my new favorite web searcher (apologies to Google)

clusty.com

Canada arrests GWB!

Well done, Canada!
Note: this is a satire.

budget deficit

Here's an interesting and well-written USAtoday article about the future budget deficit. The problem is being made much worse by the medicare prescription-drug plan, which is a fine idea if it were actually helping seniors more than it helps drug companies, and the privatization of social security, which will cost much more than the administration is letting on. All this while fighting a war AND lowering taxes. Not a smart combination. Here are a couple quotes from the article:

"According to government estimates, the ultimate drain from the new Medicare prescription-drug benefit will be greater than the current national debt.

That's right. All prior unbalanced federal budgets will someday be topped by a single pre-election program for Medicare recipients."

"Bush and Congress had no problem with telling the voters that we can afford a war in Iraq and a prescription-drug benefit. These days, sacrifice seems limited to soldiers dispatched to Iraq and then forced to serve additional tours of duty.

Next month, the president is likely to flesh out his proposals for the partial privatization of Social Security in his Inaugural Address and his State of the Union speech to Congress. The truth-in-budgeting test for the president will be whether he will admit that his plan for individual accounts will be accompanied by huge transition costs. The political temptation will be to mask his Social Security arithmetic in a fiscal fog."

global warming

Of course, this wasn't a US study, since the administration doesn't like to be contradicted. Interesting idea, suing businesses/countries that don't crack down on global warming. I wonder if it will work.

I still can't believe we pulled out of the Kyoto agreement.

news

Okay, now the main reason I was supposed to start this blog is to pass on interesting news. So the most recent news to catch my attention is the CBS/NBC refusal to air an ad by the United Church of Christ. Now, the ad is really amazing. It shows how inclusive the UCC is. I am not religious and I actually avoid religion when I can -- and that's partly due to how most religions seem to have very obvious hierarchies, and I'm usually on the losing end of their hierarchy. Women are subordinant to men, being gay is sinful, etc. Why would I want to go someplace where I'm constantly reminded that I'm not considered to be as "good" or as "worthy" as someone else? (which raises the question of why I chose to attend grad school, but that's another story).

So anyway, this ad (see it here) shows a church that is actually inclusive-- everyone is welcome. It sort of amazed me. Then I saw that these major networks rejected the ad because it's "controversial" and because it seems like something the president wouldn't agree with. Since when should a public television station worry about upsetting the president of the United States? Sure, that's how it works in China or Russian, but this is America! It's ridiculous. Here's the press statement released by the UCC And here are a couple articles about the story: lemur and cnn

Americablog points out that the big news organizations are calling the UCC a "liberal church" though they have never used the adjective "conservative" to label the Catholic or Baptist churchs. Clearly the so-called liberal media bias leaves a bit to be desired.

And most importantly, here's where you can write to complain Diversity@cbs.com and nbcshows@nbc.com

moving

So, the big thing happening to me right now is that I got a job in Boulder, which requires a big move across the country. Right now I live in Arlington, VA-- i.e. Washington D.C. I've been here for 2 years as a post-doc, but my home is in the western part of the states. I moved around a lot while I was growing up but I lived mostly in Wyoming and the Pacific Northwest. All my extended family live in Wyoming, my brother lives in Denver with his family and my sister lives in Boise with her family. So I'm looking forward to being closer to all of them-- though I admit it does scare me a bit-- maybe it'll be too close?

But I miss the mountains so much and I miss West Coast people-- they're different than Midwestern or East Coast people. Probably not better or worse, but definitely more familiar to me. And I am really looking forward to having decent Mexican food again!

I will miss D.C., though. It's really grown on me and I have made some good friends here. And I'll miss driving past the Pentagon, the Washington Monument, and the Capitol building every day on my way to work. It's pretty amazing.

Anyway, in the next month I will be moving. And as if that wasn't enough, I have a talk to give at a conference in San Francisco in a couple weeks, so things will be busy. But I will try to keep up with this now that I've started it.

getting started

Just yesterday I was told by a close friend that I needed to start a blog of my own and then today I see these news reports about Microsoft offering free blogs. Though I do use Microsoft products I really hate to support them anymore than necessary, so I was very happy to see that Google offered free blogs, too. I plan to use this blog the same way most bloggers to-- to write out personal reflections, give my take on the news, pass on silly or interesting websites, etc. Let's see how it goes.