Among the Bourgeoisophobes
"Of all the great creeds of the 19th century, pretty much the only one still thriving is this one, bourgeoisophobia. Marxism is dead. Freudianism is dead. Social Darwinism is dead, along with all those theories about racial purity that grew up around it. But the emotions and reactions that Flaubert, Stendhal, and all the others articulated in the 1830s are still with us, bigger than ever. In fact, bourgeoisophobia, which has flowered variously and spread to places as diverse as Baghdad, Ramallah, and Beijing, is the major reactionary creed of our age."

Rays Of Inspiration
Every initiative involves a risk. things that look great in theory often don't work worth a damn, I know, I've been there. Consequently, we are all going to be wrong a certain percentage of the time, such is life. Failing or being wrong isn't necessarily bad, In fact, you'll be in great company; superachievers generally have a long string of failures behind them. Go ahead, step up to the challenge, whatever your goal or dream, pursue them. In the final analysis, it's the journey, not the destination that brings us the most value.

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Farewell Justin
My friend and co-worker Justin resigned his position today. I hope you're reading this today Just, I wish you the very best as you move forward. Thanks for the laughter filled days. As a member of the 4H group, the others join me in saluting and bidding you a heartfelt farewell. Use your talents, dream big dreams, stay level, stay strong and may the wheel spin in your favor.

More thoughts on the slavery reparations shuffle
The debate continues and I've been thinking. Aren't "unlawful" activities that happened long ago mooted by statutes of limitations? Besides, none of the companies being sued and none of their living shareholders has ever owned or trafficked in slaves, just as none of the plaintiffs and none of the 36 million black Americans whose interests they claim to represent has ever been held in bondage.

I suppose that the plaintiffs and their lawyers already know this, so perhaps their goal is not to win a legal verdict but to pressure the companies into making lucrative out-of-court settlements. If that's the case, The big winners in all of this will most certainly be the lawyers who's wallets are fattened as a result.

Internet Addiction, anyone?
"Recent research shows that Internet Addiction is just a special case of what might more broadly be called Communication Addiction. Most healthy individuals tend to spend their time doing normal, productive things like eating, sleeping, working, caring for their children, and having sex. But recently, some have started to devote an inordinate amount of time to the clearly far less valuable and more dangerous activity of Communication (and a related behavior, Information Gathering).

Not only does this distract them from other activities, but extended bouts of Communication are often accompanied by other unhealthful behavior, such as consumption of intoxicants and sometimes excessive quantities of food. Addicts have often been known to express regret over the time this disease takes away from much more vital activities (such as sleep), and other behavior -- such as possibly unsafe sexual activity -- that Communication has indirectly facilitated."

Big Brother
More than 200 million Americans carry driver’s licenses with them every day. The small plastic cards denote the holders’ right to operate a motor vehicle. But that rather understates things. Today, all manner of business establishments, from banks to airlines to bars, will deny you service if you do not show them your driver’s license. In other words, driver’s licenses have become the de facto identity cards of the United States.

Now the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, a kind of trade organization for the state motor vehicle registries, wants to make things official. This past January the association asked Congress for $100 million to link all of the state motor vehicle databases into a single national system, overhaul licensing procedures and phase in a new generation of high-tech cards. If this proposal goes through, driver’s licenses issued in two years will almost certainly be high-tech, biometric-endowed cards for the absolute identification of the cardholder. A sign of things to come, I'm sure.

The legal Fleecing of Poor minorities
This article is a real eye opener, Michael May explains how some lending institutions may be taking advantage of some minorities with their persuasive tactics, unnecessary home refinancing commitments and exhorbitant interests rates.

Knowledge is power only to the extent that it is applied and directed toward a definite end. Be informed.

The President's Narrow morality
"President Bush and 40 Nobel Prize winners went head to head yesterday on the controversial issue of human cloning. The president, in a speech, said a promising area of cloning research should be banned as unethical. But from our perspective the Nobelists, who released a letter, held the higher moral ground in focusing on the great promise of cloning for curing intractable diseases."

Mr. Bush argued that cloning, even for research purposes, is wrong because it involves the creation of embryos that are then destroyed to derive stem cells for potential treatments. Anything less than a total ban on cloning would be unethical, he proclaimed, because "no human life should be exploited or extinguished for the benefit of another." That effectively defined the cell clusters as human life and declared them sacrosanct. Mr. Bush also contended that it would be difficult to enforce a ban on reproductive cloning while allowing research cloning, and he called the presumed benefits of research cloning "highly speculative." (Via NYT)

'The US military has developed an "indestructible sandwich" that stays fresh for three years. They are designed to remain tasty after months or even years in the sweaty pockets of a soldier’s combat fatigues.' [ More ]

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Welfare reform, new and improved
A new welfare proposal in the House of Representatives encourages work and marriage.

Via MoPaul.com

On reparations for slavery (an update)
Many of my friends have asked me what my position is concerning reparations and I often take the middle of the road position as I have done in this previous post. I realize that I can only hold my stance for so long. At some point, I have to cross the road but not just yet.

Meanwhile, Anthony J Sebok offers two excellent reasons in his article on why It would be a mistake to dismiss the reparation lawsuits as an exercise in political grandstanding. Well worth the read.

B.E.T. pulls out of harlem
Harlem's economic development plans hit a snag recently when Black Entertainment Television (BET) announced not only would it not relocate to newly planned Harlem, New York, studios but also that it would move out of the temporary studios in the "black cultural Mecca," which it has called home for two years.

