9 December 09 (cold!)

Workout notes 3 miles on the stairmaster, then 2650 swimming: 10 x 25 free/25 back, 10 x 25 side, 25 free, 10 x 25 fly, 25 free (fins), 10 x 25 drill (front or 3g), 25 free, 5 x 100 paddles on 2, 150 cool down.

Injury note My right shoulder always has a mild ache when I do a fly set; note that my right Achilles tendon was sore during my swim and I had some mild calf ache on the walk home from my work day.

Too much information When I run or walk outside, being gassy isn’t that big of a deal. It sucks when I am stuck on a machine such as a treadmill or elliptical.

Health care reform There is some criticism from the left (my allies) because the Senate already watered down a watered down public option; this deal has been reached in this subcommittee of 10 Democrats. Example: see here and here. On the other hand, some of my political allies think that this is about as good as we can get (realistically) and that there are some good things in the bill:

“The deal reached Tuesday puts even more requirements on insurers by requiring that 90 percent of premium dollars be spent on medical benefits, as opposed to administrative costs, officials said.”

AP Story

If you want a bit of perspective on how big that is, consider this:

“USA wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all of the uninsured”
Health Care Bureaucracy Article

“The participation of private insurers raises administrative costs. The small private insurance sectors in Australia, Canada, Germany, and the Netherlands all have high overheads: 15.8%, 13.2%, 20.4% and 10.4% respectively, far higher than the 1% to 4% overhead of public insurance programs.”

MassCare Article
“Medicare, the publicly managed plan for the elderly in the United States, spends 5 percent of each health care dollar on administrative expenses, compared with the 17 percent devoured by private insurers on average. “

10% is a huge number, folks. This would dramatically effect the way health insurers do business. There would be a huge new focus on efficiency in customer care. Payment systems would need to be revolutionized. Underwriting will be going away all together with guaranteed issue, so that’s an immediate savings.

This will lower total medical costs for everyone folks. And it’s bigger news that the small fragment public option ever was.

Also, this is a step in the right direction (which is one reason the Republicans are opposing it).

Other stuff

Testosterone My guess is that this latest finding will rankle some people:

From Science:

Test Testosterone has a reputation for causing violent and antisocial behavior. But that’s a bad rap, according to a new study. Women given the hormone acted more fairly in an economic game than did those given a placebo. Interestingly, however, women in the placebo group were more antisocial if they thought they had received testosterone, indicating that our negative attitudes toward the hormone have a powerful sway on behavior. Scientists led by Ernst Fehr, a professor of neuroeconomics at the University of Zurich in Switzerland, suspected that testosterone is really about gaining and maintaining social status. And although status concerns lead to aggression, they theorized that testosterone does not necessarily make a person more self-seeking.

Source article.

Racism Every since this, I’ve been interested in the fate of Bill White (a neo-nazi who is currently bouncing between prisons while being held for trial.) Here is the latest update.

My take: though I am curious, I am not that concerned any longer.

Presidential Approval Ratings: here is a neat graph of the approval ratings of the various Presidents from Truman on.

Fluff

University of Tennessee: admonished for improper use of “hostess women” to lure football recruits. No, there is nothing steamy and the infraction is minor but it is still funny.

Hey, I am open to be lured to mathematics departments by this method!

see more Epic Fails

8 December 09 (pm)

Yucky weather in Peoria; rain, just above freezing; 1 inch on the way tonight then another.

Civil Liberties I love the title of this post. Mr. Randazza is just too shy.

Climate Change
A scientist (not in climate science) talks about what happens when the ignorant and untrained see e-mail messages between practicing scientists:

I keep meaning to write something substantive about the theft of emails from the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) at the University of East Anglia, but my day job does sometime intervene. (Over six hundred postdoc applications in theoretical physics, but not to worry — only about 400 of them are in areas related to my interests.) There are some good discussions at Time and Foreign Policy, and you can’t poke your nose into the science blogosphere without reading someone’s take on the issue.

My own take is: what in the world is the big deal? Indeed, I would go so far as to ask: what could possibly be the big deal? Most of the noise has simply been nonsensical, focusing on misunderstandings of what scientists mean by the word “trick” and similar deep issues. And some people got upset when a dodgy paper was accepted by a journal, and they discussed giving the journal a cold shoulder. Cry me a river. [...]

