Bush and Appeasement

It's not surprising that Bush and his supporters don't seem to understand the definition of appeasement. Appeasment is a policy of "accepting the imposed conditions of an aggressor in lieu of armed resistance". It's not the same thing as talking or diplomacy. When the Bush administration talks with N. Korea and Iran it's diplomacy. If a Democrat proposes doing the same thing - it's Nazi appeasement.

Let's face it, our President is a moron.

Welcome Sittig Family

There is a guest commentary in todays Adirondack Daily Enterprise written by Mr. Dick Sittig. He an his wife are the ones that have purchased the old Wawbeek Hotel property. It's a letter that convinces me that the Sittigs treated the locals fairly as far as attempting to preserve the old Wawbeek buildings. I loved eating at the Wawbeek Restaurant. But there is not that much special about the building other than the location and the unusual fireplace/staircase (and the fact it's relatively old). The Sittigs own the property and should be allowed to do what they want with it within the boundries of the law. We have and would give that right to anyone already living in the area.

It's time to for us to welcome this family to the Adirondacks, whether they live here year round or only in the summer.

Edwards to Endorse Obama Tonight

Just announced.

Does Obama Have a Problem with Hard Working Whites?

He does with bar owner Mike Norman in Georgia.

"This place is a diamond in the rough," said Gene McKinley, a Woodstock engineer among the patrons Tuesday. "People here are genuine and honest. It's the one place I can go without having to worry if I'm offending someone."

And the patrons of Mike's bar are genuine and honest.

Classic Colbert on O'Reilly

It's true, no one wears dickies anymore.

Who Supports the Troops (and who doesn't)

There are many ways of supporting our military. You can give up golf...like President Bush has done. Or, you can attempt to pass some legislation, like the GI Bill of Rights for the 21st Century. Yes, the Bill is expensive at an estimated $2.5 billion per year. But that is about what we spend in Iraq in one week. A years worth of war funding would provide GI Bill benefits to our troops for over 50 years.

The Bill improves veteran health care, increases survivor benefits, pays a $1000 bonus to troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and improves health and education benefits for veterans. That is how one supports troops.

The Senate Bill S.22 is sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb and has 57 cosponsors. Notably absent as a cosponsor is Sen. John McCain. The House Bill H.R. 5740 is sponsored by Rep. Harry Mitchell and has 295 cosponsors. Notably absent as a cosponsor is Rep. John McHugh. President Bush has his own reasons for not supporting the Bill, among them that the Bill is too expensive.

People love to talk about supporting troops, but when it comes to putting your money where your mouth is....not so much.

New Trudeau Stamp Unveiled

Here is the new 76 cent stamp released by the USPS honoring Dr. Edward Livingston Trudeau. The stamps and first day covers were released today in a ceremony held by Trudeau Institute, Inc. at the Hotel Saranac.

Prima Donna Bill O'Reilly

(from Think Progress)

There are no words to adequately describe this hero of the right wing.

UPDATE: Didn't take CBS long to get that video off youtube. But you can still see it here

Obama and Hamas?

Why do the "terrorists" seem to support Obama, or for that matter Democratic candidates for President? It could be because Democrats are liberal, commie, cowards who are rooting for the terrorists to win the world. Or...could it be reverse psychology. Root for the guys you need to fear in hopes of getting a neocon elected. Neoconservative policies have been very helpful in recruiting new terrorists. Neoconservatives want us to be afraid. They count on us being afraid so they will get elected. Hamas is smart.....let's hope Americans are smarter.

Metric System

Which three countries have not adopted the metric system of measurement?

Let's Sing the Preamble to The Constitution!

The Post American World

Those commies on National Public Radio, Tom Ashbrook specifically, is currently interviewing Fareed Zakaria concerning his new book The Post American World. I haven't read it yet but I'm ordering from our library as I type. Discounting military power, the USA is being outpaced in many areas by other countries. No amount of nationalistic patriotism can deny that fact. As Zakaria points out, the book is not so much about the decline of the USA, but rather the rise of everyone else. This isn't a bash-America book. It's a wake-up call for us to understand what is happening, why it is happening and how to respond intelligently to globalization.

Gated Communities - All the Same

Here's an example of some good conservative rationalization. Walled communities in Bagdad are really no different from gated communities in the USA. That's what conservative Max Boot thinks.

It’s true that there are walls around Dora and other Baghdad neighborhoods. (Although as far as I know there aren’t any “contending ethnic neighborhoods” in Fallujah.) But then there are walls around many gated communities in the U.S. too.

These guys just cannot bring themselves to admit a mistake was made in going to war with Iraq. They will posit any excuse, no matter how stupid, to prove we are winning the war.

Is There a Republican War on Science

In a very humorous op-ed in the NYT today, Michael Gerson (he was the Bush speech writer who coined the phrase "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" to get us into a war with Iraq)states that there is no such thing as a Republican "war on science". In fact, it's really just a ploy by Democrats to shut down political debate on science policy.

