I’m at a loss as to what to write about, so I'll trot out a zombie analogy.

There’s almost no point in making snide comments about the insanity that makes up a great portion of this country. The insane part refuse to admit they are insane, the media refuses to point out that they are insane, the non-insane part keeps trying to negotiate “in good faith” with the insane part, with very predictable results. The insane keep trying to one up themselves, seeing who can be more insane than the last insane person.

If, somehow, the insane people in this country were replaced by zombies overnight, this whole scenario wouldn’t seem much weirder than it does now. Never in my wildest dreams would I have ever considered the possibility of some of the things we are currently seeing. Illogic, hatred and fear rule the day, and all the non-zombies seem powerless to do anything about it.

I imagine that this is not going to end well.

Shih-Tzu blogging: Nina gets a new doo.

This is the "blow dry" stage, which she isn't overly enthralled with. This has the makings of a great Halloween costume with her as a porcupine.

Tea Bag Protesters now targeting Republicans they don't like.

From Americablog:

The 75-minute forum filled several sections of Furman University's Timmons Arena and attracted demonstrators, critics with handheld cameras, shouts of "traitor" and "Sotomayor" - and a smattering of supporters.

Graham repeatedly told those who shouted to "chill out," and addressed most of the hot-button issues that have rankled some in the state's conservative epicenter, including an op-ed column he co-authored this week with Democratic Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, which called for climate change legislation.

One man told Graham he had "betrayed" conservatism and made a "pact with the devil" by working with Democrats, and asked when Graham would switch parties.

Yes, well, I would surmise that the Beast that is the anger, racism and insanity that the Republican Party has used to their advantage over the last few years has been released and is now turning on its erstwhile master. It's angry and wants everyone to know it. It refuses to be placated by vague promises of future action. It wants its insanity RIGHT NOW, and refuses to take anything less. I hear that a lot of wingers are not very happy with Olympia Snowe for voting with the Democrats on a very watered down health care reform bill. I actually kind of feel sorry for her. I certainly don't agree with a lot of her positions on issues, but I do think she is a non-insane Republican who is actually trying to do the right thing. However, the Beast does not allow for disobedience to the cause. The Beast gets very unhappy with those who don't follow orders.

I hope the Republican party enjoys the next couple of years.

Photo from here.

Movie Review: John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness

John Carpenter has directed and produced some very noteworthy horror films. His films The Thing, The Fog, Halloween and Escape from NewYork are minor classics of the genre.

I have some mixed feelings about Carpenter’s films. Some of the storyline’s are really kind of suspect, shall we say. The theme and the incidental music throughout, on the other hand, are usually first rate. This film, Prince of Darkness, is no exception. It has some very good points (at least as far as horror films go) and some very medicore points. Prince of Darkness has a great introduction and buildup, but unfortunately, the ending doesn’t really hold up its end of the bargain. Truth be told, it's a little bit on the silly side. However, I am not certain how Carpenter could have really "closed the deal" to make a truly great ending and not overreach.

What I really do like about Carpenter’s films, including this one, is the overall atmosphere and the sense of foreboding that permeates the entire story, from beginning to end. This film has some truly creepy cimeatography going for it. The church in which most of the action takes place is a perfect setting for what is to occur. It’s rundown and neglected. The focus of the camera on such things as a dead bird, swarming ants and cluster of worms and other unknown things on the window help build the suspense. The homeless people just standing around and staring at the church is pretty unsettling. Something is going to happen, you just are not sure what. In that regard, the beginning of this film is actually somewhat similar to some of Hitchcock’s films. The first time you see the film, you are not quite sure what’s going to turn out to be important and what’s not. However, the entire thing blends together to make for a suspensful and atmostpheric buildup. The film is actually enhanced by the fact that the cast, with the exceptions of Donald Pleasance and Victor Wong (veterans of other Carpenter films) and a fanstastic cameo appearance by Alice Cooper, consists of non-stars. It’s difficult to tell who might end up surviving the coming ordeal and who might be “offed” in the first half hour of the film.

This film has been panned by a good number of film critics. As with any movie, what you feel about the film depends greatly about what you expect out of it. If you are looking for a classic, you should stick to something like The Third Man, with Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton. This isn’t going to be it. But if you are looking for nothing more than a creepy little film that entertains for a little under two hours, one that has some genuinely startling moments and isn’t so ridiculous that it ellicits guffaws and knee slaps, then I would recommend finding this one on DVD or putting it on your list at Netflix.

I've done a little redecorating in preparation for Halloween!

Notice the orange title of the blog? Very inspiring, I thought. Ah, this season is something special indeed. There is a crisp feeling to the air. The leaves are turning colors and falling off the trees to gather in sodden little heaps in the streets that end up clogging all the storm drains. Children are full of anticipation and excitement, waiting for that special day when they get to dress up in cheap plastic costumes from Target and Wal-Mart so they can go out and harass their neighbors into giving them enough sweets to rot the teeth of anyone who even opens the bag full of goodies. Older adults use the holiday as yet another excuse for a "let's get drunk and act just like idiots!" party. Retail stores ring up sale after sale of bags of mini-Snickers and Skittles. Ah, just a joyous feeling!

For me, I like the season because of all the monster and sci-fi flicks that show up on the television. Of course, it isn't as good as back when AMC was actually a good channel that showed classic movies without commercials. TCM is a great channel, but they don't seem to hold monster flicks in very high regard. I will admit to being a fan of the classic horror and sci-fi films. I think I got this from my mother, who was exactly the same way. She would not only let me stay up late to watch King Kong, The Day the Earth Stood Still and Forbidden Planet, she would pretty much insist that I did. My current video collection currently runs over 2100 titles (yes, I freely admit I have no life), many of which are the aforementioned monster, horror and sci-fi. I have your classics, I have your also-rans and I have your so terrible that it peels the paint off the ceiling. My plan for a change of pace, since I am in a huge rut lately, is to write some reviews of some of these films. That takes a special disregard for convention, I think, to write a review about a movie that is 50 to 60 years old that hardly anyone even remembers anymore.

Great Pumpkin from here.

President Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wow. As many people are saying this morning (even the White House, apparently), "My, that was unexpected." I tend to agree. I am not sure that an award of this stature should be given just for a general sense of changing the direction of the country and its standing in the world. It seems like it should be given for some breakthrough moment, such as signing an Israeli/Palestinian peace accord, or something along those lines. So, in that context, I think some criticism of this award may have some merits.

On the other hand, it's certainly going to be fun to watch wingnut heads explode, like some mass viewing of Scanners or something, for the next few days. Oh, the outrage! After all, it's rather difficult to give a Nobel Peace Prize to someone who is JUST LIKE HITLER!

UPDATE: I saw where some commenter at DailyKos said "It sounds like the, 'Boy, is the world relieved you guys didn't choose McCain' award."