And that’s what really puzzles me. I understand the non-scientific motivations of certain climate denialists; in the abstract, they don’t want to accept that the unfettered actions of capitalism can ever have any deleterious effects, and in the concrete, many of them are paid by oil companies. (See this charming “letter to the American Physical Society,” whose handful of signatories includes “Roger Cohen, former Manager, Strategic Planning, ExxonMobil.”) Those are powerful incentives to ignore the evidence.

But what is the incentive on the other side supposed to be? What exactly is the motivation for the nefarious conspiracy of people who are supposedly plotting to mislead the world about global warming? What do the people counting oysters get out of this?

Paul Krugman also wonders about this:

The rage, by the way, is amazing. Nothing gets me as many crazed emails and comments as any reference to climate change. The anti-global-warming people are just filled with hate for anyone who suggests that maybe, just maybe, the vast majority of scientists are right.

And that in turn suggests that annoying liberals isn’t the whole story; no, they’re not enjoying themselves.

What I think is that we’re looking at two cultural issues.

First, environmentalism is the ultimate “Mommy party” issue. Real men punish evildoers; they don’t adjust their lifestyles to protect the planet. (Here’s some polling to that effect.)

Second, climate change runs up against the anti-intellectual streak in America. Remember, just a few years ago conservatives were triumphantly proclaiming that Bush was a great president because he didn’t think too much [...]

So they’re outraged, furious, at the notion that they have to listen to guys who talk in big words rather than sports metaphors.

Economics

President Obama gave a talk on job creation and economic growth.

Robert Reich says that the President is trying too hard to stick to the middle ground, which isn’t a good thing:

Barack Obama is trying once again for balance. On the one hand, he wants enough government spending to offset the timid spending of consumers and businesses. Otherwise, the jobs and wage recession could drag on for years. On the other hand, he doesn’t want to set off more alarm bells about the budget deficit. Otherwise, conservative Democrats might join forces with Republicans to block heath care. So what does he do? A little bit more stimulus spending, but stimulus spending that doesn’t look like more stimulus because it’s not really adding to the deficit. It’s coming out of savings from money already authorized to be spent on the bank bailout. Hmmm?

No president in modern times walks a tightrope as exquisitely as this one. His balance is a thing of beauty. But when it comes to this economy right now — an economy fundamentally out of balance — we need a federal government that moves boldly and swiftly to counter-balance the huge recessionary forces still at large. [...]

There is no reason to tolerate this degree of misery. We know exactly what to do. The government has the fiscal tools to do it. Start by bailing out state and local governments (if Congress would prefer to call it a loan and require payback over the next five years, fine). Renew unemployment and COBRA benefits. Increase federal spending on infrastructure. If we have to, hire people directly. The package should be $400 billion over two years.

We don’t know exactly how much the President is proposing to spend, but sources tell me it’s in the range of $70 billion, redirected from the $200 billion in TARP savings. The President’s small, calibrated attempt to balance a stimulus with deficit reduction will in fact make the deficit worse over the long haul. It postpones the day when we’re back to near full employment, when almost all Americans who need a job get paychecks on which they pay taxes. This isn’t really balance at all. It prolongs the economic imbalance.

Paul Krugman points out that he cannot comment until he knows what the numbers are:

As I understand it, what the administration is trying to do is leverage an inadequate amount of money into disproportionate job creation. Hence the jobs tax credit and the cash-for-caulkers program, each of which might — might — produce many more jobs per buck than a conventional stimulus. Basically, it’s about making policy in the face of a dysfunctional Congress.

But even so, it can’t be done without a significant amount of funds. If Robert Reich is right and it’s only $70 billion, it’s a Potemkin policy — all facade, virtually no substance.

How big do the numbers have to be to make it serious? It’s hard to see much impact with less than $200 billion — and what I really want to see is that including all the pieces, from COBRA extension to state aid, it’s much bigger than that.

8 December 09

Workout notes I wasn’t motivated. But I did it anyway: 500 warm up (8:47), 20 x 50 on the :50 (47s, then 46s, a couple of 48s), 10 x (25 drill/25 free; fins) 10 minutes, 5 x 200 on the 3:30 (3:18, 19, 17, 16, 15), 100 paddle, 100 fly/back (fins), 100 side, 100 fly/back, 100 side, 100 IM.

