Bruce Gagnon says those who are pro-space explorations are evil and are corporate toadies

Bruce Gagnon, best known as a so-call 'peace' activist who protested the militarization of space and the Cassini probe for its nuclear power generators and head of the Global Network Against War and Nuclear Power In Space (GNAW N PIS), has now dropped all pretexts and declared war on the National Space Society and Mars Society.

The National Space Society (NSS) is talking about building a "space movement." The organization is heavily funded by weapons corporations like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Honeywell, Northrup Grumman, Aerojet and others. About support from these corporate giants NSS says, "By supporting NSS, these companies have shown their commitment to strong citizen involvement in our nation's space program."

And just what do these aerospace corporations want in return for funding this "grassroots space movement?" They are asking NSS to lobby for massive federal expenditures to move the arms race into space, to fund the space technology infrastructure to put mining colonies on the moon and Mars, and to support the development of space-based solar power technology that would put centralized solar production in corporate hands rather than development of decentralized solar technologies on homes and businesses back here on Mother Earth.


As one NSS leader puts it, citizen involvement in space drives power at the Congressional "negotiating table for funding."

Because of the growing budget deficit in the U.S., the weapons industry worries that space technology funding will take a hit. They are now moving to preempt that problem.

With heavy funding from the industry the NSS is undertaking a "five year Strategic Plan" and "building a stronger Space Movement is a key component of that plan."

NSS says, "Recently, the space community has become concerned about the relatively low level of support for space among America's youth....In order to strengthen the Movement, additional emphasis will be placed on chapter development and grassroots organization. We will not only appeal to people via intellectual argument, but also to their emotions through the use of space art and other media."

The aerospace industry understands how things work. If you want to control the discussion and change public perception, then you must create the grassroots thunder. NSS confirms this by saying, "The media, the public, politicians, and historians all view something to be of greater importance when it is a movement as compared to when it is not."

And since there is not presently a "pro-space movement" the industry has decided to create one.

There is much money to be made if the public can be convinced that we should spend our dwindling tax dollars on space technology. The Mars Society says that the Earth is a rotting, dying, stinking planet and that we must move our civilization to Mars and that Congress must appropriate funds to "terraform" Mars. And what does terraform mean? It means turning the dusty dry red planet into a replica of the Earth - alive and green and habitable. Just imagine how much that would cost? Imagine the profits for the aerospace corporations to be given such a mission.

Space technology development is very expensive. Just one illustration - the International Space Station was originally supposed to cost the public $10 billion, but the price tag has grown to over $100 billion and it is not yet finished. By the time the space station is completed it will be an outdated technology and on we will go to the next round. Already the aerospace industry is working on the successor programs to the space shuttle and the space station. But in order to get these massive projects funded it must create a citizens base - a movement.

Some years ago I attended a pro-space development conference at Cape Canaveral in Florida. I went to a workshop on Mars where the speaker was the head of the tourist facility at the Kennedy Space Center. Why him, what did he know about Mars? His message was simple - unless we get the kids, who will be taxpayers in 20 years, to support these space missions to the moon and Mars, we are sunk. So, he said, we are doing a complete renovation of the space center tourist facility on a Mars theme and increasing our efforts to bring school children into the space center.

On the other side we have the Global Network organizing international opposition to these plans for "everything space". We understand that we can't have social progress in the U.S. and pay for "everything space" at the same time. We are also hearing from our GN affiliated groups in Sweden, England, France, South Korea, Italy, Australia, Japan, India, and other nations that their countries are being dragged into the space technology game because the U.S. needs allies to help fund this very expensive new direction. The challenge becomes global as we try to hang onto our national resources to protect life for the future generations right here on planet Earth.

Yes indeed, we do need a space movement. It's just a matter of which kind we need. And the real question each of us must answer is "which side are you on?"



http://www.space4peace.org

There is no compromise with Bruce Gagnon. No solar-powered ion rocketships to Mars will satisfied Bruce's ire. You who love space exploration and dream of a future of mankind traveling to the planets are his enemies, tools of the so-called military industrial complex. Some have called him a nut for his claims of military bases and mining operations on the Moon. I call him a liar, cult leader, and con man. The wild stories of military conspiracies to build moonbases are the kool-aid he gives his followers to drive them into a neo-Luddite fervor. This man is our enemy and all of his followers as well. They will not be satisfied until Cape Kennedy is torned down and replaced with a garden for the hemp that half of his loser followers smoke and NASA's budget is spent on failed social programs. He has spat in our faces and called us 'war mongers' and 'useful idiots' and enemies of Mother Earth, the one true god of the environmental extremists (and Bruce Gagnon, her prophet). Even going so far as slandering Robert Zubrin and his Mars Society and claiming they have some sort of anti-earth agenda. They are waging a jihad against us all. Make no bones about it. The exploration and development of space has been flying under the radar of the neo-Luddites, watermelons, environmentalists who are green on the outside but red (I'll leave it up to your imagination on which 'red' I'm referring to comrade), and the cult of Gaia. But as things pick and space travel starts to pick up in the private sector, GNAW N PIS will be there to crap on everything we hold so dear and many more worked hard for, all in the name of this socialistic neo-Luddite worker's paradise. And if any of you have some choice words for Gagnon and his ilk, send an email to globalnet@mindspring.com, the official e-mail address to GNAW N PIS.