UPDATE II: From Steve Benen at Washington Monthly:

For all the recognition of George W. Bush's unpopularity, it's easy to overlook the ways in which the international community was truly mortified by the U.S. leadership during the Bush era. The irreplaceable leading nation could no longer be trusted to do the right thing -- on use of force, torture, rule of law, international cooperation, democratic norms, even climate change. We'd reached a point at which much of the world was poised to simply give up on America's role as a global leader.

And, love him or hate him, President Obama changed this. I doubt anyone on the Nobel committee would admit it, but the Peace Prize is, to a certain extent, an implicit "thank you" to the United States for reclaiming its rightful place on the global stage.

It's indicative of a degree of relief. Much of the world has wanted America to take the lead again, and they're rightly encouraged to see the U.S. president stepping up in the ways they hoped he would. It's hard to overstate the significance, for example, of seeing a U.S. president chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council and making strides on a nuclear deal.

This is not to say Obama was honored simply because he's not Bush. The president really has committed himself to promoting counter-proliferation, reversing policies on torture, embracing a new approach to international engagement, and recommitting the U.S. to the Middle East peace process. But charting a new course for American leadership, breaking with the recent past, no doubt played a role.

UPDATE III: So, when President Obama fails to convince the International Olympic Committee that the Olympic Games should be held in Chicago, that is a reason for celebration, but the President of the United States winning the Nobel Peace Prize is a reason to go trashing both the giver and the recipient? Uhhh..... Excuse me for being cynical, but what does this look like to you?

“Good science” vs. “Bad science.”

I have written before about the scientific method, but I’ll give a quick little summary here, for all you humanities majors out there.

You start with a set of what should be undisputable facts or observations. “See, that big barn over there on my neighbor’s property? It’s red. Right?” It’s something that everyone can, or should be able to, readily agree to. Then you start asking, “Well, how did it come to be red?” You might start making a hypothesis that explains your questions about whatever it is that you have observed. “See that guy over there? He’s my neighbor. It’s his barn. He probably just got finished painting it that color.” Of course, you don’t know for certain that your neighbor just painted the barn. However, there are all sorts of clues that your supposition might be a true one. That’s your theory. You just have to go about figuring out if your theory is valid or not, such that other people armed with the same starting point and facts as you will come up with the same conclusion. You are out to give validity to your theory.

The reason I said “give validity to” instead of “proving” is that the term “proof” implies absolute certainty in something. Many times in science, there will never be 100% certainty of something. However, if you can get your theory in good enough shape that your peers agree with your conclusion and no one can really come up with either 1) major points your theory doesn’t address or ) a better alternative, then people start using the word “proof.”

Anyway, to get back to my red barn analogy… There may be a number of ways you might go about trying to figure out if your neighbor painted his barn red. For instance, you could ask him. If he says “Yes, I did. Do you have a problem with that?”, then your work is pretty much at an end. Unless, of course, someone calls your neighbor a liar or, even better, comes up and declares, “No, I painted the barn! Don’t listen to that man!” Then you are kind of stuck. You now have two competing conclusions that cannot simultaneously both be true. You now need some additional input about why your original theory might be the correct one.

Say you observe that your neighbor is holding an open can of red paint. Additionally, he is also holding a paint brush full of wet red paint, his pants and shirt are all covered in very wet paint, and there are red footprints leading from the barn directly to where he is standing. This is getting very close to becoming your “proof.” You have convinced yourself, your wife and anyone else who will listen. However, those people may not actually know anything about painting. Or barns. Or perhaps they just don’t really care one way or the other.

Therefore, the next thing you need to do is get your peers (those who DO care about painting, barns and painting barns red) to agree with your conclusions about why that barn is red. You may go speak at a conference specializing in barn construction and circulate a paper you wrote on the subject of your neighbor and his barn. You might write an article for “Barns Monthly” magazine and “The Journal of National Association of Animal Husbandry Buildings”. Those, of course, are the most widely read publications for those who care about such things. Your peers read your article and most come to an agreement that, yes, you are correct in your starting point (it is indeed a barn and it is red) and how it got that way. Yes! You have triumphed! You are the King of the World! Fame and a lucrative speaking career beckon.

However, the next month, you might receive a letter from one of your rivals. He puts forward an alternative hypothesis. “No, the barn is red because the local lumber company, five miles down the road from your neighbor’s barn, is selling barn siding that is already painted red. Your neighbor bought his lumber there. I have a copy of his receipt.”

Your first reaction is, of course, “Oh, crap!” Your finely crafted case about how your neighbor’s barn came to be red is about to come crashing down around your ears. Utter humiliation awaits. Your wife isn’t speaking to you and your dog bit your hand when you tried to pet him. You must do something to rectify this terrible situation. Immediately, if not sooner.

So, it appears obvious that your theory needs to evolve to take these new facts, which are not really open to dispute (sale on red lumber, copy of the sales receipt) into account. Aha! You have it! Yes, your neighbor bought lumber already painted red, but he didn’t use it to build his barn! He used it to build a garage instead! Your original hypothesis is still sound! How else do you explain the wet, red paintbrush, the open can of paint and the footprints?

And so it goes. The reason I went on at such length about such a seemingly trivial and/or stupid scenario is that I wanted to put what really happens during the scientific method into a concept that non-scientists could easily understand. Even with its dramatic oversimplifications and stupid analogies, the scenario above gives an approximation about how the scientific method actually works. To repeat, this is how my “good science” of my title works. It doesn’t matter what kind of answer you get. It’s the process that matters! Start with facts. Make a hypothesis that fits the facts and answers all open questions. Peer reviews. Continually adjust your hypothesis whenever new facts come to light or when someone points out where your logic is not sound.

Here are the points I want to highlight. There are rarely absolute proofs to anything. You might have a model of understanding that comes very, very close to answering all the open questions about some phenomena. Maybe not all questions, but your theory works very well. Or maybe, your theory does indeed answer all open questions, until the day that someone either asks a new question that no one has ever thought of before, or perhaps some new facts or observations are uncovered that now cast some doubt on your hypothesis.

A very good and very understandable example of this is of Newtonian physics. You remember Sir Isaac Newton, don’t you? The chap who got bonked on the head with the apple? Described his theory of universal gravitation? One of the most influential scientists and mathematicians to have ever lived? Yeah, him. His theories worked incredibly well to describe how gravity affects our world. You could use it to set the elevation of your cannon so that your cannonball hits the enemy over across the valley. Terribly useful stuff. Newtonian physics ruled the day.

However, when one gets looking closer, it appears that Newtonian physics doesn’t exactly predict the motion really big things, like planets, when you start examining it in detail. Surprise! It turned out that Newtonian physics was only an approximation. It didn’t predict everything that it should. And the closer that people starting examining the facts and data, the more it appeared that there were some major shortcomings into his theories. Enter Einstein and the theory of relativity, and the floodgates were opened.

