From: TURTLE              
To: SNAKEBYTE           
Subject: Money talks    
Date & Time: 06/11/90 18:04:31
Message Number  5836

I'm always baffled whenever I see some random group of assorted oddballs
wandering around saying things like "Why are we spending so much money
on space exploration when we have so many problems down here?" and
"Why isn't that money going whhere it can do some good, like for
Program X?" I really don't think these people are aware that NASA's
annual budget is less than one-half of one percent of the military's
annual budget--or if they are, that fact doesn't seem to mean diddly
to them. I particularly love when they start complaining that all that
space money is utterly wasted and doesn't help anyone--generally over
dinner (you know, cheese sandwiches cooked in a Teflon-coated frying
pan and leftovers heated int eh microwave), just before picking up
Junior in their new Firebird (you know, the one with the computer-
controlled tuned-port fuel-injected engine) from his computer
programming class (he's hoping to get a job in electronics
engineering when he grows up) so they can visit Grandma in the hospital
(she's going to be released if the last CAT scan results are
encouraging, you see.) Still, they do have a point; after all, what
good do a bunch of stupid moon rocks actually do anyone?