Bad Rats and Sick Ships

(The Warners of Virginia)As anticipated, the articles on Larry Craig's resignation have begun. We won't have to wait long. Less anticipated is that leading Republican Senator John Warner has announced that, like Dennis Hastert, he's had his fill of Washington and will not be seeking another term. Warner is one of the Republicans I support. His departure will be a loss for the senate. At 80, perhaps he's old and tired. Then again, perhaps the state of the situation has become so intolerable he just can't do it anymore. Remember, Warner returned from Iraq recently and suggested we start getting out of there by this Christmas.

While the GOP will massacre Craig and easily retain the seat, the task of retaining Warner's seat is far more challenging. Very popular and right there we have Mark Warner, well liked former governor of the state. Hillary, suggests the grapevine, has Warner in mind as a VP. That may have just changed. If Mark Warner runs for this seat and does not slip, he will be Virginia's next Senator.

Rat Gonzo leaves in a couple weeks, and today was Rat Rove's last day at the White House. He leaves a GOP boat that is taking on water and a presidency on the brink of oblivion, referring to nuclear holocausts. Play that lunacy out. Iran gets the bomb. Who do they nuke? The United States? No.

Israel.

What happens next? Spacecraft will have to be modified to navigate the chunks of Iran around the space station. Iran doesn't know this? Yeah, they have a kook in charge, but that country is actually rather intelligent if the government would get out of the way.

Sirocco posted a Congressional Exodus story recently, noting that Deborah Price, R-Ohio, and Chip Pickering, R-Mississippi, won't be seeking re-election either.

The GOP ship is not sinking, but it is infected. The president's speeches this week paint continued obstinacy and denial. He does whatever Lord Cheney tells him to do, but they keep crafting different reasons for doing it, and he is starting to lose his generals. The sequence of events follow murky forces and pressures that require time. Still, when situations meet certain tipping points, a lot can happen quickly.

In Stephen King's The Stand, one of the military characters states, "If the center does not hold, everything falls apart."

Someone much smarter than than most elected officials wrote in The Perfect Drug, "Without you, everything falls apart."

As far as I can tell, the GOP has lost its center. At a July 4th Bush rally in North Carolina on public grounds, two individuals wearing T-shirts with anti-Bush statements were arrested for "trespassing", handcuffed, and thrown in jail. They made phone calls that produced phone calls, and the ACLU got them out of jail and filed suit. The judge tossed the bogus trespassing charge, and the federal government settled for $80,000.

The topic to which Bush's entire address spoke, Freedom of Speech.

Freedom of Speech, unless of course, you want to say something our president does not want to hear.

Posting a Puzzle

Humans beings have a curious relationship with reality. The following simple puzzle points at something deeper than optical illusions.

I have three cards in a box. One card is red on both sides. One card is blue on both sides. One card is red on one side and blue on the other side. At random I pull a card from the box and show you one side. It is red. What are the chances the other side is also red?

Typically, after some thought, figuring it must be either the red/red card or the red/blue card, one answers 50/50, since it is equally likely that I picked either.

Wrong.

Solutions welcome. I'll provide in a little while.

Time Wounds Another Heel

Cementhead Idaho Senator Republican Larry Craig bought the farm today with perhaps one of the stupidest statements ever read to the public. The GOP has got to be furious about the development. Put another notch in the wall for the blue wave. If the Republicans don’t toast him before the next election, the Democrats will. He is finished. Idaho is bright red, but the GOP will lose this seat if they don’t take him out.

Add "I am not gay" (Craig, 2007) to "I am not a crook" (Nixon, 1974) to "I am no longer gay" (Haggard, 2006) to "They will, in fact, greet us as liberators" (Cheney, 2003). I could keep going.

Craig was part of the Romney campaign, "Knowing Governor Mitt Romney is knowing somebody who first and foremost has very strong family values. That's something I grew up with and believe in."

Romney tossed him in the trash at once.

The Republicans need to do the same if they want to retain the seat.

Look at Larry holding that mike.

The Beautiful, the Bad, and the Ugly

Tucson, Arizona. The University of Arizona campus is killing me. Oh, Lolita! Perhaps Lolita is struggling with her algebra and needs some help from a kind, caring math tutor. Perhaps Lolita doesn’t have enough money to pay the tutor who so much wants to help.

I’m bad.

Just kidding. If the reader has seen American Beauty, the scene near the end captures it perfectly. After months of fantasy, the reality is completely different. He can’t do it. Neither could I.

Moving to the opposite end of the spectrum, and not meaning to be cruel or insensitive to decent human beings or judgmental, but I am sorry, a couple days ago I saw what has to be the butt ugliest human being in 18 states, an ugly that defies distinction of ethnicity or gender. If this ugly enters a restaurant, the patrons take off their glasses.

Forget the fact that the body had swelled to a size that prevented walking.

The face could scare the fleas off of a dog.

The War over the War

As we await the big report that is probably already written, MSNBC has posted a story about the declassified part of the latest National Intelligence Estimate which suggests conditions will get "more precarious" in Iraq for the next 12 months. MSNBC states: The report represents the collaborative judgments of all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the intelligence organization of each military service.

Terrific.

As we slog along through the muck bleeding our military and financial resources, frustration has now escalated to where groups on each side are starting to produce advertisements and buy air time targeting specific members of Congress. ABC has a good story about a pro-war group, Freedomswatch and provides a link to watch the ad.

If ABC is correct, we head towards a "barrage" of ads targeting specific members of Congress.

A barriage?

Members of Congress represent their constituents, and their constituents elect them. Pushing officials into positions inconsistent with the views of their voters can cost elections. If a GOP Congressman’s district has turned vehemently against the war, and he remains a staunch supporter, an astute opponent WILL destroy him with war material in every mailing, every ad, every debate. Game over.

The tactic reeks of the Bush Administration. If the GOP wants to crucify itself by forcing its members in Congress into positions that will cost them their seats, fine with me. Let them promote the blue wave. Perhaps, in December of 2008, instead of "No Child Left Behind" we can thank Bush for "No Republican Left in Congress."

I hope the groups opposed to the war realize that trying to push officials past the sentiments of those they represent commit the same mistake. If you wish to voice your views to your elected officials, write them. Call them. Every day. Drive their offices crazy. Don't put hostile ads on television.

In today’s context, I assert that 2006 was a skirmish.

