THANKS TO BUSH

A not too distant Andrew Kohut survey of other nations on our globe, showed “U.S. status abroad waning”—so says the headline. Most nations now have a more favorable view of China than of the U.S. We are no longer the leader of the free world. Many nations fear us, but we’ve the lost the respect necessary to lead other nations. Bush just doesn’t have the values which free nations admire. In fact he’s more like an Islamic nation’s religious leader than an American president.


ARMIES HAVE TRADITIONALLY RAPED
AND PLUNDERED—SO?

According to a PBS report, a high proportion of women who join the military have been victims of sexual assault at some time in their lives. When we look at the history of rape at our military academies, we can see the problem being drawn in high profile. Think, also, of “Tailhook”, the Navy’s case of high level groping and rape. Why do American soldiers rape more than the average American male? Studies do show that soldiers are more into rape than others. Why, then, do women who have been rape victims put themselves into an organization where the power of males is supreme and where rape is more prevalent?

Here’s a case where it’s clear that those who have not done the necessary emotional work are almost unconsciously bound to set themselves up for more of the same.


BUSH’S REAL AGENDA

The real Bush agenda is to use the Christian right, not to advance their causes, but to increase the power of business in American life.

Judge Roberts, Bush’s nominee for the Supreme Court, has been a pro-business advocate all his lawyerly life. And we must also recall that Bush’s nominee to serve as Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was Rep. Christopher Cox who, according to an SR article has consistently sought legislation which supports the big dogs over the little. If he translates his philosophy into policy, security violators will find a good friend in the regulator. He’s heavily supported by “security firm” donations.

I believe, if we go over all of Bush’s nominees with a fine tooth comb, we’ll find a steep bias toward people who will further entrench corporations in the affairs of government. Maybe this corporate bias is even worse than the religious bias the neocons sport on their expensive, hidden, jacket lapels.


INTELLIGENT DESIGN IS JUNK SCIENCE

H. Allen Orr in an essay, “Devolution”, in a fairly recent New Yorker points out that “intelligent design" is junk science because it fails to produce testable theorems which can be set up and tested in a laboratory. One of many failings.


IT’S MUCH IN THE GENES, HORATIO

Michael Kinsley in an LA TIMES article reproduced in the SPOKESMAN on 7 June 2005 also jumps in with an observation few Americans are really ready to accept. He writes, “As we learn more about the human mind, even qualities such as self-discipline seem to be a matter of genes, not grit.”

We’ve got such a long way to go before we can even begin to address justice and truth with any amount of fairness and justice. If our evaluations of our fellow Americans are based on unjust standards, how can we ever arrive at true justice? Will we always have to say, “Life is not just?”


WHAT’S A PHYSICIST MOMMY?

Harold Morowitz, professor of biology at George Mason University, reports that George Wald once said that, “Physicist is the atom’s way of thinking about atoms.”

This reminds of the idea that brains are the medium by which memes transmit themselves to the world, and I can’t recall who said that, where or when. Our brains are infected by memes. They colonize them and are just as alive as you or me or any other phenomena in the Cosmos. Perhaps, I’m exaggerating!


COMING TO DIE

I was over at Cabin Coffee in Browne’s addition for the first time on 13 June 2005 and I happened to see a very erotic tattoo on a sexy, dark-haired woman’s arm. From elbow to wrist it was written, “”When you come, we die.” I know enough to steer clear of that sort of woman. She’d cut me a new jib and sail me out to a far sea, stove in my bottom and sink me.
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Aaaaarrrgh, mateys, we need a joke: "A team is a team is a team. Shakespeare said that many times." —Dan Devine, football coach