Once more with feeling? House to vote AGAIN on healthcare bill tonight

Because of two items in the reconciliation bill - one of which having to do with Pell grants, which alone made people scratch their heads in wonder about why it was in the legislation to begin with - the House of Representatives will be voting once more on Barack Obama's socialized medicine in order to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions.

Considering how in the past few days a number of representatives who voted "aye" for this monstrosity have had bricks thrown through the windows of their offices and one such congressman had a coffin dumped on the lawn of his house, I have to ponder aloud if such "knock-knock, zoom-zoom affirmation" might result in more than a few of them finally "getting the message" that the American people DO NOT WANT this crap!

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Commodore 64 is back... and better than ever!

Back in the day a lot of us cut our computin' teeth on the Commodore 64. First appearing on the market in 1982, 14 million Commodore 64s were sold before the line was finally retired twelve years later. My sister had one. How good was it? I would often trade time on my Nintendo Entertainment System for a turn on her Commodore 64 (usually to play games like Aliens, still one of the best video game adaptations of a motion picture that I've ever seen). And for bunches of people, the Commodore 64 was their first entry into what became known as the Internet, via services like CompuServe and America Online.

So if you're one of the old-skool fans of this snazzy lil' system, you'll be excited to know that come June you'll be able to purchase the heavily revamped Commodore 64: packing a wazoo of new features in practically the same classic look. The all-in-one unit (except for the monitor) boasts up to 500 gigabytes of hard drive, 4 gigabytes of RAM. The "64" in C-64 2.0 stands for the Intel 64-bit quad-core processors driving the thing, which will also give the new Commodore 64 the capability for 3D graphics. Also built into the unit are a DVD-RW drive, four USB ports, a touchpad, a gigabit Ethernet port, and a DVI port to hook up to a monitor. It'll also run Windows, Mac OS X and Linux (that alone will guarantee some handsome sales among the geeky set).

I might have to get one of these. 'Twould be a lot of fun just to play a game like Fallout 3 on it :-)

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Some friendly advice

To certain "ministers" in this area who frequently visit this blog:

Quit going around harassing decent folks at their homes and their churches. You'll no doubt stay healthy longer for it.

Incidentally, why are you giving much of your congregation's money to a fornicating sexual deviant? Doesn't sound very much like being a good steward of the Lord's provision, but maybe that's just me.

Neither does it seem very consistent with your alleged piousness when one among you isn't even a married man but is driving around with women's underwear on display in the back seat of his car.

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Disciples pigging out: Last Supper portions increased 69% over time

Two researchers have been using computer analysis on 52 of the most famous paintings of the Last Supper - the final meal that Jesus Christ had with His disciples on the night before His death on the cross - and discovered that the size of the portions of food depicted on the table have increased 69% over the past millennium. The biggest amount of super-sizing came after 1500, not long after Leonardo da Vinci did his famous rendition of the Last Supper...

From the article at USA Today...

The researchers used paintings of this event "because it is the most famous supper in history," which artists have been painting for centuries, so the paintings provide information about plate and entree sizes over time, says Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell (University) Food and Brand Lab in Ithaca, N.Y. One possible reason for the increase: Food may have become more available and less expensive, he says.

He did the research with his brother, Craig, a professor of religious studies at Virginia Wesleyan College in Norfolk, and a Presbyterian minister.

The three Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), which include descriptions of The Last Supper, mention only bread and wine, but many of the paintings have other foods, such as fish, lamb, pork and even eel, says Craig Wansink.

The use of fish in the meals is symbolic because it's an image that is used to represent Christianity, he says. Among the reasons for the symbolism: A number of the disciples were fishermen, and Jesus told them "to be fishers of men," he says. Plus, he says, Jesus performed several miracles with fishes and loaves.

Thanks to Chad Austin for the great find (and Twitter-ing about it. Yes, he really did!)

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Later start time decreasing absenteeism in high school students

Don'cha wish we knew this when we were in high school!

(Oh who am I kidding? North Carolina's government is so bass-ackwards on everything, the concept would never even get the chance to fly here...)

Anyway, an experiment being conducted by an Oxford neuroscience professor at Monkseaton High School in North Tyneside in Great Britain has had students starting classes an hour later than usual, at 10 a.m. The remarkable findings of the experiment thus far are that the later class time has caused an 8% drop in general absence and a 27% drop in chronic absenteeism. Furthermore, memory testing done on the students indicate that the best time for learning more difficult lessons is in the afternoon. Researchers believe that teenagers wanting to sleep in is not a matter of laziness, but merely a component of biology adjusting during the adolescent years.

