American politics
Why People Believe Weird Things
Humanist. Agnostic. Atheist. I always stumble a bit when asked about how I view the world, generally preferring to appear matter-of-fact than antagonistic. Perhaps the best moniker to capture my desired view of the world is “skeptic.”
What makes a skeptic? An outlook on the world based on the scientific method: the accumulation of empirical evidence and the continuous testing, retesting, rejection, [...]
A New Hope
The inauguration ceremony was very moving. I thought Obama’s speech was inspiring, and his poise and coherence quite refreshing.
I do wish that they would stop having prayers and religious benedictions in public ceremonies. I found Warren’s invocation of Jesus particularly obnoxious. Lowery’s benediction, however, was at least witty and spunky.
On a positive note, President Obama [...]
Good citizen
Today after I work I went to a meeting at the library. There, a (surprisingly small) group of neighbors got together to meet with our state senator and talk about legislative priorities and issues on our mind. It was a good way to learn about issues in Olympia and across the state, and to provide [...]
VP Debate
A great transcript-linked video of the debate, with a timeline, is available courtesy of the New York Times.
My impressions:
Gov. Palin rose from seeming completely out of her element to acting like the typical politician who sticks to the talking points and tries to spin/avoid facts. Both of them seemed more articulate and fluid than their respective [...]
Financial Gedankenexperiment
What if we had a different solution to the financial crisis?
