Dr. Jane Goodall on Jon Stewart

Trekkie

Yes, I admit it. I am guilty as charged.

I am a long term, loyal fan of Star-Trek. Especially Jean Luc Picard. I am not the slightest bit gay, and I have no reason to believe that he is either, but I would consider giving it a try for this guy!
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Loves to Foolishly Waste Money

I have driven Toyotas for years. The Lexus is nice, but it is nothing more than a grossly overpriced Toyota. For people who want the quality of a Toyota but choose to get worse fuel economy and spend much more money for the illusion of luxury.

The same applies to laptops. Several good friends are Mac phreaks. Why would anyone in their right mind waste the money to buy a Mac when you can now get a fully functional throw-away Windows computer for less than $300- including sales tax and delivery?
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Good Riddance Lou Dobbs

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out Mr. Dobbs.

You have evolved from a guy who accurately reports the news to one who used CNN to help spread a sicko, right wing agenda. You are very anti-immigration and rather racist against Mexicans.

In the realm of economics you have the same sort of loser, no-regulation ideas as Alan Greenspan and Ronald Rayguns.

I hope we don’t hear much more from you, dumb ass.
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LINK: http://www.hulu.com/watch/108721/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart-thu-nov-12-2009
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http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/12/lou-dobbs/?emc=eta1
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Bravery

It is not especially brave for a military commander to keep ordering his troops (read cannon fodder) to charge up hamburger hill. Unless of course he is personally on the ground, and he leads the attack each time. Usually he is a long distance from the danger and is following some pseudo intellectual geopolitical strategy.

It is clear that we will not stay at war in Afghanistan/Pakistan for another 10 to 20 years. These areas which are so valiantly fought for by the brave men and women actually there on the ground, will be given up. It makes most of these deaths seem hideously futile. Like in Vietnam. The whole Vietnam war was one giant error. America took over a war that other large powers had previously failed at. Just like in Afghanistan.

The military generals always call for more troops and equipment. Always. They sit in their comfortable offices a long way from the front, and they advise the president to be brave and stay the course.

This is why we have a civilian as commander in chief. It takes someone with real strength of character to stand up and explain that this senseless waste of human life and resources has to stop. President Obama needs to significantly reduce the troop levels (and civilian contract workers) in Afghanistan-Pakistan, not continue adding to the current course of insanity.

LINK: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/11/AR2009111118432.html?hpid=topnews
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Our Choice

Al Gore’s new book called Our Choice arrived yesterday evening. It is like a dictionary or compendium of the top experts in the world discussing the earth’s climate crisis.

I have just thumbed through it so far, but it looks fantastic. Like a reference book that you would return to time and again.

Senator and then Vice President Al Gore had no intention of becoming the world’s top guru on pollution and climate change. But someone had to do it, so he stepped up to the plate.

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LINK: http://www.algore.com/

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Death Penalty

If there is even the slightest, very remote possibility that the person who is convicted might not be the one who performed the heinous act(s), then I firmly oppose the death penalty. There have been many cases where countless years later it is proven that the wrong person was convicted. So anyone reasonable should oppose the death penalty in these cases.

But if there is 100% certainty that this is in fact the correct person, and there is only some argument about his mental state, motivation, or justification, then I am just as firmly in favor of the death penalty. This would include the sniper John Allen Mohamed who was killed last night, and that fat ass Muslim religious fanatic army Major and doctor-psychiatrist who shot all those people at Ft. Hood.

I don’t even see any reason why these types should be killed humanely. They were enormously merciless to their victims, so I have no problem with them receiving a long, lingering, agonizingly painful death process chocked full of humiliation.

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Capitalism

Around the world there are increasing numbers of people who see that completely unregulated, wild-west capitalism is the problem, not the solution.

