Origin of Species - Point, Counterpoint and Examination

I was having my morning coffee the other day and on the cup was the following deep thought.

Darwinism’s impact on traditional social values has not been as benign as its advocates would like us to believe. Despite the efforts of its modern defenders to distance themselves from its baleful social consequences, Darwinism’s connection with eugenics, abortion and racism is a matter of historical record. And the record is not pretty. -- Dr. Jonathan Wells Biologist and author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Darwinism and Intelligent Design. (#224)

It was a good thing that I had actually finished drinking because I probably would have choked on the spot. While my mouth was spitting invectives against Dr. Wells, my mind was wondering how someone, who could have spend enough time in an institute of higher education to get a PhD in Biology no less could even think those thoughts with a straight face, let alone commit them to paper? Personally, I like the Way I See It program that Starbucks is running. Most of the time, the comments are insightful or playful or bring a smile to your face as you see exactly what the author is driving at. This was not one of those. This brought out the full wrath of indignation and a trip to the dictionary as well as my bookshelf.

To begin, I had to look up what eugenics was. As a Biologist, Dr. Wells should know very well that selective breeding, whether for dominant characteristics or to prevent defects has been around for millenniums and predates Darwin's theory quite significantly. While properly applied to human breeding, the term may be new, but hardly a new concept. Human have been selectively breeding themselves since the first man and women decided to "'ava a go?" Whether it is for hips to carry or pleasant face, man as an animal has been choosing his mates carefully. Only now, with the help of technology can this choice be reduced to pure science instead of the slightly randomness of gut reactions.

I have a hard time tying racism to Darwin, but this is where the trip to the bookshelf will hopefully pay off. You see, I have a copy of Origin of Species and I was going to read it after I finished Aristotle, but I think I will move it to the top of the pile and see if I can find even a glimmer of a thread of a connection between racism and Darwin. Somehow I think I will find it another stretch.

So, imagine my surprise this morning to find this on my cup:

Evolution as described by Charles Darwin is a scientific theory, abundantly reconfirmed, explaining physical phenomena by physical causes. Intelligent Design is a faith-based initiative in rhetorical argument. Should we teach I.D. in America’s public schools? Yes, let’s do it – not as science, but alongside other spiritual beliefs, such as Islam, Zoroastrianism and the Hindu idea that the Earth rests on Chukwa, the giant turtle. -- David Quammen Author. His books include The Song of the Dodo and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin. (#220)

George Carlin once commented that some 95% of the species that have inhabited the planet Earth are extinct. Even if the percentage is not correct, it is sufficient to say that a large percentage are extinct. Further, it is probably statistically correct to say that we will never find evidence of their existence. This makes finding the missing link an even more improbable task. We have enough problems reconstructing the histories of 1000 years ago. To try and figure out the functional biology that got us from muck to man is little more than a guessing game based on "this looks good" and a few wild hunches that have paned out over time (or were actually documented - see Aristotle again, and a couple of his cohorts).

Darwin's own theories will be an interesting read and I will comment on them as I get to them. I expect that my general disdain for the so called Theory of Intelligent Design will only be reinforced. After all, if we were designed, you would think the designer would have found ways to make us easier to maintain.

A Minor Correction - A Moral Resposibility

I want to clear up one little flaw in my argument from last night. A minor thing really, but large in its glaring necessity.

The United States does have a moral responsibility to remain in Iraq only if the goal is to repair the mess they made by invading a sovereign nation without cause and justification only if it is also the will of the Iraqi people. Many will (and have) argued that the common Iraqi on the street "welcomes the US soldiers."

Of course, as anyone could tell you, the common Iraqi on the street has no more influence of the social and political direction than does the so-called dually elected government of Iraq or the Congress of the United States.

Therefore, lacking the will of the Iraqi people, those that have control of the social and political direction of the country, the United States lacks any moral justification to remain in the country, for doing so would also be an admission that the government of the United States, under the current administration made a mistake, and that is an admission that President George W. Bush will never make.

A Moral Responsibility Mr. Bush?

Bush Demands Clean War Funding Bill Mar 28th - 6:29pm By DAVID ESPO AP Special Correspondent WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress lurched toward a veto showdown over Iraq on Wednesday, the commander in chief demanding a replenishment of war funding with no strings and Speaker Nancy Pelosi counseling him, "Calm down with the threats." (WTOP)

The President of the United States said something to the effect that the US had a moral responsibility to see the war through to the end. This is a crock.

The war in Iraq, started under the false pretense of preventing the transfer of weapons of mass destruction from being transferred from the Iraq government through direct links to Al-Queda and defeating terrorism, has resulted in close to 3,000 deaths over four years. And to what end? Let's look at the salient points:

First: There has never been a link between the former government of Iraq under Saddam Husein and any terrorist group, much less Al-Queda. This came out in the reports of the September 11 Commission as well as other sources.

