Well, sorry about this one but I've been behaving for a long time and my science divided by off-topic ratio is rather high. I've been wanting to make a post like this for a long time but have resisted.

The primary season is starting and may be a done deal in a month. Republicans and Democrats, please choose some better candidates than you did 4 years ago.
While I could hope that the Republicans would choose another incompetent or worse so the Democrat would win, I would not be confident that the Democrat would win, so, please choose someone competent. Please choose a fiscal conservative rather than a wild-eyed radical like GWB. It would be nice if the nominee (on both sides) did not think it OK to use torture and to violate the constitution, while they are doubling the national debt.

I am curious about the politics of research scientists. It seems that the people around me hate Bush...some think he is crazy. I have not felt that way, but I think my restraint has caused some resentment to build up over the years. I went with family to see Lewis Black (the comedian) live, and I really wanted him to be angry. He started out not angry enough for me...so later, we rented one of his DVDs, where he was more angry. He is angry about both sides, but perhaps I am able to just make use of his anger to channel some deep frustration about the administration. It occurred to me today to just buy the DVD and to play certain parts over and over as therapy.

If I am correct in guessing that academic research scientists (like AGU and GSA members) would be much less like to support GW Bush than the average people, could this be because we resent the incompetence? Or, we resent the attempts at supressing science results (like climate change?).

Hmm...to make up for this post I suppose I have to use my notes to post more details on Kerry Sieh's talk at AGU on Sumatra...
later
Chris