If you haven't gotten a copy, download yours here. I would like to say thank you to everyone who already has one! I had no idea how this relaunch would go, but it has been a fantastic experience so far. A lot of people are responding to the new cover and I couldn't be happier with it. Now if we could just do something about that 47,700 number. My next goal is to crack the top 100 in Kindle sales.
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FRANKLIN R. CHANG-DÍAZ (PH.D.)
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)
PERSONAL DATA: Born April 5, 1950, in San José, Costa Rica, to the late Mr. Ramón A. Chang-Morales and Mrs. María Eugenia Díaz De Chang. Married to the former Peggy Marguerite Doncaster of Alexandria, Louisiana. Four children. He enjoys music, glider planes, soccer, scuba diving and hiking. His mother, brothers and sisters still reside in Costa Rica.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Colegio De La Salle in San José, Costa Rica, in November 1967 and from Hartford High School in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1969; received a Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Connecticut in 1973 and a Doctorate in Applied Plasma Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1977.
SPECIAL HONORS: Recipient of the University of Connecticut’s Outstanding Alumni Award (1980); seven NASA Space Flight Medals (1986, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2002); two NASA Distinguished Service Medals (1995, 1997) and three NASA Exceptional Service Medals (1988, 1990, 1993). In 1986, he received the Liberty Medal from President Ronald Reagan at the Statue of Liberty Centennial Celebration in New York City and, in 1987, the Medal of Excellence from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. He received the Cross of the Venezuelan Air Force from President Jaime Lusinchi during the 68th Anniversary of the Venezuelan Air Force in Caracas, Venezuela (1988), and the Flight Achievement Award from the American Astronautical Society (1989). Recipient of four Doctorates “Honoris Causa” (Doctor of Science from the Universidad Nacional de Costa Rica, Doctor of Science from the University of Connecticut, Doctor of Law from Babson College and Doctor of Science from the Universidade de Santiago de Chile. He is honorary faculty at the College of Engineering, University of Costa Rica. In April 1995, the government of Costa Rica conferred on him the title of “Honorary Citizen.” This is the highest honor Costa Rica confers to a foreign citizen, making him the first such honoree who was actually born there. Recipient of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2001 Wyld Propulsion Award for his 21 years of research on the Variable Specific Impulse Magnetoplasma Rocket (VASIMR) engine.
NASA bio: Franklin Ramón Chang Díaz, PhD
Personal Page: Franklin Ramón Chang Diaz
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As the Hispanic population grows, such students are increasingly a linchpin in state and federal plans to get more students trained in the science, technology, engineering, and math fields. But Hispanic students are also heavily underrepresented among degree recipients in those so-called STEM fields—and a new report from the Center for Urban Education provides some recommendations for changing that.
The report, "Tapping HSI-STEM Funds to Improve Latina and Latino Access to STEM Professions," argues that the Hispanic achievement gaps at the baccalaureate, master's, and doctoral levels exist in large part because of finances. "A lot of discussion about participation hasn't acknowledged that fact," said Lindsey E. Malcom, one of the co-authors and an assistant professor at the University of California at Riverside.
Hispanic students are more likely than their peers to come from low-income families—and that affects not only the competing demands on their time and money but also the types of institutions they are most likely to attend. Such students disproportionately start their college educations at community colleges and Hispanic-serving four-year colleges, which typically have lower costs. In turn, the researchers say, those institutions tend to have fewer resources, often leaving them less equipped to support students and to prepare them for graduate work.
The report recommends that colleges, particularly those with large Hispanic populations, work to better inform students of their full range of financial-aid options. It also pushes colleges to recognize that many Hispanic undergraduates are supporting themselves and are more likely to work and to put in longer hours than their peers.
The Chronicle of Higher Education:
In the STEM Fields, How Hispanic Students Pay for Their Education Affects Success
By Elyse Ashburn
And, a few more I added.
Besides many great free textbooks that you can find online, the internet offers a variety of free science tutorials, videos and other resources. These are great to study individually or to assist you during revision. So today let’s take a look at some of the best links for science students.
A plethora here at Physics Database.
Hyperphysics Concepts
Physics Central
Physics Circus
Physics 4 Kids
Society of Physics Students
Wolfram Physics
Thanks to Ronald T. Jones for the embed...
