It is just a few hours before the return of the shuttle scheduled for later this morning. My thoughts turn to all the early failures, like a morbid televised serial. Noboday said quit then, we just worked a little harder and got a little tougher and finally the results turned positive. Then a war hero turned President challenged America to put a man on the moon and bring him safely home - in a decade. And we did all that and more. Sadly, with each of three fatal accidents, there was a progressively greater cry to shut NASA down. And now, facing serious troubles with the shuttle fleet, the din increases. These folks, who cannot do anything of note themselves, cry out for shutdown in the name of safety in an attempt to harness genius and bring the body politic back to the norm: the grey, homogenous blob of mediocrity. The would put have us put our collective heads and minds and values and genius in a dark spot adorned with earmuffs and blindfolds for good measure. My God, the few dollars per person NASA costs is a pittance. Hang the cost and the danger. Just for the Hell of it is justification enough to continue the NASA mission. If anything positive [count the ways below] comes out of the process, fine.If not, just the doing of it is necessary for the continuity of the American dream. Click this link for NASA spinoffs. http://www.nasa.gov/vision/earth/technologies/spinoffs_index.html