America is Back in Space

Ok, as any of my friends could tell you, I am a space nut. I love Astronomy, the Space Program and heck, even Scifi B movies that feature space in some way shape or form (and usually get the science really wrong). I was devestated when first the Challenger and then the Columbia space shuttles were destroyed. If I had been alive at the time I probably would have been devestated by the Apollo I fire.

Well today my friends, I am happy to say that Americans are back in space flying their own spacecraft. No, NASA did not have an unscheduled launch of the shuttle or haul the Saturn V out of retirement. This trip to space was conducted by a small odd looking craft that was built with funds from MicroSoft founder Paul G Allen (I hate it when MicroSoft gives me a reason no to hate them :)), designed by Burt Rutan (who also designed the Voyager plane that was the first air plane to fly around the world without topping up at the local fuel station (flying or otherwise)) and flown by Michael W. Melvill, a well regarded commercial test pilot.

This story may not have quite the same romance as two bicycle shop owners building an airplane or of a nation pulling resources together to reach the moon, but it is remarkable none the less and may have a bigger impact on the future of transportation than any event since two bicycle owners figured out how to make a plane fly. This little craft dubbed SpaceShipOne is designed to be able to carry three men into space, return to a safe landing and then be ready to fly again inside two weeks. If they do accomplish two flights within 2 weeks carrying 3 people, they will win the 10 million dollar X Prize, of course SpaceShipOne is estimated to have cost more than 20 million dollars, so no one is going to get rich from the prize alone. Still while this may seem like alot of money, its a pittance compared to what a Shuttle costs just to launch once, let alone what it costs to build one.

In any case, this is proof that when given the right motivation, the right inspiration Americans can still reach for the stars and indeed may one day actually touch them. Perhaps each one of us will have the opportunity, should we choose, to fly in space within our lives.

The Weapons of Mass Destruction are in Ira...

I think I know where President Bush should be looking for the WMDs he has had so much problem locating in Iraq. In the President's defense, they probably are not far from where he has been looking and I bet if he looks in this new place he will find all the evidence he needs of an advanced nuclear program. Heck the UN has known about it all along... of course they are using underhanded measures to blame the evidence on anyone but Saddam Heussain. Why they are even blaming the Government of Iran. Just because Uranium Enrichment is occuring in Iran that doesn't mean that Saddam wasn't behind it. Of course the UN and the European Union saw that we might see through this so they also managed to get Tehran to admit to their nuclear program. For more details on this insideous plot see the following articles in the NY Times and on CNN's website.

Mmmm.. I suppose it is a little far fetched that the Saddam could presuade his former mortal enemies to harbor his Nuclear program, but then again stranger things have happened such as Saddam working with Bin Laden.. oh wait, that didn't happen either and the President never said it did, nope I read it myself yesterday he never said it, my memory was wrong about that...

In any case, its easy to see how the President's Gang could get confused over where the WMD programs might be. After all.. Iran, Iraq.. they are spelled almost the same and the two countries are right next to each other. Why I bet governments get the two confused all the time. Shoot it happened to the Reagan Administration back in the 80s when we sold the Iranians (who just a few years earlier had held Americans Hostage for more than a year) weapons to help them fight Iraq whom we were reasonably friendly with at the time. I am sure it was all just a simple misunderstanding. Maybe Iran should change its name back to Persia and Iraq back to Babylon so it will make it easier for us to keep them straight.

Ultimately this is the thing, the USA has spent almost two years obsessed with Iraq, and I am sure the Iraqi people will ultimately be better off regardless of who ends up with power than they were under Saddam. That being said, that was not the reason we went into Iraq. Can we honestly say that the two years we have spent on Iraq has done anything to lower the risk of Terrorism? Or to eliminate the threat of nuclear weapon proliferation? During the past two years, Bin Ladden has remained at large, North Korea has almost certainly either developed or expanded its nuclear arsenal and Iran may or may not be working on nuclear weapons of its own. So I would like to borrow and update a phrase that Ronald Reagan used in his 1984 re-election campaign, "Are you safer today than you were 4 years ago?". If you say yes, I am guessing you get your news from the White House or Fox News....

Iraq and Al Quaeda: Linked but not Working Together.

