Costume Choices Explained

Now that Halloween is over it's time to psychoanalyze those costume wearers out there. Yes, this is a the age when the subliminal is supposed to be the motivation for our feelings. So, according to psychologists say that your choice of Halloween costume can say a lot about your personality. One of them, Psychologist Wendy James, has come up with a guide showing which costumes different personality types are likely to choose and there are reasons why different people choose the costumes they do for Halloween. James says that our costume choice isn't always easy to decipher. Surprisingly, she says that those in a gross or scary costume, like a zombie, are people who don't like the limelight, while those who dress up as a celebrity really like attention, as do women in very revealing or sexy costumes. 

She says those who choose to dress up as a political figure enjoy being a little bit controversial. Hmmmm My favorite costumes are political parodies. But I always thought I did it to make fun of those idiots that we elect to ruin our lives, not because I want to be controversial. Maybe I should schedule an appointment with a shrink to find out if I want to be controversial. Yes, I know....I'll ask the psychiatrist to examine my many other problems too. 

Here's Dr. James view of the why of costume choices (with my stupid an analysis added)
*Celebrity-The Dr. says that outgoing individuals tend to dress up like celebrities because it almost guarantees they'll get lots of attention. But why would anyone want to be a Kardashian girl or Miley Cyrus? That kind of attention is the negative type.
•Gross / Scary- Horror is popular in pop culture and if a person goes for the gross and scary costume she says, chances are they will be low key individual who doesn't seek the limelight. I find it hard to believe that a person dressed as Frankenstein doesn't want attention. That character isn't exactly a guy who would blend into a crowd.
•Disney / Cartoon Character- She says that this is a safe choice that is G-rated for all audiences. It's a people pleaser and often worn by someone who doesn't prefer to rock the boat. Maybe....but I find that, shrill voiced, stinky rodent Mickey Mouse to be nothing but a rat.
•Super Hero-Kind hearted individuals tend to flock to these costumes as they wish to help others and be seen as making a difference, she says. Or maybe those costumers are living in the clouds. Pretending that Star Trek characters are real is not exactly helpful.
•Funny / Original-When you see a costume that make you look twice or three times, chances are the wearer of that costume is an A-type personality and highly creative individual who probably spent the past 9 months creating their costume. Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Maybe they bought the already made costume on line or a second hand  one at a thrift store
Political Costume-These people enjoy being a little bit controversial. Considering how unpopular congress is today, anyone who would dress up like them probably enjoys being scorned and reviled. People who dress up like members of congress this year should probably seek professional counseling. Well, this is my typical costume and all that seems to be right. Maybe this doctor isn't wrong after all. What's the number of a good psychiatrist I could see?
•The Pimp- The doctor says that  this one is likely worn by an insecure man who's acting out his fantasy of dominating women. It's really not an original costume and is often a choice for the uncreative types. In my view,, that might mean the pimp costume is the most normal of all for males.
•No Costume-In traditional psychobable talk Dr. James says that this no chocie is a choice of people completely out of touch with their "inner child" or those who feel they are too mature to be dressing up in costumes. Or, as I see it,  it could be they just don't like Halloween.

I'm confused. Next Halloween I just might be the "Naked man".

The Halloween Grinch

Happy Halloween (Today is Halloween Day).  A Fargo, N.D., woman  who appeared for a radio interview disguised to avoid cameras says she will give trick-or-treaters that she deems "moderately obese" a letter instead of candy this Halloween. Yep! Instead of the candy and other fun food treats kids get from almost everyone else, this woman is costuming as the food police this year. Allegedly, her intention is to help stop obesity in kids the "I just want to send a message to the parents of kids that are really overweight. ... I think it's just really  irresponsible of parents to send them out looking for free candy just 'cause all the other kids are doing it," the woman said in a morning radio interview . I wonder how she is able to tell about a child's weight and health simply by glancing at their costumed presence.

