The road to you know where is paved with you know what

Meet Glenn Beck. Glenn Beck is a blowhard right-wing partisan puppet, whose sole joy in life, so it would seem, is to bash on those on the opposite aisle of his own politics and spout rhetoric. At least, until "his" side starts acting in collusion and following the practices of the other side. Then what is a "conservative" Republican hack (who used to express a different brand of conservatism before he made it to the national stage and being "ultra" this or that became en vogue...but that's neither here or there) to do? Why - play the "Today I'm a Moderate Who Must Heed the Call to Lamely Warn of the Evils of Socialization of Industry by Ripping-Off a Well Known Work of Popular Fiction" game, of course:

Dear America:
Happy 300th Birthday!
It's 2076 and we've just invented the time-fax machine. (Actually, "we" didn't invent the time-fax machine, the State did -- they pretty much control everything now.)
I'm faxing this back to you in 2008 because that seems to be the year we had the best chance to reverse our course and get back to the vision laid out by our founding fathers -- a vision that didn't include the government being in the insurance business.
I don't have a lot of time (the State only gives us one 30-minute break per day) so let me give you some advice: Stop worrying so much about who runs the country and start worrying about who runs your towns, your states, and your Congress.
I know you're all distracted by the presidential election, but for all the money and time poured into it, the truth is that you're choosing between two roads that will lead you to the same destination. Sure, one may be the Autobahn and the other a two-lane highway, but you'll end up at the same place either way.
Decades of Republicans and Democrats alike have all chipped in to lead you to where you are today. Believing that one person, from either party, can change that by themselves is a big mistake.
Presidents are like captains of a large ship: They can map out a course and shout out orders, but without the trust and hard work of the people who actually move the rudders, their commands mean nothing.
In retrospect, the lack of trust and confidence you now have in your leaders was really the root cause of everything that's happened since. While our founding fathers designed a brilliant system of checks and balances, separation of powers and democratic elections, trust was the one thing they couldn't mandate in the Constitution.
Unfortunately, it's also the foundation upon which everything else is built and once it began to erode, our whole house inevitably began to crumble.
Looking back now, it's pretty obvious that our trust in government declined at about the same rate as our partisanship increased. People became so concerned about getting their party into power at any cost that the truth didn't even seem to matter anymore.
That's probably one of the reasons why George Washington hated the idea of political parties so much. Here's what he said about them in his 1796 farewell speech:
"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty."
I know that George had a habit for using big words, so allow me to translate into 2008 English: Political parties that put their own success over that of the country's will be the death of America.
If you don't believe him yet, just wait a few more years...you're about to see firsthand how right he was. After all, if power corrupts, then the kind of absolute power gained by political parties (and feared by Washington) corrupts absolutely.
The best advice I can give you is to stop thinking in terms of left and right and start thinking in terms of right and wrong. Demand the best leaders possible, and then demand the best out of them.
Believe me, when you see what's coming your way, you'll realize how little the donkey and the elephant really ever mattered. Oh and while we're on politics, one quick thing that I'm sure you're curious about: Yes, Robert Byrd is still in the Senate. He's 159, but doesn't look a day over 91.
Now, let's talk about the economy. Let me see if I have this right: Money and power made people greedy, so you decided to hand over a bunch of money and power to greedy politicians instead. Smart! After using that money to nationalize a bunch of banks, mortgage companies and insurance companies, they moved on to bigger things.
The airlines came first -- we just couldn't live without them. Then it was the automakers (Detroit would've died), health care (they said they could manage it better), and eventually, the oil companies (I'm not sure where all of those "windfall profits" have gone).
The idea behind it all (an idea that was eventually turned into law with the passage of the Securities Exchange Act of 2011) was to "socialize losses" by spreading them out among all taxpayers. The pain, our leaders argued, would be minimal that way.
They were right. At least until the bills came due. See, we didn't actually have any of the money we were promising everyone; we were borrowing it.
It didn't take long before so many of our tax dollars were going toward interest payments that we couldn't fund even the most basic of government programs without massive tax increases on everyone. People now work most of the year just to pay Uncle Sam (or, as we now call him, "Comrade Sam").
I hear the State censors coming, so let me leave you with a few other quick things:
• Good call on not worrying about protecting our borders. That works out really well for you in 2019.
• You might want to spend a little less time worrying about carbon and a little more time worrying about Iran. We're now in a new mini-Ice Age but, believe me, Iran isn't using their nukes to warm any homes. (PS The International Atomic Energy Agency just revealed to you that Iran appears to be refitting their long-range missiles to carry nuclear payloads. Did you think they were joking or were you just too busy with lipsticks and pigs to notice?)
• The currency of the future is energy. Those who have it are thriving and those who don't -- well, let's just leave it at that. Drill for all the oil you can, but you also better start seriously looking for some other options.

