Ya know, when I was a kid we put a person on the Moon.

[MannyGoldstein]

Today... well, here we are.

At least presidents, candidates, and civil rights leaders aren't getting shot. Yet.

Ugh.

[randome]

1. And now the aspirations of too many extend no further than wrecking the budget.

How times have changed.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[MannyGoldstein]

2. And people vote for these nuts.

Unbelievable.

[SamYeager]

3. I remember Apollo 1 and the aftermath.

Walter Mondale was really against moving forward with NASA back then.

[MannyGoldstein]

8. I didn't know that.

I'm glad he lost.

I became conscious of the space program right around Apollo 8. I remember when it went around the Moon at Christmas. Even though I was too young to grasp the total significance, it felt amazing to this nascent nerd.

[SamYeager]

12. I suggest "From the Earth to the Moon'

The first episode shows some of Mondale's reluctance, though he was much more anti-NASA in real life.

His motivations were noble. He believed the money was better spent feeding poor children at home.

[MannyGoldstein]

16. I did see that

But forgot about Mondale.

Fantastic series. I should watch it again to perk up my spirits!

[SamYeager]

23. I have it on disk

I always pull it out when I'm feeling low and need some inspiration. Tom Hanks is a genius.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

42. By that time, we already had Tang and the miniaturization of electronics.

The impoverished were still hungry and homeless.

[DavidDvorkin]

59. Apollo 11 was the first one that landed on the moon

The opposition to the lunar program erupted even before the launch took place. There were demonstrators at the launch protesting about the money being spent on the space program instead of social programs.

[SamYeager]

60. Apollo 1 was the one that burned up the astronauts on the pad

This happened during a routine test.

Ed White and Gus Grissom were two of my heroes before the fire.

[DavidDvorkin]

61. Correct

I started working at NASA while the investigation into that fire was still underway. It had a huge psychological impact on the people working there.

However, the public was still very supportive in those days. It was during the buildup to the Apollo 11 launch that the mood turned anti-NASA.

[KelleyD]

4. I hear ya Manny. We use to think our Nation was forward thinking...sad. n/t

[regnaD kciN]

5. You think we could put the whole damn Teapublican Party there now…?

If only…

[TBF]

58. lol -

the first colony on Mars. Teafuckistan ...

[orpupilofnature57]

6. Exceptionalism wasn't as revered then, and what they did

to change the World got them shot, they were exceptional people, and we could use them today .

[Trailrider1951]

19. Amen

Damn, where did our future go?

[KelleyD]

7. regan...Kand R

[nadinbrzezinski]

9. Declining Empires lose track of what they were

[KelleyD]

10. Regna...sorry. I am 60 years old and in a way am glad I have just a few years left. Scary times n/

[MannyGoldstein]

28. You think these are the first scary times?

We've had 'em before, and worse. Don't plan on leaving us *too* soon, we can make it better again.

[orpupilofnature57]

29. +1000 !!!!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

11. I can think of a few people to send to the moon right about now...

[Bluenorthwest]

13. We put them on the Moon and brought them home again.

Now this country promotes mediocrity and rewards failure.

[Fumesucker]

14. And now the Republicans are mooning the nation

[randome]

15. Was that necessary?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[Fumesucker]

21. Big, round

Black and white
I feel the pull I see the light

[MannyGoldstein]

17. LOL!

Awesome!

[Trailrider1951]

22. LOL, gee, no kidding

This page intentionally left blank......like conservative's souls

[hootinholler]

34. Wouldn't Boner be more like this?

[KelleyD]

18. That's what the Repuks are doing...Mooning the American Public...assholes!

[madrchsod]

20. when i was a kid in the 50`s

a republican president used federal troops so black kids could go to a all white school.

[roamer65]

24. I wonder what Ike would say about the Rethugs of today.

I can only think it would not be kind.

[MannyGoldstein]

26. My brush with greatness...

I met Ruby Bridges once, one of those children. Gave her a lift to a speaking engagement at my son's school. Lovely woman.

[orpupilofnature57]

30. He also had enough forsight, and sense of duty to warn us

[AnotherMcIntosh]

44. His best line, when asked about Nixon's contributions: "If you give me a few weeks, I may be able to

think of something."

[orpupilofnature57]

54. Waiting in the wings, to fulfill hs part of the ' Business plot '

&list=PLA29F12D5812133B9

[elehhhhna]

25. me too. wow your op made me sad.

[MannyGoldstein]

27. On the bright side, it can help us to recalibrate

We did it before, we can do it again!

But we gotta be smart. And tough.

