Both of Us .org

I just watched one of those bizarre flash movies, you know the ones that are just completely insane. I laughed more the second time I watched it than the first, and I wanted to share the joy. Check out the first Goatie chronicle.

I saw this image and was completely taken by it.

I think it would be a good photo to send to any relatives or friends that might be both for the war and consider themselves Christian.

I will never cease to be amazed by how many followers of "the prince of peace" can get behind such a clearly profit driven war.

For more photos of recent anti-war protests, check out the anti-war photo stream at Flickr.

Washington DC has hosted two major Iraq war related events during the month of September. The first was the Freedom March, sponsored by the Department of Defense (DOD) marking the 4th anniversary of 9-11. The Freedom March was also an opportunity for all of us to give thanks and rememberance to all those serving in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon promoted the event in all of the DC metro media outlets (with several of them playing a role in sponsorship) and there were hopes of gathering hundreds of thousands. Official numbers were hard to find, but an average of 5-10K attendees was reported.

This past Saturday there was an anti-war march through central DC. The rally was mainly organized by the ANSWER Coalition and United for Peace and Justice, with an expected attendance over 100K. Media reports roundly describe the rally gathering 'thousands' and the fine print below the headlines reported police estimating 50-100K on the mall. A counter protest made up of pro-war demonstrators was described having 400-600 people.

My point of this post is not really to hash out numbers and prove one side or the other has a significant advantage. Rather it should be clear that neither the pro- or anti-war groups are drawing attention or gathering people in significant numbers that would indicate that anyone gives a damn. Heck, the day after Thanksgiving several thousand people will line up outside any given Wal-Mart to get 25% off their holiday shopping.

It speaks poorly on our society that we treat war so casually. Well over 2000 Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan, and tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis have perished too. If we choose to debate the issue, the media and powers that be question our patriotism. If we choose to pay attention to the war we are accused of neglecting the good aspects of the war (all those schools and hospitals begin built). Apathy is the easy choice. Judging by the reaction to the pro- or anti-war rallies we will be more comfortable waiting in line for this year's Tickle'me'Elmo than for marching in the street to promote US democracy building or to stop the needless bloodshed of our soldiers and innocent natives in Iraq.

Part 1: Sushi, Sashimi, and Hijiki Salad

On Friday we made a delicious Japanese meal for five.

In the afternoon I went to the local Asian grocery store and picked up several ingredients then went to the Italian Market to buy the fresh vegetables. I hadn't purchased sushi-quality fish in Philadelphia before but there is a fresh fish store close to our home. I choose salmon, tuna, and a variety of yellowtail snapper. The salmon was good, but the tuna was frozen so it was not as flavorable as if it had been fresh. The yellowtail smelled too strongly; I did not trust that it would be good enough for sushi so I put it in the freezer to be used another day for a fish fry. I was a little bit frustrated, but I was satisfied with the salmon and the tuna. I realized how I took the excellent availability of fresh fish in Groningen for granted after three years.

I started off by checking my recipe for Hijiki Seaweed Salad, from Recipe Cottage. Having used this recipe before, I knew it was good, and it also happens to be the first recipe that Google provides when you search for seaweed salad.
Hijiki is amazing. I highly recommend the recipe above. I suggest making extra sesame mayonnaise as it is really delicious. The result of my efforts was a satisfying first course to get our collective palates ready for the delicious raw fish that would follow.

If you want to know how to make sushi, any number of resources are available on the internet, so I won't go into it here. We made more sashimi and nagori than we usually do this time since one of our guests thought he might be allergic to seaweed. Happily it turns out that he is not allergic to seaweed, but we got the benefit of having made many pieces of sushi without seaweed. These were beautiful and also delicious. If you have made sushi before, I suggest making pieces other than just the standard maki rolls.



A good time was had by all, although I did drink a bit too much white wine. Here is a photo of our guests.





Part 2: Homemade Vegetarian Nachos

Earlier this week Wednesday, JSP made homemade nacho chips from corn tortillas. Although it requires heating up vegetable oil to deep fry the corn, it is relatively easy to do. Corn tortillas are very inexpensive, and for about $1.50 we had all the tortilla chips we could ever want and then some.

Once the chips were cut, fried and salted we added cheese, salsa, diced cucumber and fresh tomatoes for a delicious, inexpensive and easy evening of munching. While perhaps not the most nutritious meal, this dish is still much better for you than most processed foods. If you consume in moderation, there is room for most things in a healthy diet.

The next time you see a pack of soft round corn tortillas in the store, pick them up, give this a try and see how easy it is to make restaurant style tortilla chips in your own kitchen.

