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Hero of the week: Bill Purcell

14 February 2007 / / 2 Comments

Nashville mayor Bill Purcell has put the smack down on an ugly and unnecessary piece of legislation that would have made English the official language of Nashville. And along the way, he makes some points I wish everyone could hear:

English is our language. It has been so since before the city existed more than 200 years ago.

It is the language we use to conduct the city’s business. In order to get ahead in Nashville a person needs to be able to speak English.

This has been the case for more than 200 years. It is not going to change.

We don’t need a law to tell us what language we are already speaking.
…
This is not who we are. At the heart of this ordinance is the issue of immigration. We are dealing with that issue by supporting the deportation of illegal aliens who commit crimes. But this ordinance goes beyond illegal immigration to put at risk our community and its ability to welcome and work with those people who come to our city legally and want to be a part of our city.

These English-only bills pop up once in a while because they tap into resentment of ‘furriners’. But it’s a bit harder to legislate prejudice so overtly these days, so try to accomplish the same thing by pulling support for other languages. Once again, right-wingers try and hit the people who have it the hardest, just so insecure Anglos can feel safe and superior.

It would have been easy for Purcell to go along with this, reasoning that it’s a meaningless symbolic gesture that wouldn’t have any real impact. Instead, he chose to fight the hatred, xenophobia, and small-mindedness represented by the English-only movement. And so I’m naming Mayor Bill Purcell my Hero of the Week.

The false gatekeeper

11 February 2007 / / 4 Comments

There’s this argument out there that atheists aren’t moral. Maybe you’re one of those rare atheists who can manage to restrain yourself from looting and pillaging despite your lack of belief in divine retribution. Maybe you’re even kind and good, and return library books on time. Are you then a moral person?

Not according to the author of this essay: ‘The Lie of Moral Atheism’. See, you’ve rejected God, the source of all goodness and morality. How could anything you do be ethical? What you’re doing must be something else besides ethics.

When secular humanists, agnostics, nontheists, and atheists reject God and yet claim to be moral and ethical, they are first lying to themselves. If they reject the origin of truth, morality and ethics, their version of truth and morality can only be a subjective counterfeit. Trouble is, this brand of moral relativism is being taught wholesale throughout the country. And the atheists are organizing to get more of it. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.” All the more reason the Bible should be used as a textbook in every school.

Buh. Duh. Guh. Must… fight… non sequitur

I’m fine now. They tried to hit me with a Confusion Attack. Good thing I had 20 health and rolled a six, or that could have been serious.


Dear God, please let them not see through the faulty reasoning, at least not until the checks are cashed.

I’ve noticed a strategy that religious belief systems use to survive. They piggyback onto life milestones, and act like they own them. These are:

  • birth, which religions co-opt with ceremonies like baptism or blessing
  • adulthood (or young adulthood), commemorated in bar mitzvahs and first communions. In LDS culture, this finds expression in priesthood (for boys) and missions (a later adulthood ritual)
  • marriage, which serves as a symbol for the beginning of long-term relationships
  • death, with its funerals and last rites

And then basic moral goodness, as in our example above.

The ceremonies are usually nice, and people like them. But because religions have set up shop around these basic parts of human life, it becomes difficult for believers to imagine the event occurring (or being done properly) in the absence of the ceremony. Yet parts of the life cycle, like birth, death, mating and the like have been around for as long as there have been organisms. It’s unnecessary for religions to come and claim them with ceremonies. It’s like if I tried to set up a booth at the public library and charge admission.

Seen this way, religious belief systems act as parasites on life’s great moments. Allowing religion to claim them gives it strength that it hasn’t earned. And the parasite will always want more. Let ’em have marriage, and they’ll be claiming honesty and decency, and probably punctuality besides. Let ’em have those, and they’ll be coming for gravity.

Friday Random Five shakes my paranoia

9 February 2007 / / 2 Comments

Here I thought Soul Whirling Somewhere defined the genre of ‘sadcore’ with their first album “Eating the Sea”. Now via the magic of eMusic, I realise that the honour goes to Red House Painters. Though ‘Mistress’ got all the airplay in 1993, I’m entranced by ‘Katy Song’. After a brooding song with lyrics that would make Brian Wilson say, “Geez, that guy’s a bit pathetic,” the painters launch into a wondrous four-minute outro that could have repeated for the rest of the album without being tiresome.

