The new new criticism of the new new atheism. Same old, same old.

July 17th, 2007

In a recent editorial, Peter Berkowitz proclaims that what he calls the “new new atheism” – popularized by books by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens – is basically the same as “old” atheism.

In some sense, he may have a point. After all, how many ways can one possibly talk about not accepting ideas that either are provided with no supporting evidence or are contradictory to the evidence? But in keeping with Berkowitz’s “there’s nothing new under the sun” theme, I’d like to point out that his criticisms of the “new new atheism” are … nothing new, themselves. More below the fold.

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Start ’em early!

July 16th, 2007

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it. — Proverbs 22:6

[Cate playing Castlevania]

Cate enjoys a quick game of Castlevania

So we’re training!

Cate is fascinated by the buttons on this machine and the colorful graphics of the older games it plays. In particular, one of her favorite games so far is Frogger – though her usual strategy is to jump the frogs directly into cars. Given her love of running stuff into and underneath cars, maybe Grand Theft Auto 3 will be her next favorite?

Posted in Toddler stuff, Video Games | 3 Comments »

Friday cat: Friday the 13th edition

July 13th, 2007

Since it is Friday the 13th, be careful! Don’t let Tom cross your path!

[Tom]

Hey! Who says I’m bad luck?

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Do unto others

July 12th, 2007

A little bit of history was made today. For the first time, a Hindu gave the daily prayer that started a day of work for the US Senate.

Unfortunately, it did not sit well with some representatives of our majority religion.

two women and one man were arrested and charged with causing a disruption in the public gallery of the Senate. The three started shouting when guest Chaplain Rajan Zed, a Hindu from Nevada, began his prayer […] They shouted “No Lord but Jesus Christ” and “There’s only one true God,” and used the term “abomination.”

The next time you hear a fundamentalist Christian complain that he’s being oppressed and persecuted because of his faith, remind him of this incident and let him know who the oppressors really are – people like him.

Moderate Christians would do well to denounce these hecklers – loudly and publicly. After all, if America allow Hindus to be persecuted today, who’s to say that it won’t persecute Christians in the future?

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You like-a the juice?

July 11th, 2007

My wife loves orange juice. I drink it less often than I should, but we both agree that orange juice made from concentrate doesn’t taste good. So we make it a point to always buy the not-from-concentrate juice.

We don’t usually shop at Wal-Mart – for many reasons. Our car, however, was so full of baby stuff before our week at the beach that we decided to buy some of our groceries after we’d unloaded all of our stuff at the place we were staying. Since the traffic over the fourth of July holiday was horrible, we went to the most easily accessible place to buy food. That place, unfortunately, turned out to be Wal-Mart

We were in a hurry, and I picked up some orange juice. Here’s the carton.

[Orange juice carton - from top]

The brand’s not familiar, but the label states clearly that the juice is not-from-concentrate, so it shouldn’t be too bad.  (More below the fold.)

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Posted in Personal chatter | 1 Comment »

Moore money, Moore money!

July 9th, 2007

Longtime readers of this little blog are probably aware that I don’t really have a lot of respect for South Carolina’s current governor – given what he’s tried to do to public education in this state. I felt that he won the last election “by default” – simply because it seems impossible to elect anyone with a (D) behind their name to a statewide office.****

Sanford might have been helped by the Democratic choice of candidate. They chose longtime state senator Tommy Moore to oppose Sanford in the last election. I never thought Moore was a particularly exciting or memorable candidate, but I think that I might have something to remember him by now. He’s resigning from the state legislature to take a new job. Here’s a statement from Moore, as reported by The State [Link may be busted soon – this seems to happen a lot with links to The State]:

“At this point in my career, I saw an exciting opportunity to take on a new challenge that builds on my long history of supporting and protecting consumers,”[emphasis mine]

At this point, you might be thinking “So what? People take new jobs all the time!”

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“Where’s Waldo?” – the North Myrtle Beach edition

July 7th, 2007

We’ve been on vacation to Myrtle Beach this week – specifically North Myrtle Beach – home of “family atmosphere, fishing piers reaching into the Atlantic, wide sandy beaches, and championship golf courses as well as being centrally located to a very wide range of neighboring attractions and entertainment.”

Here’s a view of North Myrtle Beach – taken at noon on July 4th.

[High noon, July 4, North Myrtle Beach - 450px]

About the only thing you can’t see in this picture is … sand! This looks more like a scene from a Where’s Waldo book than a scene from our family vacation. In the spirit of the Where’s Waldo books, I’ve provided a high-resolution version of the above image. Just click the link – but you might have to wait a while if you’re on dial-up.

[Noon, July 4, North Myrtle Beach – 3449px – 1.2 MB]

See if you can:

  • Find the red, white, and blue volleyball.
  • Find the NC State logo.
  • Find the American flag.
  • Count the number of South Carolina state emblems.
  • Find the black and white striped towel.
  • Find a boy in an orange shirt.
  • Find a wake board without a rider.
  • Find a purple and orange umbrella.

Enjoy!

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Friday cat food: Pig-E-On

July 6th, 2007

It’s really too bad that the cats couldn’t join us on our Myrtle Beach vacation this year. I’m sure that they would love to get their paws on this lovely pigeon!

[Pigeon]

Myrtle Beach pigeon

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Friday Cate: Stand in the place where you live

June 29th, 2007

Cate hasn’t yet mastered the fine art of getting to a sitting position from lying on her back. But that’s not really what she’s interested in. She is interested in only one thing. She wants to … stand. Stand! Stand! Stand! If she’s sitting, she will attempt to pull herself up to a standing position using nearly any object – some of which won’t support her weight.

But Cate’s toy basket is heavy enough!

[Cate standing with the help of her toy basket]

Cate can’t decide whether to hold on for support or grab a toy!

Soon, we’ll have to move anything that we have on coffee tables and low shelves. I’ll also have to put up a lot of my electronic stuff, since Cate seems to have inherited my fascination with anything that runs by electricity. She already “cruises” down the edge of the couch to find my laptop computer.

But I look forward to the time we have to toddler-proof the house. I enjoy seeing Cate gain more control of herself and her world.

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A Sanford veto … succeeds?

June 29th, 2007

On the subject of Republican Ted Pitts’ attempt to get rid of South Carolina’s antiquated “blue laws”, Eric (in the comments on my earlier post) had this to say

just add it to the list of sanford vetoes … and general assembly overides.

Have I got a surprise for you! Sanford vetoed the measure, but the legislature upheld the veto. So, we’re stuck with the blue laws.

Presumably, this veto and the support of it allows both the governor and members of the legislature to pick up some cheap fundie support at the expense of only the smaller counties in the state – since the richest counties can already ignore the blue laws. FromThe State:

“I don’t think it had to do with religion, but my mom raised me to go to church on Sunday,” said Rep. Nathan Ballentine, R-Richland. He said he voted against the Pitt’s proviso because, “There’s certain things we don’t need to be messing with.”

That’s an interesting statement from a legislator from a county whose stores can ignore the blue laws thanks to the accommodations tax exception. But I’m inclined to agree with what Bellentine is saying here. His vote probably had very little to do with his religion. It likely had more to do with his benefactors not wanting competition in neighboring counties opening up on Sunday morning!

Posted in Politics, The culture wars | 1 Comment »

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