I don’t want to get into a history lesson about classical vs. modern physics. That would be pretty tedious. My point is that Newtonian physics was never The One True Answer. Oh, you got very good predictions about how everyday objects react. But it was never more than an approximation. At the scale we cared about, those approximations did not matter. You never saw the errors because they were so small. Now, mathematicians, astronomers, physicists and cosmologists are getting into some very, very strange and disturbing theories about the universe. They are nowhere near the classical Newtonian physics. However, Newtonian physics still predicts some things, like that apple or that cannon shot, extremely well. So, was Newton’s theory wrong? Or right?

I apologize about how long it has taken me to reach this point, but I am now getting to what I really wanted to discuss. This is what really upsets me when I hear religious fundamentalists or ideologue conservatives talk about something like evolution or global warming in absolute terms. They obviously do not understand the scientific method. They just do not. There are very, very few absolutes. Black/white answers are sometimes only aren’t possible; they are also a pipe dream. And something you may be absolutely certain about one day can crumble right before your eyes with the introduction of a new set of data. That does not mean you were totally incorrect! That just means you need to go back to the drawing board. Your theory may need just a tweak, or it may need to be totally scrapped. You don’t know until you start digging into it, armed with your newly acquired facts and data.

The one “criticism” that I hear about the theory of evolution is “It’s only a theory!” Of course it’s only a theory! Jeez. That’s a really, really dumb thing to say. So is the theory of gravity. Do you disagree that gravity exists? Of course not. But the explanation we currently have as to why gravity exists is incomplete. Those scientists and mathematicians who work out on the esoteric edges of their fields may feel they are getting close to having an answer (hint: it’s called M Theory and involves a universe made up of eleven dimensions), but they are not there yet. But that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a lot of the answers already worked out. “It’s only a theory!” is not a valid criticism! That’s how the process works! Anthropologists, geneticists and researchers in many other fields agree that evolution is a fact. They just cannot explain every aspect. There are still many unanswered questions. So what? That does not mean that the entire concept is wrong! It just means it is still a work in progress.

Another problem that seems to occur in today’s society is that we demand everything be “dumbed down” to the point that every single person feels that they must be able to understand something before they will admit it to be true. If they can’t understand it, then, by definition, it isn’t true. What hogwash. Experts in a field are experts for a reason; they know more than you do about something! That’s what makes them an expert! There is a reason it takes eight years plus to get through college and earn a Ph.D. in something. It’s complex! It’s difficult! Their conclusions do have more validity than yours do! You probably don’t know jack about the subject, if you really want to get to the heart of the matter.

Yet another problem is that many people seem to feel that they are free to disagree with a scientific conclusion if it doesn’t support their already set-in-concrete opinions. If science doesn’t come to the conclusion that they wanted it to, then it becomes “bad science.” The Earth’s climate is actually getting warmer, and the activities of mankind are a major contributing factor. The Earth is much, much older than 6000 years. Evolution in living things does indeed occur. Earth is not at the center of the universe, nor does the sun revolve around the Earth. On and on… Many people throughout history have taken a very dim view of scientific conclusions that are at odds with a position in which they have a vested interest (e.g., the Church, Galileo, and is the Earth at the center of the universe or not?). The scientific method does not care if you have just had the rug jerked out from beneath your feet. That's too bad, but that is your problem, not science's. Deal with it.

It does not matter to the scientific method what the answer turns out to be. You cannot dictate your preferred answers to the scientific method. That’s dishonest and manipulative. You must start with the question, make a hypothesis and then end up with a convincing answer! You cannot start with the answer first! Nor can you object to the facts and observations that the scientific method started from. The barn really is red. It is not green. To say otherwise is false and it makes the holder of such views look like an idiot. That is what bad science is; it is not science that doesn’t give you the answer you wanted.

In the last 25 years--but it has really picked up speed in the last 10 years--our society has devalued science and the answers it can provide. Sometimes we may not like the answer. That doesn’t mean science is somehow wrong or bad. It just means that we should probably either adjust our way of thinking or possibly do something to change the outcome that the scientific method is predicting. That might be anything from cutting the emissions of greenhouse gasses significantly to perhaps realizing that evolution is not necessarily in conflict with the existence of God.

What we have now is a society that values opinions more than answers reached by the scientific method. And, the current thinking goes, the more fervently you believe in something, the better chance it has of being true. This is not a good thing, to put it mildly. That is the way that civilizations collapse. They cannot cope with the reality that will ultimately come crashing down on their/our collective heads.


Photo from here.

THE SOLDIERS OF GLENN BECK: BEWARE THE EVANGELICAL RED GUARD

I have long maintained that religious extremism in America is every bit as dangerous as terrorism, and that it is, in fact a form of terrorism. The following analysis should make your hair stand on end:

Over the last 30 years Evangelical fundamentalists have managed to do what Chairman Mao failed to do with his Red Guards: indoctrinate a whole generation of evangelical people to see their own society as the enemy and act like subversives from within the culture. These people are as anti-American as Al-Qaeda. The "Christian Reconstruction" movement is working for theocracy. Reconstructionism (of which Gary North is one leader) says that the law given for the political and legal ordering of ancient Israel is intended for all people at all times.

Reconstructionist leader David Barton gives a definition:

"The Christian goal for the world is the universal development of Biblical theocratic republics, in which every area of life is redeemed and placed under the Lordship of Jesus Christ and the rule of God's law."

Frank Schaeffer also warns:

Those who say that the Religious Right and the far right have lost their power are looking through the lens of rule-obeying democratic liberalism. They don't understand that their opponents will always carry the proverbial lead pipe in his or her back pocket. To the progressives who think that the Religious Right and the right wing has lost its power I say this: You're correct when it comes to political facts (for the moment) of the last election, but you're dead wrong when it comes to the way revolutions work.

Who are Glenn Beck's foot soldiers? In effect what we have is a group of indoctrinated people who have never actually lived in America because they were brought up deliberately cloistered from it by their parents and churches. Because they are legally "Americans" they can move freely around our democracy trying to destroy it working within the United States. Today they are acting like a fifth column, no, they are a fifth column. Some of them have not just seceded metaphorically, there is even a growing movement for states to secede literally.

Today the right wing America haters actually are doing to America what no "illegal" immigrants ever do: work to overthrow our democracy and replace it with a theocracy. The home-schooled, privately educated brainwashed horde are an antidemocratic, fundamentally anti-American political movement. For a start they do not accept the results of the last election.

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/glenn-beck-and-the-912-ma_b_284387.html

Read the full story....

Cross posted at MadMikesAmerica and The Wulfshead

You know, this is all Ted Turner's fault.

He created the 24 hour a day news channel, CNN. Many people laughed at the concept when it was first introduced. I remember being skeptical. But look what has happened since then. At least, what, five all news channels (CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg), plus their spin-off such as Headline News and Fox Business Channel. Each is on a 24/7 news cycle, and the Beast must be fed. You must have content to fill up something like that, and they all must turn a profit. That's where you start playing to an audience to get the viewers, which brings in the $$$. News programs are now not really there to inform; they are there to entertain, to put notches in the belt of viewer demographic numbers, to be a steady income stream to their home corporations. This gives us Glenn Beck, Shaun Hannity, Lou Dobbs, Keith Olbermann, etc. etc. (I refuse to lump Rachel Maddow in there, because I think her program, although really slanted in the liberal direction, is there to inform and not just to inflame passions.) This process has turned our political process into one big carnival, including clowns and sideshow barkers. Informing the electorate of important issues is really not even on the radar screen anymore.