For the most part, these accusations are a political ploy -- actually an attempt to shut down political debate. Any practical concern about the content of government sex-education curricula is labeled "anti-science." Any ethical question about the destruction of human embryos to harvest their cells is dismissed as "theological" and thus illegitimate.

Gerson chooses his examples very carefully. Although I'm not sure where debate about sex-education curricula and stem cell research is being shut down by Democrats. What I am sure of is that the current Republican administration can surely be accused of running a "war on science". I don't need to go into details here....entire books have been written on the subject. For example, The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney.

Even better, read this report called Federal Science and the Public Good published by the Union of Concerned Scientist. They accuse the Bush administration of 1) falsifying data and fabricating results; 2) selectively editing reports and creating false uncertainty; 3) tampering with scientific procedures; 4) intimidating and coercing scientists; 5) censoring and suppressing scientists; 6) hiding, suppressing and delaying release of scientific findings; 7) disregarding legally mandated science; 8) allowing conflicts of interest and 9) corrupting scientific review panels.

Naturally, Gerson is aware of all these examples of the Republican war on science. It's surprising that a good, evangelical Christian like Gerson would stoop to writing a dishonest op-ed. What is his real purpose in the op-ed. Its to accuse liberals of running a "new eugenics", kind of like that run by the Nazis. Good luck with that one.

Gerson helped lie us into a war with Iraq. Now he wants to start rewriting the history of the Republican war on science.

Science Times and Nosology

If it's Tuesday it's NYT Science Time day. Today an especially interesting article caught my eye. It's about reclassifying diseases using molecular genetic techniques rather than grouping them by signs, symptoms, cause or pathology. The classification of diseases, by the way, is called nosology.

The Genomic Nosology for Medicine group at the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics has found that certain diseases that are apparently very different actually utilize similar metabolic pathways. For instance, it appears Duchenne Muscular dystrophy activates many of the same genes that are activated in heart attacks. So two apparently different diseases may be more similar than one might think. Currently, there are over 12,000 diseases classified by the National Center for Health Statistics. You can find them in the 10th revision of the International Classification of Diseases here.


If this is generally the case, it is a very important finding. It means that we should immediately start mapping which genes are activated or deactivated in every disease. In other words, create a diseasome database. This is not as difficult as it might sound. It involves obtaining diseased tissue or blood and comparing which genes are activated or deactivated with similar genes in normal tissue. It's a big, expensive undertaking, but not technically difficult. It is done using "gene chip" technology and some powerful computer analysis.

One of the main advantages of this information is that it would allow us to try treating seemingly different diseases with drugs already developed for other diseases. In the case of Duchenne Muscular dystrophy....maybe treatment with drugs developed to treat heart attacks might help if the molecular pathways affected are similar.

Hagee vs Wright

Why do we see Rev. Wright's comments over and over on TV but not the good Rev. Hagee - McCain supporter extraordinarie? Double standard?

John McCain & 100 Years in Iraq

Hendrik Hertzberg, of the NewYorker puts it elegantly:

McCain's wants to stay in Iraq until no more Americans are getting killed, no matter how long it takes and how many Americans get killed achieving that goal—that is, the goal of not getting any more Americans killed. And once that goal is achieved, we'll stay.

The key word here is "stay"....stay no matter what and then stay longer.

Money Laundering by Clinton and McCain

Tom Friedman points out the obvious in todays NYT.

This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

. Actually, this is just John McCain and Hillary Clinton pandering for votes by offering a bad idea, a gas tax holiday, that people unthinkingly accept as good for them.

Here is the problem as Friedman points out. The USA has no energy strategy. We haven't had a realistic energy strategy for almost thirty years.

Here is something I didn't know.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

Isn't this strange? It's an instance where we can increase home grown energy supplies and increase numbers of high paying jobs at the same time. But we don't do it. Is there more sun in East Germany than in the USA?

True, you can't run a car on the sun. But you can run a car on energy produced from the sun when it is used to dissociate hydrogen from water.

Conservatives and liberals alike believe a gas tax holiday is a bad idea and is not a solution to high gasoline prices. Do you think the media will pick up on the pandering by Clinton and McCain or stick with the Wright/Obama relationship story?

Snow and 34 degrees

Weather at my house is back to winter.

Federal Gas Tax Holiday

How about that Federal Gas Tax holiday that Clinton and McCain are recommending for this summer? My conservative friends keep reminding me that the price of gasoline is dependent on supply and demand. The capitalist system is working just fine. Decreased supply of a product leads to increased price. So what happens if gasoline is made cheaper by a Federal Gas Tax holiday. People will buy more gasoline and the price will continue to go up. Oil companies make even more profit and badly needed Federal tax revenues go down. Or am I missing something?