That is the title of a commentary in the Minneapolis Star Tribune by Fritz Knaak, an attorney from Vadnais Heights, MN. I invite anyone to read this fairly absurd opinion on how to improve the quality of life and the state of transportation in the United States. Mr. Knaak begins his commentary describing the plight of the poor in New Orleans, who had no means to evacuate the city in the wake of hurricane Katrina. "You cannot count on public transit or public officials to get you out of harm's way when it's important for you to leave your home." Mr. Knaak suggests more private cars would do the trick. I invite Mr. Knaak to look at any of the highway cameras in Houston TX in the days prior to the landing of hurricane Rita. 100 miles of bumper to bumper traffic and hours to move a few miles. Would more people driving cars to evacuate from an emergency be a better option, especially if the emergency was without notice (Houstonians have had 3+ days warning to evacuate)?

Mr. Knaak's commentary continues as he describes Europe, where public transportation is "overall, the best collection of public transit systems in the word". He says ridership has steadily decreased and more Europeans are buying cars. It is very misleading to describe the public transportation system in Europe as 'Best', especially in light of the last decades privatization of many of the rail lines. In Britain, the privatization of once excellent rail systems has resulted in overwhelming negative response from riders mainly because the services offered by the private entities are far inferior. It is no surprise that when you offer worse service, people will choose more satisfying options.

The same can be said for The Netherlands where we lived for 3 years. The NS (Nederlands Spoorweg) train services have been partially privatized and in many instances the quality of service has drastically declined as a result. More train stoppages, breakdowns, delays and dirtier trains. Our friends in Holland would often complain how terrible the trains had become over the last few years, and not surprisingly they would often choose to drive somewhere as a result.

Mr. Knaak suggests we focus our energy on making cars and car insurance more affordable, and of course spending more government resources towards feeding an ever expanding highway system. Great, just what we need, more roads, traffic, congestion, and pollution.

Why is it that we rarely have a sensible dialogue about the transportation system in America? Everyone by default expects to drive somewhere and almost all our resource go towards the automobile culture. I have some ideas:
1). Maintain and enhance air travel between hubs across long distances of America (over 300 miles).
2). Maintain and/or build regional high speed rail systems between major metropolitan areas (25-300 miles).
3). Sustain and improve metropolitan transportation such as busing, light rail and/or subways (0-25 miles).
4). A moderate road/highway system for less dense populations and complimenting systems for metropolitan regions (0-50 miles).
5). Design dedicated bike and walking paths free of car congestion and hazards (1-5 miles).

These ideas have been implemented in one way or another in parts of Europe and Japan and are widely successful. In Japan transportation is very efficient. Japan's model includes approximately 70:30% public: private operation of public transit. Efficiency and service are crusially important and therefore the Japanese transportation system is a viable option for most travelers.

It all boils down to quality of life. Many people think nothing of driving 30-60 minutes each way to work daily. I think time is precious and would never choose to waste two hours of my life in a car daily. For most it is unthinkable to walk anywhere that is over a half mile away. I think walking to the store or park is healthy for my body and mind. For most, biking is exercise or sport. After three years in Holland I know biking is an important transportation option. Sadly many believe the myth that public transportation is for poor people. I am of the mind to think a clean, safe, efficient, reliable and affordable public transportation system is for EVERYONE.

Mr. Knaak seems to believe not only sustaining, but enhancing the automobile culture is necessary for the viability of our region and country. I argue the opposite. We dig ourselves a bigger hole by diverting more money and resources to the automobile culture thus making our society even more reliant on cars. A day will come when gasoline is scarce and very expensive, and roads will be overwhelming and impossible to fully maintain (we have seen a preview of the pains of gasoline price increases).

I choose to live in the city and walk or bike to work. I can choose to rent a car to take a trip to the shore. I can choose to take the train or Chinatown bus to NYC or DC. Philadelphia does not have a great public transit system, but it is serviceable. Sadly, most regions of America lack even the most basic of transportation options. I do not advocate forcing any of my ideas onto America. If you wish to live 50 miles from work and spend several hours a day in a car, that is a choice you can continue to make. However it should not be taken for granted that huge amounts of our societies resources should be devoted for expanding roads to the far reaching suburbs, while the meager public transportation system we currently have in place wastes away in disrepair.

War costs human lives. War causes environmental damage at a great cost to the ecosystem. Waging war costs political capital. War costs money, and perhaps it is this final cost that ended the war in Vietnam.

The cost of war is great. This is well accepted by people of all political stripes.

With our economy in the toilet, massive carnage from Katrina and more destruction on the way from Hurricane Rita, I have to wonder: Will it be Bush's political capital or American financial resources that will run out first?


It is strange that it takes gasoline prices going up dramatically to wake Americans up and make them smell the coffee. Reaganomics did not work in the 80's and Bush's trickle-down tax cuts for the wealthy won't work this time either.

I ran across a good article by Douglass Daniel about how GWB in 2005 has much in common with LBJ in 1967. It spells out that although Rumsfeld says the Iraq war is totally different from the 60's war, the Bush administration speaks a very similar sounding rhetoric to LBJ's words about Vietnam. The article is here.

Another good article, also from the Washington Post, is by Richard Cohen, and it talks about LBJ's "The Hard and Inescapable Facts" regarding the financial costs of war. The article is here.