This article from the Netherlands discusses a BBC survey about capitalism:


* BBC poll: capitalism is less popular
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An increasing number of people throughout the world are dissatisfied with capitalism and believe wealth should be more evenly distributed. A poll held by the BBC world service in 27 countries reveals that attitudes have changed since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. Just over 29,000 people took part in the survey.
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In 1989 capitalism was seen as the ideal system, but now most people asked believe it needs to be reformed; just 11 percent of those questioned said it was working well. Only in the United States and Pakistan did more than one in five say that capitalism was working well and had no need of reform.
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In almost all other countries a majority think the government has a greater role to play in the economy. According to the researchers this is mainly because of this year's global economic crisis.
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Opinions about the collapse of the Soviet Union are sharply divided; 80 percent of US respondents and 75 percent of those in Germany, France and Great Britain say it was a good thing. Almost 70 percent of Egyptian respondents believe the end of the Soviet empire was a bad thing and opinion in India, Kenya and Indonesia was sharply divided.
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The former eastern block countries are divided on the issue. A majority of Russians regretted the breakup of the Soviet Union and opinion in Ukraine is divided almost equally on the issue. A majority of people in the Czech Republic and Poland said it was a good thing.
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CLL Therapy

I am not a doctor, merely a CLL patient who is doing his best to be well informed. When one has chronic lymphocytic leukemia it is important to remember that in almost all cases this cancer is incurable. When your doctor recommends that you begin some form of treatment, such as the intake or infusion of various toxic substances, I recommend that you ask yourself (or him/her) a couple of important questions:


(1) Will taking these drugs mean that my immune system will function better than it does now? In other words, will my chances of dying from pneumonia or some antibiotic resistant disease this winter be reduced?

(2) Are there peer reviewed studies which show a meaningful extension of lifespan, i.e. survival rate? A longer duration of life; not a few months, but years.


As far as I have been able to find out, all of the current popular therapies appear to have significant side effects. Reduction in the effectiveness of one’s immune system, unusual infections, various degrees of impairment in the proper functioning of one’s kidneys, heart, or liver. So I no longer accept the validity of spin terms like full remission (usually temporary), good response to the therapy, or minimal residual disease when a physician is discussing therapy options.

When one takes into full consideration the down side of these therapeutic agents, one needs to closely look at whether the drugs will make your immune system work better than it does currently; and whether there is reliable and repeatable peer reviewed statistical proof that on average you might expect a meaningful increase in life span by undergoing these toxic treatments which can significantly weaken one's already rather deficient immune system.
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Unviersal Health Care

I just got off the phone speaking with our local Congressman’s office in Washington, D.C. He did indeed vote for President Obama’s health care reform legislation, and I wanted to thank him. Maybe they don’t get many “Thank You” type phone calls, I don't know, but they seemed REALLY pleased to get my call.

This bill which just barely passed the house of representatives certainly does not represent universal health care. Millions of people will still not have access to health care even if the senate were to pass similar legislation. And it specifically excludes abortion - so if your pre-teen daughter were to be raped and were to get pregnant you would have to pay for the abortion yourself.

The senate if full of hard core, right wing lunatics who if life were fair would be committed to an insane asylum. These crazy people are much more heavily represented among the republicans, but there are plenty of democrats who are fellow travelers. So the situation there looks even more difficult than in the house.

Most cell phones nowadays bill long distance calls at the same rate as local calls. So take a few minutes to call your own representative in congress. Either to thank him/her. Or to tell the no-good bum just how terribly ashamed you are of him.

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Stephen Fry

I had the most wonderful dream last night. It was in full color, and like most dreams seemed very much like reality at the time. I was engaged in a very friendly conversation with Stephen Fry. Not as an idol (which he is) but like when you are talking with a long term friend where there is mutual respect.

Keep in mind that I am not homosexual, nor have I ever engaged in anal intercourse with my wife(s). But I am fairly tolerant of other people’s weird and crazy ideas, since at times I also hold viewpoints which are somewhat outside of the norm.

So Stephen and I were talking, and I was explaining in a friendly manner how vital it is that he vigorously campaign for the use of condoms when any two people are engaging in anal intercourse. Just as a health measure.

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Democrats Are The New Republicans

Bill Maher is one of the brightest and most insightful guys around.

