Items to Make You Queen of the Watercooler Next Week

Tags

brain, dinosaurs, education, evolution, GOP, humans, life, meaning, philosophers, physics, quantum mechanics, teabaggers, War, what you should read, words

See that’s me. I mean, imagine a woman instead of a man, and that’s me. I’m spend hours reading just so that you don’t have to. I mean you can if you want to of course. God forbid that fine education goes to waste, but I have burned up the Intertubes in an effort to find all the news that you missed.

And I read it all. And some of it was crap upon further inspection, and so I ditched it. And the rest, well you gotta know this stuff. Especially if you want all your friends and aunt Tilde to think you are just a real smart ass. (meant in the kindest way of course)

So, let’s get to it, in no particular order.

Paul Krugman has a fine op-ed in the NYTimes detailing the crazy party, AKA, the GOP. What he says is very true. The GOP argument for deliberately toying with the very health of our economy goes something like this: I have put a gun to your head and demanded your money or your life. If you refuse to give me your money, it’s your fault that you’re dead. I gave you the option to live after all!

On the other hand, this may all go to prove that one can actually get admitted to Harvard and get through it with flying colors and still be utterly and profoundly stupid. Ted Cruz may be set to be one of the most spectacular blazing super nova that sputtered out in record time in the history of horses asses, err, super novae.

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If it is true that humans have an individualized predisposition to violence, is it equally true that humans in community have a predisposition to violence in the form of war? It seems many assume this to be true. But evolutionary biologist, David P. Barash argues that this may in fact not be true. The latter may be only a capacity rather than an adaptation. Want to learn more? If you don’t think it matters, think again. We base our defense systems on assumptions of what other groups are likely to do. If we assume all people are driven to war to achieve ends, we build a different defense system than if we do not. And we’ve sure got the tax bills to reflect that.

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I know that most of you are just thrilled every time you get a chance to read about quantum mechanics, I mean what self-respecting grease monkey or grocery check out lady  isn’t obsessed with the working of the universe at the extra-tiny scale? Ever heard of an aplituhedron? I bet not. It all means that all the complicated mathematical twists and turns are eliminated as well as the super computer to do the computations. Now little Bobby can explain the most complicated sub-particle interaction with nothing more than a pencil and paper again!

If you are going, uhh, okay so what? Well, you all know that physicists have been since the beginning of time, trying to join the big universe with the small universe (macro and micro forces?) and it has just never fit well, and well, the don’t call it the elegant universe for nothing. Everybody who knows this stuff figured the answer would eventually be simple. This might be it. I’m not a physicist as you might have guessed by now.

I mean this is simply delicious early fall reading. Get to it.  🙂

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Now I know you will love this one. There is a new book out there that you probably will want to get. I can imagine about half a dozen of you will be on Amazon in moments. It’s called Holy Shit: A Brief History of Swearing, by Melissa Mohr. Colin Burrows review of the book is worth the reading. Now read it your grouthead gnat snapper!

Steven Pinker from Harvard has written a book that details how we are becoming less violent as societies over time. He also argues that the world would be better led by science than by the humanities. Some beg to differ. A great essay from The Berlin Review of Books, and Gloria Origgi, A Reply to Steven Picker’s Scientific Manifesto.

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Love words? Lots of words? Okay.

The American Scholar has a fun essay called Is There a Word for That? Words are being made up all the time, but you knew that. Want to know who created some words we now take for granted? Who is responsible for katydid? Or neologize ? Or Anglophobia? Blurb? Gerrymander? Bromide? Oh I bet I got your attention now.

Similarly, if you have ever remembered the quote but not the quoter, and the more you looked the harder it got? Who Really Sad That? You would be surprised at how often we get the attribution wrong. Amaze your friends by correcting their quotes!

“Whoever is not a socialist when he is 20 has no heart; whoever is not a conservative when he is 30 has no brain.” Usually attributed to Churchill. Actually? Nobody knows.

Enter the fine world of WAS–Wrongly Attributed Statements.

