Social Security

I know that the current administration wants to monkey with Social Security and I have little confidence in their ability to better the system as it currently stands. Their economic platform has been as rickety and ill-informed as every other part of their platform, and the idea of letting them loose on the crowning glory (perhaps) of the New Deal is frankly horrifying.

I also know the administration loves to create crises where none exist, so they can rush on in and be saviors (see "Iraq, invasion of").

Do we really want the future finances of the little guy to be in the hands of people who have shown no compassion for him and blatant disregard for the truth?

Some basic facts may be found here.

Wonderwoman on top

Link of the day.

(GI Joe is well represented, too, though. Such a macho man.)

Picture of the day

Fractal flames from Apophysis are easy to generate and sometimes absolutely gorgeous. Good eye candy in troubled times and on bad days.

Picture of the day

Two totally unrelated links pertaining to education

Article #1 may be found here.

And article #2 may be found here.

I am certain that the rest of the anglophonic world angling for students is deeply thankful to the people of number 2 (so to speak) for standing up against those awful folks who put science ahead of "intelligent design" (aka creationism for those of us who don't think black is white).

(More on Of Pandas and People.)

Progress!

According to Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, George W. Bush can now "hold a nearly hour-long news conference without serious gaffes or unintentionally making news."

Wow.

Bush meets the press ...

... and tells us all what a great job Rumsfield is doing & what a fine, caring man he is.

Uh-huh. I suppose it's vaguely reassuring that Bush is at least consistent in his total disregard for reality. But unfortunately, he & Rumsfield are conducting their war games at the cost of hundreds of thousands of human lives and it's unconscionable.

Tapped has a nice wrap-up of the press conference.

Why a blog?

The easiest answer is "it just seemed like the time was right." A more complete answer would be that a blog gives a sense of immediacy to any topic under the sun, which is a very seductive thought.
To start things off on the right foot of weirdness, visit here (be sure to stick it out to the very end, however painful it may be).