Random observation of the day

I have heard, over the past 3 years, many pundits and commentators of all ilks express amazement at the barbarity of the Muslims who kill each other for sectarian reasons. The argument goes 'I can understand them hating the Jews and maybe even the Christians but what kind of religion turns on its own kind' or some close approximation of that. This is generally used to show what a backwards religion Islam really is.

The only response I can think of to this is, 'Has anyone ever heard of Northern Ireland'?

Vacation

I am on vacation in Atlantic City (?!?!?) so posting may be spotty this week. Amazingly there is no wireless in the room, only in the activity center. Oh well. I've been getting spoiled.

What Democracy?

What happens when a large majority in a Democracy vote to end said Democracy? Could we see this in Iraq?

Bloodthirsty

I am truly flabbergasted at the screams for more war, unending war by the neo-conservative punditry (Rush, Hannity, Malkin, etc.). It is almost as though the failed attempt to create democracy and peace with force in Iraq has only whetted the appetite for more of the same. What would it take to convince these people that this is the wrong approach? I am not sure it is possible to convince men and women of faith anything which challenges their idealogy. The neo-cons faith appears to be war. They have an angry god.

It has been rather an eye opener for me to hear some of these guys, Kristol in particular, finally come out and say they want a full blown war of civilizations and religions in the Middle East. I can't help but wonder where the Book of Revelation fits into all this. If they can paint Ahmadinejad and/or Nasrallah as the anti-Christ, perhaps they can finally bring around the Apocolypse everyone has been waiting anxiously for. These guys understand that their lives are failures if it doesn't happen within that fragile span. Better to bring it about sooner than waiting for God to get around to it.

It is really the only explanation I can come up with other than plain Bloodthirstiness. Even greed for oil can't account for it. Get the Jews all back in Israel, start all the countries of the world fighting centered somewhere in the vacinity (or as my sister would say virginity) of Jeruselem and bingo. Rapture, Ascension, Armies of the Lord and all us unbelieving heathens finally get to burn in hell on earth. Scare people.

He's baaaaacccckkkk!

The bear that is.















My son was asleep in the van at the time. Gads.

What is the truth?

I have talked about this recently, but it is one of the more facinating phenomenon of the modern world so I thought it deserved a rehash. A friend of mine who is fond of 9/11 conspiracy theories (just because it is a conpiracy theory doesn't make it crazy or false, but that is another issue). Today, he sent me a forwarded rant about Bush's attack on the Constitution which threw out the alleged Bush quote 'Stop throwing the Constitution in my face. It is just a god damn piece of paper.'

I thought that quote was quite damning coming from the President of the United States and was amazed I hadn't read much about it. So, not believing it was real, I decided to do a little (very little) research into it. Ok, I did a Google search. It turned out 42,900 hits. That has to mean it is true, right? I was ready to at least take it as the accepted truth at least.

But then I started to look at the links and none came from a completely reputable source. Many were comments to blogs or newpapers articles. People trying to spread the story that the main stream media just wouldn't. The main source, capitalhillblue, all but recanted the story finally leaving it up but with a large disclaimer. It turns out two of the sources who heard the quote were not in the room and heard second hand. The last source refused to confirm it happened. Even the original reporter of the story isn't sure it is true anymore. All the other references appear to either be unattributed to refer back to the original, partially recanted story.

Is this just a big cover-up with the MSM sitting idly on a bombshell story? Does this administration march in such lockstep that no one who heard this shocking statement was willing to come out and report it? Or is it just a great quote that many people would like the President to have said so they can destroy him?

My inclination in this case is that latter, but who knows. Bush has certainly shown by his actions that he has little respect for the Constitution. I don't need the words to come out of his mouth to understand his position on the issue. But still, 42,900 hits? Doesn't that basically make it true in this age of mass (dis)information?

Sunday Kid Blogging

My schedule has been a little off due to sickness and general laziness as well as a minor mishap while downloading pictures. Anyway, better to get back into it now than never.

This one was taken at what is left of our stream:




Despite the obvious dryness of the stream (in most places, there was not even a visible trickle), there was still plenty of life in the pool remaining. These pools were only about 3 to 4 feet across and yet there were:

Brook Trout (fishing anyone?):



And Crayfish:

New Pet?

We have a new stray pet coming around fairly regularly over the past couple weeks. It was once or twice a week, then 3 to 4 times a week and now, today 4 times in a day. I have been trying to get pictures of him, but he keeps getting away before I can grab my camera.

