I'm as big a fan of space exploration as the next guy. Probably bigger. I was in the NASA control room as Apollo 8 slid around the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, when Frank Borman read from the Bible and ticked off Madelyn Murray O'Hair. And, had it not been for a news junket in Europe (priorities...priorities...), I would have been at NASA when they "copied Eagle down" seven months later. But that's our little partner, the moon. OUR moon. Sort of a little chunk of us.

So what's this about 1.2 billion dollars being spent to find out why they RAN OUT OF WATER ON MARS? What??? Poor little Mickey Martian can't water his grass, and we have to step in and spend one-point-two humongous ones to help him find out if, when, and why he ran out of water, for cryin' out loud. Come ON! I got this bridge!

Seriously, I want to find out who the account exec is on the Mars account, 'cause this guy's good! And the PR person ain't no slouch, either. Heck, we've got starving families in third world nations on this planet we need to care for, rather than Marty Martian's drought. 1.2 billion would buy a whole lot of Spam. I was on jury duty in a local courthouse last month when the Judge said 'don't drink the courthouse water' - that it was unsafe. A couple of thou for that wouldn't be out of the question, now would it? Bad timing, I say. I'm sure the Mars water project is worthy. But damn bad timing.

At least exploring our moon has some benefit to us Earthlings. After all, it does control the tides, provides an unlimited supply of government handout cheese, and draws the weirdos out once a month on OUR planet ... but Mars? Priorities and timing. Timing and priorities. Get me that salesperson's name!