Dean hasn't pulled the plug yet, so I'm still lurking around. I've been letting the successors have the spotlight. But I miss the old gang... {sniff}

On to important things! Space.com today announced that a monument to X-pilot Major Mike Adams would be erected on May 8 in the Mojave Desert. Maj. Adams posthumously gained astronauts' wings when he exceeded 50 miles altitude on hs seventh X-15 flight, November 15, 1967. A hypersonic spin caused the craft to go out of control.

In what may become a monument to US space efforts, The April 30 entry mentions that Senator Sam Brownback (R, Kansas) "chaired a hearing on international space exploration programs in the Science, Technology and Space Subcommittee. "

The Senator noted that several different countries have significantly increased space activity in recent years.

'"America has always led the way to new frontiers - frontiers of science, frontiers of freedom and opportunity, and frontiers in space," Brownback said. "Other nations are mounting impressive new ventures in space - some of them very low-cost but significant nonetheless. I, for one, don't think we should need to explain to our children years from now why others are walking on other worlds and reaping the benefits of space exploration when we are not."'

Let's hope that American voters learn the Viking Lesson...

I just finished watching the SciFi Channel's miniseries, "Children of DUNE." Man, it's frickin' awesome. I wish I could get through the blasted books! I tried reading "DUNE Messiah" and I can barely get 1/10 of the way through before I have to put it down. The events within the miniseries are so cool I want to read the books but I can't! It's just too, I don't know, uninteresting? That isn't quite the right word but it's all I can come up with.

The miniseries combines two of the DUNE books, the second and third, "DUNE Messiah" and "Children of DUNE" into one event. I've read interviews from the writers of the miniseries and they said they were able to do this because not much happened in "DUNE Messiah."

Now, Brian Herbert, Frank Herbert's son, and Kevin J. Anderson, of many Star Wars novels fame, have been working on DUNE prequels. I read their first book, "House Atreides" and I liked it. As I hate the Harkonnen I couldn't pick up the sequel, "House Harkonnen" and since I didn't read that one there was no sense in reading the third book in the trilogy, "House Corrino." Now they've moved on to prequels to the prequels and are fleshing out events that, while only briefly talked about in the Frank Herbert novels, have had their effects felt nonetheless. The Butlerian Jihad. Also, a detailed outline, written by Frank Herbert before his death, has been found and now DUNE 7 has been announced. This book will complete the DUNE saga and give closure to the cliffhanger of "Chapterhouse: DUNE."

But the problem still remains: those books are damned hard to read! Are they worth it? Should I try to trudge my way through them?

I think the thing I liked most about the miniseries was the treatment of religion and politics. It was summed up in the miniseries like this, "When religion and politics ride together the whirlwind follows." Very, very true. A great and noble empire turned into a ritualized theocracy and nearly collapsed in upon itself.

Anyway, this isn't news worthy or any such thing but I've seen the occasional "entertainment" post here so I thought I could get away with one myself.

Long live House Atreides!

Thanks very much, everyone. It has been fun posting at Dean's World and you have treated me well. As for Dean himself, well, I probably owe him an apology for the poor coverage. It was gracious of him to arrange this deal with other bloggers in the first place and the last thing I wanted to do was let him down.

Thanks again. Dean's lucky to have such fine readers--but I suspect that "luck" is due more to hard work sowing, cultivating, weeding, pruning, and harvesting in this instance.

(Yes, I do think blogs are like gardens. No, I don't suppose it really is a very good analogy. Yes, I make bad analogies all the time. No, I really don't want to hear it. Oh, shut up already.)

Happy reading!

Ilyka

It looks like N. Korea is going to wait a bit before coming to an agreement with the United States about its nuclear program until after November. Kim thinks he can get a better deal with Kerry than with Bush and wants to see who wins the election.

Well, let's see. Bush has blown stuff up and has no problems with it – he may even blow more stuff up. Kerry tries to weasel out of blowing stuff up, then blows some stuff up and calls everyone else who blew stuff up with him a murderer. Yeah... I'd wait if I were Kim too.

The State Department's annual report on terrorism notes that terrorism was at a 30-year low in 2003.

Oh, and what was the second lowest year in the last three decades? 2002.

Those of us who pay close attention to these things are unsurprised. Not just terrorism but all warfare worldwide has been on a steep decline since the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and since the worldwide effort to crack down on terrorist groups got into full swing in the months following 9/11/2001.

This should demonstrate once again for some people that the news media prefers to sensationalize violence and bad news, and not to look at successes. It should also demonstrate that certain people are not above using this tendency of the media in order to forward their own narrow agendas--either anti-war or simply anti-Bush.

Indeed, you can pretty much assume that, aside from glancingly mentioning this--the fact that things are going astoundingly well, I mean--the news media will quickly return to hyping every negative development, every nasty surprise, and every successful attack as top news. Even if there are fewer all the time, even if things get better all the time, even if things will never be perfect or ideal, you will rarely see the fact that we're doing so well pointed out.

