North Korea

I just have one question: if we could do it in North Korea without firing a shot, why couldn't we do it in Iraq?

Evolution Sunday

I just heard about this - this year is the second time that Christian Churches in the U.S. have celebrated Darwin's birthday and shown their support for his theory of evolution:

This Sunday, flocks of the Christian faithful in the US will hold special
services celebrating Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. The idea is to stand
up to creationism, which claims the biblical account of creation is literally
true, and which is increasingly being promoted under the guise of "intelligent
design".

Astronaut Love Triangle

I feel so terribly sorry for this amazing women, Lisa Marie Nowak, who has so spectacularly ruined her career and her life, and made NASA a laughingstock. I was struck by something I heard on the news - that while NASA has a very rigorous screening process, once someone is accepted to the astronaut program, there is no additional assessment done. It sounds like that policy should be reconsidered. It's a terribly stressful job and presumably attracts people with very intense personalities. Granted, I'm a psychologist, so I'm biased, but it seems like it might be wise for NASA to at least offer their personnel some psychological support.

Nancy Pelosi

I don't know why I should be shocked, but I am. The right-wing commentators and bloggers have been making hay for days over Nancy's "power trip" - demanding a private plane to fly her back and forth to her district. But in fact (though when did those ever matter to these wingnuts?) this is a non-story. Dennis Hastert had exactly this same priviledge when he was Speaker of the House. The only difference is that his district is in Chicago, so it's a lot closer to D.C. Nancy's district is in California, so she needs a bigger plane to be able to fly that far without stopping for fuel. The Sergeant at Arms of the House suggested that Pelosi get the same priviledge as Hastert - it wasn't her idea and she hasn't demanded anything. This is pure fabrication to try and distract from real issues. Shameful, though they certainly accomplished their goal.

FINALLY: global warming acknowledged

I couldn't help but rejoice over this NY Times headline: Science Panel Says Global Warming Is 'Unequivocal'

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/03/science/earth/03climate.html

"The report said warming and its harmful consequences could be substantially blunted by prompt action."

This Oscar race just doesn't inspire passion

Gradgirl and I have been discussing the Oscar films, especially lately, as we've finally gotten the chance to see more of the movies (so many of them aren't released where we live until after January 1st and often well after that). We agree that there are no films, or even performances, this year that we feel particularly passionate about or that we're really rooting for to win. Last year we were both torn between Brokeback Mountain and Crash for Best Picture (and we thought it was a close race among 5 exceptional films), and we both found several performances to be really awe-inspiring. This year, while there are some fine moments and fine people, there's just nothing that we're excited about. Compare that to some recent years, and films that we found really breath-taking (for me personally - The English Patient, American Beauty, Traffic, Gosford Park).