A new study has found that over 2/3rds of US crops are contaminated with genetically modified material. The Independent reports that... "The test found that at "the most conservative expression", half the maize and soyabeans and 83 per cent of the oilseed rape were contaminated with GM genes - just eight years after the modified varieties were first cultivated on a large scale in the US." Fun times. So eight years later...plenty of time to figure out just what the fuck these genes do. The tomacco is here and here to stay. At this point there is little hope of any of our crops remaing "pure." This is a problem. Now I don't know that I necessarily think genetic altering is a bad thing. It could lead to many innovations, leading to healthier and disease-repellant crops. But, and this is a big but, we don't know what else they might do. So we have a soy bean that matures more rapidly and is less likely to be eaten by a specific pest because we have spliced in some lemon-gene. What if it also leads to clogging of the arteries, growth of tumors, hair-loss, who knows what else. And that's the thing we just don't know, and now it may be too late to prevent every soy bean eaten from now on to be contaminated. Fucking Monsanto!

This is a good article too I think and a good idea for Kerry. Bring the whole team along I say.

This strange new study by Stefan Koelsch highlights a connection between human understaning of music and language. The study consisted of segments of music being played and then immediately after a volunteer (who had no musical experience, ie: never played an instrument, etc.) was shown a word that was either "related" or "unrelated." Take a look at the music samples and the word lists: .

Apparently when the volunteers heard a related word key areas of the brain responded with high levels of activity. When the unrelated word was shown no such response was garnered. The relevance of this "priming" of the brain is seen in many other activities of language. For example, in other studies it has been shown that participants respond differently after reading a passage relating to a particular topic and then seeing a similar word afterwards (ie: a passage about sailing is read and then the brain mapped as the next word is read, desert or ocean). The study gives credence to the theory that music and language evolved along the same lines in terms of human understanding, just how related remains to be understood fully. Some suggest that music (or tonal recognition, and harmonic relations) may have played an important role in the development of language.

Paul says I'm like Elvis. In the early stages, he qualifies. I guess I'm just too fabulous for reality. What can I say? The ups and the downs, the rebounds, what have you. I'm learning to be a very optimistic person. Not about the world in general, or America, or people in general, just about me. I am learning to enjoy life as it comes. To make choices (or not) and to not dwell on could-have-beens or should-have-beens. I've found that goals are an unhealthy construct most of the time. They make you struggle for eventual happiness while ignoring what can be found in each moment. So I don't believe in the whole sacrifice today for the future bullcrap. In fact I think it's hardcore business propaganda to pump us as hard as possible during our most productive years. How else do you convince all of us to work so damn hard? It's the end goal, the financial security, eventual prestige, what have you that pushes us to produce. So I don't buy it. I look at my poor father, who worked for a damn long time, had a great retirement plan and so forth. He lost most of his retirement in the whole Enron fiasco (his company has nothing to do with them, but that's where the money was invested), and now is out of work and pretty much at the same financial security level as me. What the hell did prodigiously working for years and years get him? So, I scorn the future, and care about today. But I am learning to be happy, which is the important part of this rant. Most of us are unhappy because we're not where we "want to be" but I want to be happy because I am, right here right now. There is no other place I'd rather be-heeee! Jesus Jones thank you for those words of inspiration.

A quote by James Madison made at the debates before the drafting of our constitution:

In England, at this day, if elections were open to all classes of people, the property of landed proprietors would be insecure. An agrarian law would soon take place. If these observations be just, our government ought to secure the permanent interests of the country against innovation. Landholders ought to have a share in the government, to support these invaluable interests and to balance and check the other. They ought to be so constituted as to protect the minority of the opulent against the majority [italics mine]. The Senate, therefore, ought to be this body.

So if anyone still believes in the common fallacy that the crafters of our constitution really believed in any form of equality, please reconsider. They knew exactly what they were doing, basically making sure that the wealthy landowners (ie: the opulent minority) would stay wealthy and become wealthier through direct control over the political and economic processes of our country and its people (ie: the sniveling majority).

from:
Jonathan Elliot, ed., The Debates in the Several State Conventions on the Adoption of the Federal Constitution, 1787 ("Yates's Minutes"), Philadelphia: Lippincott, 2nd edition, 1836

At risk of having everyone hate me again, I present an opposing view on the draft.

Currently our army (enlisted men, excluding officers) consists overwhelmingly of poor people. It is a last resort for too many kids with few prospects (see some of my other journals about prisons and soldiers [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=62[/inlink] & [inlink]userName=terry,blogID=64[/inlink]). The reason for this is that we have what is called a "professional army" composed of paid soldiers whose main occupation is war (call it "defense" or "peacekeeping" if you like). What we used to have was a "volunteer army," meaning that our citizens were our army when needed (hence our 2nd amendment rights to carry arms: "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.). The draft is an extension on this volunteer army system.

There are many differences between the two types of armies. Economically speaking, a huge standing army (ie: our current system) must be constantly paid, fed, housed, etc. With a draft in place, you would of course keep a much smaller army, and only pay a larger force when necessary. I think a part of the reason for our skyrocketing defense budgets since Vietnam has a lot to do with maintaining a gigantic army constantly. Politically, it is much harder to justify war if you don't have professional soldiers. If the kids going to war aren't just from the farms and the ghettos, but from right next door-suburbia, you better have good reasons. How much more antiwar sentiment can you garner if everyone has to worry about themselves or their loved ones being drafted? I especially like that there are very tough requirements for waivers in the new bill which would hopefully prevent stooges like our current leader from ditching his duty. Another point I always think of is if it ever got down to the army being used for civil purposes (as was very close in Miami this summer at the FTAA protests) I would much rather see a draftee who still remembered being a civilian than a hardened professional killer.

Basically the way it works now is hugely expensive, allows America to have a gigantic army that can be repositioned as easily as the pieces on a Risk board, disproportionately utilizes lower class labor, breeds sociopathic killers, must not be strenuously justified, and allows slackers like Dubya off the hook. So while I personally have no desire to be drafted, I don't know that the idea should be so off-handedly dismissed. I just think of the next war that Dubya thinks up, in Lybia or Iran or wherever, and imagine the draft cards going around, and the hundreds of thousands who then could stand up in solidarity, saying we will not fight for your greedy wars. The 82nd Airborn is never going to do that.