Politics, Politics, Politics

North Korea has decided to test-launch a missile, again claiming that they are actually launching a satellite. Yeah right. This has met harsh criticism from the US, Japan, and South Korea, and has increased the already high tension on the North/South border. What this seems to be is an attempt by Kim Jong to intimidate, or at least draw the attention of President Obama, so that he can waste our new President's time with futile talks in an attempt to receive concessions.

Meanwhile, in South America, Hugo Chavez has followed the example of Ecuador and Bolivia in removing term limits for government officials. Nicaragua plans to follow suit. Hugo has pushed forward social(ist) reforms, and provided cheap food, and free education and healthcare for the people, but far too often to the detriment of the rich. Many Venezuelans fear that he will become a dictator (like he's not already?). "If he wins he'll be unleashed and he'll make us like Cuba, because that's what he really wants," says Adrianna Hernandez, a 19-year-old student. "He'll create laws by decree, and go after private property."[1] His overall plan is to slowly transform Venezuela into a socialist nation, a recurring theme in South America, but personally, I believe his plan is to stay in power until that process is complete.

Here, in our own country, former astronaut and New Mexico Senator Harrisson Schmitt claims that the global warming scare is purely political. He argues that scientists are being "intimidated" to agree with the very political theory of global warming, and are especially scared as they see their colleagues, who stood up and questioned the idea, lose grant funding for their "heretic" beliefs. The 74 year old man recently resigned from The Planetary Society after it jumped on the global warming bandwagon. Schmitt claims that Global warming is "a political tool used to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making." [2] I of course agree with Schmitt. The very fact that questioning or skepticism is demonized proves that this argument has no basis in science, for what is science, but questioning the world around us? Schmitt will be speaking at the International Conference on Climate Change in New York.