Good Sleep Again!

My sleep patterns have returned to normal. Yes! I am drinking coffee and will swim at 7 am.

I’ve been on facebook for a few weeks. Right now some LDS person (aka Mormon) is trying to convert me. It is interesting: what many don’t seem to get is that atheists (such as myself) find ALL magic (reading plates with seer stones, magic golden tablets, etc) to be incredible nonsense.

True, if someone already believes in resurrected bodies, burning bushes, miracles, etc. then they would be far easier to reach.

Politics
I’ve been reading The Nation magazine and I see that some are disappointed with President Obama.

All is not well in Obamafanland. It’s not clear exactly what accounts for the change of mood. Maybe it was the rancid smell emanating from Treasury’s latest bank bailout. Or the news that the president’s chief economic adviser, Larry Summers, earned millions from the very Wall Street banks and hedge funds he is protecting from reregulation now. Or perhaps it began earlier, with Obama’s silence during Israel’s Gaza attack.

Whatever the last straw, a growing number of Obama enthusiasts are starting to entertain the possibility that their man is not, in fact, going to save the world if we all just hope really hard.

This is a good thing. If the superfan culture that brought Obama to power is going to transform itself into an independent political movement, one fierce enough to produce programs capable of meeting the current crises, we are all going to have to stop hoping and start demanding.

I am not; far from it; I am thrilled with President Obama! Why the difference?

Well, I took then candidate Obama seriously when he said that good change would not be easy. But mostly, what I really wanted was to have a President who is smart and in touch with reality. I didn’t expect to have someone who agrees with me on every single issue or who was going to wave problems away with a magic wand.

I think that we HAVE that smart, capable president in charge right now.

Politics: torture memos This is an example of the honest conversation that I expect to see:

WASHINGTON – President Obama’s national intelligence director told colleagues in a private memo last week that the harsh interrogation techniques banned by the White House did produce significant information that helped the nation in its struggle with terrorists.

“High value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qa’ida organization that was attacking this country,” Adm. Dennis C. Blair, the intelligence director, wrote in a memo to his staff last Thursday.

Admiral Blair sent his memo on the same day the administration publicly released secret Bush administration legal memos authorizing the use of interrogation methods that the Obama White House has deemed to be illegal torture. Among other things, the Bush administration memos revealed that two captured Qaeda operatives were subjected to a form of near-drowning known as waterboarding a total of 266 times.

Admiral Blair’s assessment that the interrogation methods did produce important information was deleted from a condensed version of his memo released to the media last Thursday. Also deleted was a line in which he empathized with his predecessors who originally approved some of the harsh tactics after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“I like to think I would not have approved those methods in the past,” he wrote, “but I do not fault those who made the decisions at that time, and I will absolutely defend those who carried out the interrogations within the orders they were given.” [...]

Mr. Obama’s team has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the harsh interrogations, but in a visit to the C.I.A. this week, the president did not directly question that. Instead, he said, any disadvantage imposed by banning those tactics was worth it.

“I’m sure that sometimes it seems as if that means we’re operating with one hand tied behind our back or that those who would argue for a higher standard are naïve,” he said. “I understand that. You know, I watch the cable shows once in a while.”

But he added: “What makes the United States special, and what makes you special, is precisely the fact that we are willing to uphold our values and our ideals even when it’s hard, not just when it’s easy.”

Emphasis mine.

Now for a different topic: small government: this is a link to a case study. Basically a village wanted to lower taxes at all costs. This was one consequence:

There’s only one problem in Crestwood! The municipal water is too cheap!

For more than two decades, the 11,000 or so residents in this working-class community unknowingly drank tap water contaminated with toxic chemicals linked to cancer and other health problems, a Tribune investigation found.

As village officials were building a national reputation for pinching pennies, and sending out fliers proclaiming Crestwood water was “Good to taste but not to waste!,” state and village records obtained by the newspaper show they secretly were drawing water from a contaminated well, apparently to save money.

Twenty-two years ago, state environmental regulators told Crestwood’s that their cheap well water was contaminated. Likely by one of the “mom and pop” businesses the mayor extolled. But Crestwood kept using the contaminated well, and kept telling residents that the water was tested and safe.

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