Blind Faith in the Economy

The United States has been discriminating against the blind for decades! It's impossible for the blind to distinguish between different denominations of U.S. paper money. The American Council of the Blind, a group that obviously has way too much of the paper money that they can't distinguish against and seems to be doing fine so far, sued the U.S. government about six years ago. The government argues that blind people have adopted to deal with the problem, and I whole heartedly agree. Through the use of credit cards there is no need to use paper money anyways! The court said that "the government might as well argue that there’s no need to make buildings accessible to wheelchairs because people with disabilities can crawl on all fours or ask passers-by for help." I agree that the whole ADA act should be thrown out the window... its not the federal governments job to ensure easy access to private property! What next, congressional bills should be put in picture form for the illiterate?

An unrelated development... ammo prices have been drastically increasing over the last few years. China has been buying up millions of tons of copper, lead and zinc, the components to make ammo, leading not just to higher prices but to limited availability. One hunter described the problem: "If you have three of four children, and they all go out on a hunting trip, the cost of ammo can be a bit of a burden." Meanwhile, some law enforcement agencies are saying they have a hard time finding ammo to buy, forcing them to dip into reserves that they were saving for when Zombie attack. Rumor has it that blind people often have problems telling different brands on ammo apart... coincidence? I think not!

In International News

A new report on Iran is saying what my graduate paper said years ago. The report said, "If Tehran's nuclear program is unchecked, there is reason for concern that it could in time prompt a regional cascade of proliferation among Iran's neighbors." My paper written 3 years ago and at a negligible cost to tax payers said, "If Iran were to acquire a nuclear weapon, it could lead to an arms race in the Middle East." Amazingly, Michael Eisenstadt, also testified on that same point before the House Committee on International Relations in 2004, and Kori Schake and Judith Yaphe published this in 2001 through the National Defense University. I'm glad to see that the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London has now figured this out as well.

Kids are still starving in Ethiopia. I'm not surprised. One example of the problems is the 3 year old who weights less than 10 pounds... in a cruel twist of irony her name is Bizunesh, which means "plentiful." Her mother says, "Before there was maize, different kinds of food. But now there is nothing ... I beg for milk from my neighbors." The U.N. World Food Program estimates that about 8 million Ethiopians receive aid each year because "they never have enough food, whether harvests are good or not." Perhaps they should take a lesson from the Native American Indians and move when food is not available? If prisoners can be fed based on American standards for less than $1.75 a day, how is this famine possible? GDP per capita is lower in Liberia and the Congo... but I'm not reading any reports of starving people there!

Sex in the City is to sexy for Israel. Jerusalem and Petah Tikva said no to having posters or billboards about the movie displayed due to the word "sex." When told if they just removed the word things would be good to go, the distributor complained, "We told them, the way you don't remove the word "Coca" from "Coca-Cola" and just leave "Cola." At this rate, Israel is likely to soon ask the Man to remove the bomp from the bomp-a-bomp-a-bomp and the ram from the ram-a-lam-a-ding-dong.




Science in Our Lives

Dinosaur footprints found on the Arabian Peninsula. So far only a few fossils have been found in the area including, isolated bones from the Sultanate of Oman and possible fragments of a sauropod from the Republic of Yemen. One scientist describes the importance of the discovery: "It's rare to see such a big example of a dinosaur herd. This is interesting social behavior for reptiles." "I'm really excited by finding out that the whole herd is walking at the same speed, with the younger ones having to walk a bit quicker — making short steps at a higher frequency — and the big ones walking at the same speed with long steps at a lower frequency. It just works out wonderfully well." Before this find, some people believed that Dinosaurs used buses when traveling as a large group.