OK, the APOLLO 11 that took U.S. to the moon ... WHO BUILT THAT, GOP?

[napkinz]

[Auntie Bush]

1. Great question. Hope someone askes them.

If everyone had the money to pay lawyers to avoid taxes like Romney...The Government (you and I) wouldn't have had the money for the research and construction.

[orpupilofnature57]

2. JFK of course.

[Proles]

3. Whenever anyone starts boasting about how the "individual"

can achieve anything, I remind them that it was a cohesive society which managed to accomplish something as daunting as putting 4 men on the moon in 1969 (Apollo 11 and 12), and then 4 more in the early 1970's.

It was a government initiative, funded by a drastically increased NASA budget, but it proved what a country could accomplish in such a short time frame with limited technology.

[Wilms]

4. Joseph Fielding Smith weighed in on progress.

[progressoid]

8. Good grief.

That's really sad.

[Posteritatis]

15. In my woefully-underfunded high school in the late nineties...

...most of the astronomy books actually predated the moon landing. A few predated Sputnik by a few years.

One of the things I saw fairly often in some of the mid-50s ones was a basic tone of "we might have something in orbit by the end of the century, and it'll probably be a century or two more before we have humans in space."

[cherokeeprogressive]

13. This loony tune must not have had access to a TV, radio, or newspaper...

considering that Alan Shepard went into space 9 days earlier. I'm assuming that by "we", he meant The United States.

[napkinz]

16. he would probably be a hero today in the Tea Party

I'm sure he would say climate change isn't real. He would also probably believe President Obama wasn't born here.

[japple]

32. Thank you for sharing this with us. We know that Joseph Fielding Smith

is a false prophet!

[freshwest]

5. Uh, I heard who built it on youtube. Don't ask.

[baldguy]

20. We built it alright - in a backlot warehouse in Anaheim

[freshwest]

24. Oh, no. It's much worse than that. I can't tell it here.

And they were all playing along at all those facilities in Clear Lake. Yeah, I know.

[MercutioATC]

6. It doesn't matter, because all of Neil Armstrong's records have been stripped for doping.

...oh, never mind, that was Neil Young...

[freshwest]

25. No, Lance. You must keep up with the newest scandals. Or old ones, in his case.

Don't make me post the French taunting video.

[napkinz]

26. I doubt Neil Young can do the moonwalk

[MercutioATC]

29. Neither can Louis Armstrong...

...but he blew a mean trumpet...

[EX500rider]

7. Built by...

All the major sections of the Apollo spacecraft and launch vehicle, with the exception of the Grumman-built Lunar Module, were developed and built by companies that would later join to form 21st century Boeing.

[Arugula Latte]

9. Umm, Gawd, Jesus, Ayn Rand, Richard Nixon and Reagan?

[El Supremo]

10. A Former Nazi

Who the US government forgave.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. Among others, including half a million people who were not affiliated with Nazi Germany.

But the Saturn V was distinguishable, among other exceptionalities, in that it was a rocket never designed for warfare in any way, shape, or form.

[roamer65]

33. Wernher Von Braun "I am for the stars..."

but sometimes I hit London". To quote comedian Mort Saul.

[El Supremo]

34. It's "I Aim at the Stars"

[hifiguy]

37. "I make zhure zey go up

Don't care vhere zey come down
Zat's not mein department
Says Wernher von Braun."

- Tom Lehrer

[arely staircase]

11. our christian founding fathers like jefferson

eom

[rustydog]

12. "I'll take the American Taxpayer for a thousand, Alex!"

[Loudly]

14. The very computer you used to post that question is also the result of the space program.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. Sorry, but Ben Stein shouldn't have anything to do with a thread pertaining to science.

Ever.

[napkinz]

19. it's a funny line from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"

Of course Stein is a jerk.

But the line from that movie is a classic.

[Warren DeMontague]

22. Oh, I know. As a Gen X'er, I'm intimately familiar with the whole John Hughes canon.

Still, after that shitbag creationist crap he pulled... The mere idea of him teaching high school students, even badly, pisses me off to no end.

[pintobean]

21. Some Hollywood prop company.

I'm joking. Someone had to say it.

[napkinz]

23. Capricorn One?

[4th law of robotics]

28. xkcd:

[4th law of robotics]

27. An America that no longer exists, sadly.

Now we can churn out iphone apps at an impressive rate but we can't do what people 40 years ago could.

And it's not because we don't have the money or technology. But rather that we lost the nerve.

[napkinz]

30. And the hypocrisy ...

GOP plans on honoring Neil Armstrong at their convention. Just heard it on CNN.

I thought government can't do anything right, according to these clowns. Wasn't it Raygun who said government was the problem?

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. That's easy: The lowest bidder.

[oneshooter]

35. The lowest bidder.

[randome]

36. It doesn't matter. Nothing else exists but raw capitalism.

Do not look up and ponder the stars. Do not look inward to find peace. Do not contemplate what makes the Universe 'go'.

Content yourself with inventory and stock prices and profit margins. All else is illusion.