But, are enough Americans paying attention?

http://www.pandachute.com/videos/how_to_make_an_angry_american

A KGB of our Very Own (Or is it more like the SS?)

Some of my conservative friends think that I and others are entirely too shrill when it comes to the Patriot Act and the dangers that the Bush administration have posed to democracy over the past 6+ years. Now comes this:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201882.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

From that article:

The Justice Department's inspector general revealed on March 9 that the FBI has been systematically abusing one of the most controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act: the expanded power to issue "national security letters." It no doubt surprised most Americans to learn that between 2003 and 2005 the FBI issued more than 140,000 specific demands under this provision -- demands issued without a showing of probable cause or prior judicial approval -- to obtain potentially sensitive information about U.S. citizens and residents

That the FBI can, under cover of the Patriot act, compel citizens to give up information about their fellow citizens, and at the same time gag us from revealing to anyone the fact that we've even received a National Security Letter is frightening. What has this country become? This is the private citizen equivalent of Guantánamo, wherein alleged terrorists are locked away for years, without benefit to due process, screened from habeas corpus.

Bush swore to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution. Yet, for the past six years, he and his minions have launched repeated assaults against that Constitution, attempting to erode and destroy the bill of rights—and challenging the patriotism of anyone who objected. They've attempted to whittle way the lines that separate the branches of government. And they have sought to create and fund an established church—using taxpayer dollars—all in the guise of "faith-based" bullshit.

Bush: Every time you think “things couldn’t get any worse”…

So, it turns out that the Shia, installed courtesy of the United States, are as bad—if not worse—than Saddam. I guess the old saying says it best: Better the secular lunatic you know than the fundamentalist lunatics you don't know.

On other fronts, Gonzales has turned out to be even worse than Ashcroft. I didn't know that was possible. The Bush administration is constantly teaching us, though, that with a fundamentalist lunatic in charge of the U.S., all things are possible.

And, who knew that Samuel Alito would actually turn out to be better and less partisan than Harriet Miers?

The Bush Administration: Constantly reinventing and redefining worst case scenario. Every time you think you've hit bottom, pull back the carpet and you'll find that you're standing on yet another trap door.

Definition. Bush's second term: the only thing that could ever make Bush's first term look like a success story.

Hard to Believe...

According to an article in this morning's Washington Post (second hand via Slate, which I quote below):

Experiments have found that an average person tells about two lies every 10 minutes. Also, those who lie frequently have the best intentions and think they are benefiting others.

The source is Robert Feldman, who is a social psychologist at the University of Massachusetts. According to the Washington Post article, Feldman studies lying in "everyday life." The context here is Libby's trial. There are a number of problems with the article, which I'll get to. But first, what about the basic assertion that the average person tells on lie every five minutes. I guess that's a fifth of a lie every minute, or 1/300s lies per second.

First, what time period does this encompass? Is this just "awake time" or is the rate actually much higher if you consider that people are asleep for 6 to 8 hours a day on average. Also, the average person isn't talking every waking moment. So, is the non-talking time included? Suppose, for example, that I'm talking for two hours a day. Does the one lie every five minutes apply just to the two hours? Or, does it apply to the whole 16 hours I'm awake? Or, does it apply to the whole 24 hour period?

I have to believe that they're talking only about the two hours during which I'm talking. Otherwise, I must be mentally broadcasting lies constantly in order to achieve my quota. This reminds me of that old joke, updated here, of course: How can you tell when George W. Bush is lying? His lips are moving.

"Almost Everyone Lies, Often Seeing It as a Kindness," says the online heading for the article. Oh. Is that what drove Scooter Libby? He was trying to be kind? How nice of him.

Is the article trying to weasel away Libby's personal responsibility? To weasel where no weasel has weaseled before? No way to tell. Maybe these apologists would like to rename the executive mansion: The White Lie House.

