22 September 2011 am

Workout notes Yoga, then a 6 mile run; 1.5 to the goose loop, 9 loops in 32:38 (alternating 1 lap on, 1 lap slower), then 1.5 back. I had some knee pain toward the end; I’ve probably been pushing a bit too hard and some rain might be on the way.

Evolution
This article by Jerry Coyne talks about one trait: body size (over a variety of different types of animals. Body size tends to not change much with time; some variation but not much distance from the mean. That all changes at about one million years when one sees a large divergence from the mean; it is almost as if this metric has some sort of an exponential “envelope” function where the exponent becomes strongly positive right at about one million years.

Death Penalty
Yes, Troy Davis was executed. I’m still against the death penalty; here is a thoughtful discussion which describes my point of view. True, humanity isn’t well served by some types of people living among us (e. g. Lawrence Singleton). I still oppose the penalty for many reasons.

What about the rest of my countrymen? I have to admit that I don’t understand the trends:

And if you look at who supports it the least and who supports it he most:

This isn’t as polarizing of an issue as others are. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t millions who agree with me; there are. It is just that one finds split opinions in almost every demographic and I’d be in the minority in just about any group but blacks.

Boobs For Rick Perry

The above video annoys me a bit; curvy ladies like these who are wearing swim suits with such tiny bottoms have to be spilling out of their bottoms. Where is the rear view shot?

21 September 2011 PM

Workout notes
Track: 3 mile walk in 35:35 (12:19, 11:57, 11:18) then 2200 yard swim (500 free, 500 kick/free (fins), 1000 alternating 100 pull, 100 free, 200 back/free (fins)). The swim was mediocre; I forgot my usual goggles and ear plugs. I only walked 3 miles because I had to go back to the house because I forgot my lunch.

Posts
Science: the body heals itself but:

Although the body is constantly replacing cells and cell constituents, damage and imperfections accumulate over time. Cleanup efforts are saved for when it really matters. Researchers from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, are able to show how the body rids itself of damage when it is time to reproduce and create new life.

‘I have a daughter. She is made of my cells yet has much less cellular damage than my cells. Why didn’t she inherit my cells including the damaged proteins? That’s the process I’m interested in,’ says Malin Hernebring from the Department of Cell- and Molecular Biology at the University of Gothenburg. A few days after conception, the cells in the embryo all look the same – they are unspecified stem cells that can develop into any bodily cell type. As the process of cell specification (differentiation) begins, they go from being able to keep dividing infinitely to being able to do so only a limited number of times. This is when they start cleansing themselves. ‘Quite unexpectedly we found that the level of protein damage was relatively high in the embryo’s unspecified cells, but then it decreased dramatically. A few days after the onset of cell differentiation, the protein damage level had gone down by 80-90 percent. We think this is a result of the damaged material being broken down.’[...]

In the past, researchers have believed that the body keeps cells involved in reproduction isolated and protected from damage. Now it has been shown that these types of cells go through a rejuvenation process that rids them of the inherited damage.

Some types of protein damage in the body increase with age. Although all the necessary information is stored in the DNA, something keeps the body from using it to keep repairing the body.

‘These types of protein damages are what make us appear old, like wrinkles around the eyes. While wrinkles are relatively harmless, serious problems may arise elsewhere in the body. I’m thinking of age-related diseases like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, type 2 diabetes and cancer.’

(source article)

Social: sometimes well intentioned safety laws have unintended consequences:

Risks of teen driving:

For more than a decade, California and other states have kept their newest teen drivers on a tight leash, restricting the hours when they can get behind the wheel and whom they can bring along as passengers. Public officials were confident that their get-tough policies were saving lives.

Now, though, a nationwide analysis of crash data suggests that the restrictions may have backfired: While the number of fatal crashes among 16- and 17-year-old drivers has fallen, deadly accidents among 18-to-19-year-olds have risen by an almost equal amount. In effect, experts say, the programs that dole out driving privileges in stages, however well-intentioned, have merely shifted the ranks of inexperienced drivers from younger to older teens.

This is called “risk shifting”.

