Some really outrageous thoughts

This video is awesome (in my mind...)



How about some discussion that lowering interest rates and preventing foreclosures from taking place is not the way out?

And, how about an article discussing how the Republican brand got to be so very popular, and how it's struggling today?

Piano-free environment

After twelve years of moving its bulk, paying movers to move its bulk and dusting, I've finally sold my piano. It came to live with me during the election returns of 1996, and has occupied a significant chunk of real estate ever since.

In February, the offer to purchase was made and I endured many days of deep remorse and sadness contemplating it. After moving it again just a few weeks ago, I began to wonder just WHAT I was thinking and got over myself.

So, I emailed the fellow who offered to buy it back in February, and he was still interested. His movers just picked it up a few minutes ago. It's gone. I don't miss it, although I now have a bunch of sheet and book music that is basically worthless (and has been so for a long time, since it's never been used the entire time I've had it.)

Coming soon to an eBay clearance table near you:

Phaeton Phanatic collection
Marvin the Martian collection
Sheet music galore
Book music
Other geegaws

Keith Olbermann was on FIRE last night

Part two

Wow...

Speakers!

Trevor has been over here, and has trouble-shot the installed speakers in the ceiling in both of the living room and the master, which is far more progress than I was thinking. It's starting to come together - tomorrow will require a lot more substantive progress.

The music sounds awesome through the ceiling speakers - I'm actually listening to music at home again, which hasn't happened in years.

YAY Trevor!

About Jeremiah Wright

You know I keep finding things that I couldn't say better myself - here's another one:

From today's Dues Ex Malcontent

I'll make this quick and to the point.

If the American voters really are willing to take into consideration, even for a moment, Barack Obama's association with the Reverend Jeremiah Wright when deciding whether or not to vote for him, then we get what we deserve in November.

The conflict-addicted mass media has been going ape-shit over the past several weeks, robotically parroting Hillary Clinton's talking points and keeping on life support a non-issue that's always been the kind of thing only the most simple-minded and sheltered among us would concern him or herself with. Now, in a ballsy tip of the hat to their own fuck-you-all might, TV and print news organizations are touting the Wright "scandal" as reason for Camp Clinton's recent bump in the polls. The whole ridiculous mess has forced Obama -- who had been taking the highest of roads by not throwing Wright under the bus -- to play by the asinine game that so many voters purport to loathe and actually address this nonsense. This of course adds yet another surreal layer to the story, by allowing the media vultures to breathlessly claim that the "normally cool Obama is on the defensive" against a tempest that they themselves created.

The Jeremiah Wright "issue" isn't one. In the famous words of Gertrude Stein -- there's no there there. Yet I don't doubt that there are quite a few voters across this land of ours who aren't convinced -- who find themselves scratching their heads and saying musically and suspiciously, "Well, I don't knooow."

And it's exactly this kind of thinking that gave us eight years of George Bush.

If you're really stupid enough to worry about bullshit this inconsequential, particularly with everything else that's going on in the world right now -- with all that's at stake -- please do this country a favor and stay the hell home on election day. You shouldn't be entrusted with the power of a vote.

What cost indeed?

Trip to Colorado

show and tell

show and tell

A partial list of Texas cities and towns that I've seen in the last week:

Lubbock
Waco
Crawford
Abilene
Amarillo
Dumas
Texline
Dalhart
Wichita Falls
Fort Worth
Acme
Waxahachie

Things I've seen that I never otherwise would have seen:

Unit trains on the BNSF traveling faster than we could drive
Mass production cattle farms
Wind generator turbines as far as the eye can see
An entire world of coordinated flashing red lamps atop the wind turbines
Winching a 4x4 Jeep Cherokee out of 25" of snow on a gravel road
Deer poop
Pine tree killed by pine beetles
Pine tree infested by pine beetles

Things I've done that I never otherwise would have done:

Turned off my cell phone for three days
Winched and driven a 4x4 out of 25" of snow
Off-roaded
Walked around on a mountain

The more I see, the more I like

Why do we continue to validate HRC?

Are we that desperate for a veneer of inclusion that we pony up millions to an organization that doesn't represent us in any meaningful way?

As far as their lobbying effort goes, it's beyond parody or joke. It's pathetic. Their public face amplifies the perfidy and prevarication that we've come to expect in society to levels of ridiculousness that even a right-wing radio host would find embarrassing.

Thinking that after a ten year hiatus, I could fight from within more effectively than without, I re-joined HRC in November 2007, but have never received any acknowledgment of my application nor fee payment. Repeated inquiries have produced nothing.

Nothing is what HRC brings the gay, lesbian, transgendered and bisexual communities. They are a glitzier, drug-free version of an endless circuit party - sucking up $41,000,000 in 2007, and paying out a whopping $8,902,000 in lobbying and advocacy.

Don't be fooled by their "program services" items of "Public policy & training," or "member education and mobilization."

Those items are self-promotion and fund-raising. Big parties, fees to celebrities who can feel good about supporting "gay rights," and magazine advertisements that have a hint of civil rights and lots of requests for more money.

I assert that we would all of us be better off ceasing to validate HRC in the blogosphere, by ending our support of their parties and dinners, and ceasing to sport their bumper stickers. They clearly are NOT in favor of equal rights; they're interested in SAYING that is their mission while raising as much money for self-aggrandizement as possible.

Awesome new BMW ad

This is terrific. Ever wonder what goes on inside of a piston in your car? Now you will know:




Created by OnePlusYou

A Martin Luther King wrap-up

So, it was the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King's death in 1968. A number of articles about Dr. King, his mission and where we are now with respect to that mission are here:

A Los Angeles Times article about Dr. King's anger over economic inequality.

Before 1965, King was upbeat and bright, his belief in white America's ability to change by moral suasion resilient and durable. That is the leader we have come to know during annual King commemorations. After 1965, King was darker and angrier; he grew more skeptical about the willingness of America to change without great social coercion.

Following right after that, a current Christian Science Monitor article about how the tax code can be sensibly used to promote economic equality without punishing or forfeiture.

And here is a letter that Dr. King wrote while he was in the Birmingham city jail. This shows us what a national leader was like forty years ago versus today.

We're overall losers in this situation.

Bush Vows To Make It Up To Country Somehow

From this morning's Onion

WASHINGTON—Amid allegations that his thoughtless and insensitive decisions have damaged his relationship with the nation, President George W. Bush vowed Monday that he would, starting now, "make everything better."

"This time I'm serious," Bush said. "I am ready to make a fresh start if we can just put the past behind us. I promise."
Enlarge Image Bush

Bush swears that this time he's really going to pay attention to all 280 million U.S. citizens, and try to do right by them for once.

An estimated 35 million citizens listened to the president's televised remarks while silently crying behind locked bathroom doors.

