Quite a while back, a man had a dream. That dream was to own the universe. He discovered that according to some obscure treaty or another, that dream was only one letter away from becoming a reality.

His man is named Dennis Hope, and in 1980 he sent a letter to the United Nations claiming ownership over the Moon, Mars and many other exterrestrial bodies. Since he has yet to hear any word to the contrary, since then, he has been selling parcels of land on these planets for a rather reasonable price.

This is where things get interesting. After President Bush announced that the U.S. will be building a moon base, he started getting a lot of nasty letters from Germans who claimed ownership of the land that the President wishes to build on. Apparantly, about 1200 Germans have purchased large tracts of moon real estate from Mr. Hope and hope to cash in on it.

Here is a sample of one of the letters sent to the President:

Dear Mr. President George W. Bush,

In our local paper of February 1, 2004, I read an article about the plans of the U.S. government to build a space station on the moon. For me this is more than just an ordinary piece of news, because I am the owner of a part of the moon surface. Nearly four years ago I bought an area of 700,000 square meters on the moon. To prove this I include the document of ownership. Reading about your plans I do worry that the future space station might be built on my lot. So I would like to inform you that I might allow the U.S. government to do so, but only if I am paid for that area. If this should happen, I would be ready to enter into negotiations with the U.S. officials.

If anyone, except Dennis, makes money off of this deal then I think I have found a new career. I have some prime real estate in Alpha Centauri that I have just been dying to dump.

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