I have a love/hate relationship with this game called "Go." This primeval game has several other names depending on your geographic location, two of these names are Igo and Baduk.
You might be asking yourself:
What is Go? What is Go? What is Go?

I play this game for hours at Yahoo! Games and I am generally a poor player, although I am slowly improving.

The most frustrating part is losing to small children from Asian countries or from Asian American families who were taught this game at a very young age. At age thirty, I often can't beat children aged ten. I have had several children taunt me for being stupid after beating me by a wide margin.

I love playing the game, but I hate playing when my opponent cuts off every attempt I make to gain territory. Sometimes I get so frustrated by this game that I want to smash something. I never do though; I just allow the rage to slowly dissipate and commit to playing a better game the next time.

One strategy I have for staying sane is to only play other very low ranked players. Another good rule of thumb for me, is not to take on players with obviously Asian names. I know that I could probably learn more by watching the advanced tactics of superior players, but losing every game proves to be a real downer.

If you want to learn a game that is more complex than chess, but as easy to start learning as checkers, this is the game for you. Be warned: you will lose many games before you win one. I would love the opportunity to play with other people live in the flesh, but I don't know anyone in Philadelphia that plays. Are you up for a game?

Today I attended a very interesting seminar by Dr. Eric Brunskill, Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Cardiology at the University of Cincinnati. The talk described his research towards understanding schizophrenia. Much of the research was initiated upon discovery of a small family exhibiting symptoms of schizophrenia. A gene translocation event was identified in the parental offspring causing the disruption of the gene encoding a protein called Npas3 (Neuronal-pas3 is a protein which is a transcription factor that functions to turn on/off other proteins). Dr. Brunskill presented work describing the phenotype and behavior of mice in which Npas3 was deleted (mice are used as a model for studying human disease). It appears these Npas3 knockout mice exhibit many of the markers and traits found in humans diagnosed with schizophrenia. Ultimately study of Npas3, and some of the proteins it may regulate downstream, may lead to formulation of drugs and treatment for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia effects up to 1% of the population, and upwards of 10% of people with schizophrenia will commit suicide. That amounts to 2-3 million Americans with the disease and 200-300,000 suicides. Schizophrenia is often times sited as a major affliction of the homeless population in America. Clearly schizophrenia is a significant social problem and fortunately science is moving towards better understanding and a treatment of this disease.

However in the light of the current state of politics and science, I am often pessimistic on the progress to be made against many human problems. This is mostly a result of the attitude of reductionism from the conservatives and especially the religious right. What I mean by reductionism is the simplification of issues down to good versus evil. How many times have you heard a member of the religious right describe a homeless or poverty stricken person as one who is sinful, reaping the punishment handed down from God? Similarly a gay person is entrapped by the devil and only needs to seek out Jesus to be converted to heterosexuality. Hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes are a result of the wrath of God and I could go on and on.

Good versus evil is a lazy-man's approach to describing the issues of the world. If something is confusing and difficult to understand, we should not be so quick to invoke the hand of God as the reason. As a scientist I believe critical thinking and evaluation of issues will lead to a better understanding of our world. Certainly we can pray to God for an end to homelessness, but is this likely to effect any change? On the otherhand, we can identify some of the contributors to homelessness - one of them being schizophrenia - and perform research with the goal of treatment and eventual return to society for those afflicted.

If you are interested in reading about recent research on schizophrenia and/or Npas3, check out the following links: Schizophrenia.com, and Schizophenia at the National Institute of Health.

NPR has an interesting audio piece about the new NASA space craft that will be used to go back to the moon and perhaps to Mars. A link to the story and audio is here.

I wonder about the importance of space exploration when there are so many pressing concerns on Earth, but I digress.

Evaluating what I eat on a daily basis, I come to a startling conclusion: I am a dairy junkie. I eat cheese daily, whether it is cheddar, motzarella, cottage cheese, or more refined cheeses like Brie, Gouda or Danish Blu. I also love ice cream and drink milk daily with my coffee. When I get hungry, I crave you guessed it dairy products. When I make an omelet, not only do I add spinach and mushrooms, but in goes lots of cheese. I make peach smoothies with half and half and/or yogurt. I cannot stop myself.

I wonder about how healthy it is to be consuming food made from so much cows' milk. I try to keep my diet primitive basic by eating lots of whole foods like raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and minimally processed grains. Dairy products seem to be the largest chink in my armor. When I think of weaning myself of dairy, or simply reducing the amount of dairy I eat, I feel like I am looking down a long desolate culinary road. I know this is not true, but I am for now tethered to the teat of a cow, unable to break my addiction to delicious dairy proteins, sugars and fats.

Let's move on to the wonder of spinach, shall we?

Spinach is a tasty and healthy natural food. You can add spinach to just about anything from eggs to stir fry to bread to tacos and burritos to lasagna to salads or sandwiches. The nutrients in spinach break down quickly, so it is best to use your spinach soon after you bring it home from the store or in from the garden.