Thanks a whole goddam lot, Ted Turner. You should have stopped at colorizing movies.

Chicago does not get 2016 Olympics. Incredibly petty, small-minded, mean-spirited people are delirious.

There aren’t too many links I have seen today about the ridiculousness the some conservatives let loose when they discovered that “Obama lost the Olympics.” Here’s one from Balloon Juice, where the offices of the Weekly Standard “erupted in cheering” when the news was announced. Rachel Maddow put together a video segment of Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh crowed that it “the worst day in Obama’s presidency!” Beck was just positively giddy. Here’s a You Tube Link put up by The Young Turks of the same thing. If you want to see it, prepare to be nauseated.

These people are so lame. They hate President Obama so much they will cheer any setback, even if it means a rather large setback for the country as a whole as well. One can legitimately argue the merits of hosting an Olympic Games. There are some very valid concerns, such as cost overruns, recouping your investment, dealing with huge construction projects and traffic nightmares, security, and on and on. But one cannot argue that hosting an Olympics would have created lots of jobs in the Chicago area, and very quickly. It would have brought prestige to the city and the country. Yet, these nutjobs think this is the most wonderful thing that has happened in recent years.

I cannot begin to describe how incredibly stupid and mean-spirited these people look. They resemble nothing more than a bunch of junior high schoolers taking great joy in seeing a better looking, more popular rival fail. "Juvenile" is a word that comes to mind.

However, what these people seem to miss is the fact that President Obama isn’t somehow shamed. This is not a cause for embarrassment. Rio made a great proposal, and they won. South America hasn’t ever hosted an Olympics, and it is probably high time they did. The United States has hosted several in the last 30 years. And there’s this. Madrid didn’t get the Olympics either. Yet, the King of Spain made the trip on behalf of his country. Is he now somehow embarrassed, such that the King should slink away and go hide in a hole? No. The same reasoning applies to Spain and it does to the U.S.

I do think that many conservatives realize how stupid they look, and are maybe trying to dial back some. David Brooks had an interesting column in the NYT the other day. Lindsey Graham came out and said that Beck and Limbaugh are not good for the Republican Party, which I wholeheartedly agree with. But for now, we have this… spectacle of lunatics with national platforms going apeshit because they feel that President Obama has been embarrassed. They truly are scraping at the bottom of the barrel if they get that much unbridled joy out of this. I got rather sick to my stomach watching these cretins. How do they live with themselves?

We do know one thing about Glenn Back now that we didn't before. The next time we see him crying over something that has "upset" him, you know that Vicks Vap-O-Rub is involved.

Rightwing lunatics with a national platform are now calling for a military coup in the U.S.

From Crooks and Liars:

From John L. Perry at Newsmax:

There is a remote, although gaining, possibility America's military will intervene as a last resort to resolve the Obama problem. Don't dismiss it as unrealistic.

America isn't the Third World. If a military coup does occur here it will be civilized. That it has never happened doesn't mean it wont. Describing what may be afoot is not to advocate it. So, view the following through military eyes:

Did you get that? Perry doesn't advocate a military overthrow of the Obama administration, he's...just sayin'. Does anyone doubt that we'll see "military coup" signs at the next tea party? Mr. Perry believes he has the pulse of our military, but his assumptions go beyond the pale, straining the limits of credulity:

Top military officers can see the Constitution they are sworn to defend being trampled as American institutions and enterprises are nationalized.

They can see that Americans are increasingly alarmed that this nation, under President Barack Obama, may not even be recognizable as America by the 2012 election, in which he will surely seek continuation in office.

They can see that the economy ravaged by deficits, taxes, unemployment, and impending inflation is financially reliant on foreign lender governments.

I realize that pretty much 100% of my posting of late has been exlusively about how insane the conservatives of this country have become since Barack Obama became president. But I can't really seem to help myself. At first, I thought it was going to be fun to watch. Now, I just sit back and watch with dispair. I hadn’t realized how low what passes for rational discourse by what passes for rational adults could go. And, I am absolutely positive that it will continue to decline.

I just saw at Talking Points Memo that Newmax has taken down this post. And, of course, the author of this piece of dreck comes out with the same old song and dance. He wasn’t advocating a military coup. He was just talking about the possibility. Yeah. Uh-huh.

I just don’t get what these people think they are seeing. What could President Obama possibly be doing that would somehow justify a military coup? What? What has got these people so upset that they truly believe that the President of the United States is “trampling the Constitution?” What causes them to weep during townhalls and state that they “want their country back?” President Obama wants to make sure that everyone in the country has adequate healthcare coverage and that the current system doesn't drive the huge deficit even higher than it already is? That the President is trying to save the economy from going under like the Titanic after it hit that iceberg? What? Yeah, I understand all about racism masquareding as political protest. I understand sore losers who think that Republicans should win every single election. I understand people with an overblown sense of entitlement being upset when they see those entitlements slipping away from them. But really. Some of this stuff is absolutely crazy.

I have a question for these asshats. Well, I have several hundred, actually. It was somehow the end of the world when Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks said, while performing in London, that they were ashamed that President Bush was from Texas. But it’s O.K. to have web based polls to vote on whether Barack Obama should be killed? It’s O.K. to talk about secession from the country, which is about as un-patriotic as one can get, I would think. It’s fine to openly discuss the possibility of a military coup? Je-ZUZ. But the question I was thinking of is this. If somehow conservatives were successful in removing Barack Obama or getting him to step down, would they then be satisified with President Joe Biden? That would somehow make everything O.K.?

Captain Picard grabbed from Watertiger at Dependable Renegade.

Glenn Beck is given the key to the city in Mt. Vernon, Washington.

He also addressed a crowd of “about 7000” at Safeco Field in Seattle. I was very upset when I learned that Beck was from around here, Mt. Vernon being about 45 miles north of here.

I am not sure what it is about the Pacific Northwest that produces lunatics. However, I am convinced that we have more than our fair share. There was Ted Bundy, of course. He started his killing spree about 15 minutes away from where I work. And there was the Green River Killer, who worked about five miles away from where I work. And, more recently, there was the Washington D.C. sniper, who lived in Tacoma and actually bought his high powered rifle he used to pick off innocent people around D.C. while hiding in the truck of his car, specially modified for that purpose. And there was the lady (I believe she was a female) who wanted to kill her husband, so she tampered with a bunch of bottles of Tylenol, laced them with arsenic and put them back on store shelves, all to hid the crime of killing her husband. I also think the lesser known (nationally) Hillside Strangler in Spokane was originally from here. Ann Rule has made a good living writing about horrific criminals from here, including a book called the I-5 killer.

