Oh, rant away, I could not agree more. And what really burns me up is that there is absolutely LOTS of room for profit in all the industries and endeavors we SHOULD be pursuing, you know? The space program is a perfect example--directly or indirectly, it has produced or enhanced so much of the technology we take for granted these days, and upon which corporations have massively capitalized. I suspect the same could be said for environmentally-friendly technology and power and vehicles and homes and you-name-it--we could be keeping the planet habitable for humans AND stimulating our economy, if we would just spend even a fraction of our military and so-called Homeland Security budgets on hard science and R&D and subsidizing the development and adoption of those technologies. Hell, we could even become a world leader in technological advancement and manufacturing again. But the old guard of our economy still want to make their money with oil and guns since that's worked so well for them in the past century. Our only hope is that the next generation feels differently--or that the planet finally gets angry enough to MAKE us listen and silence the people who still place profit above.. well, everything.

Now THAT is a rant. ;)