• Spinach recipes at the Veggie Table


• Spinach recipes at Hungry Monster

A dark leafy green, spinach provides essential iron to a vegetarian diet as well as a plethora of vitamins and minerals. More detailed information about the history and other details of spinach can be found in the links below.

• Spinach at Wikipedia


• Spinach at innvista.com

A trip has been booked tonight. We arranged to visit Wisconsin in mid October for the wedding of friends. The internet is wonderful when it comes to making trip arrangements. I feel like I am getting the best possible travel when I am able to search each of the airlines websites and sites like Expedia or Orbitz. We fly from Philadelphia to Milwaukee.

We are renting a car in Milwaukee and will drive to Madison. At that point we will likely split up and do some catching up with friends and family. JB will hang out in the Capital city and I will travel to Oskhosh to be with my folks. Later we will rendezvous to attend the wedding in Green Bay. I do not suppose the weather will be welcoming, but we can be hopeful of an Indian Summer.

A few days ago I used the fun button on top of our blog, 'NEXT BLOG' to take a random trip to some other people's web blogs. The first three were Spanish written, followed by a website originating from my home town of Oshkosh Wisconsin. The subject of the blog was Judge John Roberts. There were about 5 posts all of which were describing how Roberts is not conservative and instead will turn out more liberal than Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The blogger was convinced that Bush is betraying the Conservative cause.

I decided to do something that often leads to much frustration and have a dialogue with someone of strict Christian-right wing ideology. I wrote a short comment for one of his posts suggesting he not be so upset. Roberts will likely prove to be as Conservative as Judge Scalia in the end. I pointed out that in the last 5+ years of the Bush administration that one would be hard pressed to identify any nominations or appointments who were not solidly Conservative or Neo-Conservative. I ended my comment by saying that maybe it is possible he was being duped into thinking Roberts is moderate, not out of character for this administration (i.e. trot out the moderates during the convention while embracing the hard right when it comes time to do real governance).

A day or so passed and there was no response to my comment, however a new entry on the blog appeared "John Roberts is Gay?". Here we are told that Roberts is likely gay and this is another example of the Bush betraying the Conservative agenda. How do we know Roberts is gay according to this blogger? Well he read another blog (which he admits is a parody site) that has an article on Roberts being gay. Additionally the blogger notes other web-blogs making comments questioning Roberts sexuality. I could hardly let this absurdity pass without comment. This time I replied to his posting, saying that he and his web-blog must be a joke. I questioned what would make him happy and reminded him that nearly all aspects of government are controlled by Republicans.

This time I got a response. I was lectured on the how he wanted Republicans to be Conservative and not continue with the Democrats mess. The mess included abortion on demand, caving into the sodomite agenda, restriction of gun rights, environmental wackos in control, decay of religious liberty, out of control immorality, rampant crime and a poor economy. Remember, this man is blogging from Oshkosh Wisconsin...population 60,000...in the conservative heart of the state (anyone remember Toby Roth-R congressman?).

At this point I had just enough energy for one more salvo in the comment section. I asked him for some solid documented facts in regards to his previous assumptions stated above, since they were all merely statements of his opinion. I contributed that I had lived in Oshkosh much of my life and I did not experience any of the rampant problems he described. Finally I asked him, how his life in Oskhosh Wisconsin is directly effected by the sodomites, abortionists, immoralists etc.

I read the reply today and there was another laundry list of diffuse examples of 'teenyboppers' getting abortions whenever they wish, how 9-11 would have been prevented if everyone had a gun, an example of a few gays in a park in Oshkosh, a public preacher getting harassed on the street. And finally this long list 'The govermnent has a hand in everything I do. From buying a house, doing plumbing, electrical work, siding it, going to the doctor, farming, hunting, fishing, driving, education, what color trash bags to use and what kind of trash to put in them, flying, preaching, job promotions, and on and on'.

So what have I learned from this short dialogue? It appears there really exists a very fearful and isolated segment of our society. Despite what this person says about how he is personally negatively effected by society, there were no strong evidence for a direct impact on his life. Yes we all live with tedious rules and regulations, but I think most would agree they exist for a purpose. Would you prefer being trained and licensed to drive versus a free for all on the roads? Would you prefer exploitation of resources versus permits which enhance resource management? Certainly some of these rules and regulations can be unfair to some and as a society we constantly debate and revise them.

Ultimately this group of people, exemplified by this blogger, seems to be most influenced by conservative religious belief and the mythical boogie men their religious leaders generate. A myth of the sodomite agenda, a myth of a society that wishes to demolish Christianity, a myth of a liberal Utopia to be built on the money, hard work and backs of middle class white Christian America for the benefit of immigrants, blacks, Jews, homosexuals, pagans, etc. Press them to describe day to day examples how their life is negatively effected and they will divert attention to various doomsday scenarios (i.e. the road we travel will lead us to damnation). The religious doctrine of end-times is what it is all about. There is no room for those who wish to live a full and rewarding life in the here and now, it is all about heaven and hell. Sadly these people cannot be content and surround themselves with their own heaven bound brethren and live by their own religious ideology. Their religion teaches them to must spread and convert others. This blog exemplifies the anger and frustration which has built to a breaking point as they realize not everyone will prescribe to their ideology.