The letter says that, "You child is, in my opinion, moderately obese and should not be consuming sugar and treats to the extent of some children this Halloween season." It continues: "My hope is that you will step up as a parent and ration candy this Halloween and not allow your child to continue these unhealthy eating habits." Wow! A stranger judging weight of  some one s else 's kids,  then determining some are too fat, and finally insulting the kids and their parents with a warning letter on Halloween Night.  She sure knows how to spread good cheer on Halloween. Well, she may give those fat ones a letter, but I am pretty sure some of those heavies will give something back to her also- an egg or two splattered against her front door in protest for the insult she hurled at them.

I think that the letter is far more emotionally damaging than too many candy bars. It's just the kind of thing that kids who are overweight don't need to read from a stranger on Halloween night.  Even if a kid is overweight, he or she might be healthy. They might be too heavy, not because of a bad diet, but because of bad genetics. It's not nice for self righteous adults to label kids that way. It's ineffective anyway because it's not likely to help the kid.

There are a few who think the woman is doing a public service with her letter.  Eating disorders are a problem, and obesity in the last decade has taken over smoking as the leading health problem Americans face today. Those think that giving candy to an obese child is like giving a cigarette to a person with emphysema, like giving a drink to an alcoholic. It is giving heroin to a drug addict, they declare. Haha  I don't thnk so. A Milky Way candy bar isn't heroin.

Others  think the woman is crazy, and should simply not answer her door on Halloween, or that she should hand out non food treats instead. I think, if she is really worried abotu what the nation's kids eat, it would be better to forget the letter and instead give the little ghosts and gobblins healthy snacks.  For any kid who does get the letter it will more than likely be read by the kid first and then destroyed the the humiliated kid, never reaching mom and dad. Too, the embarrassment of receiving a "you're too fat for candy" letter on Halloween night in front of the child's peers has to be devastating to the fatty.  If the children of that neighborhood do not respond to this with an egging of the Halloween Food Police Lady I weep for the future of our country (and I might volunteer to egg her house myself next Halloween).

Jack-O'-Lantern Carving

It's that time of the year. October and Halloween is when so many kids of all ages carve faces or whatever they envision as interesting onto those orange round pumpkins that are shaped like...well...my whole body. But why do they do it, you may ask? Where did the pumpkin craving thing come from? After a quick check of my facts about this (after checking I found out I was only partly right, not bad for I am often totally wrong abut everything), here's the scoop.  The tradition of pumpkin carving began, not with carving pumpkins, but instead by carving turnips, beets, and potatoes. Hundreds of years ago, the Irish were the first to create what kids at Halloween call "jack o' lanterns". 

The name jack o' lantern is actually Jack of the Lantern, referring to a mythical character named Stingy Jack who played tricks on everyone in Ireland. Supposedly, he even pranked  the devil. After Jack died, his resume being so joke filled, he was not allowed to enter heaven. But alas! Jack had good news. He was also refused from entering hell - the devil would have nothing to do with him after his antics during his lifetime. Jack was forced to roam the world as a ghostly figure, holding a lantern made out of a carved out turnip containing a burning coal. And that is how the tradition of the jack o' lantern was born.....I think.

Halloween and the jack o' lantern was brought to America during the 1800s during a big wave of Irish immigration to the U.S. That's why Halloween is so big in the U.S. and is considered primarily an American Day. I never have carved anything on a pumpkin but the simplest jack o' lantern face, because I have no known craving skill and because once a pumpkin is carved it deteriorates rapidly. I am not a pumpkin murderer!  People who are in the know say that when you carve a pumpkin a few days before before Halloween Day you must spray the inside and outside of the pumpkin with water at least once each day or it will be history in a few days. The candles or other lghts they put inside of the carved pumpkin also kill it more rapidly. There is nothing worse than the image of a crumbling pumpkin. Ok, the image of a crumbling Lindsay Lohan or Miley Cyrus is pretty bad too.

When I was a child and when my daughter was small we used to paint a face or image on the pumpkin instead of carving it. A few years ago someone marketed a pumpkin face kit that can be pressed onto the pumpkin to give it a face. But those look as tacky as an over aged Hollywood star who had too many face-lifts. I prefer to let the viewer use his or her imagination, so I just put the pumpkin outside as it naturally appears.

Those who are talented in pumpkin carving produce amazing images. But like those ice carver sculptures we hear about or see each winter, the pumpkin carvers works are doomed to a short life span. Then there are those stencil kits that the untalented like me most often  use to carve their pumpkins....sort of cheating. And it's almost like an assembly line product because they all look too familiar. The best pumpkin carvings are unique, or funny, or highly complex works. A masterfully free hand carved pumpkin is like Brad Pitt, while a stenciled generated carved pumpkin resembles Danny Divito.  It's easy to see which looks better. I guess that makes pumpkin faces similar to the human ones who carve them.

I hope you have been inspired by my remarks to get a pumpkin and carve away this Halloween. If not here are some child level on line pumpkin carving links for you to try.
http://www.flashgamesplayer.com/Free/Pumpkin-Carving/Play.html
http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/halloween/games/pumpkins/
http://spookathon.com/halloween/pumpkin-carver.php
http://www.freeonlinegames.com/game/pumpkin-carve

Halloween Costumes

The National Retail Federation says spending on the ghoulish holiday is going to be down considerably this year, but some costume shops locally are reporting people have been planning their outfits since last month and sales are brisk. The NRF also says that the traditional witches, devils and vampires are  big sellers again this year.. But they also say it looks like you're going to see a whole lot of "twerking" on the streets  this year.  Probably one of the biggest costumes, at least for some people, is going to be the Miley Cyrus and Robin Thicke outfits from the MTV video music awards, the one where that "I want to be a woman not a kid star" Miley got nasty with  her tongue

With the economy down on Halloween spending decisions mean that  fewer people are planning to get involved in dressing for Halloween. Whereas last year some 71.5% of people across the nation said they would costume, it's expected to be 65.8% this year.  Even  pets will be dressed this year as Fido will not be as scary.  So instead of spending al their money on looking like Dracula I have a few other less expensive and more unique costumes for Halloween. How about these?

* An Obama Supporter- you'll be in an original costume since there aren't many Obama supporters left
* Viagra Man- make sure you wear loose fitting pants
* A Kardashian Girl- requires deadened brain, loose morals and an obnoxious personality
* A Muslim Terrorist- Oh wait....we already see too many of those before and after Halloween
* Global Warming Man- you just stand next to the first person you see, act pretentious and scream "It's Global Warming and we're all going to die"
* The Tour De France Bike Racer- Wear one of those weird bike outfit and inject plenty of steroids
* The Priest Molester- I am not sure how they dress so just ask any of your local priests how they do it
*  The Reality TV Contestant- There is one caveat to wearing this costume. In order to wear it you must not have a shred of talent
* Yourself-  well, no offense, but you can do way better than that.

Happy Halloween!

Look Up Once In A While

Want to know how disconnected people are in this pseudo "connected world"? A 30 year old immigrant, Nikhom Thephakaysone, sat on a light rail train in San Francisco and proceeded to pull out his .45 caliber pistol, pointing it across the aisle, putting it back, pulling it out several times again, and at one point wiping his nose with the hand holding the gun  Problem is.... and nobody noticed because they were all too busy staring down at their smart phones and tablet computers "connecting". No joke. it's all on film from the subway where it happened. It was the all too common subway train crowded with commuters while a crazy man waived a gun around that nobody saw. Those riders were so engrossed  texting, tweeting and playing Farm Animals (or whatever is popular now).

After the disturbed Thephakaysone shot and killed Justin Valdez in the head as the two exited the train.  That got the rider's attention, but I wonder if they could tell whether the shooting was real or virtual. The addicted cell nuts today often can't. Social media, the cell phone and other technology have changed us for the worse. The modern electronic forms of communications communication were supposed to allow us to be better connected to one another. Instead, they estrange the individual from the collective group. It's sad because so many cell addicts don't realize it.

Just the other day a survey of college students asked if they ever texted while driving and whether texting is dangerous. Eighty percent said they texted,  and that texting was dangerous FOR OTHER PEOPLE, but not for themselves since they were better at it.  The first sign of addiction is denial of it. That 80% is addicted. If you're at an airport,  on public transit,  in a restaurant, etc. you will see most of the eyes of those around you are downward  fixed to all the screens that contain their real world.  The lively public spaces were once lively with conversation between friends and strangers. Now it is filled by the silence of people who are not there, people who occupy the same place at the same time but exist in their own worlds far apart.

