The news is full of stories about humanity's inhumanity to man. I guess that is what sells. At our level, people here on The Eastern Shore of Virginia really are nice folks.

We went down to our local Post Office. A man I had never met parked outside with a bushel of nice looking corn in the back of his pickup. I asked him where he got it and he replied, “I growed it.” He gave me an armful, refusing to accept any payment.

We live on a road which accesses a number of small communities along The Bay. I like to fuss around in my yard. Most of the folks who drive past, have no idea who they are, smile or wave. The receptionist at the doctor's office, when we called to check on the time of an appointment, cheerfully told us to drive safely coming there. One thing after another that makes small town life enjoyable.

Across the road are two houses with two elderly people, “born heres”, farmers. Fine and kindly lady and gentleman. We live next to a smaller house that is rental property. It has changed hands several times. There has not been an unpleasant occupant. We all share keys, watering houseplants, etc. Our daughter who lives in a town house in The Big City also has one next door neighbor who is friendly and “neighborly”. The other side and the rest of the people on her little of town houses do not even recognize that you exist if you pass them. Lots of reasons to avoid living in “The Big City”.

Maybe it comes down to people at a face-to-face level know how much we depend on one another. Maybe it is in our expectations. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also filth is in the eye of the beholder. As is fear and mistrust. You look for people to be nice, and guess what? They are! You look for filth and guess what? You find it. There are always a few SOB's but the preponderance of good folks makes it easy to just pass them by.

I am usually pretty aware of scams. One got by me a couple of days ago, however. Not a biggy, someone got one of my passwords but I think that is all. I changed my important passwords, which I should do more regularly, and all should be well.

What happened was that I received a very official email from what appeared to be an eBay member site (expert copy) with a normal sort of question except that it stated that I had bid on a Gibson guitar (it went for over $2000). I had not. Not that I would not want a Gibson guitar, but I do not have $2K for a toy. In order to respond, I signed in, using my password, on a very official looking site. A similar thing had happened a couple of days ago with a $170 mobile phone except that I did not sign in their way. The fact that it happened twice made me suspect that eBay had a computer glitch.

I contacted eBay, got a very prompt response. They let me know that it was a scam and what to do. Since then, Janne Marie, of Paris, told me that I owed the $2000 for the guitar. I checked the guitar on eBay and it had already been paid for. Sent eBay the data on that one, too. I must say that eBay seems very professional and prompt in taking care of it. I hope Janne_Marie32@yahoo.com and 8985Wendy get nailed for this. A word to the wise.

I heard a story from a television comentator. It concerned a frog and a scorpion on the banks of the Jordan River. The scorpion asks the frog for a ride across. Of course, the frog says “You will just sting me when we reach the other side.” The scorpion replies that he promises not to. So they start across. In the middle of the stream, the scorpion stings the frog and they both start to sink. The frog asks “Why?”. The scorpion replies, “Because this is the Middle East.”

Back in the Arafat – Sharon era, I thought that the solution to the problem then would be to erect a steel wall with no doors around the area. They could solve their own problems and we could come back in ten years to see if anyone was still alive. If the gunfire and bombing had stopped, they could be admitted to the rest of the world. It still sounds like a great idea. It would just take a bigger wall.

There are a lot of things that cause me to doubt the sanity of some humans. This conflict is definitely one of them. A recent interview on CNN between one of their reporters and a man in Lebanon in which the man had so little knowledge about the facts that I doubted his mentality. Of course, he had his own axes to grind. I know our news organizations tell us what will increase their readership – we think their goal is to convey the truth but alas. They are much better than much of the rest of the world, however. Maybe there are a bunch of things I just do not understand. Or am I the one who is stupid?

www.congress.org brought up in an alert that Congress is discussing funding for stem cell research. Of course, I expressed myself. An expanded version of my message is:

In principle, I am against both the death penalty and any degree of destroying the unborn. The decision of life and death should be between the person and God. Opening that decision to anyone else sets a precident that is unacceptable and dangerous. And, as a scientific type person, I respect the miracle of our DNA and the molecular reproduction process. Life starts at the first bunch of cellular divisions. But, the killing of folks who have a medical problem that could be cured by stem cell treatments also falls under this principle. A true dilemma. Which is murder and who is the murderer? And then there is the treatment of the severely disabled. My decision in this case is that we – including the Federal government - should support medical research, including stem cell. It leads to new and miraculous things, and this holds much promise. Let's support stem cell funding research.

In the history of science, the explanation for the events of our world that has worked for so many centuries is mysticism. Too briefly, mysticism is using magic or religion as the reason things occur. For example, the reason that planes and ships disappear in the Bermuda Triangle is because aliens are abducting them. There is nothing wrong with mysticism, it served civilization well – as long as it gives way when a reliable and tried scientific explanation comes along. The prime example of “wrong” mysticism is Galileo's imprisonment by the Pope for not renouncing the scientific data proving the heliocentic “world” (world meaning the scope of human comprehension).

Apollo carries the sun across the sky every day in his golden chariot. Of course there is a good scientific explanation. But does it make any difference whether we rely on Apollo or Copernicus? The corn will grow and life will go on anyway. Actually, it does make a lot of difference. One of the main ones is the chain of concepts based on this from Copernicus to Galileo to Kepler to Newton which gave us Newton's Laws and our modern society.

Modern science has dramatically and definitely proved evolution. It is a miraculous gift from God. Mysticism must give way in its face. Our next generation must not be imprisoned by the wrong use of mysticism.