Do you have an open mind? Might want to check.

What is it about the statement that someone is "open minded" really mean. Usually the open minded statement comes from someone who very well thinks that the other person is not. Well, let's check our hats at the door and really see who might be open minded.

500 Scientists....who are willing to put their names on a document have stated.

WAIT A MINUTE DARWIN MIGHT NOT HAVE IT RIGHT!

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=2732

The list of 514 signatories includes member scientists from the prestigious US and Russian National Academy of Sciences. Signers include 154 biologists, the largest single scientific discipline represented on the list, as well as 76 chemists and 63 physicists. Signers hold doctorates in biological sciences, physics, chemistry, mathematics, medicine, computer science, and related disciplines. Many are professors or researchers at major universities and research institutions such as MIT, The Smithsonian, Cambridge University, UCLA, UC Berkeley, Princeton, the University of Pennsylvania, the Ohio State University, the University of Georgia, and the University of Washington.

Don't believe it yourself. Take a look at the list and the institutions these good folks hail from as you can see above.

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?command=download&id=660

Certainly not slackers in the Higher Education world. Now open any conversation of said topic with such information and you are bound for the "are you kidding me" quotes from the enlightened. But have you thought about this topic or is it dogma for you? And if it is are you open minded? Might want to take a look at the points some of these bright guys make.

Play Money Play Poker Who is the Tall Talk Stranger

I am constantly amused at dinner, a party, social setting or an after work gathering when the subject of television comes up. Did you know that no one watches elimidate or Springer or Trading Spouses. All anyone watches is National Geographic and the History channel. I am not sure how the rest of these programs stay in business. Actually both programs are quite good by the way. No not Springer and elimidate but NGeo and the history channel. I admit to watching both.

So, it may come as a real surprise to most that the most popular programs on television today revolve around poker and the World Poker Tour. Surfing across the cable world it is impossible not to see old TV stars or even Nascar Drivers playing poker on TV. Poker is big. The programs draw huge crowds to watch at all times of the day. Huge poker rooms have sprung up where it is legal and Vegas poker rooms have gone all poker. What has done this is TV and Texas Hold em a form of poker which is quite easy to learn and has a competitive element that is seductive.

Across the internet, I do know that you know what the internet is or you would not be reading this, poker playing sites where you can play for free or gamble the real doh-ray-me are numerous. Millions of folks are playing this very second on web sites called U-bet, Poker Stars, full tilt and more. You can play for the real bucks using your credit card......YIKES or play at the free sites where I play. Yes, I play. Am I good. There is not one poker player on any of these sites who does not think they are a genius. I have won almost sever or eight million chips and lost seven or eight million and one. The seduction is the ease of competition and the desire to win both intoxicating.

One of my favorite television shows, I admit to loving TV, was the late 50's and early 60's Warner Brothers TV show Maverick starring James Garner as Brett Maverick. Remember the song.....

Who is the tall dark stranger there?
Maverick is the name.
Riding the trail to who knows where
Luck is his companion
Gamblin' is his game.

I loved that show. Year and years later in the 70's I discovered that Ted Turner on early cable would play Maverick at 6 am on Saturday Mornings. Those were the days I would work almost until morning working in a restaurant called Thirteen Coins http://www.13coins.com/ in Seattle Washington. After working all night I would saddle up to fiesty bottle of Chardonnay to watch Jack Kelly figure out what his brother Brett was going to do next. And of course poker was the game of choice for the Maverick family. Brett was too cool, handsome and inherently cowardly. His main goal was to move through life getting as much as he could without giving much. That certainly became unavoidable much of the time as his streak of bravery would unwillingly come out at the worst moments. Later Garner would make a hit movie call "Support your Local Sherrif" where the Brett Maverick character solved a towns outlaw problems and married the local mayors rich daughter all while crying that he was "just on his way to Australia".

I love playing poker. I love winning even more. I am so thankful that the "free sites" are available. Playing with the fake chips is good for by now I would have mortgaged the house again, sold the kids into slavery and been selling myself for sexual favors just to keep my addiction going. Fake chips make it easy. Today I lost 560,000 chips. Can't do that every day with real money and not want to watch CNN for hours as punishment. And addiction can be the word. I know some folks who play...........well 12 plus hours a day. Fake chips.............fake life.

Know what I recommend to those folks.....good dose of Jerry Springer and elimindate. Got to get them to round out there lives. Seems like a trivial matter in comparison. Of course much of life in comparison is fleeting. Wish I had Maverick on tape would play one right now.

Legal Mindbending at its best

This last weekend I was the Proud Father of a talented wrestler who had worked his way through Metro, District and now a Regional tournament hoping to qualify for the Florida State Tournament to be wrestled this weekend. It was the culmination of two years of hard work and his and my experience was shared by countless sons and parents throughout the gymnasium for two days. Four very strong, determined and talented athletes will go to the State Tournament while my Son and I eagerly watch these talented kids in the stands. He lost but showed well and did his best. Fortunately, he has two more years to grow and develope.

Yet, every good experience has its yang and during one match of the finals last Saturday it was a parent, one of those always yelling, never thinking, emotional and not in touch with any reality one can put a finger-let alone a rational thought on-kinds of parents screaming about the injustice of the authority at hand, the Referees. It was embarassing. And, if the son had not been so involved in the wrestling match getting his provebial whipped by a clearly finer athlete he might have been embarassed as much as those around in the stands.

What impressed me so clearly is that the facts did not matter to this Dad. The fact that the other wrestler was light years ahead of his Son had no impact that all of the things this Dad was yelling were just not true. The referee was doing a good job. It was his son that was creating a significant "vacuum" in the gym. But that simply did not matter.

In the last several days I have been struck with the goofiness of the liberal press. "Dick Cheney should resign", why because there was a hunting accident. Never the mind that the man shot broke several hunting commandments that are prescribed to avoid exactly such results. And never the mind that the family of said man took the responsibility to share the story in Corpus Christi and not Washington D.C. The outcries of "fowl" play are loud.

The outrageous behavior of this "Wrestling Father" and so many liberals are born of the same irrational and emotionally over the top responses. David Gregory, a White House reporter for NBC, acted childish concerning the whole affair. What is that about? Little League and or wrestling parents and the top echelon of the White House press media should never be linked in the same thought. But sadly that is not true. These folks dislike Bush, Cheney and Republicans so much they are no longer ever close to being unbiased. It is one thing to be an emotionally out of control parent who son is wrestling for the chance to go to State Finals and it another thing to hold up the standard of the press core and to do the same. Both just TOO goofy for me!!