E pluribus unum...

Image Credit: Super Mario Wiki

...Out of many, one.

I have attempted mightily, to make this blog primarily and exclusively about physics and it's social and technical impact on our lives as individuals. But, since I am an advocate of diversity, from time-to-time I do go there as well as politics when the decisions of our representative government impact scientific research that could better us as a nation.

I've written about the New Silk Road previously, and that as a nation we're focused on the wrong priorities. Our children are an example of that in their standings globally in math and science.

A controversy that should have been put to rest yesterday -- namely, the president's long form birth certificate -- only emboldened the conspiracy theorists all the more. It only proves that the problem with our nation is we're still fighting the Civil War.

Other nations either didn't have such a conflict, or have resolved their differences and moved on (together) for the common good. Hence, China's advancement while the major parties play political football on whether or not to raise the debt ceiling. We are in an era of the "permanent campaign": driven by slogan and ideology more than facts; more interested in winning the next election than governing current crisis's.

Now...the demand is for his college transcript, the suggestions of his love of basketball and his talking on his Blackberry that all African Americans are "good for" is playing sports and hustling on street corners. Sadly, many of our youth have succumbed to this modern-day "Jedi mind trick," ala a quote from Carter G. Woodson (from "The Mis-Education of the Negro"):

"If you can control a man's thinking you do not have to worry about his action. When you determine what a man shall think you do not have to concern yourself about what he will do. If you make a man feel that he is inferior, you do not have to compel him to accept an inferior status, for he will seek it himself. If you make a man think that he is justly an outcast, you do not have to order him to the back door. He will go without being told; and if there is no back door, his very nature will demand one."

And, many -- like Mr. Trump -- that do not know this quote live it as their accepted, social order: "I heard he wasn't a good student," "how'd he get into Harvard?" "I have rich friends and their kids could not get into Ivy League schools."

From their web site: "A credit rating is Standard and Poor's opinion on the general creditworthiness of an obligor, or the creditworthiness of an obligor with respect to a particular debt security or other financial obligation. Over the years credit ratings have achieved wide investor acceptance as convenient tools for differentiating credit quality." The US has been seen as a poor bet due largely to our intractable, visceral politics, our educational system is not nearly as supported as our penal system, China will surpass our economy not in 2025, but in 2016 (largely due to their investments in education and infrastructure), we're fighting wars as if the Soviet Union still exists and we're taking up vital air time to discuss...an invalidated conspiracy theory. Our poor rating is because we cannot let go of our differences and work together for the common good.

The fact that physical evidence of the original long form is now public, the issue is not that: there is a black man in the White House, and for some that base their self-esteem on the debasement of an entire culture, that is thoroughly unacceptable.

Hucksters, hustlers and "carnival barkers" use xenophobia to their wallet's advantage, they prey upon the weak-minded and ill-informed by talk show schlock-jocks whose resume says "entertainer" rather than "reporter."

The fourth estate -- journalism -- has been slack, spineless and impotent, more afraid of wrath from "The Donald" than seeking after the truth and holding such provocateurs accountable for what they say in the public sphere.

E pluribus unum...stultus (out of many, one...fool).

Another late Latin term I find appropriate in this situation is "follis," or "windbag."

Nero fiddles...while Rome burns!