Jorge R. Frank wrote:

ed.



Of course it's important, but such incidents of laxness have been occurring
at NASA since the 1960s, many of them have been discussed at length in
sci.space.history, and *never* *once* did Pat Flannery express that he was
"disturbed" by them.


Are you stating that I am not disturbed? Did you read some of the
replies to my posts on sci.space.history? I can get you hundreds of
unbiased opinions that I should be locked away; and the key put under
the eternal guardianship of Doctor Strange.

Examples include:

- Wally Schirra not wearing his helmet during the Apollo 7 entry
- Story Musgrave standing up throughout a shuttle entry
- Dick Scobee not locking his harness during the 51L ascent

But suddenly he thinks that the 107 crew being slow putting on their gloves
is the "single most disturbing thing" he's heard about Columbia? Give me a
****ing break! None of the earlier incidents contributed to an accident,
and neither did the 107 crew's.


Yes...I didn't say it was the single most disturbing thing that _you_
had heard about the Columbia accident; or that it was the single most
disturbing thing _about_ the Columbia accident; I said it was the single
most disturbing thing that _I_ had heard about the Columbia accident....
and By God Jorge, I demand the simple God-Given right of all Americans
to decide what I find disturbing! "Bjork revealed to be Alien-Elf
hybrid!"? Not disturbing! "Japanese whaling vessel sunk by Kraken!"?
Ho-hum! "318 American troops in Iraq killed by Genie!"? Happens every
day! Now _disturbing_ is a whole other ball of wax...like getting to
see the interviews with Anna Nicole Smith's relatives in "Dark Roots-
The Unauthorized Biography of Anna Nicole Smith" on VH-1....and having
it suddenly occur to me that....by Texan standards, both Lyndon
Johnson's and George Bush's families were normal in both behavior and
genetic makeup... and _that_ was the thought that chilled me to the
bone...as I realized that...just like Godzilla...Texas is always going
to be out there somewhere...waiting to wreak havoc; and all of our
weapons are probably going to be as impotent as Bob Dole in trying to
prevent that from happening again.

Pat