Walking for Obama II; Flying Spaghetti Monster in Peoria

Workout notes 8 miles on the home treadmill; first 5 were horribly slow; next two were ok and last one easy. This manual treadmill is hard to use; if you let your mind wander you’ll end up plodding in place.

Flying Spaghetti Monster Notes His Noodleness was talked about in today’s Peoria Journal Star.

There are many reasons why science and faith conflict, as well as creationism and evolution. Dissenters often have few places to share their beliefs, which is why many go to the Internet.

The Internet has provided a free forum to many who might not have otherwise found an outlet to voice their alternative ideas within their own communities.

“The magic of this medium is that it is relatively inexpensive, and it’s expansive in the sense that you create a Web site and people will find it anywhere in the world,” said Manjunath Pendakur, dean of the Mass Communication department at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. “There have been many instances in the history of the modern civilization who have come up with revolutionary ideas to challenge conventional wisdom and orthodoxy, for instance the entire revolution of Martin Luther occurred in the age of print.”

Jeremy Monigold, programming instructor at Highland Community College in Freeport, said anybody with access to the Internet is able to publish his or her ideas.

“What it comes down to is the individual’s ability to judge right from wrong,” Monigold said.

Bobby Henderson is from the state of Oregon and is creator of The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He views his Web site as a legitimate organization. Henderson graduated from Oregon State University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in physics and has recently been traveling in Cambodia and Thailand.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), according to Henderson, came to him as a vision. Although Henderson said he doesn’t like pasta, his vision was of a large creature made up of noodles with two large meatballs under his eyes. The FSM is male, can be invisible and can fly.

Members of the FSM are referred to as Pastafarians, although Henderson said they are not related or linked to Rastafarians. According to their beliefs, pirates are saints from whom we evolved, and every Friday is a holiday.

He said some take it as a parody on creationism or a spoof, a joke, a grassroots cause, while some truly believe in a literal Flying Spaghetti Monster.

“No one asks them (Christians) if their religion is meant to be a spoof. People get what they want out of it; it doesn’t make sense to tell people how to worship,” Henderson said.

The beginning

Henderson’s Web site for The Church of the FSM stemmed from a letter to the Kansas Board of Education in 2005 opposing Intelligent Design being taught in science classrooms. The Kansas board at the time was in the process of changing the science curriculum.

“FSM started as a response to the Intelligent Design movement – creationism posing as science. The issue was the posing as science, not the creationism beliefs,” Henderson said.

Although Henderson personally doesn’t believe in creationism, he said he would have no problem if it were taught in a religion or theology class along with other religious beliefs.

“Provided none is taught as the ‘correct’ choice. That’s the kicker, though. Christians sometimes forget that last clause,” Henderson said.

Henderson said that many Christians don’t take the Bible literally, and many members of FSM do not take it literally.

“Pastafarianism is a sensible alternative religion for some people. We offer spirituality and community, without the traps of dogma; no one has ever killed in the name of Pastafarianism, for instance,” Henderson said. [...]

Obama Kathy T and I walked a couple of hours for Obama. We mostly went to homes identified as those where Democratic primary voters live. The idea is to get enough Obama supporters out there so as to sweep all 4 delegates in the Illinois 18′th district; to do this we need to keep HRC’s support to under 15%.

The day was in the mid to high 30’s and I wore my Obama sweatshirt; a jacket was unnecessary.

Obama is poised to win the South Carolina primary, but HRC is attacking Edward in an effort to bolster support.

Local politics

Local Democrats are planning on drafting a candidate to run for the IL-18′th U. S. House seat. The story:

Colleen Callahan, a former agriculture reporter for local radio and television stations, is asking the Democratic Party to be its nominee this fall for the 18th Congressional District.

She said numerous people have asked her to run, and after discussing it with family and friends, she is now actively seeking the support of the party’s 20 county chairmen. She approached them at a meeting last week and says she’s in the early stages of testing the waters with Democratic voters.

“I’m excited about this prospect,” Callahan, 56, said in a telephone interview Thursday afternoon. “I have been overwhelmed by the support.”

This would be her first foray into politics, though she said her professional experience with business and agriculture will make her a worthy candidate.

The Democratic chairmen in the 20 counties comprising the 18th District have 60 days after the Feb. 5 primary election to choose their candidate. [...]

Democrats in the 18th District have been without a candidate after Dick Versace, a former Bradley University and NBA basketball coach, announced in early December he was dropping out of the race for “unforeseen personal circumstances.”