It will be the job of those of us who actually care about the facts, and view them as more important than partisanship, to try to get the truth out. I hope you'll all join me in that. Think of it as your contribution to the war effort--it's what I think of as my main contribution, that's for sure.

We aren't failing, folks, as much as certain people would like you to believe that's so.

(Yes, I'm not supposed to be blogging. But this caught my eye and I couldn't resist.)

I emerge very briefly from my secure undisclosed location to note that this man is a true patriot, and I can't wait until tomorrow morning.

In only tangentially-related news, Joanie's got some cool photos you should see.

I now return to lurk mode for the weekend.

Not the useful kind. No, I mean the reasoning, such as it is, that informs statements like this:

How much weight does a bearded mullah carry in a freewheeling liberal society like Norway's?

The country's well-known Muslim comic, Shabana Rehman, decided to find out Tuesday when she lifted the founder of Iraq's Ansar al-Islam terrorist group off the ground before a startled audience.

"If a small woman like me can lift him up, he can't be dangerous," Ms. Rehman said Thursday by telephone from northern Norway.

There you go! Case closed.

Kurds, stop your bleating; Mullah Krekar can't be that dangerous. Oslo, thanks for letting him go--and hey, Norwegians, don't worry yourselves too much over those 1400 pounds of missing dynamite. He can't be that dangerous. Spain, leave the poor man be. Not dangerous. Besides, he says he's no longer head of Ansar al-Islam and, well, who could doubt the sincerity in that face? Not dangerous!

Really. If you can't trust the authority of a female Muslim comic, what can you trust?

It's wrong. I shouldn't jump on the bandwagon. I shouldn't link things just because everyone else does and oh, p.s., they just happen to groove along with my juvenile sense of humor. I really shouldn't--

Oh, who cares. It's Friday. What better day of the week to celebrate one young leftist's quest to mack with the ladies?

(By the way, the title is lifted from young master Gonzalez' profile; you'll have to enlarge the screen shot linked above to read it. I hope it is not representative of the overall quality of woo-pitching in grad schools today, because that line was already old and tired when I was in high school.)

UPDATE: Yes, okay, so it's only a parody. Does it count if I wanted it to be true?

Not bad, gang, not bad at all.

Especially because we not only raised the money, we raised awareness of the organization. Countless people know about this organization now that didn't used to. They tell me that they're receiving a number of checks, not to mention increased donations through the blogads that aren't being credited to any of the alliances.



Thank you. Thank you very, very much.

I'm going to be leaving you with Ilyka for the rest of the day. And, oh yes, I'm pleased to announce that Little Miss Atilla will be joining her this evening and tomorrow, as will Kevin.

Have a great Friday, y'all!

On my own blog, The Right Spin, I've written a lengthy article talking about The Divine Command Theory of Ethics. This was spurred on by, and intended to be a rebuttal of, an article by the same name written over at Secular Blasphemy.

After reading some comments I've come to realize that perhaps I may have not quite been as clear as I could have been.

In short I reject the idea of The Divine Command Theory of Ethics in its entirety because the supposition it's based on is Biblically incorrect.

Also, I reject Jan's assertion that God arbitrarily does or commands anything.

What is good or evil, according to the Bible, is not so because God says, or decrees, it to be. Evil comes to be when something strays from God's perfect nature. His absolute and unchanging standard as shown to us in the Bible.

Now, you can reject the Bible as any indication of God's nature but then you cannot use it to attack the position of those who disagree with you. For example:

You - "God is evil because in the Bible He did this..."
Me - "No He isn't because this is what actually happened..."
You - "Well, you're still wrong because how can you know the Bible to be true?"

That's another debate for another time. If we're going to debate the correctness/incorrectness of the The Divine Command Theory of Ethics each position has to assume that the events depicted in the Bible is correct but ones interpretation of them is incorrect. If you cannot agree on this foundation then you’re debating the wrong topic. It's akin to debating the flavor of apples when the one you're debating feels oranges are better anyway. Then why are we debating apples!?

Anyway, read it. I'd love to see what you think.

Oh, Jan has written a rebuttal here. I've yet to get to it but hope to soon. (I wish I could figure out how Trackback works!)

Spoons reports that some ABC affiliates have declined to air Ted Koppel's Deathfest, during which the Nightline anchor plans to read the names of soldiers killed in Iraq.

In a sense, I'd like to commend the affiliates for the decision. I share the feelings out of which it was made. Ultimately, however, I don't agree with it.

Let every American see Koppel's naked agenda for what it is: Demoralization and exploitation. I'm in favor of letting folks make up their own minds. America is founded on the principle that the people are sovereign; that means sometimes holding back the urge to remove from view any material that might prejudice public opinion.

Ted Koppel thinks he will read that list, and a good number of Americans will go, "Oh, my God. So many. So many names. So many dead." And then what? Dash over to the PC and fire off an e-mail to the administration, urging them to bring the troops home?

Perhaps. Yes, perhaps some will do that. Perhaps some will write their senators and representatives. Perhaps some may even search out a local chapter of A.N.S.W.E.R. Perhaps Koppel's Deathfest will be the moment that some centrists lurch over the line and have a change of heart about our mission in Iraq.

