Should any of you wonder where this aging scientist stands on the matter of Evolution and/or/versus Intelligent Design ...

Should any of you wonder where I stand on the matter of Evolution versus Intelligent Design, the following quotation taken from the Q & A section of the online magazine, Yorigins (a neat y-zine) sums it up rather well:

Q. IS THE ARGUMENT FOR DESIGN BASED ON SCIENTIFIC IGNORANCE?

A. On the contrary. If you've ever watched Disney’s Fantasia, you may recall a god casting thunderbolts down from the clouds. Lightning bolts, rainbows, and many other natural phenomena were once explained as divine intervention. Such thinking is referred to as god-of-the-gaps reasoning--attributing the mysterious to a divine hand.

But, today’s intelligent design arguments are based upon a growing body of scientific evidence concerning everything from DNA to the laws of physics; and upon our uniform and repeated experience.

Design theorists offer extensive evidence that blind, material causes are incapable of building irreducibly complex and information-rich systems. They then point out that whenever we know how such systems arose such as with an integrated circuit, a car engine, or a software program invariably a designing engineer played a role. Design theorists then extend this uniform experience to things like molecular machines and the sophisticated code needed to build even the first and simplest of cells. An increasing number of leading scholars attest that increased scientific knowledge about such things has greatly strengthened the argument for design.

You would be surprised at how often I've been called to task, so to speak, for even suggesting that Intelligent Design isn't based entirely on ignorance and a disregard for scientific inquiry.

But hey, in another thousand years or so, we'll probably all know how we came to be ... so to speak.

Mitt Romney is the latest to make "great" promises to the American people if elected President ...

Mitt Romney ... all heart!

Mitt Romney, one of the Republicans who is running for President, has told us all today that he would likely decline a salary as president and instead donate the money--and more--to charity. Earlier, John Edwards indicated that he too would "give his all" in stating that he would donate his weekly $400 hair salon appointments to needy children in Harlem. Bill Richardson has indicated that he would gladly donate the dark horse he is riding to the Fort Myers VA Medical Hospital--along with a goodly portion of his salary too, I'm sure ... if elected President. It's funny how being third or lower in the Presidential polls for either political party makes a philanthropist out of nearly any candidate, isn't it?

Oh yes, it should be mentioned that Mr. Romney's assets are worth a cool quarter of a billion (with a "b") dollars. It's been said that he's the richest person to ever have run for president--including (at the time) Ross Perot. I'll have my brother, Richard in Connecticut, check that out for me.

Thank you, Cindy Sheehan, for all you've done both for your son and for so many others still on the sand in Iraq ...

Cindy Sheehan, Gold Star Mother and American Patriot

Cindy Sheehan has told us (in the dailyKos) that she is "resigning" as the "face" of the highly politicized American anti-war movement. She posted a rather strong statement that included the following, "I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. ...

"The most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. ... Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most. ..."

She had said in an earlier posting, "I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush."

The articles in USA Today and in the New York Times were pretty explicit and suggested that some of the very persons who had been cheering her on were among those who have been slamming her to the ground of late.

Well, NOT ME!!

God bless you, Cindy, and may your anti-war feelings extend well beyond party lines in politics and to the heart of our very nation!

I don't know anyone who has given more, other than those who, like your son, have given their very lives for their country, and at whom so much abuse has been thrown.

Don't give up now, Cindy; keep up the good fight!

Twenty-eight new planets this year ... now that's SOMETHING!!

Our Milky Way (home to us earthlings) has somewhere on the order of 200 billion stars. That's 200,000,000,000 possible places for planets to be lurking. And yes, the American Astronomical Society says that we've found 28 new ones out there somewhere in the past year. We might think we're a rare sort of phenomenon, but the meeting ongoing in Honolulu this week says otherwise.

Just thought you'd like to know.

Whew! Maybe just a mite bit convoluted for this old man ... but whatta movie! GREAT!!

And yes, they were ALL great!!

I can't remember when I've totally enjoyed a movie more. Everyone betrays everyone and the plot (if there was one) flips and flops faster than nearly any Republican candidate during a TV debate. But that said, the wild ending (last full hour of the movie) was well worth the price of a ticket, in my opinion. And yes, Johnny Depp is the silliest and funniest pirate EVER! I know I'm just one huge commercial, but GO SEE IT! You'll love every minute of it.

Jack Sparrow forever!

Am I hearing/reading mixed messages from Al-Sadr or what?