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I betcha thought that the human mind created the gear, that round thingie that has “teeth” and meshes with other objects similarly constructed? That together makes things turn and other things go up and down and maybe side to side? You would be wrong. Scientists have found a gear in nature for the very first time. And YOU are some of the first non-specialists to know that, so don’t you feel so very proud?

A cute little guy called a planthopper (he has a very important scientific name you need not memorize) has a couple of gears in his back legs that mesh together and then when he calls on them to, spin backward sending him off on a leap across the earth that looks pretty fun. I’m sure it made sense to him too in terms of escaping predators or getting up as high as he wanted to feed. It’s called evolution folks. There is a little embedded video so you can watch him go!

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Must a life be meaningful in order to be happy? Do we prefer meaningfulness over happiness if we can’t have both? They are not the same by the way. Happiness in part is getting what you want or need in life. Meaningfulness can have zero to do with this. Similarly happy people report that health is essential, yet health has nothing to do with meaningful lives. Happiness is apparent in the now, while meaningfulness tends to be a future assessment. This is a long article but one that raises lots of questions to think about. Well worth your time.

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Nautilus brings us the ever-beloved essay on dinosaurs. The discovery and explanation of our bird predecessors have had a varied history as scientists working from small numbers of bones, continually revised their thinking of these creatures over time. As is usual, it is the unsung tiny dinosaurs that have done the most to correct our understanding over time of what these cuties looked like and how they lived. For the kid in all of us, this article will satisfy. I still wish there had been Brontosaurus, they were so neat!

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With the advent of all the cute devices we have now from phones to tablets to readers to computers, all with calendars and reminders of one sort or another, there is less and less reason to have to memorize things. Nobody has to write down a phone number or address. The call is registered, switch it to contacts and it’s saved forever. Enter an address in your Google maps app, and you don’t need to record that address again. And maybe, just maybe that’s a good thing. Memorization may be a much over-rated thing. Curious? Read on.

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How many late night gab fests have lingered long into the night over the ever-present question– Why was Spinoza excommunicated anyway? I mean this guy was ostracized with a big O, like in members of the congregation being order to be no closer that four cubits to the man. That’s some serious excommunication! Worse, payment of a fine served to dissolve most bans. Spinoza’s was life long. Spinoza himself never spoke of the harem, most of his works and fame came long after it. What is as interesting as why is by whom: Jews who had escaped forced Catholicism in Spain and Portugal and once free in Amsterdam, practiced a form of Judaism that was anything but normative. All in all, quite fascinating.

Happy reading everyone, and to all a good day!

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)

It’s Not About the How Your Carburator is Doing!

Tags

GOP, Herman Cain, Humor, Media, Middle East, Military, MSM, Obama, physics, quantum mechanics, racism, Syria, teabaggers, terrorism, Wall Street

Take quantum mechanics. What does that conjure up? Thoughts of grease-monkeys working on very tiny cars?

Actually, it’s pretty heady stuff. It deals with that portion of physics that deals with tiny particles and their wave-particle actions. (Remember that light particles (photons) are both particle and wave packets.

Well, the thing about quantum mechanics is that is works perfectly in ordering the world and making new things work out right. It is impossible to understand it however, since it is full of paradoxes. Objects are in more than one place at one time. They are “changed” by the very act of looking at them. They are not what they are until they are actually measured, and normal speed of light calculations don’t seem to apply.

Now I know it’s Saturday and there are lots of things to do, but surely one of the most important might be to go read the article and learn even more exciting things about things too small to be seen.

For instance: we might understand wavefunction collapse if only we understood how gravity played into it, thus we need to marry quantum theory and general relativity. Now, I know you are excited by that!

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There is a must read over at the Nation which is got the blogosphere all alight. I heard it mentioned on MSNBC this morning and ran into it over at wearespectablenegroes just now. By the way, read Chauncey de Vega’s fine piece as well about liberal racism. It’s much-needed thinking for the progressives.

Melissa Harris-Perry has written the piece at the Nation entitled Black President, Double Standard: Why White Liberals are Abandoning Obama.

