Immigrants Should Use English - So Should Americans

Photo's from GiveUpBlog



Can't remember where I got this one.

Why "Stay the Course"?

Good David Broder Editorial in the NYT's this morning. The reason Bush wants to 'stay the course' in Iraq is because if we don't, the 'other side' will claim victory.

But once the hope for victory is gone, the issue remains: What do you do? The answer from Bush and from Olmert is: Carry on. Do not waver. And do not question the logic of prolonging the agony.

This sure sounds alot like Vietnam War reasoning. We stayed there long after we realized that we could not win. We withdrew...lost, but Australia wasn't invaded and we didn't have to fight the 'Reds' on the shores of LA and San Francisco.

The other point Broder makes is that if Bush thought Iraq was such a danger to the USA, why didn't he prepare and execute the War more competently?

For the United States, it would have meant moving into Iraq with a large enough force to control the country after Saddam Hussein was toppled, not the pared-down deployment that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld insisted would be adequate. And, as Tom Ricks of The Post describes in deadly detail in his book "Fiasco," it would have meant serious planning for the occupation. That planning never took place, making it impossible for Iraqis to live their lives with hope.

Whatever goals Bush had for the Middle East are long gone and there is no one to blame but GW Bush and the people he appointed execute the war (ok, ok, so we all know it's really Cheney that's to blame).

Amish

Went to the Blue Moon Cafe this morning for coffee. There were two young Amish couples enjoying breakfast and probably waiting for a bus to somewhere.

The following info was obtained from HERE.

"Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." (Romans 12:2)

"But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat" (I Corinthians 5:11)

Mennonites = followers of Menno Simons, a Catholic priest from Holland who joined the anabaptist movement in 1536.

Amish = followers of Jacob Amman a Swiss Bishop who broke away from the Mennonite church.

Amish and Mennonites differ in matters of dress, technology, language and interpretation of the bible but have similar beliefs concerning baptism, non-resistance and basic bible interpretations.

As you know we got a new oak dining room buffet made by an Amish guy. He has a great shop that had several power tools run off a belt drive system probably powered by a generator. Amish communities decide for themselves what they will and will not accept concerning technology. Amish people consider electrical lines as a link with the outside world, so I guess a generator would solve that problem.

Old order Amish do not have to educate their children beyond the 8th grade (the Supreme Court so ruled in 1972).

Amish women wear a white cap if they are married and a black cap if they are single. Amish men grow beards after they have married. The Amish get married in November.

Amish do not play musical instruments.

The Ordnung is the Amish blueprint for expected behavior.

Fidel Castro Ruz

I hadn't realized that Castro was a Jesuit educated lawyer. The key here being Jesuit educated. You don't want to go against those guys. I can sort of remember the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1956-58. At least I was aware that something was going on in Cuba and I had the impression that the USA wasn't really opposing Castro at the time. In fact, the USA refused to support Batista, who was the unelected President of Cuba at the time, although others say the USA was proping up Batista. Castro led a poorly armed band of less than 200 men against the Cuban police and army that numbered over 30,000.

But I cannot find a good website that explains the US role in the Cuban Revolution and whether we wanted Castro to win or Batista to remain in power. Nor can I find out whether the USA made diplomatic errors that resulted in Castro becoming a partner of the Soviet Union.

I really, really, want to visit Cuba. It would be like going back in time to the 50's I suspect.

UPDATE: According to this article, JFK secretly tried to normalize relations with Cuba in the early 1960's.

Good-Bye Tomcat

The US Navy has retired the F-14 Tomcat, from carrier operations, as of a few days ago. 32 years of service with the fleet. The Tomcat was designed around a radar system and was the only aircraft capable of firing the long range AIM-54 Phoenix missile at multiple targets. What's going to happen with all those half million dollar missiles now? Some ex-Navy are not too thrilled with the demise of the F-14.

“One of the reasons the Tomcat is going away is because it’s so hard to fix,” Howe said. “I’m happy for my young maintenance guys, because they’ve worked their tails off and they can fix just about anything. So, this transition to the Super Hornet, because that particular aircraft is so much easier to maintain, will be an easy one for them.”

It's being replaced by the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet.



An F/A-18 Super Hornet breaking the sound barrier.

BTW, although I was a Corpsman and researcher in the Navy, I've always been interested in high tech military equipment, especially aircraft and ships.

What is a

gnathodynamometer?

Point out the pathology and give a possible cause.

Exxon Profit

$1318 dollars last quarter. Per second! Here.

Democrats vs Republicans

Republicans have a pretty low standing in the USA right now. Democrats aren't doing a whole lot better because they don't seem to stand for anything. Carville and Greenberg are saying get off your asses and stand for something. Here are some of their ideas:

1. No congressional pay raises for the next 2 yrs until the minimum wage is raised.

2. No more debates about gay marriage and abortion or protect the flag/pledge amendments until congress does something about health care and jobs.

3. Congress must reclaim its oversight role. Find out what happened to the 'missing' 9 billion dollars in Iraq.

4. Repeal the orgy of corporate tax breaks and wasteful spending projects (like bridges to nowhere).

5. Give Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices for seniors.

6. Restore the cuts in college loan programs.

7. Repeal the Bush energy bill and get one that actually addresses our energy problems.

Republicans:
They work for the few.
Corporate special interests.
Corruption and greed.
No end in sight in Iraq

Democrats:
They are for me.
American jobs.
Relief on gas and healthcare, tax breaks for the middle class.
New course in Iraq.
A congress that works for everyone.
An America that works for everyone.

