BRING PLUTO BACK!

Monday, July 13, from a distance of 476,000 miles.

How would you feel if someone told you one day that you were no longer a human?

Now imagine that you were a planet one day (or for almost a century), and then you were told that you were no longer a planet.

Zap!

Goodbye!

Good Riddens!

The solar system's ninth planet has been eliminated.

Number nine has been voted out.

This is not so much sad as it is wrong.

Poor Pluto.

After being so far away for so long.

After having a dog given its name.

After possessing a mystery that none of the other planets had.

Then...Poof!

You're out of here you round and puny ball of cosmic dust!

And how would Pluto's expulsion make its discoverer Clyde William Tombaugh (February 4, 1906 – January 17, 1997) feel?

Bring Pluto back!

Bring Pluto back!

Can the Long War President do anything about this?

(P. S. Pluto’s new title is dwarf planet. Better than nothing, I suppose.)

IT'S ABOUT RENEWABLE RESOURCES!

EMBRYOS AND PLANETS

The Snowball in Hell is getting bigger and bigger.
Unfortunately, this particular snowball in Hell doesn’t melt.
It's the inferno called Iraq.

I am loath to comment anymore on the Iraq War or upon the Long War President.
There is not much more to say.

However, I have had a couple of other thoughts (words) that have been bouncing about in my brain.
Frozen embryos and planets.
One woman who had triplets from IVF (In Vitro Fertilization), left behind 13 of her (and her husband’s) frozen embryos.
Embryos are not babies or teenagers, but would be if left to grow.
As it is, such embryos live in a gelid limbo.
Nowhere to go.
I also read about a woman who had her child after “defrosting” one of her embryos, and then had it implanted in her womb.
The embryo had been frozen for 12 years!
There is estimated to be 500,000 frozen embryos in the United States.
I wonder what Jonathan Swift would say about these embryos?

Planets.
We may now have 12 or more in our Solar System.
So what.
If it’s round and has gravity…call it a planet.
If it has life…call it a living planet!

That’s all I wrote today.
I am busy editing my past Letters from Mad Plato.
I want to have Volume 2 published.
The title for Letters from Mad Plato Volume II will be:
Why Are We STILL In Iraq?
I want to submit my book in this year’s Lulu Blooker Prize.

THE LAST PROPOSAL

The nations of the world will have to unite for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of Earth must some day make a common front against attack by people from other planets.
-General Douglas MacArthur



What the the United States and the world ought to do to put a halt to the mad arms race was shockingly revealed in Washington last week at the annual International Conference of Amalgamated Aerospace Engineers. The conference was attended by aerospace executives, government officials and wealthy stockholders. It was closed to the Press. But fortunately one clever reporter, sporting himself as a well-to-do stockholder, slipped by security. Here is what he heard and saw.
Near the conclusion of the conference, after some very impressive and glittering speeches from all sides, a slim, old, weary-eyed gentleman stood up and took his position in front of the podium. He addressed the audience only when there was total silence.
"Gentleman, all of us here are children of the Atomic Age. Most of you cannot imagine a world devoid of earth-destroying weapons and neither can I. We have come too far to think such liberal and utopian nonsense. What I now propose, however, is the least but best option open to the international aerospace community and to the world at large. It is a proposal which can enhance profits and technology while simultaneously smooth a way for a safer earth. I propose that the United States and all nations immediately and jointly begin development of sophisticated space weapons to be used against the Aliens. You may laugh gentlemen, but mark my words, those Aliens are out there and they are fast-approaching us. Some say they are here already. They will have their weapons ready. If the nations of the world do not stop their silly shenanigans and disagreements on this planet, and soon, then those Aliens will find us like sitting ducks. It is now or never, gentlemen.
The audience, initially skeptical, now showed rising approval, and finally gave a standing ovation to the wise, old man. When the thunderous applause stopped, a listener jumped from his seat (he had not stood up like all the rest). He spoke to the old man.
"Sir, you forget, we are in a global war against terror. The aerospace industry cannot just drop its guns and stop its friendly and prosperous contract with the Pentagon. This will be disastrous! We cannot act as if we are at peace with terrorists, and that there is no war."
Then the old man spoke.
"Yes. I believe we can. We must. And the sooner the better if this world is to remain in our hands and not the Aliens."
The next day the reporter was able to get his story out. White House spokespersons were at first quiet. Then they denied such a proposal was ever given. Then they admitted that there was such a proposal. A White House official gave this report from the President on the proposal:
"The President believes that Terrorism will always be a far greater threat to our National Security than any aliens...even if they did exist. The government recognizes no enemy as permanent and irreconcilable as Terrorism. We shall, therefore, not retreat to any schemes of the far-fetched imagination. Our official policy is and shall continue to be a vigilant and strong Peace Through Strength strategy. Our national security policy for Victory in Iraq and the military defense of the Homeland will continue until the Global War on Terror is won. After that we can think about those aliens."

