On not having to pay much attention
I’m voting for Obama this year, just like I did four years ago. I am somewhat less enthusiastic than I once was, but that’s probably likely any time your candidate faces re-election.
The decision has not required any real time or attention from me, however. There’s no credible opposition to Obama from the left. And when I woke up this morning I checked and no, I have not turned into a fundamentalist Christian, I like gay people, and I seem to remember most of what I was taught about economics. Based on the bits and pieces I’m hearing from the debates, that pretty much makes me ineligible to vote Republican.
This gives me a rather strong advantage I think; with the opposition opinion so alien (and even actively opposed!) to my own, I really don’t have to spend much time forming an opinion on them.
The fact of militant atheism
I stumbled across this post by Daniel Florien discussing David Noise’s post claiming militant atheism does not exist:
In fact, however, while millions of atheists are indeed walking our streets, it would be difficult to find even one who could accurately be described as militant. In all of American history, it is doubtful that any person has ever been killed in the name of atheism. In fact, it would be difficult to find evidence that any American has ever even been harmed in the name of atheism. It just does not happen, because the notion of “militant atheism” is entirely fantasy. The Myth of Militant Atheism
Noise’s argument seems to be an entirely semantic one, and dependent on conflating “militant” with “violent.” Militants can certainly be violent, but it’s not a necessary precondition. Making it so is another abuse of language.
This is why I shop online
Since my monitor is about four years old and nearing the end of its operational life, I went display-shopping today. The fact that the Elf got a new monitor for Christmas has nothing to do with it. I swear.
Most of my early shopping was done online, but I was having trouble. “I spend most of my day staring at small text,” I said to Elf. “I need a monitor that does a good job with that. No one reviews these based on how they display nine-point monospaced type.”
“Maybe you should go to Best Buy and look at some,” she said. “Not buy. Look. Then you can see your yourself.” That seemed like a reasonable suggestion, so off I went. And to maximize the potential, I added two other major chains in Christiansburg: Wal-Mart and Staples.
Let’s hear it for traditional media
Wow, a month between updates? Amazing. Doubly so, considering that it’s less than a year to Election Day.
Last weekend I took some time to prune my RSS and Twitter feeds. If we’ve exchanged emails or worked together, don’t worry — I was pruning people who didn’t know me and probably didn’t care whether or not I was following them anyway.
I read fewer weblogs, too. I am a shadow of my former social media self.
Diet Update, November 2011
I didn't actually eat this, I just dig the picture.
When I do eat poorly too much sugar and too many refined foods, I feel depressed, tired, and sick. When I cut that stuff out, my mood improves and so does my energy level. Stress makes it more difficult to stay on the diet; awareness makes it easier. Too much awareness actually makes it more difficult.
I say this because the holier-than-thou, pseudo-religious, extremely arrogant attitude of people towards people who don’t share their food beliefs was a real incentive to fall off the wagon, and that goes for the low-carb crowd as much as it does the low-fat crowd.
Everyone is trying to find their way right now in the face of a polluted well of scientific data, and calling people who cook cupcakes drug pushers (for example) doesn’t help.
Anyway, so the plan now is to be on the diet and try not to worry a lot about the politics.
Flash falls.
You may recall that we’ve been migrating our clients off of Flash already — mostly at their own request. Adobe’s announcement yesterday that they were going to stop supporting a mobile device version of the Flash player will only serve to hasten that. Protestations otherwise, it’s hard to see Adobe’s announcement as anything but a no-confidence vote either in their platform or their ability to sell it. What they’ve done is reinforce in client minds that Flash is a dying technology, and few people want to hitch themselves to that.
The Walking Dead
I actually appreciate The Walking Dead a lot. I’m happy there’s original programming out there somewhere that’s not reality television, even if I’m a little mistifyed why this is The American Movie Classics channel’s responsibility. The series is well acted, well-written, and has high production values. People who like it have every reason to do so. But I don’t think I do.
Watching The Walking Dead does help me identify what it is I’m looking for in speculative fiction by having next to nothing of it. They’ve got gore, action, and loads of interpersonal drama. What they don’t have is mystery. There’s the first half of the pilot episode where Rick wanders around town in his hospital johnny trying to figure out what happened, but after that no one seems to be particularly curious about it. People got sick and turned into zombies. What else do you need?
After watching two-point-five episodes, I looked through some episode guides to see what I’d get out of the show by fast-forwarding all the interpersonal drama and significant looks, and it looks like I’d have a much, much shorter show.
The problem with television
OK, time to get Hell out of the top slot here.
Yesterday I called and cancelled my satellite television, just like I said I was going to do in June. The plan is to use Netflix, iTunes, interesting podcasts, and maybe some DVD purchases and rentals for our evening entertainment.
Immeasurable cruelty
C. J.’s mom says if her son is going to hell, then she will, too. My guess is that she’s either she’s not convinced Hell exists, or — if she is — she doesn’t think the god she worships would really send people to hell for tolerating gay people.
Hell — the classic “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” definition of hell, which is eternal and immeasurable torment forever and ever — has always been a problem for me. When I was really young I was worried that not believing in the right thing would cause me to end up in Hell.
Some religious arguments are singularly unpersuasive
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Dante and Virgil in Hell by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
I had an evangelical friend tell me today he was concerned that a god I don’t believe would send me to a Hell I don’t believe in. I can understand why a Christian might have that concern, but I have never understood why anyone thinks that’s a effective argument to make to non-believers.
I guess it’s akin to thinking you can convince someone the Bible is true because it says it is.