Did you notice yesterday was a little short?

Scientists (or at least one scientist) are speculating that the huge quake yesterday could have altered the earth's rotation...shortening the day by perhaps as much as three micro seconds (a micro second is one millionth of a second.) My engineer husband tells me that is significant. What does that do to all the cool atomic clocks they were selling at Costo this holiday season?

Click on the title to read more.

---Katie

Do we live in a "State of Fear?"

Here is an interesting quote from Professor Norman Hoffman, a character in Michael Crichton's novel State of Fear:

"Has it ever occured to you how astonishing the culture of Western society really is? Industrialized natins provide their citizens with unpreciedented safety, health, and comfort. Average life spans increased fifty percent in the last century. Yet modern people live in abject fear. They are afraid of strangers, of disease, of crime, of the environment. They are afraid of the homes they live in, the food they eat, the technology that surrounds them. They are in a particular panic over things they can't even see--germs, chemicals, additives, pollutants. They are timid, nervous, fretful and depressed. And even more amazingly, they are convinced that the environment of the entire planet is being destroyed around them. Remarkable! Like the belief in witchcraft, it's an extraordinary delusion--a global fantasy worthy of the Middle Ages. Everything is going to hell, and we must all live in fear. Amazing."

Our mainstream media requires one crisis after another to keep our attention. I don't watch shows like 60 Minutes or Dateline because they tend to overblow every negative story. We have relatives who do, and they make a practice of telling us everytime we visit what we need to be *very* careful of...we like to camp, so now we know about all the perverts who hide out in restrooms at state parks waiting for kids. Our kids like to play outside, so we hear about all the studies that show even kids that are carefully taught not to speak to strangers will still be fooled by a stranger. I guess we should just lock the kids up in the house!! Yet if you look at the statistics, crime rates have been steadily trending downward for years! We are safer, our environment is cleaner, we live longer, cancer is more readily cured...what *are* we so afraid of?

--Katie

Shop the Way You Vote?

The democrats have done a very nice job of compiling information about what companies supported which party during the last election cycle. Click on the title above to see how your favorite businesses measure up. I was thrilled to see Publix solidly in the Republican camp. My next favorite store, Costco, did not do nearly as well. :-( I don't plan to stop shopping there, however.....my Costco is too wonderful, even if the leadership is loony left.

---Katie

Is there a war on Christmas?

I keep reading articles about schools banning various aspects of Christmas, but this latest one really takes the cake. Plano, Texas, schools are prohibited from using the colors red and green during their "Winter Break" parties. Plates, cups and napkins must be white, not red and green.

The Alliance Defense Fund is on the case.

What is it about Christmas that puts public institutions and officials on edge?

---Katie

Abusive Republicans, Submissive Democrats

I don't normally read Michael Moore, but this article is just too interesting to pass up. Quoting an essay written by a friend, he compares the victorious Republicans to abusive husbands/boyfriends/partners and losing Democrats to submissive victims of domestic violence. "Why did they beat us?" she asks. "The answer is quite simple," she answers. "They beat us because they are abusers. We can call it hate. We can call it fear. We can say it is unfair. But we are looped into the cycle of violence, and we need to start calling the dominating side what they are: abusive. And we need to recognize that we are the victims of verbal, mental, and even, in the case of Iraq, physical violence." (The original writer of the essay is Mel Giles and she has worked for years as an advocate for victims of domestic violence. It would seem that she would be offended by anyone cheapening what her clients go through by comparing it to a political campaign, but apparently not.)

This comparison is laughable on so many levels. I'll just point out two. Changing the meaning of a word in the middle of a debate is called equivocation. It is a logical fallacy and renders your argument meaningless. Beating someone in a contest is not the same thing as beating someone with your fists. Winning an election is not abuse. Both sides say things that are abusive, but that is part of politics. The winner is not an abuser and the loser is not a submissive victim. Second, am I the only one who remembers all the years that Democrats controlled congress and the media? They weren't exactly interested in working with the Republicans and making sure they were not "victimizing" the poor submissive Republicans.

I am thrilled to see that leading Democrats have not learned anything from this election. It looks like they think that to get back in the game they must just lean harder to the left. Great! Politics will still continue to be entertaining and the Republicans will continue to gain ground. Now if we could only get them to understand what it means to be conservative! But that is a topic for another article.

If you would like to read the entire article by Michael Moore, just click on the title above. I linked to the discussion at Free Republic so that I would not be sending hits to Michael Moore's site, but if you want to go there, you will find that link in the FR article.

--Katie

Shopping Online this Year?

I have done at least half of my Christmas shopping online this year. Besides being able to shop while relaxing in my chair-and-a-half with my feet up on my ottoman-and-a-half and saving money, I get the thrill of getting packages arriving at my door almost every day! This is cool! I should have been doing this all along!

--Katie

The Greedy AARP

I am so sick of the AARP. Since I have been taking care of a lot of my parent's financial and legal needs, I have been reading the stuff these people send out. I plan to avoid joining them like the plague. They are truly a left-wing socialist organization with no concern for the generations to come. Read Rich Lowry's article to see what AARP has to say about Social Security reform. Does anyone really believe that Social Security can survive as it is without putting our children and grandchildren into financial bondage? We need priviatization now!

--Katie

Shoot Christians???

So a professor at University of Louisville wishes he could get an AK-47 so he can shoot Christians? Why is it that those who bray constantly about the importance of tolerance are the least tolerant of those who disagree with them? Click on the title to read the article (which is from an off-the-beaten-path website, to say the least.)

--Katie

Post Election Selection Trauma

So am I the only one who thinks that this whole thing about liberals needing therapy because Bush got re-elected is really stupid? I mean, we had to put up with two terms of Clinton. What a bunch of girly men.

--Katie