Ponderings of a Scientist

I thought the GOP had finally come to its senses and was going to make a stand against G.W., but instead they squacked for a few days about wire tapping (House) and detainee rights (Senate), but then just rolled over and took it when it came vote time.  This really ticks me off, not only are both of theseto be laws practically unconstitutional, but it seems the GOP just made a stink to play politics; get their names in the press as opposed to the administration and hope it helps their election races.  I’m so sick of this game.  Politicians are fueling a fire that is burning a deep divide between the far right and left of this country.  Should not they be leading my example.  Get your acts together ladies and gents and start legislating - that’s what we pay you for! And to all you out there as frustrated as I, don’t just complain, VOTE!  Show those whining lazy bastards what we think - vote them out of office.  I’m sick of paying each of them hundreds of thousands of dollars to play around.  I say, “Start representing your constituents or get out!”

Anyone who does or has live(d) in Dover can relate to this… I was on the back side of Central Ave today turning left at the turn-around to head back to the front side of Central.  I was in traffic in the left turning lane waiting for my turn, while the two straight lanes were waiting at a red light.  As I approached the intersection I attempted to turn into the right most turn lane (to go straight across Central to 2nd), but instead got cut-off my not one, but two cars turning into that lane from the straight lane as their light turned green.  One of the cars came inches, literally, from hitting me!!  How difficult is it to figure out that straight arrows mean continue in a straight line, while turn arrows mean turn! And if it so happens that the turn lane splits into two lanes you get to choose which to turn onto only when you have a turn light!  Stupid Stupid People!

So I have a whole laundry list of things to write about and pretty much zero time so very briefly:

Linda Greenhouse - you go girl. She gave a speech at Harvard the other day and totally bad mouthed the war, tax law, etc. etc.  Tons of people are up in arms because she is a journalist and God-forbide she have an opinion; she’ll never be able to write unbiased again!

Military stretched too thin.  Most of us in the science, non-profit world hate the War on Terror because it has pretty much consumed all potential sources of federal funding for our programs.  However, I do not blame the military for needing the money, rather I blame G.W. for fighting too many wars with an effective taxation level of 15% on the wealthy (as compared to 50%, as it used to be).  The miliarity doesn’t have enough money to operate safety and effectively and as such the leaders at the Pentagon are refusing to submit a budget for next year (2007 or 2008, I’m not sure).  Essential G.W. said - I grant you X billions of dollars formulate a financial plan and the generals said - we can not possibly stick to that budget so we refuse to set ourselves up to take the blame.  We will not put our butts on the line with Congresss, give us more money or else we do nothing!

Manchester Central High School has the most diverse student body in the state, speaking close to 50 languages.  However, because of no child left behind, english as a second language students can only be segregated for two years.  Then they must take traditional classes and pass grade 10 standardized test.  If they can’t pass, Central gets penalized.  On the top of it, it doesn’t seem like a bad plan, however when you are teaching immigrants from Somali tribes who have no written language or number system skills, essentially the literary skills of a US toddler, you can’t get them into standard grade 9 classes in 2 years!  But, this year, year 3 for many of these students, they are in regular freshmen classes.  They know they are not ready, their teachers know, but instead of serving these kids (as I thought public schools were supposed to do), they have to sit back and watch them fail out!

No time to proofread so deal!

Scientist in Indonesia just discovered 50 new marine species .  It doesn’t seem like they looked that hard, yet came back with quite a reward.  Just goes to show their are still so many things to discover in the sea.  Let’s stop funding NASA and start funding NOAA!

  

For the first time ever, the Forbes 400 List, the list of the top 400 (why 400?) richest people in the World, names only billionaires.  Multi-millionaires didn’t make the cut.  The rich just keep getting richer and the poor just keep dying in Iraq.

I parked in between two other Honda Civic hybrids today at work!  A neat little row of hybrids!  I wish I had a picture.

Let us take a minute to ponder this statement, “non-profit organizations (i.e. churches among others) are not allowed to promote specific political candidates.”  Now let’s think about the G.O.P, hum could they be connected to churches; I’m sure you’ve heard of the term Religious Right!  So why the hell is this liberal church in California being investigated by the IRS, and may lose their tax exempt status?  Because they take a stand on social issues.  We’re walking a fine line here, what is the difference between having a social view and a political view and what’s the difference between having a viewpoint and supporting a specific candidate?  Ah stupid, stupid!

Phases that should be run over repeatedly, cast in cement and sent to the Moon:

“Axis of Evil”

“Homeland”

“Terror”

Can you say broken record! Feel free to add to the list!

and… Colin Powell Rocks!  Not only did he diss G.W he also got press secretary Snow to look like a Jackass!

Interesting NPR stories from this morning’s commute:

Target goes bling with new “Tar-Jah” Couture line of jeans and handbags.  Hundred dollar plus items all the rag in a boutique in L.A.  So watch out for the bullseye on Paris Hiltons fanny.

iPod and Nike have developed a wireless pedometer that talks to you via your iPod Nano:  “30 minutes complete, 3.0 miles run, current pace 10 mph, pick up the pace fatty!”  What inspiration.

Big surprise here… the foreclosure rate on mortgages has increased.  Really, how could you fail by paying only interest for 5 years (we were actually offered that loan)?  Or even better if you can’t make your payment its okay, we’ll just add it back on to the principle and you can pay 3 million dollars over 100 years for a $200,000 house!

So I’m back to being a teacher - sort of, well at least informally.  I’m a Science Learning Specialist and today was the first day we had students visit our (very cool, high tech, razzle-dazzle-em) center.