Critical Exponent

What an idea!

Getting enough sleep can be difficult, but a US firm reckons it has found the answer for those of us who are in desperate need of a some shut eye.

Read about PowerNap Sleep Centers.

Forget terrorism, corruption, and blown CIA covers. The top enforcement priority in the Bush/Gonzales Department of Justice is prosecuting consensual adult porn.

How patriotic.

Here’s a thought:

The administration knew that a hurricane battering New Orleans was a pending catastrophe of national significance, yet it cut hurricane and flood funds.

Bush and his cronies embarked on an oil war in Iraq that will help them get rich(er). Their actions took away National Guard units from their home posts, where they are needed now.

While Louisiana will now get some relief and emergency funds from the feds, common folks are driven by basic decency to pitch in their own money to aid their fellow citizens.

Net result: the rich get richer, the government spends more, regular folks dig into their own pockets.

What we see here is not only plutocrats’ self-interest at the expense of community, but also a very common, very human, and very short-sighted tendency to put present self-interest ahead of long term common benefits. Other political examples of this abound:

• Propping up dictators to serve moneyed interests or short term political goals, who then proceed to limit human rights and whose regimes later need to be deposed when the political winds change


• Destroying the environment (whether it’s furthering our dependence on oil or opening up national parks to destructive private activites), when we will have to live with the costly consequences of clean-up, health care, and worse quality of life


• Refusing to embark on large-scale social programs to improve quality of life and thus reduce crime, opting instead to prosecute and jail people, at huge expense, once they’ve committed crimes


• Pandering to special interests and dogmatic agendas by refusing to provide much needed sex education or facilitate birth control, thus increasing the demand for abortion and adoptions, much more expensive and disruptive propositions


• etc., etc.

Where are all those “moral values” I keep hearing about?

Bush was warned about the threat of a hurricane wiping out New Orleans. His response? Cutting funding for flood and hurricane projects.

Meanwhile, Bush pursues an oil war that drains our manpower to deal with domestic emergencies.

Bush. He really cares.

Recall that Jerry Falwell blamed 9/11 on abortionists, gays, pagans, and feminists?

Well, I was wondering how long it would take for some fanatic to invoke God’s punishment as a reason for Katrina’s damage. This time, Columbia Christians for Life say it’s abortion. Repent America differs and blames it on gays.

Hmmm, if this “God of love” and “Saviour” is so intent on punishing America, maybe it’s judgement for our war on Iraq. Just a thought…

Read the MassEquality information.

Contribute! Ambassador James C. Hormel will match at the 50% level contributions of $100 or more.

This New York Times editorial talks about a draft document circulating at the Interior Department, drafted by Bush political appointtee Paul Hoffman without consultation with the National Park Service, which would make it harder to prove commercial activity presents an “impairment” of the parks’ resources:

Mr. Hoffman’s rewrite would open up nearly every park in the nation to off-road vehicles, snowmobiles and Jet Skis. According to his revision, the use of such vehicles would become one of the parks’ purposes. To accommodate such activities, he redefines impairment to mean an irreversible impact. To prove that an activity is impairing the parks, under Mr. Hoffman’s rules, you would have to prove that it is doing so irreversibly - a very high standard of proof. This would have a genuinely erosive effect on the standards used to protect the national parks.
..

There are other issues too. Mr. Hoffman would explicitly allow the sale of religious merchandise, and he removes from the policy document any reference to evolution or evolutionary processes. He does everything possible to strip away a scientific basis for park management. His rules would essentially require park superintendents to subordinate the management of their parks to local and state agendas. He also envisions a much wider range of commercial activity within the parks.

I just finished cleaning my bike, using the handy new bike repair stand I bought as soon as I came back from my Newfoundland trip. The stand makes it much easier to clean and adjust the bike; it was $100 well spent.

Using degreaser, a cassette scraper, brushes, and old socks, I was able to degrease the chainwheels, cassette, and chain down to their pristine silver sheen. I cleaned the wheels, buffed up the frame, lubed all the moving parts and cables, and voila! My bike shines once again.

I still have to put on the fenders and racks, which parts will need to be cleaned beforehand as well. By then, the replacement middle chainring to replace the one I mysteriously bent should have arrived, together with the replacement for the spoke protector I broke when my bungee cord got tangled up in the cassette. After I take the bike in to the shop to get these repairs done, I will be riding once again like the wind.