Embryonic Stem Cell Research

I just read an article on the internet that the researcher who cloned Dolly the first cloned sheep is giving up embryonic stem cell research because the other types of stem cell research are more promising.
I hate to say it, but I was right. The Democrat party was only using Bush’s opposition to embryonic stem cell research as a political tool to use against him. Embryonic stem cell research was always a bad option.

Writely is great!

I write. I am trying to write something that is good enough to get published. I write at home and goof off and write at work. I really am not goofing off at work because I am one of the owner's and can, basically, do anything I want. My partners don't care if I goof off a little.
So I just figured out that if I use Writely I don't have to drag a laptop back and forth from home to work. I just sign in on Writely wherever I am.

Writely is great!

I understand more and more why people are the way they are. It makes me despair that the human condition will ever improve. The people who lead, all to often, are the ones who are the most mixed up and only care about power and nothing else. They especially don't care about who their polices, beliefs, actions hurt. They just care about their thoughts; their vision.

Right now it is popular to attack religion, especially Christianity, as a source of human suffering. The people who attack religion ignore the fact that the biggest mass murderers of recent times were either atheists, Mao, Stalin, Pol Pot, or a pagan, Hitler. Yes, Hitler many times said he was a pagan.

Mark Twain wrote something like, 90% of the people just want to be left alone and live their lives and that 10% of the people are the real activists who drive events. The late President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat took that idea one step further and wrote that as long as the 90% of the people in the center support the government, the 5% of the crazies on the right and the 5% or the crazies on the left can't overthrow it.

He was right. The only mistake he made was that he underestimated the level of violence the extremists were willing to use. That error cost him his life when they assassinated him, but the crazies did not succeed in overthrowing the Egyptian government.

My point is that there will always be crazies to the left and crazies to the right and we will never achieve heaven on earth.

Glaciers are melting

I met my son’s future in-laws last night. We got along, but during dinner, the subject of global warming came up. I said man-made global warming was nonsense. My son’s future father-in-law said glaciers are melting.

So what if glaciers are melting? I live near lake Michigan. A very big glacier dug out lake Michigan. Four other big glaciers dug out the other great lakes. Where are the glaciers? Where did they go?

They MELTED! So what? Glaciers melt. Glaciers grow. Glaciers flow downhill. Glaciers have been advancing and receding for millions of years.

WHERE’S THE PROBLEM?

Stem Cell Research Lies

There are four types of stem cell research that I know of.

The first is adult stem cell research. It works. It has helped cure many peoople’s health problems. It has a promsing future. Lots of private money is pouring into this type of research.

The second is umbilical cord stem cell research. It works. It has cured some people. It has a promising future. Lots of private money is pouring into this type of research.

The third and newest is amniotic fluid stem cell research. It is too new to have cured any diseases yet, but it has a promising future. Lots of private money is going into this type or research.

The fourth is embryonic stem cell research. It hasn’t cured anything yet. Politicians promote it. They say things like, ” It might have cured Christopher Reeve (An actor who played Superman. “Don’t you want Superman to walk again?”). A great deal of politically motivated tax dollars are being spent on it. Proponents of this type of research only care about beating up President Bush. No private money is going inoto this type of stem cell research, because it won’t work.

The minimum wage

Here we go again. The Democrats are demonizing the Republicans for not raising the minumum wage.

Raising the minimum wage is terrible for the economy and for poor people.

First of all, when you raise the minimum wage, many people lose their jobs. They lose their jobs becasue employers automate the jobs out of existence or move the business overseas.

Second, when you raise the minimum wage everyone else gets a raise. This is what Democrats really care about.

Lexapro

I take Lexapro. It was prescribed for me by my internist. I was on the verge of getting inflammatory bowel disease because of all the stress in my life, especially my wife’s serious health problems and a 6′ 2″ tall 20 year old son who is difficult. The Lexapro works.

It has settled my digestive system and it is on the mend.

I go to a website called drugs.com to look at the forums it has about Lexapro and other drugs. What confuses me is that so many people are on multiple psychotropic medications. Or they are serial users, going from one to another. Why are so many people on so many drugs?

As soon as my wife’s health problems are over and my digestive system heals I plan to get off of Lexapro.

Why do so many people need so many drugs? Alcohol is a non-prescription drug. So is nicotine. Even caffeine is a drug.

I watched a movie called “Thank you for smoking.” It was about the cigarette industry.

I’m sure there are a lot of people who would like to ban cigarettes the way we had alcohol prohibition in the USA.

What would happen if alcohol, nicotine and caffeine were banned? Would more people be on more prescription drugs?

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The Case for Polygamy

I work in a rather large business. Many of the women who work there are single mothers. Most of them tell me that they married the father of their children, but then got divorced because he turned out to be a jerk. The reasons are many, drugs, alcohol, violence, philandery, etc.

The point I want to make is that there are lots of good women looking for a good man and that there are not enough good men to available.

I am sure that many women, especially those stuck being single mothers would happily enter into a loving polygamous marriage to ease their economic and child raising burden with a husband and one or more other wives.

