have nothing of value we can offer them, as their scientific knowledge is far ahead of America's. We might be able to sell them something to get access to their more advanced technical know how but we have nothing of value to offer them.
Actually Mr. Bolden's comments are a symptom of a large problem. For decades now the American education system has neglected the teaching of hard science and has neglected teaching of the basics like reading, writing, mathematics, and basic problem solving. Instead they've spent to much time on what ever political correct issue that dominates the day. Sometimes its "man caused global warming." Other times its "native American studies." Still other times its "African American studies."
In any event, exceesive focus on these issues have crowded out the study of basic skills that Americans need to be competitive in the modern world. It should come as no surprise that we are paying a steep price for this.
Finally, lack of self esteem really isn't the problem for Muslims. In fact, it is the exact opposite. They possess a deep seated superiority complex. In fact, it is Americans in particular and Westerners in general who are the ones who possess an inferiority complex and should be encouraged to feel good about the contributions to humanity.
In order for Americans and Muslim countries to have cordial relations, Muslims will need to develop some humility and Americans will need to develop some more pride in themselves and their countries. At this point, a feel good outreach to Muslims would only make things worse, as it only reinforces their superiority complex!!
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