Peoria County Circuit Judge Richard Grawey, who initially considered running to replace retiring U.S. Rep. Ray LaHood, said Thursday although he’s not actively campaigning for the spot, he thinks “I’m one of the people the chairmen are considering.”

The vacancy left many to wonder if the lack of a clear candidate would hamper Democrats in what will likely be an already difficult race. The 18th District hasn’t had a Democratic congressman since 1917. [...]

Trouble: the candidate I voted for in the 92n’d State House race
1. Had a false statement in her campaign radio ad (about her having a college degree) I don’t say “lied” because she did NOT claim to have the degree on her campaign website nor does she make this claim in the campaign literature that I’ve seen. This could have been sloppiness on her part.
2. Has a shoplifting conviction from 8 years ago.

Story:

Jehan Gordon, a Democratic candidate for the 92nd District House seat, announced today she was convicted of shoplifting about eight years ago when she was 18.

Gordon, now 26, said she considers herself an open book because she is running for office and wanted to be up front with voters. She held a news conference this morning to announce the Champaign County conviction.

“As a teen I was charged with a misdemeanor for attempting to take a bracelet from a store,” Gordon said. “This life experience taught me a lot. It is one of the reasons why I work so diligently with young people today because I know what it’s like to be young and impressionable.” [...]

Oh boy; such is the perils of voting early (as I did).

Republicans

I used to like Mike Huckabee. Check out this spoof website (which some don’t see as being a spoof). He has videos there such as these: (first three are very short; last one is about 3 minutes)

Bill Moyers Night

Blogging at home on Friday; Friday night is usually PBS night: Washington Week, NOW and Bill Moyers. Ok, sometime a boxing match (not the political debates)

Evolution: This short video sets us straight.

Health Care Why is reforming it so difficult? Answer: the sturdiness of the bottom rug of the saftey-net seems to keep hanging in; so many get screwed but the national agony isn’t quite enough to produce a will to do the work to truly reform it.

DemFromCT has a nice article which is based on an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The diagnosis of imminent collapse rests on three symptoms. First, without affordable universal coverage, the system leaves 47 million Americans uninsured. Second, health care costs are extraordinarily high: the United States spends about 16% of its annual gross domestic product (GDP), or $6,400 per capita, on health care, whereas France, for example, covers virtually its entire population reasonably well at 11% of GDP and half the per capita spending. Third, the U.S. system is in fact a nonsystem, an incoherent pastiche that has long repulsed reforms sought by private and public stakeholders. Yet this diagnosis misses as much as it reveals.

Indeed, what makes this article interesting is the analysis of why the collapse hasn’t happened.

The problem with this analysis is that the U.S. health care system consists not of two sectors (private and public) but three, one of which, the safety net, rarely gets proper attention and is poorly understood. The safety net encompasses public and voluntary hospitals, community health centers, public health clinics, free clinics, and services donated by private physicians. Configurations of safety-net providers vary markedly among communities, as does their financing, a shifting patchwork of funds from Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), the federal disproportionate share program, tax levies, foundation grants, state appropriations, commercial payers, and other sources. These institutions often live on the financial edge, but with 11th-hour infusions, they mostly manage to stay afloat. This fact is of paramount importance, for these providers also extend a safety net for the political legitimacy of the health care system as a whole. That Americans who lack coverage can “still get care,” as President Bush recently declared, drains moral urgency from the health care reform enterprise.

Some political stuff I found interesting

You’ve heard about delegates, super delegates, pledged delegates and things like that. This short article explains it all very clearly.

Read; it will clear up confusion, if you have any to begin with.

Obama responds to smears and attacks, and keeps his cool. Ok, he talks about praying to Jesus with his Bible…groan….oh well. No one is perfect.

John Kerry: Bill Clinton should stop abusing the truth.

Article source

[...]Over here Kerry points out the inaccuracies leveled by the Clinton, and points out that Obama has red state appeal:

Q: So, senator, you have endorsed Barack Obama, and this week, of course, the campaign was absolutely consumed with these charges and counter-charges, and it seemed to many of us that Obama’s message about hope and change was pretty much drowned out. What happened, here?

