Merit-bound Alley

I’ve made no bones about the fact that I don’t mike Mitt Romney, however this kind of nasty trick is totally uncalled for. That being said, I hope he loses the election. Badly.

NOTE: If you like this article, please Digg it!

[digg=http://digg.com/political_opinion/Ron_Paul_and_Separation]

I am definitely thankful that I saw that video of Ron Paul over at Bad Astronomy, as it has helped me take a deeper look at Ron Paul’s candidacy. I found an interesting essay written by Dr. Paul back in 2003 entitled “The War on Religion”. This essay starts with the fairly generic war on Christmas tripe that I’ve already covered. However, Dr. Paul then goes on to make some very interesting (and researchable) claims.

Please note that I really am not trying to take shots at Ron Paul. This essay was one of the first that caught my eye mainly because religion and “wars on” are enjoyable topics to me, and looked like something I would like to delve into a little more thoroughly. For any RP supporters, I do realize he makes some good points in other areas, but this article is not about them. That being said, this is not an opinion article, but an analysis of the claims made in one article and an investigation into those claims. I truly hope that anyone who reads this will looks at his essay and my response with a skeptical eye, rather than immediately leaping to his defense or an attack on the man.

That being said, let’s sally forth, tallyho, and get this ball rollin’.

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I’ve been having a difficult time deciding on a candidate that I like. One thing that is influencing my decision-making is the religion issue. Candidates who are pandering to the religious by “out-godding” each other to gain support as the next leader of a secular government already have marks against them. I simply don’t feel that faith is necessary to rule this nation, and even gets in the way of running the US as the founding fathers wanted it done. Let’s take a look at what the government does because of faith:

1. Makes it possible for gay and lesbian Americans to be second-class citizens by denying the right to marry
2. Gives citizens money to religious groups under the Faith-based Initiatives in a shameful thumbing of the nose at Separation
3. Goes to war because god told the president to do so
4. Puts bewildering roadblocks on government funding of vital stem cell research
5. Allows the possibility of the teaching of the ridiculous doctrine of Intelligent Design to make it into our science classrooms

This last is a point that has shaken my feeling that Ron Paul might kinda sorta be the best candidate… maybe. I saw the following video on Phil Plait’s excellent Bad Astronomy blog. Ron Paul is asked if he believes in the theory of evolution. Check it:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPoCsC8VT9g]

Now, I have to say off the bat that I haven’t lost all respect for Dr. Paul, but I just can’t put my support behind a man that denies one of the most fact-supported theories in science. Another way to put this is I can’t put my support behind a man that believes, against all evidence, that the universe and its inhabitants were magicked into existence 6,000 years ago and can say that in a press conference with no hint of embarrassment.

On a personal note, it leaves me in the precarious position of having not a single candidate that I like. Is it too much to ask for a candidate to have a firm grasp of reality?

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The WSJ has a great article entitled A Brief History of Christmas. It’s worthy of a read for folks like me who enjoy this kind of stuff.

Added bonus: The article has an illustration by a guy with the best surname ever.

It’s a little late for Hanukkah and a little early for Kwanzaa, but I think I cut it pretty well.

This year, I am working on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It sucks. I’d much rather be spending it with my family, but as it turns out in my position, we’re a 24 hour shop and someone has to work. I’ve been lucky enough to have every other Christmas off in my time here, and it’s time to give the other folks a chance to spend a merry day instead of being stuck in this shithole. The only thing that makes it worth being here is the fact that I know I have a loving family to go home to and some good friends here,  and that’s kept my heart warm enough while I wait for my time to celebrate.

As it always happens this time of year, folks get up in a tizzy about some kind of “War on Christmas”. It’s very hard for me to take this minuscule controversy very seriously, even despite my fairly strong views on anything religious. Even though this has been a holy time of year from times well before the Christians, this has become a cultural holiday just as much a it has been a religious holiday. What people tend to forget is that, apart from the raging consumerism that grips us at this time of year, the virtues of charity, kindness, and love are celebrated across the gulf between the religious (all of them) and secular faces of this season. Everyone should be celebrating the positive facets of being human, and this is as good a time as any to do it.

The War on Christmas that people tend to cling to so tightly denigrates every aspect of what we should be lauding about being human. Instead of resenting when someone tells you “Happy Holidays”, you should be touched that someone sends you their well-wishes. Instead of complaining about someones gaudy nativity on their lawn, you should recognize that the folks in that house are embracing their loved ones just as you are. Instead of crying to put Christ back in Christmas, find the common ground that we are all trying to celebrate at this time of year. Anyone who is buying into this media-concocted war instead of just being extra nice to each other and trying to find that common ground of charity, love, and kindness should be ashamed of themselves.

People of all beliefs secular and religious should recognize how lucky we are to have this one thing in common, because there aren’t many like it. So, my sincerest advice to everyone is this: shut the fuck up and have a lovely holiday!

Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

It’s an odd feeling to miss someone you’ve never known or even met. Thanks, Carl, we miss you.

I’m sure most of you have seen the picture of the spider on the lens of the camera shooting the space shuttle. Unsurpisingly, it has been lol’ed:

h/t to lolscience

I happened to read on Friendly Atheist that I can credit Lore Sjöberg for the graphic.

Hey all! Just wanted to say that I’m at the Stephen Lynch concert, and if you’re reading this, you’re not. So, NYAH!!!!!