INTERESTING TIMES

People will believe it if told enough times that black is white. Unfortunately. It appears that the majority of Americans have painfully weak powers of observation and critical reasoning. Such is the embarassment of our land. The Canadians absolutely adore Obama, so I hear, and they can't understand why "we" despise him. I guess those of us who find him to be masterful really need to make more noise. Obama rocks. And this from a person who did not vote for him.
( notes )

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/asian-investors-anxiously-monitor-us-debt-talks/2011/07/31/gIQAAyq9lI_story.html?wpisrc=al_economy

I guess they're happy that we can keep steering their freight train toward that cliff. Obama is the pragmatic fall guy, demonized by most. He calmly goes about the business of finding something productive that we can agree on. He is willing to disagree with his own party, which is refreshing and hopeful. His positions make sense to me. I have long been disappointed that he could not take on big business more directly. I know he wants to, the socialist pig. Just now though with today's agreement we see that the guys with the corporate jets have as much control over the law as everyone who is afraid to see medicare cut.

Today is the Ron Paul campaign-starting Money Bomb. I already contributed. Even though many people do not take him seriously, any opportunity to get his ideas better represented in the public discourse is beneficial to the Republic. I ride the line between left and right. If the two ever should meet we would have a new middle position, different from the existing one that has sold out.

Here's where you too can give $20.12 or more to keep the debate going:
http://www.ronpaul2012.com/

( ruminations )

A new study shows that testosterone is more increased after the match in the winners. The sample was an "elite collegiate wrestling team". So both winners and losers experience an increase, it's just a bigger increase in the winners. The article refers to an acute testosterone response that I know nothing about, but I have ideas. Cortisol and epinephrine did not significantly differ between winners and losers.

This effect of winning reminds me of a report I heard on NPR this morning about Obama's new slogan: Win the Future. I agree, as they said, that "it's got teeth". There's a lot of unpacking to do in that slogan. And collectively, we may increase our testosterone yet.

SOURCES

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/fitness/Winners-have-higher-testosterone-levels/articleshow/7366420.cms

http://www.npr.org/2011/01/29/133311906/will-win-the-future-be-a-winner-for-obama

Texas and the Republicans are dead set against requiring utilities to generate x power per y emissions, but it sounds like a good idea to me. I'd like to breathe good air, please. I don't want anyone else in my family to become asthmatic because of coal burning in their region. And as for global warming, well, it's not easy to pin down and it's hard for me to get as excited about it as some people do. I do think our climate is changing and that we have increased the rate of change by our burning of fossil fuels. I am not sure that we can change that rate of change now that it has been initiated. But I'm diverging from the subject, which is that the Obama administration, specifically the EPA, is moving forward to enforce the Clean Air Act after Congress has failed to take any action on the issue. They've begun to take on specific state officials in the state of Texas who refuse to enforce federal laws.

I am going to begin to make posts in defense of Obama. Somebody needs to.
( Notes from a 12/23/10 Wall St Journal article )

I'm happy to report that in Virginia, today, US District Court Judge Henry Hudson offered a 42 page opinion saying that individuals cannot legally be compelled by the feds to buy insurance or pay a fine. We already knew that this wasn't constitutional, but it's good to see the legal system kick into action. Obama, of course, was a constitutional law professor before he got into politics. He knew, as well as I knew, that this part of his law would not stand the test. What's interesting to me is the idea that he might have allowed this obviously unconstitutional bit to stay in the law to placate the insuro-medical business while he got the rest of the bill passed, which is much more practical and useful than the mandated insurance part. In other words, I think that he tricked the insurance companies, and that he's tricking congress too. He's smart, and he has the long view, and he knows that he will not get his way by putting his wish list on the table. So I continue to be impressed with Obama even though his critics act as if this is some kind of great embarrassment for him. He knew this would happen. He planned on it. The best thing about greed is that it gives people and businesses tunnel vision. Businesses don't care if a law is constitutional if it benefits their bottom line.

The EPA has told BP that they must use a less toxic form of dispersant for the remainder of the oil bleed in the gulf. If this mess had happened under Shrub, do you think the EPA would have done that? I think that Obama's intelligent, rational influence is pervasive in our government, and that each and every agency is gradually stepping up to the plate to serve the people of this nation better. Those who blame him for the fact that BP (and other oil companies) have done little/nothing to insure the safety of their extraction procedures neglect to notice that the wholesale extraction without regard for consequences has been going on for fifty years.

News Alert: Obama orders hospitals to grant same-sex couples visitation rights
07:34 PM EDT Thursday, April 15, 2010

President Obama signed an order Thursday night requiring hospitals to allow gays and lesbians to have non-family visitors and to grant their partners medical power of attorney.

The president ordered the Department of Health and Human Services to prohibit discrimination in hospital visitation. The memo is scheduled to be made public Friday morning, according to an administration official and another source familiar with the White House decision.

An official said the new rule will affect any hospital that receives Medicare or Medicaid funding.

For more information, visit washingtonpost.com:
http://link.email.washingtonpost.com/r/RRHKUP/DZZWC/4VCV3L/3XH9IF/XVNKS/7V/t