Schwarzenegger to U.S.: State may need $7-billion loan

SACRAMENTO — California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, alarmed by the ongoing national financial crisis, warned Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson on Thursday that the state might need an emergency loan of as much as $7 billion from the federal government within weeks.

California’s liberal assembly has literally spent this state into the ground. Why should the Federal government have to foot the bill and bail out these irresponsible legislators that use the state’s money like it is toilet paper?

Although I live in California, I have an idea: let the market sort it out. Let the California assembly decide what are the most important priorities and make some spending cuts so that we don’t need to borrow to stay afloat.

I don’t understand how people generally can be so flippant about living beyond their means. Credit is great insofar as it is used as a convenience or to purchase necessities that are outside the range of cash purchases, such as homes and cars. Really troubling is when a government and the elected officials adopt the same attitude and live beyond the state’s means. This is California in a nutshell. (To be fair, this is the United States too thanks to the liberal Congress and free spending President Bush.)

In a way, I hope the Federal government says no to California and every other state in similar circumstances. It will suck for a lot of people, but apparently the only way to instill a sense of financial discipline is to force the perps who have spent out of control to accept the fact that there isn’t enough money to give every baby a lollipop.

If the Federal government agrees to bail them out, there better be some strings attached that require spending to but cut. As the old saying goes, hope springs eternal.

I have to admit that astrophysics intrigues me. In my last semester of college, I took Astronomy, which turned out to be one of my favorite classes. Later, I read Stephen Hawkins "A Brief History of Time." Perhaps my interest in astrophysics is because so many of the theories seem like the stuff of science fiction (dark matter, string theory, etc.), not the stuff "real" science is based on. Yet, the theories are proved mathematically and updated as the evidence is gathered and theories are disproven.

The below article caught my interest. Scientists suggest that the Copernican assumption that there is nothing special about planet Earth or our solar system may be wrong. Instead, Earth may be in a special "bubble" of space-time that biases our observations of phenomena outside of the bubble.

As a person who believes in creationism (I also believe in evolution), I don’t have a problem with a theory postulating that our solar system is special because it was specially created for us by God.

Scientists: Earth May Exist in Giant Cosmic Bubble

If the notion of dark energy sounds improbable, get ready for an even more outlandish suggestion.

Earth may be trapped in an abnormal bubble of space-time that is particularly devoid of matter.

Scientists say this condition could account for the apparent acceleration of the universe’s expansion, for which dark energy currently is the leading explanation.

Dark energy is the name given to the hypothetical force that could be drawing all the stuff in the universe outward at an ever-increasing rate.

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One problem with the void idea, though, is that it negates a principle that has reigned in astronomy for more than 450 years: namely, that our place in the universe isn’t special .

When Nicholas Copernicus argued that it made much more sense for the Earth to be revolving around the sun than vice versa, it revolutionized science.

Since then, most theories have to pass the Copernican test. If they require our planet to be unique, or our position to be exalted, the ideas often seem unlikely.

"This idea that we live in a void would really be a statement that we live in a special place," Clifton told SPACE.com. "The regular cosmological model is based on the idea that where we live is a typical place in the universe. This would be a contradiction to the Copernican principle."

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Full Article (Underlining Added)