I speak in political metaphor, so I am not suggesting 1860 where our military splits in two and fights itself. That said, the technology that puts us a couple clicks away from each other will escalate the volume and volatility of the discourse to unprecedented levels. The upcoming conversation will be intense.

The War over the War is heating up. The reader already knows (or will soon) that Senator John Warner, R- Virginia, has defected from the Bush Administration by calling for the reduction of troops beginning soon. Warner has served as Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

We simply cannot as a nation stand and continue to put our troops at continuous risk of loss of life and limb without beginning to take some decisive action.

Senator John Warner, former chairman and 2nd ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Warner mentioned the NIE report as corroborating his position. Of course, such words from a lightweight, weak-minded know nothing GOP Senator who chaired a lightweight non-influential committee doesn’t really mean anything.

2008 IS WAR.

Generation Next

Tucson, Arizona. Early 2007 the Pew Foundation released a detailed 69 page report regarding Generation Next. For those not aware, Generation Next refers to those who grew up with personal computers, the Internet, and the cell phone. Almost 100 percent omnivore, they have a different view of reality, and they are the ones who will save (or not) the planet from the best efforts of those currently seeking to destroy it. The reader can research for further details. I present my take. The report has interesting features.

Gen Nexters are so connected via Facebook and cell phones that peer-to-peer relationships dwarf the influence of elders. They consume alcohol and illegal drugs as much as they choose and engage in casual sex per their own judgment, armed with birth control and the knowledge to prevent STD's.

Racism, gender bias, and intolerance of homosexuality are all but extinct as acceptable conversation, and their global connectedness dissolves the xenophobic outlook leading to far less concern about immigration or the presence of other ethnicities. Even with 911 and terrorism, the young group simply does not have a "keep them out" viewpoint.

Young and generally healthy, they forego health insurance and are not overly uptight about it. As they age this will change.

Regarding political impact, two forces are competing. Generation Next is far more sympathetic to Democrats than Republicans, and to the extent they get involved, it swings blue substantially. The force that detracts from this is that they tend not to be active or vote, which dramatically reduces the actual influence. However, the trend in participation is climbing over the even less involved Generation X. If Democrats tap into this group effectively, the return will dramatically exceed an equal effort exerted by the GOP.

Both religious organizations and the GOP hemorrhage credibility profusely when they bash homosexuality or evolution, promote abstinence and sexual oppression of any kind (denial of morning after pill, RU-486, birth control, abortion), or express animosity towards illegal aliens. Since who is legal and who isn't cannot easily be recognized, while at 46 I can make the distinction, to this young group immigration positions of the "they are criminals" variety occurs as racism against the Latino population. I can promise from personal experience that to Gen Nexters, seeing a peer denied access to a university education (even if they can pay) because "they don't have papers" occurs as barbaric. Their angle, "Let Maria get an education, and she'll be a good worker in the country!"

Advice to Democrats, get out the YOUNG vote, and they are ONLINE.

How many students are at the University of Arizona? They are voting age. How many can register to vote in Arizona? (Hint: a lot.) Education. Immigration. The War. Success in the global economy. Reproductive Freedom. Blue candidates should consider universities that fall in their districts.

They defy the GOP view that government is bad and defy your humble blogger's view that corporations are bad. They are fine with both government and corporations. I need to educate these folks about corporations.

They maintain effective relationships with parents, but with far greater sophistication. Parents get continued affection and relationships for a $$reason$$. Gen Nexters highly value education and expect parents and grandparents to provide substantial help, more so than any prior age group. They want higher education and want help paying for it.

In case the categories are not clear:

Generation Next: 18 to 24 years old
Generation X: 25 to 40 years old
Baby Boomers: 41 to 60 years old
Seniors: Over 60

All face different realities. Seniors and older boomers can retire with both pensions and social security. Younger boomers are seeing pensions eliminated or reduced and the trend points to zero. Generation X can forget a company honoring any pension promise (except for the most elite) and needs to build a 401(k) if they want anything. Some social security may still be around, but checks will start later and be smaller. Gen Nexters know that independent wealth by retirement age is now a requirement, because they can forget about any public assistance whatsoever beyond a poverty level pittance.

A real treatment would disaggregate by SES. The rich are fine. The poor are screwed, but this story holds for the aggregate.

In a somewhat new development, the desire to be famous has grown significantly over prior age groups. Perhaps it's the TV they watch, and they watch a lot, and the Web sites they visit. They seek fame and fortune, but fortune is the highest priority and at an unprecedented level. They enter college for the employment opportunities it will make available. Forget about this character development stuff unless its leads to money. They want the best jobs and select majors increasingly with this objective. They use the Internet to learn about colleges and majors and consider at unprecedented levels the employment prospects associated with their choices. Once employed, they will show their employers the same loyalty their employers provide them:

NONE.

My Lovely Lolita

Tucson, Arizona. I read Nabokov as as undergrad. The University of Arizona started classes yesterday. Your humble blogger is overwhelmed by the grace of thousands and thousands of gorgeous young women aged 18 to 22 wearing shorts, strapless revealing dresses, mini-skirts, and flip flops. They are everywhere except my office.

Today, a particularly stunning beauty sees me and smiles. She approaches me, and I get all excited. She says, "Dr. Professor, sir, can you point me to the Psychology building?"

Oh, my lovely Lolita, let's forget about the Psychology building and go see the nice professor's house.

Well, not too discouraged, I happily hoofed over to my only course, Econometrics 518, eager to meet some co-eds a little closer to my age, and, well, the class was not a representative sample of the university's student body. India and China provided eleven of the fifteen in the class. The two women were Chinese. The professor, serious economist/statistician, starts writing all of these equations on the board.

I smiled and got all enthusiastic. When he started writing Greek letters (epsilon, delta, beta, theta) I almost made an audible sound. When I realized that my reaction to Greek letters on a school board was that of excitement, the daughter's remarks truly hit home, "You're such a geek, daddy."

Mending Mutilated Minds

Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?" But, conscience asks the question, "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Terrorists have ambitions of empire," says Cheney. The irony was exquisite, if lost.
John Pilger


The United States currently has close to 162,000 (give or take a thousand) troops in Iraq and some 30,000 or so in Afghanistan. The number killed in Iraq now tops 3,700 and the number physically injured exceeds 30,000 or will very soon. Some have noticed that many returning from combat show no physical wounds, but they have sustained damage in many cases worse than the loss of an eye, a hand, or even a leg.

The mind can sustain injury every bit as much as the physical body. Unfortunately such terrain remains far less understood. Without getting into too long a post, let’s say that when the mind is confronted with material that crosses a line, injury occurs. We forget the jerk that cut us off in traffic, but as we ramp up the trauma, the ability to forget plummets. Past a certain point, the experience inflicts real damage. Easy to understand examples include rape, divorce, molestation, violence, betrayal, loss of loved ones (especially children) and others.

Our machinery hardwires concern for children, humanity’s future. Suffering and violence involving children produces high octane damage. You cannot process a six-year old girl walking up to your comrade and detonating a grenade, killing herself and your friend. Don’t argue. YOU CAN’T.

Skipping whether it is unconscionable to stretch our heroes in uniform to the breaking point, what is clearly unconscionable beyond all argument is our ineffective response to the psychological carnage we are both unwilling and unable to effectively address until we educate our military leadership in mental illness and the wounds our soldiers are sustaining. They are learning, but slowly. The VA Site lists some respectable details of the problem but the reality on the street of getting real treatment to real casualties is appalling. Go surf the PILOTS material and you can find lip service, but what care is really delivered?

Do you know what is happening to children in Iraq? Our soldiers do. Our soldiers have found it necessary to shoot kids. Process that. If you think you can, one of two statements is true: 1) you’re an idiot, or 2) you have no soul.

Our thinking machinery and our emotional machinery are intimately related, but just like a marriage, they are not the same entities. Damage and PTSD result when the emotional center is wounded beyond what the thinking center can process. The individual desperately tries to talk to itself, justify, explain, contextualize, rationalize, and the emotional center shakes its head, "I was there, idiot. I know what I saw. F*** off."

The traumatic memory draws psychic blood and tortures the soul. The damaged seek relief through medication, alcohol, or worse, and when the bleeding crosses a threshold, they commit suicide. Seen any recent press about suicide rates among serving or returning soldiers? Google it.

In theory, we can say the words. In practice, we are failing miserably to provide our mentally crippled veterans access to treatment that works. Because it was first distinguished using eye movement, the most advanced and effective treatment is called EMDR but it is not about the eyes. Francine Shapiro initially worked on rape victims with eye movements. The more advanced method uses hand held devices that alternate vibrations in a way that opens a gateway between right and left brain. Whether one is left brained or right brained (opposite of the hand you use), EMDR opens the gateway. With the gateway opened, a person can address past trauma and reprocess it in a way that stops the bleeding, allowing the most terrible experiences to be digested and classified in a way that alleviates the pathology. It does not erase the experience or the scar, but it stops the bleeding.

Anyone reading this is encouraged to learn more about EMDR and advocate it be made available to returning soldiers. It is not expensive or difficult, and it works. Those who understand the reality of mental health and care should advocate educating our military about the reality of PTSD and the existence of effective procedures for treating it.

Junkies on Junk

The average person in the United States watches 28 hours of television per week. That is FOUR hours EVERY day. I wonder if that has anything to do with why the United States ranks 18th in mathematical literacy.

I assert it's good we rank rather low on the per capita Jehovah’s Witness list. I was not aware that such a ranking existed and will not attempt to interpret the semantics. I await the ranking of nations on per capita miniature chihuahuas to launch my analytical acumen.

So what are we watching for four solid hours every day? Ranked by number of viewers:

1. America’s Got Talent (10.8 million) stupidity
2. 60 Minutes (10.2 million) crime
3. CSI (9.8 million) crime
4. Without a Trace (9.2 million) crime
5. Singing Bee (9.1 million) stupidity
6. Two and a Half Men (9.0 million) stupidity
7. Hell’s Kitchen (8.9 million) stupidity
8. Criminal Minds (8.7 million) crime
9. CSI NY (8.5 million) crime
10. Dateline NBC (7.9 million) crime and stupidity combined

But wait, the shows all feature 15 to 20 percent of their content with advertisements that are selling what? Pharmaceutical companies have increased marketing expenditures from $11 billion (yes, billion) in 1997 to over $30 billion last year.

I like the ad that shows people having eaten greasy, horrible food, but not to worry, that’s what Tums are for, so go ahead, eat whatever you want. Pepcid, a pill that starts working ahead of time, allows one to plan to eat horrible food. Horrible food over time might damage your esophagus, a serious medical condition, so perhaps you need the purple pill, which has been shown to heal wounded esophagi.

And here’s to men! That is, men who don’t like to pee too often. There’s also a pill for women who pee too much, but that’s not due to an enlarged prostrate, so they take a different pill. Then, of course, even though one is eating correctly, because of Uncle Earnie, one’s cholesterol might be too high and require a daily statin. Better check that blood pressure.

Prescription Drug expenditures:
1990: $40 billion
1995: $61 billion
2001: $141 billion
2005: $207 billion

In other words, in 2006 the industry spent almost as much marketing drugs as the entire country spent on drugs in 1990. Now, men who have high cholesterol and blood pressure may also have other issues, but not to be alarmed, Cialis gives a guy 36 hours to woo his mate in case the kids interrupt a romantic escalation. If afterwards one finds it difficult to fall asleep, see your doctor to determine if Ambien is right for you. Dreams missing you? Try Rozerum and boost receptivity to melatonin. Do not take Rozerum with melatonin unless you know what it means.

While we eat garbage and park our fat butts in front of the tube, some of us might notice that our legs start to itch. See your doctor to determine if you have "restless leg syndrome." Yeah, we have a pill for that. My suggestion would be to put on some running shoes and jog that fat butt ten or twelve miles. I can promise that after heaving that massive arse all over town, one’s legs won’t be restless.

The most prescribed medications, even more than the statins, which almost everyone takes, are anti-depressants. We’re all depressed. How can you not be depressed if all you do is eat garbage, have heartburn, can’t have sex or sleep, pee too much, and park your butt to watch hours of crime and stupidity while you scratch your itchy legs?

At least we’ve outlawed marijuana and resolved that dangerous substance abuse issue.

At least none of us are so completely drugged up and out of it that while text messaging we walk in front of an oncoming train. Oh, wait.

Food Folly

Those interested in farming and agriculture know that a few weeks ago (July 27) the House passed HR 2419, known by most as the "Farm Bill." The following report says a lot and the USDA Web page on the bill has even more.

