The Fading Light of 2008

2008 is hours away from being over. What a year it’s been! Of course the overriding image of 2008 is, and will always remain, the presidential election here in the USA. We all get to pat ourselves on the back for electing Obama, and well we should.

But there were other things that went on in 2008.

It was the year the GOP embraced socialism by nationalizing much of our banking system.

It was the year not one, but two very, very good super-hero films (one of which, The Dark Knight, remains the best film I’ve seen this year).

It was the year gays gained, and then lost, the ability to get married in California (but, hey, we also gained in Connecticut, so I guess that’s better than nothing).

It was the year America met Sarah Palin, and cringed.

It was the year HD-DVD gave up and left Blu-Ray as the only choice for high-def movies. A pointless choice, some might say.

On a personal level, it was the year of my five state tour (well, four states and an airport).

It’s the year my DVD collection hit and passed the 400 mark. It ends the year at 462 titles.

I began my Bible Project this year. At the rate I’m going, I should be done with the damn book by, oh, 2031 or so.

And, of course, it was the year I started this little blog of mine, without which I wouldn’t be communicating with you lot. Over 25,000 hits so far, and more every day! Not too shabby!

There were certainly more, and more important, events that happened this year. As the year vanishes into the rear view mirror, I’d like to hear from you guys what was, to you, the most important event or events of 2008.

Safety Is Mandatory. Are You Safe, Friend Citizen?

Today we’re going to talk about seat belt and helmet laws! Well, rather, I’m going to type about it, you’ll read it and hopefully comment. I don’t think there will be much talking involved. Anyhow.

I’m against said laws! Yes, they save lives, no doubt about it. Anyone who rides in a car or on a motorcycle and doesn’t buckle in or wear a helmet is a moron (this, sadly, includes myself. I ride a bike all over creation and don’t wear a helmet. I have lots of reasons for this, but it mostly boils down to me being too cheap to buy one. Besides, I ride on the sidewalks, and that’s at least safer than being in traffic).

I approach my problems with these laws from a couple different angles. First, yes, they save lives. That’s a problem right there, at least from a money point of view. Say that you’re on your motorcycle, wearing a helmet, and you get smashed into by a car. You go flying and hit a light pole. You live, but your neck is broken and you’re paralyzed from the waist down. Now instead of your family having a huge amount of grief and paying a few thousand bucks for a funeral, they instead have to live daily with your new disabilities. Also, your medical care will likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions, and you’re officially a burden on society. That doesn’t even mention the hell of being paralyzed from the neck down for the rest of your life.

Yes, that’s a sucky, cold, unpleasant argument, and I know a lot of people will disagree with me (including, I’m sure, a great-uncle of mine who has been paralyzed like that for about 60 years), but from a purely cold, logical, fiscal point of view, it makes more sense to let someone die in an accident than to keep them alive for several decades, but paralyzed.

Then there’s also the more palatable, popular argument on this issue, which is: you have the right put yourself at risk if you want to. If we’re going to say that you can’t risk your life by cycling without a helmet or driving without a seat belt, we might as well also outlaw skydiving and white water rafting, both of which are very dangerous activities that people do without a second though (though, it’s worth noting, with safety gear).

Some might make the argument that while you have the right to put yourself at risk, you don’t have the right to put other people at risk of feeling guilty. What I mean by this is: someone hits your car, you fly out the window, and you die, then the drive feels guilty about having killed you.

Well, this is a slightly valid argument, except that you aren’t responsible for how other people feel about you. Only they can control their emotional responses. Besides, by this logic I should be banned from crossing the street in case someone hits me and feels bad about it.

Seat belts and helmets do save lives and you’re an idiot if you don’t use them (again, bearing in mind that I don’t use a bike helmet… sigh). But while I think you should, I don’t think the government needs to be your mommy and make sure you’re being safe. That’s your choice; not theirs.

Badger’s Bible Project – Numbers 1:1 – 14:45

So here we have Numbers, the latest book in Badger’s Bible Project, and lest you think the title “Numbers” is just something designed to lure you in with promises of sex and temptation, think again. It starts with a census.

[God said]”Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel, by their families, by their fathers’ houses, according to the number of names, ever male individually, from twenty years old and above- all who are able to go to war in Israel…” Numbers 1:2 – 3”

What follows is a read about as compelling as what you’d expect if you were reading census data.

So after that coma inducing read, we get to a whole series of laws, pages and pages of them, as well as tasks assigned to certain groups. Again, this is as good a read as you’d expect.

Finally we get to something with a little more interest to it.

[God says to Moses]”Speak to the children of Israel: ‘When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit in unfaithfulness against the Lord, and that person is guilty,

‘then he shall confess the sin which he has committed. He shall make restitution for his trespass in full, plus one-fifth of it, and give it to the one who was wronged.

‘But if the man has no relative to whom restitution may me made for the wrong, the restitution must go to the Lord for the priest, in addition to the ram of the atonement with which atonement is made for him.’” – Numbers 2:6 – 8

And the priests eat meat that night. Actually, I find the idea of someone making direct, material restitution for a crime to remarkably intelligent. So much better than the idea of stoning everyone in sight, as the Bible usually recommends for even the most minor crimes.