Though Bush told all Americans they owed it to him to give him one more chance, he admitted that there was no excuse for his mishandling of national affairs.

"Things have just been so crazy at work lately," he said.

During the 14-minute address Bush acknowledged that he and the country had drifted apart. He accepted some of the blame, but stressed that it was partly the American people's fault, and went on to chide them for not giving him an opportunity to explain, not standing behind him, and failing to understand his "very real" need for unchecked executive authority.

"My job is stressful," Bush said. "Trust me, things will calm down in a few months once I don't have to deal with it anymore."
George Bush Slideshow

George W. Bush

The president, whose approval ratings have dropped steadily in recent years, said he had no idea how bad things had gotten until he found out that an overwhelming percentage of Americans didn't even bother responding to an opinion poll this month about his recent $3.1 trillion budget proposal.

Bush has since taken steps towards reconciliation with the American people, including promoting a promise to help alleviate the fiscal woes the U.S. has faced in recent months. Bush said he knew that the $300 he intended to give to every citizen "couldn't possibly make up for how [he has] governed," but nevertheless asked the nation to have faith in him.

"I know it's not much, but it's a start, right?" Bush said. "And it hasn't always been bad. Doesn't this remind you of that other $300 rebate I gave you in 2003? You always forget all the times I'm a really great president. We have really had some wonderful moments."

"Cut me some slack here, for Christ's sake," Bush continued. "I'm trying. I really am."

In addition to providing economic relief, Bush said he has taken other measures to strengthen his bond with the nation. According to the president, his newly proposed warrantless-wiretapping bill will greatly broaden the reach of his personal attention to the American people's needs and put him in a position to be more directly involved in their lives.

The president concluded by imploring the nation to help him rectify the situation, stressing that he always has America's best interests at heart but cannot be expected to improve things all by himself.

"You have to realize that everything I do, I do for you," Bush said. "Do you think I like denying health care to underprivileged children, or plunging the country deeper and deeper into debt? Well, I don't, and I hope someday you'll understand that. In the meantime, I'm asking the American people to try to meet me halfway on this."

Despite Bush's seemingly conciliatory stance, public response to Bush's promises has been frosty at best. Cato Institute policy scholar Brian Whitaker echoed the sentiments of many Americans, calling Bush's recent overtures "too little, too late."

"We want to believe that he's finally going to be the president we always wanted, but we've given him so many chances," Whitaker said. "I don't think we can handle another disappointment. Maybe it's time to realize that President Bush will never be the head of state we need him to be."

"Then again, maybe our expectations are unfair," Whitaker added. "He seemed so sincere this time. He wouldn't abuse his executive powers if he didn't care about us, right?"

Whitaker predicted that the nation will likely move forward and try to forget Bush, though it may be difficult for Americans to ever trust a president again. He said the current crop of presidential contenders offers little in the way of an alternative to Bush, but maintained that "at least Barack Obama listens to us."

April Fool!

Very snarky

I still like the Red Rocket, though.

Both hilarious!

Which appeals to you?

Hm. Jobs, economic support for "the people, by the people, of the people," and cutting back on corporate welfare... versus



Safe from whom? Churchill's speech about defending the beaches? Since when has that been a problem? If we're all living in tents, our military destroyed, our national treasury empty, couldn't they just .. buy tickets on airlines and come in and buy us out? Why invade?

Nabbed from Daily Kos

Are YOU in favor of W's third term?

Thanks to Daily Kos' and their very creative readers/contributors for this big smile this morning.

After years of sitting on my butt at home

It's weird. I've been going out now for weeks on end, to Galveston, here, there, to a movie, to dinner - it's been so long since I've had a steady companion to spend my time with. My body rather resists - it's been inert for so very long.

This morning, up at 6, out the door at 7, picked up Robert at 7:40 and we went up to Rusk, which is about three hours northeast of Houston to ride the Texas State Railroad.

We rode in my car, and left the interstate at Huntsville, headed east on a succession of Farm to Market roads, with many twists and turns, mostly on two lane undivided pavement.

You know, it just isn't hard work to drive a car on an urban interstate. Even on an interurban interstate, it's not a challenge. Up and down curving hills, with blind corners, no shoulder, on a two lane road - THAT'S work. It was fun. We had my Delphi Nav200 unit on the windshield and Robert's Garmin on the dashboard (he was insisting that his was superior.) The Delphi quickly proved that it would get us LOST, not there, telling us to turn left or right while the Garmin kept telling us "no, stupid, just keep going straight ahead."

We gave up on the Delphi when we realized that not only were its directions poor, it had the wrong true road speed (my speedometer is NOT inaccurate, it's HYPER accurate) and generally had a bad attitude. It is going back into Bram's car now.

The weather was movie-perfect. We zipped along like no one was on the road (mostly because no one was on the road) and pulled up at the Rusk Depot of the Texas State Railroad with 45 minutes to spare before they chuffed out.



Robert insisted that we should pay extra for the climate controlled tickets, and we boarded the combine car which sits in the middle of the train, and dropped our lunch cooler off in the baggage/concession area then headed into the small seating area in the combine car. You can see the combine car just to the left of the depot here:



We were the only people seated in the combine car; everyone else was in one of the other six coaches. After a cab tour (which was more like a cab drive by greeting) of the steam locomotive, we settled in and the train headed off for the 24 mile ride to Palestine.

Being the only ones in the combine car, we enjoyed a very peaceful environment (aside from the rocking back and forth, the traffic back and forth to the concession stand, where Cracker Jacks were the most popular necessity) and arrived in Rusk about ninety minutes after starting for lunch.





Robert had packed a cooler for us, so we sat in the perfect weather under some shade trees and waited for the sign to re-board the train back to Palestine. The engine makes a big "Y" around the depot to turn itself around, and we were perfectly positioned to watch this operation.





Robert walked over to drop a few coins on the rail for the locomotive to smash for a souvenir (I have my penny from his trip up there last weekend.) The locomotive, nor the crew seemed to be much interested in mashing flat our increasingly valueless coinage.





After recoupling to the train, we re-boarded and took our seats again in the combine car. The trip up had been so peaceful - just me and Robert hanging out, talking about whatever we talked about - I was really hoping for solitude again. People walked through but somehow we had an air of exclusivity - people kept saying "this must be a private car or something."

We did pretty darned well until about twenty minutes into the journey back, and a fellow who was loud with his speaking (and his movie camera) brought his daughter into the car and tried to sit her down. Frankly, she wasn't very interested in it. She kept trying to go back to whence they had come. He tried to leave her in the car and retrieve the rest of his tribe, but she had skipped out on him by his return.

He corralled her and got her seated in the pair of seats directly behind us and began chatting her up about nothing (but in a dominating voice.) Robert, as casually as you could imagine, says "Sir? Sir? Are you planning on sitting there for very long? This is a private car, you know. The climate controlled tickets are for the cars behind this one."