But, the point the article doesn't address is that when you take the witness stand and swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, the Lie Stopwatch needs to be put into slow motion. Once you're on the witness stand, all of that "everyone lies" bullshit rationalization has to wait outside in the hallway. When you're on the stand, lies aren't lies anymore. They're perjury. They're obstruction of justice. And, while it might be that polite conversation practically demands that we lie ("Yes, Aunt Dahlia, those checkered trousers look absolutely lovely. They're the most unusual earrings I've ever seen."), being on the witness absolutely demands that we tell the truth.

That's the whole point of there being a witness stand and the swearing in business. What part of "perjury" doesn't the author of this article understand? It's a grand jury, not a Grand Old Party jury.

Another quote from the article:

"Look at the Libby trial," said Leonard Saxe, a social psychologist at Brandeis University. "Even if he knew when he testified that he was being deceptive, I am sure he believes he was doing it for the best of reasons and this was his way of being a patriot."

" A patriot! Yeah, that's the ticket. I was being a patriot. I was lying to protect freedom, democracy, and the American way. Damn it. I was lying to protect the Vice President. Doesn't anyone care about honor anymore?"

And, while all these liars are at it, I suppose one might hold the candle up to that document these liars (better known as the Bush Administration) seem to value more than the Constitution: The Bible. Isn't there a section in that document that says something about lying? Perhaps, given this newfound knowledge that we're all lying at the rate of 12 lies per hour (LPH), maybe we could revise that particular commandment: Thou shalt not exceed the posted lie limit. Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?

"Sir," said the Truth Police Officer, "do you know how fast you were lying? You were lying 100 LPH in a 20 LPH zone. Where's the used car sale?" (as opposed to "Where's the fire?"). Whereupon the speed liar shows the cop his White House ID, and the cop says "You're Cheney's chief of staff? Sorry to detain you, sir. Would you like a high lie-speed escort so you don't injure your vocal cords?"

Even so, one has to believe that once you've taken the witness stand and sworn to tell the truth, the posted lie limit is now 0 LPH. Exceeding the posted lie limit under those circumstances comes under the heading of zero tolerance.

I just realized something else—I don't know who wrote this article. This article is in the Arts & Living section. I guess that it could be Art & Lying, or maybe The Art of Lying. But, that's beside the point. The point here is that the article I'm looking at doesn't identify the author. I'll have to check the paper version of the Post to see who wrote this pack of lies.

Commander in Chief

I guess we can add anatomy to the long list of things this guy doesn’t know

Stupid Spies

According to this article, spies are now hiding transmitters inside large Canadian coins. There are lots of questions about the efficacy of doing that, as well as how useful the transmitters might be beyond a few feet. What interested me, however, was the final paragraph in the article.

In another case, a film processing company called the FBI after it developed pictures for a contractor that contained classified images of U.S. satellites and their blueprints. The photo was taken from an adjoining office window.

They're smart enough to take the pictures, but dumb enough to a) use film instead of digital imaging and b) drop the film off at Wal-Mart for processing. This has to be right up there with leaving your own wallet behind after pulling off a bank heist.

Hot and Cold

This makes no sense. We're experiencing continual warming, right? Winters are, by and large, getting warmer. Living in northern Virginia in the 1960s, snow was much more frequent, as were winter days when lakes, ponds, rivers, and other natural bodies of water would freeze sufficiently for outdoor ice skating. This persisted until the early 1970s, when I was still able to ice skate for miles on the canal near Georgetown. I remember a whole week in 1970 when the temperature never rose above 10 degrees. From an outdoor recreational standpoint, it was heavenly.

When I graduated from Georgetown in 1973 and moved to Michigan for graduate school, my parade of cold winters continued. I remember a day in January, 1974, when the NWS had forecast a low of -40. I took my thermometer outside at about midnight. There was a slight breeze, and the temperature was 0 degrees. I stood there to see if it would drop at all. And, after a few minute, it dropped a little below zero. Disappointed, I continued to watch, willing the temperature to fall.

All of a sudden, the breeze stopped, and everything got extremely still and quiet. I watched the thermometer in awe as the red liquid inside began a freefall. At 12:20, it was -4. Over the next 30 minutes, it visibly dropped an additional 41 degrees to -45. Testing a theory, I spat. My spittle bounced on the pavement—frozen before it hit the ground. My thermometer was not broken.

