Pinch Yourself–Did You Burst?

Tags

astronomy, Mars, Michele Bachmann, Mitt Romney, Mormonism, science, taxes, voting rights, welfare reform

 

 

This is one of the first shots taken by Curiosity of its new home in a crater, looking out on a mountain that is in that same crater.

No word yet whether Curiosity can see Russia from her porch.

Yeah, I know, she’s a non sequitur now, no need to beat a dead horse.

Å

Given that Willard tends to avoid like the plague any discussion regarding his faith, you might be interested in a New Yorker piece about four new histories of the movement. I am not a person who makes fun of what anyone chooses to believe as long as it doesn’t include harm to others, but after attempting to read the book of Mormon, simply as an exercise in being “informed” I gave up, finding it to unalterably boring to push through.

But the story of Joseph Smith and his magic tablets is fascinating, so you might decide, after reading the New Yorker review to pick up one and have a go.

Å

Willard must have the shortest memory in the history of homo sapien sapien. I swear he must. Again, he is vilifying the president for something he (you got it) supported himself. The President would allow states to opt out of certain welfare work requirements upon proof that they had come up with a more innovative (lest costly and workable) alternative. Now Willard says that amounts to just sending people a welfare check. Of course he said the opposite when he was governor of Massachusetts, when he praised and pushed for such a waiver system. Click on the link and you can see his fat signature on the letter.

Å

I almost hate to post this as a joke, since frankly, you and I both know, it’s all too possibly true.

From the Onion:

H/T to Joe.My.God.

Å

We have been a waiting for weeks now Willard’s tax returns. Willard says he ain’t a gonna give ’em up, since the mean old Democrats will only twist them, and ya know, ask for more.

Well, I have moved that “answer” around in my mouth for a good while now, and it’s time to spit out the truth. Whatever the tax returns say are FACTS. They are what they are. Perhaps they can be twisted but they can’t be made into some awful lie because facts are facts. Unless of course you are of the Romney mind: then facts are irrelevant and you can just say they mean the opposite of what they commonly mean. Is that what he is afraid of? That the Obama folks will invent new meanings like he does?

The burden is on Willard. As everyone says, he can clear this up in a heartbeat. Release them, and fair-minded people will read the truth.

But Willard can’t stand the truth. And that must mean that there is something gawd-awful in them.

As Hunter at Daily Kos says:

Whatever’s in Mitt Romney’s old taxes, whether it be zero-tax years or Swiss tax amnesties or non-tithing or that he made several million dollars on a new product called Fetus Chow, it’s apparently so bad that America wouldn’t vote for the rich business guy if they saw it.

It ain’t goin’ away Willard. You can refuse, deny, and look the other way, but we can smell a rat.

Å

Editorial alert:

As a law student, I heard this phrase a dozen or more times: We believe it is better than a 100 guilty go free rather than one innocent be wrongly convicted. Indeed nothing can be more shameful than the periodic release of yet another innocent who has been imprisoned for years for a crime he did not commit. (The phrase goes back at least as far as Blackstone and English law, but has been attributed to many others, including several justices down through the years.)

What this speaks to is our special commitment to justice.

If there is a hallmark to a democratic state it must be the right to vote. I can think of no other more important right than the ability of one to cast their vote for a candidate of their choice. Indeed, one wonders why the far right which is always a titter about “our freedoms” isn’t more vocal on this most important freedom of all.

Yet, clearly the GOP is trying mightily to inhibit the right to vote for literally millions of Americans across the country–and doing so quite openly, all under the guise of “stopping voter fraud”. This voter fraud of course proves to be non-existent when looked at, averaging less than one possible case PER state, per year. In NO CASE has there been any fraud that changed an election of threatened to do so.

Is is not better that 100 potentially fraudulent votes be cast rather than one rightful voter be denied the vote? I would think so.

You?

Related articles

• Tax Returns Smoke Hides a Blazing Inferno of Romney Lies (politicususa.com)
• Something Fishy Mr. Willard Mitt Romney? (4youmyviews.wordpress.com)
• Mormonism And Racism: Why Is This Being Ignored? (theobamacrat.com)
• Republican Congressman: Romney Tax Return Issue Not Going Away (redsfan.newsvine.com)
• Welcome to Mars, Curiosity! (pbs.org)
• On Mormonism (wnyc.org)
• NASA hopes Curiosity landing site is a Grand Canyon of Mars (latimes.com)

 

Existential Mindtwisting

Tags

AHCA, astronomy, Health care, Johnny Depp, Mitt Romney, physics, Reince Priebus, Rick Perry, RNC, tea party, Women's issues

You can drive yourself quite silly if you spend much time wondering how something came from nothing, and what came before the “big bang” and how where some atomic particles are concerned at least, they can be in more than one place at the same time, and that the very act of observing alters reality.