The "connected" people today people go home to their families where they watch separate TV programs or compute in separate rooms while the kids retreat to rooms of their own to text and tweet the night away.  All the new options for  electronic entertainment seduces us, and we more frequently choose, is to be alone, uh.... together. speaks at least as loudly and directly to the alienation and disconnect that have been the ironic, unintended consequence of devices and platforms designed to bring us together.  Justin Valdez is dead because it is now possible to wave a gun in a crowded train without anyone noticing. Technology has trained us looking down in search of a connection when the best connections are upward, right in front of our faces..

So Unpopular

Like most governments the U.S. government is universally distrusted and disliked.  I think even the best democratic governments (I don't claim that ours is best) is perceived warily by the majority of voters who elected it. Isn't that ironic? They hate what they choose and over and over and over. It's no surprise these days that the U.S. Congress isn't very popular, even..believe it or not....much less popular than our current incompetent president. 

A new poll says voters have a higher opinion of witches, hemorrhoids and jury duty than their lawmakers in Washington.  Hmmm Hemorrhoids? I wonder how those voters know how one with hemorrhoids feels. Maybe they have hemorrhoids and that's why they keep voting for those awful congress men and women. Anyway, Public Policy Polling, asked a series of questions trying to gauge support for Congress compared with government run institutions such as the Internal Revenue Service, health problems such as toenail fungus, cockroaches and dog poop. Dog poop? Hemorrhoids? That Public Policy groups sure has strange thoughts.

Voters said they have a higher opinion of hemorrhoids than Congress, by 53% to 31%. Ouch! More than seven in 10 voters say they view jury duty more favorably than Congress, which received only 18% support in comparison. Even toenail fungus rates 3 percentage points higher Congress. Overall, voters in  poll gave Congress an 8% approval rating. Nearly nine in 10 voters, or 86%, say they disapprove of Congress. They didn't ask me but I'd have to vote disapprove too.

However, all is not lost for our legislative branch of government. The poll says voters prefer Congress over Miley Cyrus, Lindsay Lohan,  and  that crazy Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. Come to think of it, any of those three would probably do a better job that those who now sit in Congress

No Rumors Allowed In China

I always wondered how or whether it is possible for the Chinese government to censor internet usage in China.  It looks futile to me. First the Chinese government killed off Internet servers/browsers and installed the infamous dictator friendly Sina connection to better be able to spy on what the locals say about their dictators and dictatorship. That hasn't worked well, as the number of users in China is just so huge that monitoring every one of them is impossible. One might even call Mao a democratic sympathizer and get away with it.

So now the Chines government is attacking the "free speech on the internet" more directly.   China's Supreme People's Court and Procuratorate just announced that spreading rumors on the Internet could get you three years in prison in China, with the penalties rising if the rumor is re-posed more than 500 times or viewed by more than 5,000 people. This is the first time existing laws against "defamation and instigating instability" have been extended to the Internet in order to stop the folks from saying not so nice thing about how things work in China.

Here is what the court said in it's announcement. "In recent years, the Internet has been used to maliciously fabricate facts and damage the reputation of others … and to concoct rumors that mislead the people, causing serious disruptions of social order and even mass incidents." Uh, in other words, "stop telling the truth about what we do y to you."  Regardless, this is the first time the government has clarified what is illegal on the Internet. Before, there were rules governing pornography, but they had not addressed the issue of free speech on the Internet.

I guess the dictators are worried about "social harm" (a threat to their power over a brain washed population that has been bought off by economic benefits). But such censorship can't work in a modern world in which a nation (China) has fully embraced capitalism and all the freedoms that are attached to it. The new law will likely only have an effect on how these people choose to speak out, considering that any negative view of the government could be deemed a "rumor". In truth, the net and its users are more adaptable to a dictatorships rules and slow movements.

Good luck to the Chinese government, but the old world (dictators enforcing conformity on their population) loses to the new (technology that moves faster than the dictator) every time.

