12 Shia Imams

As demonstration of my ignorance, today I learned on the Diane Rehm show that there are 12 Shia Imams. Twelve. That reminded me of Battlestar Galactica and some Google searching turned up this interesting forum thread detailing how often 12 is used in culture.

Why only 12 Cylon models?

Tea - Is There Anything It Can't Do?

PhysOrg - Is a cup of tea really the answer to everything -- even anthrax?

(good to see they're keeping busy at Cardiff University)

Related news - Citrus juice, vitamin C give staying power to green tea antioxidants

For a refreshing beverage I often use a mixture of orange juice, iced green tea, and a spoonful of honey.

Obama Is In A Different League

This last week Senators McCain, Clinton, and Obama gave speeches about America's current economic problems. NPR.org has the story - In Their Own Words: Candidates on the Economy

McCain demonstrated little understanding of the issue and prefers a "watch the collapse" approach. He then praised GM for offering 0% financing after the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks "as part of keeping the economy growing" and thought the mortgage lenders should do something similar. That leaves me speechless.

Clinton mostly pandered to voters and attacked others in her speech.

Obama began by discussing the differences between Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton.

Hamilton met fierce opposition from Thomas Jefferson, who worried that this brand of capitalism would favor the interests of the few over the many. Jefferson preferred an agrarian economy because he believed that it would give individual landowners freedom, and that this freedom would nurture our democratic institutions. But despite their differences, there was one thing that Jefferson and Hamilton agreed on - that economic growth depended upon the talent and ingenuity of the American people; that in order to harness that talent, opportunity had to remain open to all; and that through education in particular, every American could climb the ladder of social and economic mobility, and achieve the American Dream.

In the more than two centuries since then, we have struggled to balance the same forces that confronted Hamilton and Jefferson - self-interest and community; markets and democracy; the concentration of wealth and power, and the necessity of transparency and opportunity for each and every citizen. Throughout this saga, Americans have pursued their dreams within a free market that has been the engine of America's progress. It's a market that has created a prosperity that is the envy of the world, and opportunity for generations of Americans. A market that has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discovery.

(this dichotomy is the quintessential essence of the American Idea as discussed in The Atlantic's November 2007 issue)

He then talks about the 200 year struggle between political power and economic power in context of the Great Depression and the New Deal. Then he discusses how the New Deal failed because it did not adapt.

In the end Senator Obama proposes a new framework for dealing with the housing crisis. I'm not sure the Pontiac driving public understands these nuanced and pragmatic arguments though; they're too busy staying uninformed.

If Senator Clinton continues with what is being called the Tonya Harding strategy Obama will become a monumental force in the Senate and could even overshadow a Hillary Clinton presidency.

Senator Clinton's Embellishment Problem

What compels someone to continually embellish stories that they do not have to?

IHT - Clinton backpedals on Bosnia landing

And this is only the latest in a long line of fibs. Just two examples are the Sir Edmund Hillary story; and the book about Buddy and Socks.

Clinton’s treatment of Socks cuts to the heart of the questions about her candidacy. Is she too cold and calculating to win the presidency? Or does it signify political invincibility by showing she is willing to deploy every weapon to get what she wants?

“In the annals of human evil, off-loading a pet is nowhere near the top of the list,” writes Caitlin Flanagan in the current issue of The Atlantic magazine. “But neither is it dead last, and it is especially galling when said pet has been deployed for years as an all-purpose character reference.”

Flanagan’s article, headed No Girlfriend of Mine, points out that Clinton wrote a crowd-pleas-ing book Dear Socks, Dear Buddy: Kids’ Letters to the First Pets, in which she claimed that only with the arrival of Socks and his “toy mouse” did the White House “become a home”.

Being Clinton, she also lectured readers that pets are an “adoption instead of an acquisition” and warned them to look out for their safety. (Buddy, the chocolate labrador, it should be noted, bounded into a road soon after leaving the White House and was promptly run over.)

(obviously this is British writing as Americans generally do not know how to be that humorous)

An Example Of Instincts Mattering

Hillary Clinton wants Greenspan to lead a foreclosure group. See: Clinton proposes Greenspan lead foreclosure group

While I admire Alan Greenspan he was never the clearest speaker and his policies while at the Fed probably contributed to the current mess. See: Ex-Chairman Says Fed Policies Didn't Cause Current Woes

And this is another example of why the idea of "Change" is so powerful. Rather than having another president of the inside-the-beltway-mutual-admiration-society we can have a President Obama who uses new people; new ideas.

Seems like Senator Clinton will say and propose anything to get elected.

BSG Season Four And News

What does this picture mean? Or, "What the Frak is going on?"


EW.com breaks the Last Supper down - 'Battlestar Galactica'': Crack the clues!

Other Battlestar Galactica news from Hollywood Reporter:
'Battlestar' to stick to the small screen

Sci Fi unveils 'Battlestar' prequel

Behind Every Great Man Is An Even Greater Woman

Via MSNBC.com - Free-spirited mother set Obama's path

Latest Arrested Development Rumors

I believe Keith Olbermann's special "Come On!" really helped get things moving.



Now there's more fuel - Bateman confirms 'Arrested' film

Many people have been speculating about what the plot could be?
Arrested Development Movie: Five Possible Plotlines

It seems pretty clear to me - the movie would be the perfect vehicle for parodying Hurwitz's relationship with Fox during the television series run.

This Shouldn't Happen

Denver Post - Wyo. ozone alert stirs debate

Wyoming officials issued an unprecedented health alert Wednesday in a rural gas-drilling area for a buildup of ozone — usually a summertime air pollutant in urban areas.

The Pinedale area had high ozone readings a week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency criticized the federal Bureau of Land Management for planning thousands of new gas wells in the area without adequate air-quality protection.

Jackson Hole Star Tribune - 'The last place this should be'

Dave Smith, a broadcast engineer and electronics expert who owns his own business, has a shop on the south end of town, just off the main drag. Born and raised in Pinedale, he's witnessed the impacts of gas drilling on his once "sleepy little town," he said. And he hopes the air quality warning alarms some people, because he believes people in the area should be alarmed.

"It's interesting," Smith said. "When I grew up here we hated environmentalists. We hated tree huggers. We had no use for any environmental agency. You know, the word environmentalist was a fightin' word. If somebody walked up and introduced himself as an environmentalist, it was OK to punch him in the nose."

He also hated the concept of protected "wilderness" when he was growing up here, he said, because this area was so pristine, it was silly to think such a designation was necessary.

"I've kind of changed my mind a little about that. I still don't agree with the rabid tree huggers, you know, 'Save everything,' I don't agree with that. But right now, if it wasn't for the conservation groups and environmental groups, we would have a living hell going on here."

The air pollution is obvious to anybody from here, Smith said, because one need only to look at the sky and at the sunsets. But there are other impacts of the drilling that are not as obvious, including the benzenes and hydrocarbons that are making their way into the ground.

This is why elections matter.