Minimum Hours of Sleep I Need to Function

Sleepy vs. Bedtime Bear (265/365)

I generally get around eight hours a night and I'm still tired. I can function on six hours but don't expect too much. Lack of sleep usually makes me nauseous which is part of the reason why I am really keen on getting my eight hours, at the very least.

Jerry Bergevin, New Hampshire Legislator, Links Evolution With Nazis And Columbine

I was going to ask where where on the evolutiona­ry ladder rung is he, but then I realized that he didn’t believe in evolution and my comment lost its appeal. Why isn’t it okay to simply teach creationis­m in Sunday school? I firmly believe that science is taught in science class, the idea of creationis­m doesn’t have any scientific relevance so why would it be taught in science class? Evolution is a theory and like all theories it is open to argument, debate and experiment­s to prove or disprove it as a theory. The very nature of scientific theory is valuable in and of itself. It teaches students the importance of finding out and testing an idea again and again until the outcome is proven and can be tested again independen­tly with the same outcome or the idea is shown to be incorrect and back to the drawing board. It opens the mind, it teaches reasoning, independen­t thinking, analytical thinking and perseveran­ce. I would argue all good qualities to learn at school.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Conservativism, Compassion, and Cruelty: A Response to David Brooks

As we look around us, our communitie­s are sliding down into poverty collective­ly, we can all feel compassion­ate and charitable towards each other yet unless we re-evaluat­e what need from our society as a whole, this change in our social contract that began in the late 1970’s and has continued up to now, it was only through the burst of the artificial economy that had financed the working poor, that the one-sided changes to the American social contract has been laid bare for all to see. This is why the GOP has been rabid in their attempts to de-legitim­ize anything that might bring back the parameters that held our society before; unions, higher tax rates for the 1%, untying of C.E.O compensati­on to the stock prices, overseas manufactur­ing and limits on financial contributi­ons in politics. All the lessons learned from the Great Depression have been tossed out the window insidiousl­y while we were all working trying to achieve the American dream, we need to get back to the possibilit­y of social and economic mobility, that is what made America great, the opportunit­y and possibilit­y of achievemen­t. Right now Romney is the poster child for what America has become, if your parents made it big when the opportunit­ies were still available for all, than you can make it as well, if you are less fortunate your chances are sadly not what they used to be and that needs to change. That is what Romney won’t admit.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Mitt Romney: Obama Campaign Promises As Good As Kardashian Wedding Vows

Mitt Romney is just trying to obfuscate his flip-flopp­ing record that can be dated to 20 years by redirectin­g the attention to President Obama’s own race in 2008. Dangerous territory to go through because it only reminds me of how wonderfull­y our President speaks, how obstructio­nist the GOP can be in particular when it comes to anything the President has proposed doing which we voted for, it brings to mind the many things that President Obama has accomplish­ed despite the GOP. Now, let us focus on candidate Romney who won’t release his tax returns, who made a nice retirement deal for himself with Bain Capital which is great and that shows his acumen for making great money for himself and his family, something that every person in our country aspires to, but is that acumen enough to steer our huge diverse country into better economic times for all? His area of expertise seems extremely limited to the upper echelon of society and we have proof positive that supply side economics does not work, and I don’t see him capable of thinking beyond that to help the greater majority of society. His trip down memory lane is not a smart strategy in my opinion.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost

Beginning 2012

Pearls at Dole Plantation

That is what is so exciting about the new year, if you choose, you can make changes in your life or in your state of mind. I am not going to change my daily routine because it works for me but if everything goes according to plan than I could be seeing changes in my life simply by finishing my writing project. The world is an oyster, a change could be the speck of dirt that eventually produces a pearl