Still Think Spending Money on Space Exploration is a Waste?

The government of Brazil has just inked a deal with the Russian government to send the first Brazilian into space, the Royal Astronomical Society of Great Britain has recommended to British Parliament that they should support policies that would send astronauts to the moon and the planet mars, and even the God damn European Union has gotten into the space act, sending a spacecraft to explore the surface of Venus (of all things to study the effects of global warming). Does anyone else find it appalling that we here in the United States are sitting around, dwindling our thumbs while the rest of the world is off exploring space?