Those dern "socialists"

Theirs is  a small country, a tiny homogeneous population, and a commitment to social justice.  Their  North Sea oil wealth  is used to support their social programs, making tiny, cold, Norway at the very top of the list of countries in terms of health, education, and welfare. They do  have a strong capitalist ethic but realize that human capital is the best investment. Being a tiny island nation, they are truly conservative with their resources. And they are leaders in the development of alternative sustainable energy. Yay Norway!

What will it take to get us off fossil fuels?

There are so many reasons to kick our addiction to fossil fuels that it's hard to figure out why we Americans are so lackadaisical about solving the problem. Peak oil will bring about a profound change in the way we live. By many accounts we have crossed the line already. The fact that we are fighting wars, and drilling in extreme and dangerous environments supports that contention. Will we allow our civilization to be destroyed by greedy oil barons? I'm afraid it's entirely too possible.

Stem cell research blocked again?

A stem cell is not an embryo and an embryo is not a person. Instead of protecting the rights of microscopic cells, why don't we guarantee that every child who breaths air, and has a brain which can think and feel, and a stomach to fill, has access to the health care, education, and resources needed to grow a strong healthy adult?
 Let's get our priorities straight!

Republicans are the terrorists!

Could it be? Let's follow the chain of evidence.
  Fox news is funded by Saudi backers.  The wealthy Saudi prince Alalweed bin Talal pretty much owns Fox media corp. The 9/11 hijackers were Saudi and Al Qaeda itself is a branch of the Saudi state religion.  Fox news tirelessly shills for the Republican party ( I don't need to put a citation here, do I?, you know it's true). Ergo the Republican party is supported by the Saudis, who attacked us. Doesn't that make the Republican party the party that supports terrorism and is trying to destroy the American way of life?
How is it that all the accusations of "un-American" and treason seems to come from the hard-line right wing when they are the ones who can be most closely tied to terrorists? It's all straight out of the book "1984" if you ask me. White is black, right is left, and bad is good. 2 plus 2 equals 4 if you say it loudly and often. That's the job of Fox "news". To say it loudly and often. Poor zombie Americans. We are bespelled by the channel with the blond bimbo "pundits" the glitzy sets, and the Muslim masters.

Tribal Animals

The bumper stickers we plaster on our cars are tribal insignia. Have you ever seen a bumper sticker promoting a political candidate whom you abhor and felt a reasonless rage build up inside of you? I have. I feel an instinctive rush of enmity toward those people while knowing that they probably are decent humans in spite of their obvious ignorance. We all need to belong somewhere. Our churches are one kind of tribal affiliation. For some fundamentalist groups, it is the only tribe they claim. Any other group membership would be treason for them. For teenagers, it may be the goth look that they cultivate, in order to proclaim their membership in the disaffected youth tribe. Tribalism was adaptive for early humans. It became maladaptive when some groups learned to work together to achieve common goals. A focused united nation can almost always overcome a cluster of tribes if  they really try. Think of the Roman empire, the Norman conquest, or the Spanish conquest of Latin America. The danger in the US now is that some people ( you know who you are) are stirring up tribal passions, destroying us as a united people. They are creating scapegoats on whom to place all the blame for everything wrong in the world today.  They are doing this in order to grab the reins of power, certainly.  Homosexuals are not such great scapegoats any more because too many of us cherish the gay members of our family and friends. They belong to our tribe. But persons of a different color still work as scapegoats in the minds of the ones who play the game of divide and conquer. It's not so acceptable to use African-Americans as scapegoats now, but it seems to be just dandy to use Latin appearing people. Or people who are Muslim.
It's too bad. I hate to see our once great melting pot country turned into a petty tribal conglomerate of warring groups.

Religious freedom in America

It appears that the Republican party believes that religious worship should be controlled by the government. For some reason, certain people don't have the right to build a place of worship on their own private property, and the government gets to decide who those people are. What an odd platform for the Republicans to be supporting.

When was Social Security invented?

How many people know that Social Security was invented by that oft-quoted founding father Thomas Paine? Yep, the very same Thomas Paine who is used by the Teapartiers to justify their conservative small government rhetoric. In fact Thomas Paine strongly supported socialistic ideals. Specifically in his pamphlet Agrarian Justice he advocated giving every citizen a significant sum of money as soon as they reach the age of 21. This is to compensate them for the loss of their natural heritage, taken by capitalist society. He also advocated that every person reaching the age of 50 should receive an annual pension. How is this to be paid? Guess who also invented the estate tax?