Lore Sjöberg and the Burden of Proof
I’ll have to remember this Bad Gods strip the next time someone demands that atheists disprove God:
Or when any random douchenozzle completely misunderstands the concept
of “burden of proof”.
The Exploration Will Be Televised
While we’re all celebrating the 40th anniversary of humanity’s first
trip to another world, I’ve been listening to the “real-time”
broadcast of the Apollo 11 mission at
We Choose the Moon.
Think of it as a multi-day radio broadcast.
Yes, we all know how it turns out, so the brief moments of drama when
something goes wrong, or when Houston talks about possible burn
failures while the spacecraft is behind the moon, aren’t really as
suspenseful as they were forty years ago.
And then, for some reason, this
comment
by Michael Collins caught my ear:
04 03 28 12 CMP
Roger. There will be no television of the undocking. I have all
available windows either full of heads or cameras, and I’m busy with
other things.
Somehow this brought into focus the enormity of what was going on: not
only had a bunch of upright apes shot a tin can further than any tin
can had gone before; not only were people able to traverse a span of
cold emptiness to another world; but they sent back radio and
television transmissions, so that the entire world could watch what
was going on.
This is in marked contrast to earlier explorers like Columbus,
Magellan, Amundsen, and others, who basically disappeared from view
for months or years, then brought all of their stories back in one
package.
And here’s Collins saying, in effect, “Step back from the window,
kids. Daddy’s got work to do.”
Of course, this link to the earth wasn’t just for PR. Listening to the
conversations between the astronauts and Earth, it becomes clear that
the astronauts and spacecraft were simply the apex of a vast support
system that made the trip possible: people figuring out when and how
to burn; what might go wrong, and how to fix it; keeping an eye on the
myriad things that the craft could run out of; and on, and on.
Humans are often defined as the tool-making animals, or the animals
with language. But one thing that’s really worked out for us is
cooperation. And as the festivities this week remind us, it got us off
of this rock, and made an ancient dream into reality.
Headline O’ the Day
Takoma Park Man Beats Ex-Girlfriend with 18-Pound Crucifix
And the article contains this tidbit:
The victim bought herself time during the attack by telling the man to stop long enough to turn on a Barbie DVD for their two girls to watch in another room so they wouldn’t see the assault, authorities said.
Despite the implement in the headline, this appears to be a case of ordinary craziness, not religious craziness.
I Am the Very Model of a Single-Issue Demagogue
On Monday, in a post entitled
“Surgeon General Pick Is Excellent“,
BillDo wrote:
President Obama picked the right person to be the new Surgeon General. Dr. Benjamin is a hero to all those victimized by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Her tireless and selfless efforts are a model for all physicians.
Dr. Benjamin is an African-American Catholic public servant who has been recognized by Pope Benedict XVI: the Holy Father awarded her the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice medal for distinguished service. When the pope celebrated Mass in Washington, D.C. in 2008, Dr. Benjamin was there to receive his blessing. Moreover, she has also received the National Caring Award, an honor which was inspired by Mother Teresa. “Church was always a very important part of my life,” she told Catholic Digest. “I believe I am carrying on the healing ministry of Christ. I feel obligated to help continue his works.”
Kudos to President Obama and congratulations to Dr. Benjamin. She should sail through the Senate.
Of course, that was then, before he knew what evil roiled in the
depths of her damned soul. The very next day, he
posted:
at the same news conference that the
president used to announce his choice of Dr. Benjamin, he pushed hard
for a new health reform bill. […] A central issue is whether
abortion services will be mandated as part of the plan.[…] a new Advisory Committee will decide which services will be covered. And who is in charge of the Health Benefits Advisory Committee? The Surgeon General.
Dr. Benjamin should not wait until the Senate considers her
appointment to let the public know where she stands. As a practicing
Catholic, she cannot chair a committee that would support mandated
abortion coverage in employer insurance plans. There is no “common
ground” on this issue.
 |
So there you have it. BillDo is explicitly mixing religion and
politics. And telling Dr. Benjamin what she needs to believe, and how
she’s supposed to practice her religion. Not only won’t he allow her
to have an abortion, or support the right of others to decide whether
they should get one, he also can’t allow her to serve on a committee
that regulates the rules for paying for abortions that other people
might or might not choose to have. Have we reached six degrees of
separation from the real issue yet?
Running Like the Wind
Throughout history, the wind has been used as a standard for speed, as
in “run like the wind”. But it occurred to me recently to wonder about
that.
According to the
Beaufort scale,
hurricane-force winds start at 118 km/h (73 mph). Mere strong gales,
which break branches off of trees, are in the 75-88 km/h (47-54 mph)
range.
That doesn’t seem particularly fast these days. Heck, I’ve often passed
people on the highway who were driving “like the wind”
for going too slowly. And we’re not even talking about Formula One
racing or airplanes or Saturn V rockets.
I think it’s rather cool that we as a species have gotten to a point where everyday reality has outstripped the hyperbolic imagery of ages past.
It’s A Visual Pune, or Play on Dots
(Whipped up in 10 minutes with the Gimp, so don’t complain about the quality.)
Pointless Playlist
Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but here’s a morsel until I can
post something more substantive:
- Faithless, Scritti Politti
- Fearless, VNV Nation
- Helpless, X Marks the Pedwalk
- Ruthless, Cabaret Voltaire
- Speechless, Laurie Anderson
- Useless, Depeche Mode
- Nevertheless, The Rutles
PZ@GMU
Here’s the video of a talk PZ Myers gave at George Mason University last year, at an event organized by the GMU Rational Response Squad.
http://www.youtube.com/p/2CE5C13A27FEE16C&hl=en&fs=1
It’s possible that you might be able to catch a glimpse of me there.
(HT Shelley.)
Pointless Photo Op Not So Pointless?
I tend to be rather cynical about events like the
United We Serve kickoff,
in which cabinet secretaries let themselves be photographed doing
community service type jobs, such as Trade Representative Kirk feeding
homeless people at a soup kitchen, HUD secretary Donovan helping to
rebuild a home destroyed by hurricane Katrina, and so forth. I always
imagine them tossing their apron or gloves on the ground and rushing
off the moment the cameras have left.
But then there’s Rep. Tom Davis’s
advice
to a radio show caller who said she couldn’t get health insurance
because she’s 60 years old and has diabetes. He started by saying that
he sympathizes with her, because hey, his 401(k) took a beating as
well.
So maybe the sorts of photo-ops I mentioned above can be good, in that
they force people at the highest levels of government to mingle with
the hoi polloi and at least look like they’re doing something
approaching manual labor, for as long as the cameras are rolling.
And while they may be and remain patricians who will never have to do
another hour’s manual work in their life, and who will never want for
money, at least they may gain enough of a clue to realize that there
are people out there with real problems, ones that they can’t fix just
by finding a better stockbroker or cutting down on how often they eat
out.
I hope that’s not too much to ask.
Freedom of Tackiness
A woman in Colorado says she was
evicted from her apartment for keeping her Easter decorations up too long.
I think I’m leaning toward her side, even though from the brief
description it sounds as though her display was unutterably tacky,
simply because I want to live in the sort of country where people can
show the world just how much taste they lack. And because tacky is
fun, in a tacky sort of way.
But the bit that caught my eye was:
“An Easter decoration is a religious statement and should be protected — even if it is just bunnies,” said her attorney, John Pineau.
Bunnies are a religious display? Who knew?