Monday, November 30, 2009

A Day at the Museum

The friendly and helpful lady at the 79th Street, subway entrance to the Museum of Natural History asked me if I had been there before, when I arrived there, yesterday. I said,"Not since I was a child"(although I had been there for a special exhibit, I had not toured the museum properly, in decades.)

She suggested I start on the 4th floor, and work my way down. As good as that advice was, and turned out, I started at the Rose Center for Earth and Space. I had to up my admission ticket to be able to get into the (to my mind and body) newly upgraded Hayden Planetarium, and that was definitely worth the extra expense. The presentation was called, "Journey to the Stars," and was enthuisastically narrated by Whoopi Goldberg. In sum, it was mostly about what is a star, what kinds of stars there are, and how our sun is important to planet earth, and how important it is to our solar system. It was one of the fastest half hours of my life. Not only did it cover the basics of star function and classification, it covered the core known facts of the known universe. (Allow me to digress and say, Dark matter Rocks! Anyway . . .)

So starting there, was not so much a bad deviation from my friendly guide's suggestion. It really was starting out at the most "Meta" level, before I got to the themes starting up there on the fourth floor, life on Planet Earth.

Although I started off in the wrong corner, emerging somewhere in the middle of the Hall of Dinosaurs, I did make my way to the exhibition space where the movie on the basics of evolutionary timelines for life on our planet was exhibited. Meryl Streep was the narrator, and the film both explains and showcases the idea of Cladograms, the diagrams that visually show the progress of life from one evolutionary stage to the next. And the floor is itself laid out with that in mind, starting with vertebrates, and moving up through developments like jaws, and four limbs, and so on. Having watched that movie (a brief and wonderful refresher course of what I learned back in high school and pre high school) made the bones of the dinos far more interesting to me; without thinking about the timeline, the bones were only interesting looking stuff. The context made it science.

And I am going to jump ahead to the Hall of Human Origins, down on the first floor. But I need to say that on my way down, I started seeing the big picture, before the idea of humans as a by product of evolution became the topic. So here goes. When I see the flow chart of developing life on planet earth, laid out like a time line of one thing follows another, my mind must see that the one follows the other, and so on. And when I see how diverse life is on planet earth, I have to say, wait a minute. How could there be an Intelligent Designer behind all this? For One Designer to put together all the plans for all the life on the is planet right now, this minute, all the species of plant and animal life, well, that would have to be one mentally ill Designer; talk about obsessive compulsive. Never mind the why of it. Why create so many kinds of butterflies, or mold, or algae, or worms, or ants? Seems the only thing this (alleged) obsessive compulsive Designer did not obsessively model, revise, and or optionalize was Genus/Species Homo Sapiens.

And that is the natural and logical conclusion that should be reached, even without taking into account the millions and millions of extinct, failed species.

I know, I am biased in favor of evidentiary means, so I lean towards what Natural History, what actual science tells me. And that is why I cannot understand why anyone with an IQ above 65 denies evolution.

None of the life on the planet makes any sense being here, but for randomness. There is just way too much evidence for and from the flow chart. And there is just so much variety seemingly for no good reason but for the idea that randomness in species will flow like water spilled on a table, meaning, where ever it can.

And there have been so many failures along the way that one must conclude randomness is the power behind it all. How could a divine hand make that many mistakes, millions and millions of failed species, consistently?

Lastly, even if Homo Sapiens are the top of the food chain, but for the likely occurrence of that unpleasant catastrophic event, with the giant 'stroid smashing into the Yucatan? Well, the mammals on this planet, today, could be living in fear of Velociraptors.

Personally, I am glad they were wiped out. Humans are wicked enough creatures. I hate to see what an evolved descendant of those terrible lizards would be like, in this age, had they survived. One thing is for sure. Humans would not be the most wicked, destructive species on the planet, for what that is worth, I am guessing.

Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Obvious Racist, Nasty Christian Bigot.

I am going to mention that horrid Palin Woman's book, only to point out that she outs herself as a particularly obvious racist, in her book. She makes reference to a person of Lebanese ancestry (that she used to be quite friendly with, professionally at least) as "Falafel Lady."

