March 30, 2006

Do something useless, or be more like God and wish them the best of luck.

Praying for other people to recover from an illness is ineffective, according to the largest, best-designed study to examine the power of prayer to heal strangers at a distance.

The study of more than 1,800 heart bypass surgery patients found that those who had other people praying for them had as many complications as those who did not. In fact, one group of patients who knew they were the subject of prayers fared worse.

The long-awaited results, the latest in a series of studies that have failed to find any benefit from "distant" or "intercessory" prayer, came as a blow to the hopes of some that scientific research would validate the popular notion that people can influence the health of others even if those people don't know someone is praying for them.
[Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients - Washington Post - 03-30-06]

March 28, 2006

After breaking fire codes with close to 70 other cramped Murfreesboro residents at the dilapidated offices of the DMV, I now have my TN drivers license. I didn't trust that my voter registration form would make it to the Registrar's office before the March 31 deadline, so I took it with me.

"Can I help you?" I looked around the office right off the town square and couldn't see anyone. "Can I help you?" An elderly woman pecking away on a keyboard and squinting through the bottom of her glasses at the screen seemed occupied. I wasn't sure whether the faint voice was hers or someone in the back on the phone. When I didn't answer again, she turned slowly, looked over her glasses and repeated herself.

I apologized and handed her the form I was given at the DMV and explained how I thought I should hand deliver it to make it before the upcoming deadline. She barely glanced at my driver's license and then told me how wonderful the ladies at the DMV are. I couldn't help but to think she had to be kidding, and then realized she was right. The entire office was exclusively women. All seven of them, seeming to pause before calling the next person as though they weren't about to go any faster than the slowest worker. In fact, nearly the entire time I was being helped, the lady running the terminal to my right stared at her blank Windows desktop opening and closing the same program, pretending to be busy for at least a full two minutes before calling the next person.

It wasn't until that moment that it dawned on me. I haven't seen a single government office yet with a single man working there. Even my bank was 100% female. So was the temp agency. Weird.

She gladly took the form and told me I will receive my registration in the mail before the May 2 primaries.

I love maps. They were all over the walls. As the lady working in the registrar's office was cutting the top portion of my form off on which I had scribbled the phone numbers for the hard to reach, hard to find, nearly non-existent local Democratic party (try to find any information online), I asked her if she had precinct maps.

"Oh, we're no longer in the map business," she said tersely. "We used to, but we don't give people those maps anymore." When I asked her how a voter would go about educating themselves on the district and precinct boundaries, she quickly jumped in and told me my card would tell me where to vote.

"I'm sure it will, but will it tell me what area my precinct encompasses in order to organize politically?" Perplexed, she looked at me and then told me where the maps were.

"OK, listen, what you need to do is go outside, around the corner to the planning commission office. But I'm warning you right now, it's going to cost you a lot of money." I paused expecting her to tell me, but had to ask.

"You're looking at at least $35, and that's just for one map."

March 22, 2006

This study followed 95 people through 20 years of their life. The study first noted their behavior as toddlers. Twenty years later, those studied supported the finding that children observed as whiney brats 20 years ago mostly identify as "conservatives" while resilient, self-reliant children tended to be liberal.

How are older conservatives reacting to this study? Whining, crying, name calling tantrums...

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The study from the Journal of Research Into Personality isn't going to make the UC Berkeley professor who published it any friends on the right. Similar conclusions a few years ago from another academic saw him excoriated on right-wing blogs, and even led to a Congressional investigation into his research funding.

But the new results are worth a look. In the 1960s Jack Block and his wife and fellow professor Jeanne Block (now deceased) began tracking more than 100 nursery school kids as part of a general study of personality. The kids' personalities were rated at the time by teachers and assistants who had known them for months. There's no reason to think political bias skewed the ratings — the investigators were not looking at political orientation back then. Even if they had been, it's unlikely that 3- and 4-year-olds would have had much idea about their political leanings.

A few decades later, Block followed up with more surveys, looking again at personality, and this time at politics, too. The whiny kids tended to grow up conservative, and turned into rigid young adults who hewed closely to traditional gender roles and were uncomfortable with ambiguity.
[How to spot a baby conservative - Toronto Star - 3-21-06]

March 15, 2006

bills meet shredder

shredded bills meet vegetable scraps

bills and scraps meet worms

vermicast (worm poop) meet dirt

dirt meet green grass

March 14, 2006

Thirty minutes or so down Route 231 is a small worm farm ran by Delbert and Vonda called Tennessee Crawlers. Delbert warned me that if I needed directions once I got into the "holler" leading to his house that I might not have a signal to call.