My brilliant friend Thalia has done some research and written a concise paper on the subject.

Thalia is a for real mathematician.

Such people are not verbose. At only a page and a half, she's produced solid work well worth the reader's time. She wrote it before the passage of HR 2419, so the paper discusses the issue, not the bill specifics.

I encourage the reader to take a look.

The issue ties to my rants about the nation's drift towards a corporate welfare state that diverts taxpayer dollars to mega-companies making record profits.

The agriculture issue exceeds my budget, but the executive summary discussion points to taxpayer subsidization of industries to inflate profits at public expense. The situation has become appalling. The only reason the general public is not foaming at the mouth in seething rage is that they don't know.

Republicans have climbed into bed with corporations to produce a "cost externalizing" racket that basically works like this: Not only will we cut your taxes, we will pass legislation that picks up the costs of your operations and allows you to keep the additional profits. For example, take some buses into Mexico, pick up a bunch of folks living in squalor, drive them to Omaha, and dump them at the homeless shelter. Hire them for almost nothing and let the taxpayers handle their medical issues, housing, and any other mess. Examples abound.

The theme involves companies migrating west to non-unionized, economically weak communities and blackmailing them for tax cuts and special breaks for moving there. In some of the ranching and meat-packing operations the public subsidy for each worker can top $20,000 per year. We, the public, pay their wages. We, the public, handle the external costs. The company keeps the profits. Get it? It's a racket.

Thalia noted that Jane Goodall's "every purchase is a vote" argument that the consumer can modify the situation by buying organic is horse puckey. I can go to Wild Oats and buy organic apples until the cows come home. Any effective solution will have to come from the political arena where sound discussion distinguishes the truth and creates the warranted outrage.

The goods news is that slowly some people are noticing. Eric Schlosser's fantastic Fast Food Nation is a MUST READ. Those upgrading to video are encouraged to check out University Channel for intelligent discussion of the subject at a Princeton University conference.

From agriculture to pharmaceuticals to energy to finance, Lord Cheney and his puppet party have become the servants of the wealthiest one percent and have implemented policies that exacerbate the growing gap between rich and poor. The gap ultimately threatens the existence of democracy. How ironic that the party started by perhaps the greatest American president who saved this nation in the 1860's, is now working to destroy it in the 21st century. The scorpions are stinging the frog.

We know what happened to the person who said, "Let them eat cake."

Lipstick on a Pig

I recently discovered Robert Stein's blog that articulates better than I could the bankruptcy of Rove's machinery and moral ruin. Let's face it, Rove and Joseph Goebbels are the same. They think the same, taste the same, and feel the same lack of regard for the blood they shed.

Karl Rove and Joseph Goebbels are the same person. They are identical sub-human demons that exist to forward malignant, brutal, unrestrained exploitation of a population to forward the most evil of ends.

The mission of the GOP is clear. Enslave the masses at slave wages to pad the pockets of the millionaire elite. Screw the poor for every possible penny that can be squeezed. If a single red cent is left in their pockets, the carnage is not complete.

Lord Cheney and his loyal subjects should own everything. The rest of us get NOTHING, own nothing, and live under the rule of the Cheney empire with no property and no assets, utter slaves to the system.

OF COURSE the above rant is hyper-rhetoric and exaggerates.

The question is how much it exaggerates.

Poll Semantics, Dark Journies, and Reality

Tucson, Arizona. The press is releasing various political polls showing what everyone already knows, which is that people are upset, frustrated, and angry at levels from mild irritation to foaming at the mouth. Bush’s approval rating stinks and for good reason. Poll PDF.

We also have polls supporting my assertion that Hillary will face Giuliani.

Granted, we have a long way to go and much could occur to alter the situation. Hillary is also placing online Web 2.0 ads at various news sites.

As a poll moves from assessing an individual to assessing a group, the semantics blur. Numbers for the White House are the easiest to interpret. In general, the country disapproves of the fiasco this administration has created. For the Supreme Court, the drop in approval probably reflects its shift to the right of public sentiment, and I would speculate the public is concerned about the right to choose, and the savvy also worry about the need for progress on the right to die. In both areas, empowering the individual and loved ones to make the decision is progress. Those who stand in the way just baffle me.

Regarding Congress, your humble blogger does not see how anyone can disaggregate overall disapproval of Congress, even when language calls it the "Democratic Congress" to a single election in a single district. Perhaps if the number were low enough, incumbents have cause for alarm, but which incumbents? Perhaps one could forward an argument that incumbents perceived as "status quo" have a problem. Well, who is that? Arizona freshmen?

My radar points to a faucet metaphor. The disastrous 2000 election turned on a faucet that has spewed forth a holocaust at the hands of Lord Cheney and Darth Rove utterly unchecked and given free reign by a GOP majority in Congress. The 2006 election was a national cry: Turn it off!! Turn it off!!

My interpretation of the frustration with Congress comes from its inability to do so as quickly as desired. For the red to interpret frustration with the blue as a good thing could not be more mistaken. Mr. Red, consider that the public wants you dead. Consider that the drop in approval of Congress comes from frustration with its inability to slit your throat.

Impeaching BOTH Bush and Cheney to put Pelosi in the White House just can’t fly. Be reasonable. What is viable is turning the faucet down and starting investigations to hold the responsible to account. Congress has done this.

Only after a blue wave in 2008 can we look at how to turn the faucet off, and even then, it is going to be difficult, complicated, and time consuming. In case some aren’t following, I am talking about Iraq, Afghanistan, China, health care, global warming, poverty, China, campaign finance reform, immigration, China, globalization, North Korea, the deficit, China, social security, Iran, lobbying reform and corruption, China, corporate welfare, energy, separation of church and state, China, education, transportation and economic infrastructure, the impending mortgage crisis, China. Did I forget Al Queda?

See the news today on mortgage companies? Tipadaberg.

Corporations and Government

In high school I wrote a novel Donovan One about a computer company that grew so large and powerful it became a nation transcending nations, having its own security, health care, education, and housing for employees. Led by Mark Donovan, a genius of a new order due to a genetic accident involving a solar flare shorly after his conception. Donovan discovered a new physics based on a new paradigm that emphasized pattern relationships more than structure relations. He stayed out of the academic community and instead went into business. Using this technology, the international Donovan Enterprises grew so powerful it started leveraging its relationship with nations on its own terms.