And then there is always tsunamis, tornadoes and hurricanes to worry about.

To say nothing of whether it’s safe to drink the milk when it’s a day past its expiration date.  That last one bothers the Contrarian to no end.

Anyway, I’m really glad it ain’t my job to think about that stuff. It is one of the main reasons I didn’t mark an X next to particle physicist on the “what I want to be when I grow up” form that I filled out in kindergarten, or maybe first grade.

That and the fact that they pretty much track you away from physics as a major if you think that Alice and Wonderland was silly fantasy claptrap and not worthy of the human mind. (Which is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the movie–the one with Johnny Depp, for who in their right-thinking female mind would NOT like anything starring the most gorgeous, adept, magnificent, actor in the entire universe, which is saying a lot given that I have familiarity with only one stinkin’ planet in the entire universe which must contain billions and billions as Carl Sagan used to say.)

Which is all a very long way around to saying that you might like to take a look at this book if you do like to waste lazy Sunday afternoons in a hammock thinking about these types of things. It is written by a guy named Jim Holt, and is called “Why Does the World Exist?” You can read a nice review about it here.

Frankly I think that it exists because Satan knew we would have to think about it, and that would drive us crazy, and thus provide the “in” he needs to work his evil machinations. Or on the other hand, it might be because there had to be a good place to put fruit cakes that the other universes banned as uneatable. One or the other, I am sure.

(I can hear the applause from here–connecting Johnny Depp and fruitcake is a difficult task to be sure. There must be a Pulitzer out there with my name on it.)

¤

I’m not sure any human being has spent as much time reproving again and again that he is a horse’s ass than the ubiquitous Texas Governor, Rick Perry. Think about it. Can you come up with a better candidate for permanent court jester?

Mr. I-can-only-think-of-two Perry, assures America that he will have no truck with that socialistic Affordable HCA, no matter what the Supremes have to say. Dumbo says he ain’t gonna set up no exchanges, which is odd, given the fact that the Federal Government will then set them up for him. Hardly the hands-off my medicare approach that one would think he would favor. But having only left-over oatmeal in the brain-case does apparently lend to such anomalies.

¤

I know I heard this in passing. I was passing through one room and into another, gathering all the belongings–all the important ones that is. It’s called a bug-out bag, and smart folks who know that disaster is just around every corner, always have one. And to listen to Rinsed Penis surely you must know that that disaster is set for the day after election day this November such (horrors), President Obama be re-elected.

The man claims that our very nation is at stake.We must elect Willard to “save America” to preserve “our way of life.” Read all kinds of white racist crap into that of course.

I think Rinsed has swapped some DNA with Michele Bachmann. Makes ya shiver.

¤

Okay, I’m all for adding a new sub-unit of humanity–men or women who don’t claim they are transgender, but exhibit a hatred of their own sex that is damaging to the sex. I wish to call them butt-faced Pygmalions infused with cactus-juice blood, my term. Feel free to call them what you like, as long as you keep a long stick handy.

A “woman” called Janis Lane is head of the Central Mississippi Tea Party. Not the entire Mississippi Tea Party mind you, but only the central part. She’s a really important person. Well here is here take on women–herself:

Lane: Our country might have been better off if it was still just men voting. There is nothing worse than a bunch of mean, hateful women. They are diabolical in how than can skewer a person. I do not see that in men. The whole time I worked, I’d much rather have a male boss than a female boss. Double-minded, you never can trust them.

Because women have the right to vote, I am active, because I want to make sure there is some sanity for women in the political world. It is up to the Christian rednecks and patriots to stand up for our country.

Now, given her “Christian” feelings, mightn’t her HUsssband, step in and shut this thing up and get her back to cookin’ his breakfast? Just a thought.

