We are all, at one level or another, creatures of habit. That’s a good thing, most of the time. I mean, if we woke up to a world everyday where we had to figure out how to feed and clothe ourselves, with no idea of what would come next, none of us would leave very productive lives. But there’s a dark side to habit – that being the phenomena whereby we attempt to pigeonhole everything that happens, so we can process it, understand it (in terms of previous experiences) and move on. This system of shorthand evaluations doesn’t work at all, however, when you run smack dab up against something new. New is…different. It doesn’t fit the mold. It doesn’t lend itself to snap analyzes, or fitting into patterns. But “new” is where innovation comes from. It’s where solutions come from. And it’s where our future lies.
Consider (soon-to-be former) Gov. Sarah Palin. [Read more…] about The UN-candidate.
George Carlin once famously said, “words mean things.” Yep. But today, words can also be co-opted, where their original meanings are subverted, and new meanings assigned, thus changing it’s use and significance. 
In the world in which we live, it’s actually pretty easy to forget that nature trumps technology. For all our computers, machines, and other man-made paraphernalia, we still can’t control Mother Nature to any great extent. (Which, of course, is one of the things that makes me a hard-core skeptic over the man-made global warming thing – but that’s a topic for another time.) 
You gotta admire chutzpah. For the rest of the goyem out there without a working knowledge of Yiddish, “chutzpah” is defined as meaning “insolence”, “audacity”, and/or “impertinence.” In colloquial English, think of it as having a pair of big brass ones. And The Speaker(ette) of The House has a big pair, indeed. For those of you not following political discourse (and instead form your opinions based on the sound bites fed you from the New York Times, Washington Post, and the ABC/NBC/CBS cabal of Mainstream Media (hereafter known as “MSM”), here’s REAL newsflash: Pelosi has effectively shut down the U.S. House from conducting any real work, because she is determined to block a vote by Republicans and maverick Democrats to authorize drilling for oil off the shores of the United States. At any cost. And when a politician decides to do something “at any cost,” you can be assured of two things: 1) it’s gonna cost a lot, and 2) the taxpayers will end up footing the bill. But I digress…