When the United States tried to reel Donovan in, it was too late. Always ahead of everyone, by this time, Donovan Security Forces possessed secret weapons far beyond the US military. The novel ends with the entire world coming to Donovan pleading to solve the world's problems. World hunger? Unrest in Africa? Clashes between Isreal and its neighbors? Poverty? Crime? Education? Donovan turns to Security Director Tom Ratajack, "Why are they turning to us? These matters belong to the UN and governments."

Ratajack replies, "You're the one who can."

The novel is not dark, written in the context of Ayn Rand where competence and benevolence are linked. Donovan, the competent hero, prevails over the inept bickering idiots. I was right wing as hell when I wrote that book.

Keep in mind it was 1978 with a seventeen-year-old author influenced by Atlas Shrugged. I fully foresaw the GUI and nested windows with icons, but not the mouse. My foresight navigated icons entirely by keyboard. I still question whether the properly engineered keyboard would surpass the productivity of a mouse.

The relationship between government and corporations forms yet one more challenge we face. Government can relax in a certain respect. There is no Mark Donovan, and corporations can be counted on to operate with complete selfishness and tactics alarming the population to call for governmental oversight. If we let companies run the world, Democracy is doomed.

What the novel does introduce is the notion of a brilliant and benevolent corporation operating with the full systemic awareness of the whole with managerial precision and efficiency, growing to serve millions of employees exponentially and across the globe. At some point, such an entity becomes what we have not seen before.

At its peak, General Motors presented the kindergarten of the concept. Toyota might be first grade, and Microsoft, possessing its own knowledge, might be second grade. I doubt any company will leave elementary school.

The PhD of Mark Donovan's Empire will remain unread fiction, but it points to issues that are anything but fiction.

Switching Roles

Karl Rove, considered by some to have as much influence as Lord Cheney, resigned today, stepping down at the end of the month. Obviously the news is all over it. The reader can peruse the articles at CNN, MSNBC, CBS, but I like ABC that notes the Texas Bush's Brain reputation and Rove's "I'm Moby Dick" statement, which I find intriguing given a recent story of mine.

We are talking about a guy who refused to comply with the Judiciary Committee's subpoena. In addition to the standard line about tending to his family, he said, "I need to make some money."

Excuse me?

The criminal needs to go to prison. Last I checked, our federal prisons don't charge rent. I'm pretty sure the food is free. Overweight white Republicans are prison candy. Let's provide Karl an opportunity to switch roles.

What those paying attention know is that the Rove resignation is the latest of a list of many including Harriet Miers, Andrew Card, Dan Bartlett, and Karen Hughes. So what does this really mean? The reader can search the press which has no shortage of material and angles. Here's the Note's take on the impact on the election, and it offers some other interesting links.

The White House wants to avoid the "lame duck image." Well, W, idiot, said the following in front of everybody, "Karl Rove is moving on down the road. I'll be on the road behind you here in a little bit."

WHAT?!!!

Does the reader get the significance of this slip? I promise that I have been trained in a certain art. The words speak worlds.

Bush wants out.

Oh, uggh. I have been there. Readers of Something Else know that in November of 2006 I found myself cut in half and a dead man walking. Most likely, Bush wants out even more than we want him out, and I speak from experience when I say the experience is horrible. After TREO assassinated me, I only had to walk among the living dead for six months. Bush has SEVENTEEN more to go. The whole country is groaning. Hatred for Cheney escalates as Bush looks increasingly impotent, exposed as the puppet he is. Republicans squirm on the implications for their own seats. News of disintegration and disarray escalate on every front.

My bottom line for the god awful atrocity that is going to cost this country dearly, dearly, dearly, is that we allowed ourselves to elect an executive branch focused solely on building political power for a single individual without the slightest regard for serving the country. Rove shifted the agenda to political power for the White House and the White House alone, and every agency, every department, every organization, even scientific research, faced pressure to shift to that mission.

The GOP Congress, if awake, should be panicking. Watergate was five guys breaking into a room. Iraq is a trillion dollar escalating bloody disaster butchering children as other financial disasters brew and Afghanistan disintegrates along with our own domestic infrastructure. If the Democrats nominate a can of spam for President, spam will take the White House in 2008.

Through Rove and Cheney, we elected leadership that served itself and its best supporters, not the nation. They violated a most sacred bond between the governing and the governed. The word is betrayal. At the national level, the word is treason. They are indeed criminals. They will probably not go to prison, but prison they deserve.

If we are to survive, our leadership must serve this nation, not its own political power. Time wounds all heals. Ultimately, the four steps forward respond to the three steps back. It is slow and painful, but we progress.

The time has come for our political science experts and intellectuals to craft publications powerfully distinguishing what Rove has painfully illustrated. We win if the conversation produces meaningful election and campaign finance reform that provides relief for candidates truly committed to serving this nation and creates barriers for those seeking office to serve their own interests.

Democratic leadership must craft strategies for an MO while Bush walks dead and stymies progress and prepare for the post 2008 election when they gain the steering wheel and must immediately address the mess.

Blue money will dwarf red. Use it wisely to protect all blue freshman as cost effectively as possible and target all low hanging red fruit (Renzi).

The walking dead are zombies incapable of much. I have been one. The blue need to grow teeth, bite and bite hard. Draw blood. KILL. (The reader does get I mean politically.) We need to teach our political parties that if they nominate Lord wannabees that think this country exists to serve them, they will be crucified.

The time has come to switch roles regarding who serves whom.

The Return of the Cloth

(Portland). Tucson, Arizona. Well, the terrible TREO of Roach, Major, and Mouch have returned from the vacation to Portland to talk about economic development in the Old Pueblo and the creation of high wage jobs in town. Sam Negri of the Star has the first article about the trip. You want to hear pure, distilled cloth?

I quote Roach directly from the article, "Portland does a really good job of planning and recognizing that you need multiple pieces working together to make the whole place work."

For this we pay the guy $150,000+.

Quoting Tucson City Planning Director Albert Elias, "The part that's missing in Tucson is the confidence and trust that, as a community, a diverse group of leaders can get together to solve anything. But I'm confident we can do it and will do it because the stakes (of inaction) are getting higher."

Negri mentions Council Member Shirley Scott's observation that Tucson residents tend to come together to complain rather than build. Elias said local frustration is reaching a tipping point.

Oh really? I wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that when someone works hard to actually do something real they get their throat cut?