¤

Have a wild one. Adios

Related articles

• Still Confused About the Higgs Boson? Read This. (theatlantic.com)
• Will Higgs lead us to Star Trek transporter? (msnbc.msn.com)

If There was a Vote:

Tags

astronomy, Donald Trump, Election 2012, GOP, immigration, Joe Arpaio, Newt Gingrich, Scott Walker, Wisconsin

He ain’t a witch, but rather a warlock. But wicked he is. He is poster boy for everything that is wrong in America, and the worst of law enforcement.

I speak of course about of Joe Arpaio, Maricopa County Sheriff, known for his “camps” for arrested undocumented aliens in Arizona. Arizona of course is home to the draconian immigration law that served to galvanize the Right in its attempt to prove tough on immigration.

Joe, has endorsed Ricky Perry for President by the way, which tells you a lot about how desperate Ricky is these days.

As is true of many small communities,  El Mirage contracts out for police services. The county sheriff may have several communities that it serves in this fashion. Internal investigations show that Joe and his crew failed to investigate some 32 claims of sex abuse, one at least involving a child aged two. Need we add that almost all of the reports were made by undocumented workers? This, while suspects were KNOWN in all but six cases.

All told, some 400 cases were ignored state-wide.

This is what Arpaio thinks justice is about. Of course, given the calls for his resignation, he is apologetic now.

“If there were any victims, I apologize to those victims,” the sheriff said in his office’s most detailed public comments about the cases.

If?

I apologize, but frankly, should I find Mr. Arpaio along the highway in need of assistance, I would be hard-pressed not to just walk on by.

♦

I suppose you have heard.

The Donald has shaken “The Hair” and much like Sarah, decided that people aren’t paying him enough attention–again. So the Donald has manufactured a “debate” and he will be the moderator. All the usual clown candidates have been to visit the Donald in his throne room and kissed his ring, though for the life of me, I don’t know why.

To their credit, both Paul and Huntsman have said, thanks but no thanks and called it what it is, a circus led by the chief clown.

Go and read Joe Klein’s great piece on the meeting of the Grifter and the Hair. But we could not let you miss this great statement by the Paul campaign:

“We agree, of course, with former Speaker Gingrich — this is a country of people of enormous talent. Those who deliver thousands of babies like Dr. Paul and those who spend their time focusing on promoting themselves for profit. We even have those who lobby, but don’t call it such because, as they say, they can make $60,000 per speech. While those of us in the Paul camp might disagree with Newt Gingrich about whether Donald Trump is the right man to host a serious political debate, we do agree New York is a wonderful place to go at Christmas. We are sure two average Americans like Speaker Gingrich and Donald Trump will have a wonderful time picking out gifts for their wives. We suggest a place called Tiffany’s, we hear it is quite nice this time of year and given their celebrity status they can probably get special deals and $500,000 lines of credit.”

Oh, if only I could make money doing this, it is just so much fun. Klein, by the by isn’t all anti Gingrich. He claims that Gingrich’s ideas about child labor came from him, albeit in a rather different mode, one that on its face would be rational. Klein doesn’t point out strongly enough that Newt twisted his idea and turned it into something that reflects his true feelings about African-Americans and the poor in general.

♦

I’m packing my bags.

I’m getting my bus ticket.

I’m heading to Kepler 22-b.

It’s sista-earth to you not in the know. It’s got a sun in the sweet spot. It’s our long-lost kin.

It’s a big sista, and has a median temperature of 22C. I have no idea what that is, since here in America we don’t bother to learn anything about celsius. But it sounds good.

I figure it would be a nice place to spend Christmas. Wonder if they have any ham there?

It’s only 600 light-years away, so I figure a couple of days by bus.

♦

We kinda figure that Scott Walker, temporary Governor of Wisconsin, is feeling the love. I mean with only twelve days in, the “fire the turd” Wisconsonites have managed to garner over half the signatures needed to throw the bum out.

So, Scotty (please beam me up Mr. Koch) Walker, has decided that a suspension of freedom to assemble and petition the government is in order.

A group of 4 or more (a family in other words) must obtain permission to gather in state buildings. And groups of a 100 or more may be charged with police costs and clean-up.

According to Michael Moore, this is only slightly less draconian than policies in place in Brunei, which has come under criticism by Human Rights organizations.

