For someone who imagines…hell, proclaims…himself to be the smartest kid in the class, The Historian appears to be oblivious to how downtright stupid he sounds. His latest, a proposed colony on the moon, is so startlingly out of touch with reality and his own vision of a country with minimal taxes and its support system and government gutted, that it makes the head spin.

I believe one of the great failings of this country and humanity in general is how we so easily abandoned the decades-old dream of travel into space and moving beyond the limits of this mortal coil, but let’s be realistic here.

It all gives me a headache even trying to comment on the silliness. Thankfully, I found this guy, who puts the whole silly idea into historical perspective and underlines the pure arrogance of Newt’s dream, a factor which has gone unremarked so far in the press:

The [International Space Station] is the size a football field, took nearly 13 years to complete (begun in 1998, the last module was added just last year), houses a regular crew of 6, orbits Earth at less than 400km, and requires food and other supplies to be shipped up every few months.

Newt Gingrich wants to build a colony on the Moon in less than 8 years, housing thousands of people, without international help. The Moon’s orbit is closer to 400,000km above us. A thousand times further than the ISS.That makes it far more difficult and far more expensive to send anything there (whether it be construction modules, people, or supplies).

Also, Gingrich wants it to be a purely American colony. Forget the huge step forward in peaceful international relations and scientific cooperation. Forget that we agreed that Antarctica (never mind the Moon) should be beyond the claims and petty rivalries of any country. We’re going to make the Moon part of America. Screw everyone else, we’re America and we’re awesome and we’re going to do it ourselves and claim the entire Moon as ours.

Think about that.