Obama should grow a pair

I recently read that President Obama bemoaned the fact that he had not done a better job of reaching across the aisle to build a stronger bipartisan relationship with the Republicans in the Senate. Echos of Neville Chamberlain. Does he really believe that this was remotely possible? The Republican party has become so self serving... their ONLY goal is power, at the expense of America. It's ok if the economy suffers -- in fact, all the better if it does, because American suffering increases their chances of regaining power. I suspect De Toqueville had something to say about this.

I wish Obama would lay the blame for the troubled economy where it belongs:
a) Deregulation of finance
b) The Bush tax cuts
c) The Bush wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Forget the olive branch. It's time for bare knuckles politics, Chicago style. Something that Barack knows a thing or two about.

Christians without a moral compass

Last year, the local Catholic school, Holy Name, had a problem on their hands. There were too few 3rd grade girls to field a volleyball team. However, the Catholic Youth Organization's rule state that any girl in a church's parish can play on the team, and they asked my daughter, Claire, to help them fill out the team. My daughter is neither athletic nor Catholic, but she agreed.

Now Claire is not the best member of the team. In fact, she may be the worst. But she tries hard, has a good attitude, and probably has one of the best attendance records. However she missed the last practice due to a cold, and when we showed up for the game today, we were told that there was a CYO rule stating that any girl that misses a practice cannot play at the subsequent competition.

When I got home, I looked up the CYO rules for Girl's Volleyball. There was no such rule. Some individual schools have rules concerning unexcused absences, but my wife had sent the coach an email saying that Claire was sick. No, this had nothing to do with rules. This was simply a case of a coach (actually, he wasn't even the coach -- just a parent who is very involved in the Volleyball team), taking matters into his own hands, giving the team an edge by lying to me and my daughter to prevent her from playing.

How pathetic. How stupid. How morally crippled.

As an atheist, I rely on my own moral compass. It seems like some Christians lost theirs when they delegated their morality to the church.

The Great Recession

I love the fact that people are starting to call the current economic crisis "The Great Recession". By pinning a name on it, we can start to define it. When did it start, what are its causes, and who is to blame. It seems to me that it started with the economic meltdown in the waning days of the Bush administration. The stage was set by the deregulation of the banking industry (pushed primarily by Republicans), which lead to the real estate bubble. The second blow was the Bush tax cuts, which lowered revenues, and the third were the two Bush wars, which caused the deficit to explode.

Now dolts like Perry and Cain suggest the solution is further tax cuts (primarily benefiting the rich) and further deregulation. If those were such good ideas the first time around, why are we in this mess?

Republicans

When I was young, the Republicans were the stodgy party. Sensible, responsible, conservative... too conservative for my tastes, but decidedly not loony (well, except for Lyndon Larouche). But over the years, they've drifted farther and farther into loony land -- a land that was once the sole dominion of the left. When did that happen? Was it with Reagan's election? I thought he was bad, but I had no idea how much worse it would get. Reagan was a brain trust compared to George II, and at least had charm. Bush Jr. had neither. But even he was a bright spark compared with Palin and Bachman. I just shake my head in wonder. How do these bozos get so far?

And how does America vote? How can it oscillate between Clinton/Bush/Obama? I think swing voters are really just morons who vote largely based on the height of the candidate. Ooh, he's tall! Fortunately, neither Bachman nor Palin are as tall as Obama, so maybe we're safe for this next election. Better check the stats on that yahoo from Texas...

Accessing USB storage on NetGear wifi

I just got a new NetGear DGN3500 DSL Modem/WIFI router. It has a USB port on the back for storage, but I could find no documentation for how to access it from the Mac. Here's how:
1) Open the NETGEAR web console (192.168.0.1)
2) Select USB Storage/Basic Settings
3) Copy the smb url (in my case, smb://readyshare/USB_STORAGE)
4) Open the Finder on the mac
5) Hit COMMAND-K
6) Paste the smb url into the Server Address field
7) Log in as guest (worked for me, anyway)

On Human Curiosity about Aliens

I find it very odd that we are the only creatures on Earth with advanced intelligence -- or at least, the combination of intelligence and the ability to make things. Arguably whales and elephants are pretty bright, but, alas, no thumbs. Still, given the apparent advantages that intelligence confers, it is weird to me that there aren't more critters around us writing books and making bombs.

I suppose one reason for this is that early humans were very good at wiping out other humanoid variants that didn't look exactly like them. So other branches of the tree were pruned by our in-built propensity for violence and racism. Depressing thought, eh?

Still, I figure that on other planets that harbor intelligent life, there isn't such a monopoly on intelligence as humans enjoy on Earth. I think this monopoly on intelligence and civilization has given us a very warped view of our place in the world (and the universe). For one, we have an extremely human-centric view of the world that is deeply embedded in western civilization. Man created in God's image, and all that rot. This monopoly has led us to wonder: is there other intelligent life out there -- that is, are there aliens on other planets that we could invite over for a bar-b-que.

We would view things very differently if there were half a dozen other species that were as culturally and technically advanced as we were. If, say, raccoons and lizards were much bigger, could talk and build things, and had weapons, we might not be so eager to ask the question: is there intelligent life out there. For one, we'd be too busy defending our turf against other intelligent mammals and reptiles to wonder about life out there. Secondly, we would be more frightened about what we might find. Inviting the top predator of some other planet over for tea might not seem like such an appealing idea.

Humans (or at least westerners) have historically believed Earth was the center of the universe, and was unique in harboring life. That's a quirk or our belief system. Aliens may hold no such illusion, and may assume quite the opposite: life is universal, governed universally by evolutionary pressures. If you take that position, then you don't wonder whether other intelligent life is out there -- you assume it is. The question is more whether it's tasty to you, or whether you're tasty to it.