Here’s something really, really bizarre that I found recently when Googling through the White House website. From an “Ask the White House” session with HUD Secretary Mel Martinez :

King, from Mars writes:
Greetings Mr. Secretary

Although there are no humans on Mars at present, I would like to invite the human race to consider Mars as an ideal location for a vacation home or just a place to get away from it all.

Would you consider offering incentives to those who might want to build a home on Mars? I’ll tell you, it is a beautiful place and oh, let me tell you, there is nothing like Autumn on Mars.

And please don’t tell me that you are looking at Venus first.

Kindly

King Bloop Zod
Mars

Mel Martinez
Dear King,

Your problem is one that does not appear to be housing. I think you are doing great at promoting tourism but affordable housing in America is more of my concern. Good luck in your endeavors.

That was on June 2, 2003. Six months later, the President made this surprising announcement :

With the experience and knowledge gained on the moon, we will then be ready to take the next steps of space exploration: human missions to Mars and to worlds beyond. Robotic missions will serve as trailblazers — the advanced guard to the unknown. Probes, landers and other vehicles of this kind continue to prove their worth, sending spectacular images and vast amounts of data back to Earth. Yet the human thirst for knowledge ultimately cannot be satisfied by even the most vivid pictures, or the most detailed measurements. We need to see and examine and touch for ourselves. And only human beings are capable of adapting to the inevitable uncertainties posed by space travel.

As our knowledge improves, we’ll develop new power generation propulsion, life support, and other systems that can support more distant travels. We do not know where this journey will end, yet we know this: human beings are headed into the cosmos.

Mars, bitches! But seriously, Mr. President, what’s the hold up? Don’t you know King Bloop Zod is waiting for us?