[I published a different version of THE LAST PROPOSAL in the Guam Tribune in 1982. It was the year that I attended the Anti-Nuclear Weapons/Great Peace March in New York City. It was also the year that my obsession with UFOS began.]


Here is an edited version I just sent to the Nation magazine:


The nations of the world will have to unite for the next war will be an interplanetary war. The nations of Earth must some day make a common front against attack by people from other planets.
-General Douglas MacArthur



What the the United States and the world ought to do to put a halt to the nuclear arms race was shockingly revealed in Washington last week at the annual International Conference of Amalgamated Aerospace Engineers. The conference was attended by aerospace executives, government officials and wealthy stockholders. It was closed to the Press. But fortunately one clever reporter, sporting himself as a well-to-do stockholder, slipped by security. Here is what he heard and saw.
Near the conclusion of the conference, after some very impressive and glittering speeches from all sides, a slim, old, weary-eyed gentleman stood up and took his position in front of the podium. He addressed the audience only when there was total silence.
"Gentleman, all of us here are children of the Atomic Age. Most of you cannot imagine a world devoid of earth-destroying weapons and neither can I. We have come too far to think such liberal and utopian nonsense. What I now propose, however, is the best option open to the international aerospace community and to the nations of the world. It is a proposal which can enhance profits and technology while simultaneously pave a way for a safer earth. I propose that the United States and all nations immediately and jointly begin accelerated development of sophisticated space weapons to be used against the Aliens. You may laugh gentlemen, but mark my words, those Aliens are out there and they are fast-approaching us. Some say they are here already. They will have their weapons ready. If the nations of the world do not stop their silly shenanigans and disagreements on this planet, and soon, then those Aliens will find us like sitting ducks. It is now or never, gentlemen.
The audience, initially skeptical, now showed rising approval, and finally gave a standing ovation to the wise, old man. When the thunderous applause stopped, a listener jumped from his seat (he had not stood up like all the rest). He spoke to the old man.
"Sir, you forget, we are in a global war against terror. The aerospace industry cannot just drop its guns and stop its friendly and prosperous contract with the Pentagon. This would be disastrous! We cannot act as if we are at peace with terrorists, and that there is no war."
Then the old man spoke.
"Yes. I believe we can. We must. And the sooner the better if this world is to remain in our hands and not the Aliens."
The next day the reporter was able to get his story out. White House spokespersons were at first quiet. Then they denied such a proposal was ever given. Then they admitted that there was such a proposal. A White House official gave this report from the President on the proposal:
"The President believes that Nuclear Terrorism will always be a far greater threat to our National Security than any aliens...even if they did exist. The government recognizes no enemy as permanent and irreconcilable as Nuclear Terrorism. We shall, therefore, not retreat to any schemes of the far-fetched imagination. Our official policy is and shall continue to be a vigilant and strong Peace Through Strength strategy. Our national security policy, and the military defense of the Homeland, will continue. After that we will worry about aliens."

WEAPONS OF TOMORROW

It is only War in the end that will save humanity. It is only when the world will be satiated with blood, destruction, and violence that it will wake from its present nightmare of madness---and thus it is that the coming "War of Wars" fits into the design of things.
Cheiro (1931)

Car bombs.
Bunker busters.
Nuclear bombs.
New weapons are on the horizon to supplant these weapons.
The shape of things to come fits the dark and dire outlook that H.G. Wells had in his essays Mind At The End of Its Tether.
A few seers and psychics (psychos to some) have also predicted the coming of these new and more powerful weapons.
John Hogue writes:
"The United States will use antimatter protons to enhance its smaller nuclear arsenal, reduced to a few thousand bombs by the START. The United States will try to retain its might with more "quality" weapons of mass destruction rather than quantity. By the 2030s there will be antimatter thermonuclear devices that will be a hundred thousand times more destructive than the Hiroshima blast." [1000 FOR 2000]

We might be living in Eden compared to the Hell that is to come.
Here is a somewhat more scientific description of these imminent weapons:

