I don't think so

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

This surprised even me. Thanks Sara

$110,000 on Hair and Makeup?

You better look pretty damn good if you have professionals doing your hair and makeup to the tune of $110,000 over two months. Now how much was that John Edwards haircut?

Why Bother Impeaching Obama?

Ok, here is a good one from the wing-nut-o-sphere. Let's not go to the trouble of impeaching Obama,that takes too much time. Let's just declare him not a citizen of the USA before the inauguration day. Naturally, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is willing to go along with these nuts.

Justice Clarence Thomas distributed to his colleagues a request that the high court weigh in before the Electoral College makes Obama’s victory official later this month. The justices may decide in a Friday conference whether to hear or cast away a lawsuit dismissed in a lower court and appealed by a retired New Jersey lawyer named Leo C. Donofrio, who also has his own Web site.

Go to PeoplesPassion.org, the voice of the people (it's all about Faith, Family and Country) and listen to their pleas. They want proof Barack Obama is a citizen of the USA. Yep, Obama's birth certificate is a fraud. How his family managed to get his birth announcement published in a Honolulu newspaper 47 years ago should also be investigated. See, they Obama's family knew that someday he would run for the Presidency of the USA. This is all a huge, really well thought out conspiracy.

PS Is Michelle Malkin a US citizen? Are you only a citizen if your father was a citizen? Stay tuned - this topic isn't going away.

I have a different explanation. These wing-nuts have never heard of William of Ockham. They are the same group that think we never landed on the moon. They see black helicopters and know in their hearts that the UN wants to rule the world. In other words, they haven't the foggiest idea how to think.

Neo-Hooverites = Republicans?

What do Republicans need to do to regain their former role as leaders of the free market economy, flag, god and country? You can make the case that they need to make sure President-elect Obama and the Democratic Congress fail to solve any of our country's problems. They do this simply by continuing to do what they've done over the last two years. Obstruct. So what if we have to suffer through a depression. So what if we all have to suffer so Republicans can win in 2 or 4 years. We need to be taught a good lesson - forget that the sacrifice Bush wanted us to make was to go out and spend.

Reagan spent us into huge deficits which Clinton had to fix. Now Bush has done the same thing with his war against a tactic (terror) and now Republicans are calling on Democrats to be fiscally responsible.

Who ever would have thought that the Republican government could succeed in bringing down the US economy in only 8 years?

And The Winner Is? (foot and mouth disease)

Yea for Kansas. Looks like they are the lucky winners to be the home of the new National Bio and Agro-Defense Lab.

The federal government is recommending a site in Kansas over sites in North Carolina and elsewhere for a new $450 million laboratory to study biological threats such as anthrax and contagious animal diseases, a Kansas senator's office said Wednesday.

This new lab is to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Lab, off Long Island, in New York State. Seems like a great idea to me to start studying very contagious animal diseases like foot and mouth disease and anthrax in the middle of the continental USA rather than out on an island. Even stranger, according to the Department of Homeland Security, Congressional law stipulates live foot-and-mouth disease virus cannot be studied on the mainland USA.

Why are they replacing the Plum Island facility? Well, it's too old. That begs the question of why they can't modernize it.

Unreasonable Faith

Good blog, Unreasonable Faith, written by "a former christian" with thoughts on "faith, science and skepticism". But what is really interesting is the journey through the dark parts of the bible, the contents so far include two posts. The introduction can be found here.

I’m going to show you that side by looking at some of the stories from a different perspective. As we will see, Yahweh is not just the God of love and justice, but a God full of wrath and jealousy, who delights in acts that most of us — without the blinders of faith — would consider the height of evil.

The second post, "Genesis 3: God screws up the world, blames man" is here.

Christians believe that God created the world and is in control of it, so they must find a scapegoat for all this evil that goes on. They can’t believe their God could have intended all this to happen. So they have the story of the forbidden fruit and Satan, the rebellious angel. Yet is the Bible’s answer really satisfying? As I have argued, it would make God responsible for this mess.

Happy December

After problems with our water system, going without water for 4 days - replacing a well pump (although I'm not sure it was needed)and a quick 2 day trip to Boston to visit my wonderful daughter (and eat lots of food)- I'm back at the grindstone for another 3 weeks or so before Christmas break.

We didn't do much more than eat while in Boston and meet several of my daughters friends. We did visit Dorchester Heights, where the American rebels chased the British out of Boston. We also visited Mike's Pastry in the North End and ate cannoli. You can order online from Mike's Pastry which is far easier than budging your way in through the crowds. We had ribs at Redbones BBQ and shawarma in a Jewish middle Eastern takeout in Allston (near to Coolidge corners).

