NASA: not that it was ever perfect..

But at least it wasn't utterly, unbelievably, appallingly and increasingly irrelevant, downright stupid and knowingly being used as nothing more than a political tool, by someone who pledged to do better, and not to continue the crap which preceedeth.

Here's the money-shot quote from the current NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, testifying in public before Congress:

"When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things, One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering."

So much for Kennedy's speech, for NASA's original space mission, and for everything else it once stood for, and for which we paid our tax monies for:  and for the most part gladly, since it lead to some of the greatest achievements of mankind as a species.

Now,  our former astronauts and real heros like John Glenn, Neal Armstrong and Eugene Cernan all publicly denounce and express dismay at the current Administration's supposed policies (That would be 'President Obama').

So, from a grand vision of mankind's future in space and the ultimate journey to the stars, ensuring homo sapiens' survival and continued evolution, we are now left with trying to encourage our own children to study more math and science in our failed educational system, and to help Muslim cultures and communities feel
good about themselves. And at the same time admitting that the USA is no longer able to do anything other than reach LEO  (low-earth-orbit) without the help of other countries.

So, since no one reads this anyway, I'll close this rant with a long quote from William James (1842-1910)
"If this be the whole fruit of the victory, we say; if the generations of mankind suffered and laid down their lives;

if prophets confessed and martyrs sang in the fire, and all the sacred tears were shed for no other end than that a race of creatures of such unexampled insipidity should succeed, and protract ... their contented and inoffensive lives,
-- why, at such a rate, better lose than win the battle, or at all events better ring down the curtain before the last act of the play, so that a business that began so importantly may be saved from so singularly flat a winding-up."

And few seem to notice, but this is a species-wide, depressing setback.
We used to be better, and braver.
Sic transit gloria mundi.