Social
One of the things I like about the United States is that, on the whole, we do a good job protecting freedom of speech:

When Erich Campbell passed two Florida Highway Patrol cruisers parked in the median near Tampa International Airport in December 2009, he flashed his headlights to warn oncoming drivers of the radar patrol.

Then, to his surprise, one of the troopers pulled over his silver Toyota Tundra and ticketed him for improper flashing of high beams.

“Literally within one minute, they had me stopped on the side of the road,” recalled Campbell, 38, a former electrician and full-time student.

In August, the Land O’Lakes, Fla., resident filed a class-action lawsuit in Tallahassee against the highway patrol and other state traffic-enforcement agencies. He seeks an injunction barring law enforcement from issuing headlight-flash tickets, plus refunds and civil damages for previously cited motorists.

Campbell’s lawyer, J. Marc Jones, claims his client’s First Amendment right to free speech was violated. “The flashing of lights to communicate with another driver is clearly speech,” he said.

David Hudson, a scholar at the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University who has studied the issue, said motorists have previously challenged headlight-flashing tickets in New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee, but those were individual cases, rather than the statewide class-action lawsuit in Florida.

“The First Amendment protects all sorts of non-verbal conduct; it protects more than the spoken or printed word,” Hudson said. “Courts have found that a wide variety of actions — such as honking one’s horn or flashing one’s headlights — are forms of communication under the First Amendment.”

Note: Florida has stopped issuing tickets for this, pending the outcome of this lawsuit.

I also like it that we are free (legally) to criticize religion; that isn’t the case in some European countries.

But still there are too many Americans who want religion to have some privileged status:

A handful of atheists (15 to be exact) did a horrible, horrible thing in Huntington, Beach, California last week. Did they throw acid in the faces of schoolgirls? Did they mutilate the genitals of young women? Did they threaten children who masturbated with the threat of hell? Did they make little girls wear cloth sacks, and not venture out without a male relative?

No, none of that. It was far worse. Their crime? They ripped up pages of the Bible. No, not even pages of the Bible: some photocopies of Bible verses (watch the video here). Actually, one particularly vicious and militant atheist did desecrate a single page of the scriptures.

But that was enough for author and rabbi Brad Hirshfield’s to write an intemperate column at the “On Faith” section of the Washington Post: “When atheism turns ugly.“ He argues that the destruction of texts is the opposite of free thought (note: they did not destroy any texts; they destroyed some photocopies)[...]

Here is the article that Jerry Coyne is talking about:

Fanatical atheism is no worse and no better than fanatical religion, though it may be more bitterly ironic. There is something pretty odd, dare I say hypocritical, about a bunch of people who call themselves “freethinkers” and “humanists” not only verbally abusing people of faith, but actually tearing up verses from the Bible as an act of protest, as they did on a pier in Huntington Beach, California Saturday morning. It doesn’t sound terribly humane to me, and I am quite sure that destroying texts, however much one may object to them, is the opposite of free thought.

Oh boy. Uh…compare that to…uh, perhaps blowing up an abortion clinic, murdering a doctor or having state sanctioned executions for apostasy? PLEASE.

Now to one of the things I really don’t like about the United States: the death penalty. Yes, I am aware of the Troy Davis case; I don’t know the details though I do know that pressure may have lead the Supreme Court of the United States to take a look at the case, thereby providing a temporary delay.

Yes, the vast majority of those who get executed really did what they are being executed for, and many of those who proclaim innocence are simply lying and many of these sucker people into taking them up as a cause. But not everyone who is executed is guilty and that is just plain unacceptable to me.

Note the list of countries that have abolished the death penalty.

I’d much rather be with the countries that abolished it. But let’s face it: Americans are too backwards and too superstitious to do away with it; in this respect we are more similar to the Islamic Republics (though not nearly as bad) than we are to advanced European nations. Note that even the REPUBLIC of Georgia has abolished the death penalty.

No, I can’t blame this one entirely on the Republicans (Gallup):

Yes, the Republicans are MORE LIKELY to be backward, but the percentage of Democrats that support it is still shamefully high.

Politics
Dick Morris: thinks that President Obama might pull out of his reelection bid. Part of his evidence:

Just looking at Michelle Obama’s unsmiling face during her husband’s recent speech to Congress triggered an insight: These folks aren’t having fun anymore.