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What if they gave a protest march and nobody came?

Well, not exactly. You see, THOUSANDS have been protesting across the nation against banks and other finance reforms. And guess what? the MSM has almost entirely ignored the whole thing.

A bunch of women were pepper sprayed in NYC and unless you watch Olbermann or the Daily Show, or Colbert, you probably didn’t know.

And the media is one vast left-wing conspiracy ain’t it Foxy Noise?

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Is it just me or have people like the morning morons on Foxy and Hannity, and Rush, just not worth the effort of sophisticated bloggers and readers any more? I mean aren’t they really the fodder for the newbies? One expects utter nonsense from their mouths ALL the time, and what’s the point?

It’s a bit like quoting Michele any more. She’s beyond stupid. She’s beyond beyond, being beyond. The don’t count. Who cares?

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How do you feel about the latest US assassination? Al Awlaqi and two other high-ranking Al Qaeda operatives (Al Awlaqi and another were American citizens) were killed in Yemen the other day by a predator drone.

I really feel uncomfortable about all this. Juan Cole has a good piece on it at Informed Comment. Go see what you think.

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This from the Salon and their weekly Tweet contest, using the above hash #weekinatweet. Who knows, you may win next weeks!

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Do you continue, as I do, to be astounded and so amazed at the willingness of the Syrian people to stand up to a bully dictator? They go out every day and lay their lives on the line in the name of freedom and democracy.

It’s fallen by the wayside of the MSM for the most part now, but the courage exhibited by these people is something we need to remember every day.

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Oh, Michele said some more stupid things about abolishing food safety regulations. And Perry said some more stupid things about the intel on Al Awlaqi “probably came from Gitmo” without any evidence that it did. And Herman or “Herb” as our gal Sarah calls him, still thinks that the win in the Florida straw poll were votes for him and not votes against Perry and Romney.

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Oh and this is good to know. Pat Buchanan assures us all that Herman Cain was correct in saying the African-Americans were “brainwashed” into voting Democratic all these years. White man says Black man is correct in saying other Blacks are stupid. Well, now that’s some endorsement isn’t it. Mr. House Negro Cain, must be so pleased. Buchanan also referred to liberalism as the “plantation”.

Ahh, ain’t it grand when the racists try to steal the language? This little ditty was posted at the Blaze. So maybe I’ll take a look and see if we can do a little Nincompoop post on this bit of trash.

Blaze is all up into this report cuz you know Cain is their main black man.

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What’s on the Stove? Spaghetti with Bolognese sauce, garlic bread and salad. Eat your heart out. The recipe will be posted on What’s on the Stove? later today I suspect or tomorrow at the latest.

Related articles

• Jesse Jackson to Herman Cain: ‘Don’t Let My People Go’ (thewesternexperience.com)
• WATCH: Pat Buchanan Makes His Own Shocking Comment About Black Voters (huffingtonpost.com)
• Jackson blasts ‘plantation’ comments (politico.com)
• Herman Cain 2012: The Secret Behind Presidential Contender’s Momentum (huffingtonpost.com)

Wait for it, Wait for it. See I Told Ya They Would

Tags

budget, Einstein, gay rights, GOP, Humor, justice, Michele Bachmann, morality, philosophy, physics, Sarah Palin, speed of light, teabaggers

Yesterday you were invited to watch the debates under a new game rule: look for the inappropriate audience response.

And as expected, those of you who watched saw just that.

That the GOP and the TeaNutz® are morbidly repulsed by gayness, is of course well-known. It’s against their self-serving interpretation of the bible.

Last night, a gay soldier asked the candidates what they would do given that DODT had been ended.

The response of the audience was a very loud bunch of booing, and then the usual Ricky (why won’t you give me a chance) Santorum response which is that “we shouldn’t be doing social experiments with those we need to protect our country.” See a complete transcript of the exchange at Pass the Doucheys on the Right, as well as appropriate biting comment.

Might I also note, that not a single one of the “candidates” bothered to thank Mr. Hill, who is serving in Iraq, for his service to the country, something all the GOP pushes and shoves to be first to say to prove their patriotism.