Muqtada al-Sadr

At the very same time that I am reading one account of fighting between Muqtada al-Sadr’s militias and U.S. and British forces intensifying, I am reading excerpts of this same seemingly and usually anti-American cleric's sermon on Friday wherein he was quoted as asking his supporters to "protect Sunnis and Christians." Keep in mind that all of this is/was (on Friday) on the eve of talks between U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker and an Iranian envoy about security in Iraq.

A not-so-unrelated note: I DO NOT enjoy being a "body-counter," but I do keep track and noticed that more than 100 US soldiers have died already in May -- the first time since (and including) the tragic night of Shock and Awe that we have lost more than 100 of our best for two months in a row.

When, oh when will it end??

Is it Sarko's ears? Or is it that same diseased mind that reminds me of Mr. Bush?

Nicolas Sarkozy is already up to some nefarious deeds, according to all that I'm reading in the world's newspapers. If there was anything that I admired about the French during the eight years that my family and I lived next door (in Kaiserslautern just east of Saarbrucken), it was surely their relaxed manner of living. And I wasn't the least bit surprised when I read (some years ago) that they were moving to a 35-hour work week to go with their five week summer holidays. Well, one of the first orders of business for Sarko is to take direct aim at that 35-hour work week by eliminating taxes and social payments on money earned in excess of the 35-hour work week. And yes, he will get away with that travesty of social justice because (good grief!) it's what the French apparently want.

All the French have to do to put the brakes on Sarko is to slap him down in the upcoming Parliamentary elections in June ... but ... the polls seem to show that Sarko (like GWB here in the US) has got the people around his right middle finger. The only solice I can get from all of this is that it shows that we here in America aren't the only ones who can be fooled by big ears.


Is it only me, or is there a ... resemblance?

The reviews I've read of the two books out that diss Hillary ... make me only more certain that we are ready for a woman President!!

Reading the reviews of the two books that will be coming out and, in particular, the article about the latest revelations in those books at Times Online, I was more convinced than ever that Hillary is eminently capable of running the country and 500 times more capable than any of her potential Republican opponents. Why my brother from Connecticut is so negative about her puzzles me, but it might be that he is secretly rooting for Nancy Pelosi to be the first woman President of the US.

Ocean Shores has just been named "Tsunamiready" and "Stormready" and we have the road signs to prove it!

Good grief! The cities of Ocean Shores, Long Beach and Aberdeen, among others, have been designated as "Tsunamiready" and "Stormready" communities. I think that what that means is that as I am whistling in the dark on my way to work at oh-nothing-thirty in the morning and returning to Ocean Shores at yucksty-stars in the late evening, I can be assured that I won't have to inflate my Honda's Pontoon Inflators in an emergency while listening to the wailing of the tsunami warning horns which have been tested exactly twice in my entire time here (about four years).

As can be see by the map of Ocean Shores on the left (yellow is BAD!!) for those of us who think about tsunamis and such, my kitties are dead meat. We live towards the bottom of the little peninsula and have about as much chance of making it to that small patch of green towards the top of the map as ... well, you get the idea.

On the happier side of things, the segment of my family who lives in Seattle made it back from China both safe and tired. I'll call them later today and maybe ... just maybe ... hear the first sounds of my new granddaughter, Lilia. She is an American now ... Whoopie!!

Anyway, just thought you'd like to know ...

And speaking of "The first time ever I saw your face" from my last blog posting ...

Another picture that I couldn't help but swapping from my kids' blogsite ...

Jordin Sparks saved the week for most of us!

Well, if nothing else went right this week ... Jordin Sparks was a sparkling event for us all! A great -- maybe the greatest yet -- American Idol!!! Personally, I'd love to hear her sing, "First Time Ever I Saw Your Face" ... very slowly and with all her passion.

...

The first time ever I saw your face

I thought the sun rose in your eyes

And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave

To the dark and the end of the skies

...

The first time ever I heard you sing ...

Dream Team votes with the tiny minority as the Senate votes 80-14 to fund foolish fighting for four more months ...

I'm not at all sure that Hillary's and Obama's votes were exactly profiles in courage or anything more than a political footnote to the day's events in Washington, but they at least stood up for supporting the troops -- by getting them out of harm's way. It was a done deal before they cast their votes though, and to what extent they participated in the behind-the-scenes deal making with the White House ... we will probably never know. But for now, their votes -- and those of a tiny number of others -- at least reflect how the majority of us feel today about continuing the awful carnage in Iraq.

