About to join the unruly mob…

The Jingle Bell 5K will start in just over 2 hours. I am getting ready to leave and sign up, even though it will be a zoo (as usual) (people who don’t run races regularly will line up too far in the front, come to complete stops, etc.)

Some “fun”:

You have to be a bit of a science nerd to “get” the second one.

Sexual Crimes, Religion’s dismissal of Science and Irrelevant Issues

Workout notes Weights: same old. Differences: 4 x 30 sit ups all at the highest elevation, 5 x 170, 3 x 170, 9 x 155 bench presses, 2 sets of 9 x 125 incline, seated military 15 x 45 lbs. (2 sets); 8 x 160 on the lat pull down.
Swim: 20 x 100 on the 2 (missed the first 3, but made up the time; last 12-13 were 1:52.

Posts

Mr. Romney has some selective editing issues.

Sexual Crimes

How do people justify staying with a pedophile spouse? This is a mystery to me, but some do. Here is a Salon article about one who did (in this case, the male pedophile sexually abused a 10 year old girl.

But it isn’t just men who abuse. This is a case where a 28 year old woman met a 13 year old boy at a Christan summer camp and then seduced him, even picking him up from school to have sex with him.

Of course, the initial reaction of many males is “damn…why hasn’t that happened to me?”. Of course, this IS a serious issue that should be taken seriously, even if many of us fantasize about an attractive woman seducing us and having her way with us.

Yes, this rape (and that is what it is; the kid is underage) can be very damaging in the long term. But sex and sexually related stuff is often difficult to discuss rationally; emotions run high.

Here is a case in which someone “on the left” gets it wrong. Background: Jon Huntsman referred to Herman Cain’s latest revelation (that he had a long running extramarital affair) a “bimbo eruption”. This struck someone the wrong way:

But in reiterating his remarks after the allegations of a decade long extramarital affair with Ginger White, Huntsman then stated, “We’ve got real issues to talk about not the latest bimbo eruption.”

Republicans defend the remark, saying it’s just a reference to the allegations of affairs that were plaguing former President Bill Clinton during his political career. But regardless, doesn’t calling all the women involved in both cases “bimbos” just continue to reek of the victim blaming and tarnishing that often accompanies the claims of a woman who said she has been harassed or assaulted?

Uh, no. Mr. Huntsman was referring to Mr. Cain’s affair and not the sexual harassment. Yes, sexual harassment is serious and involves a victim. But the affair was consensual; the woman was hardly a “victim”. The author of this article is conflating the two completely different situations.

Of course, I am still think that, for the most part, the Republican field consists of mostly sad sacks and clowns (Mr. Romney did a competent job in Massachusetts, Mr. Huntsman is a smart, accomplished man; the rest are what I said…). The German magazine Spiegel is rather harsh..but accurate:

A Club of Liars, Demagogues and Ignoramuses

Africa is a country. In Libya, the Taliban reigns. Muslims are terrorists; most immigrants are criminal; all Occupy protesters are dirty. And women who feel sexually harassed — well, they shouldn’t make such a big deal about it.

Welcome to the wonderful world of the US Republicans. Or rather, to the twisted world of what they call their presidential campaigns. For months now, they’ve been traipsing around the country with their traveling circus, from one debate to the next, one scandal to another, putting themselves forward for what’s still the most powerful job in the world. [...]

They lie. They cheat. They exaggerate. They bluster. They say one idiotic, ignorant, outrageous thing after another. They’ve shown such stark lack of knowledge — political, economic, geographic, historical — that they make George W. Bush look like Einstein and even cause their fellow Republicans to cringe.

“When did the GOP lose touch with reality?” wonders Bush’s former speechwriter David Frum in New York Magazine. In the New York Times, Kenneth Duberstein, Ronald Reagan’s former chief-of-staff, called this campaign season a “reality show,” while Wall Street Journal columnist and former Reagan confidante Peggy Noonan even spoke of a “freakshow.”

That may be the most appropriate description.[...]

But hey, maybe that is being unfair to the Republicans as a whole. After all, Congressional Republicans are going to be hard on those millionaires:

They just can’t help themselves:

In addition, Senate Republican leaders would go after “millionaires and billionaires,” not by raising their taxes but by making them ineligible for unemployment compensation and food stamps and increasing their Medicare premiums.

I mean, there are lots of millionaires on food stamps, right?

The Republican media is on top of the situation; one of their latest issues is to take (the former Republican) governor of Rhode Island to task for calling his tree a “holiday tree”.

But…Americans aren’t alone.
I’ve wondered why we got stuck with creationists. Well, there are some Muslim students in the U. K. who boycott lectures on evolution. I don’t know whether to take comfort that other industrial countries are stuck dealing with these morons too, or to be appalled that so many are out there.

Just for the heck of it…to remind myself that we still have our own morons: