I recently found this particular article when I was perusing on another website.  This article, while it might spark people's interest and yet frighten many people at the same time, is worth reading, imho.

Read this:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090322/ap_on_us_mentally_ill_nursing_homes;...

and knock your socks off.

It’s been mentioned that it would be a good idea to learn about the non-political interests of Swords Crossed members. I agree that it helps to foster more good-natured debate when you realize that your adversary is a real person with many interests that may coincide with your own. In that spirit, I'm starting off with a primary interest of mine that is most likely to be shared, at least on some level, with other SCers: beer.

Hat tip to The Liberty Papers .

For a plethora of reasons, I'm generally sympathetic to and for the arguments of legalizing and/or decriminalizing drugs...especially marijuana. It's well covered territory on both sides of the argument but, in the end, the anti-legalization arguments fail to convince me that it's a better way to handle this issue. To me, it's not an issue of whether people can or will have access to these drugs because they do. So, "illegal" clearly does not mean "no access" or "diminished access" or "keeping us all drug free". Likewise, "legal" does not mean the opposite.

That's what I take from a couple of articles written by social democrats that I've read over the weekend. The pronounced and unmistakable willingness of some to justify having less as long as long as the better off have EVEN less in relation to the worse off is indeed troubling to me. The mental gymnastics that I see these people put themselves through with the full knowledge and implications of their wishes known to them is indeed cause for pause.

I absolutely hate them. Few things get my free market juices flowing like disgusting cartels propped up by slovenly favoritism and privilege from government.

As I drove to work today, I saw that the gas price at station I pass is now $2.13 per gallon. Yesterday, it was $2.15, the day before, it was $2.17 and $2.19 the day before that. We have all watched with some relief as gas has slipped and tumbled down to prices that we haven't seen in a few years. And while it all seems good from a consumer standpoint, I still reflect on what it all means geo-politically.

The Black Swan , by Nassim Nicholas Taleb is an engaging book about an important topic. However, if a reader who is familiar with the topic(s) will not find any new ideas.

Take a look at this diary from Redstate.

Today is the first day of his polling track that includes all polling after the VP debate. 70 million people watched that debate, and the results are that Obama's lead increased to 8 points? How does that make any sense in a sane universe? Giving the MSM spin, at best it can be called "Biden held his own", which should have resulted in the tracking poll holding steady.

From Megan McArdle :

Sandra Tsing-Loh is shocked and hurt that Obama sends his daughters to an expensive private school rather than the local public schools.

Said Sandra:

Seven years ago today almost 3000 people died in brutal terrorist attacks. For those of us not directly affected, the passage of time brings a natural fading of the horror and shock we felt; 9/11 is receding into history. There is nothing wrong with this -- such is the inevitable progression of our reaction to any tragedy. We remember those who died, we try to learn what lessons we can to prevent such an event from recurring, and then we go on with our lives.

For some, however, the impact of 9/11 lingers.

This isn't so much a diary as it is a special post. Following up on this recent diary I wrote about the Sarah Palin speech, I present a posting today by Democrat and economics professor Mark Thoma titled Do Democrats Need to Learn Some Respect? .

Some writing on Gustav that inserts another perspective on the ordeal.

A few days ago, Paul Krugman, in typically rabid partisan form had another NYT Op-Ed on Gustav and FEMA.

The standard fare: the wonders of government bureaucracy cannot work without proper leadership (Dems who care) and the GOP simply produced a self-fulfilled prophecy with the Katrina debacle....nothing more. IOW, good and effective government needs people who believe in it and it will work great.

I am currently hosting my so-called "French Sister". She is the youngest daughter in a family with whom I lived in France during my junior year of undergrad. It wasn't a pre-determined arrangement by some agency...just chance. I was studying and living in Avignon in my own apartment when I met a young man (through a mutual friend) at school who would become one of my best friends to this day.

Hat tip to Arnold Kling who cites a great thought experiment from unqualified reservations . This experiment is right up my alley because it forms part of the bedrock of my perspective on society, progress and governance. I've touched on this general area of thinking in the past in various conversations and in many forms.

Hat tip to Reason Magazine .

From Copenhagen Consensus 2008 , we get their list of priorities to world-wide problems.

Being that the problems are "world-wide", many do not necessarily directly affect the First World like the U.S. and Europe.

1. Supplying Micronutrients

Hat tip to Dr. Boudreaux at Cafe Hayek who cites a commentary in today's WSJ by David Boaz of Cato.

In the commentary, Boaz challenges the notion, implicit or explicit, put forth by the presumptive nominees which states that we as citizens should commit ourselves to higher national causes.

Boaz is obviously not impressed with this vision.

See Story

Tyler Cowen cites and comments on on an interesting post by Brad DeLong .

Having reading a study about education, market inequality and the question, "why more people don't go to college?", by Altonji, Bharadwaj, and Lange, Brad Delong concludes:

Altonji, Bharadwaj, and Lange do not know.

I took the liberty in creating an SC Folding@Home team .

For those of you not familiar with F@H, I'll let their FAQ do the talking. Essentially, you run a program that runs only when you are not actively using your computer. It does complex mathematical calculations involved in protein folding, which has applications in treating many diseases.