OKKKAAAAYYY. Note: Intrade has had President Obama at 50 percent plus or minus about .5 percent for the last month or two; yes that was down from earlier.

Economy The Republicans (and to be fair, AP “fact check”) have been saying that President Obama is wrong about his claims about “the wealthy” paying less in tax (as a percentage) than middle class people. Paul Krugman has provided some insights about this (here he discusses who benefited the most from tax cuts and here:

Well, it seems as if a number of people in the media have decided that Obama was fibbing when he said that some millionaires pay lower tax rates than their secretaries — because, as the usual suspects triumphantly declare, on average millionaires pay higher average taxes than middle-income Americans.

This is, of course, stupid: the operative word is SOME.

And we’re not talking about one or two exceptional guys, either. Look at the IRS data on returns for the 400 highest incomes in America (pdf) — specifically, Table 43. If you look at the numbers since 2004, you’ll see that in a typical year between 30 and 40 percent of those super-high-income players paid an average tax rate of less than 15 percent; most of them paid less than 20 percent. Bear in mind that for the very wealthy the payroll tax — the main burden on working-class Americans — is trivial, because of the cap on Social Security and the fact that it only applies to earned income. And what becomes clear is that the Obama/Buffet claim is absolutely, totally true.

So why the attack? Probably because it’s such an effective line.

In another article, he provides a table. Sure the table takes effort to follow which means that this will be useless for someone looking for a quick soundbite. But I find it interesting. So here it is: (data from the Tax Policy Center)

How to read this: look at, say the 100-200 line (these are household incomes). The percentiles are “percent of households in this income range that pay this percent of taxes”. So the lowest 10′th percentile pays more 10.3 percent in taxes, 25′th percentile pays 15.6 percent, 40′th percentile 18.1, 75′th percentile 22.4 percent and the 90′th percentile pays more than 24.6 percent. Note: this is combined income and payroll tax. Now look at the 1,000,000 income line: that’s right; the lower percentile tax payers pay much less in tax that the upper percentile 40-50K people. So yes, numerically, lots of millionaires pay less tax than lots of middle income people, even though the median millionaire does pay more than the median 40-50K person.

Humor Via the Fail Blog:

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

see more funny videos, and check out our Yo Dawg lols!

20 September 2011 PM

Workout notes
I ran my “almost 10K” course in 59:17; I was 10:08 at 1.05 miles and took 9:25 to do the last 1.05 miles. I was 49:52 prior to the final stretch. The weather was cool and overcast.

I didn’t go to yoga; my dinner didn’t digest all that well and so I slept a bit more.

Note: the run was actually pretty easy for the first 35 minutes or so; then it became increasingly harder. I was talking to myself on the last big uphill.

Posts

Science: This is Lisa Randall talking about her new book (she is a cosmologist) I still need to finish her book Warped Passages.

Rush Limbaugh: Obama’s supporters are a bunch of crazed anti-American lunatics. See: according to the Republicans, THEIR agenda is the “American agenda”. Not a better idea, but the AMERICAN agenda.

Tea Party Mano Singham points out that some tea party types see the need for infrastructure repair..they just don’t see the need to pay for it.

Politics What if the 2000 election was decided by the popular vote? Yes, we all know that Mr. Gore got more votes than Mr. Bush, but remember that the candidates ran a strategy for maximizing their chances to win the electoral college. This article is a nice analysis for political junkies.

Economy
Predictably, we are hearing BWAAAAK, CLASS WARFARE. There are times when I doubt that the Republican brain is fully functioning; they do a good enough job with business profits (e. g., running their competitors out of business and slashing their own payrolls) and a good job of invading and conquering countries. Thinking: not so much. One of their “pull string” lines is to point out that “the wealthy are only x percent of the population but pay y percent of the taxes”…never mind their incomes.
Paul Krugman sets the record straight…not that the Republicans would listen to him.

Furthermore our current economic problems are what we faced before and what the Republicans want to do is what didn’t work before…unless one considers a Gilded Age society to be a success….come to think of it, the Gilded Age is the Republican Utopia, isn’t it? The “deserving” had all the money; the rest of us could have our company cottage and company store where we could spend our company script.

