The X-Factors Deficiency

I woke up circa 3am and wandered about the yard in my robe looking upward. I only saw one dim meteor and one rather bright one. Both were quick and short-lived, as Geminids are want to be. But I've just got too many trees (only about half the leaves have fallen off) and several neighbors with streetlights to get good views.

The story below about an innocent man jailed for 26 yrs (so far) due to the attorney / client privilege provides solid evidence for my suspicions - that more often than we want to know the justice system merely wants someone to "hang" for a crime, even if it's not the right person. It's increasingly difficult to have faith in the system, and the fact that 1 of every 99 adults is behind bars surely gives pause.

( Unbelievable... )

I sometimes think about children I've seen on TV that have become so morbidly obese they cannot even leave their rooms. My first thought is - how is it that someone who can't get to the kitchen keeps getting enough food to perpetuate this problem?!?! Shouldn't this be self-correcting at some point? The answer seems to always be found in a "loving" mother.

Do we dispute that the mother loves the child? Do we re-work and refine our definitions of love? It would seem that the old pitch that "All you need is love" is not without need of qualification.

My conclusion is that the problem isn't as much that there isn't enough "love" in the world as that there aren't enough healthy relationships in the world. I see more and more cases where there is some form of "love" but in the end the relationship is damaging to one party (or perhaps both). The damaged party cannot really break away since "love" and "rejecting love" will be thrown in their faces. They honestly don't want to hurt the other person. They cannot ever completely justify rejecting love. So they continue on, only to be "loved to death".

I will not argue about what is "real" love and what is not. I will say instead that there is love that is not enough, that there is love that should be shunned and avoided.

One word - appendectomy!

In only 36 hours, I went from first vague symptoms to awakening from my very first surgery:

( Read more... )

Most surprises are not pleasant, so when one is I feel somewhat obligated to give recognition to it - if for no other reason than to refute claims that all I ever do is complain :)

Why is this a surprise? It's simple economics, not rocket science. Perhaps the research is being conducted by nerdy (hence disproportionately unmarried) researchers?

I'm not sure I've got a clear handle on the line between "hate crime" and "hate". A noose may (or may not) signify hate. Hanging a man with it is a crime that may (or may not) be motivated by racial hatred. Perhaps Sharpton and Jackson and all those they make efforts to keep in a mindset of victimization  would like any expression of hate to be a federally punishable crime. Unless of course it's a hatred of white males expressed by a gangsta "artist". Don't get me wrong, hate is most often not a good thing - but there's a long continuum from thought to actual crime. If I were punished for all my thoughts, or for all the words that have come out of my mouth...

"Nooses are no prank... We were lynched!" - Sharpton (emphasis mine)


So do I agree with nooses? No. But I'd have a lot more sympathy towards viewing it as a "crime" if they weren't so hypocritical about hate and constantly perpetuating the victim mentality.

"Can and should one generation be held accountable for another's atrocities?" This article about saving Africa brings up the topic.

Paris Hilton tries to help drunken, rampaging elephants. Somehow the thought of her using the word "pachyderms" amuses me. Google image search and photoshop come together to provide a visual:

 

There are those in power that wish for the American people to say goodbye to rights they've long held. First, "A top intelligence official says it is time people in the United States changed their definition of privacy."

Here I go again about speculative investors ratcheting up the price of oil. The thought is that prices will soon break, if for no other reason than "the fund managers who have ridden oil higher have an economic incentive to sell soon, Ritterbusch said, because they need to book profits before the end of the year to boost their bonuses". Keep in mind this is a MAJOR reason why you've been paying more at the pump and more to stay warm at home.

I never expected to see Pat Robertson backing Giuliani. His announcement has no influence on my as-yet un-made-up mind, but it's got to be doing something to the hard-core evangelicals - either they're falling in line like expected, or smoke is pouring out their ears from this does-not-compute situation (played out several times in the original Star Trek series, if you need a visual). My mother-in-law is probably going to say Robertson has jumped the shark, though not in those exact words. Which is sort of funny in its own way since he jumped the shark ages ago ;) Just tells you a bit about how she rolls in the world of Christendom. It's a time of divisions my friends, or the breaking of old habits and alliances.

I've never been a believer of 9/11 "conspiracy theories". I'm still not - but I'm more open to it than before.