 

 

 

 

Into the Belly of the Beast

Tags

abortion rights, astronomy, cosmology, Election 2012, GOP, Herman Cain, Italy, life in the meadow, Politics, theoretical physics, Women's issues

We drove into the belly of the beast 130 miles to a courthouse in up-state Iowa.  We came, we saw, we think we conquered. Meaning the judge will issue his findings and order within thirty days.

We have been involved in a claim for money. It was claimed we (my husband actually) owed almost all of a legal debt going back THIRTY YEARS. We claimed and provided documents to prove that every single penny had been paid. The other side provided no documents to the contrary. Confronted with this, admissions were made that we were correct. The claim is now, “Well, I want so more anyway” or words to that effect.

The questions of the judge make it quite clear to me that we will be fully vindicated.  Phrases about “woman scorned” and “filthy lucre” and “money-grubbing” and so forth would be inappropriate, unless you choose to use them by reading between the lines. It’s not worth further explanation.

These things happen to us all, usually more than once in a lifetime. We are happily going along our merry way, when somebody or some entity (usually some government bureaucracy) stands up between us and our goal and demands we spend time, and often money to prove what we know to be true, and what we often believe the other person does as well. It amounts to using legal means to exact retribution emotionally. It’s call harassment.

As I said, whatever happens, we are done with it. And I have a confidence (as does our lawyer whose documents and law went in unopposed) that we will be completely vindicated. We are feeling as if a burden has been removed. We turn our attention to plans for our future.

♦

Well, it was a busy day in the world of politics. We returned to the home front and dashed off to vote for our state senate race. This was a critical one because if our candidate didn’t win, the Senate in Iowa would be tied between the two parties. Happily, the Democratic candidate did win.

The Mississippi referendum to declare a fetus a “person” was defeated. The draconian laws passed in Ohio to take away the rights of unions was soundly recalled. The  Republican creator of the Arizonan immigration act, Russell Pearce,  was recalled in a special election. In New Jersey, voters increased the majority of the Democrats in the Jersey legislature. In Maine, voters restored a “same-day” registration to vote that had been repealed by the GOP controlled legislature.  All in all, a pretty good night for the cause of right (left) versus wrong (right).

♦

Speaking of the Mississippi referendum, the wackos on the extreme right are already promising “God’s wrath.” So I guess we should be looking for earthquakes, off-season hurricanes and other such “natural” disasters to befall the Mississippian populace. Or perhaps only the 58% of them that soundly defeated the act.

♦

Perhaps it might be fun to recall what one can get away with saying today but would have cost you your head in centuries past?  Such a thing happened to one Dominican friar Giordano Bruno in 1600 who dared to suggest that our sun was likely no different from other stars, and that they too might well have planets about them. The Inquisition did not tolerate such obvious claptrap.

Nowadays, we talk about multiverses, dark matter, string theory, and inflation (not the money kind!). A nice article in Discovery Magazine, should you be sick and tired of politics.

♦

Notorious womanizer and all-around harass-master, Herman Cain, Silvio Berlusconi is set to resign as Italian Prime Minister. Un-named sources claim that Mr. Cain, sent  a telegram to the beleaguered Italian Stallion-in-his-own-mind: “Dude you are screwed. Stop.”

♦

Let me just say this about that. The that? The Penn State scandal. What the f**k were you ADULT men thinking? How many wrongs does it take before you step up and PROTECT CHILDREN? And I don’t care how big an idol that Joe Paterno is. Simply advising somebody of the problem (don’t tell ME any details) is not enough. Did anybody ever think to call the POLICE? This reminds me for all the world like the hideous scandal in my own Church and its utter failure to act immediately to stop the abuse.

♦

It appears that Herm Cain’s defense to sexual harassment charges are quite simple. “Her claims were found baseless because she was unable to bring forth any corroborating witness.” Yes, every time that a man has tried to man-handle me, he waited until there were plenty of witnesses around. You are a pig Herm.

♦

And that’s all I got today. So you know you got it all. HA!

 

 

Who’s Your SuperBowl Champs?

Tags

astronomy, Bill O'Reilly, Billy Kristol, cosmology, Egypt, Extreme right-wing, Glenn Beck, GOP, Green Bay Packers, Media, Ronald Reagan, Sarah Palin, Superbowl, universe

Doin’ the happy dance, oh yeah, oh yeah.

Who’s your daddy?

Who’s goin’ to Disney World?

Who’s got a peaceful house? ME!

