Stirring uneasily…

I am still not 100 percent but I’ll blog a little bit.

Cheating: what affects it? What limits it?

Israel-Palestine conflict: this article at the Daily Kos puts forth a Palestinian point of view (Daily Kos is normally pro-Israel).

Politics and Religion
Huckabee and Romeny’s religious bigotry

Distasteful as all the Bible thumping and ostentatious piety of the Republican presidential aspirants certainly are, the time may have come to address their religious pretensions directly, instead of turning away in mild disgust. For the truth is that no matter how often candidates like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee promise to uphold the Constitution and protect religious freedom, they are clearly seeking to impose the restrictive tests of faith that the nation’s founders abhorred.

The most egregious offender against basic American civics today is Huckabee, who told a group of students at Liberty University, the center of higher learning founded by the late Jerry Falwell, that his sudden rise in the Iowa polls is an act of God. He compared the improvement in his political fortunes to the New Testament miracle of the loaves and fishes. He wasn’t joking, as both his demeanor and his words demonstrated.

The Rev. Huckabee has proved willing to risk his oversold reputation as the “nice” evangelical with a primary strategy that draws attention to his qualifications as a “Christian leader,” in contrast to the suspect Mormonism of Romney. Huckabee was honest enough not to deny that he believes the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is a cult — and in fact, many if not most of his fellow Southern Baptists regard the LDS church as a satanic cult.

In response, Romney delivered an address that simultaneously pleaded for religious tolerance and urged intolerance of what he termed the “religion of secularism.” The former Massachusetts governor at once declined to discuss the specific dogmas of his own faith while seeking to convince the bigots in his political party that, like them, he accepts Jesus Christ as the Son of God and his Savior. (Actually, Mormon beliefs about Jesus, which Romney insists he will not abandon, are considerably more complicated than his speech implied and bear little resemblance to the theology of orthodox Christianity.)

Whatever bland assurances they may offer to the contrary, both Romney and Huckabee have implicitly endorsed religious tests for a presidential candidacy. Both suggest that only leaders who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior are qualified to lead. Huckabee says that we should choose a president who speaks “the language of Zion,” meaning a fundamentalist Christian like himself. Romney says that among the questions that may appropriately be asked of aspiring presidential candidates is what they believe about Jesus Christ, a question he endeavored to answer in a way that would assuage suspicions about his own religion.

[...]

So I wonder if Governor Huckabee sees President Obama’s win as the will of God?

Speaking of “god’s will”: will “creationism” be a potential subject of study for a masters degree in the State of Texas?

A Texas legislator is waging a war of biblical proportions against the science and education communities in the Lone Star State as he fights for a bill that would allow a private school that teaches creationism to grant a Master of Science degree in the subject.

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) proposed House Bill 2800 when he learned that The Institute for Creation Research (ICR), a private institution that specializes in the education and research of biblical creationism, was not able to receive a certificate of authority from Texas’ Higher Education Coordinating Board to grant Master of Science degrees.

Berman’s bill would allow private, non-profit educational institutions to be exempt from the board’s authority.

“If you don’t take any federal funds, if you don’t take any state funds, you can do a lot more than some business that does take state funding or federal funding,” Berman says. “Why should you be regulated if you don’t take any state or federal funding?”

HB 2800 does not specifically name ICR; it would allow any institution that meets its criteria to be exempt from the board’s authority. But Berman says ICR was the inspiration for the bill because he feels creationism is as scientific as evolution and should be granted equal weight in the educational community.

“I don’t believe I came from a salamander that crawled out of a swamp millions of years ago,” Berman told FOXNews.com. “I do believe in creationism. I do believe there are gaps in evolution.

“But when you ask someone who believes in evolution, if you ask one of the elitists who believes in evolution about the gaps, they’ll tell you that the debate is over, that there is no debate, evolution is the thing, it’s the only way to go.”

But critics say that Berman’s bill will be disastrous if it passes.

“This would open the door to other fly-by-night organizations that come in and want to award degrees in our state, because the bill is highly generalized,” said Steven Schafersman, president of Texas Citizens for Science.

One thing that the yahoos, woos and yokels will never get is that science IS inherently elitist in that one needs to have some expertise in order to be taken seriously.

19 March 2009: afternoon

I managed to go for a 1.5 mile walk with Olivia and Barbara. The day was too pretty not to. When Barbara walked a few steps at maybe a 17 minute per mile pace, I couldn’t keep up.