Then 4 miles (41 minutes) on the elliptical; then about 15 minutes of yoga on my own.

Swim notes: the 20 x 50 set was more comfortable than the last time I did it; still I like for these to be at 45 or faster. I am getting closer. I was a bit tired for the 5 x 200 set but sped up to catch my department chair. There were a couple of bikinis in the pool, both belonging to awful swimmers.

In the upstairs part, I was astonished at how little effort some put into their workouts. Sure, it is their business, but I can see why some wonder why their workouts don’t seem to tone them or help them lose weight.

Politics: some moron threw tomatoes at Sarah Palin at a book signing. I condemn such boorish behavior.

Humor: this race in Hungary is for charity; it is in the winter and the runners wear swimsuits and Santa hats. From the small photo; the women look pretty good; the males…yuck!

More Humor

see more Epic Fails

see more Epic Fails

Afghanistan: here is a detailed post on strategy. It is long but will provoke thought.

Just a Thought…

I admit that I often watch games while chatting about them on facebook.

But here is the thing about the internet: you can have tighter control over who you talk to; you don’t have to tolerate woos, religious nuts, teabaggers, etc.

This Ad is Just a Fail

Note to this wingnut: President Carter’s remark had nothing to do with opposition to President Obama’s health care ideas.

What a bunch of idiots.

(hat tip: Right Wing Watch)

7 December: non-football edition

Health Care Nate Silver points out that when polls show that a certain percentage of people disapprove of the health care plans being discussed in Congress, some of the people disapprove because the plans don’t go far enough:

Ipsos/McClatchy put out a health care poll two weeks ago. The topline results were nothing special: 34 percent favored “the health care reform proposals presently being discussed”, versus 46 percent opposed, and 20 percent undecided. The negative-12 net score is roughly in line with the average of other polls, although the Ipsos poll shows a higher number of undecideds than most others.

Ipsos, however, did something that no other pollster has done. They asked the people who opposed the bill why they opposed it: because they are opposed to health care reform and thought the bill went too far? Or because they support health care reform but thought the bill didn’t go far enough?

It turns out that a significant minority of about 25 percent of the people who opposed the plan — or about 12 of the overall sample — did so from the left; they thought the plan didn’t go far enough.

In other words, 46 either want what Congress is proposing or want more; 34 want less.

Intelligent dissent

Top notch climate scientist James Hansen opposes the cap and trade because it fears that it won’t lower emissions enough. Paul Krugman acknowledges Hansen’s expertise in science but points out that Hansen misunderstands the economics of the situation and takes him to task for possibly harming our best chance to cut emissions.

This is what intelligent dissent looks like.

Now for some moronic dissent:

Cenk Uygur says it bluntly:

From time to time, I’ll get into a debate with a right-wingerabout whether Sarah Palin is actually stupid or if liberals are just hopelessly biased against her. They claim this bias comes from the fact that liberals are scared of her electability, her charm, her looks, her femininity, her Christianity, her ability connect to the common man and her overall wonderfulness. So, the theory is that we have all collectively decided that she is the best Republican candidate in some secret liberal meeting and are conspiring against her because we are afraid of how brilliant and electable she really is.

Now, there are a couple of problems with this theory. There are no opinion leaders on the left with Rush Limbaugh-like authority who can command all other progressives to think the same thing and use the same arguments against one person. In other words, we all think she is stupid because she is in fact stupid, not because some liberal cabal told us to think that.

* Cenk Uygur’s diary :: ::
*

How come we don’t call Newt Gingrich stupid? Or Dick Cheney or Kay Bailey Hutchinson or Elizabeth Dole or Dennis Hastert? And the list goes on and on of heinous and deplorable right-wingers who are not stupid. We don’t make those charges against those people, because as much as we might not agree with them or like them, we know that they are not dullards. They’re all clever in their own way. Mitt Romney is greasy, Michael Steele is a clown and Tom DeLay is dirty, but we don’t go after their mental acuity like we do with Sarah Palin because they’re not as dumb as her (not even Steele).

Emphasis mine. Surf to the article to see his evidence; here is a bit of mine:

When I grade my exams, I remind myself of this when I am tempted to take it easy on the students.

More morons: Here is a take on Glenn Beck and his movie fans:

Glenn Beck fans got a real treat last night, as Glenn did a live broadcast to movie theaters across the United States of his children’s Christmas book, “A Christmas Sweater.” We sent Air America’s own Marcus Hillman to the movie theater in Union Square to see who would show up for Beck’s Christmas spectacle, and he found a range of fans.

