"We're left, like the starving donkey equidistant between two bails of hay, unable to decide on what to celebrate" <-- the closest of these things is 20 light years :[
This post by Charles Stross is worth a read: http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2007/06/the_high...
To quote: "interstellar travel for human beings is near-as-dammit a non-starter"