Who’s unfortunately watching a replay of the whole dang game at 10:00 a.m.? ME!

If ya didn’t know, there is an NFL channel. No sane person would know that, only insane ones. Insane—–>Contrarian.

***

Speaking about insanity, the political world seems just chock full of wackadoodles. And a surprise or two along the way.

Sarah “now channeling Reagan” Palin decided to open her big mouth and spew more idiotic rhetoric. She finally gave her “analysis” of the situation in Egypt. Which means, that she read a headline in the WSJ, her ADD preventing her from actually reading an article.

In any event, she orders the President to come clean on what he “knows about who the next president of Egypt will be.” Where she comes by this notion, is anybody’s guess. Probably in a dream that has been interpreted for her by Beck.

She also sternly warns that we “should not stand” for a government run by the Muslim Brotherhood. This from the same hairbrain whose every third sentence is about protecting and regaining our freedoms and liberties.

I guess Sarah doesn’t see that any other people on the planet have the right to their freedoms and liberties to determine their own form of government and those who will lead them.

While it may not be in our best interest to have Egypt run by the MB’s, it is not our call to make. If, in fact we actually believe in democracy.

In a shocking editorial, Billy Kristol, in the Weekly Standard, lambasted Glenn Beck and by implication (although his story appeared before Ms. Palin’s bullcrap) Sarah’s belligerent woofings.

Kristol had this to say about Beck’s crazy conspiracy theories regarding the Radical Left/Radical Islam joining hands to destroy the world:

[H]ysteria is not a sign of health. When Glenn Beck rants about the caliphate taking over the Middle East from Morocco to the Philippines, and lists (invents?) the connections between caliphate-promoters and the American left, he brings to mind no one so much as Robert Welch and the John Birch Society.

[. . .]

Nor is it a sign of health when other American conservatives are so fearful of a popular awakening that they side with the dictator against the democrats.

I fairly reel with surprise in having to say, “spot on!”

***

Outside The Beltway has a full transcript of her remarks and as Doug Mataconis points out, you can’t make sense of it. It’s the typical “word salad” that just seems to go on and on and never make any point, other than somehow she suspicions that Obama isn’t doing it right. She throws in plenty of her clichés here and there, and just runs in a stream of unconsciousness.

***

One has to laugh as Ms. Sarah. She likens herself to Ronnie Reagan. She claims they both refused to “sit down and shut up,” and both her and he were maligned and vilified by the media. Yeah, really. But one has to wonder at the near deification of Reagan by the uber Right. It seems they can find no one else in the Retootlican pantheon, at least in the recent past to hold up for idol worship. 

But the reality is that Reagan did many of the things that Obama is now doing. The extremists on the Right are prevented from seeing this because the red haze of hatred is so thick.  Politicususa strips away some of the mask. So I say, if Sarah wants to compare herself to Reagan, then by all means do, and after reading the post by Rmuse it will establish that this woman shouldn’t be elected dog catcher.

***

I don’t know if you heard about Billo the Clown’s silliness that God is proven because the “tides go in, the tides go out, never a miss communication.” When e-mails poured in explaining gravitational pull from the moon, Billo replied that they were “pinheads” and then went on to ask, “the moon, how did it get there? huh? how did it get there? tell me.” And then he went on to ask, “why do we have one? Why doesn’t Mars?”

Of course O’Reilly is dead wrong again. The moon came from a planetoid that hit the earth billions of years ago, broke up, and then gathered in part from the refuse, held in orbit by that darn gravity again. And Mars has two moons last time I checked.  I guess I’m a pinhead.

No matter, the NYTimes has a nice editorial on how many new planets have been located by the Kepler satellite. If projected across the heavens, Kepler should find upwards of 400,000 planets. This is good news for astronomers and those (exobiologists) who specialize in “life on other planets.” The more there are, the more chance that some support life.

Don’t  bother to tell Billo, it would only make his tiny brain explode.

***

Well, that seems enough for today.

What’s on the stove: Stir-fry, egg rolls.

 

Related Articles

• Kristol calls out Beck over ‘hysteria’ (washingtonmonthly.com)
• A Lack Of Confidence (andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com)

Lights, Camera, and Heerrreeee’s Sarah!