Pumpkin Talk

In the spirit of Halloween and the fall season I went to a pumpkin farm today. It's one of those big family farms, so numerous here in the U.S. where the orange pumpkin we all love at Halloween originated, that grow pumpkins for the fall harvest and open themselves to the public of various activities related to pumpkins. Look below and you'll see me there (Leipold Farm) with some of the many types of pumpkins. There has been an explosion of the marketing and sale of the types of pumpkins, besides that big orange one, over the years.

Most of them are not eaten without preparation, though the small "pie pumpkin" variety is free of most of the bitterness associated with pumpkins. Some people prefer to eat the yellow flowers from a pumpkin vine to the pumpkin meat itself. I have never eaten that, so I can't say. In early America during the 17th and 18th centuries pumpkins were used, not as the ingredient of pumpkin pie, but instead,  as one of the ingredients of the pie crust.  Hmmm  They also used them to remove freckles. I had plenty of freckles as a kid and think that they just faded as I got older. I doubt that my interactions with pumpkins made them go away.

I always use pumpkins for fall decoration, placing them by my fireplaces and at the entrance of the front door. Thus, I have learned which picked pumpkins for sale are the best ones to use. One year I bought a pumpkin in October that I placed outside that lasted until late May.  So before buying am pumpkin know your "stuff". Buy one that does not have any cuts, soft spots or bruising as these things can cause rot to set in quickly on a pumpkin. The pumpkin shell should feel hard and not have any give when you put pressure on it.  Also make sure the stem is still attached and not falling off the pumpkin.

I hate it when the check-out person at a market grabs the pumpkin by the stem, so I handle the pumpkin myself at check-out time. Grabbing a pumpkin by the stem damages the pumpkin. It's like holding a baby by the foot. You will should find a cool and dry place and do not handle the pumpkin often. Storing them that way will toughen the pumpkins rinds and make them less prone to rot. It's why putting them outside in the shade of the door entrance is like putting your just bought lamb chops in the refrigerator. They just keep longer that way.

This is probably too much useless information about a subject which you have little interest. As Linus once said to Charlie Brown in the comic strip 'Peanuts".... “There are three things I have learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.”

Ig Nobel Award

The 23rd year for the Ig Nobel award (a play on the word ignoble, meaning of low origin), sponsored by the science humor magazine Annals of Improbable Research and given out to honor weird and humorous scientific discoveries from all over the world have been officially handed out. Ig Nobels are meant to amuse and to think about the sometimes crazy scientific research that is routinely done each day. The winners this year fit that profile well.

There are 10 Ig Nobels handed out each year in categories just like those other Nobel prizes ranging from categories in medicine, physics to a peace prize. I suspect the winners are not as happy about receiving an Ig Nobel as those who get a real Nobel prize. But almost no "winner" of an Ig Nobel has ever refused that award, proving that science also has a thick skin and a sense of humor.
The winners, with names excluded to protect the reputation of the scientists who won, and their "achievement" include:

*Medicine- for assessing the effects of listening to opera , on heart transplant patients who are mice.

for confirming, by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

Psychology- for confirming by experiment, that people who think they are drunk also think they are attractive

for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

for assessing the effect of listening to opera, on heart transplant patients who are mice. - See more at: http://www.improbable.com/ig/winners/#ig2013

* Biology and Astronomy- for discovering that when dung beetles get lost, they can navigate their way home by looking at the Milky Way.
* Safety Engineering- for inventing a system that traps airline hijackers.......... it drops a hijacker through trap doors, seals them into a package, then drops the hijacker through the airplane's specially installed bomb bay doors, which then parachutes the hijacker to police waiting on ground for the hijacker's arrival.
* Physics- for discovering that some people would be physically capable of running across the surface of a pond, if the pond and people were on the moon.
* Chemistry- for discovering that the biochemical process by which onions make people cry is even more complicated that scientists realized.
* Archaeology- for parboiling a dead shrew and then swallowing the shrew without chewing, and then carefully examining the excreted shrew after the bowel elimination to see which bones dissolved inside the human digestive system and which bones would not.
* Peace- Dual winners from Belaus. one for making it illegal to applaud in public and the other for arresting a one armed man for applauding.
* Probability- for cow studies showing that the longer a cow has been lying down, the more likely that cow will soon stand up, and for showing that once a cow strands up it can not be predicted how soon that cow will lie down again.
* Public Health- for the medical technique called "Surgical management of an Epidemic of Penile Amputations in Siam, techniques which they recommend except in cases where the amputated penis has been partially eaten by a duck.