(Or maybe it's just that they're staying up at later hours playing World of Warcraft? :-P)

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"Ab Aeterno": Chris has to watch tonight's LOST three times to take it all in!!!

This is what storytelling on television should always strive to be like. Not since Babylon 5 has there perhaps been so much good payoff for all the long hours invested in watching a dramatic series.

We finally, finally got Richard Alpert's backstory in "Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost. And it did not disappoint! I would even say that this was the best character-centric origin story since Ben's episode "The Man Behind the Curtain" in Season 3. Maybe even since "Numbers" all the way back in the first season.

Something I couldn't help but catch: Tenerife was the location of one of the worst airline disasters in history. Was that something intentional on the part of the producers, to have Richard start out his life there? Anyways, what we have is a good man who was caught up in a tragedy composed of complete assholes: first that despicable doctor, then the even more despicable priest, followed by the officers of the Black Rock and then Jacob's adversary. Richard in some ways is the most tragic character we have seen on Lost: a person who longs for absolution from God more than anything else. I like to think that in the final scenes, he knew that he had that at last.

We also now know how the Black Rock came so far inland, and how the statue of Tawaret got demolished... all in one fell swoop! And most of all, we're starting to finally understand what the Island is: nothing less than a prison for the Man in Black and a material battleground between the cosmic battle between good and evil.

I've watched this episode three times so far, and it's still blowing my mind. I have unquestioning faith now in this show: that we are going to get solid answers to all of the big mysteries before the end two months from now.

"Ab Aeterno" gets 10 out of 10 from this viewer!

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Trailer for WEIRD: THE AL YANKOVIC STORY

If you see only one biopic this year, see this one. If you see only 27 biopics this year, see Weird: The Al Yankovic Story 27 times!

"Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" from Aaron Paul

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What is "Chutzpah"?

Because I'm feeling extra cranky tonight (and have for the past 24 hours or so)...

"Chutzpah" is a Yiddish word meaning "shameless audacity". It's an olden Hebrew term that in his book The Joys of Yiddish author Leo Rosten describes as "gall, brazen nerve, effrontery, incredible 'guts,' presumption plus arrogance such as no other word and no other language can do justice to."

So what fits in the category of "chutzpah"?

One example of chutzpah is the child who kills both of his parents, and then throws himself down on the mercy of the court on the grounds that he is an orphan.

Another example of chutzpah is the "evangelist" who routinely rails against a television station for "promoting dancing, R-rated movies" as being somehow sinful behavior, yet is apparently not bothered by the fact that he gives more than a million dollars of his congregation's money to buy airtime at another television station whose general manager not only promotes the same stuff and worse... but is also a bisexual who regularly gets his jollies by enticing viewers to call in and talk about their sex lives (while never mentioning his own). That would be plenty of chutzpah too.

But right now at this moment, what comes most to mind when I think of chutzpah is the revelation that Congress has voted to impose Obamacare on everyone but NOT those who wrote the #@$%-ing law!

From the article at The New Ledger...

For as long as the political fight took over the past year, the abbreviated review process on the health care legislation currently pending on President Obama’s desk is unquestionably going to result in some surprises — as happens with any piece of mashed-up legislation — both for the congressmen who voted for it and for the American people.

One such surprise is found on page 158 of the legislation, which appears to create a carveout for senior staff members in the leadership offices and on congressional committees, essentially exempting those senior Democrat staffers who wrote the bill from being forced to purchase health care plans in the same way as other Americans.

There is much, much more in Ben Domenech's eyeball-popping writeup at the above link, dear readers.

I guess Orwell had it right: some people are more equal than others.

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Snack bar in Pompeii reopens for first time since 79 A.D.

The last time that the thermopolium in Pompeii, Italy enjoyed patronage was August 24th, 79 A.D. And then nearby Mount Vesuvius erupted and completely buried the city. The stylish snack bar was evacuated in such a hurry that the tip jar was even left behind.

As of this week and under new management (previous owner Vetutius Placidus having long since retired or worse), the thermopolium of Pompeii has reopened for the first time in 1,921 years, and is reportedly already enjoying a thriving business! The menu for the first day included sugary treats that Roman citizenry were known to enjoy, but from here on out the thermopolium will be serving up a more modern repast.

(And probably a good thing too, 'cuz the "sell by" dates on the potato chips have no doubt long, long since expired.)

Click on the link above for more!

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For everyone who's watching LOST (about tonight's episode)...

"Ab Aeterno", this week's episode of Lost, will presumably - at long last - give us the story of Richard Alpert: the man who doesn't age.

And this installment is apparently so important that it will broadcast six minutes longer than most regular episodes.

Bear that in mind and set your DVRs accordingly!

