NAV. SEC. BLUNDERS ON OBAMA

"... the feeling that there is a common humanity" even with adversaries "is deep in his own personal experience and his DNA," say Naval secretary Richard Danzig, speaking about Obama in a long past Newsweek I happened upon in my doctor's office today.

Okay! In his DNA? Who made this guy a Naval secretary? What kind of brain numbness does his statement show us? By what evidence can he claim to know Obama's DNA?

Besides the stupidity of such a statement at the surface level is the truth of what underlies it far beyond what a Naval officer actually knows. The truth is, and a very important truth is is, there is a "common humanity" in all of us just by the definition of "humanity". We all share it in common and to the same degree and depth. It is exactly that "shared humanity" that ought to show us humans the way to a world peace that is lasting and satisfying.

It's only when we see someone as an enemy that we forget the common humanity they share with us and begin to dehumanize them. That navy guy is ignorant as cow manure. He does not even realize the important truth that underlies his superficial analysis of Obama's character.

What we need is a world full of people who understand that we all share a common humanity and that if we were them (the other), then we'd see that they are doing just as we'd be doing if we were in their shoes and trying to deal with America's aggressive stance toward the world under neocon leadership. If that navy dupe would only use his own "common humanity" to interpret and understand his enemy's behavior, we'd soon see an end to violence in the world. He's got it all right at his fingertips, but he can't see it because of neocon blinders.

NERDETTES COME OF AGE

In a Newsweek article this week, Bennett and Yabroff write about how beautiful and intelligent women are starting to come on strong, unashamed of their beauty as well as their intelligence. You'll recall that maybe a year ago, I posted two pictures (at different times) of beautiful scientists. Here's another picture of one of those two women, Lisa Randall, from a recent Discovery Magazine called, Top 75 Questions Of Science. Anyhow, you should read about this coming trend yourself (See the link above!). Lisa speaks in Discovery about the possibilities that space can have more than three dimensions. She's studying or has studied branes—yes, that's branes, not brains. What I like about Lisa is her eyes. Look at those clear, intelligent eyes, not all clouded up with unskeptical and romantic nonsense.

A little known—or well known, depending on how well-read you are—fact about intelligent women, you guys, if you're lucky enough to have one of them by your side (or you by her side), is that they are less likely to have hangups about sex and likely to be more experimental. Now, look, I didn't say "all" of them were, but studies show that the more education one has, the less-likely to be hung up about all sorts of things in whatever culture one finds himself living in. This, of course, is why I don't envy any Islamic or Mormon male with all his religiously suppressed wives. Just give me one woman with the imagination to play any number of rolls in the sack, and I'll give you all the sluggish, unimaginative women you can ever want for your wives.

Anyhow, you go, you nerdy girls. Nerd it up all you like. I'm with you, and I'm 70 years old, myself, and a victim of the oppressed and silent 50s generation. Took me a long time to become a man of the 21st century, and I'm still struggling with the little boy mentality of those times, looking for his mommy. Just ask my wife. The only growth is that I usually catch myself at it now instead of living it full out. And I certainly don't seek a little girl wife either who needs a macho man. Yet, to be fair and honest, I suppose I ought not make fun of any combination that works. Just as I would ask a macho man to understand me, I suppose, in all fairness, I should also understand his needs. Perhaps that sort of fairness is the best tack to sail one's ship along, after all in these contentious times.

DO YOU FEEL YOUR HEART GROWING?

I am always disturbed when a modern poet still uses the heart as the organ from which love emanates, as a metaphor for love. It shows me that the poet knows nothing about neuroscience and probably wants to remain ignorant of it. All feeling issues from the brain. A long time ago, however, when I was a graduate student in English at Southern Illinois University, I was mightily troubled when some nameless critic pointed out that the arts were in decline because the real area of poetic inspiration was now science, and all genius had gone the way of science, leaving only clods like me, I concluded, to hold up poetry and fiction.

An article in Newsweek this week (May 19, 2008) by Anne Underwood, dips into some interesting medical advancements that tell me that we are drawing ever closer to Ray Kurzweil's world (The Singularity Is Near) when humans may not be humans as we now understand humans. What can we make of the idea that Anthony Atala is growing organs for animals already? Doesn’t that sort of medical project sound like what Kurzweil is talking about in his book? And what about the poor poet in his study? As for myself, the battle between art and science is dead. I’m thoroughly inspired by evolutionary psychology, and when I do try to put together one of my itsy-bitsy haiku or senryu, I do try to remember that nothing goes on in the heart but a lot of pumping of blood. Thus. . . my haiku which I entered into this blog not too many weeks ago:

If someone tells you
I love you with all my heart,
they hold back a lot.