I can imagine the Republicans getting all hot and bothered thinking about such a set up….

Now what gets ME hot and bothered is somewhat different:

Spandex Butts
Via Girls in Yoga Pants: Check out what it says on the bottom of her shirt:

Now THAT is confidence! But…well, at the university gym, it isn’t ok for me to stare. I save that for road races.

19 September 2011

Frogs Several new species of frog were discovered in India, and some species that were thought to be extinct are not extinct after all:

Years of combing tropical mountain forests, shining flashlights under rocks and listening for croaks in the night have paid off for a team of Indian scientists which has discovered 12 new frog species plus three others thought to have been extinct.[...]

“Frogs are extremely important indicators not just of climate change, but also pollutants in the environment,” said the project’s lead scientist, biologist Sathyabhama Das Biju of the University of Delhi.

Many of the newly found frogs in India are rare and are living in just a single area, so they will need rigorous habitat protection, Biju told The Associated Press on Saturday. “Unfortunately in India, conservation has basically focused on the two most charismatic animals – the elephant and the tiger. For amphibians there is little interest, little funding, and frog research is not easy.”

(Professor S. D. Biju took this one of the meowing night frog; see 14 more photos starting here; go up to the right hand corner to start the slide show. They are beauties!)

Personal blogs
I am not a business person, but this person’s story on how they got a service going is interesting; it talks about web sites that link people to services and how out of control pricing can get (when there is a downward spiral in pricing).

Science
I subscribe to the New York Times and therefore got a notice for this article that defended an attack on naturalism:

Before taking up Professor Williamson’s challenges to naturalism, it’s worth identifying some of this success in applying science to the solution of philosophical problems, some of which even have pay-offs for science. Perhaps the most notable thing about naturalism is the way its philosophers have employed Darwin’s theory of natural selection to tame purpose. In 1784 Kant wrote, “There will never be a Newton for the blade of grass.” What he meant was that physical science could never explain anything with a purpose, whether it be human thought or a flower’s bending toward the sun. That would have made everything special about living things — and especially us — safe from a purely scientific understanding. It would have kept questions about humanity the preserve of religion, mythmaking and the humanities.

Only 25 years or so later, the Newton of the blade of grass was born to the Darwin family in Shropshire, England. “On the Origin of Species” revealed how physical processes alone produce the illusion of design. Random variation and natural selection are the purely physical source of the beautiful means/ends economy of nature that fools us into seeking its designer. Naturalists have applied this insight to reveal the biological nature of human emotion, perception and cognition, language, moral value, social bonds and political institutions. Naturalistic philosophy has returned the favor, helping psychology, evolutionary anthropology and biology solve their problems by greater conceptual clarity about function, adaptation, Darwinian fitness and individual-versus-group selection. [...]

Naturalism faces these questions because it won’t uncritically buy into Professor Williamson’s “default assumption … that the practitioners of a well-established discipline know what they are doing, and use the … methods most appropriate for answering its questions.” If semiotics, existentialism, hermeneutics, formalism, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction and post-modernism transparently flout science’s standards of objectivity, or if they seek arbitrarily to limit the reach of scientific methods, then naturalism can’t take them seriously as knowledge.

That doesn’t mean anyone should stop doing literary criticism any more than foregoing fiction. Naturalism treats both as fun, but neither as knowledge.

Amen. Jerry Coyne weighs in and his response is worth reading.

I’ll add this: I almost never get in these debates and frankly I care very little about what philosophers have to say. I really don’t see them of having much of value to add.

Dr. Coyne also points us to a…yep, New York Times article on Richard Dawkins. There is a video too.

I found it delightful reading; there are some things that the Dawkins follower might not know.

Politics
Paul Krugman explains that our economy needs help now and not some “some pain now for some good later” type stuff:

And the austerity has been real. In Europe, troubled nations like Greece and Ireland have imposed savage cuts, even as stronger nations have imposed milder austerity programs of their own. In the United States, the modest federal stimulus of 2009 has faded out, while state and local governments have slashed their budgets, so that over all we’ve had a de facto move toward austerity not so different from Europe’s.