The winners received cash prizes of $10 trillion each, but it's in Zimbabwe dollars. So they'll each get about four U.S. dollars. I think they may be overpaying them, but it's all for science, I guess.

Please Change Into Something Appropriate

I think the culture here may have hit bottom. While grocery shopping today I just saw another tattooed lady, an un bathed "person" dressed in dirty pajama pants and a message T shirt that was inscribed with vulgarity, and a fat guy in shorts too short T shirt and thong shoes. I think this decline in standard of dress may reflect the cultural decline in the U.S., manifested in the lack of manners and awareness by so many of common decency. The sloppy dress may be the symptom of to all as America goes down the tubes in T Shirts and jeans.

I do like T shirts and wear them often, but they ae clean and worn with appropriate pants and shoes. And I also dress well when the occasion calls for it. Most people used to do that. Just look at photos of everyday dress before 1960 and you will see that it was standard for the male to wear a suit and female to wear a dress even while at home. People used to want to dress well because it made them feel special. Further, when Americans stopped dressing well for "special occasions" the number of special occasions they attended fell dramatically.

Now we wear casual clothes almost every day, and as a result, we rarely look special. I think it might be better to rise above the ordinary everyday casual wear or we condemn ourselves to become ordinary or perhaps, less than ordinary. I suspect that when we deteriorate by appearance we also deteriorate as people. Just as buildings that are dirty, have broken glass in windows, are are surrounded by trash quickly worsen in condition if not cleaned, so do humans decline into sloppiness from poor dressing habits.

Hmmmm Maybe you should see what I man. A popular web site, people of wal mart, that shows the decline of culture in ordinary people better illustrates this. Posts taken by Wal mart shoppers are added every day and are beginning to look more and more familiar to what I see on the streets  Click on the link below and see for yourself and post your own comments about what you see....and make sure you are well dressed before peeking.

http://walmart-people.com/Home

IPCC Global Warming Report

The climate apocalyptic got another booster shot as The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued its latest six year doom and gloom report about "global warming". The United Nations pays for this report so clusters of bureaucrats, activists and scientists who want to make sure they are on the right side of the governments who give them grant money to study global warming and anything else they fancy have signed up to be associated with the report.

This group of climate geeks say that computer models are nearly infallible in predicting man's 22nd century demise due to rising oceans.  This report says that if emissions from human activities remain high, the IPCC report predicts that the world is on track to warm by more than 2C, and possibly by more than 4C, by 2100. Wow! Such expertise. I wonder when those geniuses will be able to tell us if it will rain two weeks from when we ask. No, they are the fortune tellers who read far into the future, not the immediate.
The report adds it is now ''extremely likely'', with a 95 per cent certainty,  that humans rather than natural variations, are the dominant cause global of warming. But if humans are so powerful and can control nature why can't someone shut up Justin Beiber?

But the computers IPCC uses have failed to predict what is now a 15 year lull in global warming itself. This does not necessarily mean global warming is a hoax, the IPCC intolerant true believers maintain. But as an explanation/excuse for the decline in global temperatures the report, says “with high confidence” that a slow down in warming in the past decade was because the ocean has absorbed 90 per cent of the extra heat generated by human activity between 1971 and 2010. Hmmmm, not sure if "a high confidence" is part of the scientific method.

As a theory, global warming was never crippled by fabrications, by pronounced professional incivility or by unscientific hostility to contrary opinions. Rather, the problem with the global warm proponents is its outlandish pessimism and overwrought certainty about the "high probability" guesses made. They do avoid addressing many questions about their pronouncements. For example.... Would global warming be nothing but calamitous? Do sunspots or other solar activity play a role? How do you conduct experiments on the deep ocean or on clouds or the role of water vapor over a body like the Pacific? Why is it moral for the living to make enormous sacrifices today because of a hypothesis about what may happen decades down the road? The global warmers refusal to even consider such questions in good faith and to paint anyone who raises them as dangerous heretics  has always made it seem as much a political theory as a scientific one.  