Personally, I think it has something to do with the weather here. Oh, much of the year, there is not a more beautiful place in the country. The mountains, forests and water make for some spectacular vistas. But the winter is another story altogether. It’s always overcast and dark, usually raining or in the process of either stopping or starting to rain. Everything’s always wet and slimey. It gets dark at about 4 p.m. It’s really damn depressing in November. That’s my theory anyway.

Now, what has all this to do with Glenn Beck? I’m just rambling, as I am certainly not trying to say that Beck is a mass murderer worthy of another book by Ann Rule. However, it is my contention that Beck is certainly rather unhinged. You only have to watch him on television or listen to some of his rants on his radio program to come to this conclusion. I think speaks volumes about our society today that this guy has both a national television and radio audience, he has a large and passionate following and he makes tons of money for the corporations he works for. In any sort of sane universe, this would not be so. Beck would be another nutjob wandering the streets, maybe down in Seattle’s Pioneer Square, yelling that the end is coming, and most people would try very hard not to make eye contact.

But no. This guy was given the key to the ciity of Mt. Vernon yesterday. Mt. Vernon is a nice little town. It is one of the largest growers of tulips in the world after Amsterdam and the rest of the Netherlands. It’s a nice rural smallish city with a hometown feel. And their mayor goes and gives Beck a huge honor.

Now, this is not to say that this all went off without any protests. I understand the town of Bellingham, in protest, gave a key to their city to Jon Stewart. According to this story in the Seattle Times, there were several hundred people who showed up to protest. I thought briefly about doing it, but quickly arrived at the conclusion that it was pointless. There is no arguing with a crazy person, and his supporters, who are all convinced that he is speaking “The Truth.” There’s nothing so pointless as arguing with true believers.

I just wanted to point out this paragraph from the story in the Seattle Times. It’s really too bad there wasn’t a picture of this.

Early Saturday evening, outside McIntyre Hall, Beck's supporters and critics mingled and occasionally broke into debate. Cars and trucks paraded down the street, with honking and jeering. One group made an enormous sign playing off the Mad Hatter pouring a cup of tea, only their sign said "Mad Hater" — a reference to Beck and the national "tea-party" protests.

This doesn’t really explain whether this group was a bunch of Beck supporters or protesters. If they were protesters, it was a good play on a theme and right to the point. However, given the atrocious spelling of the Tea Party protesters, there’s a good chance that this was a sign from Beck’s supporters and they didn't have a clue.

Photo from the Seattle Times. I particularly like the lady dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. Yes, I can see how someone calling the first black President a "racist" and "someone who hates white culture" and who helps circulate the rumor that President Obama desires to round people up based on their political affiliation and put them into interment camps is symbolic of liberty and freedom. "Give us your tired, your poor, your insane masses yearning to destroy everyone who holds opinions different than theirs..."

UPDATE: I would like to thank Bill Moyer, who is the Director of the Backbone Campaign. This is the organization that was responsible for the Mad Hater protest sign this last weekend. He was kind enough to comment on this post and give me a link to a photo of the sign that, unfortunately, the right-leaning Seattle Times didn't see fit to include in their print or web edition. Here is that photo. Thanks again to Mr. Moyer. Great sign. Perhaps I should have gone after all. It looks like I could have done some nice networking with non-insane people.

Want to bet anything on whether these people have read the "Consitution"?

Jeez, what is it with wingnut protesters who CANNOT SPELL?!?

Morans.

Photo from Blue Gal.

A very angry, anonymous video blogger (with a very cute accent) takes apart Kirk Cameron.

Please check out this link. This is really funny and really good at the same time.

I didn't realize that Kirk Cameron (who was hardly on my radar anyway) is now somehow the spokesman for creationism. Watch this lady take him apart, piece by piece.

(One of these days, I am going to take the time to figure out how to download You Tube videos and embed them directly into my posts here. But, until then, just click the link. It's worthwhile.)

Republican Party = Old Confederate States of America?

Certainly seems that way to me. Now, we have some actual polling data that sort of confirms that. From Daily Kos via Washington Monthly.



Look closely. See? That's like a whole lot of people who don't live in the South that don't look too favorably toward the Republican Party.

Oh, wait. That graphs seems to have left out Hawaii and Alaska. I am sure that will balance things out…. Not.

I really am curious about how long this situation can sustain itself. I really don’t think a one party system is healthy for the country. Will the sane, moderate conservatives (and liberals, for that matter) ever put together a viable alternative to the Republican Party? Could we go with version 2.0 of the Bull Moose Party? We certainly have our present-day version of the Know-Nothing Party.

UPDATE: Thinking about this graph got me wondering. I certainly trust Markos at DailyKos to hire someone that will use very scrupulous polling methods to come up with data like this. However, this does seem a little too far in the way of people not trusting the Republican Party. Those are huge numbers. I am wondering if those are really reflective of reality. For example, the deep south, I would have thought the numbers would have been about 80% Trust Republicans and 20% Doesn't Trust Republicans. From what I hear about places like Arkansas, I am not sure this graph really reflects the true feelings out there. But, it is hopeful. If everyone in the "Doesn't trust Republicans" camp either votes Democratic or doesn't vote at all, then maybe 2010 isn't looking as dire as it is currently sounding for the Dems.

"God, I LOVE gruel!"

"I wonder if da peeple of Californiya wood like it too?"

This here is what's known, in common parlance, as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy.

From Crooks and Liars:

Tammy Bruce, last night on The O'Reilly Factor (talking about President Obama):

Bruce: But ultimately, it comes down to his inability to govern, and the fact that he seems to have, it seems to me, some malevolence toward this country, which is unabated.

Yeah. Anytime President Obama does or says ANYTHING, the conservatives mobilize their shock troops, who go absolutely bat-shit crazy. Insane people, egged on by conservative pundits such as the aforementioned O'Reilly and Bruce, freaking out, carrying guns to town hall meetings, certainly demonstrates President Obama's "inability to govern" and "malevolence toward this country", doesn't it?

What are these idiots looking at that allows them to come up with such harebrained conclusions that President Obama hates white people or has "malevolence" toward the country that just elected him President? That is just so insane... You know, it used to be that people trying to sell a lie would have to at least make it somewhat plausible. Now, they just pull anything they feel like out of their butts and spout it on national television.

Zoinks!!

“Let’s get out of here, Scoob! It’s that horrible fiend, the obamanible Healthcare Reform Ghost! He kills old people and little dogs, and he’s also a socialist!”

(I assume that everyone remembers how every single episode of the original Scooby Doo ended, with the monster/ghost being unmasked to be one of the main players in the game who had an interest in scaring everyone off. Now, who might that be….? This sort of ruins the joke, explaining everything, but sometimes I am rather obtuse. I hate being the only one who gets one of my jokes.)

No one ever said that protesters had to make sense.