I think, however, that Koppel makes a mistake so common to our enemies: He underestimates our awareness, and he underestimates, badly, our resolve.

Ted Koppel has forgotten that most of us know that with war comes death. Some of us know it through direct experience. Some of us knew it going in, and went anyway, more than once. Some of us gave up finer things, seemingly, to do it.

He has forgotten that many of us know our history beyond--far beyond--the Vietnam era. Before there were benevolent news personalities to "alert us" to that which they deemed important, there were books. There were classrooms. There were personal stories from elderly friends and family who had been there.

Worst of all, it never occurred to him that the current generation might seek to live up to the example of our forebears, and not shirk the duty we found before us. It's tough, I guess, for some members of Koppel's generation. For some baby boomers, no one could be nobler than a peace activist. There could be no cause greater than that of peace, and no means to achieve it save by protest. It must be disorienting and disturbing to realize that their sons and daughters have turned out, often, to be instead a throwback to the very generation baby boomers rebelled against in the first place.

Let the names roll on, Mr. Koppel. We know what's out there. We know what the cost is. And we're ready.

Got a few very cool items left to help our troops through Spirit of America. Have a look--those Trixie Belden and Victor Davis Hanson books look pretty damned tempting to me! If I hadn't just picked up a copy of the newspaper with the "Kill Donald Rumsfeld" ad, I might bid on one of 'em myself.

Like Ilyka said below though--it's amazing what you've all done here. Just amazing.

If you donated to the Spirit of America fund request through your favorite blogs . . . well, just look at what you've done:

But here's the good news: enough equipment was delivered to outfit EIGHT Iraqi television stations, and it will be packed up and on its way to Iraq by Saturday afternoon -- only 23 days after the initial public request for funds was issued.

Every last dollar and dime has made its way to a worthy objective. And every last one of you who contributed helped make that possible.

If I could hug every last one of you, I would. Well, except you'd probably want me to shower first. And I'm not really the hugging type.

But pat yourself on the back, stand a little taller, feel a little prouder (do a little dance, make a little love)--because there IS a true spirit of America, and you have demonstrated it in spades.

If you can, spare a minute to thank John of Argghhh!, LT Smash, Dean and Rosemary Esmay, Michele Catalano, and Kevin Aylward--all leaders in the Blogosphere Challenge to bring independent news programming to Iraq. They worked their rears off on this one, and a simple "Thanks!" would probably mean a lot to them.

I know I'm grateful. Grateful, and impressed, and amazed.

You really did it. Every last one of you.

UPDATE 04/30/2004: As soon as I posted this, I thought, "How could I forget Castle Argghhh?" And as soon as I thought that, I forgot it again. Having attention-deficit disorder is no picnic, let me tell you. Luckily, John's devoted wife Beth issued another reminder, so: Go give a heartfelt thank-you to the leader of the Fighting Fusileers at Castle Argghhh!

I've read reports that press freedom in Russia has been curtailed under Putin, as media there increasingly answers to the state; now, however, I'm certain of it.

Just get the man his Courvoisier.

UPDATE: Alternately, if Courvoisier's not to Putin's taste, he could always take beverage tips from Treacher.

No! Please! Not more crushing of dissent:

An anti-war group planning a massive demonstration at the start of the Republican National Convention has been denied a permit to use Central Park because the crowd would be too large.

Fascists. Republicrats.

In denying the permit, city officials said the Aug. 29 event would exceed the 13-acre lawn's capacity of 80,000 people and "cause enormous damage to the lawn." The group said on its application that it expected 250,000 demonstrators.

"Now we just have to do another piece of organizing, to put pressure on the city to change their mind," said group leader Leslie Cagan.

Fight the power, Leslie! Hey: How did that bogus 80,000 people rule come about, anyway?

The Department of Parks and Recreation maintains that no gatherings of that magnitude have been held on the Great Lawn since the area was restored in 1996.

Here's what I want to know: What's the overlap, the intersection, of the set of people who supported the restoration of the Great Lawn, and the set of people who support United for Peace and Justice? See, because I'm thinking it's probably pretty high. Green minds think alike, I figure.

But let the restoration be overlooked, because this is so important, so important. And when an issue is important enough, well, damn the rules, damn the regulations, damn the guidelines. And damn you should you ever question what's more important here. Peace and justice are more important than park lawns. Obviously. That's why "peace" and "justice" are right there in the name of the organization, lest you forget.

It's not the march I object to. It's not the gathering. It's not UPJ projecting "250,000" in attendance. That's a cherished right in this country, to freely assemble.

It's this attitude that says, "the rules don't apply to me, because my issue is more worthy than your issue," that's revolting. March organizers "just have to put pressure on the city," to get the rules they don't like bent for themselves. Much later, of course, many of them will turn around and clamor for more rules, more restrictions, more restorations--and why shouldn't they? Those rules, after all, won't really apply to them. Should someone ever be foolish enough to try to apply rules to them, well, they'll just see that moron in court.