We stayed at the Best Western Terrace Inn in Allston, near the BC campus. It's cheap, clean, right on the green T line, has free parking and is only a mile from my daughters apartment.

Naturally, we had to visit Harvard Square and spend some time at the Coop. We also spent 3 hours at the movies watching "Australia". Not a bad movie but could use a little more action in my opinion. I didn't know that Darwin was attacked by the Japanese during WWII (multiple times, but the movie shows the first, and most deadly attack).

Also visited my daughters school, the Quincy E. Dickerman Elementary School.

Got around mostly using the T, which was fun and convenient. Got to hear an older Chinese gentleman playing an erhu in the government center station. Weird sounding to the Western ear.

Are You Civically Literate?

Ok, check out this Civics quiz. I missed 4 questions for a score of 87.88. Two of them kind of business type questions. Average score for this quiz in November was 78.1. Take it and let me know how you did. It's sad that the vast majority of people who take this quiz (71%) cannot pass it.

Indefinite Detention?

The wingers are super concerned that their guns are going to be taken away over the coming years. Nevermind that it would be impossible due to the number of guns currently in the USA. But these same wingers don't seem to be concerned that G.W. Bush has mandated that legal residents of the USA can be imprisoned indefinitely if he deems they are enemy terrorists. Maybe the wingers figure as long as they have their guns, no one is going to take them away.

Anyone who has actually read the US Constitution can see that detaining someone indefinitely, incommunicado, and torturing them is unconstitutional. An editorial in todays NYT points out that a legal resident of the USA, Ali al-Marri, has been held and tortured for the last seven years.

Mr. Marri was arrested in Peoria, Ill., in December 2001 on criminal charges. In 2003, while his criminal case was pending, Mr. Bush designated him an enemy combatant, and he was moved to a Navy brig near Charleston, S.C. For 16 months, Mr. Marri was held incommunicado. During his detention, he reportedly has been subjected to treatment that borders on, or actually is, torture.

Yes, I understand that Mr. Marri has a funny middle eastern name so he is probably a terrorist and not a Christian. Think this matter doesn't concern you? Think again.

The federal appeals court made clear that its ruling upholding the president’s power to detain enemy combatants applies equally to American citizens. If the ruling stands, presidents would be able to throw out due process, habeas corpus and other basic constitutional and statutory rights for anyone they declared to have terrorist ties.

Just be thankful you don't have a middle eastern name....or do you?

HMMWV Zeus Laser

It's not quite a handheld raygun but it pretty much is the closest thing we have right now. The Economist reports on a laser mounted on a Humvee being used to destroy IED's in Iraq from a distance of 300 meters.

Wikipedia has more on the ZEUS-HLONS.

Conservatives See No Problems

Kevin Drum at Mother Jones has a pretty good post about conservative's inability to admit a problem exists. That's why they lack ideas about how to fix problems - they don't see or can't admit a problem exists to begin with.

Take global warming. Here's the rough conservative reaction to it starting in the early 90s:

1. It doesn't exist.

2. It exists but it isn't manmade.

3. It's manmade, but it's too expensive to do anything about.

Even this is a generous assessment. A lot of conservatives are still stuck at #2, and sizeable chunk at #1. What this means is that they're basically shut out of the conversation entirely. Which is too bad, because I'd actually be sort of interested to hear a conservative take on how to address global warming that accepts both its reality and the necessity of doing something about it.

But maybe this isn't right. Maybe it's just that these people who claim to be conservative are no longer true conservatives. I seem to remember a time when conservatives had solutions to problems besides "cut taxes".

Earth to Bush

Where the hell is G.W. Bush? Does he have the slightest idea that the US economy is going down the tubes? Is this just another lack of response like his lack of response to Katrina? Is Bush even interested in being President anymore? If not, can we just let Obama get on with solving the problem?

Shake a Tail Feather

Classic.

Does God Exist?

Turek vs. Hitchens Debate: Does God Exist? from Andrew Ketchum on Vimeo.

If you have a couple of hours to spare, listen to Christopher Hitchins debate (the rather shouty, preachy) Frank Turek as to whether God exists or not.

Die Turkeys....Die!

Sarah Palin's idea of "levity.

Krugman Scares Me

I really don't like it when Paul Krugman writes a column about the economic downturn, especially when he is worried.