From The Denialism Blog, here's a fine picture from yesterday's "9/12" rally, which was to protest... something. Apparently, a lot of people don't think that everyone in the country should have access to health insurance whose company can't just drop their coverage for whatever reason they want. And there are some people who don't like deficits. But only under a Democratic administration, of course. Deficits were fine under George Bush. And some people apparently don't like Muslims. Or Hitler. Or socialism. Or communism. Or fascism.

But what the hey, it seemed like a nice day to have a mass demonstration. Did you know that Freedom Works (run by ex- Republican majority whip Dick Armey) was a big sponsor of yesterday's demonstrations, and they were actually charging other organizations for participating? So I heard on Rachel Maddow. Yep, really a grass roots affair.

New photo from the updated Hubble Telescope.

Since we seem to be on a space kick, both real and fictional, here's a newly released photo from NASA taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Astounding. This photo is a Portrait of Stephan's Quintet, also known as the Hickson Compact Group 92. Please check out this link to see more photos.

You know, there is an analogy for something in here somewhere.

In memory of those no longer with us.

Some amazing photos from the last Space Shuttle mission to the International Space Station.

Notice the person in the space suit working on the ISS in the fourth picture. Look directly at the center of the picture. He is rather difficult to see if you aren't looking. That must be quite a rush.










UPDATE: When I said "last" in the title of this post, I didn't mean "the last mission." I meant, "the most recent." The last one should be coming soon enough. I will have a post in the near future about NASA and the future of the U.S. in space.

"I'm here to kick butt and mind meld. And I don't meld with imbeciles."

For Oso, who asked for this.

I wonder what the next right wing freak-out will be after Obama’s speech to students?

I am just in awe of how insane certain elements of this country are. (By "certain elements", I am referring to the 20% of the population who is hard core conservative and willing to believe absolutely anything about a Democrat, no matter how ridiculous, and pretty much 100% of the wingnut bloggers and radio/television hosts, along with most of their guests.) I am not going to rehash the whole discussion. I am sure everyone knows about it already. (If, on the other hand, aren’t an American and don’t know what I am talking about, well… I would forget about it. It isn’t worth your time to understand.)

Here’s a link to a web video on Crooks and Liars on a segment that Keith Olbermann had on his show. (I believe I have the ability to embed videos on this blog. However, since I have never tried, I am not really feeling up to trying it now. Just click the link.) It’s a short compilation about the crazy things that many right wing media personalities said about Obama’s speech. I mean, these folks sounded unhinged before the speech itself. Now that it is over, they REALLY look insane. But you know how it goes. Tomorrow, everything will be forgotten, no one will ever express any embarrassment or contrition, and they will all move on to the next “issue” they can get outraged about.

The absolute craziness aside, the hypocrisy is stunning. I remember a time, not that long ago, where wearing a T-shirt or holding a sign that contained anything critical of the Bush administration or their policies (e.g., No War In Iraq!) could get you arrested if you happened to be in the "wrong place", such as a public store in a mall or within sight of a presidential motorcade. Yet, these lunatics can get on national TV and call the current president a racist, compare him to Hitler, say he isn’t really an American citizen, say that he is willfully destroying our country, that he desires to set up detention camps for conservatives… Insane.

These people are also quite willing to forget about or attempt to rewrite very recent history. One of the latest boogiemen seems to be the “czars” within the Obama administration. The conveniently forget that Nixon started the concept and it was used and expanded under every president since then, including Republican presidents, including “St. Reagan.” They pretend they don’t remember that Republican presidents, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II also addressed school kids, without any sort of freak out happening, even when Reagan used the opportunity to push tax cuts.

I don’t know if racism is really at the heart of the Great Pandemonium regarding President Obama, as many leftist bloggers are suggesting. No doubt, some of that is true. I tend to think, however, they would have done this freak out no matter which Democrat became president. If Hillary Clinton was president instead of Barack Obama, I firmly believe these idiots would be doing their best impression of Dwight Frye as Renfield in the original Dracula (he was the bloke that went insane and kept eating flys and spiders) to try to destroy her. The target itself doesn’t really matter. It’s the fact that a target exists.

I am past the point of anger and frustration at these lunatics. I think I have now officially reached despondency. I don’t see these people ever pulling back, ever changing their tactics. Their entire reason for existence is to destroy “the enemy.” When their enemy is the democratically elected government of the United States, it seems this country has no chance whatsoever to actually ever address any of the myriad of problems that we face. Everyone is too busy reacting to and fending off the Beserker hoards.

What a country…

(Great visual image copped from Watertiger at Dependable Renegade, link at right.)

You have GOT to be kidding me!!

It’s as if the financial institutions of this country didn’t learn a single thing from the very recent almost complete meltdown of the economy that started with repackaging very suspect housing loans as financial instruments by which lots of people thought they could make lots of money, without really thinking about what exactly made up those financial instruments. Now, we have these same people doing this (via Balloon Juice):

After the mortgage business imploded last year, Wall Street investment banks began searching for another big idea to make money. They think they may have found one.

The bankers plan to buy “life settlements,” life insurance policies that ill and elderly people sell for cash — $400,000 for a $1 million policy, say, depending on the life expectancy of the insured person. Then they plan to “securitize” these policies, in Wall Street jargon, by packaging hundreds or thousands together into bonds. They will then resell those bonds to investors, like big pension funds, who will receive the payouts when people with the insurance die.

The earlier the policyholder dies, the bigger the return — though if people live longer than expected, investors could get poor returns or even lose money.

Well, not only does hoping that people die earlier than later so the buyers of these instruments can make lots of money seem extremely immoral and unethical, it would seem there are quite a lot of ways for this to go wrong, such that even MORE institutions lose lots of money playing around in things they don’t understand.

It’s also incredibly tone deaf. These people seem to have no understanding of the world that is going on around them. As I said, people are buying up these insurance policies for the sole purpose of making money, and (it goes without saying) as much money as possible. To do that, they really want the actual people holding these policies to die as soon as possible. Which would mean, if, say, someone who had a big stake in these kinds of financial instruments ALSO had a controlling interest in either a large healthcare organization or a insurance company, it would seem that there would be a huge incentive for those companies to REALLY start withholding medical coverage and denying insurance claims.

But Obama has “Death Panels”, and that’s all that matters, I guess. Obama wants to kill your grandmother…

This country is insane.

Well, I'm going to spend my day indoctrinating the impressionable youth of this country.

I'm going to spend the day officiating some high school volleyball. Officiating high school sports is something I do to get out of the house in the fall and winter and to be "someone else" than that person who always goes to work and sits at that desk. But, of course, I am going to CONTINUE to use the opportunity to indoctrinate our impressionable youth with evil, liberalistic secularism, such as playing by the rules ("No. See, when the ball lands OUTSIDE the lines, it is called "out" and the other team then gets the ball."), respecting one's teammates, coaches, officials and opponents, being able to accomplish something (such as playing varsity sports in high school) only after many long and hard hours of practice and putting your priority list into place that supports your desires. You know, all that evil stuff that Republicans apparently hate.