Even as the country was falling down around these true conservatives and libertarians, they were able to show up to support their favorite newsman. Turns out about 40 tickets were sold to the show, so almost every Republican in New York City was able to make it.

Jesus Sightings: Top Ten for 2009. Yes, Jesus on a toilet seat, in burn marks on a pan, on an iron, etc. Enjoy!
(note: why does Jesus look like a Beatle?)

7 December: Football Edition

Workout notes 2 miles on the AMT, with a “wider” motion. Then 2 miles on the Stairmaster. After that, 2200 yards of swimming: 20 x 100 free (2 on 2, 2 on 1:55, 6 on 1:50, 10 on 1:45), then 200 cool down with paddles.

It was ok; that was about it.

Football

I’ve watched a lot of football over my lifetime but have never been invited to a party like this one.

(if you like spandex tights on women, surf to that blog)

I watched a few games (by myself) weekend.
One of the games I saw on Saturday was Illinois versus Fresno State. Illinois piled up 548 yards (ok, they gave up 416) and 52 points. Still they gave up a 19 yard touchdown pass with 2 seconds left which cut the lead to 52-51, and then Fresno State went for two:

On Sunday, I saw the end of the Saints-Redskins game;

In this one, Washington was up 30-23 with under 2 minutes to go and tried a 23 yard field goal. That would have won the game as the Saints were out of time outs. They missed the field goal and the Saints tied it in regulation and won in overtime.

Then I saw the Cowboy-Giant game; one in which Dallas raced to a 10-0 lead to end up going down 14-10 in a 2 minute period just before the end of the first half. The Giants ended up winning 31-24; Dallas scored a touchdown late in the game (about 1 minute to go) to tighten it up;

Yes, the Cowboys outgained the Giants 427 to 337 yards and lead time of possession 39 to 21 minutes.

So what is the moral to these three games? Bad teams find ways to lose games that they should have won.

(photos: yahoo)

Bowl Games
As usual, there are some bowl games that I am interested in this weekend. Of course, I am interested in most of the BCS.

First, how were these match ups made, once Texas and Alabama were matched up in the title game? Basically, the Sugar Bowl had the first pick since they lost number 1 Alabama (the SEC champion), and of course they went with Florida. Then the Fiesta had the next pick (they lost Texas, the Big Twelve champion) and so they selected TCU (Cincinnati, Boise State and Iowa were available). The Orange, which was obligated to take Georgia Tech as its “host” team, had the next selection as they were first in the order after the “compensatory” selections were made. They selected Iowa so as to fill their stadium.

Then the Fiesta had the next selection (Boise State or Cincinnati); they selected Boise State (though they could have chosen, say, Penn State). Finally, Cincinnati was left for the Sugar.

The games of interest to me:

National Championship: will Texas play better than it did during its last two games against Texas A&M and Nebraska? I hope so, else this game will get rather ugly from my point of view.

Rose Bowl: Oregon’s offense versus the Ohio State defense; that what can’t be stopped against that which can’t be moved against. Of course, I also wonder which set of ugly uniforms will the Ducks wear? Note: Oregon beat both Purdue and USC; Ohio State lost to both.

Fiesta Bowl Excellent game: undefeated TCU against undefeated Boise State; a rematch of last year’s exciting Poinsettia Bowl in which the Frogs ruined the Broncos’ perfect season.

Great game; what is making it interesting is that TCU is now providing Boise State some nice bulletin board material:

Something is missing now that TCU has finally busted into the Bowl Championship Series: a chance to prove themselves against a team from one of the major conferences with automatic access to the big-money games.

Instead, the third-ranked Horned Frogs (12-0) will go to the Fiesta Bowl on Jan. 4 to play the same team they beat in a pre-Christmas bowl game last year. Another undefeated BCS buster, No. 6 Boise State.

“It’s kind of like a little rematch or whatever,” receiver Jeremy Kerley said. “Even for the Boise fans, I’m pretty sure they don’t want to see that, for us to have to play them. It’s kind of unfortunate on both parts.” [...]

“I figured because of what Utah started last year, maybe we’d have a chance to play for it this year,” running back Joseph Turner said.