God, the GOP sucks.

Note also that Chauncey de Vega has a great piece on this event as well.

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You know, I’ve often alluded to the fact that our world, especially here in America is deeply out of whack. What I refer to is how we reward people in oddly weird ways over others. Huh? Okay let me clear it up.

We pay actors, who individually may be pretty much stupid as rocks, millions to make us laugh or cry, or applaud a fantasy life or event. We pay CEO’s millions for making a company wealthy, and at least a few stockholders a few bucks. We pay schoolteachers paltry amounts to teach our children whom we claim we worship and want the best for. We pay scientists next to nothing even though they discover the things that make our lives easier, healthier, and safer.

It’s called moral philosophy, and the king of the hill is one Harvard professor named Michael J. Sandel. His lectures were turned into a PBS series, and in Asia have prompted classes to mimic his ideas. His book, Justice: What’s the right thing to do?, has been a great hit.  A NYTimes article about his success is linked here. Might be worth buying his book.

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When does the difference between 299,792,458 and 299,792,454 matter? Why that’s easy. Come on you know the answer. The first is the speed of light. And the second it the time it took some neutrinos to make the circuit. And that means that maybe the SOL is not what we thought it was.

And that means that Einstein was wrong, and somethings (neutrinos) can travel faster than the SOL, and that means something really really big and important, and it probably means that we can go to Arcturus by the end of next week.

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It’s the old chutzpah again. The GOP holds the disaster relief funding hostage unless the Democrats agree to funding cuts to the most job-producing programs going, and then accuses the Dems of holding up FEMA relief!

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I continue to hold out hope that our dear girl Sarah will jump into the fray. Her slavish knuckledraggers are sure hopin’ the same too, and took time after last night’s debate to hit her main target with all they had. From Conservatives4Palin:

Everyone here in Palinville who looks forward to good hard competition will be relieved to know that Gov. Rick Perry was NOT drunk at last night’s debate, all appearances to the contrary. It’s just that before taking the stage he inexplicably chose to receive a Gardasil shot, one of whose known side effects is mental slowness.

Given that our Sarah subbie, Michele (I am frakin’ dumber that her actually) Bachmann is unable to know fact from fiction and has slipped down the hill toward the black hole of oblivion, we have no choice but to wave a flag pin at the Palinator and hope hope hope she joins the increasing circus that is known as the “TeaNutz® on Parade” or “The Last Dance of the Dinosaurs” which ever you prefer.

♦

From Think Progress

On the Stove? Oh a new Chicken Enchilada recipe. I’ll post it if we decide we like it. So far, it seems to meet my objections to most Enchilada recipes: the turning to mush of the corn tortillas. I’m hopeful if this technique works, that it will be my new go-to method for both green and red enchiladas.

 

Related articles

• GOP Debate Viewers Jeer Gay Soldier (pinkbananaworld.com)
• GOP Debate Crowd Booed Gay Soldier (abcnews.go.com)

By the Time I’m 90, I Won’t Know a Thing

Tags

cosmology, near death, physics, universe

They tell me that with age comes wisdom, but the wisdom seems to consist in knowing that as you get older, you realize you really know nothing.

Last night was “science night” in the Peyton household. We watched a bunch of shows about various aspects of science: Is there life after death? What was there before the Big Bang? Was there a Big Bang at all?

My head hurts now. Although I am more than ever convinced that death is not the final end to our story. A varied group of scientists, for a variety of reasons, think there is scientific evidence that points to some kind of “cosmic mind” or that something of us survives to interact with a greater mind than our own. I was content with that.

But then the next show had to upset my apple cart about the beginnings of our universe. It seems that a goodly number of theoretical physicists no longer believe in the Big Bang. This may or may not have to do with human hubris. It’s hard to say. The reason they don’t is that they can’t accept a theory that basically says–we can’t transcend into a realm of no-time/no-space. Our minds are not constructed for that, and besides the math simply breaks down into meaningless gibberish.

