First Polemic Post

A very good article today in the International Herald Tribune by Thomas L Friedman - "What's Our Sputnik?" - http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/opinion/17friedman.html.  He is posing the question of what should be the US's Big Project - compete with China or confront Al Qaeda.  In fact, Sputnik led inexorably to Kennedy's moon landing declaration and all that entailed.  And, to plagiarise Jim Lovell, going to the moon was no miracle, America, "just decided to do it".  NASA obliged, they built a wrench big enough and moved the world.  And today, well, Obama must follow through his rhetoric, make the US energy independent from oil, especially Middle East oil, and a range of problems from greenhouse gases to Al Qaeda will be solved in the process.  We just have to "decide to do it" and build a big enough wrench.  And as for China, it needs to decide between greed and ego on one side, or sustainable and equitable development on the other.  More later.