And for what? No deadlines. No real timetables. A couple of pure-politics amendments dealing with the minimum wage (huh?) and Hurricane Katrina relief (double-huh?) were grafted into the final bill passed by both the House and the Senate--a big victory for Mr. Bush at a time when he really needs it as his house of cards is otherwise collapsing.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton Look Like a Good bet for 2008

Hey, grandpa can show off his latest grandchild one more time, can't he?

Lilia is indeed the prettiest baby in all of China today, don't you think? [Cute picture borrowed from my daughter and her hubby's blogsite, of course!]

Why is the plight of a mother whale and her calf so distressing to me? ... and half of America, I think ...

Good glory, they've already got names ... Delta and Dawn. And I don't know about you all, but my heart goes our to those two lost souls (okay, I have my beliefs and you are entitled to yours) who are somewhere between 45 and 90 miles inland from the Pacific Ocean.

I don't know how saline the water might be that far inland from the Golden Gate on the Sacramento River, but I'd have to believe that these two gorgeous creatures (humpback whales) are scared near to death. Besides all else, both Delta and Dawn (only nicknames provided by the U.S. Coast Guard and the scientists who are trying to help) are wounded--most likely by the propeller of a ship or ships toward which they approached too closely.

Between them and safety are the sloughs (good) through which they are being steered and muddy deltas (bad) that could ground them for good.

Everything from tug boats and clanging oil drums will be used to keep them moving toward the ocean, but my heart is sinking today as they seem to be stalled a long way from "home." I heard that "whale songs" will be synthesized (how, I don't know) to help guide them back.

God, be with your babies as they swim (seemingly) aimlessly along a strange river in what must seem like nowhere to the mama whale.

President Jimmy Carter takes a shot at the "Decider" and Iraq War Czar's second-in-command

Jimmy Carter, a former US President and winner of a Nobel Peace Prize referred to Mr. Bush (the self-proclaimed "decider" until he appointed a new Iraq war Czar this week) as the "worst in history" when referring to Mr. Bush's impact on the world vis-a-vis his seemingly unstoppable antics in the Middle East. Such a characterization from a former president is unprecedented, but then so is the carnage in a once sovereign Middle Eastern Country, I suppose.

The White House responded today that Mr. Carter was "irrelevant." (I'd suggest to Mr. Bush that he not get into a spitting match with one of most popular former presidents at a time when every one of the Republicans running for president are trying to distance themselves from him anyway.)

As regards the ongoing war in Iraq, the White House just might be correct as regards Mr. Carter's "irrelevance."

Oh yes, just to put a little frosting on the cake, Mr. Carter referred to Mr. Tony Blair as "... abominable ... loyal, blind, apparently subservient ..." while answering a follow-up question ... all while visiting England, no less.

And lest Jimmy Carter have forgotten ...

THIS is our foreign policy today!

This could just as easily be Seattle ...

My (okay, the possessive pronoun is a bit much) grandkids certainly seem to be getting along in China, don't they? Lilia has captured Ryan's heart, it seems.

And my son-in-law appears content with his new larger family.

As does my daughter.

Hmmm ... am I showing off a segment of my family rather than moving on with the news of the world, US politics and matters of matter? Needless to say I grabbed these off my daughter's and son-in-law's blog posting of this morning.

I do not believe that Jerry falwell ever actually said, "Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan"!

A phone call to my sister this afternoon was really just a family thing ... "How are the kids in China doing?" "Wasn't that picture of Lilia adorable?" "How's the weather in Ocean Shores?" [samo, samo for my sister's location in Maryland!]

But somewhere along the way, I mentioned something about Jerry Falwell's having once made the remark that "Billy Graham is the chief servant of Satan" or something along those lines. My sister asked what THAT was supposed to mean, and further, whether I was even possibly misquoting the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Well, if I were a betting man and could answer her at this moment, I would say that that particular quote was born of some serious maliciousness that started God-knows-where.

For starters, I might add a quote right here from Billy Graham himself given out just after the announcement of Jerry Falwell's death during this past week:

[begin quote]"Jerry Falwell was a close personal friend for many years. We did not always agree on everything, but I knew him to be a man of God. His accomplishments went beyond most clergy of his generation. Some of my grandchildren have attended, and are attending, Liberty University. He leaves a gigantic vacuum in the evangelical world.

I am praying for his family, and especially the university that he headed." [end quote]

Admittedly, Mr. Falwell said a number of things over the years that got both himself and his organization into deep kim-chee with just about every left-wing or minority group in America. He was a veritable quotation machine -- and yes, some of them were doozies. But when trying to search down a legitimate source for the now-famous "Billy Graham is a chief servant of Satan" quotation, the best I could come up with was/were several references to "People Magazine 2003" [not even an issue number or month] The quote has been floating about for years, it seems, but in all that time, no one has pinned it down to a legitimate verifiable source.