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Why Republicans WON'T try to repeal health care overhaul

Michael D. Tanner of the Cato Institute has written an essay about the costs of Obamacare, which passed the House last night (and which I nearly reacted to on this blog with a blunt "We are sooo f-cked", before better angels of my nature prevailed).

In his article Tanner makes the following prediction, and I thought it was well worth making note of...

Republicans won't really try to repeal it. Republicans will run this fall on a promise to repeal this deeply unpopular bill, and will likely reap the political advantages of that promise. But in reality there is little chance of their following through. Even if Republicans were to take both houses of Congress, they would still face a presidential veto and a Democratic filibuster.

But more important, once an entitlement is in place, it becomes virtually impossible to take away. The fact that Republicans have been criticizing Obamacare for cutting Medicare shows that they are not really willing to take the heat for cutting people's benefits once they have them — no matter how unaffordable those benefits are. Paul Ryan put forth a serious plan for entitlement reform — and attracted just six co-sponsors at last count. Enough said.

Sadly, I suspect that Tanner will be proven correct about this. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me if many Republicans are secretly happy that last night's health care "reform" passed and will soon be signed into law by President Obama.

Because the very massive public outcry against this legislation is a huge carrot that a lot - if not most - of the Republicans in or running for high office will be using to lure Americans into "vote for us!" Oh, I'm fairly sure (not positive, but have a gut feeling) that the Republicans will take control of the House and Senate come November. But if there is any effort to repeal Obamacare it will only be a token gesture. There will be some bills passed in Congress, and Obama will veto them all (I doubt there'll be a supermajority in Congress to override that). And then we won't hear anything about it again because the Republicans in general will boo-hoo about "it's too hard for us to fight the veto". And of course they will use that to justify that we the people merely need to elect more Republicans.

And nothing will change.

Fercryingoutloud, the GOP had the White House and both houses of Congress for six years. Did government decrease in size at all during that period?! Hell no it didn't! On the Republicans' watch it increased more than any other time in living memory, until last night. If anyone seriously believes that things will be any different the next time the Republicans "have the power", I've some oceanfront property in Nebraska to sell.

The Republicans have been promising to revoke the "right" to abortion for three and a half decades. They haven't done it yet. I'm not entertaining any optimism that they will be more rigorous in ridding us of this latest embiggening of big government.

So let me wrap this up by writing what I perhaps should have said last night, because there are times when a writer has done his absolute best to articulate his sentiments to the fullest but can sincerely go no further without violating the mores of polite society...

We are sooooo fucked.

God help us.

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"So this is how liberty dies..."

"With thunderous applause."

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Volcano erupts at Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland

From The Reykjavík Grapevine ...

Volcano Erupts Under Eyjafjallajökull

21.3.2010
Words by Haukur S. Magnússon

A volcanic eruption has just begun under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier. This has been verified by local authorities in neighbouring Hvolsvöllur. Vísir reports that farms in the Fljótshlíð area and by Markarhlíð are already being evacuated. Locals in the area have confirmed that they are viewing flames and a steady stream of lava from the glacier.

Eyjafjallajökull is an active central volcano. There is reportedly no recorded history of catastrophic eruptions in the area. The volcano last erupted 189 years ago and apparently caused a lot of ash fall in the area. Although speculation on the subject is pretty much useless (especially since your loving team of Grapevine reporters isn't really comprised of geologists or anything, although we scored pretty well in the subject in high school), folks are saying that besides the ash fall the greatest danger lies in glacier bursts or runs stemming from all that hot hot heat melting the glacier. There might be a bunch of water flooding the area pretty soon.

ANYWAY, this is all moot speculation. What we know at the moment is that a volcanic eruption is indeed occurring under the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, and that lava is really, really hot.

More on this as it develops. Hey, we might even be able to get you some pictures. Stay tuned.

I found this to be postworthy for three reasons. One, it seems that lately there's been a lot of geological activity all over the planet. Two, this kind of thing fascinates me.

But third and foremost, I thought it would be pretty neat to use the word "Eyjafjallajökull" on a blog entry :-)

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Obamacare "health care reform" may be voted on today in the House

Obamacare should be sufficient proof that our federal government is "deem 'n pass"-essed.

I demand that Nancy Pelosi give me a lifetime supply of short-sleeve shirts. After all, the Constitution guarantees a "right to bare arms".

Obamacare is going to be a violation of the separation of church and state, because it violates my religious freedom on grounds that I believe that having insurance is a form of gambling.

Okay, seriously...

This will be the absolutely worst legislation passed in Congress in American history, if President Obama gets to sign it.

And incidentally, there is enormously strong historical evidence that socialized medicine would not be the first time that the politicians in Washington have screwed us over with "deem and pass".

(Hint: Google about "Philander Knox").

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More random wit and wisdom of Chris Knight...

Religion is how people run from God. Politics is how people run from sanity.

(With grateful acknowledgment to Charlotte Butler Wright, who came up with the first part and has it on her Facebook page. And I've witnessed the second part more times than I care to count.)

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A textbook education in ignorance

A few days ago my friend and fellow blogger Matthew Federico addressed the situation with history education in the state of Texas. In case you missed that bit of news, last week the Texas State Board of Education voted 10 to 5 to make drastic changes to the history, social studies and economics curricula being taught in that state's schools.

The vote occurred along split partisan lines. The ten Republicans on the board voted for the curriculum changes and the five Democrats opposed it. The results have been both hailed and condemned as giving the teaching materials a "conservative" and "right-leaning" slant, as opposed to what some construe is a "liberal" one.

The reason this is going to be a big deal for the rest of the country is because Texas is one of the biggest consumers in the highly lucrative business of school textbooks. So if textbook publishers have to produce for the Texas market, those same learning materials will likely be adopted in other states.

Matthew wrote on his blog about how this smacks too much of political propaganda. And, he would be correct.

But what troubles me especially about this - and it's taken me a few days to really feel ready to articulate my thoughts on it - is that the Texas State Board of Education is perpetuating a terrible ignorance... and it has nothing to do with the ideological flavor of the textbooks that they will be using. I would be just as bothered by the board's actions if it had purposefully chosen an admittedly left-leaning curriculum.

The ten members of the board who voted for these changes demonstrated no wisdom or foresight by wielding their power in order to literally ensconce Newt Gingrich and the Moral Majority in the history books, or to remove entirely any mention of Thomas Jefferson as a leading intellectual guiding light of early America (huh?!). And it's even troubling that the board deliberately chose to remove Ross Perot's 1992 run for President from historical discussion (the 1994 "Contract with America" however did make it in).

Is it Republican/"conservative" propaganda? Hell yes it is. And it would be just as wrong if it were Democrat/"liberal" propaganda. The examination and deliberation of history should never be defined by and along partisan lines. History is a broad tapestry, and to selectively pull this thread or that one out of it is to cheapen and make worthless the work entire.

But that still isn't what is particularly frustrating me about what the Texas State Board of Education has chosen to do. No, what irks me the most is that in spite of its sworn duty and very title, the board has chosen not to educate young minds, but to rather instill unquestioning obedience to the status quo and a paradigm fast approaching obsolescence.

Education is supposed to be a thing that transforms a person into an enlightened individual. The intended result of education should be a person capable of wise choice, rational mind, and liberty to pursue the exercise of personal conscience. In short: education is that which most empowers one to be free... including the freedom to question The Way Things Are.

The Texas State Board of Education, however, has chosen to compel the millions of children in its charge to accept The Way Things Are without question. And I would say that regardless of which ideology the curricula was being slanted toward. The Texas State Board of Education however has taken an education of ignorance to an entire new level of brazenness. The board - along with all other school boards in the United States - should be doing its damndest to encourage its students to not think in terms of "conservative and liberal". That is a dichotomy as false as anything could possibly be. It is also one that I am increasingly seeing is being challenged and questioned by a growing number of people.

But it's not freedom of mind that the Republicans of Texas' state school board have shown they are interested in by this course of action. Rather, they have demonstrated that they want, in their own way, to continue propping up the two-party puppet show that is destroying America.

Well, America isn't going to be saved for our children by the party faithful of either the Democrats or the Republicans. If America is going to have any future at all, it's going to come by the hard work, tireless efforts and even sacrifice of those who refused to abide by The Way Things Are.

The Texas State Board of Education had an opportunity to lead the way in this country by an infusion of fresh blood. Instead it chose to continue a condition of terminal anemia.

Perhaps there is a country in history that has thrived on a determined education in ignorance and apathy. But if there is one, it's not coming to the mind of this writer. And I doubt that Texas, as a state, is going to prove to be any different.

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Want a new house? This new gadget will PRINT you out one

3-D printing is starting to become quite a commercially viable technology. And now a smart-thinkin' dude named Enrico Dini has raised the game bigtime with the D-Shape printer: a large-scale printer that consumes sand and along with magnesium-based glue, can churn out furniture, sculpture... and even entire buildings!

Dini suggests that in the future, his technique could be used to quickly establish a base on the Moon by supplying it with native lunar dust and building required structures from there, instead of hauling material from Earth.

Hit here for more about the D-Shape printer, which will probably be pretty cheap when it comes to market... but the cost of the ink cartridges will be insane! :-P

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