Education Reform

The Obama Administration is keen on education
reform. Their idea, however, seems to be just
throw a larger sum of money down the education
sink hole like Bush-Kennedy did with "no child
left behind" legislation. With all the money
thrown at education, the U.S. education system
still ranks behind the rest of our industrialized
co-nation partners. Apparently, the liberals
believe hands more money will make it right.

In my opinion gobs more federal money will not
change the situation. Perhaps it is time to think
outside the box, but therein is the problem, to
think! Real thinking seems to be non-existent in
the United States educational system from elementary
to secondary and through college. There is no
courage to stimulate children and young adults to
learn how to think. Courage is a key virtue, but it
is hard to do with the elitist system that permeates
the United States.

The Obama Administration continues shouting from the
roof top of the White House that all U.S. children have
the right to attend college. There is the myth, i.e.,
all children should go to college/university. College
is for the intellectual able, not everyone. At least
50% have no intellectual reason to be in higher
education. And, please, saying this does not make me
an elitist. And, don't give me the bull about
affirmative action. If a child in the eighth grade
cannot do algebra, the educational system ought to tell
this family that a career in higher education of science
and technology will not be possible.Today, a United States
entering college/university must have had calculus and
statistics in high school. This is a must if our education
system is to provide scientists and mathematicians on a
par with the rest of our industrial national partners.

Conversely, that same eighth grader above can take an engine
apart, find the problem, and put it back together. We
need people with that ability. We need skilled carpenters,
plumbers, electricians, and so forth. What we don't need
is the cost of sending these children to college. Yet, we
hear the Obama Administration saying we need to send our
children to college/university for a BA/BS. Many kids are
just not smart. Half of our kids are below average.
Intellecual ability varies, and kids
just don't do well. They can't pass the tests, so we
shrug and say the poor souls could if the tests were more
sensitive to their feelings. Make it fair, put them on the
Bell curve. The future of the United States depends on how
we educate the intellectual able students. With limited
financial resources we must not spend money to send every
student to college. Let the colleges and universities start
spending their huge endowments. Enough of this egalitarian
educational philosophy at the college/university level.
Reform the elementary and secondary school structure to
provide for a skill and service oriented society for the
majority of students and a way to promote the intellectual
able to come out of high school with the ability to think
and do advanced math and science to be successful in college.

The Un-doing of the Bush Nightmare

It has been a long, 8-year nightmare for us Americans [and much of the world]. The Bush presidency was simply awful. It was so atrocious that the Obama Administration has spent much of its time attempting to repair the enormous damage caused by the former president.

Oh, there are many Bush apologists and sycophants out there trying desperately to spin this pitiful presidency into something positive, something more than the facts portend. More than we witnesses to this painful history remember.

In fact, here is a preview of a NYT Magazine article that will be out Sunday:

NYT contributor James Traub explores the uproar over the soon-to-arrive "Freedom Institute" established by former President George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which will sit astride his presidential library there. Critics on and off campus have denounced it for various reasons, including the fact that it has been set up to pursue and defend his policies and record, not for scholarly research.

It will begin operating this fall and the George Bush Foundation which runs it will name an executive director soon. Some profs at the school are half-convinced that Bush will appoint Karl Rove to the post. With that in mind, some there see Condi Rice as an acceptable alternative.

Another historian there charges: "The Bush circle has done so much damage to every institution they've touched, it would be naive not to worry about the damage they could do to SMU."

Traub points out "the prospect" of being identified "in perpetuity" with Bush's agenda "freezes the blood of some of the university's leading academics. Everything about the planned institute reminds them of what they detested about the Bush administration. It will proselytize rather than explore: a letter sent to universities bidding for the Bush center stipulated that the institute would, among other things, 'further the domestic and international goals of the Bush administration.'"

The prospect freezes the blood. And the mind as well as the soul. 'In perpetuity' is a frightening thought. Thus, Southern Methodist University is 'stuck' in the role of hosting a grotto to both incompetency as well as vindictiveness. A memorial to a clutch of ideologues who nearly ruined our nation from within and from without.

[graphic from sirenschronicles ]

Recession-hit Americans 'a little sick' of Iraq

Of course they are, six years after lots of them were cheering on the insipid war that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the other neocons trumped-up. My wife, my family, many friends and I not only did not cheer this war, we worked against its inception. We protested, wrote letters, spread the news of anti-war activities, and other pro-active measures to instruct the masses that the Bush preemptive invasion of Iraq was nothing more than an ideological and political stunt.