If I discover that if anyone on the court has parents that are Republicans, I am, of course, going to give them a Red Card. Because that is what us liberals do.

The Second Amendment, applied to today's society.

Commenter Snorghagen at Sady, No!, pegged this absolutely correctly. Here is the updated reading of the Second Amendment.

The Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States is quite clear on this subject:

A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of demented reactionary whackjobs to keep and bear arms to prevent imaginary attacks from non-existent boogeymen shall not be infringed or questioned or anything and they can do whatever they want and it’s all totally OK because if anything bad happens it was the other guy’s fault anyway.

How else can we explain these nuts who bring loaded guns, including assault rifles, to town hall meetings?

The darker side of Walt Disney.

Here, Walt poses with the original prototype of his Phased Plasma Proton Blaster. After plans were dropped to use this prototype in THE SHAGGY DOG to vaporize Tommy Kirk, it was later sold to Warner Brothers in a lot sale. It was later used on screen by Wily E. Coyote and also Marvin the Martian.

Photo still of Invisible Invaders, from the B Movie Graveyard.

"It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

I recently realized that most of my posting of late isn’t really about politics. It’s about my continuing astonishment and anger about how stupid Americans are, as a people and as a society. Certainly, there are very large numbers of very intelligent and articulate people in the U.S., of all shapes and sizes, genders, and political persuasion.

Some people, including myself at times, might mistake my meanderings and rants at this blog to be against Republicans or conservatives in general. And I, no doubt, help confuse this issue with how I label those I am complaining about. Truthfully, I have absolutely no problem with people who have different opinions than I do. I may not understand why people don’t see things the same way I do, but I accept that this will always be true.

What I do demand, and what is at my heart of my discontent with today’s society, is that everyone start from an easily agreed to set of facts, and then they apply logic and deductive reasoning to those facts. And that is what is missing today. That is what I am really upset about. I don’t care if a Republican or a Democrat is being a dumbass. Anyone taking liberties with logic and coming to your (desired) conclusion first and then finding “facts” to support your decision is wrong. Just flat-out wrong.

So, with that, here is another aspect of our society that really has me worried. That is, our society is setting the latest generation of young people loose on the world without educating them. I mean, really educating them. Memorizing facts and learning to take tests is not education. Education is teaching young people to think logically and methodically to solve problems. That is true whether you are talking about a physics problem or figuring out how to lay out a term paper. Kids need to know what the scientific process is and how it works, not be made to memorize the periodic table. You will always have access to a periodic table if you need one. You will rarely have someone around who will help you walk through an exercise in problem solving. Kids need to have an understanding of history and why that history is relevant. They do not need to memorize a bunch of names and dates that have absolutely no relevance or even context in their lives.

Teachers have it tough. They are underpaid, underappreciated and overworked. I am not bashing teachers. Administrators, maybe, get some of the blame for the poor job, collectively, that schools do when they turn out masses of undereducated people who are not prepared for life in open society. Administrators can certainly make some bad decisions regarding priorities and staffing. Those in charge of setting policy, such as mandatory testing without understanding the reason behind that testing, are absolutely part of the problem. Those who control the purse strings are sometimes to blame, sometimes not. There is little that school administrations can do if the community they serve doesn’t fund the school adequately. There are many culprits, it seems. There is no one person in any single school district that you could point at and say, “This is all your fault!” It isn’t set up like that. Yet, the results are the same and they are getting worse.

Here is part of an article I found (h/t to part-time posting partner Philm Phan) on SFGate on this subject. The author explores this subject and comes to some very unsettling conclusions. I hope this guy’s friend he was talking with is just being really over-the-top about this, because I certainly am not happy with some of his observations.

I have this ongoing discussion with a longtime reader who also just so happens to be a longtime Oakland high school teacher, a wonderful guy who's seen generations of teens come and generations go and who has a delightful poetic sensibility and quirky outlook on his life and his family and his beloved teaching career.

And he often writes to me in response to something I might've written about the youth of today, anything where I comment on the various nefarious factors shaping their minds and their perspectives and whether or not, say, EMFs and junk food and cell phones are melting their brains and what can be done and just how bad it might all be.

His response: It is not bad at all. It's absolutely horrifying.

My friend often summarizes for me what he sees, firsthand, every day and every month, year in and year out, in his classroom. He speaks not merely of the sad decline in overall intellectual acumen among students over the years, not merely of the astonishing spread of lazy slackerhood, or the fact that cell phones and iPods and excess TV exposure are, absolutely and without reservation, short-circuiting the minds of the upcoming generations. Of this, he says, there is zero doubt.

Nor does he speak merely of the notion that kids these days are overprotected and wussified and don't spend enough time outdoors and don't get any real exercise and therefore can't, say, identify basic plants, or handle a tool, or build, well, anything at all. Again, these things are a given. Widely reported, tragically ignored, nothing new.

No, my friend takes it all a full step — or rather, leap — further. It is not merely a sad slide. It is not just a general dumbing down. It is far uglier than that.

We are, as far as urban public education is concerned, essentially at rock bottom. We are now at a point where we are essentially churning out ignorant teens who are becoming ignorant adults and society as a whole will pay dearly, very soon, and if you think the hordes of easily terrified, mindless fundamentalist evangelical Christian lemmings have been bad for the soul of this country, just wait.

It's gotten so bad that, as my friend nears retirement, he says he is very seriously considering moving out of the country so as to escape what he sees will be the surefire collapse of functioning American society in the next handful of years due to the absolutely irrefutable destruction, the shocking — and nearly hopeless — dumb-ification of the American brain. It is just that bad.

Now, you may think he's merely a curmudgeon, a tired old teacher who stopped caring long ago. Not true. Teaching is his life. He says he loves his students, loves education and learning and watching young minds awaken. Problem is, he is seeing much less of it. It's a bit like the melting of the polar ice caps. Sure, there's been alarmist data about it for years, but until you see it for yourself, the deep visceral dread doesn't really hit home.

He cites studies, reports, hard data, from the appalling effects of television on child brain development (i.e.; any TV exposure before 6 years old and your kid's basic cognitive wiring and spatial perceptions are pretty much scrambled for life), to the fact that, because of all the insidious mandatory testing teachers are now forced to incorporate into the curriculum, of the 182 school days in a year, there are 110 when such testing is going on somewhere at Oakland High. As one of his colleagues put it, "It's like weighing a calf twice a day, but never feeding it."

But most of all, he simply observes his students, year to year, noting all the obvious evidence of teens' decreasing abilities when confronted with even the most basic intellectual tasks, from understanding simple history to working through moderately complex ideas to even (in a couple recent examples that particularly distressed him) being able to define the words "agriculture," or even "democracy." Not a single student could do it.

It gets worse. My friend cites the fact that, of the 6,000 high school students he estimates he's taught over the span of his career, only a small fraction now make it to his grade with a functioning understanding of written English. They do not know how to form a sentence. They cannot write an intelligible paragraph. Recently, after giving an assignment that required drawing lines, he realized that not a single student actually knew how to use a ruler.

