Stop the Presses, Hold Page One!

Brian Lehrer's WNYC show has just revealed to me the definition of the word, 'jaywalk.' Up until a moment ago, I thought it referred to the letter 'j', which in my mind was superimposed across a roadway to show an unauthorized path across.

Not so. It is a word of midwestern origin, which defines a rural person, a 'jay', who is unfamiliar with city ways. (Remember the song in 'Oklahoma,' about 'Everything's up to date in Kansas City'? Written, no doubt, from a jay's point of view.)

And just for added fun, it appears that illegal jaywalking is almost uniquely an American concept; the practice is virtually unknown outside USA confines, Singapore, being a notable exception (photo of a sign prohibiting jaywalking in Singapore's Orchard Road.)

Tibet & China: Just what we need, another controversy!

Click on this title, and you quickly discover that Tibet has been a powderkeg of war, expansionist desires, cultural and religious conflict since Alexander the Great, almost 1500 years ago. Today, almost nobody agrees even on what or where Tibet is, and the disagreements, as the latest news reports about China and the upcoming Olympics can underscore, are usually vociferous at best and violent at worst.

So, where do you stand? If you believe this guy on the right has the answers, and that Richard Gere has found 'the path,' try to think a little deeper; if you think stealing the Olympic torch is going to change China's design for Tibet and revolutionize Chinese thinking about freedom and individual rights, try to read some history; if you think this is some kind of problem that can be cogently expressed in a 21st century sound bite, you're just NUTS!

The reason this 'problem' has surfaced is greed. the western world wanted a piece of China's economic action, so they threw them the Olympic bone without regard for cultural and philosophical consequences.

Capitalism can exist very well without Democracy; folks who are making money hand over fist, who are living in villas around the world and driving Maybachs do not necessarily think the guy living next door who rides a bicycle to his sweatshop should have any say at all in the future of his country.

Worldwide economic war looms on the horizon, capitalism vs. socialism. The socialists have sticks and stones and righteousness on their side. The capitalists have jets, aircraft carriers and smart bombs. We're in for a rough ride!

An update:

This really helps :-(
China seeks to 'educate' Tibetans (from the BBC)
China has launched an "education" campaign in Tibet it says is designed to undermine support for the Dalai Lama and any separatist sentiment.
The Tibet Daily newspaper said the campaign was to "unify the thinking... of officials and the masses".
The initiative follows violent clashes last month between police and monks in Tibet, and pro-Tibetan demonstrations around the world.
Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of inciting unrest - claims he has denied.
The Tibetan spiritual leader, who lives in exile in India, insists he has no political role and played no part in the protests by Tibetan Buddhist monks that erupted into rioting in the main city Lhasa.
But he condemned the Chinese crackdown that followed, and accused Beijing of committing "cultural genocide" in Tibet.
Tibetan sympathisers and human rights activists have since used the worldwide tour of the Olympic torch to protest against Beijing's hosting of the Olympic Games this August.
Security tightened
China's Communist Party has long used what it calls "patriotic education campaigns" to impose discipline and reinforce its authority, says the BBC's Daniel Griffiths in Beijing.
The Tibet Daily says the latest drive will include television programmes and a series of sessions in which the Dalai Lama will be denounced by Communist Party members, other officials and local people.
Campaigns requiring monks in Tibetan monasteries to denounce the Dalai Lama and declare their loyalty to Beijing have also been stepped up.
China has poured troops into Tibet and tightened its borders ahead of the passage of the Olympic flame through the territory, on its way to Mount Everest in early May.
It accuses the Dalai Lama of wanting to divide Tibet from China and sabotage the Olympics.
France targeted
Protests have recently erupted in China to counter those that have accompanied the torch relay in the West.
The incidents that were brought about by a few people on this sad day don't reflect the feelings of my fellow countrymen for the Chinese people Nicolas Sarkozy
The French supermarket company Carrefour has been targeted with an attempted boycott for allegedly supporting the Dalai Lama - though it has denied doing so.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy apologised in a letter to a disabled Chinese athlete who was jostled as she carried the Olympic torch in Paris, in an apparent attempt to soothe ties with China.
However, Paris city council has said it will give the Dalai Lama honorary citizenship.
Bertrand Delanoe, the city's Socialist mayor, said the gesture would "pay tribute to a champion of peace - a tireless advocate of dialogue between peoples".

Evolution

As nutty as it sounds -- and we can probably thank the last eight years of 'W' for this, Americans are disbelieving the Theory of Evolution at an alarming rate. As the chart shows, Icelanders have got more on the evolutionary ball than we do.

I think we can lay the blame on Creationism, which is defined as the doctrine that matter and all things were created, substantially as they now exist, by an omnipotent Creator, and not gradually evolved or developed. The bible says seven days -- it's seven days, end of story to these folks. WOW!

Let's cut to the chase. Creationists, in their zeal to refute Evolution, tell us that it is 'just a theory.' Unfortunately most of us are ignorant of the definition of scientific theory, so we don't defend it properly. 'Scientific Theory' is NOT just a half-baked idea, it is more than 2/3rds of the way toward Scientific LAW, lacking only a couple of dotted 'i's' and crossed 'ts?' As an example, Gravity is a Scientific Theory. There is a simple law of gravity (Newton's apple, Sandy Koufax's fast ball) but as that law expands to include, say, Quantum Physics and Relativity, the Theory definition applies.

Anyway, the link on this page (Click on the title) will explain the differences (and definitions of) Scientific Hypothesis, Theory and Law; the next time you argue with a Creationist, have some ammo!

Observations

Anybody else grossed out by the latest Taco Bell cheesy beefy thingie, where everybody walks around with cheese dribbling out of their mouths? Are we all going to live in Howard Stern's perpetual fifth grade? I mean, I'm not proposing we eat tacos with a knife and fork, but show SOME manners. REALLY!

We're up and running

Thoughts on Premier Day:

Is that the coolest RV or what? Get a flat tire? Jump in the MINI!
Memphis all the way tonight... Thank God the baseball season has started; now we can all talk about something other than Clinton-Obama and that other guy :-)... and there's the Devils-Rangers & the Masters comin' right up!