Don't Even Think About It

Recently, numerous people--including the governor of the state--were outraged when the Des Moines Area Regional Transit buses started carrying ads sponsored by the Iowa Atheist and Freethinkers group. The signs read, "Don't believe in God? You are not alone." The signs went up on August 1 and came down on August 5.

The Atheist Ethicist presents a thought-provoking perspective on this.

If the story stops here, then the message that the story itself will spread across the city of Des Moines is exactly the opposite of the story that those who arranged for the advertisement wanted. The story will spread to those who do not believe in God that they must shut up and remain silent to be accepted. The story is that those who hate atheists will make sure that any sign that there is an atheist in their midst will be met with hostility and protest until the atheist is silent – because the only good atheist is an invisible atheist.

...

Perhaps one way to explain it to them in a way they will understand is to tell the story of the owner of a small night-club who, having no animosity against Jews, hired a Jewish singer, only to fire her the next day because the community is full of bigots who refused to patronize a place that would dare to put a Jew on the stage.

You see there's nothing as offensive as telling people that if they don't believe in God they're not alone.

Why I Ride

This morning I left home early and took a different and longer route to work. With the extra saddle time my mind wandered and I reflected on cycling. I've met and ridden with a number of extraordinary people this year. On a Thursday morning Spokane Bicycle Club ride, four of the eight riders were old enough to be my mom or dad. The other four could have been older siblings as they were all in their 60's. I was the baby at 52. They started in Brown's Addition and went out through Mead to Peone, Mt Spokane Park highway, and returned on Forker Road to the Centennial Trail and back to the start. The oldest of the group, an eighty-six year old man in lycra shorts and a racing jersey, wasn't the fastest but he wasn't a slouch either. The beer we had at the Elk afterwards was well deserved and much enjoyed.

On another SBC ride out to Cheney, I was talking to a tall, thin rider as we zipped down the road. He shocked me when he told me he graduated from Lewis & Clark High School in 1957. That's six months after I was born. This seventy year old man was often with the fast group waiting at the next shady spot for the slower riders to catch up.

Last week, a woman I know did her second RAMROD. It's 154 miles long with 10,000 feet of elevation gain and you have 15 hours to complete it. On the day John and other cyclists were scouting out the Midnight Century route--and I mean no disrespect towards them--she was training for RAMROD by doing an unsupported double century all by herself. The bib numbers for RAMROD are assigned by age order, the oldest receiving number 1. At sixty-one years of age she was assigned number 53. When I asked her how the ride was, she answered, "It went good." And she somewhat glumly added that numbers 22 and 24 passed her.

Cycling creates the path for me to sharply contrast with the stereotypical mold society expects older people to be in. I want to challenge myself, enjoy a ride and cap it off with an ice cold beer. I know I can't live forever, but I'll live as long as I can and enjoy it to the fullest. And when it's all over, I'll be saying, "It went good."

Now where's that beer?

Choose Your Spouse Wisely

Here is an example (PDF) where being in a community property state doesn't necessarily mean it gets divided evenly and fairly. Or at all. It's a case decided at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In 1986, while Richard I. Berger (Richard) and Cornella were married, Richard joined a partnership (Partnership) known as 1748 North Verdugo Road, which he and others formed for the purpose of purchasing a 290-unit apartment complex (Property).

During the relevant period, Richard served as President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman of the Board of Craig Electronics (Craig), an electronics wholesaler. On March 19, 2003, a federal grand jury returned a first superceding indictment, charging Richard with thirty-six counts of conspiracy, loan fraud, falsifying corporate books, and other securities fraud violations committed at Craig from 1995 to as late as 1997. After a jury trial, Richard was found guilty on twelve of those counts. There is no evidence that Cornella was involved in any wrongdoing associated with the illegal scheme or that any proceeds therefrom were invested in the Property.

As a part of the restitution, their property was sold. The now divorced wife of the convicted man claims she was entitled to half the proceeds of the sale since they live in a community property state.