For one thing, the IPCC is filled with rigid environmental activists who see doom for the environment in every human behavior. IPCC research and position papers seem to be generated with an eye toward more fundraising and political influence as much as they are in disinterested scientific research. Any climate scientist who dares to disagree (and there are many prominent ones who do) is treated as a quack who wants to see the world turn to fire. The world should view the IPCC with skepticism.  Look at the way the delegates have spoken recently about the lull in rising temperatures and you will see there was actually much debate over whether the IPCC should even admit this decline in temperatures because any mention of contrary evidence to global warming was considered traitorous and unacceptable politically.

Of course we won't know just how accurate IPCC reports are until the evidence is in at the end of this century. That doesn't sound like a very solid foundation on which to base decisions that will have real consequences for the living. That's the real problem with global warming alarmists: their solutions. Many of the restrictions on developed economies would do little to solve the problem, given that nations like India and China aren't about To do the same to their own flourishing development.

In the end, global warming isn't really about science. It's about guessing.  whether the warmer temperatures the earth has seen in the past 50 years or so are a trend or a normal climate fluctuation. And, what can humans do about climate? I suggest not much, including controlling it. Seems to me that until there is real scientific evidence that the earth is warming because of man made activity, the best thing to do about the global warming theory is to just live with it.

Gottcha Journalism

This just in from the front page of  USA today dot com, a major newspaper both on and off line. I swear I read this on their front page.   It's "news" that Maine Governor Paul LePage denied that he said President Obama "hates white people." Haha What a foolish story for the front page of a newspaper.  "No, I never said that. And you guys are all about gossip," the governor said after reading the reports. We have a newspaper reporting a rumor of a racist comment, allegedly said during a fundraiser event for the governor,  according to two other politicians who claim that they had heard the remark..... strange.  And USA not only spreads hateful rumors, it doesn't identify the source because those who allege them "requested anonymity" for fear of political retribution.

Huh? Why would that major newspaper and most others print such gottcha remarks? The story quickly spread to many other newspapers and TV stations as well and by effect, has been elevated from cheap gossip to truth status.  Oh, wait! That seems to be the norm in modern day journalism.  In order to win the ratings game and sell more, news sources now behave like anonymous bloggers spewing forth unsubstantiated garbage instead of factual reports. That story is just one of hundred similar gottcha stories by the news media, both print and air, that I have seen this year. They are stories that attack a person  (in this case both governor LePage and President Obama are smeared by the story) without verification, seem to have no point beyond shock value, and distract the public from reading or viewing real news by wasting time and energy on stupidity.

USA Today and the rest should be ashamed of printing gossip as news, and even more so by elevating the gossip to front page status. Uh...... don't even think that USA Today will retract and apologize if the story is false. That never happens in this age of journalism that values the speed of the report over the veracity of it.  News outlets more often throw bombs today and then leave the scene. Responsibility and accountability from them is rare.

Humans everywhere seem less informed about important events in their community and world than ever before. It's partly because news outlets have become supermarket gossip rags as much as serious news outlets. The reliable news source is a dying species. And the worst aspect to the waste of time and attempts to slander or embarrass is that many journalists make the "gottcha story" their prime methodology. The "let's see who I can embarrass today" method has grown and grown, pushing real news out of the spotlight and making it easier to fool the public about serious matters by distracting it from the important.

Sad to say, the media keeps these idiotic kinds of stories in the forefront because gossip and sensationalism sells news. But what does that say about the fact that we readers and viewers don't demand more from them? Maybe that is the biggest story of all.

