Wednesday, August 30, 2006

on SETI

One of the magazines I subscribe to carried an article two issues ago on the Search for Extraterrestrial life (SETI). The next issue, which I just finished reading, contained a lot of comments, pro and con, on the concept that if life is common in the universe we could have expected to have been contacted by an elder race by now. There were a lot of comments made on the chances that life does exist on many worlds. But I didn't see anyone mentioned what to me is the scariest scenario of all: We are a life form that arose on a planet surrounding a late third generation (at least) star. If that's what it takes to form life, maybe we are the elder race, the first one to rise fully formed on a late blooming star full of third generation elements.

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

on mission accomplished

Well, Baby Bush announced yesterday that we need to stay in Iraq until the mission is accomplished. But didn't he proclaim the mission accomplished several years ago? Seems to me he was wearing a flight suit and standing on the deck of an aircraft carrier... But what do I know?

Friday, August 18, 2006

on warrantless wiretapping

reaction to judge's decision: it's about damn time someone made that decision.

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

on Rehberg's mailings

Republican political hacks (and maybe Democrats as well although not so blatantly) must really believe Montanans are really, really dumb. I received two of Denny Rehberg's mailings recently that had been franked and sent free (or at taxpayer expense) out of D.C. They contained absolutely no information that I was not aware of so they weren't a congressman's report to his constituents. They were absolutely campaign pieces. They provided no information of use to anyone, but they promoted concepts that Rehberg supposedly promoted although I didn't remember seeing any of those in the weekly congressional report in the daily papers. They were blatantly political—here's what our good ol' boy who's so blah he never makes a wave did for you. If that's not campaign material, I don't know what is. It was so blatantly a campaign ploy that I doubt if any of it's believable. It is just what Rehberg is: get the taxpayer to pay his expenses whether it's living in his office in D.C. or paying for his campaign mailings. And I would suggest it shows the depths to which political self-praise has fallen to when the congress didn't call this an illegal act. Luckily for Rehberg, he got the mailing in before the 90 day blackout. Or was that a plan. It came out so close to the deadline that it must have been a deliberate of getting around the laws. Isn't that illegal?

Monday, August 14, 2006

on backing terrorists

Cheney and Lieberman are attacking Lamont, who beat Lieberman in CT for wanting us to pull out of Iraq, saying such statements support terrorist. I respectfully disagree. It seems to me that the money we have spent in Iraq, which even the President admits, had no ties to the terrorists of 9/11 or other dates would be better spent in defending our transportation and shipping facilities from terrorist actions. Iraq has only created new terrorists for us to be concerned about.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

on having standing

I think that the coverage of the Dawson execution was far overblown. I've often thought that if a family member had been slain a long time ago, I might never get over it, but the wound would be refreshed with all the coverage so much later. But what really amazes me is that members of the public are not considered to have standing to take the death penalty to court. Whether you agree with the penalty or not, the fact that your government is committing the act of killing a person seems to me to give us standing to challenge that in court.

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