Cornella also argues that it would be unjust to punish an innocent spouse for her husband’s misdeeds. We sympathize with Cornella’s situation, but for better or worse, it has long been true in community property jurisdictions that both spouses assume the risks—and benefits—of that legal system. The case books are replete with examples of seeming injustices to innocent spouses where community property laws are applied. Nevertheless, we are bound by California’s community property laws, and they control the outcome in this case.

Ouch!

"Say No More," He Says.

If you've never read World Net Daily, you haven't missed much except for some of the most outrageous craziness ever. The latest "throw it against the wall and see if it sticks" idea hosted on the site is a man who uses a quote from the bible to show a relationship between Barack Obama and the antichrist but qualifies that by stating he's not saying Obama is the antichrist.

An American Christian has produced a brief film for YouTube that connects one statement by Jesus in the Gospel of Luke to President Barack Obama.

...

"I want to emphasize I'm not ashamed of what I put there," he told WND. "I'm not proclaiming he is the antichrist, or that I'm some kind of a Hebrew expert, but the word associations are indisputable. The Hebrew word for lightning is 'Baraq' and the word for heights or high places is 'Bamah.'"

The movie has a prominent disclaimer stressing the film does not declare "BHO" [Barack Hussein Obama] to be the antichrist, but is merely pointing out the Hebrew words and their "striking" correlations to Jesus' statement.

So the reason for doing this is...what? There are times when we don't want to state something outright and imply something in order to lead the reader or listener to a conclusion. It's a useful construct in literature, theater and comedy. This, on the other hand, implies something so strongly that it could hardly be more obviously stated and then in turn is denied. I can think of no purpose for it other than to be intentionally destructive.

Basically he's saying something like, "The word association is indisputable so therefore, although what I'm not declaring outright seems logical and possible, I leave it for others to assume to be true."

Know whatahmean, know whatahmean, nudge nudge, know whatahmean, say no more?

Aqua Ball

This past weekend all of my brothers and sisters (there are eight of us) were in town. The kids descended on the pool and came up with a game on Saturday that one of the parents ended up naming "Aqua Ball". It combines aspects of football, rugby, water polo and bullying. They were initially wearing innertube-like swim toys which tended to interfere so my brother-in-law, Chip, picked up head bands and water wings so the kids could have "uniforms."

On Sunday it was game on. We started with team photos.

The older kids formed the Dora the Explorer team.

Spongebob Squarepants mascoted the younger team.
Are you sensing the imbalance and unfairness yet?

A fearsome pass rush is about to happen.

Swim! Swim!

The play is over when your opponent is drowned.

That's The Way It Is

Glenn Greenwald has a very interesting and revealing column about today's New York Times article concerning the now terminated feud between Bill O'Reilly and Keith Olberman. Greenwald expands the subject to the state of the corporate controlled news.

...the chairman of General Electric (which owns MSNBC), Jeffrey Immelt, and the chairman of News Corporation (which owns Fox News), Rupert Murdoch, were brought into a room at a "summit meeting" for CEOs in May, where Charlie Rose tried to engineer an end to the "feud" between MSNBC's Keith Olbermann and Fox's Bill O'Reilly. According to the NYT, both CEO's agreed that the dispute was bad for the interests of the corporate parents, and thus agreed to order their news employees to cease attacking each other's news organizations and employees.

...

So now GE is using its control of NBC and MSNBC to ensure that there is no more reporting by Fox of its business activities in Iran or other embarrassing corporate activities, while News Corp. is ensuring that the lies spewed regularly by its top-rated commodity on Fox News are no longer reported by MSNBC. You don't have to agree with the reader's view of the value of this reporting to be highly disturbed that it is being censored.

I don't consider Olberman or O'Reilly to be real journalists. Like of much of the media they are only concerned with audiences and advertisers. It expresses the late Walter Cronkite's tagline quite well. Which is a real tragedy.