That attitude is a hallmark of elitism, not justice.

You know, I'm beginning to see how it works at the BBC. Beginning? Pardon; I meant "continuing."

See, if it's a dictator they have a soft spot for . . . why, gosh, it sure is a shame about his atrocities against his own people and against the Kurds, but--the death penalty? Why are you Americans always on about the death penalty? Isn't that a little extreme?

And if it's a guy executed in Afghanistan for killing "one of his wives by pouring boiling water over her body," a man who "murdered his baby daughter by banging her repeatedly against a wall," why, obviously the proper BBC reaction is to report concerns by Amnesty International that said execution "may have been an attempt by powerful political players to eliminate a key witness to human rights abuses."

Obviously, because the accused bashing his infant daughter against a wall was so clearly incidental to the whole "execution" thing. Didn't influence the court's decision whatsoever. It was just a pretext to harass a "key witness to human rights abuses."

(Er, not that the BBC is going to go to the trouble to provide the reader with any factual support for Amnesty International's claim in that regard. Not so much as a link to follow for further research.)

But boy, let a guy tell Palestinian terrorists that he's through screwing around, and that guy merits one smear-job of a profile.

No, not as in "what's sexy about a man?" or "what's sexy about a woman?" Sorry to disappoint, but I was actually wondering, "what's sexy in an airline?"

I ask because, just over a week ago, I found myself bored enough to turn on the ol' PBS and watch this program on advances in airline safety, and how innovations in safety are usually implemented only after a terrible crash. (Cost-effectiveness, you know. When you're watching PBS, you have to take as a given that anything that can be treated as the fault of capitalism, will be treated as the fault of capitalism.)

Don't people demand air safety? Shouldn't that demand be supplied in a free market? Hasn't the free market voted against carriers who are perceived as neglecting safety? Well, I thought so. And this is where I wish I had a transcript of the program, because about as I was thinking this, a woman who'd written a book on the subject noted (please forgive the paraphrase), "Consumers care about air safety, but marketing studies have shown that what sells an airline are the amenities: extra leg room, onboard PCs, lower fares, more frequent flights to popular destinations."

Am I the only person who would, circumstances permitting, pay a higher-than-average airfare to a carrier that boasted of its superior safety record? Not just the safety record, in fact: How about documenting for me what extra steps you take, what corners you don't cut, what double- and triple-checks your carrier implements to prevent future tragedies? Don't just tell me you haven't had any accidents; that's something to be proud of, certainly, but it's not as seductive a hook to me as "and here's what we're doing to keep it that way." For example:

FAA specifies that you have to service such-and-such part every x miles?--Tell me your airline does it every (x - [y:y < x]) miles instead.

Average age, industry-wide, of commercial planes in service is x years?--Tell me your average is younger than that, and tell me by how much.

Average number of mechanics employed per carrier is x?--Tell me by how much you exceed x. While you're at it, tell me you offer better salaries to your mechanics, too.

There's more I can think of--for example, tell me how well you treat your pilots. Do you hire enough of them that you're not throwing guys who've been up for the last 26 hours into the cockpit?

Safety, according to the woman on the PBS program, isn't marketed because it's not considered a "sexy" feature. It's also considered a given: To draw too much attention to safety is to remind people that sometimes, accidents happen. I can see how that could possibly discourage travelers from buying a ticket. Then again, most people who buy airline tickets have already chosen flying as their method of transport. I don't know the percentage of travelers who get cold feet and decide to go Greyhound instead, but I'd be shocked if it's currently a significant number.

Once a customer has decided to travel via air, it seems to me that nothing could be "sexier" than communicating to him that your airlilne has gone above and beyond the call of duty to secure his safety. But maybe that's just me, and maybe I'm out of the loop about what's sexy anymore.

So much for the weekend off.

We Just discovered a passal of kittens underneath the house!

Caught three of them, at least one more under there.

Anyone in Michigan in the market for an incredibly cute kitten? They're maybe 6 weeks old and still young enough to be handled and tamed, thank goodness.

(Okay, okay, it's Ilyka's blog from here on out but if anyone's interested, drop us a note. We have a new problem here!)

**Update** Rosemary caught the 4th kitten and their momma. It's all good.

She has more pictures here!

I've always been a later bloomer, so to speak.

Here's my addition to the Liberty Alliance auction - pay close attention:

6 month hosting package - via my hosting service at Blogs About Hosting.

Your blog hosting account includes:

• 70 Megabytes hard disk space


• 1 POP Email


• 1 Gigabyte of bandwidth


• 1 FTP account


• 1 MySQL database


• CGI bin


• FREE WordPress Installation & setup for your personal blog


• Use of one of my templates from E. Webscapes - shown here - - or choose your own - - I'll code it and set it up for you, in WordPress.