KANSAS CITY: TOPEKA, Kan. — An anti-evolution group filed a federal lawsuit Thursday to block Kansas from using new, multistate science standards in its public schools, arguing the guidelines promote atheism and violate students' and parents' religious freedom.
The group, Citizens for Objective Public Education, had criticized the standards developed by Kansas, 25 other states and the National Research Council for treating both evolution and climate change as key scientific concepts to be taught from kindergarten through 12th grade. The Kansas State Board of Education adopted them in June to replace evolution-friendly standards that had been in place since 2007.
The new standards, like the ones they replaced, reflect the mainstream scientific view that evolution is well-established. Most board members believed the guidelines will improve science education by shifting the emphasis in science classes to doing hands-on projects and experiments.
Chris Hedges, TRUTH DIG: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz—whose father is Rafael Cruz, a rabid right-wing Christian preacher and the director of the Purifying Fire International ministry—and legions of the senator’s wealthy supporters, some of whom orchestrated the shutdown, are rooted in a radical Christian ideology known as Dominionism or Christian Reconstructionism. This ideology calls on anointed “Christian” leaders to take over the state and make the goals and laws of the nation “biblical.” It seeks to reduce government to organizing little more than defense, internal security and the protection of property rights. It fuses with the Christian religion the iconography and language of American imperialism and nationalism, along with the cruelest aspects of corporate capitalism. The intellectual and moral hollowness of the ideology, its flagrant distortion and misuse of the Bible, the contradictions that abound within it—its leaders champion small government and a large military, as if the military is not part of government—and its laughable pseudoscience are impervious to reason and fact. And that is why the movement is dangerous.
When our public officials can accuse the president of collusion with Al Qaeda (not acknowledging he ordered that hydra's former head slain), and close to the same breath say these are "signs of the end times"; when truckers ride to the capital to perform citizens' arrests (in a moribund protest) inevitably against their own best interests, goaded by talk show pundits collectively with less education than fruit flies; when the same group that denies climate science and its latest dire conclusions can also deny the global, catastrophic effects of hitting next Thursday's default (even the Koch brothers have pulled back from the brink of this Pokemon-AstroTurf-fully-metastasized-Godzilla they've created); when it is clear that Texas Senator Ted Cruz is a living "Deja Vu" of fictional Texas Senator Andrew Steele Jarret in Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Talents", we can not only not govern, we cannot sustain a republic that denies governance, denies science, denies engineering, denies math, denies environmental conservation, denies climate change, denies market regulation, denies civics, denies governance, denies economics, denies facts and reality with such impunity, and calls the child abuse of not teaching science in its proper context a "parental right."
We The People have a global economy built on science. No other nation has tax exempt "creation museums," and the nucleus mother-of-all-creation-museums is currently in financial trouble, as science denial in the long run is an obviously bankrupt strategy. Their solution: add dragons and zip lines (I'm not kidding). I'm sure Europe and Asia - devastating us in PISA results and STEM graduates - will be on board soon.

We have to decide if, as a country, we're going to prepare our youth to compete for jobs in the 21st and 22nd Century, or confuse the hell out of them with "teaching [made up] controversies" leaving them poor, uneducated, desperate and destitute with no hope of a future. This is not science, religion nor is it charity: it is authoritarianism, the societal mid misstep prior to fascism; it is a disservice to both science and faith from a faction of humanity whereby the fundamental known fact about nature - change - is a byword.
We have to decide to prepare them for jobs in a middle class that will understandably require more hard skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or leave them defenseless and exacerbate the wealth gap between rich and poor, and the obvious societal instability that will follow.
We have to stop parroting the talking points that debt is the only thing we don't want to pass on to our children: ignorance is even more devastating.
We have to decide in the next and ongoing elections in a future more technical and challenging, to hear what our candidates - at all competitive levels of governance - have to say about science in an actual public debate, instead of the call-and-response sermon talking points they cynically memorize for a base.
We have to decide to educate ourselves enough in science to call their bluff/BS when they are lying.
This status quo of stupidity is untenable; possessing a prayer cloth is not solving real or political Calculus. Your next I-phone or AIDS vaccine is not going to drop out of the sky from magical thinking.