I think Roach is doing a swell job. After all, Lucky Wishbone is building two new restaurants in town "from the ground up."

Now that's economic development.

You've Got Mail

Tucson, Arizona. Anyone paying attention to the press and local politics knows that Arizona Daily Star reporter Daniel Scarpinato is not a big Giffords fan. I have no particular issue with Daniel and have praised some of his political pieces, but make no mistake, count on Daniel to shed light on our Congresswoman in a less than flattering angle when given the opportunity.

Whether it’s the August 2006 ad watch that caused a ruckus or misquoting her as saying she never left Phoenix while in the state legislature (right), for reasons unknown, he can hardly be considered neutral on this particular subject. He wrote an article yesterday painting Giffords’ mailing of postcards and questionnaires to constituents, a common practice, in a less than flattering light, suggesting such activity might be "free publicity."

Jim Kolbe regularly sent out questionnaires and other literature. I remember receiving them and filling them out. I considered it part of his job. If I’m not mistaken, I’ve received material from McCain. I have no complaints about either. I do not recall any articles in the paper suggesting Kolbe was using them for "free publicity."

(Congressman Ed Pastor) The practice of franking goes back to the 1700’s and was recognized as a way for elected officials to communicate with the people they represent. Was the practice abused in the past? Absolutely. Apparently a congressman used a franking tag to send his horse to Nebraska. As a result of past hanky panky, heated criticism led to strict standards and approval by a commission overseeing and approving all mailings, and their quantities are rather severely limited (three a year, I think). More information than you could want is at the link.

(Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords) Frankly, I think Daniel is off on this one, making a story out of a non-story. The dollars involved are trivial (less than $100 grand). Lord Cheney sucks this from the country in two minutes to pay his pals in Iraq, and that’s before we get into the billions we funnel to big pharmaceutical, big oil, and big HMO.But, like the August ad watch, Daniel has tossed sparks into the blogosphere, so we have Kelly at AZ 8th and Thinkright and a bonehead at another blog going all foam mouthed. Whatever.

I like most of the articles Daniel writes and read them regularly, but when it comes to Congresswoman Giffords, take what he writes with a grain of salt, and when the blogs itching to Giffonate launch their salvos, do a reality check.

She spent a modest amount to communicate with the people she represents. Do your own research. It's a non-story.

The Stratification of Technophilia

I surprise no one when I mention the rapid development of the Internet and a myriad of micro-devices from cell phones to PDA's to iPod's to Apple's latest I-Phone. Well, restricting ourselves the to the United States, the population's response predictably falls across a spectrum from cutting edge mastery of the latest to obstinate resistance of the mere existence of such new tools. Readers can visit the Pew Quiz themselves and certainly don't need to take my word for anything. Well, I see no reason to deviate from the classifications they provide. The percentage indicates portion of the US population. I took the quiz, and they classified me correctly.

OMNIVORES (Eight Percent - Median Age: 28)
At the cutting edge, we have what they call the Omnivores. At an average age of 28, they have multiple devices and mastery of each. They text message like fiends and take pictures with their cell phones to be posted on Facebook later that night. They are completely wired and online via phone and or laptop or both and their hand first moved a mouse when they were five.

CONNECTORS (Seven Percent - Median Age: 38)
The connectors entirely embrace the new technology, are solidly connected online and tapped into Web 2.0. They read, create, or post comments at blogs and access news online. Your humble blogger is a connector. No, I don't text message like the omnivores and my cell phone is a phone. It can text message and take pictures, but I don't know how and don't care. It does not connect me to the Internet. I have a computer for that.

LACKLUSTER VETERANS (Eight Percent - Median Age: 40)
This group appreciates the Internet but is less enthusiastic about the small devices. They typically have a desktop and are adept users of online services, but the notion of gadgets does not excite them. Like myself, they may have a cell phone, but they consider it a phone. They have figured out how to pay bills online, buy airline tickets. check the news, but forget about sending them a text message. They are very unlikely to read or comment at a blog. They are also the irritating people that create email lists and forward all sorts of stuff without actually writing original content.

PRODUCTIVITY ENHANCERS (Nine Percent - Median Age: 40)
Individuals of this category accept the utility of the new technology but that's about it. They have a non-enthusiastic "show me the value" approach and adopt what passes muster for their purposes.

MOBILE CENTRICS (Ten Percent - Median Age: 32)
An interesting category that taps the cell phone but not the Internet. These are your cell phone fanatics that know little about the Internet. They love their cell phones and drive us crazy yacking on the stupid phone while they should be driving, paying the cashier, eating their food, or whatever they should be doing instead of shutting up and talking where we don't have to hear them. Forget the Internet. Just don't force them to be apart from their cell phone for fifteen minutes.

CONNECTED BUT HASSLED (Ten Percent - Median Age: 46)
A reluctant group of folks that understand they cannot ignore the development of technology and the Internet. They manage their email and visit sites as necessary, but would prefer a world without this additional hassle.

INEXPERIENCED EXPERIMENTERS (Eight Percent - Median Age: 50)
An older group that sticks their toes in the water without a lot of skin in the game. They surf around, maybe find some entertaining porn, and dabble about without serious effort. They find some interesting sites, like buying flowers for mom, and remain simple.

LIGHT, BUT SATISFIED (Fifteen Percent - Median Age: 53)
Worth noting is the size and age of this group. They meet the new technology on their own terms, casually exploring how it might help without any particular enthusiasm. At least they are open to taking a look. Like the above, they might use the Internet for airline tickets, buy some books at Amazon.

INDIFFERENTS (Eleven Percent - Median Age: 47)
An even less connected group than the above. They might have a computer or a cell phone, but barely use them and have no particular enthusiasm or interest. I speculate an uneducated bunch set in their ways. Note that this group is actually eight years younger than the one above.

OFF THE NETWORK (Fifteen Percent - Median Age: 64)
The individuals in this category have no Internet access at all and no cell phone. They live in a world that no longer exists, oblivious to the exploding nature of the human conversation. They operate in blindness marching to an obsolete beat.

The most striking result if one accepts the above is that the bottom four categories comprise half the population. I consider it rather safe to suggest that the top half are pretty much "tapped in". The bottom half are not.

We Stand A Chance, Liza

At my Nine Inch Nails post, a particularly dark rant observing the inherent bankruptcy of our current political system and its complete addiction to money, a thread of discussion developed where Liza postulated that all is probably lost. Evil has prevailed and will triumph. She challenged me to argue otherwise.