Moving on we come to a part that, thanks to Civilization IV, I forever hear in the voice of Leonard Nimoy.

”The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you;

The Lord lift his countenance upon you, and give you peace.” – Numbers 6:24 – 25

A very nice, tender, sweet little prayer, actually.

So we go to some offerings and the Levites being cleansed. Then we come to a part about Passover and the Israelites leaving Mount Sinai (the story part of this is apparently best though of as “Exodus: Side Story 01”). But as the Israelites walk along, they start to kvetch about how there’s nothing to eat but that pesky manna.

”We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions and the garlic;

“but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” – Numbers 11:5 – 6

I doubt they “ate freely” of anything if they were slaves, but there you go.

Even Moses starts to bitch.

So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you afflicted your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you have laid the burden of all these people upon me?

“Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which you swore to their fathers?
“Where am I to get meat to give all these people? For the weep all over me, saying, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’

“If you treat me like this, please kill me here and now – if I have found favor in your sight- and do not let me see my wrechedness!” – Numbers 11:11 – 16

Here we have what’s likely the start of all Jewish humor. “What, you want I should give you retail for this? I should die before I’d pay full price!”

Now how does God, the ineffable, perfect being, handle this? Let’s guess. Does God:

A: Ignore their whining

B: Tell them to shut up, and if they don’t, he’s turning this car around right now!

C: Create for them something a little better than manna to eat

D: Inflict some horribly brutal punishment

If you picked anything other than “D”, go back to Genesis and start over!

[God says]”Then you shall say to the people, ‘Consecrate yourselves for tomorrow, and you shall eat meat; for you have wept in the hearing of the Lord, saying, “Who will give us meat to eat? For it was well with us in Egypt.” Therefore the Lord will give you meat, and you shall eat.

‘You shall eat, not one day, nor two days, nor five days, nor ten days, nor twenty days,

‘but for a whole month, until it comes out of your nostrils and becomes loathsome to you, because you have despised the Lord who is among you, and have wept before him saying, “Why did we ever come up out of Egypt?”’” – Numbers 18 – 20

Well, sounds like God wants the Israelites to start doing Atkins. Still the image of people so stuffed with meat it starts to come out their nose is rather funny, if a tad gross.

Not too much meat (har-har), in this portion of Numbers. Thankfully there’s excitement around the bend in the next installment of Badger’s Bible Project!

Light Rail Time!

So the light rail system in Phoenix is finally open! Yay! They’re running it for free until the first, so I’m going to see if I can take a ride and get some pics for you folk! I know this is just local news, but it’s still pretty darn neat!

(for those who want to see my earlier pics of the trains, click here!)

Almost 2009!

The New Year is nearly here! One of my favorite holidays is New Year’s Day, actually. When I was a kid, my dad’s mother used to have my sister, my mom and myself over for a nice lunch/dinner and we’d get our Christmas presents. It was very cool! I don’t do it anymore, of course, but it was nice when I was a wee lad.

Anyone else do anything special for New Year’s?

Our Wonderful Ally, Saudi Arabia!

So our allies Saudi Arabia (you remember them. The oppressive autocratic theocracy that executes criminals for just about everything, forbids all sorts of things, including gay sex, punishes what it doesn’t kill people for with things like flogging, oppresses women, doesn’t allow non-Muslim religious organizations, etc), have reached a new low, even for them.

A judge in Saudi Arabia has announced he would not annul the marriage of an eight-year-old girl and her forty-seven-year-old pedophile husband.

Ah, so good to see the company we keep. We’re allies with these people, folks. They are completely the antithesis of everything this country claims to stand for and believe in and we’re allied with them.

And we wonder why the world hates us.

A Christmas Wish

This probably never happened.

I’m an atheist, and no longer celebrate Christmas. But I recognize that I’m in the minority here, so in celebration of the holiday, here’s a nice little wish list for Christmas, stolen from Robert Green Ingersoll who published it in 1897.

“What I Want for Christmas”

“If I had the power to produce exactly what I want for next Christmas, I would have all the kings and emperors resign and allow the people to govern themselves.

I would have all the nobility crop their titles and give their lands back to the people. I would have the Pope throw away his tiara, take off his sacred vestments, and admit that he is not acting for God – is not infallible – but is just an ordinary Italian. I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and clergymen admit that they know nothing about theology, nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels. I would have them tell all their ‘flocks’ to think for themselves, to be manly men and womanly women, and to do all in their power to increase the sum of human happiness.

I would have all the professors in colleges, all the teachers in schools of every kind, including those in Sunday schools, agree that they would teach only what they know, that they would not palm off guesses as demonstrated truths.

I would like to see all the politicians changed to statesmen – to men who long to make their country great and free – to men who care more for public good than private gain – men who long to be of use.

I would like to see all the editors of papers and magazines agree to print the truth and nothing but the truth, to avoid all slander and misrepresentation, and to let the private affairs of the people alone.