"In recent years it has been discovered that our universe is being blown apart by a mysterious anti-gravity effect called dark energy. Mainstream physicists are scrambling to explain this mysterious acceleration in the expansion of the universe. Some physicists even believe that the expansion will lead to "The Big Rip" when all of the matter in the universe is torn asunder -- from clusters of galaxies in deep space down to the tiniest atomic particles. The universe now appears to be made of two unknowns -- roughly 23 percent is dark matter, an invisible source of gravity, and roughly 73 percent is dark energy, an invisible anti-gravity force. Ordinary matter constitutes perhaps 4 percent of the universe."
"A few years ago the British science news journal, "New Scientist," revealed that the American military was pursuing new types of exotic bombs -- including a new class of isomeric gamma ray weapons. Unlike conventional atomic and hydrogen bombs, the new weapons would trigger the release of energy by absorbing radiation, and respond by re-emitting a far more powerful radiation. In this potential category of gamma-ray weapons, a nuclear isomer absorbs x-rays and re-emits higher frequency gamma rays. The emitted gamma radiation has been reported to release 60 times the energy of the x-rays that trigger the effect."
"The discovery of the isomer triggering effect was first reported in 1999 by an international group of scientists. Although this controversial development has remained fairly obscure, it has not been hidden from the public." [May 12, 2006/by Gary S. Bekkum, the founder of Starstream Research]

The Global Terrorist will be the nation that possesses such weapons.
Other nations will develop theirs.
History only repeats itself.

AUGUST 9, 1945

The bomb was dropped by parachute from an American B29 Bomber at 1102 local time.
It exploded about 1,625 ft (500m) above the ground and is believed to have completely destroyed the city, which is situated on the western side of the Japanese island of Kyushu.
About 30% of Nagasaki, including almost all the industrial district was destroyed by the bomb and nearly 150,000 people were killed or injured.
The bomb, nick-named "Fat Man" in a reference to Winston Churchill, measured just under 3.5m (11ft 4in) in length, had the power of 22 kilotons of TNT and weighed 4,050kg (9,000lbs).
The attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first time atomic bombs had been used in warfare.
Residents of both cities are still suffering the physical and mental consequences of radiation to this day.
On 14 August Japan surrendered to the Allies.

A KISS OR HUG OF DEATH?

Joseph Lieberman and George W. Bush kissed.
Bill Clinton and Joseph Lieberman hugged.
It's a tie:
One kiss to one hug.
Which one is the kiss (or hug) of death will be decided today in Connecticut’s Democratic Primary.
Ned Lamont is against the Iraq War.
Lieberman is for the Iraq War.
The American people have sided with Ned Lamont.
And, soon, the GOP will likely pull out its wild card if it calls for troops to leave Iraq.
This will be just in time for the 2006 Congressional election.
The Decider (after all of those bicycle falls) has decided that those who say that Iraq now has civil war are off their rockers (my words).
Kiss a frog.
Hug a tree.

CONDOLEEZA RICE AND BIRTH PANGS

Condoleeza Rice Ambles like a Robot.
At times she resembles a
Nightmare.
Those eyes and those teeth!
The Mushroom Cloud lady says that it is time for a new Middle East.
Well, at least a new Lebanon, because Lebanon will soon be obliterated by Israel.
First there was Iraq…and now Lebanon.
The numbers of terrorists and fanatics grow and grow.
People in Lebanon and Iraq are now saying DEATH TO AMERICA and ISRAEL.
Children are saying this, too, not just radical and suicidal terrorists.
What is it that America and Israel are doing, I wonder, to produce such angry and clarion demands?
It makes me wonder what is going on.
It’s time to play the song by Marvin Gaye which asks that very question.
Oh, and if it’s not too unpatriotic, leftist or liberal…Give Peace a Chance.

TOO LITTLE TOO LATE OR JUST IN TIME

But as in the case of Napoleon, the attempt by President George W Bush to achieve his goals through the use of military force has backfired, creating the conditions for a civil war in Iraq, radicalizing the Palestinians, empowering Hezbollah in Lebanon, antagonizing the Syrians and the Iranians, and as a result, destabilizing the entire Middle East, from Iraq to Israel/Palestine through Lebanon.

"Birth Pangs of a
New Middle East'"?
by Leon Hadar
July 27, 2006




"I have never painted a rosy picture.”
Donald H. Rumsfeld
At the Senate Armed Services Committee on August 3, 2006.

“War with Iraq could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months."
Donald H. Rumsfeld
In a town hall meeting with U.S. forces in Aviano, Italy Feb. 7, 2003.

