I am just old enough to remember the Apollo missions. I was only a toddler when Neil Armstrong made his historic walk, but I do recall griping to my parents that Saturday morning cartoons had been pre-empted for videos of a bunch of astronauts bouncing around the lunar surface. Hey, I was a little kid. For all I knew, people went to the moon every day. I just wanted to know what had happened to Bugs Bunny. That is a perfectly legitimate excuse if one is six. Of course, watching the Apollo missions, we were led to believe that in the not-too-distant future, we would be living on the moon and shopping on Mars.
I think we all know how things turned out.
The Washington Examiner points out that recently, Bill Nelson, who is a NASA administrator, was queried as to why China might be headed to the "dark side" of the moon. Not only was Nelson clueless as to China's possible motives, but he also erroneously commented that the side of the moon in question is always dark. As a NASA administrator, Nelson should know that the far side of the moon is not always dark. The Examiner notes that the moon is tidally locked with Earth, so the far side, which receives sunlight, is not visible from our planet.
Bill Nelson, professional idiot in charge of NASA, thinks the far side of the moon is "dark" implying that's why we're not going there for that reason.
— FilmLadd (@FilmLadd) April 23, 2024
In case you're wondering why weren't not back on the moon yetpic.twitter.com/3SPbasqtfG
Mr. Nelson, do you want to know why the Chinese are headed to the dark side of the moon, which is not dark? BECAUSE THEY CAN.
They're going because, as corrupt and aggressive as the nation of China may be, they want it more than we do. While we dither about pronouns and white supremacy, they have their noses to the grindstone and shoulders to the wheel. Our students are pitching tents to have a party in the name of murdering Jews. Their students are studying. American TikTok is a morass of sexual depravity and stupidity. Chinese TikTok is an outlet for math, science, and history. Our military is rusting and moldering, and its personnel are fretting about gender. Their military is becoming a force to be reckoned with. China wants to make itself a world power. We are worried about drag queen story hours. China may be in dire straits financially, but it is still in the game. We just gave away $95 billion that we don't have to keep forever wars going. And that was courtesy of a group of elected officials who, for the most part, couldn't find their backsides with both hands and verbal cues.
We are shutting down our fossil fuel and rare earth production to benefit a privileged few, while thanks to ESG, China is snapping up oil and mineral rights around the globe to power its future.
Not to mention, we have a president who utters such deathless phrases as "Four more years. Pause."
China has an abysmal record of human rights violations, going back to Mao's Cultural Revolution and continuing to this day. And if China can harness the powers of intellect and technology for evil and conquest, the U.S. can harness them for good. Right?
Right?
On second thought, my local college is offering community enrichment classes in beginning Mandarin. Maybe I need to go and sign up.
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