Seriously; this reminded me of what it feels like to be at the finishing stages of a very long ultra (say 100 miles) or what it is like to be woefully out of shape.

Issues
I actually agree with one of Mr. Aaron Schock’s votes. But, note how Congress was given a “way out”; there was one motion as to “feeling” of the measure and another as to pass it or not. Hence, these weasels have some political cover.

Society and Religion:
Is this really the 21st century in an industrialized country?

Who knows? Maybe they’re right. They’re planning a program for “Nightline” (which, I seem to recall, at least used to be a pretty good news program) which will probably get them some decent ratings.

They’re going to have a debate on the existence of Satan.

Yeah, you heard that right…on a so-called news program. But it gets worse! They have 4 people coming on to yell at each other.

On the “Satan exists!” side, they have Pastor Mark Driscoll, head of a megachurch in Seattle, and Annie Lobert, former prostitute and founder of a group called Hookers for Jesus. Sensationalism is already rearing its gaudy head, you can tell.

Even worse, the “Satan does not exist!” side is a joke. It consists of Bishop Carlton Pearson, who doesn’t accept the doctrine of hell but is a Christian, and…unbelievably…Deepak Chopra. Not an atheist or skeptic among them, just hardcore believers in woo vs. fluffy believers in woo.

Don’t tune in. It will be a complete waste of time.

DEVELOPING: Markos reveals the vast left wing conspiracy on Countdown – Daily Kos TV (beta)

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Feeling Better: 19 March 2009

Yesterday I fell ill due to food poisoning and felt like death; I mostly napped the entire day. No working out today, though I feel much better.

Here is how it went: I woke up with a “tight stomach” but went swimming anyway. The swim didn’t go well though I did manage a 10 x 100 on the 1:45 set. I was exhausted when I got out of the pool and barely made it to the car; I ended up napping off and on the entire day. I felt horrible: aches, chills, nausea (I never threw up though), and overall weakness. By nighttime I was able to eat a couple of pieces of bread.

Science

A cool “perpetual motion” machine. Of course this isn’t perpetual motion machine, but can you explain what is going on?

Atheist Pride Day: Why I am in.

Workout notes 4000 yard swim; 5 x 75 free, 25 back, 10 x 50 (drill/swim) with fins, 10 x 100 on the 1:45 (2 1:40s; the rest were faster), 500 odd strokes, 10 x 50 (25 fly, 25 free: fins), 10 x (25 off stroke, 25 free), 5 x (25 drill, 75 swim).

I got food poisoning and my stomach was tight the whole workout; several times I almost gave up. Instead I focused on form and technique, telling myself that I can feel bad and not swim, or feel bad and swim.

I slept for 3 hours afterward (thank you spring break).

The good news is that I talked to another swimmer; he is one of those who is swimming to recover from an industrial accident.

There are some interesting personal stories out there if one just takes the time to smile and say “hi”.

Atheist “Pride” Day (Facebook) Why I am going along with it.

I read about this at Friendly Atheist:

It’s a simple and powerful way to show your atheist pride.

This Friday, all you have to do is change your Facebook profile picture to the following:

And change your status to something like “I am an atheist” (or whatever).

That’s it!

For most of us, it’s a chance to show some atheist pride. For others, maybe it’s a way to come out to your friends.

I was going to blow it off; I am no more “proud” to be an atheist than I am “proud” to reject: Rah, Wotan, Thor, Zeus, Ganesh, Isis, etc. I am an atheist simply because the idea of some deity meddling in the affairs of this universe strikes me as absurd.

I can’t say “this deity made is all for us” with a straight face; I simply don’t believe it.

Now, of course, there may be some grand, even wonderful creative “spirit” (or whatever you want to call it) that exists and is unknowable by our tiny, limited brains. Or, maybe this entity may become knowable; I have no idea. Sure, I have no evidence for it, but that doesn’t mean that it isn’t there. Of course that doesn’t even make it likely that it is.

But that has nothing, and I mean nothing to do with the current deities worshiped by most of the “faithful”.

So, when I call myself an atheist, it is to let others know that I find the idea that one can alter the course of current events by divine intervention (because of prayer, magic, etc.) to be absurd. I do acknowledge that prayer can calm and center a person; prayer and meditations can be good for one’s emotions just as yoga can be good for one’s back and hamstrings and one’s emotions.

But I see prayer, meditation and yoga as strictly secular tools that work.

