Un-Science!

Not meaning to offend, and all that, but really, do the Intelligent Design folks have any arguments that are more robust than "isn't it amazing that my legs are long enough to reach the ground?"

Because when I run into this topic, it seems that I'm supposed to find the above position compelling, and if that's all they've got then it's even less sciencey than they think they want it to be.

9/11: I Was There

I don't know if I'll ever be able to hear sirens without thinking of that day in September.

I was living in Brooklyn at the time, and heard the first, then the second planes hit, and the roar and rush of the towers falling.

"This is the day the world changes," I told my wife, who was recovering from having her wisdom teeth pulled out and didn't want to hike to the river. "Everything is going to be different now." 
 
By the time we reached the Promenade, across the river from Manhattan, the lower part of the island was covered in a brown cloud. Streams of dusty, shocked people were walking across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Later that day we watched the plume of smoke, which seemed to be arcing right over our street, bearing thousands of tiny white fluttering bits of paper. 'Souls,' I thought at the time. 'They look like souls.'

The pile burned for weeks. Every day when I took the subway home from work, I'd walk up the stairs and smell charred concrete, burnt insulation carried across the river... What else was I breathing in?

Never forget? I don't think I could, even if I wanted to.

From the Henry Rollins School of Training

As I've mentioned, some of the folks here at work have a team for the Tough Mudder race on Mt Snow this May. Its a tough, very challenging course and as a bonus we're raising money for Wounded Warrior.

And as you might expect, there's been a lot of talk about weight loss, training and fitness around the office, some of if useful and some of it... sorta... strange.

I don't want to gore anyone's sacred cow, so I'll spare you most of the details. But I don't think that adding 5 grams of cinnamon  to your coffee every morning, or buying $150 trail running shoes is going to make it any easier to run 8.5 miles up a mountain and haul my ass over an 12-foot wall. While wet and muddy.

Maybe people feel like its bragging to talk about miles run or pounds lifted or meters rowed, but to quote Henry Rollins, "200 pounds is always 200 pounds." Eating extra cinnamon or wearing fancy shoes doesn't make that bar any lighter. 

The Liberal Whisperer

I'm not giving away any State secrets by bringing up the point that liberal positions are based on feelings and emotion whereas conservative positions are based on fact and principle. A generalization, sure, but a gorram accurate and useful one.

The really frustrating part is, of course, when you're having a discussion or debate, say like as was happening to me the other night (why do liberals always insist on bringing up politics?), and your liberal buddy demonstrates his imperviousness to facts. This is frustrating, but you're used to it, and you know that you're right about your facts and you allow as to how if someone's feeling guides them to a certain conclusion, then that's okay. Let's have another drink. Or another cigar. Or another turn of Shifting Sands (great MultiMan Publishing game of WWII Western Desert).

But for a liberal, that's not the end of it. Because you didn't validate their feeling, you're a bastard. Because you challenged them with facts they couldn't counter, they feel stupid (and liberals worship intellect.) And since you're not really bothered by how they feel, because it's not based on reality, you're now a monster.

And that's just fun.