• Have your own domain? GREAT! If you don't - you can choose from one of our cute subdomains: blogs-about.com, shouts-out.com, writes-about.com, speaks-out.com (EXAMPLE: if your username is "John" - and you chose to use our blogs-about.com domain, then your URL would be john.blogs-about.com)

**Note: Should you wish to continue your blog hosting service beyond the 6 months - - you will need to start paying the monthly fee, at that point. (the usual set up fees will be waived for this account) - see the details here**

There you have it! I'm keeping the bidding open until 6 PM CST this evening. That means you have 9 hours!!

I will give this package away to the highest bidder to Liberty Alliance !!

Then as long as you mail me or Dean your receipt from Spirit of America, I'll set that hosting account up, ASAP.

I decided to leave this offer up here at Dean's World, instead of my own blog because....well.....I'm a peon and Dean gets more traffic!

Now bid!

Val Prieto is mocking you all. He is daring you make him shave those bonito piernas of his.

He's taunting you. He doesn't think you have the guts. That's what he told me, anyway...

Oh and by the way it would make Kelley Blight very happy you know....

(Take it away, Ilyka.)

Today's Wall Street Journal notes that a massive Al Qaeda attack was thwarted in Jordan recently. One so huge it wold likely have killed tens of thousands and quite possibly decapitated the government there.

While you contemplate and discuss the ramifications of that, I'll note that, other than stopping by periodically to give you all updates on the fundraiser (see below), I plan on being largely absent until Saturday or Sunday. I really need some rest, plus I have more work to do on the novel.

In my absence, I'll be turning the reins of power over to Ilyka Damen and, possibly, one or two other guest bloggers as well. Please give Ilyka a warm welcome, and have a great time.

And thanks once again for everyone who's helped us raise money for Spirit of America!

(Also, by the way, anyone who wants to sign up for cowplay and challenge a user named desmay, that would be cool, although he isn't all that good....)

I am amazed to report that the Liberty Alliance has collected well over $5,000over $9,000 in donations for Spirit of America, with a number of outstanding bid transactions not yet completed, and many great efforts still going!

The incredible generosity of blogosphere readers, not to mention the tireless efforts of the many Liberty Alliance members who helped make this possible, is just amazing.

However, thisyesterday morning, the three team leaders noticed something: the Spirit of America told us that they were hoping we could raise $50,000 from this effort, and as of dawn thisyesterday morning we were just $14,000about $6500 shy of that, not counting some of the still-outstanding auctions.

Thus we decided to unite before the common enemy, and drive for the ultimate victory:



$50,000 by tomorrow tonight! That's 11:59:59 p.m. Pacific Time.

Think we can do it? Think you can help? You can still donate directly. However, to sweeten the deal, we now have a number of ongoing auctions for an amazing variety of stuff--a personal visit with Chief Wiggles, Dinner with Citizen & Mrs. Smash, Val Prieto in Drag, autographed books, plane tickets, tarot card readings, and more, all in our new unified charity auction site.

I want you all to remember something:

ALL donations are tax-deductible. Including donations made through auctions. Furthermore, Spirit of America gives ALL funds, minus credit card fees, to the troops doing the distribution overseas. That's right, Spirit of America is The Real Deal: no full-time or part-time employees, all advertising and fundraising done by volunteer effort. ALL your money, save the 3% or so for credit card transactions, goes for the cause. You just can't beat that!

This is your chance gang. You can help spread good will and make a difference in what our service men and women overseas are doing. You can help make the world a better place. And you can even get a tax deduction and maybe some cool stuff on top of all that.

Come on, folks. Let's do this thing!

In the following short essay, Michael Levy argues the sciences -- which in recent times have paid little attention to spiritual matters -- may find their research into the universe has a spiritual dimension.

-- Tim Machesney

-------

The Bonding of Science and Spirituality

by Michael Levy

FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS, religious dogma and tribal superstitions kept scientific thinkers in a locked box. Many outspoken scholars were executed because their scientific findings were looked upon as heresy. It is only in the past two hundred years that free academic study of science was allowed to flourish unhindered by ancient religious doctrines.

Once modern-style academic scientific studies were established, they rejected and ridiculed anything spiritual or metaphysical if it could not be proven by a mathematical formula. Even today, a few professors and scientists are closed-minded to anything that resembles spirituality. But things are changing at a very rapid pace. For just as religion had to succumb to scientific knowledge, science is beginning to unravel the mysteries of the universe with quantum physics; and scientists' latest findings are stretching the field into the realms of metaphysical spirituality.

After all is said and done, there can only be one truth that explains the creation/ evolving of the universe, but there may be many pathways, within one truth, that will explain humanity's curiosity about cosmic puzzles.

Quantum science is going beyond looking into atoms, photons, neutrons, and quarks. Those within the field are exploring a newer string theory (dancing, unobservable, vibrational waves of energy) and membrane theory (multiple universes, carved up into slices, living side by side, all conjoined by ...?). Together they give room to explore theories which seek to prove the unity of gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces. The deeper quantum physicists explore, the closer they encircle metaphysical philosophy. They are realizing there are higher realities, within infinite dimensions of intelligent vibrational energy.