We have to decide if we're going to compete globally in the arena of ideas, or sit helplessly on the sidelines, and turn the opening lines of the Science Fiction comedy "Idiocracy" into prophesy:
Narrator: The years passed, mankind became stupider at a frightening rate. Some had high hopes that genetic engineering would correct this trend in evolution, but sadly the greatest minds and resources were focused on conquering hair loss and prolonging erections.
As the 21st century began, human evolution was at a turning point. Natural selection, the process by which the strongest, the smartest, the fastest, reproduced in greater numbers than the rest, a process which had once favored the noblest traits of man, now began to favor different traits. Most science fiction of the day predicted a future that was more civilized and more intelligent. But as time went on, things seemed to be heading in the opposite direction; a dumbing-down. How did this happen? Evolution does not necessarily reward intelligence. With no natural predators to thin the herd, it began to simply reward those who reproduced the most, and left the intelligent to become an endangered species.
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Credit: Amazon link below |
Previous related link: Malala Day. I of course, think she got robbed for the Nobel Prize again. Dean Kaman says "you get what you celebrate." I celebrate Malala.
LISTEN to what this amazing young woman says about education; the passion in her voice. See her link below. This is what lifts all boats. Ms. Yousafzai is an impressive advocate.
Or, as the Taliban will one day call her: Madam President.
Amazon: I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban
Malala's Site: Malala Fund
Ronald T. Jones' Space Opera 'Dark God's Gift: A Dark Path' concludes as the Galactic Regent Alec Dishman finds himself at the center of a bloody coup attempt! Enemies surround Proctor Dishman but worst of all, his greatest enemy is all too familiar to him. Yet, with the Power of the Dark God's Gift the Galaxy's Ruler plans to crush the rebellion and cut his name into the firmament of history itself!
Researchers at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory say they have tripled the number of neutrons produced by fusion in tiny capsules of deuterium and tritium and thus have moved the National Ignition Facility a step closer to its goal of sustained nuclear fusion. The 13 August firing of NIF's 192-beam laser yielded 3 × 1015 neutrons, whose total energy reached 8 kilo-joules. That output was nearly twice the 5 kJ of energy that produced the plasma in the peppercorn-sized sphere of fusion fuel, says Ed Moses, the lab's principal associate director for NIF.
The result puts NIF a factor of four to five away from ignition, says Moses; last fall the Department of Energy reported that NIF was an order of magnitude away from its goal. Only a factor-of-two increase in plasma energy will be needed to attain alpha heating, an intermediate milestone at which alpha particles from fusion reactions contribute twice as much energy to the plasma as the laser does.
Note the National Ignition Facility was the "warp core" engineering for the movie "Star Trek: Into Darkness." I've mentioned this before, as not only a means of diminishing our dependence on foreign oil, and thus volatile regions of the world: it could change our whole paradigm as a country and a species - heating, energy consumption, food prices at the grocers (determined by fossil fuel prices); income inequality...if we let it.
Of course, we'll have to get through the self-immolation also known as the government shutdown (I really tried to avoid mentioning that).
Physics Today: Lab reports big advance in laser fusion quest, David Kramer
BBC: Nuclear fusion milestone passed at US lab, Paul Rincon
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)
PERSONAL DATA: Born June 27, 1951, in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Married to the former Marianne Sue Cremer of Jefferson City, Missouri. They have three children. Recreational interests include camping, woodworking, and racquetball.
EDUCATION: Graduated from Valley High School, Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1969; received a bachelor of science degree in aeronautical engineering from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1973, and a master of arts degree in management from Webster College in 1977.
ORGANIZATIONS: Member of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots, the Air Force Association, the U.S. Air Force Academy Association of Graduates, and the Society of Space Explorers.
SPECIAL HONORS: NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Exceptional Achievement Medal, Two NASA Space Flight Medals, 1990 Congressional Hispanic Caucus Award, Awarded Aviation Week and Space Technology Aerospace Laureate in Space and Missiles for 1991, Hispanic Engineer magazine 1992 Hispanic Engineer of the Year National Achievement Award, Aviation Week and Space Technology Citation for Aerospace Laureate in Space and Missiles for 1994, 1994 selected by Hispanic Business magazine as one of the 100 most Influential Hispanics, selected by Hispanic Magazine for the 1995 Hispanic Achievement Award in Science, 1995 inductee into the International Space Hall of Fame, Distinguished Graduate of the USAF Academy; awarded the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal with 1 Oak Leaf Cluster, National Defense Service Medal, and Air Training Command Master Instructor.