A majority of the American people now believe (finally) that the Pre-Emptive Bombing and Invasion of Iraq was a mistake.
The U.S. war and occupation in Iraq was a waste of time, money and human life.
Yes, it WAS the wrong war, at the wrong time and in the wrong place!
Now, a “mere” $50,000,000 is being rushed to central Baghdad for “emergency” measures to (finally) re-construct the devastation done by the American government.
Thank you Mr. Long War President, George W. Bush…for too little too late.
This quick fix is aimed to bolster confidence in Iraqi citizens that things are getting better.
Same old story.
Promises, promises, and more promises.
Army Gen. John Abizaid, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq and chief of U.S. Central Command; U.S. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld (always defensive) appeared before the Senate's Armed Services Committee on Thursday August 3, 2006.
Rumsfeld, as always, was more concerned about his own ego than about the war.
The generals seemed cowed and cautious.
None of these signs are without unpleasant omens.
What’s next?
It seems that Tarot cards or Ouija boards might be more accurate predictors at this late stage in the Bush Shock and Awe Pre-Emptive Iraq War and Occupation on-the-edge of civil war.
Because no one in this prevaricating Bush administration has been very accurate yet.
Don’t pass the ammunition…but say your prayers.

CAR CRASHES AND OUTER SPACE

Earth is a dangerous place.
Outer space isn’t.
Well, there is the radiation…and the cold…and the Aliens (Well…not yet!).
But traveling out there is still safer than traveling down here.
Just ask John Herschel Glenn and his wife Anna.
On Friday Glenn and his wife were in a car accident in Ohio. Glenn, 85, and his wife, Anna, will be released later on Saturday, said Louis Tejada, a nurse administrator at Grant Medical Center in Columbus.
Futuristic transportation, as portrayed at the movies, is still in the future. I was never convinced that “cars” would jet through the New York skyline any time soon.
But it sure looked nifty.
Godspeed John Glenn and Anna back to good health.

HE'S FU*KING INSANE

Today's Daily Show [8-2-06] had bad boy Jon Stewart saying the same thing about George W. Bush.
Jon said, "I give up! He's fu*king insane!"
It's becoming a routine shibboleth.
Jon appears to like this president about as much as someone likes a rotting fish or a fresh dog turd.
I realize how unpleasant these images are. Sorry.
I thought that my Letters were scathing and harsh.
But Jon has become a doyen with his critical views and portrayals of the Long War President.
The Daily Show is not Air America.
Mr. Stewart can imitate Bush's voice, or make one or two of his funny faces to caricature something the Decider has said or done that takes Air America five minutes to do.
After I heard (and saw) Jon Stewart say (again!) that Bush is fu*king insane, I wondered how much effect The Daily Show will have on the November election.
For the 2008 presidential election, Mr. Stewart has plenty of time to throw his slings and arrows of outrage.

PUMP UP THE TESTOSTERONE

The Saber Rattler-in-Chief Long War (Decider) President swaggers even when to swagger is probably not the thing to do when the world seems to be on the brink of World War III or IV.
Or maybe it is the only thing to do under such conditions.
Munching rolls and uttering foul language aren’t enough in order for testosterone to do its work.
The way to employ testosterone is for its leader to make war, or for that leader to say that its country’s military has the necessary private parts sufficiently large to make war.
Peace is for girlie men.
Kings, Emperors, Presidents and Dictators must prepare for and have war.
Each must show that his prowess and privates are loaded and cocked .
Thus it is that the Long War President rattled his sword and swung some privy parts:
“We've got a very strong military and we can deal with any threat to the homeland there is, and will, if we have to.”
I guess one would not want his and her leader to say otherwise
We would not our leader to say:
“We aren’t ready. We are too weak to face any new threats.”
Some other remarks that the Decider recently made in an interview with Neil Cavuto on July 31, 2006:
“Even if the American people don't think that we're still at war, I do, and therefore will deploy the assets of the federal government to protect us here at home."
"I think about Al Qaeda every day."
"Long-term peace for Americans will come when liberty is unleashed in the Middle East."
Unleash the testosterone!
Pump it up!

RAIN AND BOMBS

It’s raining, raining and raining here in El Paso.
All of the local TV stations are reporting on the heavy rains and flooding.
I know if I change the station and go to CNN, MSNBC or FOXNEWS, I will hear about bombs raining, raining and raining.
The world is getting wetter and warmer at the same time. It is ironic. The Midwest and the East Coast are hot. The Southwest is cool and stormy.
I know.
It is probably only a normal pattern of weather. But it makes me wonder about humanity and the future of our planet.
NASA has gone way too slow to prepare for humans to visit and seed other planets.
The moon landing was 37 years ago!
Why in Heaven’s name is the pace of exploring our galaxy going so slowly?
I guess we rely too much on Star Trek and other science fiction.
It is raining, raining and raining.
I hope there is a ceasefire…
Of the rain and bombs.