“The thing is, we’ve played (Boise),” senior receiver Bart Johnson said. “I’d love to play somebody like a Florida or someone like that where we could really showcase and show the nation what we’re all about. “

Sugar Bowl Which team will be more motivated? I have no idea what will happen, especially given that Cincinnati might not have its coach.

There are some non-BCS match-ups that I am interested in as well (via Mike Huguenin):

29. EagleBank Bowl, Temple (9-3) vs. UCLA (6-6), Dec. 29: Temple is set, while UCLA needs Army to lose to Navy next week. An Army-Temple matchup would be a rematch of an Oct. 17 game that the Owls won 27-13. If that’s the matchup, this becomes No. 34 on our list. If it’s Temple-UCLA, it will be interesting to see if highly productive Temple true freshman RB Bernard Pierce—if he’s healthy—has success against a solid UCLA defense.

I am interested in how the Temple coach turned that program around and how they will match up against a middling BCS conference team, assuming that Navy beats Army (not a sure thing, though Navy is favored).

20. Texas Bowl, Missouri (8-4) vs. Navy (8-4), Dec. 31: Navy still has one regular-season game left, against Army next Saturday. Navy’s triple option can be tough to stop, but Mizzou is 12th nationally in rush defense.

Of course, I am interested in this one. We’ll see where Navy is; if Navy plays well they could win this one.

19. Emerald Bowl, Boston College (8-4) vs. USC (8-4), Dec. 26: Raise your hand if you thought BC and USC would finish the regular season with the same record—and if your hand is up, you’re lying. BC has been surprisingly good, USC surprisingly … well, it’s a surprise the Trojans lost four times. This has been somewhat of a train-wreck season for USC, and a season-ending loss in a baseball stadium would be the capper.

These are two teams that I’ve seen play this year (against Notre Dame; ND barely beat BC and barely lost to USC.

17. Champs Sports Bowl, Miami (9-3) vs. Wisconsin (9-3), Dec. 29: This is the Badgers’ second appearance in a row in this bowl; they were eviscerated by Florida State last season. Miami would seem to have a big-time advantage in speed, but the Badgers’ power rushing attack could be a problem for the Hurricanes.

Wisconsin finished with a 51-10 rout of Hawaii.

12. Poinsettia Bowl, California (8-4) vs. Utah (9-3), Dec. 23: Cal has been a disappointment this season. While the Golden Bears have had some nice victories (Arizona, Stanford), they also were hammered by Oregon, Oregon State, USC and Washington. Indeed, Utah played Oregon much closer than Cal. This is another chance for the Mountain West to prove itself against the Pac-10.

Question: which Cal team will show up?

10. Las Vegas Bowl, BYU (10-2) vs. Oregon State (8-4), Dec. 22: Another intriguing Mountain West/Pac-10 matchup. BYU figures to have success throwing against the Beavers, but Oregon State figures to have success on the ground against the Cougars.

If you blink during this one, you’ll miss a score.

8. Holiday Bowl, Arizona (8-4) vs. Nebraska (9-4), Dec. 30: Arizona coach Mike Stoops didn’t want to coach against his brother in a bowl game; he got his wish. Instead, he gets to coach against Bo Pelini, an old friend. If you watched Nebraska in the Big 12 title game, you saw a team with a great defense and a woeful offense. Arizona is solid on both sides of the ball, but can its offensive line handle Nebraska’s defensive line?

I’ve watched both teams play twice; Arizona’s high powered offense against Nebraska’s vicious defensive line.

7. Sun Bowl, Oklahoma (7-5) vs. Stanford (8-4), Dec. 31: For all of its losses this season, OU still has been rather stout on defense. The Sooners are 10th nationally in rush defense, meaning Stanford RB Toby Gerhart will provide a huge test. Stanford has been surprisingly good this season, and if the Cardinal can finish with a victory over the Sooners, coach Jim Harbaugh’s stature gets raised another notch.

A classic: tough run defense versus a strong rushing attack. Both teams can score.

If you are interested in other games, surf to the link.

Pain or Pleasure

Of course, much of me likes this photo.

Part of me winces in pain at the thought of trying to ride in such attire.

Then again, that doesn’t seem to bother some triathletes.

