Posted 3/18/2004 04:46:00 PM by Douglas

Dennis Hope, I salute you. Anyone that can get Germans to give you money for land on the Moon is a freakin' genius.

More than 60 worried owners of lunar real estate have written to the White House warning Bush not to let astronauts soil their property.

The campaign is being coordinated by the Kurier, a local newspaper in the Sauerland region, an area of western Germany noted for its rolling hills and pastures.

Three years ago more than 1,200 people there paid 30 to 40 marks (15 to 20 euros, or 18 to 24 dollars, in today's money) each to buy pieces of moon rock in parcels of 700,000 square metres.

This is some very compelling reasons to go back to the Moon: to piss off these people. Anyone dumb enough to actually give someone money in this transaction deserves what they get, which is hopefully nothing.

Sendler told them to write to the White House. Earlier this week the paper sent off a first batch of 60 to 80 letters, but more are arriving every day.

Some warned Bush that while they didn't mind a space station being built, "they didn't want landing flags or rusting vehicles dumped on their land."

Others refused permission for Americans to step foot on their property or suggested they should build fences to protect them.

There's a good idea: Go up there and build a fence around it if you don't want "flags or rusting vehicles" on your land (although I'm not sure how anything would "rust" since there's no oxygen up there).

I think they should look at this optimistically. Think how much the property value would go up if we built a Starbucks there?