Tags

astronomy, banking regulations, Congress, cosmology, environment, evolution, global warming, Politics, Sarah Palin, Spencer Bachus

Sarah primps before cameras turn on, after her arrival only nearly one year after Haiti was devastated by an earthquake. I mean, she’s there to establish her foreign policy creds, touring the areas where as she puts it:

“. . .we are responsible for helping those less fortunate.”

Yeah, right Sarah. Nobody is allowed to ask questions except for Foxy Noise via Greta “can I be Sect’y of State in your administration?” Van Susteren. All others are kept at bay because of “security” concerns. Yeah, right.

All of Caribou Killer’s events are tightly orchestrated. On her recent book tour in Iowa, journalists were again kept far away, allowed to use only video, not audio, and ordered to ask no questions.

We understand the Great Dumb Brunette is off to England next to visit Margaret Thatcher. Yes, I can imagine the “policy” discussions she will have with the former Prime Minister who suffers from Alzheimer’s/dementia and barely knows who she is. But to her loyal empty-heads, it will “look” presidential won’t it?

Is there no limit beyond which Sarah won’t go to exploit others for her own personal aggrandizement? It would appear not. The more interesting question is whether the British press will bow to her orders as the American press is so willing to do.

This is a serious issue. Recently Time magazine did a cover story on the Mooselli, and inexplicably agreed to do so via an e-mail “interview.” What kind of nonsense is this? This is no assurance that Ms. Palin, answered any of the questions herself. How lazy and unjournalistic can you get here folks? Read the “interview” here.

***

I thought I made it most clear the other day about Alabama. Apparently I did not, so let me say it again. People there are mostly STUUUUPPPIDDDD. Don’t believe me? Well, take the about to be chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (R-AL). Take him please!

Bachus is going to do his damnest to gut the regulations imposed on the banks to stop them from doing the crap that nearly bankrupted us just a couple of years ago. Why you ask? Because Bachus sees the federal government’s job as not to regulate the banking industry and thus protect the people, but rather:

 “In Washington, the view is that the banks are to be regulated, and my view is that Washington and the regulators are there to serve the banks.”

I’m not sure Bachus shouldn’t be tested to see if he has an IQ sufficiently high to be allowed solid food.

***

Do you sit up in the wee hours of the night contemplating cosmology? No? I’m shocked, truly I am. I do. Apparently I’m not alone, here or possibly elsewhere. Anyway, if you would like to take a look at the current theories of why we are here, then take a look at Big Questions Online’s, The Biggest Question of All. It will give you a nice little over view of current possibilities. What else have you got to do on a frigid, don’t dare go outside kinda day?

***

One of the fun things of this time of year, are end of the year top 10 lists. Here’s the top ten quotable quotes brought to you via Joe.My.God. They are priceless!

***

It’s a well-know coincidence that the fundamentalist interpretation of the bible, often coincides quite well with retaining their money in their own wallets. In other words, they can see little further than their own bank account. Thus they don’t bother to extrapolate on the scenarios that might play out ecologically should their flimsy and non-existent proof that the Earth will never be in serious ecological danger, not play out as correct.

Forget the fact that their children and grandchildren will damn them to hell for the polluted angry planet that will ensue. It might be worse, we might well be orchestrating our species demise. Read 3quarksdaily for Human Extinction: Not the Worst Case Scenario.

***

It almost sears the mind to contemplate: Sarah Palin had Kate Gosselin as her “camping” buddy on her latest installment of Sarah’s Laska. Can you imagine the one brain cell zipping around that tent? Ms. Gosselin was heard to relate her opinion on camping:

“Why would you pretend to be homeless?”

Being in the same room with these two would be my personal vision of hell. What’s yours?

***

In the face of all evidence to the contrary, Foxy noise jumped on the wacko bandwagon the minute the Metronome collapsed. The snow, they claimed was proof positive that there is no global warming. Please Foxy, just sit quietly and play with your toes. You are way in over your head once again.

***

Hope you day is going well. It’s about 3° outside, but sunny. We are warm. We are, shockingly, not snowed in. The rain/slush/snow apparently all stuck together and the wind couldn’t move it.

On the Stove: pot roast with roasted carrots and onions, mashed potatoes and gravy.

Related Articles

• Kate Gosselin, Sarah Palin Had “Zero Chemistry” on “Terrible” Trip (omg.yahoo.com)
• ‘ALASKA’ RECAP: Palins and Gosselins go camping (politico.com)

Thank God for the Alcock-Paczynski test!