In closing, remember this golden rule and you should be fine: Your Constitution will never fail you, but your leaders will. Be wary of anyone who tries to convince you that it's the other way around.

Best wishes (you're going to need them),
Worker 2744A

PS It's not all socialist doom and gloom here in the future. We just thawed Ted Williams' cryogenically frozen body and he hit 87 home runs for the North Team!

Yes. I did just post the whole freaking text. If CNN or Glenn Beck want me to remove said text, they are welcome to contact me to make that request.

I'm not for the bailout either, but aside from this being a Democratic-leadership approved endeavor, both Bush and McCain and numerous Republicans in Congress AND the Senate were also supportive enough to get this "rescue" measure passed. Those same can-do-no-wrong Republicans whose butts Beck, O'Reilly, Rush, Malkin, Coulter and the rest of the right's media representative's noses have been up relentlessly for quite a few troubled years now. It was those same members of the "fiscally conservative" right-wing MSM who decried Barack Obama's candidacy and platform "Socialism in action", and predicted the downfall of the free market if he were elected President. Well guess what? The GW Bush era beat him to it. That's George W. Bush's legacy - a failure of the "war on terror", a failure in the economy, a failure of national security, and a failure in uniting Americans under the auspices of what this country stands for and what makes it GREAT. So my children, and their children in turn, thank you for the debt and national economic instability that they will get to look forward to as part of their futures. So I guess no matter who gets elected, that person has the challenge of attempting to fix what is fundamentally wrong with the nation. I wish that candidate luck, because if they can't get us out of the tank in four years, you better believe their opposition (and most of "Average Joe Six-Pack" America) will be baying for blood by the end of their term.

Speaking of the election - I saw a new McCain/Palin ad last night. The new slogan was "Change Is Coming". Oh yes. It is. I have the facts and I'm voting YES. Or NO...depending on whose version of "change" I'm being asked to buy into. Who else is awaiting the VP debates tonight with a mixture of glee and dread? I don't forsee much of a battle of wits (one would have to have "wits" in order to have such a battle, no?). More like tiger feeding time at the Roman Coliseum.

This is hardly the time for thought provoking introspection

Questions recently posted on one of the blogs where I lurk when I should be doing other things:

1. Is your life going the way you want it to go?

The answer to this question very much depends on the day that it is being asked. In general, I'd say yes, since I don't struggle against the proverbial current. I let life just kind of happen for the most part: I work hard, try to appreciate what I've got, and try not to take too much for granted. However - this week, between family medical crises, my son losing school work (gah! It's only 1st grade!?), my work induced malaise from a seemingly stalled and increasingly less than challenging job...the odds in the celestial dice roll have not been in my favor.

2. Are you currently pursuing your dreams, living life with purpose and passion?

What are these 'dreams' of which you speak? I don't really do a lot of dreaming, aside from planning vacations (and there are far too few of those). I used to have big dreams, but the crushing weight of adulthood kind of quashed a lot of my more unrealistic aspirations, and I've never really posessed a lot of what some people call ambition. You know what I've always wanted, though? A horse. Just one. Not even a very big one. Something nice...not too fancy.
(Yeah, I know. In the words of Juno: "Whoa. Dream Big.")

3. Is your life all it could be, all it should be and more?

This is starting to sound like a recruitment drive for some obscure branch of the military. All of a sudden I feel like running off and joining the French Foreign Legion.

4. Or is there something missing?

Or? Is there. Seriously, though...Sometimes I have moments of second guessing or discontentment about the path my life has followed. I never pictured my life *exactly* this way. But I think everyone probably experiences this, so I don't tend to dwell or get bogged down in regrets.

5. Are there things you'd dearly love to change but have never got around to changing?

Sure. I should go back to school. But guess what. I'm lazy. And I don't enjoy scructured education. I should lose weight. Again - laziness. And a lifestyle that makes shedding pounds with ease a little bit of a challenge.

So there you are. Answers. Of a sort. Probably not the best or most thought out, but answers nontheless.

Fly me to the moon...but don't let me forget my parka.

(I have no idea what that post title has to do with what I'm talking about, except for the fact that it is going on the second day in a row without coffee...I must be delirious)

In the midst of news of tumbling markets, failed billion dollar corporate bailouts, and Washington politics as usual, the news of possible snow on Mars barely registered on my news radar. But there it was, a faint blip this morning:

NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has discovered evidence of past water at its Martian landing site and spotted falling snow for the first time, scientists reported Monday.

With summer waning, less sunlight is reaching the spacecraft's solar panels on Mars.

Soil experiments revealed the presence of two minerals known to be formed in liquid water. Scientists identified the minerals as calcium carbonate, found in limestone and chalk, and sheet silicate.