The pro-war propaganda from both the Pentagon and White House was enormous. The Media played right into their hands, especially the right-wing media who heralded the upcoming war like a Medieval pageant, with parking lot rallies, music and flags- lots of flags.

Emerson said it best 130 years ago: "When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart."

CNN reports: (CNN) -- With Americans confronting an economic crisis, public interest in the nearly 6-year-old war in Iraq has dropped off over the past few years as conditions on the ground there have improved and the relevance to the average American family's pocketbook wears thin.

"This is already one of the longest wars in American history. There's nothing new in Iraq," said Steven Roberts, a professor of media studies at George Washington University. "We've read the stories of instability in the government a hundred times. Every single possible story has been told, and so there is enormous fatigue about Iraq."

Fatigue about Iraq. Perhaps,the American citizens have learned a lesson here. Sadly, don't bet on it.

White Male Privilege gets Senator in Trouble, Again

It's Louisiana Senator David Vitter again. Who doesn't remember that awful scene when he and his poor wife stood before the cameras while he pleaded 'regret' for using the services of DC Madame? Mrs. Vitter stared away from the cameras during his confession. Brings to mind Mrs. Craig and the men's room.

Apparently the white male privilege meme is over-active in Vitter, The TSA is investigating an incident at Dulles international Airport, reported by a gate attendant who reported that the door to the boarding bridge was already closed, but Vitter opened it anyway, triggering an alarm. The paper said an airline worker warned him not to enter the walkway, which led to a "tirade" by Vitter who "remained defiant." The senator left the area before airport police arrived.

Louisiana is becoming the southern version of Illinois. I suppose anybody arrogant enough to think that people elected them to office because they 'deserved to be elected' easily form an attitude of arrogance which, in white men, distorts their natural white male privilege way out of proportion.

Creationism Gibberish as Science

Fossil Equidae: a monobaraminic, stratomorphic series

Cavanaugh, DP; Wood, TC; Wise, KP. 2003

Abstract.

We performed a baraminological analysis on nineteen fossil equid species using a morphological dataset obtained from the published literature. From a baraminic distance correlation analysis, we found evidence that all nineteen species belong to a single monobaramin. The 3D ANOPA distribution revealed a linear trajectory of equid species with sixteen species in the main axis and three species in a side-branch. The order of species in the ANOPA trajectory closely corresponds to the order of stratigraphic appearance, indicating that the fossil equids form a true stratomorphic series. We interpret the strata as post-Flood, concluding that the equid fossil record evidences a rapid, post-Flood, intrabaraminic diversification.

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Translation- the creationist 'scientists' who presented this article to the Fifth International Conference on Creationism, Creation Science Fellowship, Pittsburgh in 2003 have 'proved' that horses can swim.

Well, not only that, but, to be fair to the 'research,' it proves that the horse may not have lived 54 million years ago because, the earth is only 6,000 years old as the Bible says.

Those odd words in the abstract, monobaraninic, baraminological, and baraminic  may have been strange to your eyes. On-line dictionaries give a 'can't find' message when the word is toggled. However, Wikipedia gives us some help:  Baraminology is a creationist system for classifying life into groups not related by common ancestry, called "baramins". Its methodology is founded on a literal creationist reading of "kinds" in Genesis, especially a distinction between humans and other animals.

Well, that clears the air of any 'science' that the reader was hoping to discover.

Perhaps the 'flood story' helps us understand how the tapir, another of the odd-toed ungulates in the 'horse' family, is found in the rain forests of Brazil. Apparently it was an excellent swimmer, not unlike Michael Phelps.

That darned 'flood story' in the Bible seems to mess up lots of  'science' facts.  We know that it 'covered the whole earth.' As Genesis details:  The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, and every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out. Perhaps the Brazilian tapir clung to a log on its 10,000 mile trip from Israel to Brazil, one hell of a ride.

But no, because everything was wiped out.  Thus the swim.  I wonder if the biblical tapir was more slender in 'those days' because it sure doesn't look like an olympic gold metal swimmer these days.