JEOPARDY

Maureen made the final cut and is on the list to be on Jeopardy. Now we wait for the call. Do you think we will make millions if she gets on? I do. She is a walking treasure trove of minutia, trivia, trifle and frippery.

Meet Henrietta Lacks or Helacyton gartleri

The recent discussions over the stem cell research bill in Congress got me to thinking about human cell lines. And, you can't think about human cell lines without thinking about HeLa cells. I was under the common misconception that these cells were derived from a cervical carcinoma removed from Helen Lane by George Gey. Wrong. The woman's name was Henrietta Lacks. Because this cell line is immortal and has a different number of chromosomes from normal human cells, Van Valen considers it a new species which he has named Helacyton gartleri (Van Valen, Leigh M. and Virginia C. Maiorana, 1991. HeLa, a new microbial species. Evolutionary Theory 10: 71-74.) These were the cells in which polio virus was grown and used to distinguish different strains of the virus.

Read more about Henrietta, George Gey and HeLa cells in this article in Johns Hopkins magazine. It's a really interesting human interest story.

To this day, members of the Lacks family feel they've been passed over in the story of the HeLa cells. They know their mother's cells started a medical revolution and are now bought and sold around the world. They're pretty sure that someone, somewhere, has profited from their mother's death. They know that someone wasn't related to Henrietta. And their experience is not well-known. In cases like these, Faden agrees, a good way to begin addressing this problem is through the telling of a story from which everyone can learn. This story starts with Henrietta and the origin of the HeLa cells: They were not from Helen Lane or Helen Larson, as many publications have mistakenly reported, they were from Henrietta Lacks, wife of David, mother of five.

Now That's A Religion!

Principles:

-The inherent worth and dignity of every person

-Justice, equity and compassion in human relations

-Acceptance of one another and encouragement to spiritual growth in our congregations

-A free and responsible search for truth and meaning

-The right of conscience and the use of the democratic process within our congregations and in society at large

-The goal of world community with peace, liberty, and justice for all

-Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part

Atheist Church

I guess this was on Mad TV so I don't feel too bad about posting it.

Science Is Hard

Congress has been 'investigating' why the college science 'pipeline' is drying up. InsideHighered has some ideas why this is the case. Science is hard. Science majors get lower grades than students in other majors.

Paul Romer, an economics professor at the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University, who has studied the issue, wrote in an article for Stanford Business that “the grades assigned in science courses are systematically lower than grades in other disciplines, and students rely heavily on grades as signals about the fields for which they are best suited.” Thus, he concluded, students usher themselves out of the science track.

Some think it has to do with the 'culture' of science.

“The culture of science says, ‘not everybody is good enough to cut it, and we’re going to make it hard for them, and the cream will rise to the top.’ ”

Others believe the fact that many introductory science courses are large and impersonal which makes the grading more coldly quantitative out of necessity, unlike in say intro english courses which require small class size to enable discussion. Also, science classes tend to be taught vertically;

” meaning students are often made to slog through two years of large, formulaic introductory courses that teach fundamentals before they get any taste of the hands-on work that makes a career in science attractive to most scientists. In the process, students seldom form any bond with the scientists teaching the course.

I think all of those things come into play, resulting in fewer science majors. However, if you think science is hard in the classroom, just wait til you get out into the real world. Maybe that message is starting to filter down to students as well.

Oh yeah, and Jon Stewart of the 'Daily Show' evidently made the observation that science majors actually have to 'know stuff' versus just winging it.

Political Junkie Site

If you are into following the 2006 mid-term elections. This site at the NYT is invaluable.

House Rabbit

All The President's Words

From the Colbert Report. Thanks to Lam(b. A short history of G.W. Bush and his war to make the world safer.

Ethanol Based Fuel

What do cows, biogas digesters and ethanol distillation plants have to do with each other? Go to E3 Biofuels and find out. Can ethanol be produced using only 3% input of fossil fuels? Of course it does take fuel to feed the cows but you also get dairy and meat out of the system.

Drug Riddled Mind?

The ADE hasn't had a letter from John Edelburg in a couple of years. Here is part of what he has to say in a letter the ADE calls "SLCS standards have fallen drastically":

Yet even an effort so surpassing can be hard for some youngsters to know. For in communities where the culture has slipped, little may be promotive to it. And where the culture has eroded entirely, down to the arrangements even of a scruffy, drug-riddled town, cultural literacy vanishes, and even the brightest youngsters await their destinies as persons never to know (still less to appreciate) the transcendent achievements holding company with the wondrous winning streak of Robert Fischer.

You can read the whole letter here.

But first a few definitions for you culturally illiterate unwashed masses:

mitigating = to make less intense or severe
concurrence = occurring at the same time
lancinated = tear or lacerate
propitious = favorably inclined
assiduity = unflagging effort
"curse the old man threw on Rigoletto" = reference to a Giuseppe Verdi opera
consummate = bring something to completion (unless he's talking about sex)
transcendent = going beyond some philosophical concept

Ok, go and enjoy the letter, but you gotta ask yourself....what drug is he using?