EXPERIENCE: Gutierrez was a member of the National Collegiate Championship Air Force Academy Parachute Team with over 550 jumps, and a Master Parachutist rating. After graduation from the Academy he completed undergraduate pilot training at Laughlin Air Force Base in Del Rio, Texas. He remained there as a T-38 instructor pilot from 1975 through 1977. In 1978 Gutierrez was assigned to the 7th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Hollomon Air Force Base, Alamagordo, New Mexico, where he flew the F-15 Eagle. He attended the USAF Test Pilot School in 1981 and was assigned to the F-16 Falcon Combined Test Force after graduation. While there, Gutierrez served as primary test pilot for airframe and propulsion testing on the F-16 aircraft. Test projects included the F-100 Digital Electronic Engine Control, F-16C & D Model Structural and Performance Testing, F-16 Maximum Performance Braking Tests, and F-16 Mobile Arrestment Qualification.
He has logged over 4,500 hours flying time in approximately 30 different types of airplanes, sailplanes, balloons, and rockets.
I am admittedly, a Carl Sagan fan. As such, this book is not unfamiliar to me. As such, rereading it in trying times (what I will constantly refer to as the) self-immolation also known as government shutdown, his words are as poignant, as prescient as they were in the mid nineties when it was first published.
I completely avoided my "sermon soliloquy" Sunday, or tried to - see "self-immolation" above. Some paragraphs, sentences on my Kindle (unintentional Freudian slip) gave me pause. I share them without comment or edit, save underlined highlight:
For me, there are four main reasons for a concerted effort to convey science - in radio, TV, movies, newspapers, books, computer programs, theme parks, and classrooms - to every citizen. In all uses of science, it is insufficient - indeed it is dangerous - to produce only a small, highly competent, well-rewarded priesthood of professionals. Instead, some fundamental understanding of the findings and methods of science must be made available on the broadest scale.
- Despite plentiful opportunities for misuse, science can be the golden road out of poverty and backwardness for emerging nations. It makes national economies and the global civilization run. Many nations understand this. It is why so many graduate students in science and engineering at American universities - still the best in the world - are from other countries. The corollary, one that the United States sometimes fails to grasp, is that abandoning science is the road back into poverty and backwardness.
- Science alerts us to the perils introduced by our world-altering technologies, especially to the global environment on which our lives depend. Science provides an essential early warning system.
- Science teaches us about the deepest issues of origins, natures, and fates - of our species, of life, of our planet, of the Universe. For the first time in human history we are able to secure a real understanding of some of these matters. Every culture on Earth has addressed such issues and valued their importance. All of us feel goosebumps when we approach these grand questions. In the long run, the greatest gift of science may be in teaching us, in ways no other human endeavor has been able, something about our cosmic context, about where, when and who we are.
- The values of science and the values of democracy are concordant, in many cases indistinguishable. Science and democracy began - in their civilized incarnations - in the same time and place, Greece in the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. Science confers power on anyone who takes the trouble to learn it (although too many have been systematically prevented from doing so). Science thrives on, indeed requires, the free exchange of ideas; its values are antithetical to secrecy. Science holds to no special vantage points or privileged positions. Both science and democracy encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate. Both demand adequate reason, coherent argument, rigorous standards of evidence and honesty. Science is a way to call the bluff of those who only pretend to knowledge. It is a bulwark against mysticism, against superstition, against religion misapplied to where it has no business being. If we're true to its values, it can tell us when we're being lied to.
Related embed:
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)
PERSONAL DATA: Born August 7, 1962 in French Camp, California. Considers Stockton, California, to be his hometown.
EDUCATION: B.S., Electrical Engineering, University of the Pacific, 1984.
M.S., Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of California-Santa Barbara, 1986.
ORGANIZATIONS: Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES).
