Not Because They Are Easy

You know, every time the economy is in a slump, we go beat up some country on the other side of the world. It costs lots of money, boosts the defense industry and usually carries the rest of the economy with it. Good for business, bad for Iraq.

Anyway, why don't we, instead, embark on new Big Projects? Like Kennedy saying, "We're going to the moon" when rockets were still new explodey things. That cost a big heap of money and gave us big bragging rights and scientific advances at the same time.

That was a great American accomplishment. Why don't we do it anymore?

International Space Station, with funding from the entire world, and yet managing to be apparently less useful and glamourous than the lunar missions, which we did by ourselves before most of your readers were even born.

Now see, if Kennedy did a space station, it would be a lot bigger, and it would rotate to induce artificial gravity and there'd be invitational rock concerts on the first Saturday of every month. Not this monkey play we got up there now. No offense.