MAGIC SHOW

The art of a magician is his (or her) ability to distract the audience as to what is really happening during the performance. Modern Magic is, in reality, a show of deception.

Which is what is happening in Washington DC. The present administration, fronted by a rather unsophisticated person, and being manipulated by a rather liberal group of politicians, is performing a magic show of sorts. They are deceiving the audience (Us) by focusing the Country on "problems" that they are making a big effort to "solve" by spending a great deal of our money. I believe that this is nothing more than an attempt to distract us from their real agenda. Unfortunately, the last administration was doing the same thing!

The real agenda is not totally clear except that it appears that the new administration's goals are rooted in a term called Globalization (?) We are going to have to give up our sovereignty in order to achieve this aim, and we are in the process of being conditioned.

I do not believe that it is in any individual's best interest. I wish that we could stop this process, but, I do not see how.

Any feedback??

STIMULUS II

Question for the day:

If the Nation cannot wait or waste time passing the 800B dollar stimulus plan as our President had said repeatedly every day for at least 2 weeks, WHY is he waiting for almost a week after its passage by Congress, and is traveling all the way to Denver Co. to sign it?

If it had been so important to implement its provisions, I would have thought that he should have traveled to the Senate chambers on Friday in order to sign it at its final completion. It appears that this implementation process is in itself very wasteful of our resources.

STIMULUS ??

It is almost a certainty that the Government's latest effort to give away our tax money to other people in this country will almost certainly pass. The real intent,in my opinion, of this measure is a new form of wealth redistribution aimed at increasing the dependancy of people on the Federal Government. Based upon my very superficial review of the measure, I do not see any really strong attempt to stimulate the economy. Where are there real incentives by business to increase their payroll? I saw no moves or incentives to increase production or sales of merchandise overseas or domestically. 

There also does not seem to be any real attempt to reduce personal taxes "across the board" but some very limited inducements to spend in areas that are little used by the majority of people.

Instead of invoking a program that will eventually cause medical records to be digitized (for better review by Federal auditors) why not take the majority of this give away to everyone regardless of their age or income in the form of an income "tax forgiveness" of say 3 to 6 months? Then provide all businesses with a similar incentive? 

To pay for this "giveaway" (remember,  the Government is not really giving us anything-- just not taking so much away!) reduce the size of the Federal Civil Service by 10%, as well as all Federal administrative positions (law clerks, assistants, pages, etc) . Next reduce the compensation of all Federal employees that earn in excess of a certain amount (say $100,000 per year). Finally, stop all pay and allowances for elected officials for a minimum of 6 months, and limit Federal travel expenses to the maximum allocated in 1999.

As a further reduction in expenses, mandate and enforce a reduction in Military strength levels  by 15%. In order to allow for adequate defense of the Nation, reduce the number of overseas troops by removing all troops stationed in Japan, South Korea, Germany and the rest of Europe. Maintain only sufficient forces in those areas to maintenance assets for US resources and Embassy staffs.  Reduce the number of Naval Carrier groups from 12 to 10 re even 8. Return all overseas homeported Naval Combat assets to the US.

After a few years of such "belt tightening" review each new request for expansion based upon US real security interests.

HOT WORLD

Al Gore needs to help solve this extreme case of Global Warming!

Astronomers have found a planet with a galactic case

of hot flashes.

In just six hours, this planet four times the size of

Jupiter heats up by more than 1,200 degrees,

according to a study published in Thursday's issue of

the journal Nature.

"It's the first observation of changing weather" on a

planet outside our solar system, said study author

Gregory Laughlin, an astronomy professor at the

University of California at Santa Cruz.

He used NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope to study

the planet.

Change is a mild way to put it for the lifeless world,

called HD80606b, where the word "mild" would never enter a weather forecast.

Normally, the planet is a toasty 980 degrees or so. But in the few hours it whips around its sun the planet gets

zapped with mega-heat, pushing the thermometer closer to 2,240 degrees.

During its brief close pass to its sun, the planet is 10 times nearer its star than Mercury is to our sun.

When it comes closest to its star, it becomes one giant "brewing storm" complete with shock waves, Laughlin

said. The radiation bombarding the planet is 800 times stronger than when it is farthest away.

Then just as quickly, the planet slingshots away and radiates the heat to the cool vacuum of space. It glows

cherry red and the temperature plummets, Laughlin said.

"Utterly bizarre," he said. "It is thoroughly completely uninhabitable. In a galaxy of uninhabitable planets, this

one stands out as being completely inhospitable to life."

The planet circles its star — the larger of two stars in a binary system — in a comet-like orbit in just 111 days.

The star is visible from Earth near the Big Dipper.

On Feb. 14, HD80606b will travel between the Earth and its star. There's a 15 percent chance that amateur

astronomers using small telescopes could see it swing by, obscuring a tiny part of the star, Laughlin said.

"This is indeed an oddball planet, where the temperature range of the season changes from hellish to superhellish,"

said Carnegie Institution astronomer Alan Boss. "This place makes Venus look like a nice place to live,

and that is saying something."

Don't tell me how uncomfortably hot it is in Arizona in the summer.