The other day I was quoted in a campus newspaper about global warming. Actually, I was asked to give my opinion about a colleague who was serving on a government panel that was looking at global warming. I'm not a global warming expert. In fact, the closest I will ever get to being an expert on global warming is producing copious amounts of  sweat on warm, muggy days. That's probably too much information, a ...

You know you live in a great country when a candidate for Governor in South Carolina says that providing welfare for the poor is like feeding stray animals while John Travolta flies a planeful of supplies to Haiti. According to Andre Bauer -- he's the gubernatorial candidate -- handing out welfare promotes the unemployed and underemployed to breed like rabbits.  As an individual who was given free lunches i ...

The Tohono O’odham Nation, which is located in Arizona on the Mexican border seems to be having a problem with drugs, immigrants, and federal agents. Which is worse is hard to determine. As with most wars -- in this case, the War on Drugs -- everyone is right. After all, everything is fair in love and war. The Mexicans who are bringing the marijuana across the border into the the Tohono O’odham Nation just ...

Ever notice who is not being given a voice in the discussion over a national health care plan?  We hear from plenty of politicians, lobbyists, insurance company executives, and even the occasional small business owner who complains that health care will run her out of business.  Let me give you a hint as to who I'm talking about.  When Listeria was found in queso fresco in California a few years ago, the ne ...

What do militia groups, the KKK, and atheists all have in common? Actually, I have very little idea of what they have in common, except that there was a story about each group in my local newspaper today. Brilliant. Anyway, it seems that various groups are hitching their wagons to Barrack Obama’s Presidential journey to further their own goals. The militias are concerned that with a Democrat in office they’ ...

President Barrack Obama has recently asked the Chinese government to relax their grip on internet access. It seems that many high ranking Chinese officials are concerned that their own citizens might find something less than favorable about happenings in Beijing on the web – either that or President Obama wants the Chinese people to see how we connect words such as melons, pillows, and telescopes to body pa ...

If we were given the choice between slamming a $491 million automobile into an iceberg to see if it contained water or sending 10,000 individuals to college for the next four years, many of us would choose the latter option. One of those 10,000 might find a cure for cancer, end world hunger, devise a plan for world peace, or even engineer an automobile to run on untreated sewage water (the same thing that m ...

Looks like Disney has a new groove in the guise of Shanghai flavored mouse. The going rate for this new look is a measly $3.5 billion. Add 1.3 billion people living in China who are clamoring for mouse droppings – I mean Disney products – and you have the formula for continued financial success for one of the best known companies in the world. So, how does that company share its wealth? In Orlando, FL, the ...

The news about CIT’s filing for bankruptcy protection should be another nail in the coffin of the global economy, but no one seems to be lining up at the funeral parlor. In fact, the news isn’t really all that bad, unless you take the time to read between the lines. The main point of the discussion is that CIT will be restructuring its debt so that the company can duck a few loans. The reports are leaving o ...

I would like to take this opportunity to nominate a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for next year. I don’t know the person’s name, but it’s the junior ethics staff member that unwittingly leaked an ethics report to the press (to say nothing of the individual at the Washington Post who sucked the report off the staff member’s home computer). You have to applaud this person’s ignorance of computer network ...