Personal Made Public

On my car, thanks to my very skeptical and thoughtful daughter, is a Darwin fish. For me it signifies a couple of important things. First is my own sense of skepticism. Second is my respect for science as our best tool for understanding our world and ourselves. Third is my respect for Charles Darwin, a man that stuck to what he knew to be true in spite of the ill-feelings those insights generated towards him. Finally, it is there to say publicly that I do NOT buy in to the right-wing, intolerant, evangelical religious fervor that seems to have swept our culture.

Of course, the fact that a right-wing, intolerant, evangelical religious fervor now grips our nation meant I was bound to draw comment from someone due to the presence of my little footed fish. Today I found the following flier in the front seat of my car (it's a convertible -- the top was down):

Were You Aware...

Thanks for promoting a man of great faith! And may you discover, as Darwin proclaimed, "the grandeur of this Book" (the Bible) and "Christ Jesus and his salvation. Is not that the best theme?" [misplaced quotation marks in original]

Well, I think this typifies exactly the culture on which I was commenting. I would never put anti-Christian materials in a car with a "Jesus fish". I would never comment on a stranger's "W" sticker. Why? Because I respect their right to express their opinion. It's amazing to me that evangelicals are apparently so appalled by the Darwin fish that they carry around anonymous, pre-printed fliers to place on cars that have them!

It's a shame they can't put their name on their flier -- especially since the flier is filled with half-truths and misinformation. The indignant evangelical should either (a) get their facts straight or (b) stop using lies as a tool for spreading Christianity!

Darwin was a deeply religious man whose literal interpretation of the Bible in his younger days (including during his time on the Beagle) gave way to skepticism in his latter years. I have to comment in particular on the paragraph in the flier that begins "As Darwin once warned". The quote attributed to Darwin appears in Darwin's autobiography. However, the quote is out of context because the author of the flier removed the rest of Darwin's statement. Since the author of the flier quoted Darwin's autobiography word-for-word, it is clear that the omission was intentional and disingenuous. A more complete portion of the text appears below:

A man who has no assured and ever present belief in the existence of a personal God or of future existence with retribution and reward, can have for his rule of life, as far as I can see, only to follow those impulses and instincts which are the strongest or which seem to him the best ones. A dog acts in this manner, but he does so blindly. A man, on the other hand, looks forwards and backwards, and compares his various feelings, desires and recollections. He then finds, in accordance with the verdict of all the wisest men that the highest satisfaction is derived from following certain impulses, namely the social instincts. If he acts for the good of others, he will receive the approbation of his fellow men and gain the love of those with whom he lives; and this latter gain undoubtedly is the highest pleasure on this earth. By degrees it will become intolerable to him to obey his sensuous passions rather than his higher impulses, which when rendered habitual may be almost called instincts. His reason may occasionally tell him to act in opposition to the opinion of others, whose approbation he will then not receive; but he will still have the solid satisfaction of knowing that he has followed his innermost guide or conscience.

A much longer excerpt detailing Darwin's conversion from evangelical to skeptic can be found online. The flier I received anonymously, filled with intentional distortions of the facts, only reinforces my feeling that the evangelical movement lacks the morality they preach, the rationality to realize it, and the courage to admit it.

Posted by Kevin at 05:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) continues to plague our nation's education system three years after it was signed into law by President Bush. As someone with first hand experience with the law (serving on a local School Governing Committee for three years with one year as chair), I can attest to the fact that the law is weakening our schools. Many states are now beginning to fight against Federal control of our schools. Weren't Republicans supposed to be against Big Government and FOR trusting families and communities to manage their own lives?

The testing requirements are shifting the focus of our schools to teaching our children to pass standardized tests. The amount of time spent teaching test taking skills, practicing for the tests, and actually taking the tests is absorbing inordinate amounts of time during which our children could actually be learning. Worse still, it has resulted in a refocusing of resources on borderline students. Students that are meeting expectations for their grade level and those farthest behind are often ignored in favor of focusing as tightly as possible on those students that are likely to fall just short of passing. Those students are the ones that will determine the pass/fail ratio for the school. Other districts such as the Houston School District just push at-risk students out of school altogether to meet the impossible demands of the act. Of course, maybe that's what it's supposed to do: the Houston Superintendent was appointed Secretary of Education by President Bush. It wasn't until 2003 that it was revealed that the phenomenal 1.5% dropout rate in Houston was a lie. The real number was 40% -- almost all of which were low-income, minority students.