And he GOT UP AND TOOK HIS DAUGHTER AND LEFT APOLOGIZING. Uh, I nearly spewed I was choking from trying not to laugh out loud.

What a hoot.

A short time later, some young kids came into the car and sat in some of the seats. We worked to not allow them into consciousness, and they were very well behaved. I kept expecting the guy to come back with his daughter, but he never did.

The trip back was much shorter. It was something - there was no phone signal at all after we left Rusk, and hardly any the whole day. As we were leaving, we noticed that their rail yard had a bunch of equipment that looked interesting, so we peaked around. An old Southern Railroad business car - hmm. Doesn't that need to be in my garage?

The whole day was weird. I should have had a sense of deja vu all day, given that I spent my boyhood growing up with a nearly identical steam excursion railroad in my grandparent's back yard.

And, it wasn't like that. The whole steam thing didn't make me connect to how I felt when I was eight or eleven, and the whole train thing just didn't send me upriver emotionally like it always has. It was a whole new experience, and it was all about hanging out with Robert. Not what we were doing, just that we were doing something.

It was great. It really tells me that the most important things in life are the memories that you create with other people, not what you buy, what you have or what you've seen.

Don't you just love the smell of regulatory napalm in the morning?

Read this terrific article about the developing re-regulatory "storm" in Salon magazine online.

More on creating time with people important to you and proof that the French are weird

It was very clear to me yesterday, we could have been sitting in a hot tub, in a beach resort, my living room - any would have sufficed. It was having nine non-stop hours with no distractions that gave the day its meaning.

"I don't get it..." said a French businessman over lunch on Friday. "In
fact, I don't think any of us get it. You've got a guy – the governor of
New York – who hires a prostitute. He gets caught and has to resign. But
the President of the United States lied to the American people and started
a war in which thousands have died...a war that is so expensive it
threatens to bankrupt the entire nation. How come he doesn't have to
resign? Strange system."

This was just the coolest thing to see

Okay, so I'm an airplane dork. But, this really made my week.

Why I like reading Josh Marshall's TPM

Josh Marshall writes/manages the news site "Talking Points Memo," which has been honored with new journalism's highest quality award (not bad for a BLOG, huh?) based on their work to reveal the information and the depth of the current administration's US Attorney purge.

Here are one of his blog poster's thoughts today about our three presidential candidates, the financial crisis and what's NOT being said. I think that it's something that should be reviewed, and then those questions asked of the candidates. You will have to do it, though, the media won't ever do it.

TPM Reader SW's lament ...

I am appalled, though not surprised, at the complete silence by the candidates on the last few days' events on Wall Street and the world's stock, bond and currency markets. This has far more effect on all of our futures than racist comments by the oxygen deprived brains of some old political or spiritual leaders. I know why Clinton and McCain are not talking about it: too many of their biggest supporters had too much to do with what happened, and benefited from the deregulation of the past twenty years for which both (and their allies) had a great deal of responsibility. (Remember that Hillary stood by while her colleague Chick Schumer killed the bill to tax hedge fund managers, who ear scores of millions every year, at income, rather than capital gains, rates.) What about Obama? Is he not up to the task of educating people about what the repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act did to the markets many Americans poured their retirement and college savings into? Does he know that the Federal Reserve is about to bail out bankers, investors, and outright thieves who helped drive down the dollar, and brought the credit markets to a near standstill? Does he understand the problem? I wouldn't know.

Seventy years ago Franklin Roosevelt was able to explain this country's and the world's financial crises to a far less educated, and less accessible, American public. That today's candidates are unwiling, or unable to do so, is alarming. Maybe if the media first tried to understand the problems, then asked the proper questions until answers were forthcoming or it was clear the candidates are afraid to ask them, political coverage would be more than the extreme sports coverage it has turned into.

Two weeks, holy cow

I think that this is the longest I've gone without entering a blog post in .. well, since 2003.

Lots going on, I guess. Work has been consuming, and personal growth work has been consuming a lot of my time. That, and, for the first time since Tex Johnny died, I've had a regular playmate in R. It's been GREAT having someone who wants to spend time with me, just hanging out, having fun, doing things - I NEARLY played Frisbee (tm) golf with him today - but had a prior commitment. Uh, hello? Me? Flying kites on a beach? Playing Frisbee (tm) golf? Answering the phone on a late Friday afternoon and agreeing to go to a movie on 90 minutes' notice?

This is just not the "me" that I've known.

I've just juiced some of Jeremy's left over fruit that needs to be used or will be as sour as he is - Just made a lovely cocktail - one jigger vodka, one juiced ruby grapefruit, one juiced small orange, and one juiced blood orange over ice in a highball glass. YUM!! I'm calling it a Blood Diamond Greyhound.

There's something I haven't posted about - Jeremy. He's still gone - totally out of contact. I packed all of his things up last week, and it's neatly sitting on the garage shelves. He's either finally gone off and killed himself, is being supported by some new person I'm unaware of, or has wandered off to another place and time.

In any of those outcomes, he's chosen to leave his things behind and to refrain from any adult conversation. Once his fruit left in the 'fridge is consumed, and after April 25 (the date I told him I was going to hold his possessions through,) he will be only a faded memory.

I have my guest room back, however. Today, I re-hung pictures in there and cleaned. Again. More, actually.

Brought home a carpet steamer/shampooer from church - we didn't know we had it and didn't know if it worked or not. I cleaned it all up today, and it works - it's just not getting the carpeting wet. Hm. I intend to use it on the stairs, the landings and the bedrooms to get all of the Jackie/Jeremy residue out. More will be attempted later tonight.

Back when I bought my iPod, I also bought a Kuda USA phone pad to hold the iPod in the Red Rocket. It's languished here these last weeks, and yesterday - I finally decided to try to install it myself. And, it WORKED beautifully. I installed the clip holder to the pad (myself, thank you) and got the whole thing working.

I also cleaned up the car, cleaned the garage, bagged up the recycling and took it out, pruned the hibiscus on the courtyard, cleaned the kitchen (a never ending story,) and did the church thing.

Now, I'm watching "break up" or whatever that Jennifer Anniston movie is. What was it that Brian said? "Even when Jennifer Anniston is offstage you can hear her acting suck."

And, the rich art buyer guy in the movie looks JUST like my favorite porn star. i can hardly wait for the credits.

NBC only allowed this played once. I wonder why?

Voter excitement

I went with Guy to vote today in the Texas primary. Obviously, we were voting early.

The news media and the blogs have been talking about how busy this primary has been in early voting - from the harrisvotes.com website, here is how busy...

Through last night, 114,473 people have early voted in Harris County.

In the 2004 primary election, 160,904 total people voted. That means that through yesterday, nearly as many people have voted early as voted at all in the 2004 primary.