And now for the random five.

Late Show by Book of Love
Album: Book of Love
Even though they hadn’t found their sound yet, I still enjoy the first album of sugary pop band Book of Love. I first saw the cover in a lovely young lady’s dorm room, and have always associated the album with that place ever since. This instrumental number attempts to rock out a bit, but cinematically so. The stronger numbers are the hits like ‘I Touch Roses’ and ‘Modigliani’. Music for a good mood.

Autumn fires by Bill Nelson
Album: Chamber of Dreams (Music from the Invisibility Exhibition)
Another song from the Bill Nelson 4-CD box set (five, if you count ‘Sounding the Ritual Echo’, which I do). This track is very representative of the set; washed-out swirly guitars hum under a layer of twittery improvised birdsong. A staid parade comes through at the end.

Crossroads by Tracy Chapman
Album: Collection
Sometimes I wonder about what makes an album ‘work’. You could be a really good musician, write an album full of well-formed and well-played songs, and someone (like me) wouldn’t like it. And I can’t really say why. Maybe it’s the religious imagery that turns me off, or maybe it doesn’t ‘speak to my condition’. But why doesn’t it? What makes a piece of music click? and what would make you say, “I really like this artist. I could get behind this, and buy everything they’ve done and maybe even wear the t-shirt out in public”? I don’t know. I just don’t care about this music, even though I think it’s technically fine. Have you got any bands like that?

Stop the Rock by Apollo 440
Album: Gettin’ High on Your Own Supply
People may scoff that this song is in the collection, but I will defend it. I clearly remember the first time I heard it — it was the year that companies were fighting each other for the right to use pop songs in their commercials, and Mars won this one. You must admit that the chorus is a bit of an earworm. Also it shows how much can be accomplished with just one chord.

Beethoven: Minuet in G, WoO 10/2 by Budapest Strings
Album: Meditation – Classical Relaxation
Ah, so this one’s by Beethoven. I always think of him as fiery and all Sturm und Drang, but maybe it’s just that portrait. A lovely and familiar piece. Maybe after a lifetime of listening to these mp3’s, I’ll remember which composer did what.

Bonus sixth:
Mao Badge by Duffy
Album: 17 (Single 1)
Songs like this reminds me why Stephen Duffy is my musical hero. A pop masterpiece, with so much instrumentation and all in the right place. It’s a lazy day with his favourite girl. “Let’s just stay in, play old records, and watch TV — something you taped on video.” But relationships are uncertain: “I hope that you’ll be here for the good and the bad times.” And then a poignant aside: “I hope that there aren’t too many bad times.” It’s a really beautiful song.

‘Good Shepherd’: good design

7 February 2007 / / 2 Comments

I like to point out good typography and design when I see it, and I’ve developed a man-crush on the poster for the film ‘The Good Shepherd’. It’s been popping up on bus stations around Perth, and it’s a masterful piece of work.

I don’t mean this poster, which is running in the USA:


although it’s good too. Notice how dramatic whitespace can be.

Here’s the Australian one, flattened for landscape orientation.

The first thing is the typography. They’ve used Optima, designed in 1959 by the inimitable Hermann Zapf. It’s simple, clean, unassuming, and perfect for the time in which the film was set.

Second is the globe with the actors’ faces. This kind of international look was all over the place in the 60s and 70s. It’s very UN. For some reason it reminds me of the original cover on the box of the game ‘Mastermind’.


But back to the poster.

Again, the whitespace is easy on the eye, though the effect is more pronounced for the portrait version.

Overall, the poster looks global, sophisticated, and commands attention without being garish. It’s perfectly in keeping with the mood and time of its subject matter. Just a nice piece.

The angry atheist

4 February 2007 / / 5 Comments

Off a tip from snowqueen, I’ve been watching the Mr Deity videos on YouTube. Wickedly funny! I had no idea that God was like a Hollywood executive. But suddenly a lot of things make sense. ‘Mr Deity’ is occasionally scathing, as though written by someone who’s heard all the lame rationalisations for God’s inaction.