Which is better? A woman having burden of raising and supporting children on her own and requiring government assistance or her joining a polygamous marriage that is economically and emotionally self sufficient?

Government officials and the clergy want single mothers, because single mothers come to them for help. They don't want self sufficient family units.

Barney Frank is a Socialist

U.S. House of Representatives member Barney Frank is a Socialist. I saw him on television say that we should increase the inheritance tax on big estates becasue people don't deserve to inherit large amounts of money just because they have rich parents. He, also, said that it isn't fair for them to do it.

Like all socialists he uses the word fair. What does fair mean? Who determines what is fair? I am sure according to Frank and his ilk, elected public officials determine what is fair and they, of course, do it based on what it takes to get elected at the moment. For example, progressive tax brackets go up and down according to what politicians beleive that the voters feel the fair amount is at the time of an election.

Like all socialists he misses the point of inheritance. The point of it is to keep the investments and businesses going.

If you do the opposite and tax away the inheritance, then the government gets so much money that quite often the busiensses fail. It is very common for children not to have enough cash to pay for the tax bill of their parents estate, so they have to borrow large amounts of money to pay the bill. By government forcing the large scale borrowing with the investments and businesses as collateral you weaken those investmens and businesses and make it easier for them to fail. Family businesses, especially, are often ruined by the large debt that was created to pay the estate tax bill of the parents.

The more businesses fail, the more socialist politicians can say that capitalism has failed and what our country needs is socialism.

Men Want Sex

Advice to all women,

Men want sex.

If you believe God created us, then that is how He created us and that is reality. Deal with it.

If you believe in evolution, then that is how we evolved and that is reatlity. Deal with it.

If you deny reality, then you are the problem.

Politics and Gun Barrels

My wife and I had some fun Saturday night. We went out to dinner with friends. One couple, like us, were center to center right in our political points of view. The third couple was die hard liberal Bush haters. My friend, Sandy, started off the conversation by saying that he loves President Bush, and then he gave his reasons. The third couple had a look of shock and horror on their faces, then they started giving reasons why they didn't like Bush.

They started out with the economy. They claimed that they economy was terrible. My wife and I interrupted them and we started talking at the same time about how great the economy is. Federal, State and local government revenues are the highest ever. The total number of people working is the highest ever. The unemployment rate is very low. Inflation is low. We kept going on and on.

They complained about the Bush tax cuts. We countered that they stimulated the economy and made it grow. They complained about the war in Iraq; we said kill the terrorists on the streets of Baghdad or on the streets of New York.

What ever they said, we countered.

I am sure we lost two friends.

The important thing is that we had completely different points of view, and no matter how much we discussed politics, no matter how honestly we tried to present our points of view and back them up with facts, they couldn't change our opinions and we couldn't change theirs.

If friends who are U.S. citizens can't get each other to change their opinions in an honest and open discussion, how could the Palestinians and the Israels ever agree on anything? How could the Shiites and the Sunnis, who have hated each other for hundreds of years, maybe over one thousand years, settle anything by diplomacy?

Mao Zedong (also transliterated Mao Tse Tung) said in in 1954, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” I despair that we haven't learned anything since then.

The Right to Vote

Why are liberals the only people who have the ability exaggerate things to their political advantage. Take for example, the recent Bill in the House of Representatives that would take away from workers the right to vote in an election about whether or not they want a union to represent them.

Why didn't any conservative columnists take that awful concept and run with it? Why didn't conservative write:

"Today Speaker Pelosi and her Democrat party want to take away from workers the right to vote in an election about whether or not to have a union represent them. What is next?

Tomorrow they recind the voting rights act and take away the right of Afro-Americans to vote.

Then they recind women's suffrage and take the right to vote away from women.

After that they take away the right to vote from people who don't own property.

When will it end?"

Again, liberal columnists, writers, and reporters exaggerate all the time. Why don't conservatives?

The war is not lost.

Senator Harry Reid recently said that the war in Iraq is lost. The truth is that he doesn't care whether the war is won or lost. All he cares about is making statements that convince the 10% of his constituency who are the activists, the people who actually vote in a primary, that he agrees with them and that he is on their side. This is the wrong thing to do for two reasons.

First, leaders should lead. By only expressing the opinions that opinion polls tell him his constituents want to hear right now, Reid is abdicating any roll as a leader.
Leaders should lead. They should not just follow what the small number of people who actually participate in opinion polls say they want to hear. Only about 10% of the voters actually vote in primaries. They are the extreme activists. He should not only listen to them and the people polled.

inflation

People, especially elected public officials, who are in favor of inflation support things that cause it. A recent example is that the US Congress just raised the minimum wage.

Supporters of inflation lie and say things like the increase will only affect a few minimum wage workers. The truth is that tens of millions of union employees have written in their contracts that if the minimum wage goes up, they automatically get the same percentage in increase.

So if the minimum wage goes up 10%, union workers earning $20 per hour, get a raise to $22 per hour, union workers earning $30 per hour get a raise to $33 per hour, union workers earning $40 per hour, get a raise to $44 per hour, etc.

