If you want to see some really ignorant and moronic commentary on space policy, check out the public thoughts on this BBC bulletin board. I couldn't make myself click past the first page of it.

Here is a gem...

The only reason that the world's last superpower is interested in going to othere worlds is to expand its inter-planetary empire. It already holds the whole of Earth in the palm of its hand...

I found the postings rather fascinating in a way. Not so much in terms of what people think of NASA or space policy, but rather the mentality of BCC listeners who felt compelled to comment. To be fair, not all of them were kooks.

Talk about tired cliche's, I've seen the whole "if we could just spend money on X, instead of NASA" refuted ad-nauseum, but still one after another still bleats out this old myth.

...and it's been my increasing experience that many such people haven't actually checked to see what has aleady been spent, or what advances actually have been made in whatever they'd rather see 'the money' spent on. It's a given for them that somehow throwing in NASA's budget too (whose actual amount, like 'foreign aid,' is much smaller than they think it is) would cause miracles to occur.

If you think the BBC comments are depressing, check out the comments to a space related post at Kevin Drum's blog, www.washingtonmonthly.com

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/mt/mt-comments.cgi?entry_id=9424

The ironic thing is Kevin just came back from attending the world science fiction convention at anaheim. Yet the towering ignorance and hostility of Democratic partisan Kevin Drum and his amen corner towards VSE fill me with dread should a Democratic president assume office in 2009. It would spell the effective end of American manned space exploration.

I'm not sure what Rand is complaining about. On the first page I counted 15 comments. Of these, nine--well over half--can be considered "pro-space." Four could be considered "anti," and two are neutral. (These categories are defined broadly, admittedly, and one could argue that "pro-NASA" is not exactly "pro-space.")

Now, yeah, the comments are not terribly sophisticated. But many of them express the same sentiments that Rand expresses, that is, a belief that humanity should move out into space for various reasons.

Presumably, the people posting there are regulars to that forum. Yeah, they are going to be somewhat self-selected (meaning that people who care about space issues are more likely to comment on them), but overall, this forum appears to tap into a general public vein of support for space exploration.

If you look at the 'readers recommend' tab, you'll find the 10 most recommended posts are all very pro-space.