IN THE LINE-UP OF THE PLANETS WHICH WE HAVE BEEN FOLLOWING FOR SOME MONTHS, WE SEE A BIG CHANGE FOR MARCH. It looks as though the tumult in Washington, D.C. is settling down. Mercury (the U.S.) Has moved out of the huddle as has Jupiter (Yahweh). Only Uranus (money) and Neptune (chaos) are there. And now there is even a little distance between them. There is nothing in the publication “Sky and Telescope” about ‘Hale-Boop’ being seen. There should have been, so we hope this does not mean that the government has decided that we, the public, do not need to follow that story.
Front line
General Daniel O. Graham, a decorated veteran who served in the military for thirty years, and was the Reagan Administration’s Chief proponent of building a missile defence system, sadly passed away this past New Year’s Eve. His foresight and perseverance enabled us to begin building a system that helped end the ‘Cold War’ without a shot. The free world and all those subjugated by Communist governments owe him a debt of gratitude. Just before Graham’s death, on December 28, the President vetoed the Defence Authorization Bill, calling funding for missile defence ‘unnecessary.’ It fell casualty to its own success. Let us hope the same does not happen to us.
Ironically, even as the Clinton Administration chooses to endanger funding for the Military with a veto of the Defence Authorization Bill because the Bill contained a missile defence system, Secretary of Defence William Perry offered to have the U.S. co-produce a ballistic missile defence system for Israeli while he was travelling there. So we are willing to build one for Israeli, but not for the United States.