Ponderings of a Scientist

Whoops I forgot to watch!  Really I did plan to watch, so that, at the very least, I could have something to make fun of today, but instead Zipy and I attempted to have some adult time.  We were foiled by the Kiddo, however, who has this new sleeping pattern which includes a period of time from about 8:30-12pm in which she wants to eat constantly, then has terrible gas pains, which make her want to suckle more to sooth herself (on our pinky - she hasn’t figured out how to keep the pacifier in her mouth yet), which makes her hungry (and around and around we go).  So Zipy and I attempted to play scrabble and enjoy a few glasses of wine while caring for the baby and quickly using up half of my frozen milk supply.  The good news is once we get past midnight, she is sleeping well (4-5 hours) then a 30 minute feeding, then another 2-3 hours.  This works out well for Zipy, as she wakes up around 6:30-7, just when he needs to get up for work.  For me, I’m not so lucky; if you count the time awake in the middle of the night for feeding, I’m still only getting about 5 hours of sleep!  Luckily, most days she goes back to sleep around 7:30 or 8 and I can get in another 1 to 1 1/2 hours of sleep.  The most annoying thing with the morning nap, however, is that I don’t get to start my day until 9:30, which quickly turns into 10:30, once I feed Addie and get her ready for the day.  I would much prefer to sleep from 10pm-5am, but what can you do!  Apparently she is not a morning person, but rather a night owl.

Did anyone catch the debate?  What did you think?

So Zipy and I spent about 30 minutes last night watching the democratic debate (part of the first hour with moderator questions, not the second hour with audience questions) before we decided the Yankees - Red Sox game was more important.  These are my thoughts from the debate:

1.  How interesting how they arraigned the candidates by chance of winning the candidacy - A guy I never heard of on one end (Mike Gravel former Senator for Alaska - the republican plant according to Zipy - and given his answers to the questions this is quite possible) and Dennis Kucinich on the other end (such a good guy, he will get lots of votes in NH with the morally conscience voter (think those people that voted for Dean), but has no chance nationally - he is too idealistic and doesn’t play politics enough), next tier in Bidden, Richardson, and Dodd and then the big three in the middle - Obama, Clinton, Edwards.

2.  Gravel - an ass: Kucinich - great ideas, will never work with our current political system and he is too soft spoken, he got over shadowed by the other candidates: Richardson - confusing, didn’t answer questions: Dodd - trying to stand on his laurels from CT: Bidden - didn’t hear much from him: Edwards and Obama: They spent the whole night kissing each others butt ” Well moderator I have to give props to Obama for what he said..”  ” Well moderator I thank John for his comment and I agree with everything he says but I will do it better….”: Clinton - everything was ANTI - BUSH, which might be a good approach to target the independent voter if she becomes the democratic candidate, but this was a democratic debate - essentially she was talking to democrats, who are by nature anti- GW.  She needed to tell us how she is different/better than the rest of the candidates.

3.  All and all it was a very respectful debate ( the part I watched) - no talking over each other and tons of props given to other candidates.  They did a better job of projecting a unified democratic front than representing their individual ideas, especially the big three.
Any one else have a take on it?

From WMUR:

“CONCORD, N.H. — New Hampshire soon will be joining its New England neighbors in banning smoking in bars and restaurants. The House on Thursday approved a smoking ban bill 224-117 and sent it to Gov. John Lynch, who has said he will sign it. It will go into effect 90 days later. More than a dozen states and hundreds of cities and counties around the country ban smoking in restaurants, bars or both. New Hampshire is the only state in New England that does neither. Nashua Sen. David Gottesman, the prime sponsor, said a ban will protect workers and customers from the health risks of secondhand smoke. Opponents argued that the state should instead educate the public about the dangers of smoking and secondhand smoke. They said restaurant and bar owners should decide when or if to ban smoking in their establishments, not the state.“

Yeah to a democratic state government, who finally got this bill passed after years of trying!

 ”More than 50 Republican members have signed on to a bill, the Academic Partnerships Lead Us to Success Act of 2007 (A-PLUS Act), that would allow states and districts more flexibility in implementing state-based initiatives using federal education funding. If passed, this legislation would fundamentally alter the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. The A-PLUS Act would allow states to “opt out” of NCLB if it held a referendum or if two out of three state entities - the governor, the state legislation, and the state’s highest-elected education official - decided the state could no longer meet the law’s accountability mandates. States that elect to opt- out would still get federal funding and could combine funds from certain education programs into one funding stream. They would be freed from the requirements of each federal education program and could use the funds to advance their initiatives. Read more from the front page article in the Washington Post; a one-page description of the A-PLUS Act; or the section-by-section summary of the bill.”  - New England Ocean Science  Education Notes

Tom Delay was interviewed on NPR this am, I think in an attempt to promote his new memoir, but really it just gave NPR a chance to make Delay look bad!  Approx. excerpt….

Delay - Democrats are the enemy, why would I work with the enemy?

NPR - perhap because they are civic minded Americans

Delay - they don’t agree with my agenda for America - they are the enemy

NPR - tell us about the K street strategy

Delay - you have to work with people outside of Congress to be successful

NPR - isn’t there something bad about lobbyist paying you off and writing republican legislation?
Delay - well the Democrats do it too!

And the republicans are now complaining that the Democrats are too partisan?

Charting the course for ocean research into the next decade.  This is the white house press release.  There are some great thoughts here.  Any bets on whether they will be funded or implemented? orppis_factsheet.pdf

Check out this movie!  Its a bit depressing for a Friday, but very poignant and well done.  If there were only 100 people on Earth, but all proportions were keep intact there would be…..

To paraphase Georgie, ” The reason we lost in Vietnam is that we quit; the lesson to take from Vietnam is that we will succeed in Iraq as long as we don’t quit.”

Could he be any more wrong.  Most of us that weren’t even born during the Vietnam War, have known from the start of Iraq that it was “another Vietnam”  and we wouldn’t succeed, not because of quitting, but because we were yet again trying to take over a country and convert the value structure and government to model our own.  Nevermind the fact, that yet again, the government went into a war without truly understanding the culture of the country!  Stupid, stupid.

On a happier note, I look forward to Charles Rangel leading the House Ways and Means committee.  This guy is going to seriously straighten out our tax laws, and he’s kicking V.P Cheney out of the office that Cheney took from the former Republican Ways and Means Chair to boot!

Donald Rumsfeld resigns!  YEAH!

Looks like the Dems took the U.S. Senate as well as the House!  Double YEAH!

This is the best Wednesday after the first Monday of November, in years!  Go democrats.  Both U.S. House of Representative seats held by Republicans in NH went to the Democrats (Yeah Shea Porter), the entire NH Senate went Democratic, the U.S. House is now Democratic, the majority of U.S. governors are not dems, and the list goes on!

Yeah for the minorities!  Deval Patrick, the first MA African-American Governor (and the best candidate) and Nancy Polosi (sp) the first female Speaker of the House!

The only annoying thing:  NH has me registered as Undecided (their name for Independents).  Im definitely independent, but I don’t like to think of it as undecided:

• I’m very much decided that I’m not either a Democrat or a Republican
• I’m very much decided that my views are not represented by any party
• I’m very much decided that I vote for individuals based on their values, not based on their party affliation (disclaimor - I voted all democrat yesterday, based on values, not on party)

The way I see it, we have a fair chance of things now improving with the political landscape on the U.S.  Of course, nothing we truly improving until we have campaign finance reform and no longer allow big business lobbying to own our politicians.