Science, not goats

Is this any crazier than Christianity? If so, do explain how.

Evo and Ex?

What about the "good things" in the bible?

I would be among the first to admit that there is some wisdom in the bible (and while I don't know it for a fact, suspect there is in virtually any holy text). So shouldn't these parts of the bible be followed? Absolutely not. Not because it is in a text. Only if it can be shown through the use reason that the wisdom is on target.

Happy Winter Holidays!

I'm not the least offended when wished "Merry Christmas". I appreciate the the perceived notion of good will and happiness that is being directed toward me.

What DOES annoy the hell out of me is that some people think there is a "war on Christmas", that can be easily found every time someone like me dares to utter the phrase, "Happy Winter Holidays", or any similar phrase that fails to include the "reason for the season" - Jesus.

Jesus is the "reason for the season" if you are Christian. Otherwise he has absolutely nothing to do with the season.

I hope that anyone reading this has a wonderful winter holiday season - whatever you believe.

Kind of cool...

It's vaguely ironic, isn't it, that something called "Dark Energy" is the driving force in the universe?

"The team's calculations instead solidify the conventional view that an enigmatic dark energy fills the cosmos and is responsible for the acceleration of the Universe. "Recent advances in data collection have brought us to the era of precision cosmology," says Zibin. "Void models are terrible at explaining the new data, but the standard dark energy model works very well."
Read on...

Why I voted for Obama

This is exactly why. It wasn't that I blindly thought he was going to be some savior of America or that I would love everything he would do. But after 8 years of darkness in just about every conceivable area of governance, we will finally at least get back on the right track. Whether the train can actually move and gather steam is yet to be seen.

Does your inner fish rock?

The Economic Morons of the Right

Balanced by a voice of reason. Don't you love accountability?

Questions about terrorism

In the years since the attacks on New York and Washington D.C. by a couple of dozen religious zealots, armed with box cutters, hundreds of millions of Americans have been subjected (sometimes on a daily basis) to "enhanced" security. They go through various levels of scrutiny traveling on planes, trains and simply driving down the highway. Similarly, they are screened at public buildings, sporting events and schools. Our very right to make a phone call or send an email (at home) with the expectation that it is a private communication between two people, has been tossed out with the garbage. Nearly all Americans are far more concerned with a terrorist attack than they are with the likely heart-attack coming from decades of filling up on junk food.

Is it worth it? How many terrorists have been caught in this net? Is it better to live in fear, minus our basic human rights, simply for the illusion of safety? Would we not be better off by more vigorously defending our way of life?

Meet the new boss...

There is much to be happy about this morning. It looks and feels like a new dawn.

Certainly America has made an important cut with our historically racist past. Race is still, and will always be as long as people see ourselves as groups of individuals, a factor in life. Obama's election didn't change that. It simply proved that we are capable of seeing our society as more that just that.

We have repudiated the past 8 years and everything associated with it. Everything. I will not bother to repeat the many offenses against humanity and, specifically, the American people. I'll just point out one thing. We are Americans and we don't deny fellow human beings basic legal recourse and, especially, we don't TORTURE people. Not even people who may be terrorists. Not even people who definitely are terrorists.

I know most people were voting pocketbook issues. The economy was clearly the decisive factor for Obama. I had as much right as anyone for this to be the most important issue for me. It was not. What is my lowered standard of living compared to a man "living" in a darkened cell, without contact with the world, being tortured - in my name? That is not a world that is worth having an otherwise comfortable life in. That's worth fighting a new revolution over. Fortunately, we were able (this time) to do our revolution in the local voting precincts.

Just remember, we now know with full evidence, that we aren't so special. We are as capable as any other group of apes to being brutally cruel to others. We have changed our behavior, but we have to make sure it doesn't happen again. That is our task.

"Won't Get Fooled Again" - again...