I would like to see drunkenness and prohibition both abolished.

I would like to see corporal punishment done away with in every home, in every school, in every asylum, reformatory, and prison. Cruelty hardens and degrades, kindness reforms and ennobles.

I would like to see the millionaires unite and form a trust for the public good.

I would like to see a fair division of profits between capital and labor, so that the toiler could save enough to mingle a little June with the December of his life.

I would like to see an international court established in which to settle disputes between nations, so that armies could be disbanded and the great navies allowed to rust and rot in perfect peace.

I would like to see the whole world free – free from injustice – free from superstition.

This will do for next Christmas. The following Christmas, I may want more.

Happy holidays, all!

Doctor Whom?

The Joys of “Clean” Coal

P Z Myers, always a good guy to read, has up on his site a lovely little video and article all about so-called ‘clean” coal. It shows what happens when a containment wall designed to hold back waste from a “clean” coal site is breached. In this case, what happens is that it contaminates the drinking water for a major metropolitan area in Tennessee.

“Clean” coal is a foolish albatross of a notion. It has no future. Coal in general has no future. Even “clean” coal is very, very dirty. It’s better than regular coal, true. But just because it’s better than something really bad, doesn’t make it good.

I Object!

There’s people out there known as conscientious objectors. These are people who, generally on religious grounds, refuse to serve in the military.

I am one of them, though I haven’t any objections on religious grounds, obviously. Being an atheist how could I? I do, however, have objections to military service on moral grounds. This is largely due to the fact that I believe it’s wrong to, you know, kill people.

Needless to say, if you’re religious, it’s far easier for you to get conscientious objector status than it is if you aren’t. Consider the Quakers, for example. They famously refuse to participate in war. Any religious person who came forth to a draft board, for example, and said they couldn’t serve because God didn’t want them to would likely have no problems. But someone like me? Someone who said he didn’t want to be in the military because he believes killing is wrong, but doesn’t have any religious beliefs? Yeah, good luck with that.

In fact, from the Wikipedia article on the subject, I find this interesting questionaire that was sent to people who refused to serve.

1.Describe the nature of your belief which is the basis of your claim.
2.Explain how, when, and from whom or from what source you received the training and acquired the belief which is the basis of your claim.
3.Give the name and present address of the individual upon whom you rely most for religious guidance.
4.Under what circumstances, if any, do you believe in the use of force?
5.Describe the actions and behavior in your life which in your opinion most conspicuously demonstrate the consistency and depth of your religious convictions.
6.Have you ever given public expression, written or oral, to the views herein expressed as the basis for your claim made above? If so, specify when and where.
7.Have you ever been a member of any military organization or establishment? If so, state the name and address of same and give reasons why you became a member.
8.Are you a member of a religious sect or organization?
9.Describe carefully the creed or official statements of said religious sect or organization as it relates to participation in war.
10.Describe your relationships with and activities in all organizations with which you are or have been affiliated other than religious or military.

There’s serveral problems with this questionaire. Notice how there’s a presumption that the only possible objections could be based on religion. Also notice that it asks you to name names; to list the people who have been telling you military service is wrong. I assume that wasn’t for any sinister purpose, but it might’ve been.

Anyhow, for fun, let’s do this questionaire.

1. I believe killing is wrong for any purpose other than to save lives, and even then, it should be avoided if it all possible.

2. No specific training or individual sources, but see the works of Richard Dawkins, among others.

3. No.

4. Again, only to save lives. No other reason, such as protecting property, is valid. Even killing someone to preserve freedom is somewhat iffy.

5. I haven’t got any. I’ve reached my conclusions despite what it says in works like the Bible.

6. Oh, yes. See: Blogging with Badger.

7. No.

8. No, and if I were, I shouldn’t have to disclose this because this country believes in religious freedom.

9. N/A

10. Again, no. As a free American citizen, I shouldn’t have to.

This questionaire is intrusive and stupid. The mere fact that someone doesn’t want to go out and be in the military should be enough. Yes, that means you’d have a lot of people who just didn’t want to be in the military cause they didn’t want themselves to get killed. So what? Surely as a basic part of freedom we can accept the notion that people have the right to not fight and die to protect their freedom, yes? The concept of a draft interferes with this notion.

Of course we also can’t ignore the sexist nature of most conscription schemes throughout history. Men had to serve, women did not. Even now, in 2008, with Selective Service, men are forced by law to sign up. Women are not.

Apparently during World War II, the US Government had something set up for those who refused military service, but it sounds like it was little more than a pointless make-work program and a way for the government to say, “You’ll do as you’re told!” I’d refuse anything to do with something like that, too. I might choose to serve in such a way, but I shouldn’t be forced.

So in the unlikely event that there’s ever another draft, and that I’d qualifty and be allowed to serve, what with being 36, out of shape, bisexual and a convicted felon, then you can expect I’d refuse.

My beliefs would not allow me to do anything else, and they’re grounded in atheism.

If you’re religious and your beliefs would allow you to do kill people, what does that say about what your faith teaches?