Rocket geeks unite!

I'm not a huge Tom Lehrer fan, but people who know me best know that I'm even more not a fan of Wernher Von Braun. A couple of guys were sitting around a few weekends ago discussing the relative merits of WVB and the person from whom he stole much of his "original" design work, Robert Goddard. Granted that Von Braun accomplished a lot bigger things than Goddard did, Goddard did it first and without the benefit of metric shit-tons of government money. People criticize Von Braun for being a Nazi, which he was, and for building big terror weapons, which he did. I don't hold much of that against him; it's not conventionally considered immoral to build weapons for your own country, even if your country's leaders are some of the most monumental assholes in history. But there was no excuse for all that unpleasantness at Mittelwerk, of which I don't believe he was unaware as legend insists. If he hadn't had what the American military suddenly wanted (after their decades of ignoring Goddard) and become a hero, Von Braun would have been very justly hanged as a war criminal.

In case, you know, you ever wonder what cedar rats in the desert discuss over a jar of unlicensed hooch, it's stuff like that. Also the best places to cut free firewood.

Anyway, getting back to Lehrer...