Should A Candidate’s Religion Matter? Yes….BUT…practically speaking….

This makes me think about the question: should a candidate’s religion matter? To me: YES!!! But…..as much as I’d love to see the day where a mainstream Presidential candidate could say: “no, I don’t believe that humans were cursed because a talking snake fooled a couple into eating some fruit…such a belief is absurd” and remain a mainstream candidate with a bona-fide chance to win…I will never see that day. Not so long as I remain a US citizen anyway.

The reality is that no national level candidate can win office without either being religious or pretending to be; here is an example that had me rolling my eyes:
(see 1:40-2:05….groan…)

How I long to see the day where we won’t have to stomach stuff like this.

But until then, all I can do is to take religion/religious belief as ONE FACTOR but only one factor.
Example: if we had a Christian candidate who wanted to fund the social safety nets because he/she thinks that is what Jesus would want running against an atheist candidate who took a more Malthusian approach (let the less fit die off), I’d vote for the Christian. That would be an easy decision for me.

So, what I do: I look as to how that candidate would solve problems.

For the record: I really think that Mr. Romney is a smart man and if he were more liberal (say, the way he was as Governor of Massachusetts) and not running against Barack Obama, I’d seriously consider him. Unfortunately, I think he is too much on the “supply side” of economics and too much of “we should be the world’s Leviathan” and, well, I really like President Obama.

So, here are examples of when I’d hold someone’s religious views against them:

Here, Rep. Joe Shmikus seems to think that his god will protect “the world”

Here, a few Republicans admit to being creationists (Sen. McCain’s answer is fine):

On the other side, where I thought that Sen. Dodd and then Sen. Clinton pandered too much, the others got it right:

So my short answer: if you embrace naturalism as to what happens in this universe and to policy but use religion as personal (NOT PUBLIC) guide to morals that is ok by me. That is, please none of this “gays can’t marry because Jesus doesn’t like that” BS. That is a negative with me.

Well, one more day….

Yoga (crowded class; saw Lynn and T was wearing her usual tight spandex…)

Then 32 minute warm up jog (3 miles), 9 goose loop laps (29:45; 9:37/10:13/9:55) .5 on, .22 off, then one hard .36, then 2 miles of jogging.
The day was pretty, I felt fine but I didn’t have that extra “umpf”; 13 seconds slower than last week.

Note: the weather has cooled off a bit. But my previous strategy of doing my slow running outside (in the heat) and my faster (ok, less glacial) running inside (treadmill/indoor track) wasn’t all crazy.

Academia:
Class starts tomorrow; department meeting today.

Posts

What is more likely: Bronze Age people living in a planet in a galaxy that is like millions of other galaxies got it right (when they got almost nothing else right) or they were just making stuff up?

However, there are millions who think that the Bronze Age people got it right….one of them is Hike Huckabee:

Why is everybody so down on rape? This is what Mike Huckabee wanted to know today, on his radio program, which also featured Rep. Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin as a guest. For instance, did you know that Ethel Waters was conceived when her mother got raped? Do you know what a world without rape would look like? A world without Ethel Waters, that’s what.

This is what Mike Huckabee said today, as transcribed by the Los Angeles Times’ James Rainey, about the upside of being raped and then getting pregnant:

“Ethel Waters, for example, was the result of a forcible rape,” Huckabee said of the late American gospel singer. One-time presidential candidate Huckabee added: “I used to work for James Robison back in the 1970s, he leads a large Christian organization. He, himself, was the result of a forcible rape. And so I know it happens, and yet even from those horrible, horrible tragedies of rape, which are inexcusable and indefensible, life has come and sometimes, you know, those people are able to do extraordinary things.”

Anyway, stop being so racist against rape-babies, everyone.

Yep….Hiroshima and Tokyo were nicely rebuilt after being a-bombed and firebombed respectively. This clown is just completely tone deaf.

I wonder if this represents a split in the Republican Party between the religious clowns that the “money first” types. Yes, I got a private message from one of the religious types saying that I am misreading things. I don’t think that I am; I really don’t think that religious conservatism has a long term future in the industrialized world. My guess is that in 1-2 more generations, religion will be as dead here as it is in Western Europe. We’ll still have conservatives but they won’t be religious ones.