SPECIAL HONORS: Ph.D. Science, University of the Pacific (honoris causa), 2006. NASA Service Awards (2002, 2003), Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory “Outstanding Engineer Award” (2001), Upward Bound National TRIO Achiever Award (2001), U.S. Department of Energy “Outstanding Performance Commendation” (2000), Society of Mexican American Engineers and Scientists (MAES) “Medalla de Oro” recipient for professional and community contributions (1999), Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award, “Outstanding Technical Contribution” (1995), Graduate Engineering Minority Fellow (GEM) (1985), and Eta Kappa Nu Electrical Engineering Honor Society member.
This is archival information. Sadly, due to the unnecessary self-immolation AKA government shutdown, NASA.gov is currently offline.
NASA (Archive): Jose Hernández, PhD
Science Fiction Writer Ronald T. Jones' contribution to the 'Dark God's Gift' anthology 'A Dark Path' begins today!
Far into the distant future, down on his luck Freelance Starship Captain Alec Dishman longs for the days when the United Empire was the greatest power in the galaxy. Now little more than a backwater, Alec is struggling to make ends meet. Despite his hard luck, Alec has a vision for restoring the Empire to its former glory. But to put his plan in motion, he's going to need to 'borrow' a few ships! Along with his sexy Avatar Fara and crew of combat modded androids, Alec has exactly what he needs to really get himself in trouble! Little does Alec know, his plan is about to take him down a path which will see him become a gradious hero or a blood-soaked tyrant when he receives the 'Dark God's Gift!'
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The effect of a gravitational wave on a ring of particles, as space-time is compressed and stretched. Source |
Observations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) have already revolutionized modern cosmology, providing evidence that the nature of our Universe can be beautifully described by six fundamental parameters. And yet, the authors of this work say that the CMB has even more insight to offer, this time into how gravity behaves on microscopic scales. It is believed that the gravitational force is transmitted by a hypothetical, fundamental particle called the graviton, similar to how the photon carries the electromagnetic force. Unfortunately, the gravitational force is much weaker than the electromagnetic force1, and while scientists can easily measure a single photon, the prospects of detecting a single quantum of gravity are much graver. However, the authors argue that precise measurements of the CMB can do just that, proving the existence of the graviton and the quantized nature of gravity. Such a detection would provide evidence for the unification of general relativity and quantum mechanics, one of the most profound problems in current theoretical physics.
Astrobites: Detecting the Quantization of Gravity
Link to an interesting article about a lake in Tanzania ... maybe it can inspire some stories.
Warning: The pictures are a bit creepy.
http://gizmodo.com/any-animal-that-touches-this-lethal-lake-turns-to-stone-1436606506
JOHN D. OLIVAS (PH.D., P.E.) "DANNY”
NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)
PERSONAL DATA: Born in North Hollywood, California, 1966, and raised in El Paso, Texas. Married to the former Marie Schwarzkopf, also from El Paso, Texas. They have 5 children. Recreational interests include running, weightlifting, hunting, fishing and surfing.
EDUCATION: Graduate of Burges High School, El Paso, Texas; received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Texas-El Paso; a masters of science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Houston and a doctorate in mechanical engineering and materials science from Rice University.
AWARDS: Six U.S. Patents; Four NASA Class One Tech Brief Awards; Five JPL-California Institute of Technology Novel Technology Recognitions; The University of Texas-El Paso Distinguished Alumnus, HENAAC Most Promising Engineer, McDonald’s Hispanos Triunfadores Life Time Achievement Award, NASA ASEE Summer Faculty Fellowship Award, Dow Life Saving Award.
EXPERIENCE: After graduating with his undergraduate degree, Olivas worked for the Dow Chemical Company as a mechanical/materials engineer responsible for performing equipment stress/failure analysis for the operating facilities. Upon completing his master's degree, Olivas pursued his doctorate while supporting engine coating evaluations for C-5 maintenance operations at Kelly Air Force Base. He also supported the Crew and Thermal Systems Directorate at NASA Johnson Space Center, evaluating materials for application to the next generation space suits.
