Author Archives: nick

Creativity and self delusion. These are the unique marks of humanity, really just different names for the same thing. Human beings are the only animals capable of imagining things that do not exist. If being created in God’s image means … Continue reading →

This financial crisis has been a long time coming. It is a result of how our democratic (small d) politics works, on local, state, and national levels. Politicians on the left and, less so but still egregiously, on the right, … Continue reading →

This Abdulmutallab guy was on a terrorist watch list. I don’t care how much Janet Napolitano whines about there being 550,000 names on the list. So what? How many people are in the various databases that are accessed when you … Continue reading →

It’s the end of a decade, the 2001 Space Odyssey decade. That’s how I see it anyway. I first saw 2001, on acid, at the downtown theatre, I forget the name, just off Market Street in San Francisco, behind the … Continue reading →

I’m a computer programmer. I have been programming computers since 1966. My first programming job was at the Iowa State Highway Commission in Ames, Iowa. My first project was a computer model, similar in concept, if not complexity, to the … Continue reading →

It’s hard to dodge the temptation of schadenfreude these days, what with Obama’s unfortunate cameo at the Copenhagen Clown Convention, and the bi-partisan popular disgust at the secret, middle of the night, Democratic health care “reform” monstrosity. Not to mention … Continue reading →

If you are a real scientist, you might say something like this: It has been shown, in the laboratory, that atmospheric concentrations of CO2 create a greenhouse effect that would tend to warm the surface of the Earth. Admittedly this … Continue reading →

My cousin Andy sent me the concluding excerpt from a Rudyard Kipling poem, regarding our adventure in Afghanistan. And the end of the fight Is a tombstone white With the name of the late deceased And the epitaph drear, A … Continue reading →

I liked Obama’s speech tonight. I thought he did a good job of threading the needle between his Democratic colleagues, who want the Taliban to win, and the majority of Americans who want us to win. Of course George W. … Continue reading →

The thing about Sarah Palin is, whenever she opens her mouth and expresses an opinion about pretty much any policy issue, I agree with her. So when she is characterized as a dull-witted extremist bimbo, as she unfailingly is in … Continue reading →