You assume that the American people care. That so many of them don’t, is the real disgrace.
Congressman Sensenbrenner thinks NASA has a program to defend earth from incoming asteroids, and wants the details. If some Joe who just watched that Bruce Willis movie wrote such a letter, I might give them a pass for thinking that NASA actually has some weapons to destroy cosmic objects. But I expect the Vice Chairman of the House Science Committee to be at least moderately informed on… well, science.
http://sensenbrenner.house.gov/uploadedfiles/20130220152701611.pdf
I’d be very surprised to hear that there wasn’t some sort of NASA program, even if it were only paying some engineers to tell them why it couldn’t be done.
Even heard about one on NPR. Rather than trying to hit something moving very very fast with something only moving very fast, maneuver close enough to fire a “shotgun” blast of small, dense pellets. Each one is small, but enough of them hit from the same direction, nudge it into a different trajectory.
Honestly, I don’t think that’s a fair assessment of the linked letter. First of all, there is in fact an observation program in place to detect incoming threats (though I don’t know for sure that NASA’s running it), and he asks for details about that.
Then he asks how “achievable” are NASA’s plans for eliminating these threats. NASA does in fact have a number of plans (AFAIK they are still in the purely theoretical stages), and it is reasonable to interpret the letter as an inquiry about whether any of these plans are looking promising and/or affordable.
The last question really can’t be answered at this point, because choosing different defense systems would mean having different lead times. But in any case, it is not a stupid question.
Nor is having such a program a stupid idea.
Get used to disappointment. It’s probably already been referenced somewhere upthread, but here is a recent
[quote]
(U.S. Rep. Paul Broun: Evolution a lie 'from the pit of hell') from congressman Paul Broun, R-GA, who is on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee:
“God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. There’s a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth. I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says.”
A county GOP chairperson in Montana shared a racist picture on her facebook page.
Or, maybe it’s just us libtards seeing racism everywhere. Trying to catch a black man with a watermelon as bait? Lighten up, Francis.
Jeez, it’s like Groundhog Day. I’m pretty sure there’s a “Republican official posts/e-mails racist picture” story on each of the 219 pages of this thread.
Not sure if Louie Gohmert believes the words coming out of his own mouth, or just trolling;
[QUOTE=Louie Gohmert]
[The Second Amendment] is for our protection and the founders’ quotes make that very very clear and including against a government that would run amuck. We’ve got some people who think Sharia Law should be the law of the land, forget the Constitution. But the guns are there… to make sure all of the rest of the Amendments are followed.
[/QUOTE]
Amok. Unless they know Gohmert spelled it wrong in his mind.
Amuck is a perfectly cromulent word.
ETA: If it wasn’t, how would we ever have watched Duck Amuck?
Who says Sharia Law should be law of the land? Usually on conspiracy theories you can at least find one loon espousing any given view, but I’ve only ever heard it from Republicans that they’re saving us all from Sharia, I’ve never actually heard anyone claim they wanted Sharia law in the USA. It’s like conspiracy theory nuttery squared. BLACK HELICOPTERS!!!
Some people.
Would you doubt that Gohmert could find a way to do that?
Is that a Fox News style “Some people are saying…” ?
You’re not saying this, you’re just asking the question.
When reincarnation is outlawed, only outlaws will be reincarnated.
From the linked article:
This really, really reads like something from The Onion. I don’t see how you can report on this with a straight face.
When this goes into effect, I’d love to see the (translated) Required Forms (“Request for permission to Reincarnate in a Higher Form” – “I’m soory, but our records indicate that you haven’t acquired sufficient karmic points to reincarnate as a human being. Please choose one form of animal from the folowing list…”)
I’d like to see their Handbook of Standards and Practices.
Surely reincarnation is something that can only be improved by Chinese Bureaucracy.
First, how is this Republican? Second, if I remember correctly, prior to Chinese takeover, Tibet was ruled by a monk class that had ritualized reincarnation where after a monk or lama died, they would seek out and identify the new incarnation who would be taken from his parents and set up as a the new feudal lord. I believe the Chinese government has been trying to figure out how to co-opt that for a while now.
Beats me, but I couldn’t possibly resist comenting. Ask 'luci why he put it in this thread.
Ritualizing reincarnation (what does tat even mean? you can ritualize particular events involved with reincarnation, but “ritualizing reincarnation” is like “ritualizing existence”) may be o ne thing, but “stipuloating the procedures” is another. Unless this reeport was badly or incorrectly trabnslated, it’;s also hilarious.