Note: I disagree with this article slightly. Yes, more Republicans are creationists, but many Democrats embrace woo and new-age nonsense. The difference, as I see it, is scope. We might have someone like Senator Tom Harkin trying to get “alternative medicine” (aka “quackery”) into the health care bills. But that doesn’t compare, in scope, to the scores of creationists in Congress, state legislatures and school boards who are trying to ruin science and science education.

Note: ironically, I don’t see religion as being a left/right thing. Many in the Democratic coalition are religious (example: African Americans). This has an interesting effect on President Obama’s reelection strategy and it is NOT the obvious one.

Some Bad Arguments…

Bad argument one: if the people voted on it then it isn’t fair that the judges overturn it. Example:

The activist 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ has ruled that Proposition 8′s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. This ruling is the latest example of activist judges over-ruling the will of the people.

I find it very curious that the former governor of a southern state would make this argument. For example: should civil rights have been left up to the popular mandate of those states?

In fact, we live in a liberal democracy in which people have rights that can’t be taken away by the will of the majority.
Now if you want to argue that the Constitution’s “equal protection” clause doesn’t apply to gay marriage, well, that is another issue entirely and I am not a legal expert. But this idea that “the majority voted to rescind those rights and therefore it should be that way” is pure nonsense.

Bad argument two: atheism is a religion.
False. Atheism merely says “I don’t believe in gods x, y, z, and w.” Saying that atheism is a religion is like saying that not believing in Thor is a religion or that “not-stamp-collecting” is a hobby. Something and “not something” are not symmetric positions.

Bad argument three Requiring Catholic insurance carriers to cover contraception is an assault on religious freedom.

False. The church can believe what it wants and teach what it wants. But if it moves into a business (say, the insurance business or the health care business) then it has to follow the same rules that other businesses do.

Bad argument four Health insurance covers Viagra therefore it should cover birth control!

Now I’ll lay my cards on the table: health insurance should cover birth control, but it has nothing to do with whether it covers Viagra or not. These are entirely different things.

Viagra: treats a medical disorder; one doesn’t take Viagra unless something is wrong.
Birth Control: is used by non-ill people to prevent something natural from happening; it wasn’t designed to be used as a medicine to treat a medical condition (though it is sometimes used that way).

Now if one makes the argument that a healthy sex life is a part of one’s emotional health and birth control pills assist with that, then one can (and, in my opinion, should!) make that argument.

But the attempt to make the two to be somehow equivalent is illogical.

Snowy Saturday…sort of

Ok, it was just an inch and the roads are somewhat clear. Nevertheless, I’ll be lifting and then doing a short run on the track this morning.

Posts

Note: Presidents of both parties have been complaining about his “hold” policy for years. Yes, I thought it was dumb even when President Bush was in office. There might be some breakthrough in reaching an agreement to at least amend some of these procedures.

I don’t have the data on Senate holds but I do know that the Republicans have used the filibuster at an unprecedented rate.

Newt Gingrich and his Super Pac “Winning our Future”
Here is a Gingrich ad:

(note: Mr. Huckabee said that he was taken out of context and did NOT endorse the ad)

Winning Our Future’s ad

Notice how slick this ad is and how is very quickly slips in the appropriate disclaimers; Mitt Romney is never exactly accused of any direct wrongdoing. In fact, this ad presents what is old news in Massachusetts. But the tone is designed to scare the voters rather than to inform them. Very devious…:)

So how well are the candidates themselves doing on truthfulness? Here Nate Silver makes an analysis; one should read Mr. Silver’s cautions though.

18 May 2011 pm

I am still groggy; I haven’t done much but nap this afternoon.

In fact, I am moving a bit like this fellow (or gal):

Evolutionary psychology is often used as a pinata. Some embrace it, though it appears that they don’t know what they are embracing.
Here, Jerry Coyne critiques David Brooks’ use of it and it isn’t pretty. Bottom line: some evolutionary concepts might sound easy to explain, but they really aren’t; it is best for non-experts to not draw conclusions on their own without consulting experts.