And so I wasn’t surprised to learn this from Mr Deity’s FAQ.

Brian, what is your stand on Religion?
I am a formerly religious person (non-bitter), and as such, have great sympathies for the beliefs and feelings of religious people.

The first and great commandment is: Thou shalt not be bitter.

But notice:

In future episodes, I intend to turn the tables a bit and poke fun at what I call the “angry atheists” (of whom I am not fond). We’ll see if they take it so well.

And the second is like unto it: Thou shalt not be angry.

I suspect that this is a stereotype we’re going to see for the next several decades: The Angry Atheist. Too bad it’s being promoted by a funny satirist like Mr Deity. It was pulled out by Fox News asshat John Kasich, who angrily asked a smiling Brian Flemming (of Blasphemy Challenge fame) why he was so angry. Are we going to have to walk around with big fake churchy smiles on our faces, just so we can debunk this meme?

But maybe this is a good chance to address the Anger Issue. Richard Dawkins was once mystified during a talk when someone asked him if he thought anger was a natural part of the deconversion process. He wasn’t sure, so he turned the question back on the audience, who responded resoundingly: Yes.

Yes, we are angry. I am angry. Why shouldn’t I be? I have wasted hours and years of my life on a flimsy set of ideas that claimed to be true. I’ve paid thousands of dollars to a religious organisation that promoted fiction. I knocked on doors for two years of my limited life in the hope of convincing someone of a set of absurdly stupid beliefs. I testified that these beliefs were true for the very worst reason: I had had a feeling that they were true.

While I’m thinking about it, allow me to take this opportunity to make an apology. People of Perth, Australia: I am sorry that I ever troubled you for one second about religion, the fictional plan of salvation, and made-up gods and scriptures. In a small way, it’s a comfort that so few of you believed me.

And yet, who am I angry at?

My parents? Not really; they were fooled too. They were just trying to do their best, and get me to heaven where we could live as a family forever, la lee la lee la.

Myself? I feel like I should have figured it out sooner. But I was given shitty tools to find truth. And it’s hard to overcome years of training, especially when you’ve received (as you suppose) a message from God confirming everything. And invested so much in it. So I guess I did figure it out eventually, when it was difficult. In a way, I’m actually sort of pleased with myself.

People who still believe? I confess to a flash of ire now and again that people can still be theists, but that’s because I sometimes forget what it was like, and how hard it was to change. When I remember that, I can forgive them for continuing.

I’ve heard that one of the important psychological jobs of adulthood is to be able to forgive your parents for their failings. I’ve seen twenty- and thirty-somethings that still burn with rage over things their parents did, and that’s not healthy. In like manner, it’s important to forgive your religion of origin (and the people therein) for promoting the God delusion.

Angry atheists: your anger is real and justified. Now sort it out, and be healthy. Fight theism with relentless cold reason.

Prayer doesn’t work; no one notices.

28 January 2007 / / 3 Comments

Drought conditions persist in Australia, despite the prayers of many faithful Christians and the fasting of Latter-day Saints. Theologians are baffled as to the continuing refusal of God to assist, despite his omnipotence and allegedly benevolent nature. But the faithful have no shortage of reasons:

  1. God doesn’t have to prove anything to you, man! He created this planet!
  2. Well, often in scripture, things are meant to be understood spiritually and not physically. So God actually has alleviated our spiritual ‘drought’. With new convert baptisms. Heh.
  3. The important thing is not ending the drought. The important thing is to build faith in God. Which we can best accomplish by faith-promoting tests that don’t work.
  4. But he has ended the drought! It’s over! Can’t you see the rain falling? Come on, kids! Let’s put on our raincoats and splash in the puddles! Ha ha ha! Whoopee!
  5. I think some rain did fall in the mining regions. That should count.
  6. What are you talking about? No such fast was ever announced. Now let us never speak of this again.
  7. The rain will come in the Lord’s own time. We just need to be patient. The farmers won’t even need it until it’s time to plant. I’m sure the big guy will come through then.
  8. Isn’t God great? God’s so awesome! La la la! I can’t hear you!
  9. I think there was a fast a while ago, but the whole thing has entirely slipped my mind, and no one at church has ever mentioned it again.
  10. The Lord is testing our faith. Or Satan is tempting us. I’m not sure which — it’s awfully hard to tell the difference.
  11. Gee, I guess prayer doesn’t work. OW — crippling paradigm shift! Oh, the pain! That I could unsay those words! Aaargh… excruciating…

Friday Random Five makes the rockin’ world go round.