Ever since humans could look up at the stars at night they have pondered the mystical magic of the cosmos. Many great ancient civilizations -- the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans and Chinese -- debated the awe and wonder of the heavens. Brilliant philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, Confucius and many more, have talked about humankind's connection to the invisible, eternal flows of energy that govern the Cosmos. And within the next hundred years, mathematical proof will uncover the connection between science , philosophy and spirituality.

It seems string theorists have uncovered eleven dimensions to our universe. Some quantum physicists even go so far as to state the dimensions of the universe may be infinite. At the same time, they are theorizing about parallel universes that live side by side with our own. Perhaps there are an infinite number of them.

If this is proven true, it will explain why our world was not formed by chance, for if there is an infinite number of universes, then it stands to common sense at least one would contain intelligent life as found here on Earth. It could be no fluke, because of the infinite variety of universes; and the formula to create our universe must differ from each and every other universe -- in the same manner as no two humans are identical, and each has their own free will to act within an inescapable framework.

Such studies take place on more basic levels as well. In medicine, there are many ongoing studies of spirituality within the fields of neurology, psychology and other disciplines. There is also a greater openness to new ideas: mental illnesses that may be caused by stress and erroneous thoughts are being treated with many alternative, spiritually-related treatments, which were rejected a few years ago. At every level, open-minded professors, scientists and physicians are welcoming metaphysical philosophers and spiritual masters to help in the quest to eradicate disease, pollution and many other human ills.

Provided we keep communicating and balance the teaching of science and spirituality, humanity can eventually realize they are one harmonious unit within a unified symphonic universe. Maybe that unity on earth will make Albert Einstein a very happy camper as he looks at Earth from his eternal cosmic home?

Mr. Levy writes from Florida.

It's been real fun here, Dean - - thanks for having me.

As for the rest of you, thanks for tolerating me.

Things like this are always fun to do. I've done a bit of guest blogging elsewhere and it gives me the opportunity to meet people I probably may have not met before -- and some people I probably didn't want to meet, but met them anyways.

I enjoyed the posts of Casey, dowingba & Lachlan here, very much. You three were hard to keep up with - - and I probably didn't.

I go back, now, to my own blog, and try and get rid of this horrendous flu bug that seemed to bite me in the ass when I wasn't looking.

There's More...

Since the majority of the people who call themselves "liberals" are in actuality just mindless partisan hacks, with no real thoughts or opinions of their own, and whose agenda is comprised wholly of nothing but being insanely angry at all times, for no good reasons, and whose methods involve nothing but dishonesty and straight-out lying to get their own, childish ways for no other reason than that they are too immature and ignorant to ever admit a Repugnican could ever be right about anything ever...

I suggest we come up with a new label for them, so us liberals can get on with our lives.

I propose Anti-Republican. It is much more accurate a term, in any case. Their stance on any issue is exactly the opposite of the official stance of the Republican party on said issue, after all. But no, "Anti" is evil sounding. They want a positive spin on their label, right? How about Pro-Not-Republican. They are pro not being Republican. Works for me. Can I get an "aye"?

It's been great, and it's been real. And like all good things, must come to a close.

To Dean, a whopping huge thank you! Posting here has been educational, and definitely fun. I appreciate the use of your dedicated and lively forum.

Casey, you rascal- your shout out was great! I'm sure dowingba and Lisa appreciated it as well. Very creative.

Lisa and dowingba- excellent posts as well. I enjoyed your perspectives.

And to the readers, thanks for reading and commenting. It was a pleasure hearing your thoughts on all the guest posts; you're a thoughtful bunch, to say the least. As Robert Heinlein said, "...brainpower is the scarcest commodity and the only one of real value. "

With that, I bid you good night!

I've been threatening Dean that I would post this article, but he didn't believe me.

"Go ahead," he taunted, "You don't have the guts!"

A fatal error on his part. :) So now I present to you, the first demi-annual monthly Thursday Dean's World roundup. In other words, the guest bloggers currently hosting DW. We have:

dowingba (Tao of dowingba)
Lachlan my so-called blog
just a girl just a girl in the world
me (Casey) The Gantry Launchpad

I already knew dowingba, but the ladies are new to me. I feel very priveleged to be co-hosting Dean's World with them. They're all great folks!

There's More...

'Phoenix , AZ , Friday, April 23, 2004 : – Today at the Space Access conference in Phoenix, Arizona, XCOR Aerospace announced it has received a Reusable Launch Vehicle mission license from the FAA's Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST). The license, which is the first for a reusable launch vehicle (RLV) that is launched and recovered from the ground, will be used to test RLV technologies prior to suborbital passenger travel.'

In case you haven't been following this, XCOR is working on a re-usable spacecraft system which they hope will win the X-Prize: $10 million to the first privately financed and built, reusable spacecraft. The craft -carrying at least one passenger- must fly to an altitude of at least 100 km twice within a 14-day period, and be capapable of carrying at least three people.

The license awarded by the FAA to XCOR is a milestone in private space development. This is the first significant progress in manned space exploration since the introduction of the Space Shuttle, but this time the accomplishment is due to private enterprise.

