It's Election Night and CNN's Crossfire is providing their usual brand of superior commentary and enlightening yet entertaining banter. How can you not love this show? My computer has a cheap video-capture card, so I can share the magic with everyone:

News:The Godless Americans March on Washington was judged a success last weekend. Had I not been busy moving to Canada, I might have attended. But why was there so little coverage in the national press?

Today's headline: another study on gay sheep. My favorite line is this: "First the scientists watched the sheep to be sure of their behavior — something that cannot be done with humans. Then they took apart their brains." I would personally like to see a study done on that pigeon that tried to court me in Australia (I have video). A pigeon who'd get with anything might shed light on the affinity that certain farm boys seem to have for sheep.

I've noticed that studies on gay animals are a hot-button issue for some people. To me these are simply a curiosity. As far as I can tell, there are only three potential reasons to be offended by this sort of study: 1) you resent any basic research project because the money could be better spent, or 2) you are opposed to animal research, or 3) you are worried about the political motivations/ramifications of the research. I acknowledge that the first two might be fair objections (although I don't usually sympathize with those views). But the third type of objection always troubles me.

To me these studies are no different from physiological studies concerning ingestive behavior, emotional response, or any other class of behavior. It's simply a study. To me it is a curiosity. Any moral aspect must be layered on top of it. In fact, any moral conclusion based on this kind of study is probably fallacious. Thus I find it quite offensive to suggest that this sort of study should not take place simply because someone might use it as part of a bad argument. Ignorance is not the solution to ignorance. As an analogy, I would be similarly offended if someone suggested that nuclear physics is evil because it allows us to build nuclear weapons. Or that pullies and levers are evil because they allow us to build catapults. Or that fire is evil because it enables arsonists.

If, on the other hand, someone looked into one of these studies and found that its experimental setup had been biased, or its results misrepresented, in the interests of some political conclusion, then that revelation would be more interesting than the study itself. It's always exciting to ferret out a fraud. Like in the classic DEA-funded studies on marijuana use when they exposed monkeys to marijuana smoke. They found brain damage similar to that caused by asphyxiation and blamed it on the pot. The trick was that they didn't give the monkeys any oxygen with their pot.

So scientific fraud does happen for political gain. But it isn't fair to judge "these studies" as a class. Each study must be evaluated on its own merits. The possible existence of a fraud doesn't undermine the field as a whole.

We have arrived in Edmonton. We got anxious and left Salt Lake at 10pm on Tuesday. On our way to Canada we passed through barren wastelands, stopped for gas in eerie post-apocalyptic ghost towns, and butted heads with evil faceless truckers in the black of night. In other words, we drove through a series of Steven King novels.

Patches of heavy snow appeared as we passed Ogden. The snow intensified as we approached Idaho. There was a calm in the snowfall when we stopped for gas in Malad (never ever stop in Malad). Then blizzard conditions began and continued for 500 miles. We were driving on a sheet of ice for most of the trip. In Montana the snow took on a fine, dry consistency, like grains of sand blowing in the wind. Mixed with fog, the fine snow whipped across the road in eerie clouds. Truck drivers thundered by at 100 miles per hour, throwing up impenatrable clouds of snow and ice. When trucks passed, I was forced to come to a complete stop on the freeway until visibility returned. I'd say there ought to be a law against trucks doing that, but there already is one. They ought to enforce that law because people could easily die in the wake of a speeding truck.

In the morning we arrived at the border. Our experience at the customs station was not entirely unlike our wedding, in that we waited in an office, filled out forms, paid money, and colored a picture. They were going to issue a visitor permit to Erin. I mentioned that I had read that they can issue open work permits to spouses of students. The guy said, "let me check into that," and went away for a few hours. When he came back, he said, "well, I've looked through everything and there's nothing that specifically says I can do that. But, there's nothing that says I can't. So here you go."

Permits in hand, we gleefully left the border and puttered our way into the Great White North. We had been driving for about 18 hours, so we thought we might stop in Lethbridge, the first major town on the Canada side. The first sight that greeted us as we pulled into Lethbridge was a Mormon church steeple. "Can we please keep going?" I begged Erin and she agreed.

We made it all the way to Calgary before I started losing my mind. We went to the first hotel we saw, the Wingate Inn. For Can$100 (US$64), we got a spacious suite with a TV, complementary high-speed internet service, continental breakfast, etc. There were other things like hot tub, sauna, exercise facility, and internet room that we didn't take advantage of. And they didn't bill us for our phone calls. We were getting our first taste of Canadian value.

The next day we drove into Edmonton and had a look at our apartment. It's a huge one-bedroom with a massive balcony, a large living room, enormous closets (with built-in shelving), and brand new carpet. The rent is about US$500/mo. I signed up for a combined digital cable/cable internet service at US$46/mo. My cell phone plan is US$19/mo. And I think calls to the US might actually be cheaper on the phone than with calling cards. We went to Ikea and bought chairs, a dining table, a couch, some desks, misc kitchen and bathroom stuff, lamps, etc -- the essential home furnishings -- for a grand total of about US$900. Holy geez.

I took Erin to the dentist to see about her toothaches. The insurance up here covers her exam and some fillings. That's more than what we had in Utah. But it won't cover the root canals or bridge work that she needs. She needs about US$2000 of dental work. I'm trying to figure out how to pay for it. I suppose it will mean getting stuck with more debt, but in the long run I'd rather have slightly higher debt than a wife with no teeth. And at least the work is going to be a fraction of what it would cost in the US.

The light rail station literally is at our front door step. Everything seems to be just five minutes away from us. And get this: a guy in my lab today told me I was living in the expensive part of town. Into what sort of upside-down fairy-tale world have we stumbled?