The voters be damned

Yet another so-called "poll" has come to Ned's attention, purporting to show that the Democrats will lose control of the House and the Senate by huge margins, and Ned assumes, control of their collective bladders as well. Well, this worm has turned.
Ned is sick to death of these damned Armageddon polls.
The bottom line is, if the voters in this country want the Republicans to be in charge after the debacle that was the George Bush regime, then Ned says, let them have it and be damned.
If they can't see through the hackery, veiled racism, class warfare, sanctimonious hypocrisy, unvarnished cant, and obstructionism that has characterized the Republican Party since Obama's election, and the Senate Republicans in particular, and if they truly believe the failures of the Obama people arise out of their inability to effectively govern, then they don't deserve to be entrusted with the governance of a free state. Jefferson's great experiment with trusting the people with their own fate will have failed.
The system, designed as it was at the end of the 18th century, is broken and in need of replacement.
If the voters would be more happy with more concentration of wealth in the hands of the few, so they can go to the back door of the mansion and let some sneering plutocrat throw them some crumbs, well, so be it. Ned will leave and join the resistance.
He hears rumors of a Free French garrison at Brazzaville...

Stealing the best

This quote was from two "immigration lawyers" writing in today's NYT: "It should be the national policy of the United States to forthrightly and unapologetically attract the best minds from all over the world and turn them into assets of the United States."
Ned finds such an attitude unworthy of any country that professes a shred of moral decency, but, for a country like America, which touts itself as the world's standard for purity and morality, it is disgusting. Here's why:
How many would constitute the "best" minds? Would it be ten million? A hundred million? There is the story told about George HW Bush offering amnesty to any Chinese who felt "oppressed" after Tienanmen Square, a cynical and hypocritical ploy if there ever was one, but we digress. The Chinese Premier was overheard to say, 'Well, we have 1.2 billion. How many would he like?"
The idea that other countries should pay to educate their citizens so that the US could conscript them into some sort of materialist consumerist Bedlam which is increasingly this country is reprehensible, degrading and outrageous. How are these countries supposed to pull themselves out of poverty and ignorance if their "best" minds leave?
"For what profiteth it a man, if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

More irritating phrases from idiots

Ned's friend and associate Misterjimmy has from time to time taken Ned to task for a seeming inattention to the many annoying phrases that have crept like caterpillars into our speech. Ned has experienced two such phrases, one hallowed and one new, and is moved to rise from his rum-induced torpor and rage, rage against them. The old one is "bragging rights." Ned has no idea where this annoying and even idiotic phrase arose, but asks his many friends to avoid its use whenever possible, especially within Ned's hearing. Indeed, as Ned is convinced by his attention to Holy Writ that bragging is a minor no-no, he encourages all who aspire to a Reward in the Afterlife to avoid the phrase for that reason as well.
The second, and to Ned's experience, new source of irritation is the many variants on the phrase "pushback", apparently referring to the response of an unoffending person to aggressive and untoward behavior on the part of another, or something similar. The variant that Ned finds particularly annoying is "give push back", meaning a response to inappropriate behavior.
From this latter phrase one can move on to others in which one word has been found to be insufficient to describe a phenomenon, and must be replaced by two or more, thus lengthening the talker's or writer's hold on the listener or reader. Ned would offer as an example, "brave troops" for the old word "troops" which to Ned seemed complete and appropriate. One could also recall the old chestnut "all new", for "new", which always seemed sufficient to Ned.
And, "me, myself, personally" comes to mind as particularly egregious.
Ned invites his readers to offer their own examples, and may, with Q A Wagstaff, FRS, devise an Award for the Most Outrageous and Offending Useless Phrase, should public interest require it.

Sigh--explaining climate change

With another figurative heavy heart, Ned reluctantly must take up the subject of climate change. There seems to be a vast dichotomy between practicing scientists in atmospheric and planetary sciences, who understand the Scientific Method and who accept Anthropomorphically-induced climate change as a Theory, and non-scientists, predominantly undereducated persons, religious extremists and business and communication majors, who express "skepticism," or see it as some sort of a "liberal plot." This causes Ned to sigh with the tediousness of trying to communicate with such persons, many of whom will not be convinced no matter how overwhelming the evidence because they do not inhabit an evidence-based world.
But he will try.
First, there is no debate among the educated, research-based science community on the reality of human-induced climate change. Any debate centers on the nature of the impacts and the timing of such impacts.
The possibility of human-induced global warming has been recognized at least since 1895 when Swedish chemist and Nobelist Svante Arrhenius shows that human sources of greenhouse gases could be significant enough to change the planet's climate. The situation was sufficiently understood by 1958 such that an observatory was set up on the Big Island of Hawaii to measure atmospheric CO2. By 1965, Lyndon Johnson's Science Advisory Committee had recognized climate change as a possible serious environmental issue. By the 1970's researchers like Oceanographer Roger Revelle were describing the emissions of greenhouse gases as a "great geophysics experiment" that humanity was trying on the Earth.
During the succeeding three decades, more and more evidence has been amassed, and more and more models have been supported by increasingly precise data such that the reality of climate change, happening now and accelerating, is no longer in dispute.
These are the scientific facts. But, just as the Pope made Galileo recant his scientific observations because they did not fit Church teachings, there are those today who are trying to do the same thing.
Many educated people feel that the battle between superstition and ignorance on the one hand, and enlightenment and reason on the other, was settled in the 17th century. Ned advises them that nothing could be further from the truth, especially in America, where there exist millions of persons proud in their ignorance. Indeed this is one of the most poorly educated, if not the most poorly educated, advanced country on the planet.
Ned may have more to say on this at a later date, but for now, back to our discussion of WHO WILL BE THE NEW JUDGES ON AMERICAN IDOL!!!!!!