The last comment by the blogger in Oshkosh said that 'I'm not convinced you want to know the truth.' If by truth, he means his form of religion, to live in fear of my God and fear and hatred of my fellow man...well I guess I have to admit I do not want that truth to have any meaning in my life. In the end I wished the man peace and happiness and thanked him for the dialogue. I am certain I did not motivate him to inspect his strange way of observing and interacting with our society, but I am content knowing I am not living in his world. If you want to share my frustration, take the time to read his blog and the comments we shared, here is the link. - http://robertsrules.blogspot.com

Skipping through blogs I came across a remarkable series of images in this photoblog called Eye Of The Storm. There are striking images from Mississippi.

If you have a spare minute today, check out the animation by Mark Fiore about the recent events on the Gulf Coast. It gets a point across.

The big news of course this past week was the release of the Apple iPod Nano. It is an impressive piece of technology.

In other news Shareaza, one of my favorite file sharing applications, has released a new version. If you are new to the phenomenon of file sharing, or you are just thinking of trying out a new file sharing program, I highly recommend it. Shareaza is open source, free and comes with no spy ware and no ad ware.

Yesterday the BBC reported that eBay purchased Skype, the popular internet telephony program for 2.6 billion dollars. Yes, that is correct, 2.6 billion dollars. Since I use Skype to talk for free just about everyday with my intimate friend Cees in the Netherlands, this is of special importance for me. I hope eBay does not mess up this really cool free service.

If you are looking toward the future of television, you might have encountered the concept of television via the internet. While this is not yet commonplace, there are a variety of programs that you can download and watch for free on your computer. If you have broadband and a little bit of extra time, check out the techshows at this site. Most of these shows are dedicated to computer enthusiasts, but you might find something you like.

If you have a few minutes to spare, and you already know about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, I suggest playing the divine game.

Well after having missed last weekend, this dietary report is coming in on Sunday night, just under the weekend wire.

One of my favorite meals to cook is stir fry. With a wok and some imagination, there is almost no limit to the variations you can cook. In addition stir fry is healthy. If you use fresh ingredients and don't overcook your vegetables, it is almost impossible to mess up your dinner.

Tonight's stir fry for two included the following ingredients: eggplant, broccoli, red bell pepper, cherry tomatoes, pickled baby corn, a few mushrooms and two eggs.

These ingredients were seasoned with: roasted garlic, black sesame oil, sambal (Indonesian hot sauce), Chinese five spice mix, turmeric and salt.

I started by marinating the diced eggplant, which also called an aubergine, in the roasted garlic, salt and sambal. I added diced broccoli stems because they need to be cooked longer than the broccoli heads. I let this sit for about 30 minutes while I prepared the rest of the vegetables and boiled two eggs. When everything was prepared and ready I started the wok on the stove and poured in some dark sesame oil. I prefer the dark oil because it holds more of that delicious sesame flavor. Once the oil was hot enough to sizzle a test piece of eggplant, I dumped in the eggplant and broccoli stems into the searing wok. As minutes went by I added mushrooms, broccoli heads, and the baby corn. I added turmeric and the Chinese five spice mix at this point so that the spices would not get degraded being in the searing wok for too long, but would still mix well into the food. When there was about three minutes left, I added the red peppers. With only about a minute and a half to go, I dumped in the pristine cherry tomatoes. I add the tomatoes last so that they get a chance to heat up, but don't cook them long enough for their skin to degrade. This is so that when you put an intact tomato in your mouth and chew you get this bust of flavor as the little beast pops in your mouth.

This stir fry is good on it's own, or it can be served over rice, couscous or noodles. Tonight I served it over mie (cellophane noodles) which are the easiest and fastest noodles in the world to cook. You drop them in boiling water for no more than a minute and then you pull them out and drain them. I used to make the mistake of cooking them like vermacelli which always gave me a mushy blob of starch instead of these sexy little white noodles.

A great thing about stir fry is once you have your vegetables prepared it only takes a few short minutes to cook them in a really hot wok. In addition, you can eat until you are full since it is mostly vegetables, and you don't have to worry about overdoing it and packing on pounds. If you are concerned about carbohydrates you can use less or no starches by skipping the noodles or rice. A hard boiled egg provides needed proteins and is a delicious compliment to the spiced vegetables.

Eating with chopsticks can slow down how you eat your food as well and allow you to taste more of the nuances of the flavor. It also helps to keep you from over eating. If you are not good with chopsticks keep with it, you will learn.

The spice turmeric has been shown to fight cancer and is an excellent treatment for inflammation, especially an irritable bowel.