Second: There were never any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Both the United Nations and the military forces of the United States and the United Kingdom have proved that.

Third: The moral responsibilities of the United States should be carefully examined when they are spouted forth from the mouth of the current President.

Frankly, I am appalled, both at the elected members of the Congress as well as the President of the United States. Today, Speaker Pelosi actually told the President to put a sock in it and it is about time.

There as been so much FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) coming out of the White House since September 11, 2001, that the nation has almost been gripped in a bad guy mentality to the exclusion of all else. This has got to stop. I feel sorry for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, I really do, but from a statistical perspective, 3000 dead is a trivial number. I don't mean to belittle the deaths of those soldiers, but since the troops went to war, the very freedoms that they took for granted have been slowly whittled away in the name of security while they are supposedly overseas fighting to maintain for the United States (if you listen to the President) as well as to instill a democracy in a country that is in the middle of a religious and multi-ethnic civil war which would not have started if the United States had not invaded Iraq in the first place.

If we want to look at the morality of the issue in terms of overall deaths, consider that 3000 troops have lost their life over the last four years, or less that 1000 per year. In Vietnam, some 58,000 died or some 6000 a year (assuming a 9 year war), in World War 2, some 400,000 died or a little less than 100,000 per year. So the actual troop costs are low. But if you want to put it in perspective, on the roads in 2003, according the Department of Transportation, 40,000 people died or 3,359 per month. If the President of the United States has a moral responsibility, should it not be to the soldiers and people of the United States?

People are dying in the United States at a rate that makes the war in Iraq look like a trivial occupation. Again, this is not meant to disrespect the troops. Families are torn apart, businesses are failing because the sole proprietors are overseas. There is no moral responsibility to see this through to the end. Bring the troops home and begin to focus on the real issues within the borders of the United States. Then talk to the people about a moral responsibility.

On Censorship

"No one has a right not to be criticized or offended." -- Jonathan Rauch as quoted in The Language Police (pg. 161)

I think I have found my saying. One of the reasons this is being mentioned is because of Rauch's book Kindly Inquisitors being referenced as the author is questioning the education system's right to censor. Whether this is a discussion about cutting offensive material out of text books or "diversity trainers instructing workers and students about the language that they should and should not express." Rauch says that "[n]o one has the right to be spared sacrilege...."

Personally I think this is a crystal clear lens that needs to start replacing the funky coloured ones this nation and others have been busy looking through.

Ready or Not, Real ID just blew your budget.

Governors' $1B Real ID request may be just the start By William Welsh The nation’s governors asked the House Budget Committee this week to provide a minimum of $1 billion in fiscal 2008 to cover initial state implementation of the controversial Real ID Act. (GCN)

And so it begins. Make no mistake, the RealID program is going to be a costly and difficult program for the States to administer, just because the Federal government cannot get a National ID plan through the Congress. As I have argued ever since this plan was first introduced, the United States already has a national ID. It is called a passport. Every nation has one and the requirements for getting one are fairly strict.

What the RealID act is supposed to resolve is the verification process behind a driver's license. The problem is that a driver's license is nothing more than a permit issued to an individual that entitles them to the privilege of driving a car. Like the Social Security number, it was not intended for any other purpose. It was not designed to identify someone, be used to verify their age, address or immigration status. For each of these purposes, there are documents, some good and some not so good that will accomplish the same thing. The goal of the RealID is little more than an end-run to establish a national ID. If this is what the Congress wants, then the Congress needs to procure the funds, set up the system interconnects and manage the project like it should be managed.

A billion dollars is not even going to scratch the surface for one state, let alone a national system. And when there are so many other things that really could use the money, I have to ask if this is even close to being the best use of funds.

Vista Is Not Where I Want To Go Today, Thanks.

[W]ith the hardware upgrades, the cost of Windows Vista and the need to update or upgrade software for compatibility reasons, your move to Vista could be pricey. (ComputerWorld)

I would encourage anyone who is even thinking about upgrading to Windows Vista to look at this article and consider the total cost of ownership of the operating system. Normally, I find TCO to be just a wet dream of someone's imagination because they do ignore the key issues, but this article does a good job of enumerating the things you have to look out for. In fact, on the first page, the author makes this key point:

"The truth is that your average late-model Windows XP machine that wasn't of the bargain-basement variety will probably run Vista. The problem is that it might do so at the expense of one of the few primary reasons to upgrade to Vista -- the improved graphical user interface...There isn't enough that's compelling in Vista to skip this particular improvement."

