Why atheism gives me more peace than Christianity

No, the Founding Fathers were not “average guys” nor “fundies”

Update: try here.

15 January 2011 pm

Social Security
Paul Krugman comments on a new report. One one hand, our population is larger. On the other hand, we aren’t as “old” of a society as was anticipated :

You see, in discussions of Social Security it’s often argued that in the program’s early years, nobody could have imagined the increases in life expectancy that have actually occurred, so nobody could have imagined that we’d have as many beneficiaries relative to the number of people of working age. And I thought I knew that this was wrong — that people in the 30s and 40s did know about rising life expectancy, and expected it to continue.

Well, it turns out that Table 9 in the 1945 report (pdf) shows high and low estimates of the population distribution looking forward as far as 2000, which we can compare with the actual population distribution in 2000.

What you can see right away is that the SSA expected a much smaller population than we actually ended up with — the baby boom and immigration weren’t anticipated. But they also expected a somewhat older population than we actually got: their “low” estimate put the ratio of seniors to adults under 65 at 20.8%, almost the same as the actual 21.1%, while the “high” estimate put the ratio at 29.1%. That is, in 1945 the Trustees thought that America would probably be a grayer, older country by 2000 than it actually ended up being.

Religion
Why atheism isn’t a religion (humorous)

15 January 2011

Workout notes
Stretching and PT
Weights: Squats (15 x 45, 10 x 135, 10 x 155, free, no Smith)
Sit-ups: 9-1 incline, 10 each level (strict)
ball throws (10)
curls (dumbbells, 15 x 20 lb, 15 x 20 lb, 15 x 20 lb, 7 x 25 lb.)
incline press: 10 x 115, 10 x 115, 8 x 135
Rows: 70 x 10, 120 x 10, 120 x 10 (different leverage with this machine)
Hip hikes
Rotator cuff with 2.5 pounds and stretch bands
10 minutes arm bike
40 minutes treadmill run/walk:
run: 4 miles (10:15, 19:37, 28:20, 37:15) zero incline, then walk
Cool down stretch

This all took about 1 hour and 50 minutes.

Personal

I went to a memorial service for Jerry Crump; he was a friend who died of prostate cancer at 67 years of age.

In the “after the service” get together, they had decorated the tables by using his old trophies and medals as a place setting. He had a lot of them; to give you an idea of his ability: he ran a 2:57 marathon at 50 years of age. They had many of his awards, certificates and honors on display.

Of course he was much more than a runner; his business associates (tax accounting, farm management) were there as was his family.
The first song of the service was the Guide My Feet song (which I posted above) but I started crying and couldn’t sing the first two verses.

The service was very well done; his brother (a Unitarian minister) co-officiated. Many in his family spoke and gave an excellent portrait of him; he was a real “salt of the earth” guy who cared deeply about others.