Upon completing his doctorate, he received a senior research engineer position at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and worked in the development of tools and methodologies for nondestructively evaluating microelectronics and structural materials subjected to space environments. He was promoted to Program Manager of the JPL Advanced Interconnect and Manufacturing Assurance Program, aimed at evaluating the reliability and susceptibility of state-of-the-art microelectronics for use in future NASA projects. Throughout his career, he has authored and presented numerous papers at technical conferences and in scientific journals.
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The Higgs boson may have played a key role in the early Universe, including the creation of mysterious dark matter. CERN |
A key riddle in cosmology may be answered by the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson — now a leading contender for the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics on 8 October.
Two physicists suggest that the Higgs had a key role in the early Universe, producing the observed difference between the number of matter and antimatter particles and determining the density of the mysterious dark matter that makes up five-sixths of the matter in the Universe.
In a paper accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters [1], Sean Tulin of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Géraldine Servant of the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Study in Barcelona, Spain, say that there may have been an asymmetry in the early Universe between the Higgs boson and its antimatter counterpart, the anti-Higgs.
I got tired of there not being any good animated adventure shows on TV.
I got tired of them not featuring or, usually, even HAVING any black characters in them when they are on the air.
I also got tired of not having enough money to hire good animators to make stuff from my scripts (what I do really well is write. I have no dream to be Alex Toth or Uncle Walt.).
When I get tired of stuff like this, I get mad, usually.
When I get mad I make things.
This is phase two.
Book #2 in my World of Five Nations series is now available for Kindle at Amazon.com!
You can find it here:
Elven Roses - by Brandon Hill
"Aldrec was an elf who was mystery to all but himself. Keeping others at arm’s length, he lived each day staving off madness from his impossibly long and somewhat reclusive life. Mericlou was an Alerian model: an obsolete brand of android from a bygone era, lost in the monotony of the daily grind and her eccentric ‘family.’ Their friendship, born of serendipity, healed their lonely souls. Later, love entwined their lonely hearts…and nearly rekindled a shameful war."
© 2 October 2013, Reginald L. Goodwin
Healthcare.gov had 1M hits 1 October 2013, before 7 AM. It is based on the state health care option Mitt Romney gave Massachusetts in '06, which is based on the public mandate championed by the conservative Heritage Foundation AND Newt Gingrich as a counter to President and Hillary Clinton's plan. 97% of Massachusetts is covered; 84% are satisfied 7 years later. (You can also register to vote, which may explain the fierce opposition to it!) Mitt and the GOP were "for it" before they were against it. So, this is opposition to THEIR idea: isn't this a form of self-immolation?
“The chickens have come home to roost”: made famous by Malcolm X, it has become a metaphor for Karma; the biblical reaping what one has sown.
It is ironic now Senator John McCain is now calling for civility after introducing us to the queen of incivility in his “game changing” maverick moment on the campaign trail (“palling around with terrorists” seems so tame to “shucking and jiving” now). “Mamma Grizzly” is de facto mother of the Tea Party, and from its aging placenta emerged Ted Cruz. It is ironic Former House Speaker Newton Gingrich suggested that a government shutdown would not work this time (as it didn’t the last time); Representative Peter King called Senator Ted Cruz of Texas “a fraud” and Representative Devin Nunes compared this nakedly government-by-terrorism-tactic “lemmings with suicide vests.”
But, that’s what happens when one goes to apocalyptic extremes, isn’t it? 9-11 was a harsh and evil day; along with the financial crisis of 2008 prophecies abounded on “the end of days,” and many prophets profited from the same utterance, an absence and deafening silence holding avarice accountable for the global crash in ’08. The rise of Occupy Wall Street – and the emptying of pews by the young – stark evidence that lack of the same zeal that once threw money changers out of the temple has turned up and coming replacement worshippers off.
It has also made many Americans skeptical of the process of government by imperfection – humans with beliefs/ideals coming to compromise and consensus to make things run. Congress’ approval rating is at an all-time low, so in protest of that August body; many of our fellow Americans in gerrymandered, quite safe-to-be-republican districts have sent a small contingency to Capitol Hill that do not believe in government or governing…or science…or election results…or reality.