Vista has nothing compelling other than a pretty new interface. And this is not all that should scare you. The author makes these hardware recommendations, which I can assure you are the sweet spot for Vista: "Intel (or comparable AMD) 1.8GHz (minimum) Pentium 4 CPU, 2GB of RAM, 80GB hard drive (60GB if you're clean installing) and a DVD drive, a DirectX 9 (or better) 3D graphics processor that supports 32 bits per pixel, and Pixel Shader 2.0. It must also be offered with a WDDM (Windows Vista Display Driver Model) driver and should support no less than 256 MB of RAM."

Truly, we have reached the end of the world when the RAM on our video card equals or exceeds the RAM in most PCs bought between 2000 and 2005 and are still functioning today! Sure they may not be the fastest machines on the planet but there is nothing functionally wrong with them or what they can do. You can still type email and document, surf the web and download pictures.

And then there are the issues of software incompatibility with Vista. Normally Microsoft goes out of its way to make sure there are plenty of compatible programs in the pipeline well before it releases an operating system. I have to wonder if this time they goofed, especially given the number of operations that are rapidly telling people they do not support Vista because X, Y, and Z programs will not work and are critical to their business or to be able to access their business.

I can honestly say that Vista may be the tipping point for a number of people to find an alternative to Vista, whether that translates to remaining on XP, or moving to another operating system like Linux or Mac OS. Apple, are you listening? The time has come to stop playing with toys and step up, or you might miss the best opportunity you have had in decades to be a real player in the market place.

Vista could become the operating system that doomed Microsoft. While it is unlikely, it is clear that this is not an operating system for the faint of heart or the cheap of wallet. I guess there might be something to that theory that the $200 PC was more than Redmond could handle.

How Ugly?

From the Department of Redundancy Department, in a stroll through my local mall at lunch time today, I was astounded to see a new store coming soon. This astonishment was rapidly replaced by incredulity as I noticed that the store was dedicated to cosmetics. Now, that begs the question. Just how ugly are the women in Virginia, that they need a cosmetics counter in each of the anchor stores of the mall (there are four), the drug store (one), a Sephora (newly renovated in a larger location), a Bare Escentuals (also coming soon and also sold at Sephora) and this new store. I guess we just need a M*A*C and we will be complete (of course, their cosmetics are sold at Macy's).

And the economists are wondering why the stock market cannot keep its value?

Did You Learn What You Think You Learned?

I have been wondering lately, in the wake of a number of "mis-steps" and flagrant violations of both the spirit and the letter of the law, what has happened to investigative journalism and, more importantly, the public's lack of ire with their body politic. Over the last several months, the nation has been treated to several examples (as if we needed more) of the current administrations inability to govern and their complete disregard for the laws of the land. Sadly, this is not a new trend. While I barely remember the hoopla that was Watergate (being 10 and living in Canada, it was not that big a deal to me at the time), I appreciated the issues. I do remember watching the Iran-Contra hearings with interest as well as following the impeachment trial of President Clinton. However, I am left almost speechless by the lack of any sort of outrage by the American people over the acts of their current government. From on-going illegal wiretaps to questionable use of intelligence to flagrant violations of the very Constitution they are supposed to be upholding, I am simply flabbergasted. Or at least I was. I am beginning to understand a little.

I am finishing up a book that I am sure Orwell would have enjoyed called the Language Police. While there are several poignant passages, I wanted to share a couple. These are in relation to the lack of reading standards in state curriculum for literature:

"It seems that many education officials are no longer willing to take responsibility for teaching the American cultural heritage or the cultural heritage of English-speaking people." (pg 126)

"The popular culture-making machine cares not one whit for taste and judgment but reaches insistently for the lowest common denominator, the point at which its purveyors can maximize their profit." (pg126).

For me, this begins to answer a number of questions about the current generation (that being those who went through school in the late 1980s and early 1990s). I was not exposed to the 'homogenization' (one might say the dumbing down) of literature. I was forced to read it and 'evaluate' it both for its merit and its value, as well as the pure literary content. In the current lash up that is the US education system, there appears to be so little controversy that I question how any cognitive thinking can occur. And if you cannot find controversy in the educational environment, how can you question cognitively the actions, both good and bad, of your government? It is '1984' all over again.

Health Care in the 21st Century

Doctor, 81, Keeps Arkansas Hospital Open Mar 12th - 5:55pm MURFREESBORO, Ark. (AP) - An elderly doctor has come out of retirement to keep the sole hospital in Pike County open after it lost a three-member medical staff. Dr. Hiram Ward, 81, who began his practice in the rural Arkansas county five years before Pike County Memorial Hospital was built in 1958, became the hospital's only medical staff member in January. (WTOP News)

This story highlights one of the most serious problems the United States is going to face in the coming years, that of health care at the local level. Already we are seeing problems in urban areas where ambulances are being turned away by hospitals that are at or near capacity, resulting in a risk to the patients life or well-being. Hospitals are undersized for the communities they are serving, communities that are full of uninsured patients, either because of immigration status or more realistically, occupational issues that do not allow them to be able afford or obtain medical coverage for themselves or their families. Rural areas are in even worse condition because the nearest hospital as illustrated here, may not have the staffing necessary to continue operations.

