“He should be announcing that we should go back to the moon,” says the iconic author, whose 90th birthday on Aug. 22 will be marked in Los Angeles with more than week’s worth of Bradbury film and TV screenings, tributes and other events. “We should never have left there. We should go to the moon and prepare a base to fire a rocket off to Mars and then go to Mars and colonize Mars. Then when we do that, we will live forever.”
The man who wrote “Fahrenheit 451,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “Dandelion Wine”and “The Illustrated Man” has been called one of America’s great dreamers, but his imagination takes him to some dark places when it comes to contemporary politics.
“I think our country is in need of a revolution,” Bradbury said. “There is too much government today. We’ve got to remember the government should be by the people, of the people and for the people.”
One of the stupidest aspects of the announcement of the new space policy was to make such a big deal of the fact that we weren’t going back to the moon. It was entirely unnecessary, because we weren’t going back to the moon under the old policy, either, and yet another own-goal by this politically clueless White House.
Once you reach ninety I think you’ve earned the right to say anything you like.
Yeah, it was a useless political hit to point that out.
On the other hand, Bradbury’s not exactly on the firmest ground here.
(Getting to Mars won’t make mankind immortal*; we’ll need multiple interstellar colonies a long way apart for that.)
(* Where “immortal” means “living more or less until the heat death of the universe”.)
Sic ’em, Ray! The Master Wordsmith and writer of hopeful futures tells it like it is. May he live a thousand years and never fail.
I dunno, Rand — I think there’s insufficient evidence that the venerable author is bigoted enough to be a teabagger, and no, it’s not hypocritical to call them a sexual slur, so stop saying that!
In what way, Sir, are Tea Partiers bigoted? Please provide demonstrable proof (quotes with names, dates, links, etc.).
Must one be bigoted to be a Tea Partier? Can one be a Tea Partier and not be bigoted? Again, proof please.
Titus, using a sexual slur against the Tea Party members only goes to prove your bigotry, not theirs. You want to see a bigot? Look in the mirror.
I think your sarcasm meters are busted.
Looks like Poe’s Laws also applies to moonbats, no?
“One of the stupidest aspects of the announcement of the new space policy was to make such a big deal of the fact that we weren’t going back to the moon. It was entirely unnecessary, because we weren’t going back to the moon under the old policy, either, and yet another own-goal by this politically clueless White House.”
Um, but we were still going to spend lots of money on Altairs and outposts. If you’re going to pull the plug on those, you’d better not pretend that a return to the Moon is still a near-term plan.
There wasn’t really a “big deal” made about it. The “big deal” was made by the luna-tics, who were cowering in fear at anything that looked less than lunar outposts and colonization. Obama did brush off the idea of a return to the Moon as a priority somewhat brusquely, but it was a big deal only in that certain folks made it that.
There were a number of stupid aspects about the announcement of the new space policy, but that wasn’t one of them.
I lost my sarcasm meter in the divorce (along with my nuance detector & a statistically siginificant portion of my retirement security).
And if I could spell…
…significant…
So, he hates big government, except for a big government space program? He wants a government of/by/for the people, when the people in polls show higher preference for almost any other kind of federal spending, compared to NASA?
I suppose as an 90 year old fantasist, consistency isn’t a high priority.
Paul, most guys his age have Geriatric Profanity Disorder. As Ken reminds us above, it’s our duty as young people to nod and smile at them, remember them during the holidays and (more importantly) stay off their lawns.
Apparently there is a tribute site.