In the 2006 General Election, 601,186 total people voted. In the 2004 General Election, 1,088,793 total people voted.

If you're circulating that schlock about Obama

That schlock specifically that Obama isn't patriotic, here are some points for you to consider, courtesy of Bill in Portland Maine, whom I think is so awesome that I give him money every month to keep writing.

Bill's words:

Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday
by Bill in Portland Maine
Tue Feb 26, 2008 at 04:51:51 AM PST

From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE...

Poll questions CNN should ask next

Sunday the Most Trusted Name in News asked on its homepage: "Does Barack Obama show the proper patriotism for someone who wants to be president of the United States?"

Here are some other poll questions they should ask:

When George W. Bush puts his hand over his stomach during the national anthem, he seems to be signaling that America is a piece of chewed-up food headed straight for the crapper. Is this proper patriotism?
-

Mike Huckabee says the Constitution needs to be amended to reflect God's standards, including, we assume, stonings for adultery. Is this proper patriotism?
-

John McCain says we should stay in Iraq for a thousand years "as long as Americans are not being injured or harmed or wounded or killed," even though anyone with a pulse knows that Americans (not to mention innocent Iraqis) are still being wounded and killed over there every day and will continue to be killed and wounded for as long as we're there. Does McCain show the proper patriotism by advocating this kind of head-in-the-sand foreign policy?
-

When a Republican politician wears an American flag pin on their lapel that was made in Communist China, does this show the proper patriotism?
-

When President Bush says "we do not torture," and we find out that we really do torture, is this proper patriotism?
-

When Republicans try to scare Americans half to death by lying about the ramifications of the expiration of the "Protect America Act," is this proper patriotism?
-

When the White House guts the Fourth Amendment by enlisting the phone companies to abet the most blatant and illegal form of warrantless eavesdropping and then demanding retroactive immunity for them, is this proper patriotism?
-

When the vice president tells a senior United States senator to "Go fuck yourself" on the Senate floor, is this proper patriotism?
-

When a United States senator grabs a microphone and calls a brown-skinned American citizen "Macaca," and a crowd of his Republican supporters laughs and applauds, is this proper patriotism?
-

When one of the most prominent Republican lobbyists working in Washington says the United States government should be "drowned in the bathtub," is this proper patriotism?

Gosh, I could come up with these all day long. Take the poll.

Cheers and Jeers starts in There's Moreville... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

Peak oil news round up

A fun peak oil news round up.

Had some fun this weekend - Friday night went to see the Carmina Burana at Houston Symphony, which was great - probably the best thing I've ever seen at Houston Symphony. Saturday I hung out with Bram, had the new sofa/love seat delivered, then went to see Joe Rogan with the str8 man I'm hopelessly in love with. Yesterday was all church, and then had a handyman over to put together my new garage shelves and plan out my courtyard remodel.

Pictures!!

Tuesday that felt like Monday

Urgh. So much silliness and stupidity to deal with today, but I seem to have made some accomplishment.

Finally watched "The Messenger" tonight. Cleaned the kitchen a few minutes ago, read some stuff, read about Obama's winning Wisconsin in a BIG way, now I think it's time to hit the sack.

Okay, so I can now tell you a few things

that distinguish this city (a Beta world city) from a Gamma world city:

* The Embarcadero has been transformed into an incredible, livable, gorgeous collection of parks, base ball stadium, restaurants, street cars and public art, all looking out over the Bay
* There is a paucity of franchised food here
* Things away from industrial areas are VERY clean
* There seem to not be police cars every twenty feet, and people seem to feel confident
* Everything in developed areas seems to be well kept
* There is a paucity of big box retailers, and almost no acreage dedicated to parking lots
* There is evidence of further enormous growth, which is laid out in a manner designed to increase walking and interplay, and reduce driving

And that's just in two days of not really having had the time to look around.

I'm already packed up to go home; my flight is in three hours.

Later, I'll deliver my impressions of the Gay VN awards show here, what it's like to consistently find amazing food in little nooks and crannies, and why the new BMW 330i is amazing.

Greetings from a Gamma World city

I flew to San Francisco last night to work with one loan client (for sure,) and possibly/probably two. What's the difference between this and Houston? Beats me. Houston's a Gamma World City. San Fran beats us by three points, but that WAS nine years ago. Maybe we've caught up a bit.

Flight here yesterday was .. about what yo'ud expect. Every seat filled. 31" seat pitch; the diminutive Asian man in front of me reclined his seat all the way back, and the man sitting next to me didn't just take over the armrest, he was trying to take over my seat. Left late, arrived on time (you just HAVE to love Continental about that.) They fed us on the airplane - not a meal that one would rave over, but .. they fed us on the plane. Flight attendants were all pleasant, and worked the aisle for the entire flight. I worked my iPod for the very first time, and played FreeCell on the new in flight entertainment system for two hours, which was a hoot.

Saw this as I drank my second cup o'joe this morning -



It's awesome. I want to get a big supply and pass them out.

Yesterday, I only saw the campaign buttons and stickers for a single presidential candidate - Obama.

This is an interesting weekend - there is urgency, but also languidness interposed for a very surreal experience.

In a few minutes, we go on a quickie tour of SF commercial space, and then to the office to do some writing.

What a difference a piece of paper makes

So, I've been living in my house nearly a full year now. Since moving (back) in, my bedroom window has been rattling like crazy because of the traffic passing by on Briar Forest, which never used to be as bad as it is now.

The window is, of course, 37 year old, and was cheap in 1970. Over time, its mechanism has failed, and it doesn't fit nor lock in its frame very well.

Anyway, the other morning, I was kept in a semi-REM state most of the night and awakened at 5:30 a.m. by trucks rumbling by which caused the window to rattle violently. I arose in a crappy mood (which has been happening a lot lately,) and was suddenly struck with an inspiration to fold a piece of copy paper into an origami wedge to go between the window frame and the window itself.

Jammed into place, my creation muted the window's shaking, but didn't eliminate it. So, I then folded a matchbook cover and jammed it in between the origami wedge and the window frame.

Voila! Peace!

I've actually been sleeping much better; I can live with the rumble of traffic, but the death throes of the old window were preventing me from sleeping.

I joined the 1990s!

Some ten years ago, I was flying to visit my aunt in Charlevoix, and boarded a Northwest flight to Detroit - on a Continental flight number, of course. Being the hedonist I am, I had wrangled an upgrade and sat next a high school junior who was the most gracious, smartest, delightful person I had met in eons. He had with him a Sony MP3 player, which he demonstrated for me. He had bought it while an exchange student in Japan.

I didn't see his enthusiasm in the player, but it was very interesting from the "wow, that's cool" factor. He and I stayed in touch, somehow. I mentored him in Freshman English, which was quite an experience. His professor was somehow impressed with my technique. His written English dramatically improved (although he still can't spell worth a flip.) He gave the commencement address for his college graduating class, and sent me his speech before he gave it. I couldn't change a word of it - it was so authentic, so thoughtful, so well said that any editing would have taken away from it.

