Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sun-barr!olivea!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!blacks!rob From: rob@blacks.jpl.nasa.gov (Robbie) Newsgroups: sci.space Subject: Re: Fred's Operatic Death Message-ID: Date: 18 Jun 91 18:40:52 GMT References: <1991Jun14.083756.1@vf.jsc.nasa.gov> <1991Jun17.055344.8332@sequent.com> <0094A42A.866932C0@KING.ENG.UMD.EDU> <1991Jun17.222205.15504@sequent.com> Sender: news@elroy.jpl.nasa.gov (Usenet) Organization: Image Analysis Systems Group, JPL Lines: 39 Nntp-Posting-Host: blacks.jpl.nasa.gov yamauchi@cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes: >You assume that he's supporting the manned space program because he >works for NASA. Have you considered that the converse may be true? >Perhaps he works for NASA because he believes in the manned space >program. >Whether he's right or not is a completely different issue, but I think >it's unfair to denigrate all pro-NASA posts from NASA employees as >"self-serving propaganda." >Usenet is not (yet) a major focus of political power in this country. >Most people who post to the net do not believe their posts will have a >major effect on national policy. I believe that NASA employees who >post their opinions are simply expressing their personal views and not >attempting Machiavellian political maneuvers. >While I think it would be senseless to accept their opinions as fact >simply because "they're the experts", I think it's equally senseless >to discard their opinions as propaganda simply because "they're paid >by the IRS". Their arguments, like anyone else's, should be weighed >on the merits of the views expressed, and not upon the identity of the >poster's employer. >-- Oh, bless your heart, sir. At JPL we specialize in remote sensing instruments, but even so I have a deep gut level affinity for the astronaut program. (I also like Ray Bradbury, you see.) I will duck the rest of the discussion, primarily because my opinions are not yet carefully considered, and neither do they reflect anything that NASA thinks, but I will make one more small observation: While the IRS may pay us, in some sense, they are but an agency, or a bureaucratic means of government ends. I prefer to think of the heirarchy in terms of my boss, and his boss, and so forth. In short, I feel that as a NASA employee I don't work for the IRS--I work for Dan Quayle. Rob Fatland (My personal views only, not that of NASA, etc., ad infinitum)