Ain't no Blazing Saddles

I just saw The Martian (the movie).  In these days of helplessness and lack of purpose, what a welcome testimony to human resourcefulness!  Somebody took no humor, no dialog, no logic, no reality, almost no acting, almost no actors, a bag of cliches in place of a coherent plot, poorly copied scenes out of Mission to Mars and made millions on it.  Makes me proud to be an Earthling.

 And also makes me suspect some forces out there are trying to further soften up the giant dumbass we call America for the astronomical expenditures  associated with sending a man like Matt Damon to Mars so he can figure out how to grow potatoes "in his own shit."  Yep.  They sure make it look like fun spending years in a vehicle with four other people traveling through a hostile environment while your children grow up and your spouse grows old without you.  Seems like all single people would have been chosen for the job or they would have invented warp drive by then.  But weightless frolicking probably makes it worth it. We know the Commander wasn't always smiling just to show her nice astronaut teeth.

They haven't even finished screwing up this planet and already they're looking to new ones. Although that could be the finishing touch - when someone returns from there with some incomprehensible hitchiking microbe  used to surviving on nothing for eons that looks around and says, "I do believe in God."

Or - and here's a wild leap - they have no intentions of  sending anybody to Mars.  They're just building a cover story for more weapons in space.  Keep in mind who first publicly broached the idea.  He has the same first name as our first president.

For evidence of other skeptical observers, check out The Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space.