I think there's a huge disillusion coming to the American people over the next decade regarding their leadership. Not mistrust, we've already had that before. We have that now. This will be different. It will be disheartening, demoralizing, and unhappy. It will feel like betrayal, and not simply to a few here and there, but to the masses. YET - it will not last forever. It is not "the end". I believe it will ultimately lead to good things, but it will take time. Decades of time. Life in America in the first half of the 21st century will not be as much fun as life in the last half of the 20th.

I see a "loss of faith" in our police and justice system (new dna evidence overturning old cases gives undeniable proof to the fact that in numerous instances the system HAS failed, celebrities have different standards, headlines of corruption among officers becoming commonplace), and in our financial system (concentration of wealth in relatively few hands, coming bankruptcy of the retirement system, fall of the dollar on world markets), in our education system, religious systems, public infrastructures... all of it. If 9/11 is ever shown to be a US or joint Israeli operation - that will be the nail in the coffin.

This is an interesting opinion comparing why people question 9/11 with why people question the Holocaust. I've copied it entirely from this site. I'm able to post this because, as of now, it is not unlawful for me to question the Holocaust (and/or 9/11):

The long-discussed rise of China is no longer a thing of the future - it is here.

I've been fortunate, though not without some effort towards due caution on my part, to have avoided any bicycle accidents as an adult. But there's a first time for everything, and that time, unbeknownst to me,  was today.

I'm not sure that making up stories about a gay wizard is really going to "make wonderful strides in tolerance toward homosexuality" any more than other existing romantic fiction makes wonderful strides in making all relationships sweaty-romantic or preventing abusive men from beating their female mates. After all, it's only fiction. But I guess it doesn't hurt to dream about that any more than to dream about racing across the galaxy in the Millennium Falcon with light saber in tow.

I wasn't actually planning on getting up (or staying up for that matter) to see the Orionid meteors - it just worked out that way. Since the end of Daylight Savings Time is now later in the year, it's surprising how dark it is around 5:30 am. In fact, it's still quite dark by 7 am. At any rate, I did catch 4 Orionids over about 20 minutes, which considering the lack of open spaces my trees offer and my proximity to the city wasn't bad at all. Most of my star-gazing has been in the evenings. An advantage to getting up early is that your eyes are already totally adapted to the dark... even if still crusty and blurry!

A certain political party has for the most part been able to cash in on religious conservatives over the last 25 years. However, as mainstream candidates become more socially moderate (due to society as a whole becoming less socially conservative?) religious conservatives are left floundering and squandering votes on un-electable candidates. I believe the fallout will be that over the next decade or two at least, they become disconnected from the political process and begin bashing the entire government rather than just the left side of it. Churches are never politically neutral, and I believe they will become increasingly government-hostile during this period.

I don't think this necessarily means more Democrats will win offices. Rather, I think more people will cross party lines to vote for the leftmost-leaning Republicans and right-most Democrats. Ultimately this is probably a good thing.

We've got a weird situation going on with oil now. What's driven up the prices lately are not consumer consumption, but investor consumption. This is the same thing that drives up the price of gold (and you thought it was brought on by spending sprees amongst the gangsta rappers). How do you lower the price of gold? By buying fewer necklaces and earrings? Well, no. And unfortunately cutting back on your petroleum consumption isn't going to bring it's prices down either. Oil has moved from mere commodity to investment medium. I suppose at some point, as these cycles tend to go, the bottom will drop out, and we'll have yet another "crisis" on our hands - trillions of dollars of investment portfolios wiped out. But hey, gas will be relatively cheap again. So for now, the rich profit and the poor hurt, but the tables will probably turn in the next two to three years.

Orthopedic appointment this afternoon for the foot. It didn't hurt much at all when I went to bed, but... been up since 3 am in pain. That seems to be the pattern, hurting like mad in the morning and tapering off by evening. The ibuprofens aren't doing all that much... I see some sweet prescription pain-killers in my near future.

"...pill me up!" - Dr. Quinn, SeaLab 2021


Update: xrays revealed slight damage due to compression injury but no actual fracture. The intense pain seems to be from fluid buildup during the night that works itself out during the first half of the day, with only minor pain after that point. Foot wrapped, drugs prescribed, just have to stay off it as much as possible the next week.