But exactly how that happened remains a mystery.

"It's really kind of all up in the air," said William Boynton, a mission scientist at the University of Arizona at Tucson.

A laser aboard the Phoenix recently detected snow falling from clouds more than two miles above its home in the northern arctic plains. The snow disappeared before reaching the ground.

Read the rest of the report at CNN.com...

Also in science news today, the Gray wolf is making the threatened species list once again in the Great Lakes region, which warrants suspension of nuisance predator licenses that had been granted to farmers through state wildlife management. The species now inhabits a slim percentage of its historical range in the United States. This makes me sad...

This just in! The new James Bond movie has a stupid, ambiguous title! Who do we blame? The movie's star: "Daniel Craig chose the name of the forthcoming James Bond movie Quantum of Solace - because he didn't want a grisly title with "death" in it. The British actor rejected several potential names during a brainstorming session with producers - before insisting they go with the title of a short story by Bond creator Ian Fleming. And he is adamant it was the right move - even though some movie critics have panned the name. Craig tells Britain's GQ magazine, "I was involved in making the decision. Names were coming out, some ludicrous stuff was going back and forth - I can't remember exactly, but you know the sort of thing: 'The Blood On Your Face'. "I knew I didn't want 'death', 'die', 'bleed' or any of those things in the title." But the actor admits that in the great tradition of Bond movies, the film's title is often meaningless. He adds, "As soon as it came out, people were saying, 'Ooh, it sounds like Harry Potter'. No, it's Quantum of Solace. I was saying, 'It's a Bond title!' "The name of a Bond film is not about anything. Live And Let Die? Octopussy? What does it mean? It means very little."

(By the way, one interpretation I saw for the title was "The smallest amount of comfort that can exist independently"...and several parody songs playing on the film's title are flying around the 'tubes these days.)

And also, here's to a blessed Rosh Hashana for my kosher friends!

It's all in the reflexes.

I spent Friday night being driven all over M's stomping grounds looking for something to do. Since malls universally never seem to want to be open past 9 pm, we ended up seeing a late showing of The Dark Knight. It was...intense (I thought about shielding my eyes at least once), and Heath Ledger was amazing. We acted like children after the movie had let out and took pictures with the promotional stand-ups for the coming attractions. It's kind of a tradition, at this point.

Saturday I was introduced to Wii Sports, and spent part of an afternoon trying to avoid being outscored by a 14 year old and a 6 year old. Yesterday my husband and I went to Toys-r-Us to get my son an MP3 player for our road trip later this month. The MP3 player I wanted to get was sold out. But they had something else that caught my husband's eye. The Wii's were in stock. For how long, we didn't know - so we gave in to the desire to impulse buy and got a Wii system, plus the Wii Play with additional games to get a second remote. My son was very surprised when he got home from church in the afternoon (apparently playing the Wii at grandma & grandpa's the day before was all he would talk about). My husband went out later to get the download card that lets you purchase the older Nintendo games...so we bought a Wii and he's playing Zelda. I'm sure this makes as much sense to others as it does to me. We're also going to have to rearrange our living room, in order to get the tv farther away from the couch and into a more safe area, away from flailing arms and wildly waving Wii-motes.

I'm signed up for the fourth installment of the CDP's Worldwide Mix Tape trade. I have two weeks to pick the playlist, burn the cd, work out the liner notes and get it out in the mail. I failed on the first one (and in all fairness, I never got a mix sent to me either) and sat out the second and third, but I think I'm up for the challenge this time.

My office is freezing...my coworkers are making things harder than they need to be...I haven't had any coffee yet and it is now almost lunch time.

Blogging the controversy.

Science is facts; just as houses are made of stones, so is science made of facts; but a pile of stones is not a house and a collection of facts is not necessarily science.
Henri Poincare (1854 - 1912)

Last night I watched the program The Neanderthal Code on the National Geographic Channel that focused on and gave a great deal of credence to the interbreeding theory, which hypothesizes that modern sapiens from the "Out of Africa" migration would have encountered Neanderthals on the European continent and, instead of replacing them, would have assimilated them and any advantageous adaptations Neanderthals would have posessed that could be passed down through their genes. In addition, this would have been a boon to the genetic diversity of modern humans and may have accelerated their development. Anthropological thought is divided on this issue, and until the genomes of both species are mapped in their entirety, it remains a contentious issue in the field of biological Anthropology.

To learn more about the enduring mysteries of Neanderthal DNA, National Goegraphic profiles the search for answers through genetic mapping in next month's issue.

You can also visit Anthropology.net for other topical discoveries and revelations in the field of Anthropology.

In other news, science sure doesn't pay what it used to...but being an (overpaid, out of touch) administrator sure isn't as intersting as being a (poor) researcher (toiling away in obscurity).


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