We Don't Have the Richest Guy?

Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

Straight men are more stressed out than gay or bisexual men. Stephen knew the reason for that - dealing with women. He quickly added how great he thinks women are. (Whew!) Anyway, that's according to a study done recently in Montreal (that's in Canada) about anxiety and sexual orientation. Go read it here, then come back because I have a few comments.

First of all, the study authors do admit that 87 people is a small sample from which to draw conclusions. And Montreal may not have the same results as say a place like Montana or Monaco. The second thing I want to point out (and this may change in that sometimes links on a page change and I have no control over that) is that there is a link to another study in the Los Angeles Times that says men are "more likely commit research fraud than women." I just wonder who did the research on that? Was it men or was it women? But I digress and that's a topic for a post some other day or year.

All this talk about stress had Stephen all stressed out and was probably the cause of him putting his foot in his mouth over and over. (Is it safe for me to say that? Does it have some meaning I'm not aware of? I hope not.) Anyway, it brought him to The Word - It Gets Worse. You may be aware of DOMA. If I read Stephen's take on Paul Clement's Take on DOMA, marriage between "Adam and Eve" is important because of unintended offspring. Okay..... um, what? I'm sure we'll hear more about this in the weeks to follow.

Colin Powell has said that there are some folks in the Republican Party that aren't exactly "with it" as far as the current state of race relations in America. He may be right because the Ku Klax Klan is pursuing new recruitment strategies in that they did a lit drop in the dead of night in many locations along the East Coast. People woke up to find flyers on their driveway urging them to join the KKK.

Stephen had many video clips for this segment about the folks in white flowing robes. One clip was of Boris Sanchez reporting that the Klan says they are not a hate group any more.

(Technical point for Boris. It is the Ku Klux Klan. That first part of their name is Ku. It does not sound the same as the word "clue." It does not have an "L" in it. The origin of the name is probably from the Greek word kuklos. I'm pretty sure I heard Boris say Klu and not Ku. So, Boris and everyone else who pronounces it wrong, get it right.)

Here's a little bit more information about the Klan. Southern Poverty Law Center has this about Ku Klux Klan. PBS has this and also has this.

Anyway, Stephen showed a video clip of a KKK member talking on his backyard deck about the KKK. Apparently, they are not a hate group any more. But then why does the guy feel the need to disguise himself by wearing the traditional white robe and hood? And speaking of the traditional white robe and hood, Stephen had an idea for an updated version of the disguise, I mean costume, I mean uniform. It would lend a more transparent ideal to the organization.

But then on to something completely different. Bill Gates was the guest last night. You may know him as the husband of friend of the show Melinda Gates. Stephen started their friendly conversation by asking Bill if he is still the richest guy in the world. Oh oh. The answer was No. Stephen was immediately upset. Not brought to tears upset, but still, upset. He queried his staff as to why they couldn't get the richest guy to be on the show. Stephen, being the professional that he is, went on with the show, successfully hiding his disappointment.

First of all, Stephen talked about the 2013 Annual Letter from Bill Gates. (Read it Now.) Stephen had it right there with him, all glossy and printed on paper. "You know about email, right?" I think Stephen was just pulling his leg with that little bit of humor. Speaking of legs and being able to walk, the news is good about Polio. One thing the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is doing is trying to eradicate Polio and Malaria and other diseases. Last year there were only 250 cases of Polio in the entire world and hopefully in six years it will be down to zero cases. They talked about the importance of data as well as the importance of passion in accomplishing the goals of the Foundation. Bill Gates told Stephen that here in America, the main focus of the Foundation is on education.

Stephen asked if Bill missed the old days of staying up all night writing code. While it was exciting, Bill admitted he wasn't as young as he used to be. At that point, Stephen threw him a compliment and said he didn't look a day over 40!

Simian Psycho

The world is apparently all atwitter with Felix Baumgartner. He is supposedly a daredevil and set some new world record. Whoopie-do. He jumped and then he fell and then he landed. But I suppose it was somewhat difficult, so I will give him the benefit of the doubt. He had better luck than Icarus. Stephen said on his show, "Icarus had a parachute, right?" Sadly, Stephen, I think not.

It's a crazy, mixed-up world we live in and some people think it should be mixed up even more! That's right, the folks over at SPLC, Southern Poverty Law Center, want to Mix It Up at Lunch. Instead of sitting with the same kids, day after day, some are promoting sitting with someone different on October 30. Who would come up with something as drastic as this? No one has done studies as far as I have been able to find out (in that I thought about it for a while) about what this will do to the space-time continuum. Different kids have different weights. They take up different amounts of space. Changing where they sit would have profound effects all over the world.

But back to what Stephen was saying about this. While sitting with someone else for lunch might seem like a fine thing to do, the American Family Association see this as, well maybe not the end of the world, but as something bad, bad, bad. I remember school lunch. We did not have much time to eat. It was pretty much stand in line, get our food, stuff our mouths and get on to our next class. But, hey, what do I know? What does Stephen know? What does the Southern Poverty Law Center know?

Lucky audience members last night got a free t-shirt. Stephen talked about his previous segments about Monkey on the Lam. It seems now that a monkey who is on the lam in St. Petersburg has bitten an elderly woman and so now it becomes Monkey on the Gram. And the t-shirts? Well, they said 'Stop the Simian Psycho." Unfortunately, that was not the nickname that the media came up with and so, a bunch of useless t-shirts. And the lucky audience members? They happened to be in the right place at the right time when Stephen threw the t-shirts out into the audience. Oh how I wish I had been there.

Stephen's guest was Evan Thomas. He had a new book. Who doesn't nowadays? "Ike's Bluff - President Eishenhower's Secret Battle to Save the World," is the title (and not the first chapter) of this book. Stephen had a beef with Ike. I won't mention it here because it's not that important. But the two men did discuss some of the accomplishments and character flaws/attributes of Ike. He knew how horrible war was and wanted to avoid that. Military spending wen down instead of up under him. He believed in infrastructure. He was a moderate Republican. Stephen mentioned that his audience was young and so asked Evan Thomas to explain to those young audience members just what exactly a moderate Republican was. Unfortunately they ran out of time, and so we will never know.