Many stated that the source was "unattributable" and/or "unknown source."

Yes indeed, the quote has been repeated again and again for many years and everyone seems to believe he said or wrote it, but did he? The Internet is a monster of our own creation that is capable of "creating" truth from untruth--and from the imagination of just about anyone, it seems.

For the record, between Google (my search engine of choice), Yahoo and Dog Pile, the number of hits with the quotation itself (along with Falwell's and Graham's last names) recorded between 90,218 and 117,399 hits. Admittedly, I didn't look at all of them, or even a high percentage of them, but I was unable to find a single direct first-person source in the batch.

Interestingly, I didn't find a single retraction or denial either, but then the dead can't speak out, can they?

Opium production in Afghanistan back to highs not seen since before we stepped in during 2001.

An interesting and scary quote and statistic: "According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), opium production had a boom year in 2006, rising to 6,100 tons. This marked a 49% increase over 2005, yielding an estimated US$755 million to farmers on the basis of a slightly decreased farm-gate price of $125 per kilogram of dry opium. With the national government's revenues at less than $350 million for 2006, the opium economy is a formidable financial power base beyond the state's control. Good weather conditions are expected in 2007, suggesting another huge harvest."

To see some more about this and some of what we (the US) are trying to do to cut the production of opium, I suggest you read the article from yesterday's New York Times. Interestingly, the production levels in Afghanistan fell to almost zero under the Taliban just ahead of our invasion and occupation there. It's obviously a shame that we didn't hurry and grab Osama bin-Forgotten before he crawled out of the trap/tunnels at Tora Bora. Like Iraq, we seem to be caught in a no-win situation there too.

Talk about whiplash! From that last posting on our continuing losses in Iraq to ... Ryan running happily in Tienanmen Square ...

Yeh, it's Mother's Day today and yeh ... I'm only the grandpa ... but this picture was so wonderful to see on my daughter's and granddaughter's blog that I just had to pass it along to you all.

The scene is Tienanmen Square and the day is probably yesterday or so. Little Ryan was five last week.

This is what I should be posting, I suppose, rather than continual rants about other persons' children and grandchildren running from bullets and car bombs in Iraq.

He is a mighty handsome li'l fellow though, isn't he? I'd say that good looks run in the family, but then that wouldn't explain his grandpa, would it?

Are we waiting for months to pass ... or hundreds of US GIs to die?

Suddenly, timing is everything ... both to the Republicans and the Democrats. For the Democrats, the best time to end the Iraq war is immediately ... if not yesterday. For President Bush it would be January of 2009, of course, when the clock will have run out on his presidency and the next bloke can worry about fending off Congressional pressure.

But why is it that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans will give a "when" that is measured in numbers of troops (US, UK and/or Iraqi) who must die before we can state that "enough is enough"?

Would either George W. Bush or any member of Congress be man (or woman) enough to state that we can withdraw from Iraq when 4,000 of our boys and girls have died? Or 3500? Or even 5,000 or 10,000?? Or even one more? You need only look at the numbers of casualties as they are tallied daily to feel some of what is really happening in Iraq.

I repeat ...

"Or even one more?"

Look at the faces in the picture above. Which one, Mr. President? Which one, Ms. Pelosi?

Migod, is this what politics have come to?

Oh yes ... before we slip too deeply into the merry month of May ...

This month's totals are 43 through today (for the merry month of May 2007) and we are somewhere in the vicinity of 3,394 Americans dead in Iraq through today. Each one is/was a human being with dreams and thoughts of "tomorrow." The same can be said for tens of thousands of Iraqis who are also dead in that sad land.

Lest we forget ...

Haditha evidence mounts ... and in my humble opinion, lends strong argument for immediate withdrawal from the failed occupation ...

The execution-style killing of five unarmed men ... whose hands were locked over their heads ... outside of their car and homes ...


... was followed by the indiscriminate killings of their wives and children inside their homes ...

All told, twenty four civilians were murdered in Haditha and only now is the full truth coming out in bloody driblets. In this week's hearings a US marine told the court that he had "pissed" on the head of one of twenty four dead Iraqi civilians killed by his unit and watched a superior officer kill the five Iraqis shown on the ground in the first photo above ... as they tried to surrender.