It is, in short, nothing less than a tidal wave of dumb, with once-passionate, increasingly exasperated teachers like my friend nearly powerless to stop it. The worst part: It's not the kids' fault. They're merely the victims of a horribly failed educational system.

Then our discussion often turns to the meat of it, the bigger picture, the ugly and unavoidable truism about the lack of need among the government and the power elite in this nation to create a truly effective educational system, one that actually generates intelligent, thoughtful, articulate citizens.


Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgibin/article.cgif=/gate/a/2007/10/24/notes102407.DTL#ixzz0NFT2TcSM

Here’s a statement that captures the essence of today’s conservatives.

From Huffington Post:

The conservative movement did not believe that Barack Obama could get elected, and like a beast who is cornered and threatened with its own mortality, it is raging. Nobody could have imagined the conditions today last year when everyone was frantically Googling Sarah Palin; that she and McCain would have been roundly defeated, that the country would have elected Barack Obama, that she would not even last one term as governor, and that such ugliness would have awakened in American politics.

Amen.

Oh, Governor Huckabee! You’ve just been gonged!!

From Washington Monthly

Conservative media figures are blasting Democrats for trying to draw political gain from the death of Senator Ted Kennedy. But on Thursday, it was one of their own -- former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee -- who went there.

The 2008 Republican presidential candidate suggested during his radio show, "The Huckabee Report," on Thursday that, under President Obama's health care plan, Kennedy would have been told to "go home to take pain pills and die" during his last year of life.

"[]It was President Obama himself who suggested that seniors who don't have as long to live might want to consider just taking a pain pill instead of getting an expensive operation to cure them," said Huckabee. "Yet when Sen. Kennedy was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer at 77, did he give up on life and go home to take pain pills and die? Of course not. He freely did what most of us would do. He choose an expensive operation and painful follow up treatments. He saw his work as vitally important and so he fought for every minute he could stay on this earth doing it. He would be a very fortunate man if his heroic last few months were what future generations remember him most for."

You know, I also believe that President Obama said that when the flying saucer people land (and they will, make no mistake about that), then they will let us use their death ray guns to vaporize anyone that didn’t vote for him for president. Yes, I am fairly positive he said that.

I am extremely depressed to discover that we have so many Neanderthals living in the U.S. today.

I imagine Neanderthals to be very short tempered, brutish, extremely territorial, suspicious of anything new or novel to the nth degree, and when they react negatively to something, they go all-out. They have little use for the basics of social decorum. No, when they want someone to know they are unhappy or upset, nothing else than a full-fledged episode of rock throwing and club bashing will do.

Neanderthals also can’t read and their skills at logical reasoning stops with figuring out how to bring down a woolly mammoth with a bunch of spears. They are easily goaded into fits of anger and righteous indignation by tribal leaders who also offer no sense of rationality or common sense.

The tendancy for Neanderthals to totally wig out and lose all semblance of rationality leads them to take the following actions:

• Declare that attempting to ensure that all Americans have adequate health care coverage is JUST LIKE what the Nazis did during WWII when over six million Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals and other "undesirables" were systematically murdered.

• Carry loaded guns to meeting places where President Obama is speaking. (Remember that people were arrested just for carrying protest signs within a block of where President Bush was.)

• Declare that Obama and the Democrats are just chomping at the bit to be able to set up death panels where they can declare that your elderly grandmother should be denied any more care and be left to die, to declare a phamplet written under under the Clinton Adminstration and updated under the Bush Administration for vets about end of life issues is now Obama’s Death Book which encourages veteran to kill themselves.

• Believe that breaking all sorts of laws and treaties to torture people who might be suspected of having any sort of ties to terrorism is fine, but looking into those crimes is a terrible idea.

• Oppose any sort of action that is proposed by President Obama or the Democrats, just because those people have been identified as “The Enemy”, even for those actions that would provide many benefits to the Neanderthals themselves.

Etc. etc. I just don’t have the heart to keep going. It’s all very, very depressing to live in a country whose population seems to include a large majority of Neanderthals. I just didn’t realize the situation we were all in. I had thought that Neanderthals had gone extinct long ago. Imagine my dismay when I discovered that I was very wrong.

Photo from here.

"I have given up hope for a loyal opposition. I'd settle for a sane one."

That is a line from a blog post from Michelle Cottle, via Washington Monthly.

My thoughts exactly. I apologize for having a difficult time getting off this particular subject, but this is really one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. One of our two major political parties seems to have lost its collective mind and has given itself completely into public displays of hysteria on a daily basis. They turn around and accuse Democrats of doing everything that they, themselves, are doing. They contradict themselves with ease, apparently not remembering that these days everything is captured on video or print and readily available on the web. They elevate the “common man or woman”, such as Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber and put them on a pedestal while their senior, experienced politicians are put out to pasture, either voluntarily or forcibly. Intelligence, rational discourse and calmness are regarded with suspicion. The gut rules all, and its edicts must be followed.

The one unwritten/unspoken rule, as far as I can tell, that guides the actions of the Republican Party these days is if the Democrats are for/against something, then the Republicans are absolutely required to go ballistic and be against/for that same thing, every single time. Facts do not matter, common sense does not matter. There is no small issue. Everything must be fought to the death. Given that rule, then cooperation between the parties becomes absolutely impossible. The fact that the Democrats convincingly won the last two national elections has not made an impression at all. They still believe that they should be running the show, regardless of the election results, and are in the process of holding their breath until they turn blue until they get their way.

In addition to all of this, the country seems to have elected a black man as President. Many in this country view this as a positive step. However, for a great percentage of the Republican Party, this is nothing short of a catastrophe. All the racism that bubbled just underneath the surface of the Republican Party is now in full eruption. If we aren’t careful, this eruption, just like Mt. Vesuvius, threatens to bury everything in its path. This could very easily get out of hand and we could end up reliving the 1960’s.

I wish I had something insightful to say about all this. However, by training, I am an engineer, not a psychologist or sociologist. Engineers are trained to deal with facts and to solve problems based on those facts. We tend to have a hard time trying to solve problems based on emotion and a distortion of facts. In fact, that seems like the definition of insanity. To me, this country seems to be on something of a death spiral and I have no idea how we are going to get out of this.

Picture from Dependable Renegade.

“T’was Beauty that killed the Beast.”

"Hi! What's your sign? "Yield"? Haha. Yep, I'm a little tired from fighting that T. Rex last night. He called me a "big ape" and I whupped him good. I don't take that from no one. Um. Would you like to come back to my cave and see my etchings? They're really big."

I’ll give it to Kong, he had very nice taste in blondes. I think this is a knockout photo of Fay Wray. But really, I always found Kong’s leering response, even as an 11 year old, pretty damn embarrassing. That whole concept of Kong and Ann Darrow, well, it was all rather disturbing.

I’ve been on a business trip for the last week. I’ll try to think of something interesting here sometime this weekend.