brain drain

because i am in my car a lot (2004 VW Jetta, graphite color) i listen to the radio/CDs a lot. i tend to go through cycles - i'll listen to a few different CDs for a month, tire of them, then listen to VIVA93.5y103.1 for a few songs until they play cumbia or reggeton, then change it to the mix, then change it because i've already heard all those songs before, then give up and switch it to AM radio.

the last time i got sick of FM radio and changed it to AM, i put it on automatic scan (you know, where it goes from station to station for like five seconds each) and programmed in all the stations that came in. one of them was AM850, otherwise known as Air America (the liberal radio station.) i've been listening to that for the last week or so. my only complaint is that they play the same four commercials over and over again at each commercial break. but besides that, i have enjoyed listening.

on my drive to work, i listen to Jerry Springer's show. yes, jerry springer has a morning show on AM850. today he was talking about the stem-cell research debate. good, someone else sees the hypocrisy and general mongoloidism (is that a word?). You Know Who argues that using embryos for research is destroying life. ok, fine if you believe that. however, those embryos are to be destroyed regardless! so either way they are destroyed, wether you use them for research or not. and, it's not like you'll have people rushing out to donate their embryos; the bill that passed the house (i think) requires that people who donate embryos receive no monetary compensation. on the news I saw some footage of You Know Who with children who had been conceived in-vitro. i am wondering if You Know Who understands the process of in-vitro. because while those children as embryos were implanted in the mother and brought to term, i'm sure that there were many more eggs that were fertilized that did not become children. also, then what does he propose to do with the unused embryos, plant them in surrogate mothers? what is he going to do, pay people to carry these children? let's not even get into the issue that there is so much possibility in stem-cell research; results of it could possibly save and/or improve the lives of millions of people.

so this is what i see happening, and in which i may even participate: if the stem-cell research bill is vetoed, i imagine a lot of "brain drain" going on. maybe. i could see many scientists and other smart people going to other places - canada, europe, etc. - places that facilitate such research - and taking their talent with them. not that i am a scientist (although i did study physics as an undergrad.) but why teach future researchers when this country places limits on the things they can research? ok, i do realize that we're talking not about the legality of the research, but about wether the research should be funded by the government. i don't know all that much about how much private research goes on or even if government funding is absolutely necessary - what i have a problem with is the argument itself against using embryos for research. so much hypocrisy. someone made a joke about telling You Know Who that all the embryos are on death row; he should have no problem with it then!

in the afternoons on air america, there is this woman who has a show. she does sound a bit whiney at times but the other day she said something about the abortion issue that i thought was interesting. she suggested (albeit not seriously) that every pro-life person be forced to adopt the children that would otherwise not have come into the world - ie children that come from humble circumstances, those with horrible birth defects, etc. (i say that because a lady at work was about to be a grandma but her daughter was three months or so along in her pregnancy when they did the tests on the fetus and found that it would have Down's Syndrome. the daughter decided to have an abortion.) don't you think their opinion would change a bit there??? she also keeps commenting that "they're going to start calling cows pre-chewed hamburgers." haha.

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i think i've 1.) experienced yet another argentine breakup and 2.) met a california swinger. ok, on 1, i haven't heard from The Boy for a week now. i was very displeased the last time we met so i am not all that concerned (i am still mad at him.) now, an argentine breakup is when you stop seeing each other but nobody says it - you just stop calling each other. most often it's the guy who stops calling the girl as soon as they start sleeping together. you would think he'd want more of her once he could have her, but that's argentines for you - they like a challenge and they like when girls ignore them. like, once he has her he no longer wants her because it's too easy. i could not get my mind around that when i was in buenos aires, but now i can see how it works, having gone out with so many of them. and on 2, there was this guy at my cousin's wedding who had come with a thin woman in a black dress. they were holding onto each other and kissing, but the guy kept checking me out i noticed. i would find him every so often glancing at me. then towards the end of the party i was talking to some people and they were asking about my spanish or something. the swinger is in our group and i don't remember what we were talking about - travel i think - but he mentioned that he'd been to 30 some odd countries. i asked if he'd ever been to argentina. i told him i lived there a year. then he proceeded to speak to me in spanish and told me about how he had fallen in love with an argentine tango dancer in japan. then i told him i knew how to dance tango. then he led me to the dance floor and we danced a few steps of tango, even reviewed a gancho. then we were speaking in spanish some more and he asked for my phone number and he also had his hand very low on my waist. so i gave it to him under the pretense that hablaremos en castellano. then later on he is holding and kissing the woman in the black dress again - i'm thinking what is going on here? he flirts with me while he is with this other woman? either he's a real player or they are swingers! because the woman didn't act suspicious when we were talking in spanish - usually when a woman's man is threatened one would think that she would begin to act more cool toward her "competition." but who knows. anyway that's it for now. going to tutor some more kids. this is the second to last week! i hope we can get it all in!