Shortly after returning to the United States, I imposed a ban on watching network TV news programs. I could not tolerate the increasingly conservative bias in the guise of 'fair and balanced' reporting. I was doing very well with my restriction, aided with our cancellation of cable TV last Spring. However I gave in to my news junky weakness in the wake of the Katrina disaster and have been drawn into a few of the shows. Predictably I end up frustrated, angered and generally pissed off with what I see and hear. This morning I briefly tune into the McGlaughin group. Five people discussing the events of the week, four of whom are conservative and one a moderate liberal. They discuss the timeline of the relief efforts and Pat Buchanan proceeds in a diatribe on the failures of the New Deal socialism programs that supposedly prevails across America. He says the failures lie in the fact that most of the residents are completely reliant on the government for their livelihood, all of them wards of the state. He continues and rails against what he predicts are the socialist/liberals solution to the problem - funneling in even more money into a failed welfare state.

The fundamental disconnect of a typical modern day conservative is highlighted here. Clearly under the illusion that massive streams of money are directed towards welfare and its maintenance, conservatives are angry at what they perceive as giveaways to the lazy. There exists a modern day urban legend in regards to liberalism. In the eyes of the pundits, liberalism is the bogey man. A method of governance designed by the liberal elite tasked to take the hard earned money away from working Americans, and to be given away to undeserving hippies, thieves and lazy people. Spoken enough the urban legend description of liberalism continues to remain alive and viable in the minds of their listeners.

Most urban legends in fact turn out to be untrue. I would argue the same applies to the conservative description of liberalism. If one inspects government spending since the 1970's it is clear that total social programs (cash outlays, medical benefits, social security, etc) spending overall has increased as a percentage of the total federal government spending. The programs that have increased include social security, Medicare and Medicaid (all of which have positive acceptance among moderates from both sides). The welfare items which usually get the most critiquing from the conservative right, including direct welfare and direct cash payments to the poor, have dramatically decreased over the last 20 years. Basically since the 1970's, conservatives have been winning the battle against the liberal bogey man they have so much hatred for.

After successfully sweeping the problems of poverty out of public concern, the conservative machine focuses the energy of continued battle on the foundations of social programs that typically enhance the vast majority of America. They are able to move forward using the urban legend of liberalism I mention above, duping many Americans into giving up important safety nets our society has successfully weaved (social security is likely the next to be unraveled). Pat Buchanan and his ilk are not satisfied, and they remain angry. But these conservatives are disconnected. They are the rich elite and reap untold benefits from our form of government. They pretend to arbitrate for the common American with little connection to the world the average citizen lives in. They communicate their own anger in the language of 'us versus them' with the goal of convincing us to fight against each other for the small morsels they are willing to toss from the table. We need to realize this and not let them draw focus away from their own greed, corruption and power.

The conservative pundits and the powers they represent strive for a return to the halcyon gilded age of the late 1800's - a time of feeble government, an impotent working class and cyclical movement of power and wealth within a tiny aristocratic class. Their anger stems from the moderately successful disruption of their little game with some empowering of the working class, minorities and civic minded government following the great depression through WWII and subsiding with the Great Society of the 1960's. Slowly the aristocrat class has been recuperating. Using the conservative movement, the media and the government itself as tools, the plutocrats have steadily weakened labor and weakened government to their own advantage.

It frustrates me to have to sit mostly powerless as a tiny group of people and their pundits manipulate the public to regress to a society which has been proven to be unfair, dangerous and corrupt. I am angry when I see how easily people can be convinced to discard the social progress made toward equality, security and fairness for advancement of their own selfish goals and desires. But maybe that is what we really mean when we talk about the 'American Dream'. I realize that very few people will read these lines, I mainly flush out my own thoughts through my writings. If you are reading I request you scrutinize your thoughts and desires and inspect your place in society and our planet. Are you ok with the greed? Are you ok with the inequality? Are you happy with your life? Is it all about you? Where should compassion begin and end? Peace to you as we walk the paths in this reality.

A quick news item before I lapse into the meat of my thoughts this evening.

• Another leap toward making science fiction reality can be found in this Times article. It appears that the idea of men becoming unnecessary to the human species is one step closer. The BBC has a more detailed article on this as well. I wonder how long it will take for the religious right to get up in arms over this. Perhaps they are too busy lining their pockets with money earmarked for survivors of Hurricane Katrina.

Why is it that some Americans are so obsessed with "protecting" children from sex and sexuality while allowing violence in our politics, television and video games to go unchecked? There have been violent video games since the inception of computer graphics. In common game series like "Doom," "Unreal," "Halo" and many others, shooting people in the head to score a decapitating "headshot" is commonplace. This raises little to no complaint in our politics. However, when "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas" has a sex scene even centrist and "liberal" politicians like Senator Lieberman and Senator Clinton gets all hot and bothered.