In an example of the double speak that only a politician can master, President Bush today responded to the 9/11 commision's report that while Iraq had some ties to Al Quaeda, there is no evidence they collaborated on the 9/11 attacks or for that matter anything else according to an article in the Washington Times.

For a year and a half the President Bush's White House gang constantly repeated the Mantra of Iraq, Al Quaeda and Weapons of Mass Destruction. The implication seemed pretty clear then and most Americans today still think that one of the reasons for invading Iraq was the imminent hand over of Iraqi weapons of Mass Destruction to Al Quaeda Terrorists. Now mind you the idea that Saddam would hand WMDs to anyone was silly on the face of it. Saddam's number one hobby was protecting Saddam's power. He would never have let weapons out of his control, particularly giving them to those who might one day turn the weapons on him. Well now it turns out that there were no WMD stockpiles (what few weapons we have found seem to be leftovers that escaped the disarming of Iraq in the early 90s), nor was their any real cooperation between Iraq and Al Quaeda.

Of course the President's Gang is now claiming that they never fostered any perception that Saddam and Bin Ladden were working together, merely that there were connections. Of course if we were look, we would probably find similar connections in almost every Arab and Islamic State on the planet. Certainly it seems that members of the Saudi Arabian Royal Family worked as closely if not more closely with Al Quaeda as any of the member of the Iraqi government. Heck, the United States retained ties with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, that did not mean we were collaberating on much of anything.

Its time ultimately for President Bush and indeed all our politicians to admit when they were wrong. Just say it Mr. President, three little words, "I was wrong". Are they that hard? Will the world come tumbling down if you admit that in retrospect, perhaps invading Iraq was not as imperative as you originally thought?

Perhaps if the President would admit he made a mistake people both in the United States and around the world would stop thinking that he is trying to push an agenda that is more for the good of oil companies than it is for the good of either the Iraqi or American people.

Madonna offends yet another religion

Ok, was reading the NY Times today (Story on Madonna) and it turns out that Madonna has decided she has had enough of appropriating Christian and Hindu religous images so she is now going to appropriate Jewish images. Madonna has adopted the name Esther. Now Esther is the name of the Jewish Queen of Xerxes who was a king of Persia (Well Emperor really, but that term wouldn't be invented until the Romans needed a term for someone who was alot like a King, but couldn't be called a King because the Romans hated Kings). There seems to be some doubt if Xerxes ever had a Jewish Queen (Being that outside the Bible there is no evidence she ever existed.. Historians are funny that way; they want proof of someone's existence) but according to the story she saved the Jewish people from an advisor of Xerxes who wanted to destroy them. That being the case, one can see why Esther would be a somewhat popular name among observant Jews.

So Modonna has taken a new name, one of a Jewish heroine. Many cultures have traditions of people adopting new names at different points in their lives. I believe it is or at least was the custom among many Native American Cultures to adopt a new name when when an individual formally reached adulthood. I know it was also was not uncommon among the Samurai of Japan. However, considering that Madonna has typically used religious imagry in her names, perhaps the better analogy is that of Catholic Religious. Amongst many religious orders of monks, nuns and mendicants (mendicants are a little like monks, at least they dress like monks and they pray, otherwise they may or may not be very different from monks depending on the particular order) it is traditional for a person entering an order to take a new name to signify their conversion from their old life to a life following God.

So has Madonna really had a conversion? Well perhaps, she does dress more modestly than she use to... but then again she is getting a little old in a world where the current purveyors of sex in Pop Music are in their late teens and early 20s. And while she might claim that she is following Judaism as far as I can tell she has not formally converted, nor for that matter does she treat the religious symbols of the Jews with what one would consider an abundence of respect. Ultimately it seems the Material Girl is simply materializing religion.

Maybe I am being too hard on Madonna, after all I don't really know what is in her heart or whether she has any sort of true relationship with God. Her history of appropriating religious images though of course does set her up for suspicion. I hope I am wrong.

One last thought, Esther is not only the name of a Jewish heroine, it is also Aramic for Ishtar who was the Babylonian-Assyrian goddess of love, sex, fertility and war. I wonder if Madonna had considered that reference when she chose her Jewish name?