Today, I was sitting on my porch reading when I heard what I assumed was my dog eating the dog food loudly and quickly. I didn't think much of it. I was reading about Czars throughout Russian history and I was engrossed. Then I heard the bag of dog food being pawed at. I didn't think much of this either, being engrossed as previously mentioned. Finally, it just go a little extreme so I looked up to yell at the dog. Except, it wasn't a dog at all. It was our new stray.

I couldn't grab my camera before it ran off. But it came back. And came back. And came back, finally getting chased up a tree by the dog. Way up a tree.

Here are the pictures I finally got:



And to show just how high bears can climb:




Needless to say, the kids are only allowed to play outside with one of us and/or the dog. I like our new pet. I really do. But he is just a little nerve racking sometimes. And, oh yeah, I wish he would stay out of the compost.

Too much information running through my head

Anonymous Liberal, posting on Glenn Greenwald's blog nailed this on the head. It is becoming a world with too many unfiltered sources of news and no mediators. There can be no debate when the very facts are in dispute. If someone, anyone, with credibility could step up and call out some of the b.s., maybe we could at least regain some semblance of honest debate.

But who could do that. There was a time the major newspapers and the network news had that responsibility but through dwindling market-share, corporate pressure and credibility destroying accusations of bias, their day is done.

The blogs can cover their own corner of the infosphere, but their reach is limited by their readership (who usually already agrees with most everything they say anyway) and their own potential agendas. For the most part, they contribute to the noise far more than they clean it up.

As someone who reads alot of information on blogs, online newspapers and journals (not to mention watching the Daily Show religiously), I would like to think I have a good grasp of the facts on many issues. But still, I always have that gnawing in the back of my mind that maybe, just maybe, on this one tidbit of an issue or another, Rush/Hannity/Malkin/O'Reilly has the facts right and I am wrong. That is a dreadful feeling.

I think one place the right often beats the left in debate is their unshaking confidence in their 'facts' against which no evidence stands a chance. The left is usually much more willing to entertain the thought that the other side might be right occasionally or to concede this little point or that. That is the kiss of death in public debate. We equivacate far too much. I am the worst about this (well actually Kerry is the worst) but it is a central part of who we are as thinking liberals and human beings.

So, once again, I see the problem. I understand the problem. I have no answers.

Too Hot!

On a day like this, your mind turns to the obvious...

I am not one to say every hot spell or big storm is due to Global Warming, but this summer is really making me wonder. I can not remember having this long a stretch of 85F+ days in NY. Every year is noticeably hotter than the year before with some small fluctuations. I believe 8 of the 10 hottest years on record are in the last 15 years (and this one is going to make 9).

This is not a blip in the weather pattern or a gradual, natural warming trend. It is drastic, obvious and, potentially, disasterous. It is hard to say at what point we will hit the point of no return. Natural processes tend to be fairly well buffered but, when the buffer is overwhelmed, the changes can happen very quickly. I tend to believe it will be quite a while before we see true global disaster strike but when it does, it will definately be too late.

I cannot believe climate change deniers like Senator James Inhofe are being anything be dishonest. I know these guys don't put any faith in science but they have to have senses and memories, right? Can't they feel the change? Don't they notice the increase in devastating storms? Not just hurricanes either. It has been more active for tornados and floods too. The northeast has had severely flooded at least 4 times in the past 18 months. This is not normal. The severe droughts in the Midwest and Western US are also in line with the theories of climate change.

I am sure the small number of hurricanes so far this year when the media was ready to declare the Gulf Coast lost will feed the fire for the denial set. Of course, I am not hoping for any big storms to prove them wrong.

I think the attraction of climate change denial is the massive lifestyle changes and economic changes (not necessarily economic devastation, but BIG changes). Americans are very committed to their car culture and are naturally fearful of change. That is why it is important to implement the infrastructure for change now. Small changes are easier to make than massive changes. We need a plan to make a series a small changes which will ramp up over the next decade so we are where we need to be by 2015. We need to reduce the overall output of CO2 worldwide. Asking industry for voluntary reductions to reduce the emissions intensity is not going to cut it.

Commitment to taking the painful steps necessary to control greenhouse gas emissions is the litmus test to which we should be holding all our elected officials. Of course, we will need to be committed to the cause ourselves first.