Similarly, many acts of murder and violence are shown on prime time TV. This fact spurs few of the moral majority to action. However, these people freaked out when we saw Janet Jackson's breast for two seconds on the Superbowl half time show.

Bush and company lie about weapons of mass destructions in Iraq as a justification for war. Then they invade that nation, and the resulting deaths number in the thousands. Compare that with Bill Clinton's sexual affair with Monica where no one got hurt. One got a free pass and one got impeached.

I think it is clear that we are really fucked up in the U.S. about sex. We ignore the fact that our children are exposed to extreme violence so any "what about the children" lip-service concern goes down in flames. In the Netherlands, where I lived for four years, I saw a much more healthy set of views on nudity sexuality and violence.

The Dutch have approved certain "free recreation" places for public nudity, and I have often seen families at these places. There are also health spas that are attended by male and female persons of all ages from 4 to 94 where generations of families swim in pools, steam in saunas, shower together and relax in the nude. The Dutch know that nudity is not obscenity.

In terms of television, pornography airs on several channels during prime time. Dutch parents do not feel the need to "protect" their children from sex, because sex is part of the human experience. Talking openly about sexuality with children is viewed as a far better alternative than sending children to another room. Conversely, I have seen "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" edited to remove gratuitous violence from Dutch TV.

The Dutch view is that exposure to human sexuality is not harmful to minors, while exposure to violence against people may well be harmful to minors and adults. I agree with this perspective.

Why is the American religious right silent about violence while successfully hoisting their sex phobia on to the rest of us and our kids? Why are these people trying to protect "us" from things "they" don't like? Why are Americans letting them?

Please let me know what you think. Please leave a comment.

The film I mentioned a few days ago about Gay Cowboys, "Brokeback Mountain," won first prize at the Venice Film Festival in Italy.

The New Scientist has an article about a backpack that generates power. This technology can supposedly power all sorts of hand held gadgets. I pick this technology as the next cash cow, especially with the US military interested in it.

If you have 2 minutes today to spare, I send you over to NPR to hear a short spoken word piece by Tim Wise about a wealthy white people and thier reactions to Hurricane Katrina. Please check it out. You will thank me for the link.

One of those news events that makes me smile and provides a ray of hope to me in this ever darkening world is that the California Legislature Approves Gay Marriage. This still has to go before Governor Terminator, and I wonder if he will veto it. Come on Arnold, pass this legislation and let us marry in California.

In entertainment news, the movie Brokeback Mountain promises to be a great film about cowboys in love with each other. It is set in Wyoming and the begins with two young men meeting while working at a ranch in 1963. The short story was written by Annie Proulx and will be directed by the same fellow that did Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Ang Lee who is one of my favorite directors. He will do this story justice, making it moving and cinematicly beautiful. The film is scheduled to be released in December.

Scouring the net this afternoon I found a few interesting technology developments. The first is a prototype of Philips Paper-like Display.

If you believe tech manufacturers, then watch Hitachi 's new cheesy online flash advert proclaiming the hard drive is the new bling.

You gotta hand it to those extremist Muslim hackers who have created a trojan that turns porn into sacred verse. We wouldn't want anyone looking at dirty pictures when they could be praying right?

I also got a giggle out of a blog piece about instant messaging titled: How I failed the Turing test.

Now on to something meaningful...

"Three Triangles" - painting by JayBee 2004

About a week has passed since the coming of hurricane Katrina. We as a nation have witnessed catastrophe and the subsequent actions of our people and government dealing with the aftermath. I am uplifted to see the out-pouring of generosity from individuals and charities, including children in a suburban neighborhood of Philadelphia selling lemonade and cookies to collect money to donate to the Red Cross. However, I am disgusted with the display of incompetence and failure of action from our government, especially our top leaders. Sadly, I am not surprised with our government's response. Americans, through the selection of our current leadership, have endorsed exactly the type of action we see in the aftermath of Katrina. Modern conservatism and more recently neo-conservatism has at its root a tenant of personal responsibility and culpability. Basically what that means is the lot in life you have is a result of your own actions, or lack of action. As a result of this ideology, it should never be the responsibility of government to be put in the position to clean up anyone's mess. A leading conservative, Grover Norquist described his desire to reduce the size and scope of government "to the size where we can drown it in a bathtub." The irony is not lost here, the lack and delay of efforts by our government contributed to the tragic loss of many hundreds if not thousands drown in the bathtub that is now New Orleans.

Are these conservatives playing by their own rules? Has our government been reduced in size, leaner and meaner so to speak? This is where their hypocrisy shines brightest. No, in actuality government is not leaner and meaner, spending is higher now than compared to the Clinton era, higher in fact when compared in equal dollars to the Johnson era during the height of the spending for the 'Great Society'. Apparently the discrepancy is to whom this conservative ideology applies. The rules have not applied to the wealthy and plutocratic elite. For these castes there is no shortfall of government welfare. Ranging from tax reductions for the highest incomes, tax breaks for the most expensive cars, boats and luxuries, subsidies for the richest industrialists, legacy schooling and employment for the blue blood wealthy, the loosening of environmental and safety regulations to enhance the profitability of super rich corporations, the list goes on and on. Is it not clear who are the winners and who are the losers in America today?