Social I’ve always scoffed at “multi-tasking”; evidently I am not the only one. Basically it is possible to “multi-task” if one wants to do a bunch of things poorly.

Politics
Dick Morris on Mitt Romney. Note: it appears as if he is trying to rally the Newsmax crowd to his candidacy because he is the best that the Republicans have.

Talk about flip-flopping; this is way different that what Mr. Morris said earlier.

Note that Mr. Gingrich is in the race and Ms. Bachmann has yet to declare. So it would appear that Mr. Huckabee deciding not to run would enhance either of their chances, no?

15 May 2011 (AM)

Weather: chilly (49 F, or 9 C), rainy and windy. Yep, that is Illinois spring weather!

Workout: 4 mile run in 38:51; 4 mile walk in 1:00:40 (ok, the google distance was 4.13 miles each way):

The run (9:30 ish pace) felt easy at first but it was eventually work. The walk was fine; I had to remember my posture.

Injury notes: no NSAIDS due to an upcoming (routine) medical procedure. But I’ve been looking at my symptoms and this appears to be what is happening:

Trigger points in the Gluteus Minimus are often aggravated by and confused with trigger points in the Quadratus Lumborum, Gluteus Medius, Piriformis, Tensor Fasciae Latae, Vastus Lateralis, Peroneus Longus, and the Hamstring muscles.

Pain caused by Trigger Points in the Gluteus Minimus can be very intense, like many other Trigger Points, and it can cause numbness in the referred pain areas as well, often being confused for sciatica.

Gluteus Minimus Trigger Points can cause pain while walking or standing, and they can make it difficult to get out of a chair without extreme pain. They may also cause a limp on one side and make it hard to cross the legs or roll over or get out of bed.

Note: my pain is mostly when I stand in one place or when I walk too slowly. Faster walking and running doesn’t hurt it….at the time I am doing it. What is most painful is slow, standing movements (like when one goes shopping or waiting in a line).

The article I linked to goes on to talk about how to treat this; I’ve been using one of the tips and it appears to be helping. Note: there is another trigger point listed there; it is the above one that seems to apply to me at this time.

Politics
Mike Huckabee is not a candidate; I can’t say that I was surprised. Newt Gingrich was. He has zero chance in the general.

The Things Mike Huckabee Approves of….

I am on Mike Huckabee’s mailing list. He too whined about the President’s mocking of the radical right wing. But what I found interesting was this:

The Supreme Court ruled that burning an American flag was protected free speech…but they never said people who did it were immune to other people’s free speech. A student at LSU got permission from the school to burn a flag in support of another student who took an American flag off the LSU War Memorial and burned it in protest of Osama bin Laden’s killing. But the second student couldn’t get a local burn permit, so he just began reading a statement. He discovered, though, that the other students also had free speech rights. They drowned him out by chanting, “USA, USA” and “Go to hell, hippie.” Then they also followed the Court’s lead by interpreting actions as speech, and began throwing trash and water balloons at him. I assume the water balloons were just in case he HAD gotten the flag lit. Police had to intervene and escort him to a safe location.

It’s definitely not the ’60s anymore: the student government president gave an impassioned defense – of the crowd with the water balloons. He said, “It’s time that my generation stand up for what they believe in and exercise their freedom of speech and let people know that we are not OK with this.” My gosh—this ol’ Razorback has to tip my hat to the LSU Tigers on this one.

Sincerely,

Mike Huckabee

Yes, one has the right to say “I don’t like it when you do that”; that too is free speech. But shouting someone down is more or less akin to just making noise to mask a message. What would Mr. Huckabee say we showed up at his rallies and wouldn’t let him speak?

But worse, look at what Mr. Huckabee chose to emphasize: “Go to hell, hippie”.
He approves of this?

PS: I approved of the Bin Laden operation and killing.

