• Sometimes when I see my reflection in the window at work, the background trees make it look like I have a goatee or five o-clock shadow.
• Which is funny, since I have almost no facial hair.
• I have a high def, big screen tv, but have never watched an episode of American Idol
• or Survivor
• other than a couple of episodes the first season.
• I haven’t seen the Simpson in ages
• but I still quote them from time to time.
• Today I commented on a biology blog
• …and guessed correctly that viruses can cause permanent genetic mutations in species
• Not too long ago I discussed the math used in a biology paper with a biologist on his blog.
• He agreed that the authors were making a questionable assumption about the constant rate of mutation.
• Which makes me wonder why I didn’t become a scientist like I wanted to as a kid.
• …oh yeah, it was the money.
• I like money.
• I don’t have any, but I like it.
• I like food too.
• I think I will get some.
• Tonight is make your own taco night.
• I think.
• …almost time to pick up the kids.

As well as being published in the FSM Gospel, my one page proof of the existence of the Flying Spaghetti Monster will be published in the next issue of Scientific Creative Quarterly.  I will link to it when it becomes available.

Let’s hope this one doesn’t pass — “We the People Act”

I learned about this from the Spammer Lou Sheldon — as a general rule, anything he supports I’m opposed to, but here is the gist of the bill:

The Supreme Court of the United States and each Federal court–

(1) shall not adjudicate–

(A) any claim involving the laws, regulations, or policies of any State or unit of local government relating to the free exercise or establishment of religion;

(B) any claim based upon the right of privacy, including any such claim related to any issue of sexual practices, orientation, or reproduction; or

(C) any claim based upon equal protection of the laws to the extent such claim is based upon the right to marry without regard to sex or sexual orientation; and

(2) shall not rely on any judicial decision involving any issue referred to in paragraph (1).
And, if that’s not enough —

Any decision of a Federal court, to the extent that the decision relates to an issue removed from Federal jurisdiction under section 3, is not binding precedent on any State court.

Friday and Saturday are a blur.

Sunday Justin and I went Snowboarding at Hidden Valley (thanks Joe).  The snow was in great condition and Justin had a lot of fun, so much in fact that he wants to go back and learn how to ski as well.  I could tell that it had been years since I snow-boarded though; I kept catching an edge and crashing (okay, it was only like 4 or 5 times).

Monday night was hockey night, but it was Tuesday morning by the time the game was over.  I couldn’t score for anything, but I played well enough defensively.  We won 2 - 1, our first win of the season, despite playing well in all three games.

…so we should cut them a break.  At least that’s what the White House thinks.

The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.
New projections, buried in the Interior Department’s just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period.

Am I the only one that is livid about this.  How can the administration give away our natural resources like that?  I think I’ve stated before that I believe the government should be acquiring land instead of giving it away.  Company A wants to log 100 acres of a forest on Federal land.  First the company must buy up 200 adjacent acres and turn those over to the government, and the governement gets a portion of the profits, plus the company must replant what they log.  Seems like companies would still be lined up to do business. 

No.  Instead we let them suck the oil out of the ground, let them sell it back to the original owners, the American people, at a huge mark-up, and then we give them a pass on the money that they owe the government for it. 

Hershey’s Chocolate Nuggets with Almonds were better when they used whole or half almonds instead of almond pieces.  They just recently made the change (or we just now got a bag with the pieces instead of whole almonds).  I could immediately tell a difference.

Which of these stories bothers the Administration the most?

• Ex-CIA official: Bush administration misused Iraq intelligence
• Libby: My ’superiors’ authorized leaks
• Ex-FEMA chief blames Homeland Security for slow response
• Rove implicated in Identity Leak