Life as an atheist I teach at a university that has research requirements for its faculty. At such places, being an atheist is no big deal, at least to one’s group of friends. We have “believers” non-believers; no one makes a big deal out of it.

So, yes, there are times when I feel as if I am bobbing in a sea of stupidity when I read stuff like this:

PEORIA —

The city’s first homicide of the year was no coincidence, Mayor Jim Ardis said.

The murder of 19-year-old Mario McGee on Saturday morning was a challenge from Satan, the mayor said. But it’s a battle the community is ready to fight.

“It’s only going to make us dig our heels deeper,” Ardis said to a nearly full Peoria Civic Center Theater on Sunday night. “We will stand arm in arm, hand in hand until this happens no more.”

Coming together IS a good idea, but chalking problems up to an imaginary foe is beyond stupid.

But to be honest, I don’t normally associate with such people on any personal basis. Most of my friends “who know me” are themselves atheists or agnostics; many simply don’t even see the question as worth bothering about.

Even on the internet, I frequent the blogs of atheists and my favorite political haunt has this breakdown:

Click on here to see a larger version.

Of course, we are frequently called names:

We are called narcissists:

No, Governor Huckabee, non-believers are NOT those who believe in nothing greater than themselves. We just reject your sky-daddy just as we reject pixies and fairies.

We are portrayed as hedonists:

Here is another link.

In fact, tis is something like this:

Of course, many believers (not all) are happy to attack the religion of others:

You even see this in politics:

But here is my reaction: I find this absurd and comical; I was at the rally where this video was shot and I had to keep from laughing (the funny stuff starts at about 55 seconds; the rest is ok) I don’t feel oppressed by this.

Of course, people don’t understand us (watch the Fox News banner where they list “90 percent” believe in a god).

Surveys paint a rather different picture:

The top line shows that indeed 92 percent of Americans believe in a deity or a universal spirit. But look across the line: only 60% believe in a personal god; 25% believe in some impersonal spirit or force (what Dawkins calls “sexed up atheism”) and 7% have some different conception.

In short, as a whole, this country is not as blindly religious as some might think.
Even when you look at, say, Catholics, only 60 per cent of these believe in a personal god, only 25 per cent of all Jews, and 41 percent of Muslims! (6 per cent of Atheists too; I admit that I don’t understand that one )

But even though the percentage of self-described atheists is small, many people operate as if only natural phenomena affect the world. And, the vast majority of the elite scientists are with us.

Science Avenger points us to a video that says a great deal:

Note: Stephen Hawking is a British citizen and not an American, as much as we’d love to claim him!

So, why am I going to participate in this day on facebook?

The bottom line is that many, if not most atheists are NOT a part of a caring community; they might find themselves feeling a bit isolated and alone. Some are genuinely afraid of being shunned in their communities and of losing their jobs.

So, this will be my way of saying: “hey, you aren’t alone”.

Pharyngula: Science, with its rational methodology and fact-based process, undermines the American way of life

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17 March 2009 Fun

see more pwn and owned pictures

Note: I don’t talk on my cell phone; my driving sucks badly enough when I am trying to pay attention.

Friendly Atheist: talks about the new version of the game of Life, which gives players the choice of being a straight or a homosexual couple:

Jen raises another fantastic point about the mother not wanting to discuss homosexuality with her daughter:

While I personally think there’s nothing wrong with young children knowing about homosexuality, why can’t this mother just dodge the question like parents do with other things they don’t want their children knowing about? How many little kids ask their parents where babies come from before their parents want them to know the grisly facts of life? Granted, I don’t think we should lie to children about that either…but the fact is, blaming an online game for something that’s everywhere is just downright silly. Why not blame Life for including babies in the game?

Excellent point.

You would think the Religious Right would love this game. After all, this is the one time you can actually “choose to be gay.”

This “choosing to be gay” stuff cracks me up. Hey, believe me, my life would be much, much simpler if I were asexual. I didn’t choose to be attracted to women. But I am.

Media Matters – Fox News presents deceptively cropped six-month-old Biden clip as new

Workout notes Slept in. 9 mile run (1:33; W Peoria, Cemetery, back to lunch course, 1 Cornstalk loop plus 5 minutes, followed by a 1 mile walk. Slow at first, never got faster. Daylight, pretty day, lots of traffic.

The dog lady had moved to Bradley Park; I can’t seem to escape her!

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That’s right: they use a clip of Joe Biden who was speaking in September 2008 and mocking John McCain as evidence that the Obama administration has changed its tune!

In short, they are liars.

