The Incomplete Cynic

Someone was interviewed on the radio and called the oil spill “the worst disaster ever to hit our country”. Sure. Five years since Katrina, less than ten years after 9/11, and fifteen years after the OKC Bombing, this oil spill (which has yet to claim a human life and is being met with nothing but harrumphs and brays from the White House) is the “worst ever”.

Do they seek these people out for sound bytes? How do they keep getting on the radio?

Male and female mean IQs are about equal below the age of 15 but males have a higher mean IQ from age 15 on. The effect of sex differences in IQ is largest at the high extreme of intelligence. Since many of the more prestigious roles in society are associated with high IQ, the lack of female representation in these roles may be partially due to fewer females being competitive at the highest levels. This does not mean that females should not be given equal opportunity to demonstrate their abilities as this would create an worsened artificial ‘glass ceiling’

Sex Differences in IQ

*Books Are the New Black — In the decade that gave us “Harry Potter,” “Twilight” and “The DaVinci Code,” the hottest accessory is definitely the book. And it’s impossible to deny the power that a single book can have on children’s feelings about reading. According to the 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report, 74% of kids ages 5-17 say, “Reading Harry Potter has made me interested in reading other books.

The Answer Sheet - “The Decade’s 10 Big Education Ideas”

So we finally get to the airport, where my son decides (a) he is very thirsty, and (b) he isn’t going to walk. Since we’re running behind, I had to carry him, along with our bags. The security check was a fiasco; I stacked my laptop on my bag (because I was already using six or seven trays), which is apparently a no-no. Then I set off the metal detector. Another trip through, sans keys and belt. I get through, then put the boy’s shoes on and gather our things. Still sweating.

We finally get to the gate ten or fifteen minutes later and sit down with some McD’s. I sat directly under the A/C unit, and finally stopped sweating. I couldn’t tell myself, but my assumption is that I smell like I’ve been sweating all afternoon. “This is some bad juju right here.”

The first leg of the trip is fine. We sat at the back of the plane next to a guy who slept the whole time. We were stopping in Amarillo without switching planes, so we moved up to row 2, next to a woman in her twenties. I didn’t think much of it, because the second leg was only an hour. Or it was supposed to be. 

Once they finished the passenger count they announced that Denver had been having weather all day, and now that it was clear there was a backup of planes trying to land. So we got off and waited in the palatial Amarillo Airport, Hair Care and Tire Center. There was one bathroom, and one cafe, where they offered cold sandwiches, cereal, and yogurt. 

They told us it could be up to two and a half hours, but about an hour later, at 8:15 or so, they told us to get on the plane. We sat on the runway for about a half hour, then were in the air. 

A while later, still in the air, I looked out the window and saw a huge anvil cloud, which I pointed out to my son. We made awe-filled sounds as we watched the lightning flash, and I thought for a moment that I might be looking at the storm that had been ruining things so far, but I let it go. 

I should have held on to that thought. Not that I could have done anything about it. So we circle for an hour. Then we land in Colorado Springs. We hoped to get off the plane, but we just sat on the runway for an hour before heading into DIA, where we landed shortly after midnight Mountain time.

For five hours that poor woman had to sit next to my sweat-scented butt with no ventilation or relief. That poor, poor, woman…

After spending half of Monday loading a moving van, then all of Tuesday moving out of the old apartment and into the new (which is the most awesome place I have ever actually lived), I got to spend twelve hours Wednesday en route to Denver.

No we didn’t drive, we flew. We left home at 3 p.m. CDT, and arrived at my friend’s house out here at 1 a.m. MDT. Apparently a giant thunderstorm sat directly on DIA and refused to move for the whole night.

The morning wasn’t much fun. The plan was to get the old place cleaned and put back together before dropping off the keys. There would be enough time to get back and take a shower before heading to the airport. Oh, how wonderful it would have been had it gone that way!

My son and I left about 10 to get started at the old place. My sister was there cleaning, I just needed to collect the last of our belongings and rehang the vertical blinds on our balcony door. Twelve minutes into the fifteen minute drive I realized that I forgot the tool set. This might not have been a big deal, except that our new place is on the 8th floor of a high-rise, which means any trip to or from the car requires a little more time than skipping down one flight of stairs to the parking lot.

At 10:30 a.m. the temperature must have been pushing 90, the sky was clear, and I had to carry my nearly-three-year-old to and from the car. We ran to the apartment, grabbed the tools, then straight back to the car. When we finally arrived to get started on our work it was even warmer, and the A/C was off inside. I was obviously sweating.

We finished at 12:30, and went to the apartment office to settle up. After a long conversation with the agent (in which she fed me a line of BS that bore almost no resemblance to what we were told when we gave our notice), we grabbed some lunch and headed home. It was 1:30, which meant we had enough time to finish packing and get our stuff to the car…in theory.

In actuality I realized at 2:40 that - because we’re only allowed one car in our parking lot - I had to move my Jeep (without A/C) to the lot across campus before we can leave. It is now 100 degrees, and as I load up my son and all of our luggage into a cart I find an overdue library book, which I badly need to return.

I grab the book, toss it on the pile and hurry to the parking lot. We get in the car, drive 300 yards to the street by the library, get out of the car, run inside, drop off the book, run out to the car, then drive the 300 more yards to the other parking lot where our ride to the airport was waiting. I’m still sweating.

TBC…

On air with Mark Davis today, Domingo Garcia said the following with out substantiating any of it:

• he repeated the untrue statement that the Arizona law allows people to be stopped for “looking suspicious”, though acknowledging the prohibition of racial profiling as a way to deal with things “at the edges”
• the Arizona law “invites abuse”
• “Every police association in Arizona” has come out against the bill. At least one hasn’t: Arizona Police Association
• Gov. Brewer is “scapegoating” illegal immigrants (which entails putting blame and punishment on an innocent person, not enforcing consequences on the guilty)

He compared this to the segregated south, which should be considered an insult to every black man and woman who lived through it. That was about citizens having rights withheld, and being forced into a lower class. This is about non-citizens who broke the law to be here at all. Allowing them to stay will simply encourage more lawbreaking. Do any of these people have kids?

He compared Gov. Brewer to Hitler and George Wallace, and did so with complete solemnity.

This guy has lost tough with reality. In a couple of months he’s going to listen to this tape and be embarrassed.

An interesting aside: the Arizona Police Association has linked to the text of a California law that is startlingly similar to SB1070: The Hypocrisy of California Politicians