This starts wage price spiral. The costs of labor go up, so companies raise their prices to compensate for the increased cost. That makes the cost of living go up, so Congress raises the minimum wage to help ( as they claim) low wage workers. What really happens is that the increase gives a raise to well paid union members. This rasies to cost of doing business, so companies raise their prices, etc. etc,.

Politics and Faith

Conservatives base their politics on faith in an unseen god that they claim is perfect.

Liberals base their politics on faith in a well seen government that can never be perfect.

Both base their politics on faith.

Neither grounds their politics in reality.

Fair Trade Coffee

I am kind of right wing when it comes to economic matters. When I heard about Fair Traded Coffee, my automatic reaction was that a bunch of liberal do gooders are trying to screw up the market place. Most of the time when communists, socialists, liberals, do gooders think they know better than the market place, the results of what they do just makes things worse in the long run.

This time I think they are right. It is my opinion that Fair Traded, Organic, Shade Grown, Bird Friendly Coffee is the way to go. First let’s look at Fair Traded. Until the Fair Traded movement began, coffee growers were dirt poor and could barely feed their children, let alone accumulate capital. Large numbers of them in Columbia, for example, started growing coca plants used to make cocaine. They did it for economic reasons; They earned more money. They didn’t want to, but they had to feed their families. Fair Traded Coffee helps them earn enough money to keep them in the coffee business, not the drug business.

Crops grown with modern fertilizers require farmers to either spend their hard earned capital on manufactured fertilizers well before they sell their crop, or to borrow money and go into debt to buy the fertilizer. This is a huge financial risk for them. Organic farming uses local natural products that are either free or cheap to fertilize crops and is a much safer business decision for poor coffee growers.

Shade grown coffee is just that. It is grown surrounded by big shade trees that protect the coffee trees from the sun and wind. You get a bigger crop per coffee tree and better tasting coffee.

Bird friendly again is just that. Birds like to live in big, shade trees. When a farmer has lots of birds living in shade trees, they eat lots of insects, so the farmer has to use much less pesticides, or sometimes none at all. Either way he has to spend less of his capital to buy pesticides, or borrow less to pay for them, or maybe have no financial risk because he doesn’t have to buy any pesticides at all.

In conclusion, Fair Traded, Organic, Shade Grown, Bird Friendly, Coffee is the way to go.

Next let’s do it for chocolate.

Imperial English

I belong to a social bookmarking service called Stumbleupon and read a post on a fellow stumblers home page about Imperial English. He wrote something like he was worried about how Imperial English is becoming the second language of the world and is causing local languages to die out.

English is the best language for business, math, science, technology, medicine and a whole bunch of other things. Pilots and air traffic controllers speak english simply because it is the best language for aviation.

It is impossible to express many modern concepts in most languages. Can you imagine asking one of the most basic accounting questions, “Do you post your income and expenses to your general ledger on an accrual basis or a cash basis?” in the majority of the languages on earth? I’m sure it is impossible to explain the the difference between FIFO and LIFO accounting. Most English speaking people don’t even have the vocabulary or background to understand the question.

Another issue is the expense of publishing textbooks. It is much cheaper to teach students English and then buy textbooks written in English than to go through the very expensive process of writing the books in native languages (If it is even possible..) and then print the textbooks.

Go to www.worldwidewords.org and find the article about how many words there are in the English language. Depending on what you count as a distinct word, English might have as many as 2,000,000 words. No other language even comes close.

Let's have some fun. I am neither a mathematician nor a scientist, but we are having fun here. How about this description for a college course, "one of the things we will do during the course of our studies is to use statistics with calculus and trigonometric functions in the differential equations to calculate the probability of the instrumentation attached to the brand new Large Hadron Collider detecting an Higgs-boson particle." How many languages can you write that in 6? 5?

Another thing is that it is easy to import words from other languages into English. Henry Kissinger imported the French word detente, because the only way to express the concept in English is with the awkward phrase, a mutual relaxation of tensions.
In conclusion, it isn't any kind of imperialism that makes English the second language of the world. The reason is instead hard cold reality. English is the best language for most of the requirements of modern society.

In conclusion, it isn’t any kind of imperialism that makes English the second language of the world. The reason is instead hard cold reality. English is the best language for most of the requirements of modern society.

Where Bush went wrong.

What was the one big mistake President Bush made? I think it was to confuse the difference between how to act on a personal level and how to act on a national political level.

On a personal level it is enough just to do what is right; What is moral; What God expects from you. It says in the Bible, if a man strikes you turn the other cheek, that is supposed to apply only on a personal level. It does not apply on a national level. On a national level if another nation attacks you, you must fight back.

On a national level just doing what you think is right without consulting others will probably be interpreted as being haughty and arrogant. Politicians must listen to everyone and talk to everyone, that is where President Bush and Karl Rove made their mistake and lost both Houses of Congress. They decided they were doing the right thing and didn’t listen to anyone. They didn’t realize, therefore, that an unpopular war trumps all other issues.

President Washington visualized the different branches of government as working together. He pictured the President consulting with and working closely with both Houses of Congress. Bush didn’t, until he lost both Houses, then I saw him on television say that he was looking forward to working with the new majorities in the Houses of Congress.