Living With A Two-Tone Head

My hair is turning grey.  At first, the process was gradual.  Now, it is happening at an alarmingly increasing pace.  At first, it was just a few flecks here and there.  Now, every trip to the stylist provides unmistakable evidence of aging.  Brown hair is shorn and mostly grey hair seems to lie underneath.  The effect is particularly noticeable at the temples, where it looks like I’ve inadvertently leaned against a whitewashed fence.

You always hear that greying temples makes you look distinguished.  Don’t believe it!  Instead, it makes you look like you have a two-tone head or are wearing a badly matched toupee.  And the weird, literally kinky nature of the grey hairs makes it very difficult to maintain any kind of distinguished visage.  Instead, the grey hairs tend to jut out, begging to be plastered down with some powerful pomade.  It is as if, after decades of life in a limp, boring brown incarnation, the hairs have thrown every convention to the wind and decided to live their remaining years in reckless abandon, grey, twisted, and untamed.  It provides a great incentive to get your hair cut frequently — and then the vicious cycle starts over again.

Maybe Now, Everyone Will Recognize Hugo Chavez Is A Jerk

When Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez followed then-President Bush to the podium at the United Nations several years ago and said he still smelled the scent of sulfur, some American politicians and pundits who were opposed to Bush laughed, shook their heads, and said Chavez’s comments just reflected how the Bush Administration’s policies had reduced the esteem for America in the world.  Today, Chavez, who is attending the climate change conference in Copenhagen, used the same “scent of sulphur” line about — President Obama.

Hugo Chavez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Maybe now everyone in our country — Democrat and Republican, liberal and conservative — will understand that Hugo Chavez is not some keen and witty observer of the international scene, but instead is just an anti-American jerk, an anti-democratic “populist” who has run his country’s economy into the ground and engages in tiresome America-bashing in an attempt to raise his international profile and prop up his sagging approval ratings at home.  Maybe now all Americans will come to realize that Chavez, who apparently received a standing ovation from delegates attending the Copenhagen conference, is just a slightly more outspoken example of the anti-capitalist, reflexively anti-western governments that make up significant portions of international bodies like the United Nations.  The next time someone expresses concern because the United States is following its own path, rather than hewing to the “international consensus,” remind them that the “international consensus” is largely made up of governments headed by former “rebel leaders,” dictators, “strong men,” thugs, scoundrels, “presidents for life,” and other representatives of repressive regimes.  Why in the world should we care what Chavez, Robert Mugabe, and Muammar Gaddafi and their ilk say about our country and its policies?

If Hugo Chavez’s comment about President Obama causes even a few Americans to wake up to the reality of what a rogues gallery many international organizations have become, we should thank him — and then never pay attention to him again.

We’re Number 44

When I saw this article  today about the happiest states survey it fit in well with my current not so scientific survey I’ve been doing. Ohio comes in at number 44, which doesn’t surprise me much because for the average Ohioan things these days are not so great.

I’ve recently read a few books and articles on happiness so decided to start my own survey on happiness. Basically, I just ask people I know or work with on a scale of one to ten, ten being very very happy and one being not very happy at all, where do they put themselves. Most of the people fall in the 5 to 6 range with a few much higher and a few much lower. 

Once they tell me where they are I ask them what they would like to make them happier. Typically what follows is if the person I am asking is a woman and she’s not happy it’s because she doesn’t have a man, so she wants a man and thinks that is going to make her happy. If I am asking a man and he’s not happy it is typically because of the money he is making or his dislike of his current job.

I checked The Journal Science website and looks like the research that was to be posted today has not yet been posted, so more to come at a later date.