At a time with the United States is trying to lay down plans for how it will deal with an influenza pandemic or a disaster, be it natural or man-made, one has to wonder how hospitals, with little more than a dozen to two dozen bed surge capacity could even hope to handle the needs of community of 300,000. Much less an urban area of several million people.

Markets Tumble - You're Surprised?

Wall Street Heads for Lower Opening Mar 14th - 7:04am By TIM PARADIS AP Business Writer NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks headed for a moderately lower opening Wednesday after concerns about faltering subprime mortgage lenders sparked a broad selloff in stocks Tuesday. (WTOP News)

It should really not come as a surprise to anyone that the market is dropping. Some key indicators:

1) Housing: Most houses, especially on the edges of metro areas were grossly overvalued. It should not take two full time jobs at more than $75K per person to be able to afford and keep a home functioning. This only made it harder for those that were not so well off to get a home which leads to indicator 2

2) Gas Prices: With gas at and above $2 and not really likely to ever decline lower, commuting costs are taking a larger bite out of everyone's wallet. Forget the myth of telecommuting - 90% of employers expect their employees to have a butt in the chair in some office park that is not colocated with anything that resembles a housing development. Just look at the Sterling/Dulles, corridor, Tysons Corner or the Reston office metroplex and tell me that you can easily access these areas without a car or by mass transit, which leads to 3.

3) Too much driving: Because of our wasteful land use planning, we have to drive everywhere, which consumes gas, adds to wear and tear on our vehicles and our families and makes us question whether or not we really need to make that trip to and get that . Leading to 4.

4) Increased retail vacancies: A quick look around any community and you will find a large number of strip malls with "lost our lease/going out of business" signs in the window (or just "for lease") while across the street a NEW strip mall is either being build or proposed. How many mini-malls do we really need? Overall, even in the major malls, there are a number of empty stores that do not look like anyone is coming to fill anytime soon. At best, one retailer is moving into a "better" or "cheaper" location within the same mall. Again, how many malls do we really need, and do we really need them so close together?

5) Inflation: The US economy has so far managed to avoid a return to the gross inflation of the 1970s. Already the price of foodstuffs is moving higher, primarily caused by the cost of transportation, but it is also being seen in the retail markets. There are fewer "bargains" to be had because the margins were too thin to begin with. Inflation is beginning to creep into the mainstream where its affects are felt by everyone.

I think that time is up and the business cycle is going to start a very serious downturn that could make the early 1930s look civilized. Whether you call it a recession or a correction or what it really is - people deciding that they cannot afford to eat, shelter and drive AND buy the flat screen TV, the consumer economy that has been such a powerful engine is about to come to a catastrophic halt.

What Else Will Be Revealed?

White House mulled firing all prosecutors By LARA JAKES JORDAN and DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The chief White House lawyer floated the idea of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys at the start of President Bush's second term, but the Justice Department objected and eventually recommended the eight dismissals that have generated a political firestorm two years later. (YahooNews)

What is news about this story is that it has escaped the general blanket coverage that the Bush administration has tried to put over every illegal, immoral, or unethical action they have taken in their six years in office. These oozing sores will continue to appear as people begin to really look at the mess that the current administration has made, both of the Executive branch as well as the Office of the President. The Congress has not begun impeachment hearing, not because there is no evidence, but because doing so would be a waste of limited and precious resources that can be better spent fixing the mess that will continue to haunt this country for the next generation. Watergate was a minor traffic stop by comparison.

It Is Not Over Yet

CIA Leak Trial Winners and Losers Mar 7th - 4:37pm By MICHAEL J. SNIFFEN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Convicted of four felonies, "Scooter" Libby has to lead the list of losers in the CIA leak trial, but he's got company. His boss Dick Cheney didn't fare so well. Neither did the news media. (WTOP News)

If you expect me to crow and say "Finally, they got him," you will have a long wait I am afraid. All this trial did was deflect attention away from the on-going issues of the Bush White House. This was a sacrificial lamb thrown to keep the wolves busy so that other misadventures might be forgotten, or better, given a chance to fade from the short term memory of the American people. After all, this is an administration that has lied, cheated, broken dozens of laws, ignored or violated international treaties and continues to flaunt and treat with contempt the very Constitution they were sworn to uphold. The United States stands on the brink of a tyranny that people like North Korea's Kim, the late Saddam Hussein, or Qaddafi can only dream about.