Absolutism has taken control of half of the country, a “good versus evil”; “us against them” “the forces of God against the forces of the devil.” As previously tongue-in-cheek with 43rd President Bush, 44 is labeled “the Antichrist” if you can stomach trolling vulgar Internet sites. Every president one doesn’t agree with since Clinton is compared to Hitler and in league with the Illuminati, an 18th century, long dead cult by Adam Weishaupt. That requires one only to cower and fear; not think or rationally address the conspiracies blatantly broadcast in primetime: voter suppression, outsourcing, education, the war-on-drugs, and for-profit-prisons all made lucrative commodities with symbols on the NYSE. That list is a beast that seeks to destroy whom it may devour for the enrichment of a select few.
The tea party would label themselves as “Christian conservatives,” but a more apt description is authoritarian anarchists, more in common with The Dark Knight’s Joker: “Some men aren't looking for anything logical, like money. They can't be bought, bullied, reasoned or negotiated with. Some men just want to watch the world burn.” These are Ayn Rand individualists with not an ounce of charity for “the least of these” other than their wealthy benefactors; apocalyptic dominion Stepford children of “Mamma Grizzly,” Michelle “crazy eyes” Bachmann, and “Dr. Strangelove (How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb)”; “my way or the highway”; “give me what I want, or I’ll burn the house/country/planet down!” a complete 180 degree dichotomy from “peace on earth; good will towards all men.” Speaking of which: he was threat to order in the Roman Empire, executed for sedition; addressed the leading lawmakers (scribes) and status quo religious leaders (Pharisees) quite affectionately:
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in [yourselves], nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows' houses, and for a pretense make long prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Woe to you, blind guides, who say, 'Whoever swears by the temple, it is nothing; but whoever swears by the gold of the temple, he is obliged [to perform it]. Fools and blind! For which is greater, the gold or the temple that sanctifies the gold?” (Matthew 23:13 – 17) For that, and other feats of verbal Ju-jitsu, he life was routinely threatened; eventually executed by crucifixion.
Authoritarian anarchists are the white-washed sepulchers of his mention; Paul’s “sounding brass and tinkling symbol”; the demonic posing as angels of light; death masquerading as life. A hiker in Idaho cannot be found: park rangers are among the 800,000 government workers, NASA and the Curiosity Rover furloughed, and her blood if she expires of exposure is on the hands of lemmings in suicide vests. We will spend 40 – 80 million dollars a day of taxpayer dollars: republicans, democrats, tea party dollars! These authoritarian anarchists are guilty of pimping God in canned and practiced call-and-response sermons like a cheap prostitute, feigned Oscar-winning performance Glossolalia, kneeling in front of the Capitol devouring widows while making showy prayers; refusing to legislate and proud they are not: for 126 days of “work”; a six-figure government check and free health care!
A book by Chris Matthews called “Tip and the Gipper” reflects back to (now in comparison) halcyon days when Speaker Tip O’Neal and President Reagan resembled Warner Brother’s cartoon “Sam and Ralph” (sheepdog and wolf). They argued, they disagreed, they fought like cats and dogs (or, sheepdog and wolf)…then after six, like Sam and Ralph drank like Irishmen. When Reagan was shot, O'Neal knelt and recited the 23rd Psalm by his bedside. It wasn’t perfect by any means: it was government by imperfection; government by agreed consensus and concession; government that worked.
We now have government by Twitter, with the attention span of 140 characters. We now have government and journalism by social media, such that “truth” is judged by how many people say the same thing over and over again; not its source (Goebbels would be proud). We now have government by “reality show” where none of the contestants are trained actor/performers nor need to be (just flamboyant and outrageous enough to keep our fleeting attention span), or in this case, no grounding in philosophy, science, literature, and history to inform the positions they wish to uphold and defend. “Stick to principle”; purity tests; primary challenges within your own caucus. We now have government by borrowed rhythm, sound bites; sample songs to spit a line over; claiming a legacy of Reagan by dissecting bits and pieces of him that their own purity tests he’d fail; a government that resembles a new joint from NOLA by “Wheezy,” tattooed terrorists hopped up on "purple drank" and Wild Turkey before flushing the country Sunday – deluded, apocalyptic, science-denying “principled” lemmings in suicide vests – with no “plan B.”
Here is mine: #2014TheDayofReckoning. Vote!
This time, vote for your own self-interests and not against it, or against the country’s self-interest and continued viability. Hire people that WANT to govern.