Operation drill bit

Started by radio talk show host and DJ Todd Schnitt of the Schnitt Show, Operation Drill Bit is a campaign to let Congress know that Americans support the drilling of domestic supplies of oil. The campaign is to mail drill bits to your local congressman and two state senators to their Washington D.C. offices as well as the presidental candidates Barack Obama (to me, a waste of time because of his far left viewpoints but you're welcome to try) and John McCain (who has express his desire not to drill on ANWR but will be more likely to be swayed to appeal to the conservative base of the Republican Party). Mailing out petitions is better than internet petitions because its would be too easy for just a handful of people to fake a successful online petition drive, and the results are in doubt. I believe, most of all, this would be in the best interest of the nation for as many people as possible to take part in this drive. For the last three decades, the only voices hear on environmental issues are the fringe elements and their falsehoods and it's the squeaky wheel that gets the grease especially in the Beltway.

The unintended consequences of carbon rationing

The Environmental Audit Committee in the United Kingdom wants to institute a carbon ration to its citizens. Whatever business transaction that is used for a good or service that uses fossil fuel can only be purchased by a special carbon credit card. This would include gasoline, diesel, electricity, and flights and to do otherwise would be illegal (imagine the very act of purchasing a gallon of gas for your lawnmower to be a criminal act). Of course, the elitists have a way out: buy carbon rations from the poor via special carbon brokers. The politicians enacting this legislation, the ex-politicians spreading misinformation about global warming (I'm talking you Al), and the mentally challenged actors of the entertainment industry promoting the same attitude that leads to this intrusive bureaucracy. I can imagine it now. Those of the middle class forced to make the choice between moving away from the homes they lived in for generation because they can't afford the carbon rations to go to work and back or to give up their jobs and look for work closer to home even at the risk of a substantial pay cut. Where as once flight or even automobile ownership were once quite common is now regulated to the upper class widening the divide between the haves and have nots. The only ones to flourish in this system will be the rich who can afford to buy the carbon rations from the unwashed masses of hard-working formally middle class citizens, the carbon ration brokers making a profit off of other people's misery, and organized crime with the latest product to be sold on the black market: ordinary gasoline.

Breakdown of the price of gasoline or where the hell does your money goes for that $4 per gallon gas

I did a bit of research on the web and found the gasoline primer from the Energy Information Administration, the official energy statistics from the United States government. The lowdown is this: only 9% of the cost for gasoline goes to oil companies profits, which is less than half of what the federal and state government makes in tax revenues (remember that the next time so idiot mouths off about 'Big Oil' less they're referring to OPEC). The single biggest contributor to the price of gasoline is the cost of crude oil. In 2004, crude oil prices contributed to 47% of the cost of oil. One year later in '05, that number jumped to 53%. And now, in today's $4 per gallon gasoline market, crude oil prices consist of 72% of the cost of oil. That's $2.88 out of $4 going to supplies of the raw material used to make gasoline, and the vast majority of that crude comes not from U.S companies, but is imported from nations that has nationalized their oil industry, some of which has formed cartels to stifle competition and fix the price of oil (I'm pointing at you OPEC) And add in the fact that the economy India and China, (both nations together has 9 times the population of the US) are growing at record rates, the demand for oil is skyrocketing as supplies is in the hand of mostly corrupted dictatorships. And what does this has to do with the environmentalist movement? The environmentalists has been the cause of our gasoline woes. No new refineries has been built in the United States in 25 years. 85% of off shore oil (76 billion barrels of recoverable oil) is off-limits and now Democrats, at the behest of environmental extremists, are setting their sites on oil shale and coal liquefaction. And worst of all, none of the factions will owe up to their responsibility for jacking up the cost of gasoline and the lack of energy independence for this nation.

Doing something constructive

I am a mechanical and aerospace engineer just a few years out of college, so when it comes to technology, I have a strong educational background. I am also pro-technology and anti-Neo Luddite, which is why I have such a strong hatred for what passes as the environmentalist movement today. The extremist environmentalist movement today consist of two factors:

1). the 'if we only had renewable solar power/wind power instead of dirty old coal and nuclear' environmentalist

and worse

2). the 'Americans are greedy and selfish and we should use less resources' environmentalists.

A sub faction of #2 substitutes 'Americans' with 'humanity' and believe the world would be better off without humans. I suggest these bunch set the example and commit suicide. But back on subject. For years, I'm been enraged at environmentalist extremist that refuse to listen to reason or consider the prospect that they might be wrong and so much so I have flamed eco-whacho sites. But at the behest of a close friend of mine, I'm not going to flame. Instead I'll hurt these environmental extremist where it matters: by telling the truth and debunking their BS.