What we see today is an American economy that has boomed because of policies and developments of the 1950s and '60s: the interstate-highway system massive funding for science and technology a public-education system that was the envy of the world and generous immigration policies.

If I can get some student interested in science if I can show members of the general public what's going on up there in the space program then my job's been done.

Much of today's public anxiety about science is the apprehension that we may forever be overlooking the whole by an endless obsessive preoccupation with the parts.

It is a sad day for our country when the moral foundation of our law and the acknowledgment of God has to be hidden from public view to appease a federal judge.

The sad fact is that the same terrorist scenarios if they occurred in five different States there could be five different sets of responses to the American people. We need at a minimum a level of coordination on communicating threats to the public.

I mean that's a sad day in America when you're recalled because you did what you said you were going to do and the public voted you in to do that.

With any group of people in life sad things happen and crazy things and happy things. When you're in the public eye it's just amplified that's all.

Of course it's true: the public want to see young people - young people are the people who go to the cinema. It's a sad fact of life but you've got to accept it and not whine about it.

At a time when 2500 American soldiers have given their lives for the cause of bringing democracy to Iraq it is sad and frustrating to watch the Republican establishment disgrace the exercise of democracy in our own House of Representatives.

NASA has been one of the most successful public investments in motivating students to do well and achieve all they can achieve. It's sad that we are turning the programme in a direction where it will reduce the amount of motivation and stimulation it provides to young people.