Tags

airport security, astronomy, dark matter, environmentalism, feminism, GOP, Mike Huckabee, money laundering, religious right, Sarah Palin, science, terrorism, Tom Delay

At last, perhaps I can get a good night’s sleep again! I haven’t had one since that dark (pun) day in 1998, when I learned the awful truth: the universe seemed to be expanding at a faster and faster rate! My once cozy pulsing home was threatening to shred itself and leave me forlorn in an ever darkening sky as old friends rapidly flew off into a cold inky black.

Well, no more worries. It appears not to be happening. That demon “dark matter” is a truth we must accept, but it appears that the Alcock-Paczynski test may well prove that our universe is “flat” or what we used to call steady state or static. Just enough gravity, just enough dark matter to keep it in a comfortable rocking to and fro.

I know we just finished Thanksgiving, but this is a whole-nother-level of thanksgiving. I will never not see my beloved Orion, my dippers, my Pleiades. Oh sweet God, I knew you would come through. Let’s have a party!

***

Speaking of Thanksgiving, hope your’s was a good one. Mine turned out most excellently. The meal was sublime, and we feasted until we could force in no more. We liked it so much, we are gonna do it all over again today! And Saturday, and Sunday. You see the method to my madness?

***

I confess! I really do, or did, and am going to continue. I was simply delighted when I learned that “the Hammer” got hammered and may be heading for the slammer! Tom DeLay was convicted in that old state of Texas (good for something!) for money laundering.  I don’t think they execute for that, money is God in Texas along with football you recall. But here’s lookin’ for some good old time for the man who thought he ruled the world when he was in Congress. Oh let the sentence be fair: LONG. (H/T to Crooks and Liars for the link)

***

I have to give it to WordPress. The new linkage system is up and running, and they have added a few new features that don’t concern readers, but are certainly nice. One of which I think is not so new, but I just found out how to do it, and it sure speeds up my game. I can now reply to comments through e-mail which is soooo much faster than publishing replies again and again and waiting for it to refresh. Hurrah!

***

Again from Crooks and Liars we get a link to Whiskey Fire and a post on our Sarah. It’s not what you might expect, but it’s an interesting take. I’m not sure how I feel about it. Are Dems the ones who have missed the chance to have a salacious babe mouthing their talking points? I would hate to think so. Yet the point is made, much of Sarah’s following has zero to do with policy or politics, it’s pure sexy appeal and the “it” factor.

AlterNet also has a nice piece on Sarah about her brand of “feminism” which amounts to nothing more than narcissism-namely hers. If it affects her, then it matters, if it doesn’t, than as the article says, “women suck it up and be strong”. Which explains why women don’t cotton to the Moosilla Maven so much.

***

Speaking of snake-oil sales persons, I’ve decided that the “know what we are doing” crowd consists of Palin, Beck, O’Reilly, Coulter and probably most of the house and senate wacko-heads. Those that are seriously stupid include Hannity, Bachmann, O’Donnell. The aforementioned know they are bilking the US for as much as they can for as long as they can. The give not a rip about anyone. Bank accounts matter. Your list?

***

Ahab at Republic of Gilead has a great post of a lecture he attended on Christian escatologies and environmental issues. It is really an eye-opener if you are puzzled why some sects of Christianity continue to literally ignore the damage we are doing. These don’t deny it’s happening so much as they don’t care and believe that we should not waste our time to help the planet heal. It’s an amazingly good read.

***

And 180° it is. I’m going back to my original position on the airport patdowns. After watching Fox and jerks like Huckabee all malign the administration for this “outrage” I can but conclude that this is nothing much more than “any way at all to make Obama look bad.” Huck has demanded that Obama submit his family for this search if it’s all that good.

I guess Mikey was just trying to protect his son who got caught carrying a GUN in his luggage at Little Rock National Airport. What his son needs a concealed weapon for, (being a son of a preacher man) is beyond me, but we see where Mike is coming from.

While I conclude that there may be legitimate reasons why these searches aren’t as useful as they might be assumed, I’ll stick with support as long as the idiots at Foxy are trying to take down a President via this means. And something like 70+% of the public is behind the TSA on this. It was higher, but the rightwing (those bastions of security) has done its thing again.

Enough for now. Time to hit those leftovers again and watch a little more football.

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