Friday, May 22, 2009

Beware of clouds

Greetings.

Jewish date: 28 ’Iyyar 5769.

Today’s holidays:  Day 43 of the ‘Omer, Jerusalem Day. Relevant to Jerusalem Day are “This year in Jerusalem”, “Once upon an Independence Eve”,“Jerusalem (1973)”, and “The Struggle for Jerusalem”.

Today’s quasi-holidays: International Day for Biological Diversity, Buy-A-Musical Instrument Day, The Anniversary of Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.

Worthy causes of the day: “Education is the Pathway Out of Global Poverty” and “Help Support Tougher Sanctions on Iran”.

Relevant to Divine Misconceptions:
  1. “Oh, Texas, this guy runs your school board?”: Creationist attacks on academic integrity in our public schools have not ceased. This article is about one creationist on a school board in Texas who has trouble with the idea of experts, i.e., people who know more about him on, say, evolution, and who believe he is wrong. Claiming to know better on a subject than people who actually, demonstrably know more is a bad idea. Not to mention this guy has no clue that punctuated equilibrium (“stasis”) is not a disproof of (or even vaguely resemble a disproof of) evolution, which does nothing to help his case.
  2. “Holocaust remembrance group silenced in Ukraine”: As if covering up something horrible that happened ever made the world a better place to live in.
  3. More persecution: “ADL voices concern over recent anti-Semitic incidents in Argentina”.
  4. More paranoia: “Children in Congo forced into exorcisms”.
  5. It is very easy to point at something wrong and announce its wrongness to the world. Harder is to explain why someone reached a wrong belief or decision. “Don't judge the chemo kid” is an article which attempts to explain why Daniel Hauser, the 13-year-old boy with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and his mother have gone on the run to keep him from having to undergo chemotherapy.  Chemotherapy is an extremely difficult treatment with horrific side effects.  The correct decision is still to undergo chemotherapy, but it is understandable that Daniel and his mother would want to find another way to cure him.
Today’s news and commentary:
Today’s weird thing is The Cloud Appreciation Society. Enjoy, share the weirdness, and Shabbath shalom.

Aaron

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