I will. Make no mistake. We are in a horrible mess. As I pondered human history in the context of Liza’s question, I found that I could not identify a period in history where we were not in a mess. I will disaggregate the human equation into major components and address each. I use hyperlinks rather profusely to support the remarks.

VIOLENCE
I suggest a quick scan of massacres and atrocities for a sense of the extent to which we’ve been killing each other on massive scales as far back as we can look. What is the global trend? Steven Pinker, author of The Language Instinct and How the Mind Works (excellent reads) recently wrote a short essay A History of Violence noting we are improving our sensibilities. Fuzzy Signals earlier January 2006 publication Tracking Global Violence (short and well worth reading completely) is consistent with Pinker’s remarks. It ties to the Human Security Report. On a global scale, violence is dropping and our tolerances are changing with, a critical distinction. Browse the report to your own satisfaction, but I will summarize the key take away point: A rise in global awareness has produced activism that is making a difference. Web 2.0 has dramatically escalated this phenomenon. Yes, we have Darfur. We have Iraq. Globally, however, violence is dropping.

HUNGER
The rise in global awareness is also having an impact on hunger around the world, but here the progress is slower and more difficult. While somewhat dated, a perusal of the following statistics shows declines in malnutrition world wide, but some areas fail to improve, or in some cases, have deteriorated. The reader can conduct further inquiries to verify my assertion that although slow, global awareness is reducing hunger. Granted, this provides little comfort to the six or seven million children that starve to death every year.

ECONOMIC DISPARITY AND POVERTY
Unfortunately, while the global activism that has borne fruit in stemming overall violence and produced less but some fruit in reducing hunger, it has failed regarding concentration of wealth and poverty. Don’t freak because they are socialists, but consider the WSWS take on the World Wealth Report, which confirms what we already know, the rich keep getting richer. The facts on poverty are painful and infuriating.

Here Liza’s gloom is most justified. The world continues to fail to distribute economic opportunity. Put most simply, the rich do not help the poor. They just don’t. Think the developed nations help the developing ones? Are you sure? The developing world now spends $13 on debt repayment for every $1 it receives in grants. The course that began with Ronald Reagan in the 80’s, slowed by Clinton, and then dramatically accelerated by Lord Cheney, has produced the widest gap between rich and poor both in the United States and in the world, and the United States, the richest country in the world, now has the widest gap. In Europe and North America, the slice of the cake taken by the richest 1 percent is the same size as that handed to the poorest 57 percent.

Run by the wealthy for the wealthy, the government has implemented structures where the rich systemically take from the poor in the form of regressive taxation and ridiculous stratification of compensation. I don’t think Lord Cheney understands that if the right 550 people decide the US Government has a right to every nickel he owns in this country, they can take it. Of course that won’t happen, but if the trend continues, something will. The wealthy have forgotten that they prosper through a system that allows them to prosper. Effective leadership is required to remind them that payback is appropriate on a progressive scale. The longer we wait, the more blood accumulates on the other side of the dam, and the more brutal the inevitable adjustment. I am not predicting 1917 Russia (oversimplifying, the government slaughtered the rich and took everything they had).

We are talking about physics and thermodynamics. If the numbers grow too severe, a lot of people with nothing to lose will snap. Someone will find a voice that taps into this rage and it will resonate with the masses. Before they can kill this person, the message will be wildfire on the Web. Astute politicians will ride the wave. The rest are extinct.

RACE / GENDER RELATIONS
Ah, some good news. The progress on race and gender consciousness has been nothing short of extraordinary. Of course we are not finished, but look how far we have come in fifty years and give credit where credit is due. By 2050 the issue is toast minus a few pockets in pencil head idiots we can pop in their place as necessary. The progress varies by nation and culture, but all move in the same direction. Many nations (U.K., India to name two) have had women in charge, and the US may do so soon. We have a woman Speaker of the House, many powerful, successful, respected African Americans in Congress, and gender or racial bias in our work place is one of the fastest ways to get fired. The race/gender conversation is a snowball that cannot be stopped and as conditions develop will run over the pockets of areas not yet enlightened.

SCIENCE / TECHNOLOGY,
Another bright spot, despite the momentary glitch by Lord Cheney’s usurpation of the findings of academic research, involves the advancement of science and technology, in particularly information technology, which is like greased lightning cutting across all fields and disciplines. I’m in higher education, but to watch me work you would think I am a computer scientist. I’ll spare you, but folks in higher education could not do what I am doing just 15 years ago. Not even Cheney can suppress Web 2.0. He may break the law or make the law to listen to us, but he can’t shut us up. He could grab me, then go get Sirocco, and then have you disappear, but that takes a lot of effort.

Not even Nazis can kill fast enough to stop Web 2.0.

ENVIRONMENT AND BIOLOGICAL HAZARDS
A frightening area, we face threats on several fronts. I won’t discuss global warming except to note that international pressure is mounting and once Lord Cheney leaves office the planet will begin the process. I fear China. Let them build nuclear reactors, and we should be on a mission from God to harness clean energies like solar, wind, and water. I’ll also skip the rain forest and tree slaughter conversation.

Few seem to consider front lines of the biological war we fight with nasty little things that want to kill us. Our ridiculous overuse of anti-biotics on our farms is a breeding ground for something small and awful. That gets little attention. What gets even less attention is in the absurd addiction to the perfect drug and the almighty profit, our farms commit the obscene. For example, read Fast Food Nation and you will learn that we feed chicken manure to cattle. In 1994 alone in Arkansas alone, the cattle that make our hamburger consumed tons of chicken manure. Then we pump the cows full of medicine to keep them from getting sick while eating chicken shit. Enjoy your hamburger. Far more dangerous are the military explorations into biological agents so powerful they cut through us like a Samurai sword cuts air. The worst agents are not public or listed on Web sites. Would a fanatical terrorist unleash such a monster knowing it means the death of everyone? YES. Seen Twelve Monkeys?

Unfortunately, Liza, the level of brutality from which we came makes for a long journey, and we have much farther to go.

If you are going through hell, keep going.
Winston Churchill

I wish had more for you, but not to worry:

We are making progress.