New Halfbright Nominations!

Responding to overwhelming popular demand, as well as a surge in the number of eminently qualified candidates, Ned and Prof Q A Wagstaff, FRS are preparing a new round of Halfbright Fellow nominees. Readers will recall the first two Fellows were George W Bush and Carly Fiorina.
Ned's readers will recall the first female Halfbright field consisted of:

SARAH PALIN: Half-term "Governor" of Alaska (a state with the population slightly in excess of Washington DC), mayor of Wasila (population 6,000 counting moose) and VP candidate with John McCain, Palin has shown, with her breathtaking sanctimonious hypocrisy, dysfunctional family life while running as a 'family values' candidate, and astonishing pride in her almost unlimited ignorance of important issues, that she is a natural and strong candidate for a Halfbright.

SHARRON ANGLE: The Republican fringe candidate for Senator from Nevada has come from nowhere to stand in the front row of strong Halfbright nominees. Her transcendentally ignorant remarks on almost anything of substance, her lack of rudimentary command of the English language (even that bastardized version practiced in the US), her incendiary remarks on firearms, and her clear lack of the slightest competence to be a US Senator all make her a strong Halfbright candidate.

MARSHA BLACKBURN: The comely face of southern Republicanism, Blackburn hails from the lily-white, gerrymandered 7th Congressional District of Tennessee. A strong proponent of "smaller" government, "lower" taxes and "more" freedom, she is tough as a hawthorne spike and exudes about as much empathy and intellect as a sea-snake. Always on CSPAN gabbling on about some preposterous issue or another to cement the support of the know-nothing racists that form her main constituency and, not to discriminate, the basis of support of every southern "states rights" Republican. A strong Halfbright candidate.

CARLY FIORINA: The Republican face of pure political opportunism, Fiorina was not content with running HP into the ground and walking away with a $30 million buyout + her own jet plane. Why should she be, when any incompetent parvenu could run for office if they have enough money and enough designer clothes. Naturally she is running as a " "lower taxes," "less government," and "personal responsibility" woman of the people, whose initial criticism of Barbara Boxer, her opponent, was her hairstyle. Ned also appreciates her dedication to "fighting for every job", after cutting 18,000 jobs at HP. Especially noteworthy to Ned is her penchant for referring to herself in the third person; to wit, "Carly believes strongly that every American should have access to quality, affordable health care."
All in all, a very compelling candidate for a Halfbright.

The first new candidate is Christine O'Donnell, "Tea-Party" endorsed candidate for the Senate Seat in Delaware. One of O'Donnell's prime qualifications is her ability to talk to God Himself. She says, "'During the primary, I heard the audible voice of God," she said. 'He said, 'Credibility." (h/t Josh Marshall)
Americans vote against such a Chosen Person at their peril: after all, look where it got us when Halfbright Fellow George Bush said he talked to God about invading Iraq.

UPDATE: 9/18. Ms O'Donnell has considerably enhanced her qualifications for the coveted Halfbright by her revealing that she has practiced witchcraft! In her own words, she "dabbled" in it. Perhaps in a similar vein to the Fuhrer's "dabbling" in eugenics.

Obama's "otherness"

Seems that the Republican "establishment" is trying to bring its supporters slithering out from under their rocks by a "new" tactic, trying to paint Obama as a scary black man. Oh, of course, they say they are focusing on his "extreme" social policies, although they are no more "extreme" than FDR, Harry Truman, Jack Kennedy or Bill Clinton. No, friends, what is different this time is Obama's skin color. Here's the headline of today's NYT story "G.O.P. Is Using Obama’s ‘Otherness’ as Campaign Tactic."
Chief self-appointed Republican "intellectual", ousted House Speaker and National Blowhard Newt Gingrich decries Obama as having "Kenyan" beliefs which are "unfathomable" to "ordinary" Americans, presumably meaning those who have less than an eighth grade education. Ned is not taken in by these wolves in sheepskin; having grown up in the south, he can recognize racist code when he sees it, and finds it despicable, except that it is a standard Republican ploy, which, regrettably, in today's Amerika, is par for the course. As Shakespeare had it said in Twelfth Night, "If this were played upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."

Of empires and democracies

Ned is troubled by the state of the nation, and, no, not just the fact that Republicans and know-nothings are up to their usual tricks. Ned is a respectful student of history, and he has been trying to think of a successful multiethnic "democracy", or more accurately, republic. He can't think of any.
The only successful multiethnic societies he can think of have been empires. Empires are ideally structured to be successful, since the autocratic nature of the government means that it can be equally unpleasant to all ethnic groups, and so be unbiased. The Roman Empire comes to mind, as one of the most successful governments in human history. Gibbons describes the 2nd century AD as the "happiest era of mankind," but then he wrote that in the late 1700s.
Ned thinks of the Ottoman Empire as well, which was relatively tolerant of various religious beliefs and other cultures. This government lasted more than 400 years, and only collapsed as a result of WWI. The same could be said of Austria-Hungary, which managed to keep a bewildering array of contentious ethnic groups at bay until, again, WWI, which was very hard on empires. The British Empire, likewise, was very successful, again owing its demise arguably to WWI.
Ned's point is that he fears for the long-term viability of the US as a multiethnic society, as long as large numbers of new, poorly-educated ethnic groups have to be constantly assimilated. Furthermore, the tendency of politicians to try to please everyone means that some very tough issues, like illegal immigration, education and welfare, not to mention health care for all, may be dealt with unsatisfactorily or not at all.
Those western democracies that have seen the influx of large numbers of alien ethnic groups, France, The Netherlands, and, increasingly, Spain and Italy, are having a devil of a time dealing with the issue.
Ned will watch the unfolding of events with trepidation and great interest as long as he is permitted by fate to do so.