Various Mental Wanderings

While I usually have some specific subject to write (and usually rant) about, today I am going to shift gears and just touch on a few things about which I want to say something but, for which, a full-blown column is not required:

• You go, NASA. Keep those shuttles flying, keep developing the technologies with which we will learn about our place in the universe, all while knowing that you have to make due with what you have been given. Did you know that NASA has a budget for 2005 of about $16 billion. Sounds like a lot, right? A couple of interesting facts - Dept. of Defense spending in the US will be in the neighborhood of $425 billion (less some aspects of defense spending that can be hidden in other parts of the budget like defense-related nuclear-weapons research), nearly the amount of spending of the rest of the world's governments combined; the war in Iraq, by some estimates, has cost something like $185 billion so far, with some of the money coming from the regular defense budget but much of it coming from special appropriations made by Congress at the Prez's request. So military spending is conservatively in the $600 billion range - about 37.5 times the budget of NASA. So how's about we cut back by oh, say, 5% in defense spending and give it to NASA? (I think with the reported prices of toilet seats, tools, et al, being charged the government, we could find those bucks pretty easily. But that's right, we have to Military Specifications to purchase supplies. Which means we can't go to one of the Big Box stores - like regular people.) Moving 5% of military spending to NASA's budget would nearly triple their budget - to closing in on $50 billion. For that, NASA could do some really interesting work.
• Did I miss a memo? We are still in the US here, with its employer-friendly workplace rules and not in a European country with much more worker-friendly legislation in place? Five weeks of vacation after about 5 and 1/2 years on the job? Do you get that? Does anyone you know get that? The Prez is spending 5 weeks of vacation on the ranch during August - an unheard of amount of time in recent years. One report I heard noted that it's been over 40 years since someone took this much time off. Oh, that's right, it's a working vacation. You know what, if you're in a job like mine for which I have a cell phone and a lap top, all of my 4 weeks of vacation (granted me after 10 years of service), all of my vacations are working vacations. (Not to mention small business owners - the backbone of our economy. Vacation of any length? Hah!!) Staying ahead on e-mails and voice messages is a way of life for many while "on vacation". But I'm not persuing a major war, trying to keep a slowing economy moving, or dealing with unprecedented increases in the price of oil, or trying to run the largest bureacracy in the world. What gives?
• To all big-time pro athletes, their agents, and team ownership/management - get off your collective high-horses, settle your differences, and get back to work. Make sure your labor settlement sticks (NHL); expunge the stench of steriods, corked bats, and "hot" baseballs designed to fly out of the park (MLB); and stop your holdouts/"contract disputes" (NFL); among others, and do what you do best - play. Major sports is still playing - you are entertainment, a diversion to those of us who really work for a living, inside office buildings, digging trenches, or cooking cheeseburgers, every day. But if you won't do it for just us - do it for those men and women working overseas defending your greedy butts and giving you the opportunity to play for/watching your players play for millions, while they earn as little as $20,000 a year in some cases. Keeping up on sports teams, and perhaps even catching an occasional game, is one of the few things these folks have to link them back to "real life" back here in the US. Believe it or not, you are a lifeline - a bigger role model perhaps than for those kids watching (another important thing you should keep in mind). Get to work, stay there, and at least pretend you're enjoying it.

Think that's about enough for now.

Enjoy your day, and appreciate the little things while you're looking out for the big ones.