On Notice/Dead to Me – Mike Huckabee – The Colbert Report – 3/7/11 – Video Clip | Comedy Central

ColbertNation.com video – Mike Huckabee is On Notice until he says something that will get him unwanted attention on The Colbert Report.

On Notice/Dead to Me – Mike Huckabee – The Colb…, posted with vodpod

6 March 2011

Workout notes
5 mile treadmill walk in just under an hour, then after a quick breakfast, 8 miles on the East Peoria trail with Lynn (2:15) which, while not fast, is 13 minutes faster than last week. The weather was sunny and right about at freezing, with little wind.

Science and Mathematics

Andrew Wiles

Well, my desk is as messy has his desk is…that is where the resemblance ends.

Climate change and the US Navy:

The human brain: surprisingly, different parts of the brain can be co-opted for different uses:

When your brain encounters sensory stimuli, such as the scent of your morning coffee or the sound of a honking car, that input gets shuttled to the appropriate brain region for analysis. The coffee aroma goes to the olfactory cortex, while sounds are processed in the auditory cortex.

That division of labor suggests that the brain’s structure follows a predetermined, genetic blueprint. However, evidence is mounting that brain regions can take over functions they were not genetically destined to perform. In a landmark 1996 study of people blinded early in life, neuroscientists showed that the visual cortex could participate in a nonvisual function — reading Braille.

Now, a study from MIT neuroscientists shows that in individuals born blind, parts of the visual cortex are recruited for language processing. The finding suggests that the visual cortex can dramatically change its function — from visual processing to language — and it also appears to overturn the idea that language processing can only occur in highly specialized brain regions that are genetically programmed for language tasks.

“Your brain is not a prepackaged kind of thing. It doesn’t develop along a fixed trajectory, rather, it’s a self-building toolkit. The building process is profoundly influenced by the experiences you have during your development,” says Marina Bedny, an MIT postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences and lead author of the study, which appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences the week of Feb. 28.

Creationism: the battle against it never stops.

Now, more than 80 years after the famous “Scopes Monkey Trial” in Tennessee, creationism proponents are pushing for state legislation there that could make it easier for teachers to bring unscientific ideas back into the science classroom in public schools. To bolster their cause, the backers of the new bills are invoking none other than teacher John Scopes, the trial’s pro-evolution defendant, as an icon of independent thinking.

Evolution Horses teeth evolved to handle the new diet…over a long period of time:

Fossil records verify a long-standing theory that horses evolved through natural selection, according to groundbreaking research by two anatomy professors at New York College of Osteopathic Medicine (NYCOM) of New York Institute of Technology.

Working with colleagues from Massachusetts and Spain, Matthew Mihlbachler, Ph.D., and Nikos Solounias, Ph.D. arrived at the conclusion after examining the teeth of 6,500 fossil horses representing 222 different populations of more than 70 extinct horse species. The records, spanning the past 55 million years, indicate a “critical” lag time between the evolution of horse teeth and dietary changes resulting from climate change.
[...]
“Lag time in the evolution of horse teeth in comparison to dietary changes is critical,” Mihlbachler explained. “We found that evolutionary changes in tooth anatomy lag behind the dietary changes by a million years or more.”

While paleontologists have long held horses as classic examples of evolution through natural selection, the theory has been difficult to test because the majority of horse species are extinct. However, Mihlbachler and Solounias’ observation that dental changes in horses follow their dietary changes is consistent with evolution due to adaptation.

“‘You are what you eat’: we hear this all the time, but now we know it is true,” explained Thomas Scandalis, Dean of NYCOM. “This study shows that the evolutionary path of horses as we know them today was affected by the food available to their prehistoric ancestors.”

Evidently the evolutionary advantage to the better teeth was oh-so-slight…

George Will Republicans and the 2012 race: are the fringe candidates who are trying to “out stupid” each other hurting the more viable candidates?

If pessimism is not creeping on little cat’s feet into Republicans’ thinking about their 2012 presidential prospects, that is another reason for pessimism. This is because it indicates they do not understand that sensible Americans, who pay scant attention to presidential politics at this point in the electoral cycle, must nevertheless be detecting vibrations of weirdness emanating from people associated with the party.