26 January 2007 / / 2 Comments

Today was Australia Day, and you know what that means: music. Specifically the JJJ Hottest 100, which I found strangely uncompelling this year, not because I didn’t know the songs. (I did.) I voted again this year, and I’m willing to lay it all on the line for you now. Ridicule and suck.

  • Beck – No Complaints
  • Belle & Sebastian – Funny Little Frog
  • Belle & Sebastian – The Blues Are Still Blue
  • Midnight Juggernauts – Shadows
  • Kimya Dawson – I Like Giants
  • Augie March – One Crowded Hour
  • Peter Bjorn & John – Young Folks
  • Sonic Youth – Incinerate
  • Thom Yorke – Atoms For Peace
  • Thom Yorke – Black Swan

Basically anything I thought was good enough to download (legally) or buy.

But look at the final list. Sure, a lot of my picks were there (and in fact the Augie March tune made it to number 1). But no Belle? No Midnight Jugs? No Dawson? Instead the list is clogged with trendy stuff that, really, you wouldn’t even borrow a year from now.

So I say a curmudgeonly ‘harrumph!’ and retreat to my own musical zone, where delights new and old are always around the corner.

Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen
Album: Greatest Hits

Did Queen really get a bunch of nearly nude fat women to stage a mock bicycle race? Or did I dream it? Never mind. I’m trying to think of a song that combines fat fetishism with a positive take on child sex abuse, and I’m coming up with nothing.

The Clock by Thom Yorke
Album: The Eraser

This album works for me where other Radiohead albums don’t, and here’s (I think) why. The band carries a weight, and without them, the album feels lighter. It works well with the edgy paranoia, more electronic, more nimble. Take this track — the tick of the percussion speeds along like time itself, with Mr Yorke’s vocals dancing along the top. More chill than chill — almost uncomfortably cold.

Wear Your Love Like Heaven by Sarah McLachlan
Album: Solace

I love random songs. How often would I take this disc out and play it? Never, that’s how. But then I’d be missing this sunny tune from the ex-Nettwerk artist Sarah McL. And that’d be a shame. And if it annoys me, it’s over soon. Which it rather does. Never mind. Onward.

I Wanna Be a Cowboy (12″ Saddle Mix) by Boys Don’t Cry
Album: I Wanna Be a Cowboy (Single)

An Aussie band from the 80’s, who charted with this hit in the USA. I think they came to Spokane once. Jeff saw them; I didn’t. (Jeffrey — tell them the ‘ta very much’ story.)

So here’s a guy who wants to be a cowboy. And you can be his cowgirl. His name is Ted. Which is funny. In fact, this is a really funny song, especially when Cowboy Ted’s girlfriend expresses her ambivalence about the dust and dirt of the trail (complete with robust cowboy chorus). Yippee yippee yi, yippee yo, yo, yo.

But then check the ending – existentialist angst where you least expect it: “My name is Ted. And one day… I’ll be dead, yo yo yo.” Where did that come from? And it has a good beat and it’s easy to dance to. I give it a nine out of ten.

All the Money or the Simple Life Honey by The Dandy Warhols
Album: Triple J Hottest 100, Volume 13

From last year’s Triple J Hottest 100. The Dandy Warhols are a band that I’m not always very interested in, but they’ve put out some great songs over the years, and I’m always surprised by how good their work is. Check their “Thirteen Tales” album; “Solid” is getting heavy play on my computer this week. This song is a good example of how to use a horn section to beef up an otherwise thin idea for a song.

