Giving away the keys

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I have to say I'm a big fan of the space program. I always have been since I was a wee little grasshopper. And now, we're quitting an aging, yet successful shuttle program with not a lot of hope of a succesor in the near future. There are several commercial companies taking up the challenge, but our Orion space program will be an updated version of our Apollo capsule type craft. Is this the best we can do? Seriously? I know money is tight, but there are things in this world that we have to do no matter the cost. Brave astronauts and skilled engineers from the 60s paved the road for us and now we are handing the keys over to who? Yup. The Russians. All at the bargain basement price of 55 million a person. Aren't these the guys we beat in the race to the moon? Our bestest buddies will now have the only manned access to a space station the we mostly funded. Even the parts they built were built with money loaned from us because they couldn't "afford" it. But, and here's the kicker, they  (Putin) can afford to dissolve their governing body and put some puppet in as president. All the while, crazy old Putin becomes the Prime Minister for life. Huh..Isn't that convienient? So, great. Hand over the keys. The greatest country on the planet gives over the power of Space to one of our oldest (and still) enemies. I don't see how our super awesome hipster cool president( I didn't capitalize it because I don't respect anything about him) can't see the sneering smile of the Russians as they shake our hands and hold a ball bat behind their collectives backs. That is, my fellow Americans, pure rocket science.

You know, I thought I was going to end it there but I can't turn loose of this little ol' topic. Sometimes I'm like a pit bull with a hambone in his mouth. The one great thing about America, even at the worst times, is that we always find a way to push forward. Whether it's pushing the boundaries of our frontiers to head West, to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and whoop the Germans/Japanese, or to send a men to the Moon a mere decade after making the commitment, WE PUSH ON. That's what we do. Even after some idiots take a polluted religion and claim their right to kill thousands of innocent Americans, we get up and dust off and go put a boot in their ass. IT'S WHAT WE DO. And now we become the country that says...sorry. We give up. We don't want to be meanies. I know a lot of people cry about the cost of NASA, but think of the industry, engineers, and science that spins off of it. The exploration of our Solar System may produce the life saving technologies we need someday soon to combat disease, pollution, and hunger. Who knows. All I know is that during the 60s, the Space Race produced more technological advance than probably any other time in our history; and made us the dominant world power. Now...well,  we are just the happy happy folks who hand out money and beg the world not to hate us for being us. I can promise I'm not going down like that. Are you? Well, thanks for letting me bend yer ears. Y'all have a good 'un.