Beauty Must Be In The Eyes Of The Beholders

One trend in most places on earth is fewer female beauty pageant contests, those favorites of we men where giggling of various body parts equals excellence. But where beauty pageants are still held there seems to be a degradation of the contests. Want an example?  The famed Miss America pageant, always the number one beauty contest in this country had a contestant this year, Theresa Vail from Kansas, who just walked across the stage and showed her tattoos. Tattoos! Yep, tats are now in beauty contests
"Why did I choose to bare my tattoos?", said Theresa. "My whole platform is empowering women to overcome stereotypes and break barriers. What a hypocrite I would be if I covered my ink. How can I tell other women to be fearless and true to themselves if I can't do the same? I am who I am, tattoos and all." Hmmm I wonder if she would cover other marks on her skin if they showed.....varicose veins or scars, for example.

Tattooed Theresa is University student at Kansas U who plans on being a dentist. She did not win the contest or even finish among the top ten. Theresa is also in the army (where she got her tats). I am not in agreement with her that she is "empowering women" by showing her tattoos, but I am certain her body writing and pictures won't win her any beauty contests. Perhaps she is desperate for attention of any sort. Wearing a bikini with script tattooed across her body should do that.

I am not a fan of mutilating the human body with ink. And whole ink think has become a bit of a hackneyed expression of one's identity. Nothing is original anymore, which is why there is a waiting period till what was old and outed becomes new again.  Tattoos are popular today but the novelty is rapidly wearing off, meaning many tattooed people may eventually want to wear off their tats. I wish her well, but think she would probably be better suited for a Tattoo beauty contest than a standard one.

There is a definite division in our society. The younger generation loves tattoos or 'body art.' It's almost a style thing, but to some a message statement. The problem is that styles change as do preferences. Look at photos of how people dressed in the 1960s. I ask myself how could we have ever worn that pair of pants or shirt. And those glasses! But those things are easily replaced. It costs a lot of money, time, and perhaps discomfort to remove tattoos. But I guess the young have to learn lessons on their own just as everyone in the past had to.

Naming Rights

There is quite a furor going on about an incident here regarding a parent's right to name his or her child any name he or she wishes. Common sense seems to be lacking in both the couple's choice of a name and in  a judge who ordered the couple to rename the boy a name she chose for child. The question is largely whether a judge has the right to force a parent to change the name of a child because he or she feels it is "unsuitable" (even if it is).  It's an easy answer in a democratic nation. NO!

Here's what happened. Tennessee Child Support judge Lu Ann Ballew,  had her own ideas about the right name for an 8 month old little boy.  She decided that Messiah, what the mom and dad named him, was an inappropriate first name and ordered that Messiah's name be changed to "Martin Deshawn McCullough" (the new first name and middle name are the last names of the two parents), thus incorporating the last names of both parents instead of using "Messiah". Yep! The judge said the couple must change the name of the baby and the birth certificate to show that Messiah is now Martin.  “The word Messiah is a title and it's a title that has only been earned by one person,” said the judge at the hearing.

The question is not only how stupid it was to name their child Messiah, but also why would a judge try to take away the right of the parent to name the child whatever they wished? The judge said that the United States is overwhelmingly a Christian county, and that she was merely looking out for the little boy’s welfare. “It could put him at odds with a lot of people,” she said, “and at this point, he has had no choice in what his name is.” But this violates the parent's the first amendment right to freedom of religion.

No doubt a higher court will over-rule that decision to change the name and Martin will become the Messiah again.......... to be teased until he goes mad from the Messiah jokes he is destined to hear all during his lifetime.  Actually, Messiah isn't as bizarre as some other common religious names used here. "Jesus" is often used by Hispanics when naming their children and "Madonna" is also a common one from that singer of the same name who acts anything like a Madonna or Messiah. Judges have no authority to name babies, so this judge must have an agenda of her own in trying to do so. And there already hundreds of Messiah's, if not thousands, running around America (most probably wishing mom and dad used more common sense when naming him).

Naming a child Messiah is not the best idea., though probably better than choosing "Dirtbag", "Vagina", "Maryjuana" or an endless list of others that will make the child have an identity crisis from day one. Choosing "Messiah" just shows that stupid people can have babies and when they do, they act stupidly when parenting. Hmmm Maybe the judge should change her own name to Messiah, since she seems to think she is the all-knowing one.....