6 December 09

Workout notes 6.5 mile hike at McNaughton (2:02); I cut off the first “lower prairie loop”, the “outer prairie/heaven’s gate” loop and the foundation loop. This was about a 3:10 effort for only part of the course. I saw some deer including a buck with antlers.

Education
Here is an interesting take on “online courses” from Rate Your Students.

Religion and Society Scientists have little tolerance for nonsense:

Over at Foreign Policy, Robert Wright repeats his usual spiel against the “new atheists,” but this time he’s turned up the invective:

The accusations: [...]
4. We’re intolerant and uncivil.

All the great religions have shown time and again that they’re capable of tolerance and civility when their adherents don’t feel threatened or disrespected. At the same time, as some New Atheists have now shown, you don’t have to believe in God to exhibit intolerance and incivility.

Yeah, right. Clearly it is the atheists who are responsible for making the faithful intolerant — we haven’t respected them enough! That, of course, is why the Catholic church prefers death by AIDS to the use of condoms, and why it frowns on homosexuals and women priests. Catholics wouldn’t do that if the atheists hadn’t backed them into a corner!

And that’s why Islam keeps suppressing women, preventing them from getting a decent education (and dousing them with acid if they try), swathing them in burqas, bumping them off in honor killings, and making them second class citizens (a woman’s testimony counts only half as much as a man’s in a sharia court). Clearly, Muslims do this only because they feel threatened. It would all stop if we’d just give them a little more respect!

Shame on Wright for making such ludicrous arguments, and for implying that Islam’s disenfranchising of half of its adherents stems from a lack of respect for Muslims. That’s ridiculous: it’s a result of their scripture and dogma, as are the Catholic stances on gays and AIDS. What world is Wright living in?

I’ll add: I am sure that our religious nut-jobs would embrace science if their position was respected by society. Oh wait…their position WAS the de-facto “real American” position and they didn’t.

Here is one thing that Professor Coyne didn’t catch: our “rationalist” worldview is…well…sexist!

Post Racial America: yeah right.

It appears that many feel that affirmative action gives minorities an advantage when it comes to education and jobs. Frankly, it does NOT help with the latter; in fact some minorities have taken to hide their race when they make up their resumes:

Tahani Tompkins was struggling to get callbacks for job interviews in the Chicago area this year when a friend made a suggestion: Change your name. Instead of Tahani, a distinctively African-American-sounding name, she began going by T. S. Tompkins in applications.

Yvonne Orr, also searching for work in Chicago, removed her bachelor’s degree from Hampton University, a historically black college, leaving just her master’s degree from Spertus Institute, a Jewish school. She also deleted a position she once held at an African-American nonprofit organization and rearranged her references so the first people listed were not black.

The dueling forces of assimilation and diversity have long battled for primacy in the American experience, most acutely among African-Americans. It’s not clear that assimilation has gained an edge here in the waning days of the decade, but the women’s behavior — “whitening” the résumé — is certainly not isolated. Ms. Tompkins and Ms. Orr were among the more than two dozen college-educated blacks interviewed for an article about racial disparities in hiring published last week on the front page of The New York Times. A half-dozen said they had taken steps to hide their race, or at least dial back the level of “blackness” signaled in their résumés.

That seemed startling somehow, maybe because of the popular perception that affirmative action still confers significant advantages to black job candidates, a perception that is not borne out in studies. Moreover, statistics show even college-educated blacks suffering disproportionately in this jobless environment compared with whites, as that article reported.

But if playing down blackness is a common strategy born of necessity, perceived or real, it still takes a psychic toll, maybe a greater one now, as people calibrate identity more carefully.

Again, this article it talking about jobs rather than about educational opportunities.

On the same topic, I remember reading this blogger’s article about his troubles finding employment:

have to confess that it chaps my ass whenever someone labels me with the stigma that I, a black man, am simply looking for a handout without putting in the work necessary to get ahead. I assure you that I have worked considerably hard. I have a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. I have nearly twenty years of experience in the development of various database applications systems on platforms from COBOL to Oracle to PL/SQL to Visual Basic to Microsoft Access. I have worked in industries such as oil and gas, communications, health insurance, architecture, commodities trading, risk analysis, and manufacturing and distributing. I learned carpentry and built houses with my own hands. I have helped others when I could and I have accepted help when I needed it. I have paid dues. [...]

