What a Dilemma!

Question: when does one’s freedom to raise a child as they see fit end and when does the welfare of the child begin? Sure this is in Canada, but it is still of interest to me.

Nikki’s Nest has a story about a Neo-Nazi couple that lost parental rights due to their beliefs. Ok, how about parents who were, say, CCC members? Or, what about parents to thought that the book The Bell Curve was a good book?

What about parents who teach their kids that the universe is only 6000 years old? What about those who teach Nation of Islam beliefs?

Does the government have a role in the approval or disapproval of a philosophy?

I am not taking a side as yet; I’ll have to think about it some more.

Now athletes will have a real reason to thank a deity

We’ve seen athletes thank a deity after a victory. Well, now they’ll have a real reason to, provided they consumed the correct sports drink.

(yes, I know, it is from The Onion and therefore satire…still funny though…)

Workout notes 13 February 2010

Not much to report; the cough is hanging on. So, I did about 30 minutes of light weights and that was about it. It was enough to make me sweat just a bit:

dumbbell curls 10 with 25, dumbbell military: 10 with 40, bench press (135 x 10), pull ups (10), pull downs (10 reps with 10)
yoga leg lifts 20
then the above again, though I used 45 for the military presses, bench was 160 x 4, 9 pull ups
head stand (about 3 minutes)
curls with 30 pound dumbbells, bench presses with 75 pound dumbbells (7 reps), failed with 50s in the military, pull downs.

That was enough for today; I just don’t have it. But bugs eventually go away.

Another misconception about atheists …..

I enjoyed reading Susan Jacoby’s article about atheism and her list of 5 common misconceptions about atheism and atheists.

I’ll go ahead and discuss another misconception about atheism and atheists: there is the misconception that being an atheist is about just “doing whatever you want whenever you want to do it”:

Note: Governor Huckabee is a creationist.

You see this attitude lampooned here:

Ok, perhaps I am focusing too much on a few crazies and religious whack-jobs. But then, I’ve actually had people in my life tell me that “you aren’t really an atheist; you’ve just rejected the simple deity of your childhood”. Their reasoning: I lead a relatively disciplined life (e. g., I work out, do long distance swims and runs and walks, sometimes meditate and do yoga) and I abstain from certain behaviors.

Of course, they go on to say that the real god is, well, not describable, not definable, etc. It is something that you have to “just know”, you see.

Of course, this is sheer nonsense. For one, the vast majority of elite scientists are atheist or agnostic. Do you think that someone can reach the academy of science level without some discipline?

Atheists commit crimes at a lower rate than theists and atheistic countries have lower crime rates than ours.

And of course, atheists can be passionate about life; for example, check out any Richard Dawkins lecture on science. The love and passion in his face are unmistakable.

One does not need superstition to have a disciplined, meaningful life.

13 February 2010: morning

I am still feeling less than 100 percent and so I’ll stretch and lift; that’s about it. The weights: lighter than normal, high rep.

As far as the calf/lower hamstring injury: it ached last night. Reason: doing the workouts I was doing was masking the pain (keeping the area warm?) But those workouts were NOT letting it heal….grumble…but if I have to miss 4-6 weeks, I’d rather miss them NOW than later in spring (when it will be pouring rain instead of snowing). Yes, 2008 and 2009 have been the second and fourth wettest years on record since 1895, though it is my understanding that in the early 1800′s, the weather was wetter. (scroll about midway down)

Posts

I am a bit nervous about “balance the budget” type proposals. No, the government is NOT like a family. But even if one pushes the family analogy:

1. You get a job offer but the job is not near public transportation. You need to repair your car (or buy a bike) to get to work. In this instance, borrowing would be a good idea even if it means more debt.

2. Your job is eliminated and you can retrain to a job that has a better future. Taking out loans is a good idea in this instance.

3. House repair: your house has leaks which are ruining the other stuff you have. Taking out another loan is probably the right thing to do in this instance.

So, in the government’s case: spending on government projects (say, infrastructure repair) to put more people to work and more money in the hands of those who will spend at local businesses is a good idea, IMHO.

Speaking of spending: Our representative, Mr. Aaron Schock is talking about bringing money into his district; money which he voted against.

Note: I completely approve of projects such as this one (training for green jobs); it is that such a program is a good idea here and in other places.

But when it comes to Congressional projects: it is only “pork” if it is spent somewhere else.

Speaking of Congress: the House has done ok; the Senate has been a source of frustration though:

Speaking of local politics: This Monday is the Peoria Area Democrats President’s Day Dinner. Lisa Maddigan will be speaking.

Annual Democrats’ Presidents’ Day Dinner
Monday Feb. 15th, 2010
5:30 – 8:30pm
Planned for the ITOO Hall on Farmington Road

Featuring Key Note Speaker: Lisa Madigan
- also Dick Durbin has been invited

$500 sponsor, $300 table of 8, $30 per person ($35 at the door)
Tickets are required

Make check payable to:
Peoria County Democrats

and send to:
Peoria County Democrats
P.O. Box 258
Peoria, IL 61650-0258

Academia: get denied tenure: shoot your fellow faculty members.

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. – A biology professor was charged with murder late Friday in the shooting deaths of three colleagues at the campus.

Amy Bishop, a Harvard University-trained neuroscientist, was reportedly upset over being denied tenure.

