Cheering Up….

Workout notes I had to kick myself into doing this: 4000 yards: 5 x 100 warm up (on 2), 5 x 100 fist, 10 x 100 (25 fly, 75 free) on 2. I got lazy: 1:43, 1:42, 1:44, :41, :41, :41, :41, :41, :39, :41. I am getting better.
Then 4 x (100 pull, 100 free, 100 paddle, 100 free, 100 fins): 35:28 (17:37 for each 1000).

Social/Religion.

A humanist organization is putting these signs on buses:

And of course, the religious wingnuts react with angst:

It looks like the Religious Right will have a new enemy to fight in their annual “war on Christmas” now that the American Humanist Association has announced its new ad campaign:

“Why believe in a god? Just be good for goodness’ sake,” proclaims a new holiday ad from the American Humanist Association. Already appearing today in the New York Times and Washington Post, the message will soon be blazoned on the sides, taillights, and interiors of over 200 Washington DC Metro buses.

It’s the first ad campaign of its kind in the United States, and the American Humanist Association predicts it will raise public awareness of humanism as well as controversy over humanist ideas.

Needless to say, right-wing leaders and activists have already swung into action to warn unsuspecting Americans of the dangers of this new advertising campaign:

Peter Sprigg, vice president of policy at the conservative Family Research Council (FRC), told CNSNews.com that sustainable morality is grounded in a belief in a higher being.

“I don’t think it’s possible to sustain long-term morality without religion,” Sprigg said. “If there is no higher being obliging humans to act morally and ethically, why should we do it?”

Sprigg emphasized he thinks that atheists can act morally, but he also said that society would shift towards greed and selfishness without a belief in a higher power.

Oh no! But wait…yeah, all of these scientists must be immoral: 93 percent of the Academy of Science level scientists are non-believers.

What is so threatening to them about such a sign? All these humanists are saying is: “hey, if you aren’t a believer, you aren’t alone. Don’t let this sea of religiosity get you down.”

Why does this threaten people?

Busy Day

Getting caught up and doing another project.

Workout notes 5 mile treadmill run; 10 slow minutes, 10 x (1 minute hard, 2 easy, raising the incline), 10 more minutes at medium effort (played around with the incline), 2 minutes easy.

I also did some stretching and yoga; another friend told me that I was limping. It is probably my left piriformis again.

Today’s Links

Woman: in trouble; she got worker’s compensation for a job injury and was found to be regularly competing in ultra marathons.

Christina Hijjawi, 37, surrendered at the Hall of Justice last week, after a warrant was issued for her arrest on multiple felony counts of workers’ compensation and disability insurance fraud, and attempted perjury, authorities said.

Hijjawi is free on $30,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Dec. 3.

“Many of these (endurance) events were completed while Hijjawi reportedly was too injured to work,” said Erica Terry Derryck, spokeswoman for District Attorney Kamala Harris.

According to court documents, Hijjawi first suffered an injury to her right shoulder fighting a blaze in December 1998. The injury intermittently left her either off work or assigned to desk duty.

Two years ago, Hijjawi reported suffering a second injury – this one to her right thumb – while undergoing a department evaluation of her earlier injury to determine her fitness for duty.

City Hall sources say the San Francisco’s Human Resources Department eventually got involved in the case, and started shooting some telling video footage of her on the sly. It seems her shoulder and thumb weren’t bothering her so much that she couldn’t compete in some of the toughest athletic competitions around, city officials concluded.

Indeed, if Hijjawi were trying to hide her fitness quest, she wasn’t doing a very good job. Our own Google search turned up records showing her running in marathons in Lake Tahoe, Los Angeles, Honolulu and elsewhere.

From 2001 to 2006, according to records on the Web site Athlinks, Hijjawi ran in no fewer than a dozen marathons. And her biography on another site shows she was taking on even bigger challenges, including the Canada 2005 Ultraman super triathlon competition – in which competitors swim 6.2 miles, ride a bike for 170 miles and run 52 miles, twice the distance of a marathon. Completing it took her more than 33 hours.

My take: interesting. I don’t know the whole story. I do know that I’ve seen a double amputee (legs) get well over 50 miles in a 12 hour run and I got left in the dust by a 1-legged swimmer at the Big Shoulders 5K swim race. Neither would probably be able to be a firefighter.

In my own case, I was discharged from the Navy in 1985 with bad knees. In 1987, I was in the hospital for a week with a staph infection in my knees. But by 1994 I could start jogging again and I’ve been active more or less ever since. So things can change with lots of time.

Education Rate Your Students has some results from a survey of college undergraduates. The results are interesting; let’s just say that student attitudes have changed and this generation feels especially entitled. Part of this may well be the “helicopter parent” syndrome; on one hand the parents are involved in the lives of their kids. On the other hand, they don’t know where to stop.

Science; Did you know that monkeys in the wild pass on learned behavior to their offspring? The boundaries between human and animal aren’t that clear, are they?

Politics
California Proposition 8. (bans gay marriage) It is true that it passed and that a high percentage of Blacks and Hispanics supported it. However it isn’t so true that new Obama voters supported it. Five Thirty Eight takes on this misconception.

Republicans
They are now for using the filibuster against judicial appointments but they were against it. Maybe we should employ the nuclear option?

Many Republicans are aghast that their party is catering to the “stupid Republican”. Science Avenger points us toward one such article.

Another article of this type blames Fox News.

Am I the only liberal who is actually enjoying this?

The nutty religious right continues to speak out against atheists, especially those who openly advertise. Why some people consider it virtuous to believe in one religious myth or another is beyond me; I can see why some consider it helpful to themselves on a personal level.

Dick Morris: talks about what he thinks that the Republicans must do to get back in the game.

Interestingly enough, he thinks that Palin actually helped the Republican ticket because McCain’s support among white men dropped more (from those who supported Bush) than his support dropped among white women.

a) Sarah Palin made a vast difference in McCain’s favor. Compared to 2004, McCain lost 11 points among white men, according to the Fox News exit poll, but only four points among white women. Obama’s underperformance among white women, evident throughout the fall, may be chalked up, in large part, to the influence of Sarah Palin. She provided a rallying point for women who saw their political agenda in terms larger than abortion. She addressed the question of what it is like to be a working mother in today’s economy and society and resonated with tens of millions of white women who have not responded to the more traditional, and liberal, advocates for their gender.

You see, Morris says that Obama underperformed among white women.

From CNN data: (2004) (2008)

2004: White Men: Bush 62, Kerry 37
White Women: Bush 55, Kerry 44
2008: White Men: McCain 57, Obama 41
White Women: McCain 53, Obama 46

I don’t see an underperformance there.

On a related note, look at the regional votes

2004: south 58-42 Bush. Bush also won the midwest 51-48, whereas Kerry “won” the west 50-49 and the northeast 56-43
2008 south 54-45, McCain. Obama won every other region by 10 (midwest), 17 (west) and 19 points (northeast) respectively.

The south is the only thing keeping the Republicans afloat.

Note that Morris goes on to praise the work that MoveOn and Acorn did in getting out the vote and getting support across the internet, and he goes on to shill for some Republican 527.

But most importantly, he is really pushing for the Sarah Palin wing of the Republican party. That is music to my ears!