Here come the asteroids
I wonder from time to time what outrage will finally jar Americans into realizing they've been conned by the Republican tax cutters.
You know the ones I mean. The ideologues from Ronald Reagan on down who tried to persuade you that the only valid government program is the military. That everything else is waste, welfare, or worse. That taxes needed to be cut sharply on the wealthiest Americans, which happened early in the first term of George W. Bush. Bush and his raving lunatics deprived the America government of the revenues that a modern, 21st century country needs to prosper and grow and keep its people safe.
Or to protect the world against killer asteroids. NASA says that because of budget cuts--budget cuts demanded of every federal agency by Congressional Republicans who can't stomach the deficits the tax cuts created--it can't complete a program to find and track all the asteroids out in space that could kill millions of people if they struck the Earth--or wipe out life here entirely. This is a real threat, not science fiction.
Given how whacked-out crazy some in the Bush Administration are, I can't completely rule out the idea this program is being cut because it offends some fundamentalist religious group. After all, it might be God's will that the world be destroyed by that asteroid. I tend to think not, but I'm an Episcopalian, not a snake handler.
So if you happen to look up in the sky someday and see a huge flaming object bearing down upon you, be sure to spend your last moments saying, "Thank you, Mr. President."