Things to Know - 7 November

1.  Paul Krugman is on the Green Bus.  He's questioning whether the fossil-brained Congress will get off its stalling tactics and get moving.  Moving to sustainable resources is actually cheaper, when you consider the costs of burning fossil fuels (oil, gas) should include the costs to the environment (air, water, and our health).  Just read on to see why fracking and letting energy industries off the hook without regulation is like a criminal subsidy:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

2.  This is going to be fun. Romney is now going to distance himself from the rest of the GeeOpie pack of candidates and expand his creds on foreign policy.  He's opening himself up to even more flip-flops in an area in which he has absolutely minimal experience other than standing on street corners in a foreign country and hawking the visions of the Angel Moroni:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/8632

3.  Here's the nut-and-bolts description of an incident in Washington D.C. with the Occupiers and a Koch-sponsored event:
http://www.truth-out.org/print/8636

4.  The only GeeOpie figure that could gather enough interest to run, is actually a statue of a dead guy whose positions on the issues are not very popular with his party:
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/print/39366/

5.  E.J. Dionne and the matter or religion as it pertains to candidates philosophy on public policy and the separation of church and state for believers and non-believers:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/election-2012s-great-religious-divide/2011/11/06/gIQAiRbdtM_print.html

6.  There is an interesting discussion here on merging disciplines of humanities and hard sciences.  Kind of like a turf war for some, but I think the opinions that they are distinctly separate are foolish.  Neuroscience is the common ground of thought between the two that molds them together:
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/06/bodies-in-motion-an-exchange/?pagemode=print  

7.  To those who don't think that the so-far short life of OWS has not accomplished much, read this.  The writer of this column also pretty much slams Milton Friedman's tenet that corporations have no real business in acting out a policy of social responsibility.  Milton, you are dead wrong - on both counts;  Dead, and Wrong:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiltzik-20111106,0,1522324,print.column

8.  Doyle McManus and his speculation on next year's election.  There really is nothing else to talk about.  Just the normal flame-out of the month for the GeeOpie and the the do nothing Congress:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-mcmanus-forecasts-20111106,0,3737928.column

9.   Fracking is the process by which extremely high-pressure liquids are blasted into below-earth pockets of fossil fuel material to force gas to the surface.  Read this link to see if there is any connection between this controversial process and the recent earthquake in Oklahoma:
http://www.ogs.ou.edu/pubsscanned/openfile/OF1_2011.pdf  

10.  You should know that it is a beautiful clear and cold morning here in Claremont.   There is snow up on Mt. Baldy, about a
25 minute drive up the road.  Beautiful!

--
Juan Matute

"The only people who say worse things about politicians than reporters do are other politicians."
       -- Andy Rooney

"Knowledge is power, if you know it about the right person."
       -- Ethel Mumford

"Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles."
       -- George Jean Nathan

"I once said cynically of a politician, 'He'll doublecross that bridge when he comes to it.'"
       -- Oscar Levant

"Weather forecast for tonight: dark. Continued dark overnight, with widely scattered light by morning."
       -- George Carlin