Living in Seattle, I did not attend the abortion rights march in DC. In fact, I've never attended a march. The abortion debate is so vitriolic and hateful that I really do not want to be a part of the mob mentality that seems to permeate such a divisive topic. To read the blogsphere, it seems both sides of the issue were pretty nasty to each other.

I was born after the feminism movement got its groove on; culturally and intellectually, I will admit it has NO resonance for me whatsoever. I've looked over feminist sites and writings, and have not really found myself in them. In fact, they sound as dogmatic and cold as some of the anti-women or racist texts I’ve read.

But one thing I do know about feminism: back in the day, they were open to all women- unless you were a lesbian. When I heard that, from women who experienced being shunned by other feminists, I was rather stunned. Nowadays it’s a bit different.

There's More...

I just got word from the ever-alert Medic Mom that the "Day Side With Linda Vester" show is currently looking for "any military personnel" that are working on a project that they need to get out to the public, they should send her email.

Since I'm not military personnel, I of course don't qualify. But if you're military personnel--and I'm going to assume that means active duty or reserve or veteran or whatever--there's nothing stopping you from letting Linda and Co. know about our drive for Spirit of America, where we are helping troops in Afghanistan and Iraq buy medical supplies, toys, electronic equipment, and tools to help improve relations between our troops and the people we're trying to help.

May I suggest that if you are current or forme rmilitary, you send an email to Linda Vester and mention that we're doing all this work with our service members, and that countless current and former service members here in the states are also directly involved?

You can point Linda Vester to any of the three major fundraising pages, such as this one:

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/challenge/libertyalliance.html

But any of the other Spirit of Team (Fusileers, Victory Coalition) is just as good. The point would be to mention that this is done ENTIRELY FOR SERVICE MEMBERS, and that dozens of service members who run weblogs are involved in helping to organize this thing.

Chief Wiggles is auctioning himself off. LT Smash is offering dinner with himself and his wife. And more. How can they not wanna hear about this? It would be neat to get this drive on TV, wouldn't it? :-)

I'm going to repeat that, to be fair about this, if you're not current or former military it would be cheating to send them mail. Honor system and all that. But if you qualify, why not help us get their attention?

No, this isn't a remake of Gilligan's Island we're talking about.

It's about a system that NASA scientists are working on, to provide virtual reality (VR) tours of Central America:

'NASA-supported researchers have developed software anyone can use to fly, video game-style, over Central America and survey its current environmental conditions.'

Guatemalan environmental minister Juan Mario Dary plans to give a VR tour of Central America this weekend (April 30-May 2), but he'll be in Japan.

'The tour Dary plans to give will be a virtual flight over a computer-generated, 3-dimensional landscape -- something like a "flight simulator" video game. The view through the window, though, is reality. It's based on real satellite and geographic data, offering a "big picture" view of how humans are affecting the rich diversity of wildlife in the region.

"In some ways, it's better than the real thing," says Daniel Irwin, a research scientist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. "The user can choose which 'layers' of the data they want to see, some of which aren't obvious from a real plane: conservation park boundaries, small village locations, ecosystem types, and endangered species habitats, just to name a few."'

Very cool. It's not just for entertainment, either. One researcher could "fly" over a part of (say) Nicaragua or Guatemela looking for signs of old Toltec buildings under heavy jungle growth, or another could examine land use or erosion patterns.

Check it out.

Pat Tillman died in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004.

This article about Tillman's enlisting was penned by Peggy Noonan on July 12, 2002.

A snippet:

"I'm sorry, but he is not taking inquiries," said the spokeswoman at Fort Benning. She laughed when I pressed to speak to someone who might have seen Mr. Tillman or talked to him. Men entering basic training don't break for interviews, she said. Besides, "he has asked not to have any coverage. We've been respecting his wishes. And kinda hoping he'd change his mind." Mr. Tillman would, of course, be a mighty recruiting device. The Army might have enjoyed inviting television cameras to record his haircut, as they did with Elvis. But Mr. Tillman, the Fort Benning spokesman says, "wants to be anonymous like everyone else."

Right now he has 13 weeks of basic training ahead of him, then three weeks of Airborne School, and then, if he makes it, Ranger School, where only about a third of the candidates are accepted. "It's a long row," said the Fort Benning spokesman, who seemed to suggest it would be all right to call again around Christmas. Until then he'll be working hard trying to become what he wants to become.

Which I guess says it all.

For this father and son, deja vu wasn't a freaky moment.

It seemed all too familiar when Mike Rickert pitched a no-hitter for Bowler High School.

The performance Thursday came 22 years to the day after his father, John Rickert, accomplished the same feat, against the same team, also in his senior year at Bowler.

But it was a different story for a Laurel, Nebraska mother and her twins.

In a five-hour span on April 17, both girls had rolling skating accidents that resulted in broken left arms.

Cassidy broke her arm while skating at a friend's birthday party. Later that evening Marissa was demonstrating her skating skill to her mother, Tami, when she fell and broke her arm.

Double the kid, double the insurance and medical bills, as they say. Or something like that.

