Don't believe everything you hear from a Governor who both opposes using the military and is in charge of the clean-up to a natural disaster. That is all.

Take another look at XKCD.

Isn't stem-cell research a form of genetic engineering?

There was a time, not long ago, that I worked technical support for a certain multi-level network marketing company. This week, something that's always bothered me about multi-level marketing sales strategies finally gelled. Basically, every such company I've run across does its best to repeat the garbage that "the middle class just aren't making it anymore." This drives me absolutely bonkers for several reasons.

Not long ago, Granny D wrote: "My father worked as a laborer in a furniture warehouse in Laconia, NH. He was able to own a house and raise five kids pretty decently. You can’t do that anymore." In other words, because I can't afford a new house on the wages I would get at McDonalds, there must be something wrong with our economy. And while multi-level marketing companies don't say it, most people then follow with "and there ought to be a law, ..." or "and the government ought to do something about it."

I've got a hunch about that house. I'll bet it was built on land given to her father from his parents' farm. I'll bet that her father built it himself, and that for several years it didn't have plumbing, electric wiring, a phone connection, and I doubt it was built according to any safety standards. In other words, I'll bet it was just like everybody else's house back then. I'll also bet that the five kids were busy providing free labor to the family so that they could make ends meet.

And if you give me the land, I don't even need a regular income to afford to build like that. Of course, nobody wants to live in a house like that today, and I don't blame them.

I spent two years in Brazil, and I saw people who really weren't making it. I saw houses made out of a combination of sticks and dried mud (covered with thick paint so the house wouldn't dissolve in the rain). There was a slum the size of a small town built on an open trash dump. In Brazil you're considered poor if you make less than $50 a month for a small family, because that's what it costs to eat. Those people were not making it.

In the US, the middle class generally have a $100 per month cell phone bill, a $50 per month broadband connection, cable or satellite TV, several cars, and glass windows. Don't tell me that you "aren't making it" because you can't buy everything you desire. I don't care if you use it as a sales tactic or to advance communism (one of Karl Marx's grand marketing ideas was to introduce anxiety to the middle class by telling them they doing as well as they would if they were allowed to keep all the fruits of their labors). It's nothing more than a bunch of malarky.

If I ever go postal, this will probably be the main reason.

UPDATE Paul Graham has another theory Granny D's father could afford a house as a factory worker.

I don't have quite as many books as TJIC.

Even though he lost, I always admired President Ford's reelection campaign. He came from over thirty points behind to lose by only a percent or two. Anyone with reasonable approval ratings able to make up that much ground would easily win an election.

Likewise, I'm intrigued by Ehud Olmert.

TJIC keeps hitting the nail on the head. Captains Quarters has more information on that last one.

I'm routinely late to the punch with my political posts now. However, I'm encouraged by developments in Iraq. There's still no confirmation about whether the Sunnis actually killed two top Al Qaeda leaders, but it is very interesting that they want us to think they did. Why?

Whenever you hear the code words "sectarian violence" when discussing Iraq, the person saying those words is trying to gloss over the fact that Sunnis are trying to kill Shiites in Iraq for being Shiite. There's a name for that, and it looks a lot like what's occurring in Darfur, and what caused Clinton to get involved in Bosnia. Yes, Virginia, there really is such a thing as genocide, and yes, some Americans are suggesting we should be allowed to kill bad guys in Iraq so long as we don't actually try to stop an attempted genocide. Of course, failure to stop the Sunni-Shiite violence will likely lead to the utter destruction of Iraqi Sunnis. But, hey, it might get the right political party elected to office, so what are a few cracked eggs?

But why are some Sunnis trying to tell us they are on our side? It looks to me like some Sunnis believe they are on the wrong side of the battle, and they are trying to make amends. It sure is a good thing that we aren't going to capitulate, isn't it?

There's an old joke that a father once told his wife "it's time to find out what Junior will be when he grow up." The father then laid three items on the coffee table: a dollar bill, a Bible, and a bottle of liquor. "If he grabs the dollar, he will become a banker; if he grabs the Bible, he will be a pastor; and if he grabs the booze, he will be a bumb."

The two parents hid, and eventually Junior came by. He immediately stuffed the dollar bill in his pocket, drank the whole bottle of liquor, put the Bible under his arm, and while he left the room, he kicked the family cat. The father then looked at his wife and said "how 'bout that, he's going to be a lawyer!"

Jayden loves to help me whenever I'm assembling something or doing something "mechanical." His idea of help pretty much involves grabbing my tools and getting into any place he happens to fit. When I was replacing the brake pads on our car, for instance, he tried to shimmy under the car (Paige grabbed him before he went very far). Today I was putting together a night stand and Jayden ran off with my screwdriver.

I tried to get it back by trading a pair of pliers (it seemed to me that he would be less likely to hurt himself with pliers). I handed him the pliers and took the screwdriver out of his grubby hands. He followed me, handed me the pliers, gave me a no-nonsense three-year-old look, and took the screwdriver right back. So now I'm left wondering what he'll be when he grows up.

If he was thinking "it was fair when you did this to me, so it's fair if I do it to you," he will likely become a lawyer or politician. On the other hand, if he was thinking "OK, smartaleck, you just taught me that a screwdriver is worth exactly as much as a pair of pliers, so let's trade" he will become a businessman or economist. I'm not sure what to make of this. I guess I'll have to watch him closely to see what other character traits he has.