GENERALLY WE DO A PITIFULLY POOR JOB OF SELECTING PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES

Patrick Buchanan (Wikipedia)"American conservative political commentator, author, syndicated columnist, politician and broadcaster. Buchanan was a senior advisor to American presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan, and was an original host on CNN's Crossfire. He sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1992 and 1996. He ran on the Reform Party ticket in the 2000 presidential election.

He co-founded The American Conservative magazine and launched a foundation named The American Cause.[1] He has been published in Human Events, National Review, The Nation and Rolling Stone. He is currently a political commentator on the MSNBC cable network including the show Morning Joe and a regular on The McLaughlin Group."

The Conservative rigidity has oft been analyzed so I won't bother to repeat all the findings on that subject. However, it is one thing to believe things firmly that have not been clearly proven otherwise, and another to fly in the face of all the proof that is needed for most intelligent individuals to be comfortable in taking a supportive position. For this reason, why Pat Buchanan has been snookered into believing that Darwin did not make astonishingly, accurate discoveries about evolution, is most difficult to understand. If we do understand the reason, then we must shudder at the minds that permeate politics and running the country. Buchanan is certainly not the only politician/presidential-advisor/speech writer or any number of other tasks influential to Presidents, who can be ridiculed for blindness to reality, easily taken in by those who untruthfully think they can prove facts by simply making up lies and having them published as facts.

In an article by PZ Myers (Pharyngula) an article was written titled "Old Fossil Takes on Darwin, He is apparently inspired by a "splendid little book," The End of Darwinism: And How a Flawed and Disastrous Theory Was Stolen and Sold, by a creationist crank named Eugene G. Windchy. You can read the full article here.

EVOLUTION DOES NOT ALWAYS PLAY BY THE SAME RULES

Evolution is one of the most poorly understood phenomena in Nature. We know one rule, survival of the fittest. But here we fall into assumptions. We have believed that the fittest will always be the largest and strongest, but Nature knows better. Sometime less is better as in the case of the Soay sheep in Scotland. Because the smallest ones survive the winters there better, it has been observed that the sheep have shrunk 5% since 1985. As scientists make that observation, I cannot help but wonder if there aren't some other significant factors. Has the food available changed significantly. What other factors might be at play. Perhaps those who made the conclusion know what they are not sharing, if there may be anything at all.

This kind of research is extremely difficult because there cannot be strict control of the variables. Regardless of how and why it is happening, the fact remains that the sheep that survive have shrunk 5% in 23 years. For more details and the full BBC article, look here.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL: ERROR IN THINKING

Not a lot in life makes me choleric but the 'one-size-fits-all' approach to anything, especially to women, really does. It can be seen in marketing, "What appeals to women?"; "What do women seek in a man?"; "What entertainment appeals to women?" Does it occur to people who do polls that there is no way to get all women to agree to ANYTHING!? If there were, there would have been no Phyllis Schlafly


Phyllis Schlafly single-handedly did more to hold back the feminist movement than many men did. She supported women who wanted to hold onto the traditional role of women being inferior, protected by and submissive to their husbands, those women who had no clue that marriage and adoption are not one and the same. As the feminist movement started, a few abandoned their children in their search to find themselves, while others decried that violation of motherhood. However, the feminist movement continues today, despite Schlafly's misreading of many bright women who could not tolerate being stifled by a world three feet tall for long and a husband who had no idea what it was that upset his wife nor a willingness to hear the explanation. These woman have brought up sons who did listen to them and to the women they later met in school and on dates. Life has changed to the point that men go through the birth of their children with their wives; couples now say "We're pregnant". Most men have modified the chauvinism of the previous generation and marriage has become a partnership, further proving that not all men think the same.

Just as, in Washington, not all Republicans of today, or Democrats, vote the same as the rest of their party. Only the impotent legislature of the GW Bush era went in lock step with a one-size-fits-all vote. Hopefully many of those have now been voted out of office.

While 'what is good for the goose is good for the gander' may work with geese because they can't complain to us, we do know that it cannot be true for humans and those writers who try to make it seem so have just not done their homework properly.

WHERE WAS I WHEN INTEGRITY BECAME EXTINCT?

Governor Mark Sanford seems to be the latest casualty by the call of middle-age sex, disregarding marital vows, his own campaign promises, and the Republican party's platform, (the family values the Republicans claimed to have which they accuse the Democrats of lacking). When it was harmful to the country, time and energies got locked onto Clinton's indiscretion, The Republicans somehow managed to justify to themselves that Clinton was a threat to family, credibility, and probably the survival of all mankind...they were so vehement in their zeal to destroy him.

While we no longer see Dr. Ruth on the talk shows, I ask where is her perspective when we need it. Dr. Ruth always prescribed do-it-yourself kits for those who needed them. Responsible sex should be practiced by all politicians, one would think. Discretion might also be handy. Practicing what they preach would be a lovely start, if they could understand the concept.

