Who Stopped Dreaming?

YouTube has gotten very good at suggesting videos that I will like, and it has gotten just as good at suggesting videos that will really get me torqued.  Case in point: this video of Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Bill Maher show (sounds like the perfect storm for trouble right?).  Dr. Tyson is livid, as usual, that not enough money is being extorted from the American public to fund his pet projects.  He compares the magnitude of money confiscated for NASA's budget to the amount confiscated for TARP and the various wars, as if two or more wrongs make a right.

I've written fairly extensively on the subject of NASA funding (and the funding of state science in general), so I think I will let Murray Rothbard take this one:

How shall we finance our future explorations in space? The answer is simple: insofar as space explorations are a byproduct of needed military work (such as guided missiles) and only insofar, let the space exploration proceed on the same basis as any other military research. But, to the extent that it is not needed by the military, and is simply a romantic penchant for space exploration, then this penchant must take its chances, like everything, in the free market. It may seem exciting to engage in space exploration, but it is also enormously expensive, and wasteful of resources that could go into needed products to advance life on this earth. To the extent that voluntary funds are used in such endeavors, all well and good; but to tax private funds to engage in such ventures would be just another giant government boondoggle.

Michio Kaku - Chump Change

I really have to stop watching the news over breakfast, but since I've been eating a more regular diet, I am doing it more and more.  This morning I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Michio Kaku on the CBS Morning News discussing the recent meteor strike in Russia.  I thought, "Ok, this is cool.  I like science, and I like Dr. Kaku.  He seems to be a pretty good advocate for science and rational thinking."  These kind feelings stopped abruptly when he proposed a federal program to detect asteroids.  He said - I paraphrase here - "It would only cost a couple hundred million dollars.  That's chump change."

Yes, Dr. Kaku, and we're the chumps.  I'm all for the early detection of potentially dangerous asteroids, but can't we raise the money without using force and coercion?  There is no reason to resort to violence if the concerns and the science have merit.  In the modern world of projects like Kickstarter, shouldn't it be relatively easy to raise the "chump change" from hundreds, thousands or even millions of willing participants world wide?  Give peace a chance Dr. Kaku.