Mr. Will goes on to slam Mr. Huckabee and Mr. Gingrich and then:

Republicans should understand that when self-described conservatives such as Malzberg voice question-rants like the one above and Republicans do not recoil from them, the conservative party is indirectly injured. As it is directly when Newt Gingrich, who seems to be theatrically tiptoeing toward a presidential candidacy, speculates about Obama having a “Kenyan, anti-colonial” mentality. [...]

Of course, Mr. Will goes on to call Mr. Obama a “professor president” in the mold of Woodrow Wilson. But he then concludes:

Let us not mince words. There are at most five plausible Republican presidents on the horizon – Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, former Utah governor and departing ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Massachusetts governor Romney and former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty.

So the Republican winnowing process is far advanced. But the nominee may emerge much diminished by involvement in a process cluttered with careless, delusional, egomaniacal, spotlight-chasing candidates to whom the sensible American majority would never entrust a lemonade stand, much less nuclear weapons.

No, maybe most Americans wouldn’t trust some of the wackos with nuclear weapons. But many of the people that vote in Republican primaries would…and note that Mr. Will left Ms. Sarah Palin off of the list. Tisk, tisk.

Republican radio call shows: some callers are paid-for plants with scripts!

America’s #1 and #2 radio broadcast hosts today and for decades have been Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity, whose ratings and profits have dominated once thriving local markets. After industry deregulation paved the way, their boss, Premiere Radio Networks and parent company Clear Channel Communications have used a Wal-Mart model of steamrolling or acquiring small, independent original radio businesses, syndicating everything from robotized genre music stations to a political talk show hosts selling snake oil.

But according to an online account, Premiere is hiring actors to fake on-air calls to radio shows who do not divulge the scam. Before being abruptly removed, their website read:

“Premiere On Call is our new custom caller service… We supply voice talent to take/make your on-air calls, improvise your scenes or deliver your scripts. Using our simple online booking tool, specify the kind of voice you need, and we’ll get your the right person fast. Unless you request it, you won’t hear that same voice again for at least two months, ensuring the authenticity of your programming for avid listeners”.

As reported, once the actor “passed the audition, he would be invited periodically to call in to various talk shows and recite various scenarios that made for interesting radio.” In addition, the source was specifically told there would be no on-air disclosure of the fabricated nature of the call. He subsequently landed the job, at $40 per hour and a minimum one hour of work per day.

2 March 2011 PM

Workout notes
Before work, I ran my 5.28-5.31 mile (?) course in 53:36; the run started out terrible (I wanted to quit during the first mile), improved to “bad” by mile 2, and then the last 3 miles were ok; I felt progressively better. Then it was time to quit.

But I remember when a 10 minute pace was “easy and slow, slow, slow”. Gheeze.
Note: my shoulder sometimes aches during runs; I have to learn to relax my shoulders.

Posts
Humor
The following will be INTENTIONAL humor

Jerry Coyne starts it off with his post about, well…Frog gods?

Such is the slow erosion of faith in enlightened countries. But here’s the funniest part. The faithful, of course, are up in arms, defending the rights of parents to warp their children’s minds however they wish. And one of them said this:

Speaking personally, Canon Dr Chris Sugden, the executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, said the judges were wrong to say religion was a matter of private individuals’ beliefs.

“They are treating religion like Richard Dawkins does, as if Christian faith was on a parallel with Melanesian frog worship,” he said.

If the shoe fits . . . .

(click on the thumbnail to see a full sized photo at Coyne’s blog)

In the discussion, someone posted this video…it is just so wrong….so wrong…:)

Scientists: hounded by …..paparazzi?

Paleontologist and author Stephen Jay Gould spoke out against the increasingly aggressive tactics of the paparazzi Tuesday, railing against “the reckless throngs of photographers that relentlessly hound America’s top scientists.”

