Seriously. If anyone happens to come across this, I would be curious about rational reasons you are voting for McCain.
I do not want (and will delete) any thing about Socialism, Communism, Islam or any other falsehoods.
If you are doing it because you make $500k a year and want to keep it, fine. But please give me some reasons why you are doing this.
Again, I would like POSITIVE reasons you are voting for McCain.
Thanks.
Or perhaps do less harm.
Greta Christina has a great article up on viewing this election. As she says, I do not expect Barack Obama to be THE BEST PRESIDENT EVAH™, but I do think that he will do a great deal to mitigate some of the harm of the last 8 years and will certainly do more to help the environment and energy, as well as restoring the Army and actually going after Bin Laden than McSame ever would.
Therefor, if you are debating the issue, simply do what I suggested to another friend.
Pick 1, 3, 5 or 10 of your most important issues, things that you feel passionate about.
Taxes, abortion, energy independence, rational thinking, etc. Then compare the candidates stand on those issues.
http://www.barackobama.com/issues/
http://www.johnmccain.com/Informing/Issues/
Then be sure to check out http://www.factcheck.org/ and www.snopes.com to see what is a BS and what is spin and what is true.
OK, I know it is painfully obvious to anyone except fundies who keep their head in the sand, but this is pretty funny:
From Greta Christina’s blog (some language and URLs NSFW)
The strongest reason I gave up religion when I was about 13 was realizing the hundreds of competing religions could not all be right. Not to mention all the religions that were no longer in place, but that had thousands or millions of followers at some point in time. Think Zeus, Thor, Isis, etc. However, I still believed in some sort of indeterminate god, Taoism most closely fit what I felt:
Perhaps it is because I grew up near the ocean and have lived 37 of 38 years within 30 miles of the ocean, mostly within 5 miles, but water has always had a strong attraction. I like swimming, sailing, fountains, watching rivers and waves, pretty much anything to do with water.
I think the leftover ideas of god as a powerful force in the universe made me want to believe in the Tao, the Force a la Star Wars, or some sort of universal energy.
Now I know there is lots of energy in the universe, but there is no evidence it has any sort of conscious effect on our lives or the universe. There are “four fundamental interactions (forces) may be assumed: gravitation, electromagnetism, the weak interaction, and the strong interaction.“, which hopefully the LHC can provide some more insights into. Those forces shape our bodies and expand the universe. They keep atoms together and let them bond to create thousands of molecules. Those forces are powerful and awesome, but they are not god. They are simply the way the universe works.
Any attempts to show the effects of prayer, crystals, homeopathy, Tarot cards, dowsing or anything similar, consistently show failure or, at best, the same chances as randomness.
Many people have written on this, many far more eloquently than I. However, I think in this day and age, just as homosexuality is finally becoming less and less of an issue (although still big, at least they are not sent to mental institutions for it!), I think that being an atheist is pretty much reviled. I think there will always be superstitions, but if we got to the point where that was the strongest version of religion, I think that would make life better for everyone. I hope that “outing” myself as an atheist may encourage others to do the same and make more people understand the issues of religion.
Peace.
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.
The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile I am assuming Alligator counts
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush Just a tiny taste as Eggplant gives me headaches
11. Calamari Love it!
12. Pho mmm Cat soup (urban myth)
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi Had to look this one up, not that I know of, but I did spend a week in Bangalore
15. Hot dog from a street cart Dave’s in the Old Port of Portland has great dogs
16. Epoisses mmm Stinky Cheese. I have not tried this one yet, but going shopping this afternoon.
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes Blueberry
19. Steamed pork buns Dumplings I guess?
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras It is excellent at Fore Street restaurant
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda Sounds great, but have not tried it.
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal No, but again, its sounds good. I do love Vindaloo.
44. Goat’s milk Well, I have had Goat’s milk cheeses, yogurt, and ice cream, but not plain.
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin Maybe, I think it is sprayed on apples at Whole Foods
64. Currywurst No, but I have had hot dogs with Tabasco and onion dip
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette I had a sausage at a restaurant in Lyon that was described like this, but I am not sure if it is the exact same
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe Yes and it was homemade with Wormwood in it.
74. Gjetost, or brunostYes, tried it from a local cheese market
75. Roadkill No, and I almost crossed this out, but I live in Maine and I guess roadkill deer or moose (assuming you can drive away) make for good eats.
76. Baijiu No, but I have had Grain alchohol, Potcheen, and lots of Vodkas, so I can’t imagine this would be to hard to handle.
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare I read this as “ha-ray” and was about to look it up and thought Oh, Rabbit. mmm Rabbit.
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake
There is a FAQ if you need it.
Some of you more politically minded might be thinking of the Senator from Massachusetts, but I am referring to the conference in Long Beach. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
I find some of the talks do not appeal to me, but some I am amazed by, including this one that is not a talk at all but a dance. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/pilobolus_perform_symbiosis.html
Check out their blog http://blog.ted.com/ for some more great stuff.
http://awesomepedia.org/journal/index.php?view=1
With my twentieth high school reunion coming up this year, I just joined Facebook.
Funny to see who is on there and the connections you can find.
Sports Note: Congrats to Michael Phelps
My Mom died last September due to Parkinson’s Disease. Because of that, I keep my out for articles about PD or dopamine.
In case you don’t know about PD, here is the Wiki entry:
Parkinson’s disease (also known as Parkinson disease or PD) is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that often impairs the sufferer’s motor skills and speech, as well as other functions.[1]
Parkinson’s disease belongs to a group of conditions called movement disorders. It is characterized by muscle rigidity, tremor, a slowing of physical movement (bradykinesia) and, in extreme cases, a loss of physical movement (akinesia). The primary symptoms are the results of decreased stimulation of the motor cortex by the basal ganglia, normally caused by the insufficient formation and action of dopamine, which is produced in the dopaminergic neurons of the brain. Secondary symptoms may include high level cognitive dysfunction and subtle language problems. PD is both chronic and progressive.
PD is the most common cause of chronic progressive parkinsonism, a term which refers to the syndrome of tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and postural instability. PD is also called “primary parkinsonism” or “idiopathic PD” (classically meaning having no known cause although this term is not strictly true in light of the plethora of newly discovered genetic mutations). While many forms of parkinsonism are “idiopathic”, “secondary” cases may result from toxicity most notably of drugs, head trauma, or other medical disorders. The disease is named after English physician James Parkinson; who made a detailed description of the disease in his essay: “An Essay on the Shaking Palsy” (1817).
I added the bold to explain why I look for articles about dopamine. Today I came across this one:
After they ran a small current into the wire, so that the nucleus accumbens [a dopamine center of the brain] was continually excited, the scientists noticed that the rodents lost interest in everything else. They stopped eating and drinking. All courtship behavior ceased. The rats would just cower in the corner of their cage, transfixed by their bliss. Within days all of the animals had perished. They had died of thirst.
Suddenly, I had a bit of an epiphany.
“Fake it till you make it”
“Become the change you want to be”
“Just do it”
Dopamine production is kicked off by sex and drugs and rock & roll. Or any other exciting activity.
I am sure there are dozens of similar cliches, but what clicked in my head after reading that article is your lifestyle becomes reinforcing on a neurological, chemical level.
So, if you want to get in shape, force yourself to do it for a while. Your brain will become addicted to running/swimming/biking.
If you want to be a painter, keep painting, etc.
There have been times when I thought about this concept in a vague way, but never really understood the biology behind it.
Now it makes much more sense to me. “Stuck in a rut” is more than just a phrase, your body becomes addicted to the things that make it happy. If that is World of Warcraft, riding a motorcycle, going to church, or blogging, then your body starts to become addicted to that activity.
So, plan what you want to be and just do it.
Now, I need to go for a ride.
