Category Archives: culture

Miss USA Evolves (or Evo Diva)

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I’m surprised that they asked such a difficult question to the Miss USA pageant members, but ask they did: Should evolution be taught in schools. And the answers were interesting, as was the end result. One of the women who said that it should be taught, Alyssa Campanella, went on to win the pageant.

Now, I’m obviously pro-evolution. I think not teaching it in schools is a laughable mistake because it is an important concept to understand for anyone who wants to understand the world. If those people choose to dismiss it or water it down with intelligent design dogma, that is entirely up to them to do. But not teaching it in schools?

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Geeky Honkies

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I grew up nerdy. I tried (poorly) to be a computer geek with my Commodore 64 that I had lovingly named Cedrick, though until I got older the reality was I was simply typing in the program listings from Compute’s Gazette magazine and lacked the ability to figure out where I had gone wrong. I played Dungeons and Dragons and a variety of other role playing games, including an incredibly fun game my friend Andrew had created based on the world of professional wrestling. I spent far too much time in arcades. And I was a social pariah.

In junior high, I wound up in a school full of people who didn’t like me. I didn’t really know why, but that’s how it was. Fortunately, I met and befriend Wes and Troy early on, and they became my nerdy friends. As time went by, our circle grew and we were joined by other social pariahs. There were kids in our group of friends we didn’t even really like, but they were part of our group and we accepted them. It was a very inclusive group.

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Rioting

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As the old saw goes, if you want to figure out the intelligence of a mob, find the lowest IQ and divide by the number of people. And what we saw last night in Vancouver was both true to the rule and true to form. Rioting after hockey games and the like has been en vogue for quite some time now, so I’m not too sure why so many people are acting so stunned.

Now, I live in Calgary. When we had our last decent shot (I’m refering to 2004… I don’t care about hockey, so I have no idea if we have had a decent shot since then) at the Stanley Cup, there was a little something called the Red Mile where 55,000 people spontaneously decided to start partying. There was almost no violence, even when we ultimately got beat out of the cup race. But I don’t know why we didn’t have a riot on our hands. There is nothing special about Calgarians that would prevent them from rioting. I think instead it was the nature of the police response, which was far more “we’re here to keep you safe and have a good time” than it was “we’re the man and YOU WILL OBEY”, was a major contributor, but it really is hard to say.

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It Isn’t Just Women

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For starters, I sincerely do not wish to trivialize the difficulty some women experience in the workplace over their appearance. I think especially in the think jobs like engineering, science, and math, women who are physically attractive are often treated like they got what job they possess due to their looks alone, and at the same time find it hard to advance in their career because of their looks. That is stupid. I’ve said many times both on this blog and in the really real world that equality should mean apathy towards all those annoying little adjectives. If a job requires someone who knows math, wouldn’t it seem fair that math be the key field in determining advancement?

However, it isn’t just women. I’m sure numerous minorities feel the same way about their own stereotypes, but I’m not addressing that right now. Instead, I want to talk about me.

Sigh. Just like a man.

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Once Again, The Pro Life Movement Damn Near Kills A Woman

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Imagine if this was your story. You are pregnant. You wake up to find yourself hemorrhaging. You get to the hospital and it is clear that your baby is now going to die, and if they aren’t quick about it, you will too. You are simply losing too much blood. But then you are told that the on call doctor refuses to do abortions for any reason, even if it means saving your life. You see, his or her personal principals on the subject are worth more than your life. And because of the Pro Life movement, finding a doctor who will perform an abortion, even to save your life, is difficult.

This is in no way a unique situation, and it underscores the reality that sometimes abortions are medically necessary. This woman was lucky enough to finally get a doctor who could save her life, but what if she hadn’t? How could any doctor called about this situation live with the guilt of knowing that their inaction directly and needlessly killed a woman?

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Impulse Control

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I’ve thought a lot about impulse control lately. Having a daughter move in with you who has ADHD will have that kind of effect on a person. I’ve been thinking about the brain chemistry behind it, the free will behind it, the brain chemistry of free will… it’s been a blast of distinct but inter-related thoughts, and just now I got another jolt from another distinct area.

What the hell are we doing to our children? Dear God, think of the children!

I just read an article in the Calgary Herald called How many teens have “Internet addiction”, a condition I am now lovingly calling the Tube Sweats. It’s an interesting notion, that teens are experiencing what they call problematic internet use, and whether or not that ties to teenage depression and drug use. For the record, they didn’t find a relationship.

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The Myth Of Early Retirement

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I’m horrible with money. My income has to primarily support two families of four, and no matter what you make, that ain’t easy. Still, I make it work. One of the ways I do that, unfortunately, is by not preparing for the future. It’s a bad idea, but for the time being, it really is the way things are. It’s only temporary, of course. In about ten years, all of my children will be out of the house and I’ll finally have enough to do the things I want to do, but for now I have responsibilities that I simply refuse to shirk, even if it costs me a lot in the short term.

For me, there is no early retirement. But this isn’t because of having to cover all the costs I cover, it was many years before that that I knew I would not be retiring early, and I based it on a sound and rational understanding of the world I live in. The fact is, early retirement isn’t that attractive to me.

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Women And Atheism

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I’m not going to go into a huge amount of commentary on the topic of the recent comments from David Eller as they’ve been covered elsewhere, but it does make me want to weigh in on the topic of women and atheism. And my response: Who cares?

That’s not to say I don’t care about women atheists, please don’t misunderstand. I’m all for women atheists and women skeptics and women whatever-the-hecks. What I don’t do is care about the gender of people. I’ve commented before about how gender shouldn’t be important to people. I’ve always considered that equality, which is an ideal that we should all be striving towards, is essentially apathy. In other words, I don’t care what adjectives describe you, I care about who you are and what you have to say.

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Insite

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I will never forget my first drive down Vancouver’s East Hastings. My cousin asked if I’d ever been, and I said that no, I hadn’t, but I was well aware of the stories that went with it. We drove along, and suddenly we were on Hastings. It started off not too badly, looking a little run down but undeserving of the hype. That quickly changed as we progressed, eventually driving past some of the most sad and disgusting images I have ever encountered first-hand. The drug problem on Hastings is one of the most obvious and painful to witness things in North America, and leads to a huge number of problems.

It is clear that our current drug policies are not working. Prohibiting drugs has resulted in nothing more than an underground economy that feeds upon itself and continues to spread. Arresting drug users has not in any way deterred them, it has simply encouraged them to be more cunning about where they use.

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Thank You, Public TV

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Today on the Discover Channel, I can watch shows about Bigfoot, a cab that gives you money, and really lousy home repair people. Today on the History Channel, I can watch shows about guys who run a pawn shop and Larry The Cable Guy. Educational TV has been a significant let-down lately. I even ranted a few weeks ago about History’s broadcasting of that Ancient Astronauts program.

I get that they want to be successful. Everyone wants to be the next Fox. It’s like listening to the radio in my city, though. There are way too many Top 40 stations, and those that come along claiming some sort of “we’re not like those other losers” status play most of the same music with a little something else thrown in to seem legit. People want what’s popular. It’s the nature of the beast.

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