Over the next several years, East Lansing and then Lansing continued to thrill me with cold winters. But, I was annoyed because the -45 was never repeated. Sure, the lakes continued to freeze enough to be driven onto, but the dates on which they froze sufficiently seemed to be moving later and later, and the thaw dates moved earlier.

When I moved from Michigan to Massachusetts in 1977, there was little to suggest that winters were becoming tamer. Although, temperatures in Lexington would never rival the lows in Lansing, the four feet of snow in the winter of 1978 helped me realize my winter wonderland fantasy. Yet, as snowy and wonderful as it was, it was certainly no "better" (keeping in mind that I'm a snowaholic) than the winters of my youth in Rose Hill and Bush Hill in Fairfax County.

When we moved back to the DC area in 1978, however, I was delighted by 3+ feet of snow that fell in early 1979—our first winter in the Mount Vernon area. "Winter is back!" I thought. If it was back, however, it was only for a short visit. Over the next 25 years, generous snowfalls became increasingly rare. Even the so-called "Blizzard of '96" was nothing like the blizzards of 1966 and 1979. In 1969, we had three consecutive blizzards in a two week period. At the end of the third storm, we had over 3 feet of snow in the street, and over five feet of snow in the yard. Never mind that our house caught on fire and it took the fire trucks forever to get there through three feet of snow on the road.

Earlier this week, when the temperature hit 74 degrees at National Airport—this is mid-December, folks—I donned my running shorts and t-shirt and went out for my daily 10K walk/run. It was awful. Making it worse, the trees are now denuded of foliage, making shady breaks harder to come by. But, even more than that, December should be in the 30s, not the 70s. It was in the 60s as I began making my way through the hills of Mt. Vernon. I would love a temperature like that in July or August. But, in December, it makes my blood boil. As I ended my jaunt, the temperature at my house had already reached 71, and would climb a few more degrees before retreating.

Imagine, however, temperatures like this—and warmer—throughout the winter. Imagine a winter where 30s are the rare exception, rather than the rule, and temperatures in the teens and lower are unheard of. Is that what's in store for baby boomers as they begin their retirement years?

Apparently. But, not just because of global warming. Rather, it's because of migratory trends. According to an analysis of census trends, presented in today's USA Today, over 50% of last year's population growth in the U.S. occurred in southern states. Arizona was the fastest-growing state, and North Carolina moved into the top 10 most populous states, pushing New Jersey out of the lineup.

This is what I don't get. The NWS tells us that temperature trends are going up, and that to maintain same level of winteriness I grew up with, I will have to move north—not south. Yet, people are flocking in droves to places like Arizona. True, there are areas of civilized climate in Arizona, but that's not where these birds are flocking. They're flocking to places like the Phoenix and Tucson areas. I don't get it.

Maybe it's because areas like those are so hot to begin with that they can't possibly get any hotter. Maybe, given air conditioning, people are content to live indoors and to ignore what goes on outside. Or, maybe they're shortsighted. Or, maybe senility has already seized control of their senses.

Twenty years from now, I predict a crash in the real estate market in places like Arizona, southern Texas, the Gulf States, Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas. As the mercury rises, so will the imaginary median line, north and south of which exactly half of the North American population resides. Why do I say North American rather than American? Because warming isn't local. As the U.S. heat up, many of us won't stop at the border. We'll keep on going into Canada.

Some of this is already happening, continentally speaking. People mistakenly think that Mexicans come to the U.S. looking for jobs. Wrong. They're coming here looking for cooler weather. And, as this trend continues and even escalates, 25 years from now, don't be surprised if Canada starts talking about building a 6,000 kilometer fence.

In the meantime, it's heartwarming to know that somewhere, the thermometer still dives below zero in some places. Right now, my Weather Watcher temperature indicator says -23. With the wind, it feels like -36. Today's high will be -6. The sun will rise at 10:14 am, and will set at 2:47 pm. Outside, there's a blanket of about 3 feet of snow on the ground, and the dogs love it. Oh, yeah. My Weather Watcher's current city is set to Tok, Alaska. I can dream, can't I?