They're heeeere....

The following is an approximation of an exchange that RT had with a colleague at work last week:

Colleague: ...was in Washington D.C. for work...April 15...went to the big Tea Party, amazing! Blah, blah, blah, taxes, Obama, socialist, etc. So, what to you think, RT?
RT:  Oh. Well...I'm a registered Democrat, so you may not want to hear what I think.
C: What?! And I had such great respect for you! I just don't get it. I'll be you believe in global warming, too, huh?
RT: Um, yes.
etc.

Predictably, the colleague believes it is all a grand hoax, or at the very least a serious mistake on the part of thousands of scientists the world over.

I know those people are out there, but it never fails to shock me when I actually hear of one of them. The scary thing is, their numbers are growing. And I'm sure that this book and its media coverage won't help. Written by a media meteorologist who doesn't trust the media. Go figure.

P.S. Sorry to be such a downer on Earth Day. Go recycle something. You'll feel better.

Oh, come on. II

A couple of items from the NYTimes.

First, about families who are hiring occupational therapists to teach their children how to hold pencils and crayons:

"One father on the Upper East Side said anxiety about his son’s grip — his 3-year-old holds crayons in his fist — propelled him to seek therapy.

“The nursery admission people tell you they want your child to be ready to learn how to write,” said the father, who spoke anonymously so his son wouldn’t run afoul of nursery school administrators. “And I knew they would take one look at the way my son held a crayon and he’d be out of the running.”"

I mean, really. How pathetic have we become? I say "we," but I really mean those fancy-schmancy private school families in New York and, well, Los Altos, maybe. TZ doesn't hold his pencil properly, but his handwriting is fairly neat, for a 6-year-old boy. Although to be perfectly honest, it would solve a problem if I could just hire someone to teach him (his teacher is clearly not doing it) because he won't listen to me about it and I'm sick of nagging.

Speaking of sick, then there's the House Republicans' and conservative Dems' refusal to pass the health care bill. It's not fair of me to say just pass the damn thing because I don't even really know what's in it exactly. I'm just going on blind faith in Obama and the Democrats in Congress that it's sort of what I want--a tentative, half-assed but better than nothing move toward universal coverage (as if I understood the complexities involved in making that a success and a reality), and deletion of the anti-abortion language that was in House Version 1.0. Just effing cooperate, just do what's right and not what's politically expedient. Hah.

I said that RT ordered satellite service for the Olympics, but as it turns out, I've watched about half of it on my laptop anyway. Watching it on TV, even with Tivo, turns out to be an enormous time sink. I love Shaun White--how does a person get to be that much better than everyone else in the world? And he's only, what, 23? He's just a baby. Really.