Time for another quick review of some interesting stories heading the blogs. First up is the news China may have demonstrated a space based weapon by taking out one of their aging weather satellites with a ground based launch. This is no easy feat, because weather satellites tend to be geosynchronous (that is the are so high up their orbit matches the earth’s rotation and the appear to hover in one spot overhead). We space nuts refer to these as GEO satellites. To appreciate this analytical problem let me provide you with some numbers of interest. The first is the earth’s radius, which is 6,380 km. That is the distance from the center to the earth to the surface. The second number is the altitude of GEO orbits, which is 35,780 km. That is how far above the earth’s surface these birds hover. The orbit is a little over 5 times farther out than the radius of the earth. If we expanded the earths surface to this point it would be like hitting something with a missile which is 1/5 the size here on earth. That is a very impressive (and unnerving) targeting demonstration. The world should sit up and take notice, with a healthy dose of concern.

It seems Jordan wants to join the nuclear power club (and therefore have a path to weapons, which is an unavoidable offshoot of nuclear power). I am of mixed feelings on this. I would rather they not pursue this, but then again they may be getting worried about Iran and feel they need a deterrent. They also may not like being in a direct line between Israel and Iran with their nuclear capabilities. I can see some obvious reasons why this would make sense to Jordan.

It seems Fitz-Magoo does want to try Bush on Iraq instead of Libby on his faulty memory. In a clear sign the Libby trial is a showboating exercise for Fitzgerald’s faultering political career goals, Fitz has tried to retain jurors with a prejudice and anger at the Iraq war on the Libby jury. Why? These factors have nothing to do with the trial – so claimed Fitzgerald. So we have a clear indication Fitzgerald was relying on factors outside the supposedly narrow scope of the indictments to get Libby. Fitzgerald is an example (as was Ken Starr) of prosecutors run amok. The fact Starr wasted the nation’s time with what he found doesn’t make it any better for Fitzgerald to do an even dumber ‘pay back’ attack. The people of this country need to get our legal system back from the Nifongs and Fitzgeralds.

And from the Land Of Fruits and Nuts (with the obvious exception of all my friends and family living there!) we have the nosey-body nanny-state BS from California once again telling parents what they can or cannot do in raising their children. This time they want to outlaw spanking. Obviously CA can cut back on the number of legislators and their time in session because clearly someone has way too much time on their hands. Can we give California back to Mexico now?

Especially since CA wants to rob the people of that state of private health insurance. It is the classic case of fantasy meeting basic economics. The plan is for employers or government run plans to provide mandatory health insurance. Health insurance and medical services are available to everyone right now. The only question is who pays for the services. The companies out there will dump all their employees onto the government plan funded by taxes, saving them $3,000-30,000 a year per employee. That is a lot of money. And the rich will always be able to buy Cadillac plans while the government struggles to cobble together the Yugo plans for the poor masses. Health care will be restricted from where it is now so that costs can be retained. All the private money going into health care by corporations will go into profits, and the state taxes will balloon to cover all that missing health investment. Being the largest state with the largest immigration population, the tax rate in CA could easily double if not triple. That is because the insurance premiums for a single person in their twentys can be $3,000-5,000 a year. That is probably more than these people pay in income taxes by a large margin. Families of 6 (like mine) could be paying 30,000 a year in premiums (if you have a pre-existing condition). These costs are hidden from the public because employers foot the bills right now. But when these people get dumped on the state, the people will have to foot the bills themselves and they will not be getting raises from the companies to cover this cost shift. This is economics 101. Someone will pay the bill. CA is planning to move that payment from the employers to the employees – pretending this will save people money. Only blind fools will buy into this money grabbing scheme. Hold onto your wallets America – the clueless liberals are coming!