Strange to say, however, confidence hasn’t surged. Somehow, businesses and consumers seem much more concerned about the lack of customers and jobs, respectively, than they are reassured by the fiscal righteousness of their governments. And growth seems to be stalling, while unemployment remains disastrously high on both sides of the Atlantic.

But, say apologists for the bad results so far, shouldn’t we be focused on the long run rather than short-run pain? Actually, no: the economy needs real help now, not hypothetical payoffs a decade from now. In any case, evidence is starting to emerge that the economy’s “short run” troubles — now in their fourth year, and being made worse by the focus on austerity — are taking a toll on its long-run prospects as well. [...]

Oh, and the brunt of those cuts in public spending is falling on education. Somehow, laying off hundreds of thousands of schoolteachers doesn’t seem like a good way to win the future.

In fact, when you combine the growing evidence that fiscal austerity is reducing our future prospects with the very low interest rates on U.S. government debt, it’s hard to avoid a startling conclusion: budget austerity may well be counterproductive even from a purely fiscal point of view, because lower future growth means lower tax receipts.

What should be happening? The answer is that we need a major push to get the economy moving, not at some future date, but right now. For the time being we need more, not less, government spending, supported by aggressively expansionary policies from the Federal Reserve and its counterparts abroad. And it’s not just pointy-headed economists saying this; business leaders like Google’s Eric Schmidt are saying the same thing, and the bond market, by buying U.S. debt at such low interest rates, is in effect pleading for a more expansionary policy.

And to be fair, some policy players seem to get it. President Obama’s new jobs plan is a step in the right direction, while some board members of the Federal Reserve and the Bank of England — though not, sad to say, the European Central Bank — have been calling for much more growth-oriented policies.

What we really need, however, is to convince a substantial number of people with political power or influence that they’ve spent the last year and a half going in exactly the wrong direction, and that they need to make a U-turn.

Don’t expect Republicans to buy any of this. They are the party of all things Voodoo; no evidence is required for them to stick to their beliefs.

They’ll howl and bellow about socialism which for them means taking money from the deserving and giving it to the unworthy (psst: it isn’t that; it is pooling money for the collective good. Of course they are just fine doing this when they dream up a war that simply MUST be fought to “keep us safe”…but for things like schools and health care….ooohhhh nooo, THAT’S SOCIALISM!!!!!

Yes, I admit that the government sometimes makes a bad decision (e. g., Solyndra company decision; a company was touted as a successful green energy company, got a loan and went bankrupt; it turns out that someone dropped the ball on economic fact-checking). Yes, we sometimes blow it though it helps to keep our failures in perspective.

Clueless liberals Yes, let’s waste money on a primary challenge to President Obama. Did I tell you that I am planning on making the Chicago Bulls?

Oh yes, how could I forget: President Obama is coming out with a “let’s pretty please ask the millionaires to pay some more tax…pretty please?”

With a scrappy unveiling of his formula to rein in the nation’s mounting debt, President Obama confirmed Monday that he had entered a new, more combative phase of his presidency, one likely to last until next year’s election as he battles for a second term. [...]

He uncharacteristically backed up that stand with a veto threat, setting up a politically charged choice for anti-tax Republicans — protect the most affluent or compromise to attack deficits. Confident in the answers most voters would make, Mr. Obama plans to hammer on that choice through 2012, reflecting the fact that the White House has all but given up hopes of a “grand bargain” with Republicans to restore fiscal balance for years to come.

“I will not support — I will not support — any plan that puts all the burden for closing our deficit on ordinary Americans. And I will veto any bill that changes benefits for those who rely on Medicare but does not raise serious revenues by asking the wealthiest Americans or biggest corporations to pay their fair share,” Mr. Obama said. “We are not going to have a one-sided deal that hurts the folks who are most vulnerable.”

Mr. Obama also seems to have given up on his strategy of nearly a year, beginning when Republicans won control of the House last November, of being the eager-to-compromise “reasonable adult” — in the White House’s phrasing — in his relations with them. He had sought to build a personal relationship with Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, a man the White House saw as a possible partner across the aisle, in the hopes of making bipartisan progress and simultaneously winning points with independent voters who disdain partisanship. Even if the efforts produced few agreements with Republicans, the White House figured, independents would give Mr. Obama credit for trying.