Mass Murder As A Form Of Political Protest

I am a very political person, and I have been since the anti-war protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

In the 1960s the incredible strength of feeling in America in opposition to the Vietnam War was almost scary. Some people left America and moved to Canada, others moved to Europe. Some became conscientious objectors or medics. But no sane person even remotely considered killing someone as a way to stop the war, much less the idea of killing large numbers of completely innocent people and then committing suicide. Even heavily drugged out, somewhat insane people wouldn't have considered this.

I don’t know what it is that motivates so many Muslims to wear a bomb, and then blow themselves up trying to kill as many innocent people as possible. This concept is hideously sick and evil.

The ballot box may not always be the answer. Non-violence may not always solve the problem. But intentionally targeting masses of innocent non-combatants and killing yourself in the same gesture sure as hell isn’t the way to go about getting what you want.
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Organized religion in general has more negative aspects than positive. But some religions are even worse than others.

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Reaganomics Was A Failure

Some ideas just won’t die even after they are proven wrong time after time. The actor Ronald Rayguns read his lines well, but he was a very poor economist. So are the modern day right wing entertainers.

This is such an important matter that I feel the need to quote Paul Krugman’s blog en masse:

Reagan! Reagan! Reagan!

Aha. I see that some commenters insist that I was unfair or, some insist, intellectually dishonest in my post on the fact that advanced economies actually grew faster in the era before modern finance took hold. There have been assertions that it was all about rebuilding from the war, or that the picture looks very different if you look at per capita real GDP, with some flat assertions that if you look at the numbers right growth has been better since 1980s.
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Um, no.
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Take the United States, which wasn’t damaged in the war. Take per capita real GDP. Give hostages by taking data from 1950 to 1980, which means including the 1980 recession, but stopping at 2007, so that the current slump isn’t included.
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Then here’s what you get:
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Growth in per capita real GDP from 1950 to 1980: 2.2 percent per year
Growth in per capita real GDP from 1980 to 2007: 2.0 percent per year
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Oh, and if we look at real median family income instead, we get:
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Growth from 1950 to 1980: 2.3 percent per year
Growth from 1980 to 2007: 0.7 percent per year
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Sorry: there’s no measure I can think of by which the U.S. economy has done better since 1980 than it did over an equivalent time span before 1980. It may be something you’ve heard, it may be something you’d like to believe, but it just didn’t happen.


LINK: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/reagan-reagan-reagan
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Religious Intolerance

Another radicalized, lunatic Muslim religious fanatic has intentionally killed lots of completely innocent people. AGAIN.

Believe it or not, some of the other Muslim soldiers at Ft. Hood, Texas have already begun blaming this outrageous act of mass murder not on the guy who did it but on the military and the U.S. Government’s policies.

One of the founding principles of America was religious toleration. According to what is taught in civics classes, in America you are welcome to belong to any fanatical religious sect of your choice, or not believe in any religion. As long as you do no harm. This last part is vital.

Killing the Jewish athletes in Munich in 1972 (I was there), knocking down the twin towers in New York and flying into the Pentagon with high jacked airliners on September 11, horrible dark-age style discrimination against women, and far too many incidents of suicide bombings to even count.

What the Koran says is irrelevant if in actual day-to-day practice the true believers who claim to live by the Muslim faith continue to behave like mass murderers.
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LINK: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/07/us/07muslim.html?partner=rss&emc=rss




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DX Format Digital SLRs vs FX Format

In digital photography, the larger your CCD or CMOS sensor is the bigger and heavier your lenses need to be. So with the teeny, tiny sensors used in most point and shoot cameras the manufacturers can build heavy duty zoom lenses which are quite small and lightweight.

I’ve owned and used many different brands of digital cameras, but for the last few years I have narrowed in on the Nikon brand. They call the full size sensor (about the size of a 35mm negative) an FX, and the cameras which have a little bit smaller sensor are referred to as a DX format.

Comparing the Nikon D300 which has a DX sized CMOS sensor (15.8 x 23.6mm) making 12.3 megapixel photos to the Nikon D700 which has the larger FX sized sensor (23.9 x 36mm) generating 12.1 megapixel photos you can’t see any real or significant difference in resolution even when printing extremely large pictures. I have seen several direct comparisons of the two cameras, and honestly I just can’t see any improvement from the larger sized sensor.

In evaluating your lenses what you do find is that DX lenses are MUCH lighter to carry around. This weight difference is meaningful. A 300mm focal length lens used on a DX acts just like a 450 mm lens too. So in almost all situations where you are moving around (not in a studio with the camera on a tripod) the DX format is vastly preferable. This is certainly true if you are shooting telephoto shots of wildlife.

If you are interested in getting better resolution I recommend that instead of going to an FX camera and lens you simply begin shooting in raw format, 14 bit depth. The difference between this format and high resolution JPEG is just phenomenal.
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Air Pollution

In my teens and early twenties I flew quite a bit. I noticed that sometimes the air appeared polluted, but normally it was really clear once you got away from large cities. Forty years later the air is always polluted, even when one is hundreds of miles away from cities.

We have now found ourselves in a situation where global air pollution poses a genuine threat to the future survival of mankind. There is consensus among scientists worldwide that air pollution from cars and trucks, factories, and coal burning power plants is responsible for the vast majority of this. Mankind has caused this as a byproduct of industrialization. This is not some natural cyclical phenomenon of nature.

When one looks at the inherent selfishness of our species it seems unlikely that global cooperation will be achieved in reducing the air pollution. But there are some encouraging signs too. China is not only a rapidly growing country with a massive population, its leaders are also far more committed to renewable green energy than western countries like America.

Here in the USA we can genuinely help. Governmental policies supporting green energy are vital, and so is individual action. Our per capita consumption of energy is higher than anywhere else on the planet.

There are many “news outlets” which confuse entertainment with honest reporting of the facts. As consumers we need to learn which ones are telling us the truth and which are not so concerned with integrity or candor.

On an individual basis one of the more important things we can do is use energy wisely. Reduction of waste and conservation includes things like adding more insulation to your house, caulking leaks, lowering the thermostat in the winter and raising it in the summer. Changing light bulbs to the compact fluorescent type is useful. Walking or riding a bicycle is not only good for your health, it helps reduce energy consumption. When you get a new car, don’t worry so much about its sex appeal or large engine, give primary emphasis to fuel economy. Consider riding a high MPG scooter instead of taking your car.

The politicians will not go to the effort to support genuinely green policy options until there is a true groundswell of support from the people. Like with so many things in life, not words but action on a individual basis is what will change the world.
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Israel

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is sticking to his refusal to resume negotiations until Israel stops building settlements. In my judgement this is an appropriate stance for him to take.

Israel should refuse to negotiate with anyone who does not openly accept their right to exist and do so in peace. You do not negotiate with someone who continues to openly call for your destruction; you continue to kick his ass until he accepts your right to exist.
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Gay Marriage

Yesterday the voters in the state of Maine conclusively decided to repeal the law which allowed gay marriage.

The homosexual community has been brutally discriminated against. Many straight (read normal, healthy) people feel incredibly threatened by the concept of two men having sex with each other. There is no doubt about the strength of their feelings. There is generally somewhat less fear of lesbians, but they also have felt the sting of discrimination, especially if they chose the military as a profession.

I want to go strongly on record in support of the privacy of one’s own bedroom. Civilized society needs to make certain that the “morality police” do not break down doors in the middle of the night to try and catch two people of the same sex engaged in a bit of fun or pleasure. This is the type of dark ages behavior that fundamentalist Christians, Muslims, and the Taliban would like to see implemented.

If two homosexuals want to live together and maintain a caring relationship, even one which includes regular pleasurable sex, that is alright with me.

But we must not ignore science and reason. The anus is intended to allow the discharge of waste by products. It was not designed to stretch so as to permit another man’s hard penis to be inserted. Doing so causes small cracks and tears which are wonderful places for pathogens to enter the body. This “butt fucking” behavior is one of the best ways to transmit diseases, including HIV-AIDS. As much as I admire Stephen Fry, I simply cannot support any form of sanction or affirmation of anal intercourse.