Let's add to that, her answer in the Barbara Walters interview about increased Israeli settlements in the Palestinian lands. Never mind that with out saying so exactly, she indicated her belief in that end times, bat shit crazy talk, when she talked about all those Jews "Flocking," (her word) to Israel now and in the coming days. But her unqualified support for expansion of Jewish Settlements, even into current Palestinian lands shows a deep anti Palestinian bigotry.

And while I am calling her out, let me mention the recent revelation about how the Univision interview for McCain and Palin had to be canceled, on account of her ignorance regarding any issues involving Latinos.

Palin sure seems to have a thing about brown folk; its either indifference, or outright hostility.

Not only is a village in Alaska missing its idiot, but it is missing its Claven for its KKK chapter too.

And on that note, happy Pilgrim Party Day.

Monday, November 23, 2009

You Must be Wondering Why I Haven't Mentioned That Horrid Woman's Book

and there is a good reason for that.

I refuse to give her any free press, here. No mention of it for now, at least.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

I Hate Hatemongers. That Means You, Glenn Beck.

The most important mainstream media figure who has repeatedly helped to stoke the fires of anti-government anger is right-wing media host Glenn Beck, who has a TV show on FOX News and a popular syndicated radio show. While other conservative media hosts, such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, routinely attack Obama and his administration, typically on partisan grounds, they have usually dismissed or refused to give a platform to the conspiracy theorists and anti-government extremists. This has not been the case with Glenn Beck. Beck and his guests have made a habit of demonizing President Obama and promoting conspiracy theories about his administration.

ADL Special Report. Rage Grows in America.

People like Beck make it hard, sometimes, to be a full and total advocate of Free Speech. Now do I think he has crossed the threshold to be, as a practical matter, shouting fire in a crowded theatre? Not objectively so, he avoids criminal liablity, only by a hair's breadth. Make that a cilia's breadth.

And a note further by yours truly. O'Reilly, to my mind, is now dead even with Beck. When he had ex CNN host Lou Dobbs on his show, recently, he kept pimping this awful association of Obama with Satan.

No, Mr. O'Reilly. The mere fact you asked in the form of a question does not absolve you of the distinction of being some hate-mongering partisan politcal pimp.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

How to Talk Like a Crazy Shit Head. Opps. I Mean Teabagger.

Friday, November 13, 2009

Jon Stewart on Hannity's Apology.

Here is my set up. Perhaps this "Pressure" Fox News technique is working. First we had the one guy, (Shep Smith was it?) apologize for the lopsided reporting on the NJ Gov. race. Now we have Hannity apologizing for getting caught red handed (pun intended) faking the "story" about Rep. Bachman's Anti Health Care rally/press conference/coffee klatch on the Capitol steps, last week.

Keep up the pressure I say. Harder, deeper, faster. Pound those nails into the coffin!

But on to Jon Stewart. He called out Hannity on the fraud. Hannity apologized. And this is Stewart's respone to the apology.


The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Sean Hannity Apologizes to Jon
http://www.thedailyshow.com/
Daily Show
Full Episodes
Political HumorHealth Care Crisis

Monday, November 09, 2009

Worst Product in History.

Ya. I think that is a fair way to describe private health insurance.


Sunday, November 08, 2009

I have Cut Down on Consumption of Right Wing Hate, But . . .

I still take it in, second hand. And before I go to my real point, I will say the following.

I don't have cable. Even when I had cable, I could only take so much of FOX. I rarely can stand watching that shit for more than a couple two three minutes at a time.

The raw hate level is so toxic, I can't even watch the snippets on line any more of the worst offenders. I will not watch clips of Beck or O'Reilly or Hannity, or many of the wack o hate mongering frequents guests, unless they make their way into a Jon Stewart bit, or a Keith Olbermann/Rachel Maddow report.

I still peruse the watchdog websites. And one of them I like to look at is called newshounds. Their motto: we watch Fox so you don't have to." Bless their hearts!

Lately, they have been following the message board/blog attached to the Fox News website.

And today? The hate fest is at high volume.

How can these people not see that they are the shit, and I mean are shitty, bad, pathetic excuses for humans.

Unfucking believable.

Fox Nation Violence Mongers.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Haiku. Only Partially Inspired by Post Election day Reflections.

Change is expected.

Nature's laws insist it comes.

Hope it doesn't hurt.
Add to Technorati Favorites