Non local stuff

Workout notes lazy yoga session this morning. I admit that I am a bit nervous about tomorrow’s marathon; most of the time I view these as “tune ups” for my ultras. But my miserable performance at the F/X rattled me; fortunately I’ve been walking faster since then. But I really don’t want to get pulled from this course due to time limits, and I don’t want to have to resort to running.

Yeah, I’ve beaten the time limits at a practice walk, but that was then, and tomorrow is tomorrow.

Some other odds and ends:

I need this lady as a teaching assistant!

Here is a thumbnail:
; go to the article to see the full sized shot.
My guess is that she’d get the guys to pay attention, though they might not be paying attention to the mathematics.

Recursivity: on why some theists just “don’t get it”:

[...]In the end, I don’t think that Professor Higgins gets it. The new atheists have been emboldened by religion’s excesses, but they don’t base their arguments on that alone. Fundamentally, the new atheists are simply not convinced by religion’s claims. When we hear Higgins assert that “God is bigger than our systems”, we want to know, where’s the evidence that what you are talking about even exists? We don’t see God-talk as helpful in resolving issues; when God-talk is introduced, it moves us away, rather than towards, a solution based on rational consideration of the issues. Higgins wants to appropriate human values, such as compassion and tolerance, to religion’s domain, but these values are subscribed to by theist and non-theist alike. In the end, religion doesn’t have as many virtues as Higgins claims, nor does the new atheism have as many faults as he would have us believe.

(emphasis mine)

Bill Richardson: the voice of reason on this issue (I’ve been looking for more good things to say about him):

Everywhere I go on this campaign — from Iowa to New Mexico — I hear people asking when is this war going to end and when will we get all of our troops out of Iraq? Everyone, myself included, is tired of waiting for this war to end and tired of feeling let down by the people we elected.

The message I hear on the road seems pretty clear to me, but apparently the people in Congress aren’t getting it. I know legislating is hard work — I spent 15 years in Congress — but I believe that when the people have given you a mandate, and soldiers are dying, it is your solemn duty to get the job done no matter what it takes.

Two days ago the Senate had a chance to help get more of our soldiers home for longer periods of time — but the measure failed. Yesterday they had a chance to set a timeline to start withdrawing troops — but that failed too. And today, another measure that would’ve required a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq failed. Three chances to make a difference, lost. But instead of continuing to push on the most important issue facing our country right now, yesterday Congress spent their time debating and condemning a newspaper ad by an anti-war group.

Let’s get some perspective here — ads don’t kill people — wars kill people. And it is long past time to end this war.

From my many years of diplomatic negotiations I have learned that persistence is key to wearing down the most recalcitrant opponents. So I will be persistent — and I hope you all will too. If we don’t get this done now, we may not have a chance again until a Democrat is in the White House in 2009. That is too long to wait. [...]

Emphasis mine.

Were we too hard on Joe Lieberman? Evidently not.

National Review’s Cliff May reports:

Senators Lieberman and Kyl are offering an amendment today calling on the US to combat, contain and roll back Iran’s aggression in Iraq. It also designates the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization.

They’re apparently not satisfied with the ongoing wars; they’re ready for another.

I think that the first commenter on this thread got it right:

I still laugh at the idiots in Connecticut who re-elected Lieberman.

And shame on those (including those I like, e. g., Barbara Boxer, and Barack Obama) who helped this evil moron in the general election. Hmmm, perhaps a Lieberman-Thompson ticket makes sense?