Mind Garten

Today I got a bug in my head. This happens a lot, but today was special. I became completely obsessed with US Foreign Policy in the Middle East and how backward it really was. I've had this question for a long time now, but today I think I answered it for myself. Why does the US give unconditional backing to Israel? For one, there is a strong indoctrinated culture here in the US that gives overwhelming support for the Israelis. It is so strong that it becomes political suicide to so much as attempt to reduce the billions of dollars of uninterrupted economic aid we have been giving Israel for the past several decades. The source of this overwhelming support is up to speculation but I will not address it here. In addition, we have been supplying them with billions of dollars in weapons and the latest military technology. This part is mostly a remnant from the Cold War era when Israel was our only foothold into the Middle East area. That was back when we didn't car...

Last week I completed the entire 4 books of the Rama trilogy. These are the only books I've ever become emotionally involved with. I'm not sure what it was, but I think I was inadvertently introduced to a soap opera drama in the context of a sci-fi theme. These books were co-authored by Arthur C. Clarke and Gentry Lee, so I don't know where all the human drama came from, but its there nonetheless. I think the thing that struck at me the most was the constant cycle of human nature getting in the way of scientific exploration. Our fears and prejudices time and time again compromise our "first contact" scenarios and damage our interspecies relations. Its a miracle that we eventually find out that all other species we meet are *mostly* benevolent. In fact, more so than we. Anyway, these books incapacitated me for about a week. My ability to focus on my work was severely compromised and I lost a great deal of sleep staying up at night to finish reading. I...