Some believe that the entire universe is a mathematical construct in which time and space live. Others believe in waves of energy that bump each other from time to time and explode into a matter-forming “universe”. Others that we are living in a succession of black holes that explode, and ultimately end in another, only to cycle through again. There are as many theories as there are active mathematical minds who love scribbling with chalk upon a chalk board.

What I like most about these folks, is that they get paid to think. I could go for a job like that. They never of course have to produce anything practical, just design experiments costing millions to discover the elusive “top quark”. They have reduced the number of elemental particles to about 12, should you care to know. Now they wonder what is so special about six leptons. Why not 7 or 4? They are good at coming up with questions that justify more thinking, more paychecks, and more fancy equipment.

Some of these guys (and for no reason I understand, most are guys) fancy they can think just about anywhere. So some have nice cabins overlooking lakes in the woods, where they put their feet up and “think.” Like I said, these are grifters of the first quality. I want to be one.

So I was busy last night undoing all the stuff I thought I knew. I see little point in remembering much of this new stuff. In five years, it will be obsolete.

If our information is multiplying exponentially, as it is, I wonder what that means in other areas. It’s crystal clear that what was learned in high school by anyone over the age of 40 is essentially useless today. Soon, it will be twenty years, then ten, and well, you see the problem.

They say we are the sum total of every person, event, experience, feeling, we have ever witnessed or engaged in. Well, won’t humans just burst at the seams one day? I mean you can’t have enough room for everything you need to take in, having no decent mechanism to dump out the old. It seems a problem. Is anybody addressing it?

And if my body is essentially new every ten years (cell replacement) who the hell am I after all? I guess my brain cells don’t get replaced or I would never be able to store more than ten years of information. It’s all confusing.

As I said, my head hurts. I guess we should limit ourselves to one hour of science at a time. Unless of course you have properly worked you way up to larger doses.

Come to think of it, writing drivel like this is pretty much like that “thinking” the theoretical physicists do. But then I don’t have a lab, millions of dollars at my disposal for fancy machines, and certainly no paycheck. So far Bill Gates hasn’t seen fit to punch my PayPal donate button and throw a few bucks my way.

After all, I’m just losing my mind, one word at a time. Tomorrow even more stuff I thought I knew will be declared worthless. I’ll be sure to alert you as it happens, so you can clean house in your head to. If someone could just point me to the wastepaper basket in my skull, I’d be most appreciative.

 

Amazing Wires in the World of Wireless

Tags

classes in America, Glenn Beck, Higgs boson, physics, racism, redistribution of wealth, right wing wingnuts, science, Supersymmetry, teabaggers, theoretical physics

I used to think of myself as being on the cutting edge, or close, when it came to technology. The key word is used. We are as cave dwellers today. We have yet to have a cell phone. We have no lap top, no high-speed internet, no iTunes, no plasma screens, no flat screens of anything. Mostly its finances. And location. Here in the dark hole of “the country” we spend most of our time crying out to a modern world, “can you hear me now?”

Well, we decided to discard our old phone. The static was becoming unbearable. We now have two phones, both mobile, with their little “homes” in the office and in the kitchen.

Since the Contrarian takes care of all things DVR and computer, he decided that I should become the savant where it comes to the phone. He plugged all the stuff in. That’s the wire stuff. I do the wireless stuff, and let me tell you, it’s every bit as real as cords that trip and coil around your throat.

I have managed, as of now, to program the date and time. They do not make the manuals very “instructive” if you know what I mean. Instructive I guess if you are used to that sort of thing. Not so much if the last thing you programmed was a tape cassette recorder. Wish me luck!

We got the damn fool phone on a shopping excursion yesterday. I”m back to my monthly menu planning. Just ask me what we are having say, March 16. I can tell ya. Impressed?

I got my hair cut again, finally. I swear, next time I’m going to tackle the hairdresser, brandish a curling iron, and demand strict attention. All I get is ” oh, yes I see, uhuh, no problem.” Then they blithely go about the business of doing exactly what they decided was “right for me” all along.