[al_liberal]

31. No more big things from the US.

We could never build a Hoover Dam, interstate system, or a TVA today. Most street signs and red lights the world over are based upon what we did. Airport trafficking and the language the pilots speak followed our lead. Hell, even saying "Hello" to answer the phone started here.

The days of great things from the US are very far behind us. But we can still build the biggest aircraft carrier the world has ever seen, kill thousands upon thousands of people in far away lands, and keep taxes low on the richest among us.

It's time to "piss on the fire and call in the dogs", our country is over.

[MannyGoldstein]

39. Were the 1920s so different from today?

Not so much, I think.

But then we built a new Democratic Party in 1932, and we had 50 great years. Then 30 of decline.

[BuelahWitch]

56. Wasn't there a great deal of optimism in the '20s?

Before the crash? Today is more like early Depression years before Roosevelt.

[MannyGoldstein]

57. "More than 60 per cent of Americans lived just below the poverty line"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/history/mwh/usa/1920srev1.shtml

When I wrote the 1920s, I was actually thinking of the late 20s, as your response indicates - but the whole decade was a mixed bag. He folks at the top tended to do better and better, and the folks at the middle and bottom got hosed. The stock market crash marked the end of the good times for folks more towards the top.

[NuclearDem]

32. Pfft, that's nothing.

When I was a kid, we put a chimp in the White House.

[randome]

37. The experiment was a failure.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]The truth doesn’t always set you free.
Sometimes it builds a bigger cage around the one you’re already in.[/center][/font][hr]

[noiretextatique]

62. correction: SCOTUS put a chimp in the white house

WE most certainly did not.

[Spirochete]

33. We need to put about 300 more there now

and leave them there

[Liberal_Dog]

35. Robert A. Heinlein Basically Predicted This

His "Future History" Series begins with a great era of scientific discovery and space exploration from 1951 to the early 21st century.

And then comes the swingback. Nehemiah Scudder is elected Presdent, becomes dictator and the US enters a Dark Age. Space exploration ceases.

Feels like we are living through that now.

But there is hope.

After the "Prophets" are overthrown, space travel is re-established. The first starships are launched a few decades later and, ultimately, mankind spreads throughout the Galaxy.

I still remain hopeful.

[WinkyDink]

36. There's always Gabby Giffords.

[MichiganVote]

38. Why bother? School staff and kids are more plentiful for the crazies w/guns.

[Demo_Chris]

40. But when you were a kid did they have the NSA?

Did anyone even dream of a day in which every facet of your life, from who you call to how long you spend looking at an image, might be databased and collected and analysed and cross referenced?

It's called PROGRESS!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

46. I thought all the freely available porn was progress.

[KentuckyWoman]

41. Manny this bunch grew up on

hate radio and Fox news. All they know is greed manipulation and sloth. We had Cronkite, Murrow, Rather, Jennings, Thomas. The organizations behind them weren't perfect but at least they actually cared about facts.

[MannyGoldstein]

43. But before Cronkite, Murrow et al

There was Father Coughlin and that crowd. The American Nazi Party and the KKK were large in the 1920s - heck, my wife's grandfather was a member of the former.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

45. Nixon reduced all of that into "A Kennedy thing" and he ended it out of petty spite....

So tell me how things were different then?

Republicans were still the small minded bastards they are today.

[MannyGoldstein]

48. But Democrats were Democrats

they put a person on the Moon, and lifted the Middle Class up, up, up.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

49. Well, Clinton once bragged that he was able to raise more corporate money than Republiicans....

That was considered to be a major victory by the DLC.

[Moonwalk]

47. Well, but we had the USSR to scare us into action then....

...now all we do is scare each other into inaction.

[B Calm]

50. We built an interstate hwy system too.. We use to be great

And powerful

[Rain Mcloud]

51. There was a shared purpose,everyone worked together to move the country forward

i was contemplating this,this morning warming up the car to head to work and this song started to play in my mind's ear and i tried to remember the last time that i had heard it on the radio and i also remembered not since the sainted reagan panned it and that Allentown number:
[link:

|

[Rain Mcloud]

52. Okay that did not work,Bob Segar's Making Thunderbirds

[link:

|

[matt819]

53. I was just talking about this today

My wife and I were having lunch today and were saying the same thing.

I also suggested that if President Obama were to declare, as President Kennedy did, that we would put a man on the moon within the next 10 years, that as a nation we lack the willpower to actually accomplish that. And you just know what the republicans and teapartiers would say in response. Goodness, it gets old.

As you say, well, here we are.

[B Calm]

55. Well we know what they thought of high speed rail!

As long as there are a few republicans with their heels in the mud, we'll continue to have to drag them along into the future.