The Perfect Drug and Collapse

The United States is beginning to reap seeds it began sowing when the Reagan Administration transformed the GOP into a government hating slash and burn entity that mortgaged the future of this nation in almost every respect one can consider. The recent collapse of a bridge in Minneapolis perfectly symbolizes the decay, as does the unprecedented national debt, the unprecedented number of citizens without health care, the unprecedented level of corruption and collusion with lobbyists, the unprecedented levels of corporate welfare for robber barons, the massive growth of the gap between rich and poor, and the declining access to quality education at all levels.

We have government officials who hate government. "By the people for the people" has been supplanted with "by the wealthy for the wealthy" and what services do the wealthy require?

We have a government obsessed with finding services it can eliminate, not what services it should provide. Reagan threw the mentally ill from our hospitals into our prisons (bet that saved money). The war on drugs has got to be the most naked emperor farce ever perpetrated by a government. I'm not advocating we turn the nation into junkies. I'm saying the approach is just flat out stupid. I have a nineteen year old daughter. She can get anything, anything at all, as easily as a glass of milk.

Our national infrastructure has atrophied in areas from health care to education to transportation to energy to corporate regulation. Regarding the latter, examples include the savings and loan fiascos along with the junk bonds and Charles Keating as well as Worldcomm, Enron, and the electricity fiasco in California, and we now pad the pockets of Halliburton with the blood of our own children to accomplish what?

The last three decades have crippled our government’s ability to provide for the public good. The Bush administration has greatly amplified the destruction begun by Ronald Reagan. I despise the current GOP and its selling its soul in a complete abandonment of responsible government in favor of governance for the highest bidders. We have a government suffering from an acute addiction to $$THE PERFECT DRUG$$. Anyone that knows the atrocities committed in Congress to serve the pharmaceutical empire knows who our government serves. Thanks to the GOP, our corporations write and pass our laws.

The scorpions are stinging the frog in an unconscionable lack of regard for the fundamental well being of the United States of America, seemingly unclear of the consequences. We have been butchered financially, internationally, constitutionally, educationally, scientifically, judicially, militarily, and spiritually.

The Bush Administration is an abomination of unprecedented proportion in the history of the country, and the outrage, long overdue, is mounting as blood and money continue to be squandered by cementheads who will not listen. Our Attorney General is a lying lap dog embarrassment to the Latino community, a spineless, pathetic shell of a human being who has lived his life on his knees. His testimony is grotesque and nauseating.

W has slipped to 29, indicating his support is decaying among the impossible to decay base that until now could not stop supporting him. Congress has slipped. Opinion of the Supreme Court has slipped. In other words, the nation’s opinion of its government is at an all time low.

Apologies for the long rant and let's talk solutions. I can make the easy 40,000 foot observation that will surprise no one. We need a system that elects and promotes competence in government and representatives that solicit and listen to expertise.

How do we do this? The GOP sold the country to our corporations. I am not expressing love for the Democrats, far from it. The best thing I can say about the Democrats is that they are not Republicans. The Democrats did not sell this country to Exxon, Pfizer, and Halliburton.

How do we get the country back? I say we vote BLUE in 2008 with a scream. We are not screaming Yes to Pelosi, and we can say that loudly. We are screaming No to anything Cheney, the emperor kings that think they own this nation. We nuke the GOP to the stone age.

I will close with the silver lining. The silver lining is that the country is truly getting mad as hell. Lord Cheney and the corporate empire have pushed the pendulum far. Cheney and his ilk seem to forget that they have their money because our system let them get it. Our system also lets them keep it.

That can change.

Counting, Numbers, and the Else

The semantics of count vary dramatically from context to context. I have sat in the big chair on the phone, "Do I have your vote? Can you think of anything that would change your vote? Will you will let me know if anything changes your vote?"

A recent thread compels me to discuss the concept of what is countable. Wikipedia at the link just provided does a better job than I can. Critical is the awareness that countable does NOT imply finite. Think of the biggest number you can possibly imagine, and it is countable by virtue of your ability to imagine it.

Know where Google got its name?

The number Googol exceeds the estimated number of atoms in the known universe. The English name for it is ten duotrigintillion. Even larger we have a Googolplex.

By the way, Googleplex is the name of Google’s headquarters near San Jose. I drove by the place once while taking some training at Sun Microsystems. Cisco hangs out there as well.

Seriously smart people.

As big as these numbers can get, they are nothing. My first PhD endeavor in the 90s involved probability theory, which requires a command of measure theory, which requires a command of real analysis. Do you know the measure of a countable set of numbers on the real number line, even a googol of googolplexes?
----------------------------------------------
ZERO.----------------------------------------------

So you see, I get cranky when people assert the cosmos, i.e. All and Everything, is countable. Dustin’s speculation that a human being’s cell count is countable is not only reasonable, it is accurate. We even know the counts. Just for fun I’ll share a few for adult humans.

AN = Average Number of.

AN neurons in brain: 100 billion
AN synapses: 60 – 240 trillion (yeah, trillion)
AN taste buds in mouth: 10,000 (tongue only: 9,000)
AN olfactory receptor cells in nose: 12 million
AN olfactory receptor cells in nose (dog): 1 billion
AN olfactory receptor cells in nose (bloodhound): 4 billion
AN eye retinal receptor cells: 5-6 million cones; 120-140 million rods
Light required to excite a rod: 1 photon. To excite a cone: 100 photons
Maximum rod density: 160,000 / sq mm.
Maximum rod density (cat): 400,000 / sq mm.

It can be powerfully argued that the physical universe is countable. One could even argue that although googol type huge, it is even finite.

As I write in Something Else, humans have the tendency to “thingify” concepts that are not things. We apply mental models suggesting physics that do not exist, limiting our perception of scope and comprehension. We think in countable terms. Then very smart people like Schopenhauer and other philosophers paved the way for guys like Einstein, Heisenberg, and Schroedinger to pose interesting questions. Suddenly, as we broke reality into smaller and smaller components, we hit a barrier where all assumptions bought the farm. When we looked at the particles, they looked back at us. Then they started breaking all of our rules, including a particle literally occupying two places at the same time.

Then to really mess with us, they started traveling through time, and that has us completely screwed, as does the hard problem of consciousness. Both point powerfully to the conclusion that there is more to reality than the physical universe, a most interesting development the spiritual people have been saying all along.

Forget the teaming masses of sheep believing what they are told. We have solid, brilliant geniuses saying, "There has to be more to reality than the physical world."

Okay.

What else is there?