He stayed with me two summers ago when he was interning at a Houston oil company. His blog chronicles his self-guided trip around the world, through the Pacific Northwest and his conscious engagement of people as they occur in the world. He's magnificent.

And now, today, I have an MP3 player.

Months back, Guy told me I could download podcasts on iTunes. Well, I had a dusty, unused iTunes account, and they were very glad to have me back. And, lo - do they have podcasts!! Holy cow! I started loading up my hard drive with stuff that needed listening to. And, the notion that I'd benefit by having an iPod crept into my noggin.

Brian says that I should get a non-Apple MP3 player. His suggestions were very, very good ones, and when he speaks I sit up and pay attention. Guy, being the Apple man that he is, recommended the iPod, along with a new iMac and iPhone.

I looked at 'em. I shopped. I actually went to a RADIO SHACK to look at them in person. I thought about bargain basement-ing the issue, and looked at them on Craigslist.

Two years ago, when I was living in the big house (the Castle Warwickshire, not the Big House like TDCJ) I had looked at what was then a very cool iPod, the U2 version. I kind of put into mind that was the one for me.

Just like I did back in 2004 when I saw the Bonneville GXP - all cleaned up, Northstarred, and looking slick. Just over a year ago, I got the Bonnie, and today I bought the iPod. Reconditioned, with a longer warranty.

It's gorgeous. It FEELS luxurious - the texture and heft of it feels like fine art or jewelry. The other MP3 (lesser brand) players all felt plasticky, like an old Walkman or something. The software setup was so smooth, and so slick that now I'm convinced that the right computer choice for me this summer is, in fact, an Apple.

I'm buried in my Sprint contract until 2009, though.

Sunny (and chilly) Hump Day

Mysterious Traveler Entrances Town With Utopian Vision Of The Future

I haven't blogged much about myself lately, so there's a lot to plop down on the "page" as it were, and I'll try to make it as organized as I can.

First, some economic commentary - I'm working from home today to complete my January 2008 newsletter, which should be a doozey. One of the things that I'm going to talk about is the lack of collective memory that plagues our nation's populace, and our ability to refuse to look at things that are important.

Here's one thing that's very important, and that EVERYONE is ignoring:



I keep hearing rumors that a major bank in the US with a presence nearly everywhere already has negative capital and is about to be "merged" into one of the largest banks in the country.

If you'd like a copy of my newsletter, click below and complete the request form.

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For Email Marketing you can trust

I haven't talked about cars in a long while. With David and Guy, I attended the 25th Houston Auto Show last weekend (which means that I've attended all twenty-five - I moved here in August 1981, and went to the first Houston Auto Show weeks later.)

I only saw one car that turned me on; the $90,000 Audi A8. Of course, I'm still massively happy with the Red Rocket, so that isn't much of a downer that it's a no go at the Auto Show for me.

The Cadillac Platinum package is awesome - inlaid olive wood on the dash and doors, really gorgeous leather, upgraded carpeting, full chrome grill, beautiful door sills, and a little badge on the rear deck that says "I'm really bad at math." $7500 for all of this trim, and it's likely to be worth maybe a thou after the first year's ownership.

The Cadillac CTS Coupe isn't going to be out until 2010; plenty of time to generate fondness for something else, but it sure gets my attention.

And, the only untitled VW Phaeton W12 four seat in North America is still for sale. They're still asking sticker for it. That gave me something to fantasize about last night.

But, since I have other, prior financial goals (like hunkering down for the future) it seems that this would be a good route for me to pursue to keep up my interest in the Red Rocket.

It's sunny as all get out today, and the light is streaming in through the front windows. I'm enjoying the (relative) peace, inasmuch as the traffic going by on the main street (I'm in a corner house) is very loud and steady. Every few minutes, a heavy over the road truck goes by at faster than the speed limit, and the whole house shakes.

I've got laundry going, and I'm working on constructing my newsletter, while keeping the forward momentum going at the office without having to engage in the busy environment there.

NEWEST AMERICAN BUMPER STICKERS

And my own favourite seen at the Hollywood Trader Joe's parking lot --

Frodo failed. Bush has the ring.



1) (On an infant's shirt): Already smarter than Bush

2) 1/20/09: End of an Error !!

3) That's OK - I Wasn't Using My Civil Liberties Anyway

4) If You Want a Nation Ruled By Religion, Move to Iran

5) Bush. Like a Rock. Only Dumber.

6) You Can't Be Pro-War and Pro-Life at the Same Time

7) Hey, Bush Supporters: Embarrassed Yet?

8) If You Can Read This, You're Not Our President

9) Of Course It Hurts: You're Getting Screwed by an Elephant

10) Which God Do You Kill For?

11) George Bush: Creating the Terrorists Our Kids Will Have to Fight

12) America : One Nation Under Surveillance

13) They Call Him "W" So He Can Spell It

14) Who Would Jesus Torture?

15) When Bush Took Office, Gas Was $1.46 a gallon

16) Jail to the Chief

17) No, Seriously, Why did we Invade Iraq?

18) Bush: God's Way of Proving Intelligent Design is Full of Crap

19) Right!, like Jesus Would Own a Gun and Vote Republican!

20) We Need a President Who's Fluent In At Least One Language

21) We're Making Enemies Faster Than We Can Kill Them

22) Bush Doesn't Care About White People, Either

23) Where Are We Going? And Why Are We In This Hand basket?

24) Rich Man's War, Poor Man's Blood

25) Is It Vietnam Yet ?

26) The Republican Party: Our Bridge to the 11th Century

27) You Elected Him. You Deserve Him.

January newsletter

Before we get started, I'd like to have you read this article about how bad our national debt is, and how it has to be a principal issue in our politics.

The big picture -
Or, meltdowns explained

The other day, I was visiting my favorite title ladies, and the question was posed "Is this whole mess really about sub-prime loans?"

The substance of the question was, is it that loans were made to people who aren't creditworthy, and those people are all defaulting?


The answer is yes and no. Yes, the tipping point was the sub-prime loans. No, it's not that the sub-prime borrowers are defaulting, causing everyone headaches. Not that you'd have any other impression if you took your news from CNN or the papers.

I'm going to give you the down and dirty, and link you to all of the resources that give the information in more full detail. These articles I'm linking you out to are very detailed, and provide excellent information, and I really recommend that you read them if you'd like a greater sense of what's going on. My explanation is likely to be slightly off in some detail, how specific instruments work, but this is a big picture explanation. I'm a generalist, so don't expect the precision that people more expert than I would give you. However, this is probably the only place you can get the big picture explained in a way that a non-expert cannot do.

