Ursus Pacificus

This fascinating TED talk discusses an idea I posted on this very blog nearly two years ago.

My rough notes from President Obama’s 2010 State of the Union Address:

Obama takes his time getting to the podium.
People are obviously fatigued with clapping.
10 minutes in, still applauding.
gavel, introduction, standing ovation. crap.
Sit the fuck down.
stop clapping. really.
OK, here, we go.
The economy is in shambles. OK, got that.. what now?
Nice shot of Uncle Joe’s nodding chin.
“I have never been more hopeful about America’s future than I am tonight”… because, hopefully, we’ve hit rock bottom.
Call for decent, strong government… good luck with that.
Obama equates Bank Bailout to root canal. Bad. A root canal has benefits.
Obama treads in minefield, asking banks to get onboard with fees. Good luck with THAT!
Nancy Pelosi is obviously Obama’s applause-whore. — Not even Biden clapped as much.
Call for “Jobs Bill” … whatever that is.
Slashing tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas? Good luck with that!
“How Long Should We Wait?” How much longer CAN we wait?
“I do not accept second place for the United States of America” … wow…
Makes a good case for clean energy… even for the dirty energy people. Well done!
Export more goods? Isn’t that China’s job?!
How did we end up with such a smart president?
Math? Science? Didn’t Jesus invent those?!
Revitalize community colleges? What is wrong with him?!
$10,000 tax credit and increased Pell grants?! College debt forgiveness?! Whoa.
“Health Insurance Reform”?! What’s that?!
“I will not walk away from these Americans, and neither should the people in this chamber.” — is it his speech writers… or is it him?
“All this was before I walked in the door.” Sweet.
“If I have to enforce this discipline by veto, I will.” Balls.
“I refuse to pass this problem on to another generation of Americans.” Is he for real?
“Pay as you go”? What does that mean?
“The problem is: That’s what we did for eight years” …nice.
“Let’s meet the responsibility of the people who sent us here.” Damn.
Condemned Supreme Court cutting of election funding,
Suggests the permanent campaign is faulty. Wow.
“We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.” I love this man.
Repeal DADT, Equal pay for women… holy cow…
“Change we can believe in.” revisiting campaign slogan and what it meant… very nice.
“We don’t quit. I don’t quit.” Nice ending. I could have done without the “god bless” tho…

Wow!

I’ve been invited to join the panel on a local radio show, called Freethought Rhode Island (again - this time Wednesday, February 6 at 9:00 PM). The weekly show is put on by members of the Rhode Island Atheist Society and the Rhode Island Skeptics’ Society.

You can listen live on radio in the Providence, RI market on 88.1 WELH-FM

You can listen live on the Interwebs at http://bsrlive.com/

…and you can download the podcast after the fact at http://www.freethoughtri.com/

The live broadcast and stream starts at 9:00 PM EST

It’s a call-in show, so… listen, and call in!

Is it just me, or does the Christian Right in this country just seem to go further and further out into the weeds with their “Oh, we’re so oppressed!” chicken dance? It really is sickening. With all the deference Christians get in this country, and it’s not enough? Christians already get their two biggest holidays as Federal holidays. Do the Jews? No. Is Kwanzaa a Federal Holiday? No.

Let’s look at the supposed battlefield, shall we?

Fans of such weed-eaters as Glenn Beck and Pat Robertson are out there complaining about how businesses and other people, who may or may not be Christian, wish people “Happy Holidays” in stead of “Merry Christmas”. Is that fair? While, statistically, you stand a better chance that the person you’re passing your season’s greetings to is Christian, as opposed to anything else, that margin of certainty is shrinking. Unless you know someone is a Christian, isn’t it sensible to refrain from assuming he or she is Christian, just because it’s the majority position?

If we’re going to “put the Christ back in Christmas”, shouldn’t we also put the “Democrat” back in “Democracy”? If you’re a Democrat, why not just automatically assume everyone else is a Democrat, and make some blanket statement about how cool it is to be a Democrat to everyone you meet around election time, as if they’re part of your club, and then gasp and recoil in horror, when they say that just because the White House, Senate and House of Representatives all have Democratic leadership doesn’t mean we’re all Democrats.

If Wal*Mart wants to alienate followers of other religions and the unaffiliated (over 20% of Americans, according to a Pew poll) that’s their choice. If you as a Christian (assuming you are one) choose to assume I’m a Christian (a big mistake, and you’ll hear about it, long form, in short order) that’s your business. It’s not the job of the US Government to proselytize for any faith. If the Federal Government of the United States of America is to offer any greetings making reference to religiously significant observances (and I think even that is going too far), it is Constitutionally bound to show no preference to any one religion. “Happy Holidays” and/or “Season’s Greetings” is as far as the US Government can go. For a Congressman or Senator to attempt to legislate anything else is an obvious breach of their Oath of Office, and, I think, grounds for impeachment and removal from office.

As far as what an individual says to another, I think it’s a matter of personal choice. If you are a Christian, It’s up to you whether you want to take the one in five chance of alienating a stranger by wishing them a Merry Christmas. If you’re not a Christian, it seems patently hypocritical to wish someone else Merry Christmas.

This group-offense-taking, which seems to have started in earnest with the Danish Mohammad cartoon lunacy is reaching new heights of idiocy. This “War on Christmas” thing has taken a totalitarian turn, with the notion that the Christians are entitled to force me to think a certain way about their religious observances, and, as a consequence, feel (or at least ape) reverence for their faith above others.

If then-Vice President Richard B. Cheney could tell US Senator from Vermont Patrick J. Leahy on the floor of the US Senate to “fuck himself” without any official retribution, reprisal, or censure, that response is obviously acceptable for use in civilized discourse among decent respectable people. As such, I offer it to these “War on Christmas” crybabies who insist that I, and you, and everyone else, use the phrase “Merry Christmas” as a greeting, irrespective of audience.

I think what I’m going to do from here on out is simply reject the notion that December is any more significant than, say, June, and just greet everyone with a, “Hi,” or, “Hello.”, leave them with a “See ya,” or “Fare well,” and reply to offerings of “Merry Christmas,” “Happy Holidays,” or “Season’s Greetings” with a firm, but polite, “No, Thanks.”

Wow!

I’ve been invited to join the panel on a local radio show, called Freethought Rhode Island (again). The weekly show is put on by members of the Rhode Island Atheist Society and the Rhode Island Skeptics’ Society.

You can listen live on radio in the Providence, RI market on 88.1 WELH-FM

You can listen live on the Interwebs at http://bsrlive.com/

…and you can download the podcast after the fact at http://www.freethoughtri.com/

The live broadcast and stream starts at 9:00 PM EST

It’s a call-in show, so… listen, and call in!

This is the next-to-last show of 2009! Wow!

Have you voted for your favorite Shows, Stories and Bits?

The Best-Of DVD is on its way! Don’t be left out! Vote today!

In this week’s show:

• The Pledge of Allegiance.
• Ryan Seacrest
• Richard Wagstaff Clark
• Lesbian Anglican Bishop for La-La-Land
• Pope Redefines Midnight
• Zhu-Zhu Poison?!
• Bryant Gumbel has Lung Cancer
• Tiger Not Out of The Woods Yet.
• Christ Could Not Be Reached For Comment
• Unity? Bah! I\\’ve got a better idea!
• OpposingViewpoints: Blasphemy Laws? Really?
• Afghanistan: Why not throw more troops at it?
• Guinea… Wow!
• Celebrity Birthdays for December 11, 2009

Welp… After 2 winters cleaning the driveway at Broadside Ranch, I’ve caved in… I took the RAV over to the Home Despot here in Warwick, RI, and picked up the cheapest 2-stage snow remover thingy they had.

It’s the Ariens Sno-Tek 22″ model. It has “only” one forward speed and no reverse, but it can clear 22 inches at a shot, and throw the snow up to 35 feet away… so… I think this’ll do.

The poor fellow who helped me load the crazy thing into my RAV, “Twain”, was amusing and maintained good spirits, despite being run ragged as holiday help.

Tomorrow, I have to get crankcase oil, put some gas in it, and start it up… make sure the crazy contraption can do what’s actually do what’s advertised.

Fortunately, I ditched the Scion tC, and now have a Toyota Yaris as my daily driver (which lives in the garage, below the hanging kayaks), which is tiny enough to allow me to sneak the snow thrower past it in the tiny, one-car garage. Pretty damned groovy!

I… you… Just watch:

Thanks to the RDF, Dr. Shermer and all the fine folks who put this together! Well done!

This makes me all the more regretful I didn’t muster the nerve to greet Dr. Shermer when I had the chance. He sat not 10 feet from us during the talks on Saturday night. I could’ve throwing-starred a business card right into his forehead… WE were at a VIP table (having plunked down the extra coin), and HE was sitting in the cheap perimeter seats. Not that I had anything to say to him other than blurting out with a stammering palsy, “Hi, Dr. Shermer… Thanks for … doing … what you do.” I get all paralytic and spasmodic around accomplished people whom I admire. I guess I’m lucky I didn’t just faint dead away at the AAI convention.

Wow! Washington is mental!

The the NASM’s Udvar-Hazy Center was quite a bit less crazy, and seemed to be more focused on straight-forward aviation, and not so much on “exhibits” as “artifacts”. There is less of a “Boo-yah! Go, USA!” feel to this facility. It’s more of a check it out, read the plaques, make up your own mind kind of thing. A little more my speed.

The main NASM exhibit space on the Mall in Washington is far more exhibit-ey, and USA-ey. I suppose you’d have to expect that from a museum on the national Mall. Of course, we happened to be there at a particularly chaotic time, when the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing was being observed. Buzz Aldrin, Mike Collins and Alan Bean were all selling and signing books. That added a level of lunacy… then there’s the regular touristy crowd, who may or may not know that Apollo really happened… and maybe even think that airplanes fly because gods make it so…. Belligerent, rude, careless people. Lots of them.

Then, we got to see the astronauts. Wow. It was the annual John Glenn Lecture. This year, the featured speakers were all three of the Apollo XI crew, along with Christopher Kraft. John Glenn, himself, also spoke.

First it was Glenn. His remarks were polite, considered, and inoffensive.

Then, came Kraft, whose remarks, as I recall them, were mostly recollections of the nervousness between liftoff and Lunar landing of Apollo XI.

Next was Buzz Aldrin. Aldrin wasted little time on platitudes, and went right into, “Why haven’t we landed on Mars yet?” I happen to agree with most of Aldrin’s arguments, and I am tired of the political timidity of US leadership.

Mike Collins spoke next, and as I expected, he was more philosophical than Aldrin. Collins strikes me as more of a “neutral” thinker with a healthy sense of humor. His remarks reflected that, and he focused more on the personal impact of having been to the Moon and returning. He closed his remarks with, “I guess you could put ‘Lucky’ on my tombstone, but not too soon.”

Finally Neil Armstrong came up. He focused on what he saw as the three catalysts for the mission to the Moon: Goddard, Governance, and Geophysics.

Here’s a little NY Daily News piece.

The remarks of these three ordinary who served as the face of a team of some 400,000 Americans who achieved something singularly remarkable were, themselves, remarkable in their perspective, thoughtfulness and frankness.

It’s just a shame that our countrymen can’t be persuaded to seriously consider their positions.