With that, I took detailed notes that took me down winding roads where I had to stop and honk at a cow to move it out of the way. Delbert gave great directions, and I soon arrived at an old, small farm house deep in the hills of Tennessee.

I honked the horn as I pulled up and met Vonda, who took me to a back room littered with packages she was about to drop in the mail for a business she still runs in Texas. Delbert soon joined, and we talked for about 30 minutes about worm farming before making our way about a mile up the road to a small burned house with an abandoned car that Delbert bought to start his worm farm business over 5 years ago.

When we pulled up to the property, Delbert had me pull the Jeep closer to a barn door where he'd load a few bags of vermicast I had come to buy. Before he loaded the bags, he took me on a tour of the barn, picking up on my genuine interest in the entire process. After a tour, Delbert talked more openly about his experiences as a worm farmer, shared some wisdom, and then sent me on my way. Without realizing it, we had spent nearly two hours talking.

After receiving our own vermicomposting bin and one pound of worms, Vince and I have been very excited about turning our vegetable scraps, compost, junk mail, newspaper and cardboard into a rich and chemical free lawn and garden fertilizer alternative. After the recent warm weather, there is a fine mist of green grass across our yard. With "top soil" made of clay, we had a choice to keep the lawn healthy. We can wait for the vermicomposting system to generate its first batch of vermicast, or we could go ahead and buy some and jump start the process. That's where Delbert came in.

March 11, 2006

before

after

March 10, 2006

American hostage Tom Fox is dead, and part of Rush Limbaugh really likes this.

Yeah, all right. Now, let's take this at face value just for a moment. This could all be BS. I mean, we've never heard of the Swords of Righteousness Brigade. This could all be a stunt, but let's take it -- well, let's take it both ways. We'll take it face value at first, then we'll look at it as a stunt second. I said at the conclusion of previous hours -- part of me that likes this. And some of you might say, "Rush, that's horrible. Peace activists taken hostage." Well, here's why I like it. I like any time a bunch of leftist feel-good hand-wringers are shown reality.
[Rush Limbaugh - Media Matters Transcript - 11-29-05]

March 09, 2006

March

March 08, 2006

define the space

remove obstacles

lay foundation

make way

March 08, 2006

Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) has a choice. Sen. Frist can either stand with America's interests and allow the U.S. Senate to vote on the Dubai port deal or stand with corporate interests and buy time for a government-owned Dubai company's attempt to run some of our nation's ports.

In an election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations.

By 62-2, the Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. Bush has promised to veto any such measure passed by Congress, but there is widespread public opposition to the deal and the GOP fears losing its advantage on the issue of national security in this fall's elections.

As the panel acted, Democrats on the other side of the Capitol were clamoring for a vote on the same issue in the GOP-led Senate.

"We believe an overwhelming majority will vote to end the deal," said Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, whose attempt to force the issue to the floor brought the Senate to a late-afternoon standstill.

By its vote, the House committee attached the ports language to a must-pass $91 billion measure financing hurricane recovery and wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The full House could consider that measure as early as next week.
[House Committee Votes to Block Ports Deal - Washington Post - 03-08-06]

March 08, 2006

I don't know about you, but when the House passes legislation next week banning a government-owned company in the United Arab Emirates from running our nation's sea ports, I'll be watching my Senator, Bill Frist (R-TN).

I hope Sen. Frist quickly brings the legislation to the floor of the Senate and doesn't stonewall the American people's business or short-change our national security in favor of a business deal with a government-owned multi-national corporation.

Since the Dubai port issue exploded last month, the Bush administration, GOP leaders and DP World officials have tried to defuse the situation and to buy time to let the issue fade.

In a deal brokered by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), DP World resubmitted its acquisition this week to the administration for a 45-day national security investigation. Frist has said he will hold off any legislation in the Senate until that inquiry is completed, a vow meant to give the administration and the company a chance to present their case.

That agreement appears to have quieted calls in the Senate for immediate action against the deal. Sen. Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), an early critic of the deal, said briefings by port security experts and company officials have eased his concerns. But House Republican aides and Senate Democrats said the Senate will almost certainly have to follow once the House acts.
[House Agrees To Vote On Ports - Washington Post - 03-08-06]