If you want to know who brought about this mess, point your finger of blame at:

* The Federal Reserve Board of Governors
* The Federal Reserve Board of Governors
* Policy makers at big banks
* The Banking Commissioner
* The Banking Commissioner
* People's beliefs that what's going up will continue to go up

Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Trouble -


Bubbles are not new as economic phenomenon. In fact, the components of bubble making are so well known that they could easily be predicted in advance, thus warning off the smart ones (the Warren Buffets, for instance) and allowing one to watch the glazed eyed lemmings march lockstep over the cliff who can't distinguish the clear signs.

The most recent bubble? Tech stocks during the 1990s. The earliest? Tulip bulbs in the 16th century. The next one? Probably "green" energy.

The components are: relaxed or non-existent government regulation, cheap financing, and media noise promoting the subject as "the next thing."

In our housing bubble, we had -

* A reduction of interest rates to incent the economy during the tech stock bubble

* A relaxation of banking regulations that allowed banks to contribute more of their capital to non-bank operations, and to lend in riskier markets

* A further, sharp reduction of interest rates to boost the economy during 2001 and the post 9/11 economy

* Existing housing price pressure in many markets

* The ability of speculators to borrow all or substantially all of the money necessary to participate in a real estate market returning more than 10% per year at interest rates below 6%

* Further relaxation of banking and lending restrictions, and the blocking of state based lending restrictions by the Banking Commissioner

* "pop!"

The money generated to lend was created by new financial instruments, asset backed securities. Some six years ago, I was telling people who'd listen that the big banks would realize that they were leaving money on the table by allowing Fannie Mae to package up residential mortgage loans, and issue the securities backing them up.

And, it seems, they (the big banks) were ahead of me.

These securities didn't have any rating history, and the issuers used "monocline rating agencies" to "borrow" a credit risk grade. Basically, the paid to have a rating agency bless their financial instruments, and then sold them as investment grade instruments.

The ratings agencies, however, oversubscribed themselves. This meant that the ratings agencies committed their credit worthiness to far more debt instruments than their capital would support. When the default rate began to press on the ratings agencies' capital structure, their credit ratings nearly immediately dropped into the basement.

And, what that means is that all of the fund managers who subscribed to these securities have to review their rules for whether and how much junk rated assets they can hold, and dozens if not hundreds of pension funds, are now selling these asset backed securities as quickly as possible - into a market that doesn't want them anymore.

The banks that originated these debt instruments have different contractual agreements with the purchasers than does Fannie Mae on their debt instruments. If Fannie Mae packages up a few hundred million into an asset backed security, they retain ownership of the mortgage notes - the bond holders only have the mortgage pool as SECURITY for repayment. If a loan in the pool goes bad, Fannie Mae is still the owner of that loan, and they can enforce their rights under that contract.

These lenders who sold asset backed securities actually transferred ownership of the notes (as I understand it; I'm willing to be wrong about the form here) to the investors. So you may have $100 Million of mortgage notes purchased by a number of investors. Which investor owns which specific note? No one knows. When a given number of loans in the pool goes bad (more than 90 days delinquent) the ENTIRE PACKAGE can be forced back on the issuer.

This has been happening to a number of the very large lending institutions in these United States - they've had hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars of loans that they've been required to repurchase.

Between the credit rating on the packages they hold a portion of being written down to junk status, and being forced to buy back packages that are characterized as "non-performing," AND that some of the loans are indeed defaulting (and that number is rising) - the banks are taking huge write downs against profits. Write downs that are, in fact, so large, that they are causing some of the major banks to have negative equity and difficulty lending new money.

The real estate side of things -


Hyperinflation is the result when you have speculators trying to jump in on appreciating values - usually speculators with knowledge gleaned only from the media's hype on the market. Speculators coming in on the front of the value curve are able to quickly flip out of the upward-bound market and their extraordinary profits give others strong incentive to "get in."

For six or more years, we were able to avoid ARM rate re-sets, avoid that the borrowers' debt picture got worse, and avoid that they couldn't pay their taxes by refinancing every two years. In Houston, we have not been able to do that for a number of years, because our property appreciation has only kept pace with inflation - a realistic and sustainable growth. However, in hyper-inflating markets, these transactions kept investors from having to make real payments and credit challenged borrowers from having to face the music of their financial picture by allowing people to LIVE on equity appreciation.

Just yesterday, I was talking with a client about her brother - who bought twenty-two properties in Florida - flipped several making better than $20,000 per unit - and is now stuck with eleven units that he's not done rehabilitating - and now owes/has invested more than the properties are worth.

My client is buying multi-unit properties in Houston, and calculates her price based on future rent value less rehab costs = purchase value. In other words, she's looking for properties to cash flow, not appreciate. Her brother says she's nuts.
What do you think?

Crystallizing the ball -

Here in Houston, there are very few pockets where we've had unreasonable appreciation:

* High rise condos, mostly marketed to out of state investors (running, lemming-like to the sea)

* Newly built neighborhoods that are not substantially complete

* Midtown townhouses

These markets have ALREADY corrected or started to correct. Rents in Houston are pushing up quickly, and that will provide upward pressure on housing prices. The economy in Houston is poised to continue to grow strongly, and adding jobs will add more upward housing pressure.

Right now, we're experiencing a slowdown because people THINK that there is a slowdown and that prices should be falling. They heard it on CNN!

Going forward, there will be TREMENDOUS pick up opportunities in Florida, parts of California, and Michigan - but wait until near the end of the year. Use good math skills to forecast ROI based on local rent values. Don't accept anything you've heard from the corporate media as being true without researching it fully.

In the stock market, all our media focuses on is who's losing money. We also have to remember what my dad always said "Buy low, sell high." These mortgage backed securities are now trading around junk value - that is a TREMENDOUS opportunity for people who have the financial strength and fortitude to buy in when the price is right. There are dozens of blue chip companies that have depressed stock prices right now, but DO YOUR RESEARCH. Don't just take someone's word for it, especially if they're in it for a commission.

The Finale -

Okay, I've loaded you down with a bunch of information, but it's information that people need to be aware of. It's not the mortgage brokers who caused this - it's those with far better information, and far more at stake than the mortgage brokers.

Mortgage brokers only sold what products were offered for them to sell - some of them did engage in fraud, or failed to catch on to what was happening. As with any large, engineered marketplace, the rules were not made by the little guys. They were made by the big guys who profited on these transactions in huge ways, and are now better able to weather the downturn than are the mortgage brokers, most of whom have left the business.

Whenever you're looking to figure out why something's happening, always FIRST look for who benefits. In this instance, the big bankers, their institutional stockholders, the ratings agencies, and the investment banks made hundreds upon hundreds of millions selling these financial products and lending out the money. The mortgage brokers and realtors made, each of them, thousands and thousands. Who was in control here? And who is better positioned to shift the focus of blame to people who are unable to resist accepting the blame?