Kent Conrad- Hypocrite on Finances

Democratic senator Kent Conrad of North Dakota is now wallowing in the pig trough with that pile of southern senators and governors who decry the stimulus bill but hold out their hands for the money. Here's the news clip:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Senate Budget Committee is voicing concerns about President Barack Obama's increased spending on health care, calling it an already "bloated system."

Sen. Kent Conrad, a North Dakota Democrat, also said he worries that Obama's policy proposals do little to lower deficits in the second half of the budget's 10-year projections.

Conrad on Thursday addressed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who was testifying in defense of the administration's budget policies. The Obama budget would increase spending on health care by more than $600 billion over 10 years.

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What most Americans [and the citizens of North Dakota] clearly don't know about 'Federal spending' is that the state of North Dakota is one of those "bloated," fat-cat states that takes more Federal money than it sends to Washington. And, it is in the top 10 list of pig trough states. North Dakota gets back $1.65 for each dollar it sends to DC. That's a 165% return on the dollar; not bad, eh? North Dakota ranks #6 in Federal welfare.

Conrad hopes that this dirty little secret doesn't get told within the state so that his re-election chances do not diminish. Right now, his constituents think that he is a fiscal conservative- railing against 'government spending' when, in reality, his state is nothing more than a welfare state.

Blue Circadian Clock Plant

CLOCK-WATCHER. This mustard plant is genetically engineered to show blue in tissues where the protein CHE is active. CHE is a newly discovered component of plants’ circadian clock that helps plants tell night from day.Image courtesy of Steve A. Kay and of Science/AAAS

The story here

The Third Creation Story

Actually it is really the second creation story, but as Genesis already has two creation stories, this then would be the third. From NewScientist:

The search is on for a "shadow biosphere" - life forms that are unrelated to the life we know because they are descendants of an independent origin of life. We know for sure that life got going on Earth once, so why couldn't it have happened twice? Many scientists argue that there is no reason why a second genesis might not have taken place, and no reason why its descendants should not still be living among us.

So the appearance of an "alien" organism seems imminent - we may find one that arose naturally, or engineer one in the lab. Either way, it's a momentous step. Until now, biologists have had to base their understanding of life on the plants, animals and microbes that surround us, which all share a common ancestor. That doesn't give much perspective.

No it doesn't. I've often wondered if there weren't 'alien' life among us that looks so much like other 'life' that we assume it is all from a common ancestor. Of course, those 50's Sci-Fi films helped me imagine it all much better. I often joke that perhaps I, myself, am alien yet what proof would I offer to substantiate it? The article goes on:

Discovering - or engineering - a second genesis wouldn't just broaden our view of life. Alternative life forms could supply biotechnologists with fresh molecules and new functions that they could apply to practical problems. A synthetic, made-to-order living system might even serve as a self-maintaining, self-improving, adaptable assembly line for producing everything from pharmaceuticals to petrochemicals. Over the next four pages we first report on rapid progress in the lab, and then bring news from the field, as researchers race to make what could be one of science's most far-reaching breakthroughs.

How to hunt for shadow life was published on NewScientist a month ago and it is interesting reading. Astrobiologist Paul Davies says, "One way to do this is to look for organisms that break the rules of known biochemistry. For instance, all known terrestrial life builds its proteins out of amino acids with left-handed orientation. Organisms that use right-handed amino acids could very well be alien."

Davis goes on, "Along these same lines, shadow life could build itself out of chemical elements unused by other life. Davies expressed scepticism in the possibility that silicon could replace carbon in any life form.

"Rather, arsenic might make a good substitute for phosphorous, which links together individual DNA letters and stores cellular energy. Arsenic is poisonous precisely because it mimics phosphorous so closely."

Arsenic and old lace. By the way, I read somewhere the other day that some organisms living beside the geysers in Yellowstone render arsenic non-poisonous. Perhaps these creatures are aliens that Dr. Davis seeks.

Here's a tough ethical, moral, political and religious question that rises up to be answered: if scientist do find an 'alien' species or two, do the customary set of 'values' that we place on 'our' species transfer directly to these aliens or will there have to be a summit meeting to decide their fate? Heavy stuff to contemplate, for sure.

