alex keller - after six

From the article:

"Rosina Bierbaum, dean of the University of Michigan School of Natural Resources and Environment, said the Bush administration has cut scientists out of some of the policy-making processes, particularly on environmental issues.

" "In previous administrations, scientists were always at the table when regulations were being developed," she said. "Science never had the last voice, but it had a voice." "

Who needs science when you have faith? And who is advising the Bush admin on global warming policy when the science community is not? Any faith (including Christianity) is in error when it uses its beliefs to dismiss "facts."

Did you know you can purchase the book, "Grand Canyon: A different view," which explains that the Grand Canyon was created 4500 years ago, at National Parks Service bookstores? Click here for more on that.

Let me get this straight. So the CIA picks up a German guy on vacation in Macedonia. They run him off to a hotel for three weeks, then chain him to the floor of a jet and take him to a US prison in Afghanistan, where he is beaten and interrogated. Months later, he is released and dumped on a deserted road in Macedonia.

And we are supposed to be OK with this? What are we fighting for again?

Hunter S. Thompson is dead. From his ESPN column of July 22, 2003:

"They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are losers, and that is the one unforgiveable sin in America.

"Beyond that, we have lost the respect of the world and lost two disastrous wars in three years. Afghanistan is lost, Iraq is a permanent war Zone, our national Economy is crashing all around us, the Pentagon's "war strategy" has failed miserably, nobody has any money to spend, and our once-mighty U.S. America is paralyzed by Mutinies in Iraq and even Fort Bragg.

"The American nation is in the worst condition I can remember in my lifetime, and our prospects for the immediate future are even worse. I am surprised and embarrassed to be a part of the first American generation to leave the country in far worse shape than it was when we first came into it. Our highway system is crumbling, our police are dishonest, our children are poor, our vaunted Social Security, once the envy of the world, has been looted and neglected and destroyed by the same gang of ignorant greed-crazed bastards who brought us Vietnam, Afghanistan, the disastrous Gaza Strip and ignominious defeat all over the world.

"The Stock Market will never come back, our Armies will never again be No. 1, and our children will drink filthy water for the rest of our lives.

"The Bush family must be very proud of themselves today, but I am not. Big Darkness, soon come. Take my word for it."

What else to say? Click the link.

Went to see this film about the artist Henry Darger last night, very interesting indeed. Lots of questions left unresolved, lots of areas left slightly unexplored. Why did all the girls have boy parts? Was Darger completely insane? What if he had been discovered?

Go see the film.

then check out the linked article. You may be interested to find that the budget doesn't include the costs of the Iraq war or SS private accounts. Some cuts include

"$45 billion over 10 years that is to be cut from Medicaid, the shared federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled. Food stamp benefits would be eliminated for 200,000 to 300,000 people, and a freeze in child-care funding would cut the number of low-income children receiving help by 300,000 in 2009."

Alternatively:

"military spending (and this doesn't include the costs of war in Iraq) would rise from $400 billion this fiscal year to $419 billion in 2006 to $492 billion in 2010."

I have some problems with the way that this administration is prioritizing things.

Here's another article with some details on the long-term consequences of the budget, which include deferring a lot of the costs until much later.

My daughter and I collaborate on an insane musical project called Panda Attack. I program beats and she does stream-of-consciousness lyrics. This one was so good I had to mix and master it.

Christina's lyrics on this track reveal an intricate personal mythos in which Godzilla, high fashion and the death of my grandfather (she calls him Papou, which is the Greek word for grandfather) are all players. She's like Bjork meets Eloise.

She's awesome and you can't have her.

By the way, I did a piece (my thesis) with my son August when he was at that age - check out a selection from The light part is called lightning.

Recently there has been a lot of media hype about challenges to global warming. After a little investigation I found the above article... I quote:

"The scientific consensus is clearly expressed in the reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Created in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environmental Programme, IPCC's purpose is to evaluate the state of climate science as a basis for informed policy action, primarily on the basis of peer-reviewed and published scientific literature (3). In its most recent assessment, IPCC states unequivocally that the consensus of scientific opinion is that Earth's climate is being affected by human activities: "Human activities ... are modifying the concentration of atmospheric constituents ... that absorb or scatter radiant energy. ... [M]ost of the observed warming over the last 50 years is likely to have been due to the increase in greenhouse gas concentrations" [p. 21 in (4)]."

There was a good article on Louis and Bebe Barron this morning on NPR. The Re/Search Incredibly Strange Music book is another resource for info about them. And the Forbidden Planet soundtrack is just amazing.

I went to school with Bill Close, the instrument builder from this site. The thing that I remember best about him and his work was when he told me that he used his background in wooden ship building - all his instruments were collapsible, and used beautiful wood. I can see that reflected in this piece.