The truth is, there may be many whose interest is purely prurient but the more responsible media folk have focused on his lack of trustworthiness and the degree of unattractiveness with which that flavors a political candidates future. Lest we become too interested in the tawdry details, we must be sure to ask ourselves, "What do we really want in our leaders?" I for one ask relatively little. I'd like our leaders to be intelligent, honest, trained for the job they are undertaking, and perform it with sterling ethics and unblemished integrity. I would like our leaders to be role models...in fact, it is quite impossible to find many of those in public service these days. So far, Obama has proven himself to be a man who is still in love with his wife, a good and responsible father who enjoys being with his daughters, and a brilliant lawyer. He surrounds himself with smart people who, hopefully, lead normal sex lives for their gender preference. So far he is working hard and successfully at his job, in my opinion, though it is certain there will be those who disagree. Regardless, he is here to stay for another three years, so suck it up and let's move forward with hope, fellow Americans.

FINDING FREE SOFTWARE

If one has all the patience of Job, there is free software on the Internet to equal almost any of the paid programs out there. However, marketers and web masters have teamed to thwart the public at every turn. They lead us down the primrose path that snake oil salesman have used forever and pull the old bait and switch on us.

Many who advertise a free program turn out to be free for 30 or some such days, after which the trial ends and the user pays the piper. It seems that is a favorite trick of lots of businesses. Verizon loves to make free offers such as three months of free HBO and movie package. You will be charged up front with money back when you cancel. However, if you fail to phone to cancel before that time is up, you will be charged for the amount you used before you contacted them to drop the offer.

Shelley Emblad, from About.com writes: "The Internet abounds with free software and cheap software offerings for Quicken, Microsoft Money and other personal finance software packages. Are these free or cheap software offers for real?"..."Most offers for free or cheap software end with one or more of these results:

* Your email address or other personal information is harvested for future promotions.

* You complete the order screen only to find extreme shipping costs.

* You find that you've purchase OEM software.

* You bought an illegal pirated copy of software and have broken the law.

* You bought counterfeit software which looks like the software you want but is incomplete or contains malicious programming which is illegal, destroys your data and causes system problems.

* You bought software stolen from a retail establishment or warehouse.

None of this is worth the cost savings. While the top-selling financial software packages can be pricey, keep in mind that you have options to the high-priced financial software packages which may meet your needs."

In January of 2007, the FTC halted a 'free software CD' scam. As though it hasn't been dangerous enough to keep from being scammed, the pressure has gone up since the economy has tanked.

READ THE BOOK OR WAIT FOR THE MOVIE?

When The Devil wears Prada was published, I read the book. For whatever my brain was doing to me, I decided I didn't want to see the movie. Tonight I have been watching the movie on TV, long enough after reading the book that I didn't recall parts of it until I saw what followed. The end result is that I really enjoyed reading that book more than the movie.

This puzzled me because it is not at all the way I felt reading Lord of the Rings by Tolkien. Despite really finding the books wonderful to read, written with clear word pictures so that it was easy to place myself just where Tolkien wanted me, I still enjoyed the movies probably just as much. It took me some time to compare some books I liked as movies and those I did not. The ones I liked were able to translate all that sensitive word picture ability onto the screen. That is more easily done about places and things but difficult to do with the thought processes of characters. I presume that whoever wrote the film script really felt the words and word pictures in the book. When Directors take great liberties with the plot, it offends me as I am offended when great singers (with their mesmerizing voices) take liberties and sing their own lyrics or ad lib the melody. Some of us, who love that which the composers and lyricists did, are disappointed not to see the sunset through the eyes of the writer, or feel love with all the emotions felt by recipient to the words and actions of the person expressing it, regardless of the musical genre.

As with most creations, those with little talent take someone else's work and mutate it to fit their lesser talent...rarely do they make it over the bar set by those who gestated the prototype. I shall continue to read and watch and live with my opinions.

HISTORY OF THE ROMANCE NOVEL

Someone, thoughtfully sent me a copy of The Natural History of the Romance Novel, having been interested enough to have read why I like them and read them now that I am a senior, never having had time to read them before. The author, is Pamela Regis, who writes in the preface that the romance novel is the 'most popular, least respected literary genre'. Her 'works cited' appendix makes clear that many people have wondered the same question...why are so many read and so few people (mostly women) ashamed to admit it?

The authors description of the book can be found at this site. While there are many authors whose books reach the NY Times best seller list, they rarely get reviewed.

Meanwhile, I will continue to read them until I pass through this phase of my life. Working at trying to keep my cortisol levels down has never been part of my daily routine. When they were up, there was not even a conscious thought as to what I was doing. Reading was limited to that which was professionally necessary and otherwise educational and informative. Now my luxury is to read only what I enjoy. The educational part is that I can enjoy feeling good and that reading romance novels gives me some control of the connection between what I read and what my body does about it.