Spain Completes Troop PullOut From Iraq

Spain has completed the withdrawal of its peacekeeping troops from Iraq, Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said Tuesday. "No Spanish member of the Plus Ultra II brigade remains in Iraq," Zapatero told Parliament in a debate on his decision to withdraw the 1,300 troops.

At least now the terrorists know that Spain can be rolled. Via Vaya con Dios!

Cameras installed deep in pool water

You can have that peace of mind with Poseidon, the benchmark for computer-aided drowning detection systems. Poseidon is the lifeguard's third eye that never blinks. It uses advanced computer vision technology to analyze activity in the pool, captured by a network of cameras mounted both above and below the surface of the pool. Poseidon helps lifeguards monitor swimmers' trajectories, and can alert them in seconds to a swimmer in trouble.

Apparently - YMCA's across the country are installing these video devices in their pools. No more peeing in the pools, people!

Still on break, hope you're having fun with our guests, but do me a favor, would ya?

Read this.

Thanks.

Raging Dave is auctioning off a hand-made gunbelt in the name of Spirit of America. Get on over there and place your bets, you gun nuts!

Now everyone can afford a Wiggles! As part of the Spirt of America fund-raiser, the Chief is putting himself on the auction block, and don't believe that isn't uncomfortable!!

"What you get is the Chief coming to where you are and giving his presentation. He can tailor it to your needs and your time table. From short to long, an hour to multiple hours. He will talk to groups small or large, whatever you desire. Not to mention a few select items of memorabilia from the war will be yours as a gift from the Chief."

The bidding will start at $1,000 and increase in $5 increments. Hey, celebrities cost money, amigo! Besides, the Chief will paying for his own travel costs.

So do not walk, do not waddle, run over here and make a bid to "Grab Your Own Wiggler!"

Bidding on the Chief stops at Midnight (Mountain Time) Wednesday, so you have less than 24 hours. Thank you for supporting Spirit of America.

According to InsightMag.com, that's exactly what has happened. Some extracts from the article:

'The Iraq Survey Group (ISG), whose intelligence analysts are managed by Charles Duelfer, a former State Department official and deputy chief of the U.N.-led arms-inspection teams, has found "hundreds of cases of activities that were prohibited" under U.N. Security Council resolutions, a senior administration official tells Insight. "There is a long list of charges made by the U.S. that have been confirmed, but none of this seems to mean anything because the weapons that were unaccounted for by the United Nations remain unaccounted for."'

There's More...

Terror Osama Trojan floods inboxes, everywhere

A TROJAN WORM which poses as a news link announcing the capture of terror Tsar, Osama bin Laden, has been spotted in the wild.

Anti-virus software company PandaLabs says the message looks like it comes from a legit media source and has the subject line "Osama Bin Laden Captured".

The message says, "Hey, Just got this from CNN, Osama Bin Laden has been captured! Goto the link below to view the pics and to download the video if you so wish: (Internet address) 'Murderous coward he is'. God bless America!".

Inboxes round the world were filled with this latest boon to civilisation on Friday and Saturday last.

Silly virus writers. Noone is going to fall for this one.

Everybody knows the US has Osama tied up in a hole somewhere in Afghanistan - - press release planned right before election day.

On that note, don't forget to update those virus definitions!

Now normally you would think that those go together like "Liberals against personal choice," but it's true. French writer Jean-Francois Revel has published Anti-Americanism, which discusses said topic from a world-wide perspective.

Asia Times writer John Parker reviewed the book in detail. In fact, the review is nearly as interesting as the book itself.

From the review:
'Indeed, anti-Americanism has ascended from its former status as the preoccupation of a relative handful of Jurassic Marxists, professional victims, Third World whiners, and Islamo-fascist troglodytes to the level of a major new global religion. Like any religion, it has its saints (which include the likes of Che Guevara and Ho Chi Minh), its martyrs (the Rosenbergs, the Guantanamo Bay detainees and Saddam Hussein's sons), its high priests (Noam Chomsky, Michael Moore and Abu Bakar Ba'asyir), and its desperately over-eager wanna-bes (eg, Asia Times Online's very own Pepe Escobar, whose viewpoint on any issue can be predicted with absolute accuracy by simply asking "what interpretation of this situation will put the United States in the worst light?").

Curiously, however, while the religion has a hell (America), and a devil (George W Bush), it lacks both a heaven (the collectivist pipe dream having been found wanting) and a god (since the anti-Americans consider themselves as having evolved beyond the need for a deity - save their Islamist faction, which wants to impose its religion forcibly on everyone else). Still, the anti-American cult provides its legions of drooling adherents with the crucial element of any faith: the illusion of meaning in an otherwise meaningless existence. That priceless psychological salve, in this case, is the comforting delusion that, no matter how hypocritical, backward, bigoted, ignorant, corrupt or cowardly the cult's followers might otherwise be, at least they are better than those awful Americans. '

And that's just the review...

Run over there and read the review. Then, read the book.

Hat tip to The Branden Files for the link.