I applied for hundreds of jobs. I did dozens of phone interviews. I went to a lot of face to face interviews with several of them requiring me to go across country. I’ve never embellished my resume. But inevitably the first question I’m hit with is, tell me about your experience with quantum physics. I never worked with quantum physics. Well why did we bring you here? That’s something you have to tell me. I worked hard just to get employed. It is my personal belief that I worked a lot harder and jumped through more hoops than the average job applicant. There is no doubt in my mind. Maybe it’s the hair. It is far too ethnic for a lot of people. When I’m introduced to an interviewer and they briefly get that repulsed look or the look of being hit with a phaser set at maximum stun it would be a logical conclusion. When so many interviews start off with some pretense that there’s been a mistake the logical conclusion is that I am not conforming enough to the ethnic standards established for African Americans. I don’t know how but I lucked up on a job where the decision maker didn’t care about hair or ethnicity but about getting the job done. Although rare, there are jobs available where the person doing the hiring truly does not care.

I have to admit that, while I was happy that Barack Obama won the election, I really expected race relations to momentarily get worse. I figured that there would be a backlash of sorts.

Yes, I KNOW that all criticism of President Obama is NOT racial, but much of the very vocal stuff is. The New York Times has an article about what it is like for many African Americans right now:

A hundred and fifty years ago, Charles Dickens opened “A Tale of Two Cities” with the now-famous phrase: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. …”

Those words resonated with me recently while contemplating the impact of the Obama presidency on blacks in America. So far, it’s been mixed. Blacks are living a tale of two Americas — one of the ascension of the first black president with the cultural capital that accrues; the other of a collapsing quality of life and amplified racial tensions, while supporting a president who is loath to even acknowledge their pain, let alone commiserate in it.

Last year, blacks dared to dream anew, envisioning a future in which Obama’s election would be the catalyst for an era of prosperity and more racial harmony. Now that the election’s afterglow has nearly faded, the hysteria of hope is being ground against the hard stone of reality. Things have not gotten better. In many ways, they’ve gotten worse. [...]

We are now inundated with examples of overt racism on a scale to which we are unaccustomed. Any protester with a racist poster can hijack a news cycle, while a racist image can live forever on the Internet. In fact, racially offensive images of the first couple are so prolific online that Google now runs an apologetic ad with the results of image searches of them.

And it’s not all words and images; it’s actions as well. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2008 hate crimes data released last week, anti-black hate crimes rose 4 percent from 2007, while the combined hate crimes against all other racial categories declined 11 percent. If you look at the two-year trend, which would include Obama’s ascension as a candidate, anti-black hate crimes have risen 8 percent, while those against the other racial groups have fallen 19 percent. [...]

The racial animosity that Obama’s election has stirred up may have contributed to a rallying effect among blacks. According to a Gallup report published on Nov. 24, Obama’s approval rating among whites has dropped to 39 percent, but among blacks it remains above 90 percent.

Read the rest of the article; basically it says that President Obama has to maintain his distance in order to appear to be neutral.

This reminds me a bit of when I heard a black basketball coach say that he’d rather have white referees at his games because, at times, if a black referee made a correct call that helped his team and the other coach was white, the other coach would “work” the referee by saying something like “oh, I see how it is”…hence the black referee would overcompensate in an effort to appear to be neutral.

I don’t like any of this, but ultimately I see this as growing pains that a multi-racial society has to go through.

Texas Wins on a Last Second Field Goal

As dominant Alabama was, Texas was that underwhelming. The Nebraska defense sacked the Texas quarterback 8 times and forced 3 interceptions. Texas was limited to 202 total yards and only 18 yards rushing.

But the good news (for me) is that the Texas defense shut down Nebraska, limiting them to 106 TOTAL yards (67 run 39 pass); Nebraska got 3 of their 4 field goals off turn overs.

But at the end, Texas almost ran out of time on an ill conceived second to last play (the second was put back after review) and the 46 yard game winning field goal was just inside the upright.

Key play: after Nebraska took the lead, a botched kickoff went out of bounds, thereby giving Texas the ball at the 40.

From my perspective: if the Texas offense from the Texas A & M game shows up and this defense shows up, then they’ll do well. If the Texas defense from the A & M game shows up and this offense shows up, it will be a blow out in favor of the Crimson Tide.

Note: here is a map of the results of an ESPN poll: who would win between Alabama and Texas.

I find it hard to argue with.

(photos from yahoo)