10 Thoughts for July 14, 2014

1. Republicans want to use the national guard and military force to secure the Mexico-US border.  It does not make sense, because their three options, upon seeing people crossing the border, are to seize more people, shoot them or pretend to shoot at them to scare them off.  The first option results in MORE detentions, processing and backlog while the second option is a geopolitical nightmare and probably illegal, and the third option is a bluff that, once used, is rendered useless.
2. The Heartland Institute (conservative) offered up the ludicrous notion that global warming would be good for us.  People like that should be made to pay out of their pockets for leading people down the wrong path. 
3. Never, ever, read Megan McArdle.  Superficial thinking is contagious.
4. Things that don't make sense: Russia says that Ukraine shot mortar shells into Russian territory.  This doesn't even pass the smell test.  Ukraine has been trying to avoid a direct conflict with Russia, having done nothing to take back Crimea, so why would Ukraine shell Russia?  By the same token, Putin often seems eager to go to war with Ukraine, if only he could find a convenient excuse to do so.  
5. Republican Louie Gohmert from Texas thinks that "nobody plus nothing equals everything" applies only to the scientific understanding of the Big Bang.  He is wrong.  It is a paradox that applies to either the Big Bang or to God.  The Old Testament never addressed what existed before God, but we know that there was a period before God: "Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me." -- Isaiah 43:10.  In other words, you still need to rely on faith, to resolve the paradox.  With the Big Bang, it seems possible that science -- specifically quantum mechanics -- might yet explain how the universe was created from "nothing".
6. Doctors are seeing a surge in gonorrhea cases in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  But they've yet to pinpoint a common factor.  The reason, as Dr. House would say, is that "everybody lies."
7. With a last push, it looks like PocketScan is about to hit its final stretch goal on Kickstarter.  I'm thrilled for the first project I've ever invested in, on Kickstarter. I even upped my pledge to get the special neoprene case, just so that I could help get them past the final stretch goal.
8. This ranking of states by quality of food and drink, has Oregon 6th in the nation, because so many national trends in recent years began in Oregon: craft brewing, food carts, local coffee bean roasters and specialty doughnuts.  Hawai'i was ranked 16th, but if you ask me, Hawai'i should be much higher because it has a distinct food culture that isn't found anywhere else, except by replication of what is found in Hawai'i.  That Texas is #2 seems to me to mean that being a gourmand is virtuous.
9. How to search for a song with your Android device: ask it.  "Okay Google, identify this song."  No need to install Shazam and pull it up as an app.
10. It looks like Netflix is trying to quietly kill its physical disc market.  Not only have they stopped delivering on Saturdays, but they've slowed processing of my queue.  In other words, Netflix needs some competition to keep it humble and attentive.