Gays deserve to be allowed into the hospital to see each other when one is sick or dying. Gays should not be openly discriminated against. Gays also deserve to suffer the indignities of the court system, loss of assets, alimony and perhaps even child support when they wish to terminate their relationship, just like normal straight people do when they get a divorce.

There are laws now in many states which sanction “domestic partnerships.” But to many gays this is not nearly enough. They want society to openly say that two people of the same sex can be “married” to each other. That from a societal perspective being a homosexual is just as good, positive, and healthy as being a heterosexual.

Marriage is an institution which encourages two people of the opposite sex to remain together in a relationship during the many years required for child rearing. Ideally a man and a woman form a relationship; they have sex with each other; they have one of more children; and then the two marital partners stay together until the kids are grown.

Many studies have confirmed that children raised in a situation where the mother and the father are both present turn out better than kids raised by single mothers. The kids from traditional marriages are healthier emotionally, physically, and do far better in school.

Anyone who has been married and has raised children knows that although child rearing is essential for the continuation of the species, and that while there are often some positive aspects to it, that in actual reality raising kids can often be about as close to being in hell as one can get without actually dying. Hence society has tried to provide various positive reinforcements to parents so as to encourage the man to stick around.

In Summary: Gays should not be discriminated against; nor should two people of the same sex be allowed to marry each other. Anal sex is extremely dangerous and unhealthy, thus it should be strongly discouraged by society.
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Canine Empathy

Saying that dogs are empathic doesn’t begin to do them justice. Since the dawn of mankind dogs have evolved right along side homo sapiens. A big part of the survival skills of dogs has been their ability to sense the mood of their human. Part of this is due to their sharp observational skill, part is their incredibly sensitive sense of smell. I scoff resoundingly at paranormal phenomena, but dogs may even have a bit of ESP. The emotional bond between a person and his/her dog is very real; and it is a two way street. The dog certainly has a strong emotional bond to the human as well.

In his book Starship Troopers the renowned science fiction author Robert Heinlein describes a K-9 unit that is used in intra-galactic warfare. Such a strong bond develops between the soldier and his dog that if the dog should get killed, the soldier is immediately taken out of battle and placed in intensive therapy for a period of several years. If the human is killed but his dog survives, the dog’s grief is so severe that the dog is immediately put to death. The way Heinlein describes this it is clear that this is the only reasonable or humane course of action.

I was diagnosed with leukemia seven years ago. Fortunately the cancer has grown slowly, but I am now experiencing late-stage leukemia. The days really aren’t bad. Very little stamina, lots of sweating, a bit unsure on my feet sometimes, shortness of breath, massively swollen lymph nodes, and some occasional slurring of my words. I used to be a very accurate and fast typist; now I find that the brain doesn’t seem to communicate very well with the fingers, hence I constantly seem to ma2ke typog&ra#phical errors.

I have begun to dread the nights. Headaches almost every night now. The intense night sweats create a constant battle to avoid dehydration. Also having to get up and pee every hour or so. Sudden onset leg cramps every night, which demand that one immediately jumps out of bed and puts pressure (standing) on the leg that is cramping. Many of the humongous swollen lymph nodes on the outer surface of the body have now become painful, so one has to be careful not to apply too much pressure on them while trying to sleep. The internal lymph nodes which are inside the torso have grown large enough that they have now begun pressing against various useful and interesting internal organs. And intense, almost uncontrollable itching.

My dog knows quite well when I am having a particularly difficult night. He lays close to me all night, always touching me, from a very light touch to solid snuggling. In the morning he encourages me to get out of bed by acting playful and behaving like a young puppy. He seems to understand that once I wake up things will get better.

My little black doggie has become my constant companion and my best friend. My partner. We are both constantly checking-out the other one. Little quick eye contact. Twice per day we either walk out in the undeveloped desert or at one of the nearby city parks. He doesn’t need a leash at all, even when we are walking on a sidewalk right next to a very busy street. But he has no problem with me putting the leash on him; some people are afraid of dogs, and there are many situations where it is dreadfully rude to let your dog run around off the leash.

My little friend has clearly evolved into a Service Dog. I didn’t teach him or send him off to some school. He is completely self taught, which often is the very most effective form of education.









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