The blame focused on realtors and mortgage brokers is transactional in nature - individual cases of fraud and mis-dealing. The focus on the bigger fish is systemic - manipulating markets, stock prices, credit ratings, public reports, and program.

Meaning, the big banks and the Fed played the fiddle, we all just got up and danced the tune.

Prophetic indeed

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal - that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, And now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples.

There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no third worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immune, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars! Reichmarks, rubles, yen, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today!

You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale.

And if you're trying to follow this model:

I don’t have to tell you things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job, the dollar buys a nickel’s worth, banks are going bust. We know the air’s unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit and watch our tee-vees while some local newscaster tells us today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be. So we don’t go out any more. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we live in gets smaller, and all we ask is please, at least leave us alone in our own living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my tee-vee and my hair-dryer and my steel-belted radials, and I won’t say anything.

It's not necessarily going to work out for you.

Quotes from "Network," 1976- written by Paddy Chayefsky

I thought I was the ONLY one ..

No, seriously - I don't hear any other gay homosexual fag person making these points (which I have highlighted to make it easier on your noggin.)

Cross-posted from Pam's House Blend:

Every year around this time, Americans come together to celebrate the life and times of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. And every year around this time, I am overwhelmed people citing that one speech he made in 1963.

You know the speech

What I want to know is why do people want to define Dr. King by that one speech? And why do they always do this while forgetting the fact that if it weren't for the sacrifices of a dedicated OPENLY GAY BLACK MALE (now there is a phrase you hardly ever see), the speech probably wouldn't have even taken place.

And I have had enough. In fact, I hate that speech.

Here in South Carolina, we have a march to the state capital every year where we hear speeches from various public officials.

I didn't go this year. I really didn't want to go mainly because if I hear the call and response of "Fired up! Ready to go" one more time, I am liable to make a detour from the march to nearest mental hospital. Or some other place where I can render myself deaf.

This holiday gets on my nerves. More to the point, I cannot stand how we have simplified King and the effect he had on American society.

I cannot stand the fact that one of the greatest leaders of the 20th century has been whittled down to a single simplistic speech that does not even begin to scratch the surface of the complexities behind the man.

King was more than a reverend. He was more than a speaker. The man was a visionary who was just coming into his own just before he was assassinated.

So in what should be the true spirit of this holiday, let me do something different.

For you see, I too have dreams. And while they may not be rooted in the American Dream, they are rooted in the single universal dream that people will one day stop wasting time bullshitting and get down to the downs that's keeping us all down.

I have a dream

that when I open a gay-themed magazine, I will not be told how much I should fight for lgbt rights while at the same time be made to feel less than substantial just because I can't afford some ridiculous doodad like a $300 crocodile leather case for my "ipod."

I have a dream

that the Advocate magazine can get through one year without putting the following on the cover - Melissa Etheridge, Ellen DeGeneres, Lance Bass, Tammy Lynn Sigler, or some "hot"white guy who happens to be straight.

I have a dream

that BET will no longer show the following movies: Soul Plane, Next Friday, Menace II Society, Baby Boy, Leprechaun N Da Hood II

I have a dream

that the media stops paying attention to Britney Spears and her mother takes the guise of a stereotypical black mother and slap some sense into the child.

I have a dream

that our gay children stop emulating and worshipping the next ingenue coming down the pike.

I have a dream

that we get to November 2008 as quickly as possible and elect someone who can begin to start undoing the damage.

I have a dream

that people start recognizing just how overrated and preachy South Park is and pay attention to the Boondocks, a much better program.

I have a dream

that people stop carrying whether or not Clay Aiken is gay

I have a dream

that it will be discovered that more conservative Republicans have out-of-wedlock black daughters.

Finally, I have a dream

that people will pick up a book about Dr. King and read about just how complex the civil rights movement was. Stop simplifying Dr. King. In fact, stop simplifying period. Use your damned brains for once.

What is the view of how Christians should cast their votes? Well, you may be surprised what some very well qualified Christians think.

MSNBC says 58% of SC GOP primary voters ID'd themselves as evangelicals.

So, at 3:30 this morning, I awake to hear "drip, drip, drip" in my bedroom. We'd been having a very heavy, steady rain since around 10:00 p.m. I lay there a few minutes, and thought .. this is not good (as in, I won't be able to go back to sleep with this dripping.)

Hell, I can hear the water running in the BOYS' bathroom and it would wake me up.

So, up out of bed (and it was COLD outside of the covers) and on with the lights. Now, the deficiencies of indirect lighting (required by the Homosexual Agenda) manifest themselves, as my enfeebled night vision is unable to make out from just where the water is coming. I can see that it's streaming down the brick (outside) wall from behind my new Continental travel poster.

Immediately, I prioritize - one, the dripping sound must STOP. Two, the newly framed Continental travel poster MUST not be damaged. Three, more sleep is required!

I spring into action. The Continental travel poster is removed from the wall to reveal .. nothing. No weeping picture hanger holes in the brick resembling a weeping Virgin Mary, so no new revenue opportunities have manifested themselves. The travel poster is leaned up against the armoire, and I walk to the bathroom to retrieve a bath towel from the back of the tub stall.

Not one of the lovely creme microfiber towels, of course, but a dark green one for guests.

Said towel goes into the corner, pressed up into the corner until the sound of dripping water ceases.

This has the secondary benefit of preventing water soaking into the carpet and padding.

My primary goals met, I return to bed.

The rain continues to drench the window and the courtyard above my headboard. I begin to reflect upon what must be going on above me on the flat roofed portion of the house, and that there surely is a lot of water up there pooling on the roof. Rather than reflect further on the notion of soaking wet sheet rock and ceilings falling into my bedroom sanctuary, I move into direct (albiet recumbent) action. I engage in a spiritual mind treatment to a.) have the rain come to an end, and b.) have the house be safe and secure.

Sleep returned around 4:30 this morning, right after the rain ceased.

This morning, it was sunny D - nippy, but gorgeous outside, and most of the water was already drying from the sidewalks and street. I notice, in the sun lit bedroom, that the ceiling is indeed sagging over the corner where the drip, drip, drip made one recall a television ad for a sinus medication no longer in favor.

Crap.

That's what I get for thinking again. I've been looking up at the dirty old shingles on the pitched part of the roof, and thinking .. I'd really like to replace those.

Be careful what you wish for.

After drinking some coffee, devising a clean up list for today's effort, and run over to the most hateful force for financial evil in the consumer world - Bank of America.

Trips to five banks and much teeth gnashing later, I've finally deposited the check I received Friday, and am driving home. I call my Realtor buddy, and tell her the story of bank drama, and realize she probably knows a roofer.

I had thought of calling Kevin, but that's usually only good going one way. And not me asking for assistance. She does in fact know a roofer whom she highly recommends! He'll call you in a minute!

And he does!

