Day 17

I spent a big part of the day walking the National Mall and taking in selective exhibits at various Smithsonian Museums. I revisited the Museum of American History which has decided to make Julia Child's kitchen a permanent exhibit and then took a long rest in the Victorian garden behind the Smithsonian castle, watching the families of tourists go by and cracking up at the things I hear. Parents try so hard to be 'right' even when they have no idea what they are talking about. I long since gave up being stunned when a father would point to the Capitol building and tell his kids that was the White House but some of the other stuff I overhear every time I take a walk is amazing. It's entertaining but a bit disheartening.

It's interesting that I just started reading Tainter's _The Collapse of Complex Societies_ and in "The Oil Drum," a blog I read daily, he has a new essay on Human Resource Use and its implications for sustainability in society. Funny how that happens. Two weeks ago I had never heard of this man and then I start seeing his name in books and articles I was reading and now he seems to be omnipresent.

An interesting ongoing controversy from last night's Health care speech by the President is that occasioned by Rep. Wilson of South Carolina who shouted out "You lie" when Obama said the health care bills being debated did not cover illegal immigrants. What is most interesting about the 'controversy' is that no one is addressing the question of whether the President was or was not lying, but focusing instead on the bad manners involved in insulting the President in this situation normally considered off limits to such behavior. Personally, I think a lie should be called a lie whenever. If congressmen had done that to Bush he wouldn't have gotten through a single speech without multiple interruptions. In this case however, it appears that it is Wilson and not Obama who is lying - and the fact that mainstream reporters can't be bothered to address that fact says a great deal.