Speaking of hair, mine grows at lightening speed. I’m always mildly surprised when the mail doesn’t bring a request by the local university to make me the subject of a study on hair growth. But so far, the postman has only brought bills.

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The Q Blog, has a most interesting entry today about racism’s tenacious hold on America. It relates to an incident that I was utterly unaware of dating back to the Mayor Daley years of the 60’s and Martin Luther King, Jr.

It’s been my contention here certainly, that a good deal of criticism of Obama is located in deep-seated and deeply denied racism. Certainly the rabid right simply drips bigotry in their refusal to use the word African-American, their denigration of all African-American groups such as the NAACP and others as “racist” institutions playing the “race card,” and their heaping on of vitriol against all African-American leaders,  as fanning the flames of divisiveness in their “race baiting.”

They cover this by a unitive demand for “equality” meaning no affirmative action, and applaud those that set up various means to “help the beleaguered white man.” A group in Texas has been formed to seek out white males for “scholarships to college.” Their name starts out as “The Former Majority”. In Texas, Latinos and African-Americans now outnumber whites in the state. Of course if Obama would do something about “illegals” this would not be the case, but of course that is “his plan.” Yeah, they aren’t racist at all.

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“Wake up a little Susy!” the Everly Brothers cried. And theoretical physicists are pretty much in chorus. SUSY, standing for SuperSymmetry, is the current love child of the discipline, making all other things “work” in the rarefied world of subatomic tinkering. Problem is the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland has yet to find the Higgs Boson, so-called “God particle”. Things are gearing up for another go at it at LHC, but if it’s still not found, major revamping of the popular theory may be in order.

I know it keeps me up at night worrying. Sure it does you as well.

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Republicans literally spit out of the phrase “redistribution of wealth” as if it were some evil. Obama was accused of this following the Joe Plumber meeting of this, and it became the rallying cry which ginned up the wacko right. COMMUNISM, SOCIALISM, and any other OTHERISM!!!

A Harvard business professor polled Americans on what they think is the income distribution in America, what it actually is, and where Americans feel it should  be. Darned if Americans don’t believe in redistribution of wealth, and darned if they think things are more equitable than they really are! Take a look at the charts, the numbers are truly staggering. Oh you idiot teabaggers, if only you could READ!

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Propagandee, over at Urantia Sojourn, has a really fun look at Glenn Beck through the “eyes” of deceased historian Richard Hofstadter. The parallels between the extreme right-wing that Hofstadter was talking about in 1964, are strikingly similar. Read it and see if you don’t immediately see the shadow of Beckian insanity? I suggests we might all benefit from picking up a copy of Hofstadter’s work, The Paranoid Style in American Politics. Look for it in the archives of Harper’s. There’s a lot more here, so please link up to this one. It’s a bookmark, and source of further reading.

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As to updates on all the other major stories we’ve been talking about: Things remain all screwed up.

Related Articles

• Why The Left Lost It (thedaleygator.wordpress.com)
• Miles Mogulescu: The Paranoid Style in American Politics: Its Past, Present and Future (huffingtonpost.com)
• Anti-intellectualism and Wine (fermentation.typepad.com)
• Americans HEART conspiracies (politico.com)

Held Hostage By the NFL

Tags

agnosticism, Bill O'Reilly, Christians, Contitution, faith, farm workers, gravity, Health care, Humor, immigrants, John Boehner, Latinos, Literature, Mark Twain, Muslims, NFL, physics, Politics, religious doubt, Sports, Steve King, teabaggers, terrorism

Shhh. Be very quiet. This is a house of where now we whisper. “It’s the Playoffs!” Shhhh. Turn around three times, and blink twice. Rub the rabbit’s foot and wiggle your toes. Avoid the black cat.

Negativity be banned. The Packers are poised. They are coming to a TV near you soon. They will prevail. They will overcome.

Okay. Get my drift. My house is in a tizzy all because a bunch of overpaid prima donnas are about to take to the fields of America and cheat, beat each other to a win, all entitling them to advance to the next round.