We see the faces of the losers all the time, everyday Americans we pass on the street (breathing dirtier air), people we work with (working longer hours, for less money, and worse or no health care), family members we visit on holiday (losing their pensions and paying more for heating and gas), shoppers we meet at the market (paying more for foods lower in nutrition and full of corn syrup and fillers), and the men and women on TV over the last several years fighting and dying in a war in Iraq that is the folly of a boy-king president and his neo-con yes-men.

Only now have we Americans been confronted with losers of such magnitude that we may have actually been stirred to begin to question, what I hope years from now will be referred to as failed conservatism. Katrina has exposed the winner-loser system we have today in America and the pictures are horrific. Poor black and white folk in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama trapped and loosing hope while rich people (and their luggage) staying at the New Orleans Hyatt were priority loaded onto buses to evacuate the city. Poor men, women and children huddled in the tens of thousands in front of the convention center without food, water or medicines while the director of FEMA (Brown) and Homeland Security Director (Chernoff) were on TV praising each other's efforts and saying they were not aware of any problems at the convention center.

I am hesitant to say what is to follow, but for the last many years I have fear for the path America is taking. I fear the furthered separation of power and wealth in America. I fear the further disenfranchisement of the poor and lower middle class. I fear the continued bigotry, and hatred of peoples of color, homosexuals, immigrants and non-Christians. I fear our hegemony and imperial attitudes shunning the rest of the world. I suggested to confidants that possibly the only way America would change back to a path of equality and justice for all, might be a terrible tragedy ( i.e. an economic depression and workers revolt was what I could envision). Katrina and it's aftermath has been a frightening tragedy and possibly America may stir from it's contented slumber to re-evaluate her priorities. I take no satisfaction in any tragedy that peoples of the world suffer, indeed I was brought to tears several times watching the images from our brothers and sisters in the hurricane zone this week. The path we choose to follow in the wake of this tragedy will speak volumes about us as a society.

It is shameful if nothing good comes from all of this. It is shameful if in a week or two the media drops the story of the aftermath of the hurricane, and we revert back to our drooling over American Idols and our obsession over the next missing white woman. It is shameful if we continue to follow the ideology of social Darwinism favored by many conservatives and libertarians. Families will be living in sports stadiums or converted cruise ships or makeshift dorms for unknown months without prospects for work or stability. The problems will not go away once the media turns off the cameras. We need to demand attention remain focused on all of the losers of the American society. We chose our government and its current leaders. How we deal with our problems deserves thoughtful and inclusive debate. If indeed we go back to business as usual and focus on our own self-indulgent lifestyles, how can we wake up each morning and feel good about being Americans?

Craigslist is coordinating people who would be willing to take in people from New Orleans, it is really quite amazing.

The AP wire has before and after satelite maps of New Orleans that you can zoom around in and look at specific parts of the city.

FEMA and Homeland Security are directing Americans to give hurricane relief money to Pat Robertson's Operation Blessing. This is unbelievable, just last week Pat Robertson was calling for the assassination of Hugo Chavez, and now we are supposed to trust him with our money? Operation Blessing is second on the official list, right after the American Red Cross.

DHS | Department of Homeland Security | Resources for Hurricane Katrina

FEMA Directing Donations To Rev. Pat Robertson

This blog is one of the best information sources flowing out of New Orleans.

Want to hear a live police scanner in New Orleans? Copy and paste this link into Winamp or other media players. http://stfunoob.com/nola/scanner.pls

Another good news source is WWLTV in New Orleans.

Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, may be taught in classrooms in Kansas. I, for one, welcome our new Pastafarian overlords.

JSP and I just returned from an evening walk through South Philadelphia. I am reminded that this is really a city of neighborhoods. It is hard not to see the potential beauty here if some of the streets were closed off to cars allowing street culture and gardens to grow in the space now occupied by the thousands of petrol consuming metal beasts.

New Orleans dominated our conversation, and how George W. Bush siphoned money earmarked to shore up the dikes and other protections on the Gulf Coast in the past few years toward "homeland security" and the unlawful war in Iraq. I like Molly Ivan's succinct explanation of Why New Orleans is in deep water. Another question is Why So Few First Responders in New Orleans?

On a lighter note, I just listened to Bjork's 2004 album titled Medulla... it is very moany. I generally love Bjork but this album is a bit self indulgent. Now I am listing to something that should cheer up even the most bitter queen, the theme to Wonder Woman. (Right click and "save as" or "save link as" to download.)

If that music does not cheer you up, read about the California Senate Passing a Gay Marriage Bill. I also recommend taking a walk outside. If one of these three things does not cheer you up then another of them will.

The Australian has an article about scientists creating mice that are able to regenerate body parts. It is pretty amazing that this works on mammals.