Category: Uncategorized

in response to: http://www.livejournal.com/users/cheerfulchaotic/260005.html?thread=723365#t723365

[reposted for stupid date of post reasons: http://www.livejournal.com/users/cheerfulchaotic/260932.html
if you want to comment, do so there]

I’m not proposing we compromise on our values. I’m saying that the truth doesn’t advertise itself. It simply exists. As any good scientist knows, discovering and understanding the truth is rarely easy, and explaining it is often even harder. Insulting the population of most states is terrible marketing. And whether or not we mean it as a joke doesn’t mean that people aren’t listening and seeing deeper meaning in what we casually toss off. If we want people to listen to us, we have to construct a message that appeals to everyone and put it out there. This is important.

“Hatred is not a family value” is good, but “Loving _all_ our children is a _real_ family value,” is better.

The truth is, we probably care more about the well being of most Bush’s voters than Bush does. And that’s a truth that isn’t being marketed. A truth, I might add, that is a much more important message than a probable urban legend.

The thing that ultimately pulled me back from considering Canada as an option is that I may be able to help change the tenor of the country enough to keep one more fundamentalist’s painfully depressed, angst ridden, teen homo child from slitting his or her wrists in alabama or minnesota, or california. But it’s also worth considering that Bush bas been hurting America in a big way, he probably won’t be slowing down, and we have a responsibility to help stop the hurting, to the extent we can. Failing because we can’t be bothered to reach out to people of differing, even hostile, viewpoints and beliefs is a pretty damning failure, and not one I’m willing to accept.

The title of this website is “Was the election stolen? Here are the facts, you decide.” Though, it may be argued that the url is suggestive of an answer. =)

http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/

Blackbox voting maintains that there definitely was fraud, and are attempting to ascertain the scale of it with hard data.

Home

And a site promoting a book discussing the modern tenor of public debate.

http://www.newsisfree.com/iclick/i,59738707,5879,f/

People. I don’t care if the IQ thing was handed down to you by god or by whatever your source of ultimate truth is. It’s self-congratulatory bullshit. How many of you who are crowing about it think that IQ means a damn thing? You would be the real idiots in the crowd. Don’t be dicks, people. Please.

[for total clarity, I’m talking about the “average state IQ v which presidential candidate won a majority” thing.]

give me scissors and duct tape & get out of my way.

Power is now restored, all systems within normal operating parameters. =)

Google is my shepherd, I shall not want.

It seems our fundamentalism was a homegrown response to the enlightenment. I would be interested in more detailed information on what particular sects it sprang up in, and how their pre-fundamentalist culture differed from the post, as well as a tracing of their lineage. I still have a suspicion that they are largely drawn from the memetic stock of europe’s displaced religious radicals, but I’d be eager to see someone who, unlike myself, knew what they were talking about on that topic.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist_Christianity

http://www.sullivan-county.com/news/

My econ TA was an intern for Kerry, and for Clinton. Rockin’.

So, , when are you buying your copy? =) Hopefully the horrifyingly 80’s music will be lost in translation. =)

http://www.ultimatedisney.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6185

It’s interesting to note that our religious extremists who cause so much international consternation have a history. The puritans were made most unwelcome throughout Europe before being shipped over here. Is it any surprise that the loonies, once given space to breed, did so?

Doing a lame-oid exercise for my “planning your public service career” homework, I was supposed to identify my desires. I wrote a list of things that was 3/4 of a page long. Out of 34 listed items, only 10 weren’t variations on the theme of “increasing positive social integration/connection/etc.” Of the 10, 3 were athletic (which indirectly tied in through group races, and the ideas I have for how to do the transcontinental bikeride), 3 were material (all related to housing, which indirectly tied in by wanting roommates), 2 were self improvement things (organize and calm down), and the remaining two related to my teeth grinding and playing with neat ideas.

The 24 ideas included things like: “never be alone for the holidays”, “raise a kid”, “have a boyfriend”, as well as “bring people closer together”, “engage with others in productive work”, to “Bring the U.S. to a point where we see caring for the sick, the homeless, and the hungry as our responsibility” and “increase respect for religious diversity as well as secular rationalism”.

After this I would have 0 – 2 core courses to take, depending on whether I can successfully convince them that econ II would be a glaring waste of my time, and convince them to accept my rigorous analytical background as substitute for advanced stats. Thanks in large part to the work I did with Ro, regression holds exactly 0 fear factor for me. Bring it on. =) 16.5 additional units for my MA. (the schedule below represents 14 units). It’d also leave me 2 units shy of the required concentration. Woo! =)

I would like to drop Tai Chi, and take self defense, but I’d have to reschedule politics of public affairs. Sadly, rock climbing wasn’t offered, and intro dance’s 3 units just ate too much of my schedule for me to seriously consider it.

the schedule itself