Thanks to people responding to #9. I think the gist of my point was missed, namely that there are other wealthy nations who choose to do nothing of value as well. That we choose to squander national treasure directly on unproductive endeavors is our fault. But why is it the sole burden of the US to advance the noble causes of humanity?

Charlie's indictment of the US is hypocritical in the extreme when you consider the vast amounts of wealth pouring into the pockets of A) Middle Eastern royalty, B) ex-USSR criminal enterprises, C) Chinese oligarchs, D) 3rd World dictators, E) European social welfare programs, F) well, you get the point (hopefully).

thr thn th smplstc, vcrs thrll f S-bshng, what is the justification for doing it while letting all these other (arguably larger in aggregate) wastes of human and financial capital continue unremarked and without apology?

I think Charlie doesn't have the slightest clue about how economics work. Does he think that money being spent in Iraq is being loaded on a rocket and launched into the sun, never to circulate in global markets again? While he might have his own agenda for how to spend US tax dollars, the fact that they are getting spent at all should be a clue that someone, somewhere, is receiving a paycheck. That someone buys cheap Chinese HDTVs, uses electricity from Saudi Arabian oil to power it, drives a Japanese hybrid, wears trendy sandals from Amsterdam, and dines on fish and fruit from South America. Globalization, baby!

Why not complain to the fat, rich Saudi royal family that THEY aren't spending enough on hydrogen fuel cell research? Why not prod the Chinese to spend their gigantic trade surplus on going to Mars? Why not get the emerging democracies of South America to dispense clues to the corrupt dictatorships in Africa? Why does it fall to the US to wipe the noses and bottoms of the rest of the planet, Charlie? Those high and mighty expenditures of US capital you cite are just as ethnocentric and jingoistic as pissing it away in a big military/industrial circle-jerk in the Iraq sandbox. They are just wrapped in a hypocritical cloak of righteousness. The net result is the same. US tax dollars are being recirculated in a global economy. Maybe those other countries with stronger currencies, richer oligarchies, and huge trade surpluses should get off THEIR greedy asses and do something worthwhile for the planet for a change. Time for a new attitude, here.

Honest to god! Who has ever heard of a brown snowman?

@Ivan, if it isn't man-made, then the problems likely don't have man-made solutions (unless you have a clue how to turn down the thermostat on the sun.)

BTW, polar ice caps on Mars are retreating just like they are on Earth. Odds are that the few thousand pounds of gear we've lobbed up there are NOT the cause. Wanna take bets on whether it's the natural solar cycle or cow farts causing it here?

The Vikings successfully colonized Greenland, raised crops and livestock, and lived there continuously for about 300 years prior to the 16th century. Now the same areas are under hundreds of feet of snow and glacial ice. Until Al Gore conveniently explains that away, I am not even remotely swayed by hand-waving "science" trying to re-interpret what is clearly a several hundred year long solar cycle.

"Global warming" is a political movement until proven otherwise.