Interesting Day at the U.S. Immigration Center

This morning we took a woman from the African nation of Burundi to the immigration Center in Detroit to get fingerprinted so that she can receive her green card. it is officially called the USCIS Application Support Center, an inauspicious looking building on East Jefferson. Actually it is in a strip mall next to the Army Recruiting Center and the Payday Loan office. A Thai diner and donut shop is in the same string of connected buildings.

Driving from Toledo to that location is quite the nightmare as I75 ends in downtown Detroit during construction. Just ends. Of course, I knew that ahead of time so I was armed with my Google Map that took me north of the city and then down to the river. Naturally, there was fly in the ointment as the I94 ramp to I 75 was closed, forcing me to make some quick navigational rebooting. After some serious curves and many potholes, there we were smack in the heart of downtown Detroit.

There wasn't much traffic on Jefferson because, I suppose, the city is in the death throes, with the Big Three auto industry in dire straits. Rather than a massive traffic jam in the 'olden days' of Detroit, we zipped through as if it were a small town. We headed east on Jefferson and found the shopping strip and spotted the sign 'Support Center' above the door. Luckily our Burundian friend was able to spot the office because those two words could mean many different things.

A guard pointed our friend to a desk on the left and my wife and I took one of the 50 straight-row folding chairs on the right. A TV with "DO NOT TOUCH" droned away in the corner with some silly movie that no one was watching. The walls were gray cement block with a few cheap posters nailed to them. Our friend came back with a yellow card with a large "M" on it. "I have to wait until they call "M," she said. A family of 5 came in next, the father headed to the check in desk. He left with 5 clipboards and 5 pencils. He gave one to his three children, his wife and himself. They probably came from Syria or Lebanon. Each, when finished, handed it back to the dad who checked each line to see that it was correct.

An elderly Asian couple were already waiting, ticket number in hand. "Number 4129" the woman at the check-in desk called. A man in the back jumped up and was told to sit in the other room, farthest chair on the left. "4130" jolted a very dark-skinned man to his feet, Same message, on the left. A young Asian couple entered, father pushing a buggy, mother holding a 2-year old. When the father stopped the infant inside began to cry. He motioned for his wife to get the clip-boards while he soothed the child.

Letter "O" the woman at the desk called, and a tall blond man followed a lady to the other room. "I'm letter M," said our friend. "Doesn't M come before O?" Well, of course it does but those rules didn't apply here. I suggested that perhaps the letters were random.

"4131, 4132, 4133, 4134" were called and all but one of the family of 5 rose to enter the other room. The father stopped to inquire about '4135' and the desk-lady motioned for the eldest daughter to come with her family; she was quite relieved.

An hour had gone by and I decided to walk over near the guard to look into the 'processing' room. My wife cautioned, 'They said everyone was to be seated here." "I know," I said as i walked there, tired from sitting in the car and on the hard and uncomfortable steel chair. I pretended to read a sign on the wall, and quickly shot a glance in the 'secret' room on my way back.

"Letter M" a stocky uniformed woman announced. "Finally," said the Burundian. She had told us that she had a 10:00 appointment, but apparently everyone else there received the same message. Twenty minutes later she came back and we were allowed out of our chairs, and left the building.

The starkness of it all reminded me of how many immigrants to America faced those same stark conditions after landing past the Statue of Liberty. I also thought about those anti-immigrant groups who whine about 'those people' polluting their version of white, Christian America. Lots of thoughts went through my head as I sat on that  metal chair.

Cuban Cigar Anyone?

Ah, the aroma of a fresh Cuban cigar!  Of course, if you possess one you could be jailed.  Communism, you know, as well as the Batista Cuban lobby in Miami. Oh, those Batistias, still angry about the Castro coup back in the 50's. Their 'good life' was interrupted, their mansions confiscated. Such an insult!

Obama has said he supports easing travel to the island and cash remittances from relatives working in the United States to loved ones in Cuba, but has resisted calls to lift the entire decades-old US embargo.

The budget bill would block enforcement of rules that keep Cuban-Americans from visiting their homeland more than once every three years, allowing them to visit once per year instead.

Sadly, nothing about the sugar, rum and cigar embargo yet. We have to keep 'punishing' Cuba, you know, for their communist government. Some punishment for the Cubans, eh?

Of course, on the Internet, Cigar One can sell them to you- through Switzerland. Yes, a Swiss/Cuban cigar sent right to your mailbox, all nice and legal. Those Swiss sure know how to make the money.