"I know it was a bad thing what I've done, but I done it because I was angry TJ was dead and I pissed on one Iraqi's head!" are the exact words that Sergeant Dela Cruz told the court. They tell me a lot more than exactly what happened eighteen months ago.

Whether or not the accused marines are ultimately punished isn't what concerns me today. Hell, this happened back in November of 2005 and the far more heinous crime is that we are still in Iraq a year and a half later, still killing and still causing young marines to be confused as to what exactly is "right" or "wrong."

The dead men, women, children and elderly of Haditha will have served some purpose at least if the ongoing trial at Fort Pendleton will help bring the entire larger crime to a quick and relatively painless end. The guilt or innocence of individual US marines eighteen months ago will probably never be known, but the underlying guilt of those of us who have permitted this occupation to continue is without question.

The Reverend [sic] Al Sharpton really put his foot in his mouth, me thinks ...

The Not-So-Reverend Al Sharpton

What he said (specifically) during a debate at the New York Public Library's Beaux-Arts headquarters was, "As for the one Mormon running for office, those who really believe in God will defeat him anyways, so don't worry about that; that's a temporary situation."

I'm sorry, Mr. Sharpton, but that's unacceptable language to be directed at Mr. Romney or any other Republican or Democrat running for political office. I can't believe that I actually listened to you as a credible voice a couple of weeks ago when you were dissing Don Imus for his stupid "nappy-headed hoes" remarks.

Shame on you!

Hey! I'm a new grandpa ... again ...

Lilia

Enough for me to state that one of my daughters, her husband (my son-in-law), one of my grandsons (Ryan, aged 5) and one of my sons (for babysitting purposes) are off to China to pick up Lilia (age one, birthday in April) after a lot of time and effort to get all of the x's and t's crossed and j's and i's dotted, etc, etc., etc., ad infinitum for the adoption to finally come to fruition.

Welcome to the family, Lilia! And also welcome to America and a wonderful life ahead of you.

Bloggees: I hope you don't mind a proud grandpa indulging himself with a modest non-political/non-academic/non-media-event posting. Ain't she gorgeous?

Maybe SN 2006gy deserves notice ...

SN 2006gy

Admittedly, the above picture is only an artist's rendition, but you have to agree that, at 150 or so times larger than our sun, it was one helluva Big Bang. This particular Supernova peaked for more than 70 days and is/was the brightest Supernova ever recorded. It blew the core of its original self apart, sending all those (heavy) metals into space at a speed of about 9.3 million miles per hour. It was first noticed this past September.

And to think my biggest concerns of late are about the price of gasoline in Ocean Shores, Washington (at US$3.45 per US gallon this morning).

Today's headlines scream new tributes to Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Maybe a dozen American service members have died over the past two days in a couple of the bloodiest days of the continuing carnage in Iraq.

And so it goes.

A tornado takes out 95% of some heretofore unknown town in Kansas ... maybe a dozen killed.

And so it goes.

RIP, KV Jr.

You know? I've been thinking ... why NOT Dennis Kucinich???

It's been about two weeks now, I guess, since Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D., Ohio) introduced the resolution to impeach Vice President Cheney for high crimes and misdemeanors ... and we've all endured two pretty dull and meaningless Presidential debates. And you know what? Only Dennis Kucinich stands out in the slightest.

He actually stated in the wording of his resolution what the "high crimes and misdemeanors" were: "failing to faithfully execute his oath to defend the Constitution, purposefully deceiving Congress and the citizenry, and damaging our national security."

With which colors other than red, white and blue do we paint courage?

Whose Oil? Whose War?

It appears as of this morning that the Iraqis themselves are beginning (finally) to question just whose oil beneath the sand and whose war this carnage on their sand is. Clearly, a victory for President Bush in Iraqi's Parliament this month--vis-a-vis the oil contracts--might run counter to Iraq ever becoming a sovereign country.

This law, as it is currently written, sanctions contracts between Iraq's individual regions and foreign oil companies. It puts an end to a nationalized petroleum industry that has provided most of the country's (admittedly) minuscule revenues. Over time, the oil revenues might sustain an independent Kurdistan, along with a Shia state, and a Sunni state (though the Sunnis don't have much oil, at least among the known Iraqi reserves). The law sets up a system that opens the door for foreign companies to make the country's oil policy. A new federal Oil and Gas Council is to assist the Council of Ministers, "in coordination with the producing provinces and regions."

Just what will we tell the young woman in the photo below if it comes out that 3300-plus of her comrades have died and continue to die for an oil policy that looks as though it is is dead upon arrival?


That's right. It's her war!