While MyJ and I attack the cleaning list, he's trying to find the house. He goes away, comes back with a taller ladder and goes up onto the roof to tell me ..

* the flat roof is open to the elements, and only a sheet of plastic has kept me from getting wet while I slept this last year
* the pitched roof is original to the house (38 years) and all of the flashing is either gone, or beyond repair
* the existing shingles are a color that has been discontinued and he can replace them with black or brown
* he can replace the entire roof for a very reasonable fee. Tomorrow.

Uh, okay then.

That being .. partly resolved, I begin to reflect on that I have allergy issues in my bedroom. If the flat roof (which extends the length of my bedroom) has been .. well, not very roof-y, then, isn't the underlying sheet rock and insulation kind of .. wet and moldy?

Perhaps this is my opportunity to exercise the OTHER random thought I've been holding - that I need to have the insulation in the flat roof re-done to more modern standards.

Crap.

In other household news, today, we cleaned and scrubbed and dusted. We turned the front door handle around so that the pretty part is outside and the not so pretty part isn't inside.

We cleaned out the cabinets, swamped them out where they were dirty, went to the grocery store, mopped, cleaned windows, scrubbed the entry doors on both sides, swept, basically Edgarized.

I'm thinking about color and crown molding in the front rooms and crown molding in my bedroom. Hmmm.

Six out of ten Americans now feel that the war in Iraq was a bad idea.

Do you want the Republican race to be over. or do you want it to be HILARIOUS?

This is no time to be worried about time

A universe without time?

Reposted from the Houston Chronicle Science Guy blog

If you've got a few minutes of, ahem, time, it might be worth reading a fine article on physics and time that I just stumbled across. The Discover magazine article delves into the role of time in modern theoretical physics.
dali.jpg
Salvador Dali
Was Dali right?

And, my friends, time may not exist:

The trouble with time started a century ago, when Albert Einstein's special and general theories of relativity demolished the idea of time as a universal constant. One consequence is that the past, present, and future are not absolutes. Einstein's theories also opened a rift in physics because the rules of general relativity (which describe gravity and the large-scale structure of the cosmos) seem incompatible with those of quantum physics (which govern the realm of the tiny).

About four decades ago, the renowned physicist John Wheeler, then at Princeton, and the late Bryce DeWitt, then at the University of North Carolina, developed an extraordinary equation that provides a possible framework for unifying relativity and quantum mechanics. But the Wheeler-­DeWitt equation has always been controversial, in part because it adds yet another, even more baffling twist to our understanding of time.

"One finds that time just disappears from the Wheeler-DeWitt equation," says Carlo Rovelli, a physicist at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France. "It is an issue that many theorists have puzzled about. It may be that the best way to think about quantum reality is to give up the notion of time — that the fundamental description of the universe must be timeless."

No one has yet succeeded in using the Wheeler-DeWitt equation to integrate quantum theory with general relativity. Nevertheless, a sizable minority of physicists, Rovelli included, believe that any successful merger of the two great masterpieces of 20th-century physics will inevitably describe a universe in which, ultimately, there is no time.

Scientists already understand that time may break down at very tiny distances, specifically the Planck length. So why not at our scale, too? The question makes physicists uncomfortable. It also makes my head hurt.

Why should I congratulate you because Hillary won?

It's not like you did something. She and her massive support staff did.

That having been said, I appear to have sold another car. That's two in just a month. Well, two sold and two blocked. Fun stuff!

A seminar this afternoon that gave me the finishing touches for my next email newsletter.

Something I've said for YEARS

Here's the outrage, but .. where are the pitchforks? Where are the torches?

This may cause some heads to spin

It changed my opinion. SHARPLY changed my opinion.

This will also surprise no one

Your Language Arts Grade: 100%

Way to go! You know not to trust the MS Grammar Check and you know "no" from "know." Now, go forth and spread the good word (or at least, the proper use of apostrophes).

Are You Gooder at Grammar?
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And, I didn't cheat ONCE

You paid attention during 91% of high school!

85-100% You must be an autodidact, because American high schools don't get scores that high! Good show, old chap!

Do you deserve your high school diploma?
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This was fun - again

Your score on this personality test was 82%

 

Others see you as an exciting, highly volatile, rather impulsive personality; a natural lead, who's quick to make decisions, though not always the right ones. They see you as bold and adventuresome, someone who will try anything once; someone who takes chances and enjoys an adventure. They enjoy being in your company because of the excitement you radiate.

Personality Quiz
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Thank God!

You are 100% Smarter than a fifth grader.

 

You are smarter than a fifth grader. no doubt. There is no need for you to retake school. Keep on doing your brain excersise like sudokus and crossword puzzles, and you'll soon be smarter than a sixth grader! Good work!

are you smarter than a fifth grader?
Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

That's, 100% smarter than a PERFECT fifth grader, after reflecting on the number of sides for a trapezoid a while.

Baaaaaaaaad news

Some of my friends say that I'm intelligent, but just haven't been willing to enlighten myself to a more conservative viewpoint.

What kind of extremist are you? Your Result: Rational Person   You consider these questions obvious straw men, designed to distract people from a meaningful investigation of facts and a serious discussion of relevant political issues. How boring.
Left-Wing Extremist
Right-Wing Extremist
Moderate Extremist
What kind of extremist are you? See All Our Quizzes

And here we have political me, summed up

What is your political ideology? Your Result: Social Democrat   This quiz has defined you as a Social Democrat (you may or may not be a Democratic Socialist as well). In general you are in the Liberal mindset, but wish to take it a step further. You favour the brodening of various social programs and a progressive income tax system to help alleviate social inequality. You wish to change the current social paradigm, but through gradual means.
Liberal
Communist/Radical Left
Conservative
Fascist/Radical Right
Libertarian
What is your political ideology? Make Your Own Quiz

However, this will surprise no one

You scored 0% which means you are

a hardcore liberal.

You believe in governmental action to achieve equal opportunity and equality for all, and that it is the duty of the State to alleviate social ills and to protect civil liberties and individual and human rights. Believe the role of the government should be to guarantee that no one is in need. Believe that people are basically good.

Conservative or Liberal
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This may surprise you who think I'm Karl Marx's bastard son

You are 23% anti-capitalist!

You have some very minute anti-capitalist tendencies. You may have a small backyard garden, but the majority of your veggies come frozen in bags. You're still very much the consumer.

How Anti-Capitalist are You?

No wonder I'm so frustrated all of the time

89% Mike Gravel
89% Dennis Kucinich
83% Barack Obama
81% John Edwards
80% Chris Dodd
79% Joe Biden
76% Hillary Clinton
76% Bill Richardson
39% Rudy Giuliani
31% Ron Paul
30% John McCain
23% Mitt Romney
22% Mike Huckabee
15% Tom Tancredo
13% Fred Thompson

2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz