Oh Tannenbaum

Here in the Northeast there is a tempest in a teapot, or perhaps a eggnog cup, about the Rhode Island governor referring to a festive tree in the Capitol as a ‘Holiday’ tree rather that a ‘Christmas’ tree. The local Catholic Church, as well as the Republican Party, which generally seems to coalesce best around the negative and inane, are up in arms about the Governor trying to be inclusive. Shame on him, how dare he think of other people, particularly at such a time of good will towards all?

Can’t you just imagine the newly born Christ smelling the sweet fragrance of conifer trees so soon after his birth? Yea, it’s hard. We don’t usually associate fir trees with that area of the Middle East, probably because there weren’t any. But there were many early religions in Europe in particular that perceived the fir tree as home to pagan gods. Certainly the Church was being inclusive then by co-opting their traditions.

Perhaps the Governor should have referred to it as the Druid tree or possibly even more guileful as a Yule tree.

Shame on me, but, no matter your tree, Happy Holidays!

Nobel Prize for Economics?

I saw that Nobel prizes were awarded for economics. Why? Does anybody really think these guys are doing science — particularly after the last number of years? As any student who has taken a statistics course should be able to tell you, just because you can draw a graph relating two or more things, it does not mean that they are related, let alone a theory. Economists are all over the place on what caused the problems and how to solve them. If you are a conservative politician, there is an economist for you. If you are a liberal economist, there is an economist for you. We are spending much. We are not spending enough. There is too much regulation. There is not enough regulation. This is science? Please, this is politics.

There are many demonstrations around the nation, Occupy your favorite city. They chant about the 1% who control the vast majority of the nation’s wealth and the rest of us 99% - ers. The newscasts keep asking about what they are demonstrating about? Apparently they are not listening. I guess reading news that someone else wrote puts you in the 1%.

We need new aliens

I was recently among the last to see “Cowboys & Aliens.” I t was not the movie I had hoped for nor the bad one that maybe I hoped for as well. It was a good, not great, but entertaining movie. My only problem was the aliens. Isn’t time we rethink the movie image of the extraterrestrial? How do they cross the vastness of space when all they can voice is some sort of high pitched whine? Why must they be mutated insects? And the slobber; what must the deck of the spaceship be like with all these aliens drooling continuously? At what point will it be impossible for them to move about with the thickening mucous on the floor? Do they need to spend an enormous amount of resources on cleaning supplies? And that is just under the influence of gravity. What happens in the zero gravity of space? All that slime is floating around the spaceship. Does it gum up the instrument? How do they keep the space in the spaceship from filling up? Does it ruin visibility? Is the reason they’re invading earth sponges?

Republicans don't belong to an organized party

It is fascinating to watch the Republican Party slowly destroy itself. It cannot seem to help itself. They cannot compromise on the budget. In particular, they will not increase revenues through taxation even though the percentage of revenue through taxes is the lowest it’s been in about sixty years. It may be noted that it did nothing to ameliorate the recent recession and may very well have been a contributing factor.

Their slate of potential candidates is nothing short of embarrassing too. Multiple choice Mitt Romney admits that he is ignoring the economic definition of recession. He does this because he believes the American people cannot understand it and it is contradictory to his current message. Apparently he cannot explain it to the American voters either. The only remotely interesting thing about Mitt is how he keeps that finger, which he keeps moist and in the wind, from becoming chapped.

Michele Bachmann apparently failed historical geography and revolutionary war history about the founding fathers. But with the latter she has taken the Palin approach of denying she was wrong. But then again her Tea Party base seems to have not any use for facts either.

Newt Gingrich who objects to being quoted sets the moral tone for the group. He is currently a political consultant, probably specializing in how to deliver bad news to about to be former spouses and the like.

Tim Pawlenty is proud about shutting down the state government in Minnesota. Wow, don’t you wish he was president now. Jesse Ventura, Michele Bachmann and Pawlenty, how bad are the Minnesota winters? There is other stuff with Pawlenty, but I keep falling asleep.

The others are Herman Cain, Jon Huntsman, Gary Johnson, Thaddius Mc Cotter, Rick Santorum and, of course, Ron Paul. Quick which can run a pizza parlor?

The Iodine is coming!

I made the mistake of watching the local television news last night. The lead story was that there was a trace of radioactive Iodine detected in rain water (a puddle?) in Massachusetts. Then the news cut to the weatherman, presumably to give the story a proper scientific vetting, who explained that the radioactivity released from the Japanese reactors finds its way into the upper atmosphere where some of it gets caught up in the jet stream. The radioactivity is then carried across the Pacific Ocean, beneath Alaska and across the continental US to the East coast of the US. But the weatherman assures us, it is okay in the near term because no rain is expected for the next few days. We are saved! Or at least our demise is delayed. And what is the effect on our water supply? Officially, it is undetectable! In the air by the rain water? Undetectable!

Please, this is the lead news story? Perhaps worth a mention as an add-on to the proper news update of the tragedy in Japan, but the lead, the most important thing that we need to know for the day? Whatever happened to the phrase journalistic responsibility? Did the editors (I am making an assumption here) debate whether that was the lead or the imminent danger of an escaped cobra in a zoo over two hundred miles away?

Day Light Savings Time

It’s Daylight Savings Time. I often wonder what fool or politician, likely same thing, thought this up. You usually hear two reasons. Firstly, it benefits the farmer who now does not have to get up in the dark to tend to the chores. Here the farmer has let down the politicians badly. After decades, they, as a group, have failed to teach the animal and plant life to tell time by the clock. They persist on arranging their days around the rising and setting of the sun. How rude!

The second reason proffered is that school children now do not have to come home from school in the dark. However, they just have to go to school in the dark. Moreover, the same politicians want the school children to spend more of their day in school. So what is the benefit exactly?

Clearly, the benefit is that the politicians can provide the illusion, or delusion, that they can control time and dole it out to their constituents as evidence of the politician’s benevolence. How do the fundamentalists square this with the belief that only God can create and bestow time? Are they blasphemers?

Random Observations or Politics

Recently President Obama called for a renewed focus on education, particularly mathematics and science. At the same time politicians of all stripes are arguing over the budget and each seems to have its own set of numbers. Perhaps the renewed focus on mathematics should be on addition and subtraction so that there is some common ground on what the budget is exactly. But then again mathematics is short hand logic, which is anathema to a politician, particularly when manipulation is available. Worse still, there is only one right answer.

Back to the political debate: folks are always taking contradictory polls. It might be informative for the pollsters to ask our representatives (the inclusive small ‘r’) in Washington, what exactly they think the words, “general welfare and commonwealth” mean?

This morning in the Boston Sunday Globe, Ms. Vennochi asked a question that bears repeating. After his recent revelation about childhood abuse, how did Senator Brown endorse a candidate who had credibly been accused of ignoring the sexual abuse of a fourteen year old girl? Is this an after-effect of Brown’s original abuse?

Isn’t pseudo-science just grand?

The world of the zodiac has been turned upside down, or, at least, tilted on its axis. It apparently was discovered that the constellations have shifted since the signs were originally calculated because the earth has tiled on its axis.

I admit I do not know the intricacies of my sign. Its symbol shows fish chasing themselves in a circle, which it not the way I perceive myself – although others might. Or perhaps it is a schizophrenic trying to reintegrate itself. That may make sense.

I do read my horoscope most days. It’s on the same page as the crossword and Sudoku. If it indicates something positive, “Damn straight! Of course it’s right.” If it indicates something negative, “You telling me some planet or star or handful of cosmic dust imprints me with a personality because of its electromagnetic-gravitational field from hundreds of light years away more than the metal frame of the building?” Although it would be nice to have something to blame. Most of the time though the horoscope just makes no sense to me whatever. Now I have a reason. I’ve been looking at the wrong sign. I ratcheted back one and followed that one for a few days. Unfortunately I got the same result.

But the seers of the zodiac say that they have been aware of the problem and have been using a multidimensional fudge factor in their differential personality predictive equations. Besides, they say the problem is mostly not relevant because we here in the Occident don’t use a ‘sidereal zodiac’ (side + real), but a ‘tropical zodiac.” That explains it. I wasn’t born anywhere the tropics. Isn’t pseudo-science just grand?

Fourth Night

I went again to First Night in Boston and had a delightful time. For less than $20 I saw a several anime cartoons in the afternoon; attended a ‘procession,’ so called I suspect because it is half organized and half sort of not organized, not really a classic parade; had many excellent choices of classical music, contemporary music, jazz, dance performances, storytelling, early fireworks of the younger children, midnight fireworks and standup comedy. There were thousands of well behaved people, likely because there is no alcohol allowed, wandering through Boston, enjoying themselves. Frequently there were multigenerational families and familiar faces from First Nights of the past. It is a terrific way to spend an evening.

So I was thinking this First Night was fairly temperate, previous ones have been quite cold and still well attended, but why wait a year for the next one? Perhaps we can have a Fourth Night in July, when it is warm. It can be held on the third of July so as not to interfere with cookouts and the Pop Esplanade concert. After all First Night is on the last night of the year, so Fourth Night can be on the third night of July. Just thinking.