Visions of Progress
Begin excerpt:

"A philosopher/mathematician named Bertrand Russell who lived and died in the same century as Gass once wrote: "Language serves not only to express thought but to make possible thoughts which could not exist without it."  Here is the essence of mankind's creative genius: not the edifices of civilization nor the bang-flash weapons which can end it, but the words which fertilize new concepts like spermatazoa attacking an ovum.  It might be argued that the Siamese-twin infants of word/idea are the only contributions the human species can, will, or should make to the raveling cosmos
(Yes, our DNA is unique, but so is a salamander's.  Yes, we construct artifacts but so have species ranging from beavers to the architect ants whose crenellated towers are visible right now off the port bow.  Yes, we weave real-fabric things from the dreamstuff of mathematicians, but the universe is hard-wired with arithmetic.  Scratch a circle and pi peeps out.  Enter a new solar system and Tycho Brahe's formulae lie waiting under the black velvet cloak of space/time.  But where has the universe hidden a word under its outer layer of biology, geometry, or insensate rock?)  [...]

You see, in the beginning was the Word. And the Word was made flesh in the weave of the human universe.  And only the poet can expand the universe, finding shortcuts to new realities [...] To be a poet, I realized, a true poet, was to become the avatar of humanity incarnate; to accept the mantle of poet is to carry the cross of the Son of Man, to suffer the birth pangs of the Soul-Mother of Humanity.  To be a true poet is to become God."

That a little piece of this book I just started reading 3 days ago called "Hyperion" by Dan Simmons.  In 1990, it won the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Novel over acclaimed authors like Orson Scott Card and Poul Anderson. 

Everybody pretty much knows what I think of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" and knows how attached I am to it, but right now this "Hyperion" is pretty much superior to F&L in every possible way save for comedy.  But that's ok, because its not really supposed to be a funny book, but it is from time to time nonetheless. And I'm only half way done with it. I'm terribly excited to finish though.  I don't know what other compliment I can pay to this book other than I was on the verge of tears last night as I read it.  Science fiction isn't supposed to do that to you!!  But it did to me, and I'm just enraptured by this book.  Another compliment:  you know it's a good book if the story is IMPOSSIBLE to translate into a feature-length film.  And "Hyperion" definitely falls into that category.  There's just no way.

I highly recommend this book to everyone, especially you Burn and Cap'n.  I can't think of any kind of science fiction I've seen or read that I can compare this to, at least nothing that came before it.  

Onto other things...

I've seen quite a few disturbing news articles over the past couple of days that really just, they make me sick is all I know to say.  One story I saw on CNN documented how this woman, who worked at Walmart, was severly hurt in a trucking accident while working.  By severely hurt, I mean brain damaged.  Add on top of that, not long ago her only son was killed serving in Iraq.  Now this is where the story will uttterly break your heart.  Remember, brain damage.  Every morning, she forgets that her son is dead, and her ex-husband has to re-remind her every day of this fact.

The real gist of this story comes in the part about how Walmart sued this couple to reclaim about $400,000 in a lawsuit settlement.  The reason for this being that it was money that they received as part of her health plan with Walmart, but then when this couple had earlier sued Walmart for responisbility in the accident, that meant that according to her health policy she was technically forfeiting her right to this $400,000.  Remember I mentioned her "ex-husband"?  He only divorced her because that way she would receive more money, from her Medicare program I believe, something like that. 

I understand that the issue here is policy and legality.  If Walmart let's this slip one time, they could be inundated with problems in the future from other workers who might exploit their health care plan and in the process unfairly drain Walmart of massive amounts of money.  But nevertheless, this is a horrifying story.  My criticism isn't for Walmart, or for the couple, but yet again i just want to level my anger and frustration at systems of law and government.  Law is  a heartless thing, and that's a big reason why I hate it so much.  That's all I'll say about it. 

The other story I read just a few hours ago, and its much easier to explain.  An 11 year old homeschooled girl got sick, and this was her parents idea of medical treatment:  prayer.  I'm so sorry for those of you who are truly spiritual, and you know I don't think badly of you at all an I understand and respect your beliefs.  And I know too that a few people don't represent a religion as a whole.  But religion is such a fucking sham.  This girl died.  "She had probably been ill for about 30 days, suffering symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness," a police officer involved with the incident had said.  An 11 year old girl died of a treatable condition in America, one of the most medically advanced nations on the earth.  Because her parents wanted to pray.  Her parents were so self-absorbed in their own little world, talking to their imaginary friend, too busy to take their child to the hospital.  These 2 individuals are no worse than the parents who were too busy playing World of Warcraft to feed their child, and they should go to jail for what they did.

/end rant.

Classes started this week, and there's so much to look forward to.  I think next week I'll be buying my very own MacBook Pro.  I'm leaving IBM systems behind.  I'm evolving, like tadpoles out of the swamp.