The following are three longish snippets from Anne’s article. Thank you, Anne. My heart goes out to you!

[SNIP]
Dr. Jorg Gerlach at the University of Pittsburgh's McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine is isolating patients' own skin stem cells from a small patch of healthy skin. Then, using a specially, developed skin-cell gun, he sprays them onto the wounded area in a fine mist. Over a period of two to six weeks, the cells grow into functional skin, including dermis, epidermis and blood vessels. There is little scarring, and because Gerlach includes the patient's own pigment cells in the mix, the new skin looks natural. In one pilot study, he treated eight patients in Germany with good results….

To build a nose, they [Robert Langer at MIT and Joseph Vacanti at Harvard] will create a nose-shaped scaffold, made of biocompatible, biodegradable materials, then seed it with the patient's own cells and nurture it in a chamber called a bioreactor that mimics conditions in the body. Weeks later, when cells have multiplied to form tissues, the nose will be surgically implanted; over the ensuing months, the scaffold will dissolve and be resorbed into the body. Using these same basic techniques, Atala [Anthony Atala at Wake Forest University] has created organs, including small kidneys that filter liquid and produce urine in the lab. When implanted in animals, the kidneys grow to full size and continue to work. “We start, and the body takes over,” he says….

Newall Washburn at Carnegie Mellon University is working on special gels to help tamp down inflammation at the site of a deep wound, allowing skin to regenerate without scarring. Dr. Charles Sfeir at the McGowan Institute is developing a powder containing bone proteins, growth factors and biodegradable cement that can be mixed with water in the operating room and molded to the shape of missing bone. Atala has created nerves that conduct impulses—at least in mice….
[PASTE

TIME FOR SOME POLITICS THIS BLOGDATE

or GEARING UP TO SMASH THE POOR

Not only has Republican Party policy, beginning with Reagan, slowly and surely shrunk the numbers in the middle class and increased the disparity between the rich and the poor in America, now they are attempting to make sure that their newly-created poor will not be able to vote. If the poor can’t vote, the Republicans figure, they can’t replace Republican governments which are out to make America a theocracy of the rich ruled over by Gingrich and the very richest Christians. (Mitt Romney is only the toe-in-the-door beginning. In Utah, private charity is tied to membership in the Mormon Church, and, of course, one of the Republican Party’s primary goals is to privatize everything in America.)

The full story about voter suppression, you can find HERE.

[SNIPPET]
Efforts to stop voter fraud may have curbed legitimate voting

By Greg Gordon/McClatchy Newspapers

During four years as a Justice Department civil rights lawyer, Hans von Spakovsky went so far in a crusade against voter fraud as to warn of its dangers under a pseudonym in a law journal article.

Writing as "Publius," von Spakovsky contended that every voter should be required to produce a photo-identification card and that there was "no evidence" that such restrictions burden minority voters disproportionately.

Now, amid a scandal over politicization of the Justice Department, Congress is beginning to examine allegations that von Spakovsky was a key player in a Republican campaign to hang onto power in Washington by suppressing the votes of minority voters.
[PASTE-IT]

or HERE’S MORE OF SAME FROM LA TIMES

[CHOP]
WASHINGTON — Weeks before the 2006 midterm election, then-New Mexico U.S. Atty. David C. Iglesias was invited to dine with a well-connected Republican lawyer in Albuquerque who had been after him for years to prosecute allegations of voter fraud.

"I had a bad feeling about that lunch," said Iglesias, describing his meeting at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen with Patrick Rogers, a lawyer who provided occasional counsel to the New Mexico Republican Party.

When the voter fraud issue came up, Iglesias said, he explained to Rogers that in reviewing more than 100 complaints, he hadn't found any solid enough to justify criminal charges.

Iglesias recounted the episode in an interview with The Times after meeting behind closed doors with federal investigators this week to provide new details of the events leading up to his termination as U.S. attorney. He said he now believed he was targeted because he was seen as slow to bring criminal charges that would have helped GOP election prospects.
[GLUE]

or I WAS READING NEWSWEEK

Long before we invaded Iraq, I would read about the findings (introduced below) in Newsweek magazine. What I read there caused me to be out on the streets marching prior to Bushmaniac launching his invasion of Iraq. What I’m suggesting is that if you want the plain unvarnished truth, discussed calmly and intelligently, subscribe to Newsweek.

[CUT AND SLASH]
WASHINGTON — Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies.

The two assessments, titled "Principal Challenges in Post-Saddam Iraq" and "Regional Consequences of Regime Change in Iraq," were produced by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) and will be a major part of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence's long-awaited Phase II report on prewar intelligence assessments about Iraq. The assessments were delivered to the White House and to congressional intelligence committees before the war started.
[PUT BACK TOGETHER]