Study reveals link to crime

"A new study provides some of the best evidence to date that low wages and unemployment make less-educated men more likely to turn to crime. Researchers examined national crime rates between 1979 and 1997 and found much of the increase in crime during that period can be explained by falling wages and rising unemployment among men without college educations. While politicians have focused on crime-fighting initiatives as central to controlling crime, this study shows that the impact of labor markets should not be overlooked..."

I would have thought that this type of cause and effect was already self-evident, but I suppose I better leave it up to the "experts" to make it official. Is this going to have any effect on policy? I doubt it.

Not that I'm a big believer in polls, but this is an interesting USAToday/CNN/GALLUP Poll asking Americans their opinions on Congress. The results show that democrtats are preferred by voters by 7%. This could simply be an indication that at this juncture, the political waters are simply standing still. But, it could also mean that people's thoughts on the issues are broader and not simply focused on just major current events.

I'm in favor of this trend because I support issues relating to the environment, personal rights, small, well managed government, attention to social issues, a strong economy, a strong but tightly managed defense, and progressive energy policies.

Women, careers, and babies Maureen Dowd notes that though things seemed to have changed in the gender competition, things remain pretty much the same in some respects.

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Nice swim suits ... Ladies.

Caught in the Crossfire
Monday night James Carville and Paul Begala made their debut on CNN's Crossfire, and made the more experienced Bob Novak and Tucker Carlson look like amateur bullies masquerading as political analysts.

The color-blind Web is a nice, comfy charade to assuage liberal guilt. The truth is that everybody is assumed to be white in cyberspace... Unless of course you make your race known up front. [more]

Dangerfield gets some 'respect'
Rodney Dangerfield finally got some respect with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The 80-year-old comic and star of the movies "Caddyshack" and "Back to School" was honored at a ceremony that attracted scores of fans.

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Cherries rich in melatonin
You've probably heard the saying "life is like a bowl of cherries." Well, now some researchers wonder if cherries can give new life to cells.

Using your credit card to pay rent: A good way to earn more miles or a dangerous financial trend?

"We now see that the major shift in human evolution is from behaving like an animal struggling to survive to behaving like an animal choosing to evolve. In fact, in order to survive, man HAS to evolve. And to evolve, we need a new kind of thinking and a new kind of behavior, a new ethic and a new morality. It will be that of the evolution of everyone rather than the survival of the fittest. . . . If we can be courageous one more time than we are fearful, trusting one more time than we are anxious, cooperative one more time than we are competitive, forgiving one more time than we are vindictive, loving one more time than we are hateful, we will have moved closer to the next breakthrough in our evolution." - Jonas Salk

The Pulitzer Prizes

The New York Times won a record seven Pulitzer Prizes, "including the public service award for A Nation Challenged, a daily stand-alone section on the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the war in Afghanistan," the Washington Post reports. Thomas Friedman won a well deserved Pulitzer for commentary and John Adams by David McCullough won for biography. The Metaphysical Club: A Story of Ideas in America by Louis Menand won the history award.

Concerning The Middle East Crisis
A non-paritsan attempt to understand the crisis in the middle east. This piece addresses the horrros and fears and wrongs of both sides without offering a solution. Well worth reading for those who are partisan so that some complexity might shake up overly simplistic positions. Is there a solution?

Want more and better milk? then buy your cow a waterbed.

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Study: Aspirin Lowers Cancer Risk


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NY to have a new daily paper New York Sun

Powell Begins a Crucial Trip to the Mideast
Colin L. Powell took off for the Middle East on Sunday on one of the most urgent and challenging attempts at American peacemaking since the 1970's.

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Study Says 38 Percent of Adults Are Sedentary in Leisure Time
Nearly 40 percent of American adults are sedentary in their leisure time, basically never exercising. In contrast, about 30 percent exercise on a regular basis, either vigorously several times a week, or even more often at lower intensity. The rest do something in between. I fall somewhere in between the 30 and 40 percentile.

The BBC reports that the Nobel committee would like to take back the Peace prize they awarded to Shimon Peres. But while blasting Peres for not doing enough to stop violence as a member of the Israeli cabinet, they don't say anything about also taking back Arafat's award.

Socialism is without doubt the most popular political idea ever invented. It is also the most drenched in blood, leaving perhaps 100 million dead in the last century. Why?... Robert Kimball explains

I've noticed an insiduous trend infecting our speech patterns - The silent "g". The "g" that I speak of is the one that follows i and n .

Listen to your neighbor, your coworker, your boss, your favorite presidential candidate, your friends: They're dropping the "g" as if it's the right thing to do. Here are the kinds of "English lite" assertions that, in the name of linguistic lazyness, we could hear:

Boss to worker: "Sorry, but we're layin' you off."

Wife to husband: "Honey, I'll be sleepin' with another guy tonight."

Teacher to truant pupil: "You're failin' school."

Judge to convicted murderer: "I'm sentencin' you to death. By hangin.'"

Dubya to Osama: "We're droppin' the bomb, Buster."

Ray to friend: "What's happenin' dude"

Actually, I'm beginnin' to fall into the trap. I'm deformin' my own verbal "ing" so that I too can be popular. Should I feel like a snob when I use the "g"? is this G-less delivery a new or old trend. I'm not sure but I'll be listeningggg out.

The social Psychology of Modern Slavery
"Contrary to conventional wisdom, slavery has not dissapeared from the world. Social scientists are trying to explain its persistence." Slavery is both evolving in form and increasing in raw numbers. It permeates the world, hidden in dark spaces of the economy...

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Remember the Digital Divide, the vast gulf between computer haves and have-nots? This threat to democracy turns out to have been a fiction... [More]

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Police will now be required to warn local residents when a Catholic church moves into an area, under a new law designed to protect minors... [More] Funny stuff (via SatireWire.com)