Everything under heaven and on earth stopped this morning as the Contrarian frantically searched the TV guide looking for THE teams’ game day and time. “I can’t find the early game!” he moaned, nearly swooning with fear.

“Try the Internet,” I mumbled, making the bed.

“Oh God, that will take forever!” he intoned.

“Try NFL Playoffs,” I suggested helpfully.

“I know what to put in!” he huffed.

Ten minutes later, he was pouting, “It’s taking so long!”

“Welcome to my world,” I chuckled.

Suffice it to say that the early game was the late game, and the late game was an even later game, and I get to watch football tonight and then, joy of all joys, do it all over again tomorrow. Whew. I’m sharpening my knitting needles for all the fun!

Now I admit, I can watch football with the best of them, but gee wiz, this is a bit obsessive dontcha think?

Oh, and if there is any question in your mind, the Packers are gonna win the whole thing. You can bet on that literally. Now personally, I have my reservations, but God, I sure ain’t gonna utter them around this house. I’m lucky I got the old goat   Contrarian to go out and bring in some wood to keep my tootsies warm today!

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Bringing another voice to the Huckleberry Finn controversy, I give you one Roger Ebert. His take is I think worth your while. The more I read of Mr. Ebert, the more I respect this man.

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Political Irony has your late night political humor here.

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Don’t know if you heard or not, but Steve King (R-IA) put foot in mouth again. Chastising a Democrat on the floor of the House, for criticizing Speaker Boehner, King regaled that Boehner was full of mendacity, not knowing what the word meant. Boehner indeed is a liar when he claims that the Affordable Heath Care Act is a job killer and costs too much.

Actually it’s working pretty darn good. And that is according to no less than Forbes Magazine. There has been a major uptick in small business buying health insurance for their employees, many for the first time ever, made affordable by the tax credits within the Act.

No doubt Boehner will call that an “opinion” just as he did the CBO estimates that repeal of the act would cause deficits in the area of 230 billion within ten years.

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Since it doesn’t fuel the narrative offered by Faux News and the GOP, you might have missed this story. Egypt, rift with Al Qaeda like attacks on Coptic Christians, and not confident that their government could protect the latter, saw fit to unite to protect Christians worshiping on Christmas. Yes,  that’s right, Muslims  protecting Christians.

It is essential that we report, and spread the word, that Americans who have an agenda that includes vilifying Muslims must be met with facts. Muslims are not to be another “excuse” to blame some “other” for our own failings.

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I’ve tried in the past to interact with atheists, but the NeoAtheists are a different breed, younger, and arrogant, and unwilling to discuss issues on any other plane but from a fundamentalist outlook. I know not where to find agnostics, who by their very nature aren’t usually of such a serious bent as to blog on their questions.

James McGrath, does an admirable job of addressing such concerns, with lots of links to atheists, believers and those in-between. I found the discussion heartening and informative.

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Border Explorer has a very important post on migrant workers in this country. It’s a must read. We owe a great debt to our Latino brothers and sisters for all the work they do. Please read.

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Inexplicably, Billo the Clown (Bill O’Reilly) seems to believe that the fact that the sun rises and sets and that the tides go in and out, is evidence that God exists. Inexplicable because although I believe that O’Reilly is a horses butt and rather uniformed by choice, I didn’t think he was flat-out stupid. Both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have had occasion to query how Billo seems to not understand the concept of GRAVITY?  I mean junior high kids could explain that one to Billo. (H/T to James McGrath.

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We mentioned the other day that the GOPers in reading the Constitution in the opening session of the House, omitted the 3/5ths clause, because it had been “amended” out. In reality it doesn’t fit with their narrative that the Founding Fathers were perfect and only instituted a limited government. Forgetting of course that the Articles of Confederation were a “limited federal government” and scrapped as unworkable. Of course the 3/5ths clause suggested that our FF were flawed humans as we all are. An excellent article to that effect is by Paul Harvey, teacher of history at University of Colorado. (H/T to James McGrath)

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What’s on the stove: hotdogs, hash browns and coleslaw.