Look out: it’s another Hottest 100 winner from 1998:

Dragula by Rob Zombie
Album: Hellbilly Deluxe

I decided to include this sixth song because, really, there aren’t enough webpages with Rob Zombie’s picture on them, especially looking like this. In retrospect, his decision to direct slasher b-movies should have been obvious. Still a great song. It does the quiet loud quiet thing well. Is the ‘drag’ in ‘Dragula’ supposed to be, like, him in drag? Because putting that on top of this song is scarier than anything I can think of. Or is it supposed to be motor-fueled carnage? Like the “Nyak-Nyak” comic book from the Wiseblood single? Perhaps both? Mr Zombie’s oeuvre is rich enough to suggest both without giving it all away.

Get responsibly with Frank Luntz.

23 January 2007 / / 2 Comments

The reason I hate the Huffington Post is that they carry articles by nimrods like Deepak Chopra and Frank Luntz.

The reason I love the HuffPo is that every time they do, commenters take them out to the woodshed and give them a well-deserved public stropping with the switch of reason.

Take the latest by dishonest Republican shill and word-twister Frank Luntz. He’s warning Democrats not to use words in nasty or irresponsible ways.

The Republicans are a party in peril, but all is not milk and cookies in Democrat land. The Democrats – flush with majority status – have a crucial choice right now. They can use their newly-won mandate to settle some old scores…or they can get responsibly and move ahead. They would be wise to opt for the latter.

Democracy is at its best when its practioners use language to unite and explain rather than divide and attack.

Fine words from someone who helped Republicans in their destructive quest to win at all costs. Now that his party’s down, suddenly he realises the value of Being Nice.

The Democratic Party has only done well when they’ve ignored the trollishly helpful advice from conservative creeps like ol’ Frank here.

Luntz, you call yourself a linguist? Shame, sir. Linguists are scientists. You, sir, are a hack. I’ll see to having you disbarred.

The earth… no, wait… the… uh…

22 January 2007 / / 2 Comments

This is old, but it absolutely floored me when I found it today.

Every couple of years, the National Science Foundation puts out data from surveys about science and technology. And every once in a while, they ask this innocuous question:

Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?

Think carefully.

Now in 2004, what percentage of Americans got it right? Take a guess, and then highlight the blank space underneath to see if you were close.

Only 71% got it right.

And other countries are even worse, except on the evolution question, where the US is among the worst. Here’s a messy text file with more results, and here’s an Excel file if you’re keen.

What are we to make of this in this day and age? That the difficulty of eradicating ignorance increases asymptotically?

Do not hit children.

21 January 2007 / / 5 Comments

Yes, yes, yes, a thousand times, yes. Pass a law to ban hitting children.

Calif. Lawmaker Seeks Ban on Spanking
California parents could face jail and a fine for spanking their young children under legislation a state lawmaker has promised to introduce next week.

Hitting your children is not an appropriate consequence. There are always better consequences for the things children do.

There’s a step missing, though. Parenting classes need to be available for anyone who wants them.

Case study: There’s a empty house next door. Oldest Boy once threw a couple of rocks through the window. He thought the house was abandoned. The owner wasn’t too pleased. So Boy and I went to see the neighbour and explained, and then he paid to fix the window. (I paid the neighbour, and Boy repaid me a couple of dollars out of his allowance per week.) And that was it. He never felt the need to do it again. I didn’t need to yell at him or hit him.

Hitting children is an entirely useless consequence that has nothing to do with the offense, does nothing to deter repetition, and engenders revenge.

Another thought:

The governor said he and his wife, Maria Shriver, did not spank their four children and used alternative methods for discipline. For example, Schwarzenegger said they found it more effective to threaten to take away their children’s play time if they didn’t do school work.

“They hate that much more than getting spanked,” he told reporters Friday in Los Angeles.

Perhaps the Schwarzenegger children were so well-behaved because if they were naughty, they’d have Arnold Schwarzenegger beating on their ass. Well, maybe not from the sound of it.

UPDATE: If you need another reason not to hit your kids, consider this. It seems to turn them into authoritarian wingnuts. Who then defend the practice of hitting the next generation of kids. Stop the cycle! of Republicanism.

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