Authorities say the researcher opened fire during an afternoon faculty meeting at the University of Alabama’s Huntsville campus, killing the three colleagues and injuring three other school employees. Bishop has been charged with one count of capital murder, which means she could face the death penalty if convicted.

Bishop, 42, was taken Friday night in handcuffs from a police precinct to the county jail and could be heard saying, “It didn’t happen. There’s no way …. they are still alive.” [...]

Sammie Lee Davis said his wife, Maria Ragland Davis, was a researcher who had tenure at the university. In a brief phone interview, he said he was told his wife was at a meeting to discuss the tenure status of another faculty member who got angry and started shooting.

He said his wife had mentioned the shooter before, describing the woman as “not being able to deal with reality” and “not as good as she thought she was.”

According to media reports, Bishop had been denied tenure Friday morning. She apparently returned to a campus faculty meeting in the afternoon and opened fire, university officials and witnesses told NBC station WAFF-TV.

This is bad enough, but now the gun kooks are popping off about how incidents like this are why people should be allowed to bring guns to campus.

Let’s not overreact to rare incidents.

The Stupid Burns!!!

12 February 2010-noon

Notes: I am under the weather; I have a bit of a cough. So I did a short swim this morning (2200 yards; 500 back/free, 500 side/free, 500 fly/free (fins), 500 drill/free, 200 cool-down.

I did enough to stretch and breathe in some humid pool air. That seems to help.

The following gave me a chuckle:

see more Epic Fails

Daily Kos: Stewart/Colbert’s takedowns of Fox News’s climate change deniers

more about "Daily Kos: Stewart/Colbert’s takedown…", posted with vodpod

11 February 2010

Workout notes I felt a bit “down” physically so I thought that a gentle swim might help. I warmed up with 1000 yards in 17:10 (felt easy) then did 10 x 200 on the 3:30 (3:18, 15, 14, 15, 16, 17, 17, 18, 19, 16), 500 drill/swim (fins), 500 cool down. Ok, that was a bit of an “over do” but though my intervals were a bit off (3-4 seconds slower than my best), I’ve done much worse.

Later: I have a slight cough; I do have something.

Yes, I made my yoga class this morning, and yes, my yoga teacher yelled stuff at me in the parking lot.

(all in fun)

Posts

Here is some very bad driving.

Sports: is the Big Ten considering Texas? Well, on a regional level, Texas doesn’t fit in. But it does fit in academically, athletically and in the type of fans that they have. For selfish reasons, I’d love to see it.

Science

Exciting news on aging research:

Gene variants that might show how fast people’s bodies are actually ageing have been pinpointed by scientists.

Researchers from the University of Leicester and Kings College London say the finding could help spot people at higher risk of age-related illnesses.

People carrying the variant had differences in the “biological clock” within all their cells.

The British Heart Foundation said the findings could offer a clue to ways of preventing heart disease.

(source article)

Climate Change: Rachel Maddow had a nice segment on the recent snowfall in Washington DC and those who claimed that this somehow refuted climate change. Her argument: you cannot draw conclusions on long term trends from singular events. Also, how cold a particular area is depends on many things (e. g., jet streams, arctic air masses, etc.)

Science: Obviously, people who have high achievement in science are given a certain amount of respect. But even some of these end up “going crazy” from time to time (e. g., think of John Nash) and sometimes they do downright crack-potty (see Underwood Dudley’s book Mathematical Cranks) It is sad when this happens, and this appears to be a case of that.

Politics

Surf here to have a bit of fun at the expense of the tea-baggers. You see a typical collection of fun “fail” photos.

A bit more serious
Robert Reich takes issue with President Obama not getting tougher on the banking industry; he does NOT misquote him.

From the right: Dick Morris makes an interesting argument which is basically this: President Obama came under right wing criticism when he let the FBI handle the attempted “underwear” bomber. The President responded by noting that the attempted bomber was cooperating with authorities by giving information.

Mr. Morris argues that the President’s reaction was politically useful but at the expense of national security: after all, Al Qeada now knows that we have certain information and can therefore change their plans.

Politically, that is a cynical argument to make given that the Republicans seem intent in opposing everything that the President does, just for the sake of it. But does the argument have merit on policy grounds? Mr. Morris reminds us of Prime Minister Churchill not revealing that the German Enigma code had been broken by allowing for Coventry to be firebombed by the Nazis.

But let’s see the non-political advantages to what the President did:

1. It reassured the public of the government’s competence.
2. He didn’t say what information we got from the cooperation; this might well cause unnecessary disruption of Al Qeada operations (from their point of view; they might change plans that they don’t need to change)
3. This has to reduce morale among their group and it might well get them to mistrust one another and to start infighting.

So there are some potential non-political upsides to what the President did too.

2 F in Peoria

Shoot. Me. Now.

Ok, it was -11 F one day last month.

Yes, I made it to yoga class, but it looks as if:
1. I caught a small bug, hence today’s “noon swim” will be short and drill oriented.
2. My calf/hamstring is not healing. I am doing too much on it. The same drive and determination that got me to train enough to finish 100 mile races is NOT serving me well here….for the next month, I’ll have to lay off. I’ll try to schedule an appointment with a doctor 6 weeks from now, which I can cancel if my injury heals with rest.

Ok, I am not ready to say that I hope that I die in my sleep tonight. But I sure wouldn’t mind a “bear like” hibernation period.