How much can go wrong in the two months before Mr. Obama takes the oath of office? The answer, unfortunately, is: a lot. Consider how much darker the economic picture has grown since the failure of Lehman Brothers, which took place just over two months ago. And the pace of deterioration seems to be accelerating.

Any chance we can move Inauguration Day up so we can get some leadership in this country? The Democrats in Congress need it as badly as do the Republicans, maybe more so. Why are politicians sitting on their behinds while our economy goes down the tube?

Iraqi's Don't Want Us

Are these people ungrateful or what? You'd think the USA invaded their country for reasons based on "misinformation"; you'd think we were responsible for the deaths of ten's of thousands (at a minimum); you'd think we used despicable torture techniques in a horrifying prison (which no higher level person has yet to be held responsible); you'd think we liberated the majority who will now get revenge on the minority after we leave (of course they will).

Why are these people so ungrateful? I'm sure if the USA was wrongly invaded, we would be very greatful.

UPDATE: It seems that Washington Post columnist Michael Gerson disagrees. Things in Iraq are going really swell.

The cost of this success has been high for America, and some may argue that it has not been worth the price. But it is still a success.

Ok, let's all agree our adventure in Iraq was successful. That means we can come home now.....right?

Did Bush "Out" Eliot Spitzer?

Yes, the mainstream media is not always our friend. Story number 25 of the top 25 censored stories can be read here.

The exposure of New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer’s tryst with a luxury call girl had little to do with the Bush administration’s high moral standards for public servants. Author F. William Engdahl advises that, “in evaluating spectacular scandals around prominent public figures, it is important to ask what and who might want to eliminate that person.” Timing suggests that Spitzer was likely a target of a White House and Wall Street operation to silence one of its most dangerous and vocal critics of their handling of the current financial market crisis.

Was Eliot Spitzer going too far in implicating the Bush Administration in the subprime crisis? What is the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency? What role did they play in the subprime crisis? Will we ever find out?

There are 24 other stories that have not been covered very well by the mainstream media and surely not by FOX News.

Democrats Censor Lieberman

I guess we showed Joe Lieberman! As Josh Marshall says, Lieberman expelled from Pilates class in Senate gym. Joe Lieberman has been shown what happens when you become a traitor to your party......pretty much nothing. One thing hasn't changed in Democrats...at least not yet. Democrats are spineless. Now I'm almost hoping Lieberman will investigate the Obama White House for the next 4 years. It would serve us right.

By leaving Lieberman in charge of the important Homeland Security and Government Affairs Comm., Democrats have also shown us they don't really care if they have a competent Chair of their committees.

Atherosclerosis, Inflammation and Statins

One of my favorite medical topics was addressed in the NYT today, on the opinion page no less. "Who Should Take a Statin?" discusses a recent study which had to be prematurely ended so the placebo group could get the medicine too.

I've always been convinced that levels of C-reactive protein show a strong correlation with coronary artery disease. C-reactive protein levels in your blood are an indication of overall inflammation levels in your body. The study discussed in todays NYT's showed that treatment with a statin, a cholesterol-lowering drug, not only reduced cholesterol but also resulted in reduced levels of C-reactive protein.

The effects of statin treatment were amazing.

Those who got the statin had 54 percent fewer heart attacks, 48 percent fewer strokes and 20 percent fewer deaths from all causes. The participants included men 50 and older and women 60 and older with no history of heart disease or high cholesterol. But they all had high levels of CRP, and many had such other risk factors as high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. Whether the statin helped because it reduced normal cholesterol to even lower levels or because it reduced CRP levels is not clear.

If inflammation is the cause of coronary artery disease, then what is the cause of the inflammation? Could it be infection?

There are any number of papers correlating high levels of C-reactive protein as a cardiac risk factor. Find one of them here. There have been entire scientific sessions concerning infection and atherosclerosis. One review can be found here.

I'm currently reading Paul Ewald's book "Plague Time: The New Germ Theory of Disease". Ewald points out that infections can cause chronic disease such as gastric ulcers, cancer and possibly many, many others such as IBD, arthritis, coronary artery disease and even schizophrenia. If you don't want to read Ewald's book, you can find an article in The Atlantic Online by Judith Hooper discussing the book.

The "plagues" we need to worry about are not Ebola or Bird flu. We need to start concerning ourselves with the causes of chronic diseases that are currently responsible for high mortality in the USA. Whether infections are responsible for some of these diseases needs to be seriously considered.