More stuff

Fun: bike riding. This commuter decided to ride his bike to work to save money. It worked…at first.

[...]Something had to change. On my 5th day commuting by bike, it happened. I was suffering through the morning ride, wondering if I could somehow tie the backpack to my handlebars, when I felt a whoosh of air. I looked up just in time to see another bike commuter disappearing into the morning mist ahead of me. The guy was just flying. It had happened in a split second, but I had enough time to see, to discover, to realize the answer to all of my problems: the guy was on a road bike!

A road bike has thin, high pressure tires that create minimal drag. A road bike is light. A road bike has curled handlebars so you can bend over and cut through the air instead of sitting upright in the “my body is a giant air brake” position. A road bike has pedals with clips that hold your feet in place. A road bike is fast!

That night, and this shows how absolutely horrible it was commuting that kind of distance on a crappy mountain bike, that night, my friends, that night, my fellow Americans, I went to my local bike shop and I bought a road bike.

Okay, actually, I did some research and shopped around. The first thing I found was that road bikes start out at around $700 for something halfway decent. And by the time the sales guy got through with me and taxes got added on, I spent $1,000. Then, because it’s a $1,000 bike, you need a good lock, which is $60, and if you don’t like the feeling of a monkey with a high fever on your back, you buy a rack ($60), bag for the rack ($50), lights for when it gets dark at night in the fall ($60), a few pairs of bike shorts with padding and a noticeable absence of crotch-destroying seams ($150), gloves so your hands don’t get ripped up ($30), helmet so gravel doesn’t get into your brain during an accident ($50), a good air pump for your high pressure tires ($30). Also, if you want to know how much faster you’ll now be going, you’ll need a bike computer to tell you your speed, time, and mileage information ($40). Then you get a flat one day, which is inevitable when you commute 100 miles a week on roads littered with pot-holes, gravel, metal, and glass, and you realize you also need inner-tubes, tire changing kit, and portable air pump ($50). Also, bike tires don’t last forever. I had one tear after 1,000 miles. I had to buy a new tire along with a spare tire ($70). Breaks don’t last forever ($20). And, you need to keep your chain cleaned and lubed, especially after riding in the rain ($30). Oh, and the rain. Since it rains a lot in the summer, you need at least a rain jacket and shoe covers so your feet don’t get soaked ($70). Then the fall comes and it gets cold and you realize you need heavier gloves and a facemask ($30)

For those of you keeping score, that’s $1,800 I had in expenses. Alright, that seems like a lot, and I guess it did feel like a lot at the time, though I never added it up until now. But maybe all will be well again once the savings are calculated, right? [...]

Read the rest. It is pretty funny.

Evolution:

This is funny and informative. There is one bikini shot of women.

More political humor

Megan McCain: Responds to shots from the wingnut wing of her party:

McCain, who said she’d never even heard of Ingraham before the “plus sized” comment, called it “terrible” and added, “When Tyra Banks went on her show in a bathing suit and said ‘kiss my fat ass,’ that’s what I feel like. Kiss my fat ass!” McCain has blogged and Tweeted about the subject over the last week.

You don’t know how much I love it when women tell me that!

Glen Beck:

Answers have never come from Washington? Let’s see: interstate highway system, the military (the ideal of virtue that Beck showed…which ironically featured West Point, a taxpayer funded institution), the technological advances due to the space program, the advances on the internet, rural electrification, climate clean-up projects, national parks, regulation of the airwaves, etc.

Illinois River Flooding: Peoria, March 2009; near the Riverplex and Goose Loop

The whole album (16 photos) is here.

I’ll post a few of them:

Olivia near the Riverplex

Here is another view. Note that there is supposed to be a bike path running between the Riverplex and the Illinois River.

Looking out from the Riverplex back steps. Note that the flagpoles are supposed to be on dry land.

That is a family of hybrid geese near the water’s edge. This body of water is covering a parking lot.

Note that one can see quite a bit of variation here; one goose has a black bill and another has an orange one. All of them have orange feet. The variations within a group of Canadian geese are much harder to spot.

The Canadian geese (the usual type found here)

This is the gooseloop (1/3 of a mile loop; about 540 meters long).

Another Olivia shot

About 1/4 mile (400 meters) from the Riverplex. You can see the trail disappear into the water.

Miday 16 March 2009

As Liberals Must Die puts it: Bush-Cheney did so well! I wonder if we’ll read about it in President W. Bush’s new library.

Religion: Jesus appears as the outline of someone’s butt?