Saturday, April 01, 2006

Paradise

We planted two banana plants yesterday, also three ilimas and transplanted a big yellow hibiscus which rewarded us by imitating a weeping willow. If we hadn't staked it there would have been a body lying on the ground. It's looking better today tho. Lots of flooding in Paradise yesterday, Kahaha Mall had three feet of water running thru the aisles, and my old neighborhood of Makiki seems to be a bit soggy. We had muddy water running down the road, but that's all.

Friday, March 31, 2006

Well, he managed to run SOME green lights.

But I bet the Frogs were POd.

Hah! Be sure yer audio is on.

Pro-Immigration Protests or Racist Pro-Revolution Demonstration?

This Mexica Movement page doesn't seem calculated to persuade:
One of the more negative parts of the march was when American flags were passed out to make sure the marchers were looked on as part of "America".
This is a photo site covering the march in LA on the 25th, and some of the signs being carried are pretty interesting: "This is OUR continent, not yours!", "Stolen Continent!", and "All Europeans are illegal."

The main page is interesting as well. They claim to be anti-violent. "We are also not part of the Spain-centric and error-filled "Aztlan" ("Southwest" liberation) agenda because we are for the total liberation of our Anahuac continent ("North America") not just to where the European Spaniards drew their colonial borders on our continent." Liberate the whole continent but no violence? They have their job cut out for them. And no assimilation and "Total end to European occupation of our continent", so I have to conclude that they are explicitly racist despite any explicit claims to the contrary.

While 10-12 million illegal immigrants seem like a real problem, I don't see the likely responses as productive. For reasons which I don't understand, some conservatives- who usually disdain anything smacking of French social or economic policy- want to emulate the French approach to immigration: guestworkers. Did they somehow miss the TV coverage of all the rioting Muslims in France? What makes them think that guestworker programs are good policy? Why would the French Approach work better here? Maybe conservatives are cognitively disabled: They didn't learn from Alcohol Prohibition either. Better to accept the reality of several million ppl who are here already and legalize them.

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Gimme that old-time religion

An Iranian court has sentenced a teenage girl to execution for killing a would-be rapist. Volokh Conspiracy has the story, and several of the comments are worthwhile.

There is a comment in passing about the right of dhimmi (non-Muslims) to defend themselves against attacks by Muslims. I have read similar statements before but I'm not sure about their accuracy. If they are, then no wonder so many Muslims are mad at us: we are offending Allah simply by defending ourselves against attack. Pretty insensitive of us.

Monday, March 27, 2006

Trans-swinism to the rescue?

This looks interesting:
Geneticists have mixed DNA from the roundworm C. elegans and pigs to produce swine with significant amounts of omega-3 fatty acids -- the kind believed to stave off heart disease...

"We all can use more omega-3 in our diet," said Dr. Jing Kang, the Harvard Medical School researcher who modified the omega-3-making worm gene so it turned on in the pigs....

Hoping to create healthier, cheaper and tastier products that consumers crave, Monsanto of St. Louis and its biotech farming competitors like DuPont are developing omega-3-producing crops that yield healthier cooking oils....

While boosting Omega-3s doesn't decrease the fat content in pigs, the fatty acids are also important to brain development and may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease and depression. The American Heart Association recommends at least two weekly servings of fish, particularly fatty fish like trout and salmon, which are naturally high in omega-3s.
Ultimately, maybe the solution is to put those worm genes into ourselves and make our own Omega-3s. Until then, tho, bring on the peanut butter and bacon sandwiches!