(first hat tip to Dr. Andy for this one…)

Vehicle sticker fail….make sure that you don’t make multiple spelling errors if you are calling someone else dumb…

see more funny videos

Science
Again from Dr. Andy: here is an interesting article about whales: given that they have so much more mass than we do and that they have so many more opportunities for cancer mutations, why don’t more get cancer? Of course, there seems to be some law that says that an animal’s size does not correlate to their cancer rate. Is it all slower metabolism, or is something else going on?

Fox News Lying Again
Evidently Fox News lies too much to qualify as news in Canada. Ok, sometimes they “lie while remaining factual”. Here is a classic case: Bill O’Reilly ran a story about Wisconsin and showed footage of violence at a union protest..in California..and the footage was labeled “union protest” so by the letter of the law, there was no lie.

This is the weasel explanation. Yes, I saw the whole clip…they showed “union protests from around the country” at first but then brought in the footage toward the end. That sure looked as if it were by design, regardless of what it says at this article.

GOP 2012: Mike Huckabee channels “teh stupid”.
First, Mr. Huckabee confuses Kenya with Indonesia. He then says “hey, it was just a slip of the tongue”…but

Huckabee’s Explanation Is Implausible

Huckabee Said Obama Grew Up “In Kenya” Twice During A Discussion About The “Mau Mau Revolution In Kenya.” Huckabee also referenced Obama growing up “with a Kenyan father and grandfather.” From the February 28 edition of WOR’s The Steve Malzberg Show:

MALZBERG: Don’t you think it’s fair also to ask him, I know your stance on this. How come we don’t have a health record, we don’t have a college record, we don’t have a birth cer – why Mr. Obama did you spend millions of dollars in courts all over this country to defend against having to present a birth certificate. It’s one thing to say, I’ve — you’ve seen it, goodbye. But why go to court and send lawyers to defend against having to show it? Don’t you think we deserve to know more about this man?

HUCKABEE: I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the bust back to the Brits -

MALZBERG: Of Winston Churchill.

HUCKABEE: The bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather. [WOR's The Steve Malzberg Show, 2/28/11]

Mr. Huckabee can spin this any way he wants. But a “slip of the tongue” means saying what you don’t believe; here Mr. Huckabee actually runs with a consequence of believing that Mr. Obama was living in Kenya. Yes, Mr. Obama did write about “the white man’s conceit” in his book Dreams from my Father but that was during his trip to Kenya as an adult.

And Mr. Huckabee continues:

Fischer: Well Governor, what got lost in all the shuffle was the legitimate point that you were making which is that we may have a president who has some fundamentally anti-American ideas that may be rooted in a childhood where he had a father who was virulently anti-colonial, hated the British – might have something to do with the President returning the bust of Winston Churchill back to England. You know, I was struck by the fact that when he made his tour to Indonesia, he made a point of going to an Indonesian memorial that celebrated the victory of Indonesians over British troops – again, part of that anti-colonial thing. And so I’d like you to comment on that; you seem to think that there is some validity to the fact that there may be some fundamental anti-Americanism in this president.

Huckabee: Well, that’s exactly the point that I make in the book and I don’t know why these reporters – maybe they can’t read, I guess that’s part of it because it’s clearly spelled out and I’m quoting a British newspaper who really were expressing the outrage of the Brits over that bust being returned and the point was that they felt like that due to Obama’s father and grandfather it could be that his version and view of the Mau Mau Revolution was very different than most of the people who perhaps would grow up in the United States. And I have said many times, publicly, that I do think he has a different worldview and I think it is, in part, molded out of a very different experience. Most of us grew up going to Boy Scout meetings and, you know, our communities were filled with Rotary Clubs, not madrassas.

Oh, there were KKK groups too, some of whose membership had some overlap with Rotary Clubs. But you see where he is going, right? Mr. Huckabee is claiming that HIS local society is “real America”; this is something that Republicans do all of the time.

Well guess what: I don’t want people like that leading our country. The United States, as a whole, is NOT a country that consists of the backwards, ignorant people that dominate Mr. Huckabee’s local world. That is a good thing too, otherwise I wouldn’t have this computer that I am typing on, we wouldn’t have modern medicines, etc.