Many of those on the left (myself included) thought that while he had to try, he went too far. I think that he underestimated what greedy, power hungry, entitled amoral people that he was dealing with. He needed to have just a little of…that’s right, George W Bush in him. Of course the assholes Republicans are screaming “CLASS WARFARE”, blah, blah, blah.

19 September 2011

Workout notes Weights then swimming.
Swimming: 10 x 25 fist, 25 free
10 x 25 kick, 25 free (fins)
10 x 25 side, 25 free
10 x 25 back, 25 free
200 free
Basic, not very fast as it was after weights.
Weights: rotator cuff, one set of lunges, 2 sets of sit ups (25/25, then 25/25)
Hammer rows: 3 sets of 10 x 200
dumbbell curls: 3 sets of 12 x 25 lb.
pull downs: 3 sets of 10 x 145
bench press: 10 x 135, 7 x 155, 6 x 155
incline press: 2 sets of 10 x 120
adduction: 3 sets of 10 x 180
abduction: 3 sets of 10 x 180
dumbbell military: 2 sets of 15 x 40 lb. (seated)
dumbbell military: 1 set of 6 x 45 lb. standing.

I don’t want to jinx myself, but my shoulder is feeling better and better…and I can start to see muscles in my arms again.
Ok, I have to use a bit of imagination and wishful thinking to see the muscles…

Technology and Academia You probably heard of anti-plagiarism software. You might have predicted or guessed it: some companies that make this are also helping the cheaters avoid the anti-plagiarism software..

Science and space

This is a time lapse video. Hat tip: Jerry Coyne.

While that was uplifting, the following NASA photo of the Bastrop, TX wildfire is depressing.

Politics
Are things worse under President Obama? Well, someone who got laid off during the big jobs purge might think so since they have now been unemployed for a longer time. But by objective measures: not really:

Just take a look at how things are better now than they were under Bush courtesy of Steve Benen of Washington Monthly’s Political Animal:

“Everything is worse”? That might make more sense were it not for the fact that:

* American job creation is better now than when Bush left office.

* American economic growth is better now than when Bush left office.

* Al Qaeda is dramatically weaker now than when Bush left office.

* The American automotive industry is vastly stronger now than when Bush left office.

* The struggle for equality of the LGBT community is vastly better now than when Bush left office.

* The U.S. health care system is better and more accessible than when Bush left office.

* The federal budget deficit is better now than when Bush left office.

* The major Wall Street indexes and corporate profits are better now than when Bush left office.

* International respect for the United States is better now than when Bush left office.

Oddly enough, those on the extreme left would be as reluctant as the Republicans to listen to this.
I recommend that liberals read the article that I linked to. Remember this line:

If we want a real liberal, we need to elect Bernie Sanders.

Of course, he would be stopped by the very same forces who put the beat down on Obama, and the very same Senate that is not doing their job as a check on the tyranny of the majority from the House, but still. He does stand for everything we want.

But then wantin’ ain’t getting’, and even Bernie, whom I would vote for in a hot second, couldn’t change the House that Republicans built.

It takes more than ideals to govern effectively. It takes more than balls to get anything remotely helpful for middle class America passed with the Republican Party occupying their current hold in the House and obstructing from the Senate. It takes more than Democrats being elected.

Also, under the guise of freedom of liberal thought, one is allowed to emote regarding the president and accuse without a clear understanding of policy and acknowledgement of current obstacles and rules, but one is not allowed to cite facts and ask questions lest one be a bot.

Many of the Daily Kos liberals (and yes, I am one of them) are almost as clueless as the rabid tea-baggers.

FIGHTINGILLINI.COM – FightIngillini.com Football

Link to a video of the Illinois-Arizona State football game highlights.

Snarky Monday (19 September)

Advantage: Republicans. They court the idiot vote and there is much more of that:

THERE are two American archetypes that were sometimes played against each other in old Westerns.

The egghead Eastern lawyer who lacks the skills or stomach for a gunfight is contrasted with the tough Western rancher and ace shot who has no patience for book learnin’. [...]

The Republicans are now the “How great is it to be stupid?” party. In perpetrating the idea that there’s no intellectual requirement for the office of the presidency, the right wing of the party offers a Farrelly Brothers “Dumb and Dumber” primary in which evolution is avant-garde.

Having grown up with a crush on William F. Buckley Jr. for his sesquipedalian facility, it’s hard for me to watch the right wing of the G.O.P. revel in anti-intellectualism and anti-science cant.

Sarah Palin, who got outraged at a “gotcha” question about what newspapers and magazines she read, is the mother of stupid conservatism. Another “Don’t Know Much About History” Tea Party heroine, Michele Bachmann, seems rather proud of not knowing anything, simply repeating nutty, inflammatory medical claims that somebody in the crowd tells her.

So we’re choosing between the overintellectualized professor and blockheads boasting about their vacuity?

The occupational hazard of democracy is know-nothing voters. It shouldn’t be know-nothing candidates.

Ok, ok, the true “know nothings” label came from what they told the press and investigators about their activities rather than from their social and political positions but…

Feminism
According to this post,

So I heard that this is what girls from volleyball team at West Virginia do for their fund raising activity – whip cream, spandex shorts, volleyball uniform, bunch of guys at the local bar.

Note: I have to corroborating evidence that this is the volleyball team.

But you can see the activities here. This is one reason I don’t pay too much attention to some of the bluster coming from womyn’s studies departments over how women want to be perceived.

How long before the right wing media starts to complain?

I am taking bets as to when the Wall Street Journal, National Review Online or some Fox News outlet or some right wing politician complains about Paul Krugman inciting violence.

High School Football: My Last Football Play Ever. Shattered Dreams and a Missed Tackle…

Setting: prior to the 1976 football season, I had 4 seasons in a row when I started; 8′th grade (bantam league), 9′th grade (JV at Yokota High), 10′th grade (varsity at Yokota High) and 11′th grade (JV at Travis High; I was ineligible for varsity). So I had high hopes of become a starter on the varsity. It wasn’t to be.

So it came down to our last game; we were playing Anderson High who would win the conference championship (and make the play-offs) with a win against us. We were 4-5 going in.

The game was cold and sleety; just miserable. As usual, I was benched and didn’t expect to play (though I had played in previous games).

We took the lead on a kick-off return and lead 6-0; they scored the next 36 points and lead 36-6 late in the game.

The coach put me in for a few plays; I enjoyed being out there at least a little bit.

The other side of the field still had lots of people; our side of the field had emptied. The band had left at half time as had all but, literally, 2 or 3 of our fans.

Anderson got the ball inside our 3 yard line and there were only a few seconds left in the game.

What happened next was bizarre: our coach and our entire bench LEFT THE BENCH TO GET TO THE BUS. They literally left us out there; evidently they thought that the clock would run out.

But the other team called a time out to give their reserves a chance to score. We (those still on the field) didn’t mind; that meant that we got another down of football.

So I dug in. They ran a basic goal line running play and I beat my block! I slammed into the ball carrier and had him stopped but couldn’t wrap up. He rolled off my left shoulder….into the end zone.

Perfect: my last play was a missed tackle that lead to a touchdown, and no one saw it.

So in the huddle between the TD and the extra point, we discussed what we’d do on the subsequent kick-off and if we got the ball back; remember that our bench and coaches had left us all alone!

We kept competing; we drew a few off side penalties on them; they ended up missing the point. Final: 42-6.

We then ran to where the bus was; fortunately they had waited for us. As we got on, the coach ASKED US WHAT THE FINAL SCORE WAS.

That was my last football game.

Note: obviously, my football dreams were destined to failure sooner or later; those who were destined to play big time college football were much stronger, quicker, faster and more powerful than I. I worked at it; I lifted weights and worked up to a 290 pound bench press (on the universal; I did the 220 pound stack plus added weights; I got 210 with free weights) and I ran sprints on my own; alas I never could break out of the high 5′s (5.7-5.9) in the 40 yard dash. Yes, you read that correctly; I was turtle slow, though I did clock a 5:57 mile as a 220 pounder.