Kerry: Well, I think you had an abuse of the truth, is what happened. I mean, being an ex-president does not give you license to abuse the truth, and I think that over the last days it’s been over the top. Things have been said about Barack Obama’s positions that are just plain untrue. It was said in Nevada, it’s been said about Social Security, it’s been said about Yucca Mountain, and it’s been said in South Carolina. I think it’s very unfortunate, but I think the voters can see through that. When somebody’s coming on strong and they are growing, people get a little frantic, and I think people have seen this sort of franticness in the air, if you will.
My sense is, Barack Obama offers a better opportunity to pull America together than any other candidate in the race. If you look at the fact that the governor of Arizona, a red state, Gov. Janet Napolitano, has endorsed Barack Obama, former governor and now senator, Ben Nelson of Nebraska, red state, has endorsed Barack Obama. The two senators from North Dakota and South Dakota, the Democratic senators, have endorsed Barack Obama. Claire McCaskill, the senator from Missouri, Gov. Tim Kaine of Virginia, was asked the question, “Can a Democrat carry Virginia?” And his answer was, “the right Democrat,” and then he endorsed Barack Obama. [...]

Republicans
If Bill and Hillary abuse the truth a bit, well, check out the other side.

Check out the whoppers they told in their debate right here.

Here is just a sample of Romney’s whoppers:

[...]Mitt Romney’s latest rhetorical contortion came in response to a devastating New York Times story about the GOP field’s shared disdain for him. Asked by NBC co-moderator Brian Williams if his opponents’ disregard was fueled by his money, his attacks ads and his tendency to “changes positions with the wind” on social issues like abortion, Romney was more than a little disingenuous in response:

“And when people come after me and say, where do you stand on this or where do you stand on that, I can point to a very simple way to find out exactly where I stand, and that is look at my record as governor.

Every issue that we’re talking about in this race that’s of a domestic nature, I dealt with as the governor of Massachusetts. And so on the issue of abortion, for instance, I came down on the side of life consistently as governor in every way I knew how I could do that.”

As it turns out, not so much. Romney’s abortion flip-flop, of course, is the stuff of legend. But one statement he made during his 2002 Massachusetts gubernatorial campaign is particularly telling:

“I promised that if elected, I’d call a truce – a moratorium, if you will…I vowed to veto any legislation that sought to change the existing rules…I fully respect and will fully protect a woman’s right to choose.”

When his close adviser Michael Murphy in 2005 famously said of Romney, “he’s been a pro-life Mormon faking it as a pro-choice friendly,” the Massachusetts Governor again took a position at odds with anti-abortion forces:

”While I’ve said time and again that I oppose abortion, I’ve also indicated that I would not change in any way the abortion laws of Massachusetts, and I’ve honored my promises.”

Hat tip to Avenging Angel at the Daily Kos.

Giuliani and Huckabee are no longer worth talking about.

McCain’s whoppers merits its own front page article

Last night in the Republican debate Tim Russert asked John McCain about a statement he’d made:

“I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

McCain pretended he’d never said any such thing:

“I don’t know where you got that quote from, I’m very well versed in economics.”
Except that he had said it. Russert plucked the statement from this 2005 puff piece on McCain in the WSJ:

On a broader range of economic issues, though, Mr. McCain readily departs from Reaganomics. His philosophy is best described as a work in progress. He is refreshingly blunt when he tell me: “I’m going to be honest: I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.” OK, so who does he turn to for advice? His answer is reassuring. His foremost economic guru is former Texas Sen. Phil Gramm (who would almost certainly be Treasury secretary in a McCain administration). He’s also friendly with the godfather of supply-side economics, Arthur Laffer.

You’ll probably find that information about McCain’s economic advisors less reassuring than reporter Stephen Moore did. In any case, McCain has said similar things about his economic ignorance several times over several years…and as recently as last month. His admissions of ignorance are well known and sometimes quite spectacular.

So, just another case of McCain the liar.[...]

Read on to see that this isn’t an isolated incident.

Back to the debate: go to factcheck:

In last night’s debate, held days before Tuesday’s Republican primary in the Sunshine State, the remaining GOP candidates came up with a few new factual distortions and repeated several old ones. Among them:

* McCain said he had won the Republican vote in both the South Carolina and New Hampshire primaries, where independent voters also participate. One exit poll showed him narrowly prevailing with Republicans in New Hampshire, while another didn’t. And the same poll that favored him in that state had him losing the GOP vote to Huckabee in South Carolina.

* McCain all but denied that he had said he didn’t know much about economics. In fact, he did say that he needed “to be educated” on the subject.

* McCain also said he voted twice to make Bush’s tax cuts permanent – but doesn’t mention that he initially opposed them.

* Romney falsely portrayed Hillary Clinton’s proposed health care plan as an all-government program. It’s not.

* Huckabee once again claimed the FairTax would benefit everyone. That’s not possible.

Go to the link to see the details.

Speaking of Republican lies: Bush made over 900 false statements about National Security and Iraq.