How does NCLB help "failing schools"? Most "failing schools" are really financially-challenged communities (usually with high numbers of minority students). The most successful schools are those in white, well-to-do areas. NCLB "fixes" schools by giving bonuses to those that are testing well. This "fix" moves federal money from the schools facing the biggest challenges into those that are best funded and have the fewest challenges. Isn't that like the office joke: "The beatings will continue until morale improves"?

States across the country are struggling to meet the requirements of NCLB because the federal government is threatening to remove federal education dollars from states that don't comply with the law. Federal taxation is used to extract money from states that could be used by the states for education and is then given back to the states in return for NCLB-compliance: NCLB's special kind of blackmail. NCLB represents an attempt by the Federal government to consolidate power over our schools in Washington. NCLB represents one of the largest power grabs by the Feds in many years.

Fortunately, many states are fighting back. Utah is in the forefront of the battle with Republican governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. leading the charge. I wish them the best of luck in taking back our schools from the Big Government "conservatives" in Washington.

Posted by Kevin at 09:53 PM | Permalink

... that Duke from Doonesbury was inspired by Hunter S. Thompson. Now that I know, I can even see the resemblence.

Posted by Kevin at 09:15 PM | Permalink

Like many people with a background in physics, I believe the latest iteration of the Star Wars missile shield currently under deployment by Bush (in spite of failing to be able to reliably intercept anything in test after test) is a ridiculous waste of money. It ranks right up there with the Maginot Line as a impregnable defense against The Bad Guys. From a technical point of view, interceptor systems are unbelievably easy to defeat simply by overwhelming them with dummy targets and electronic countermeasures or even just extra missiles. Of course, the third world ICBM's that this boondoggle is to defend against could be replaced with a bomb on a boat for a fraction of the cost.

In any case, Canada has respectively declined our request that they get on board with this program. Apparently they are more concerned with building up their own country than our defense industry (the nerve!). Now you may be asking how ANY nation in their right mind can't see the value in investing billions into a system that can't hit targets and won't be effective at making anyone safer even if it could. Really now! Think of the (defense industry's) children!

Fortunately, Lloyd Axworthy (former Canadian foreign minister) has come forward to give us a better understanding of their reasoning in an open letter to Condi Rice. Gosh, I sure hope someone in the White House can read Canadian!

Posted by Kevin at 08:59 PM | Permalink

The Hoover Dam, the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower: each stands as a testament to the greatness of American culture, capability, and resolve. Each broke records. Each enjoyed decades as the greatest example of engineering in its field.

Each is getting old. What have we done lately?

The world's longest suspension bridge is the Akashi-Kaikyo bridge in Japan. The first American entry comes in at number SEVEN on the list of the world's longest spans and was built in 1964. Another popular type of modern bridge is the cable-stayed design: the U.S. does not have a bridge in the top TWENTY.

Among dams, the U.S. still has the largest by reservoir capacity, but this is a poor of engineering accomplishment since it is the height of the dam determines the pressure it must withstand. By height, the U.S. again has nothing to offer in the top ten. The tallest U.S. dam (at 235m) will soon be a full 100m short of the number one spot (which is under construction).

Skyscrapers? Well that depends on what you measure (Do antennas count? Just floors? Decorative embellishments?) While you can debate specific points, a good list is available with a good explanation of the rankings. The bottom line is that the U.S. presence is not what it once was. One bright spot, however, is the proposed replacement for the World Trade Center: it would be higher than any other building currently in existence. However, other buildings are in the planning stages that may keep it from the number one slot. In the meantime, the first U.S. entry on the list is the Sears Tower, completed in 1974.

Tunnels? Road, rail, or subaqueous, you'll have to scroll way down to find the U.S. on any of the lists of the world's longest tunnels. For example, the first subaqueous tunnel in the U.S. on the list is the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel at 2779m completed in 1950. The number one spot goes to a Japanese tunnel under Tokyo Bay called Tokyo Aqua which runs an astounding 9583m!

I guess I'm disturbed by two things: the fact that we are no longer doing Great Things, and that those Great Things that we have are almost all decades old. It could be that I'm wrong to feel uneasy at this state of affairs. Maybe we have matured and don't need to show off, but somehow I doubt it. It seems more likely that we have grown short-sighted, risk-averse and lack vision. I guess time will tell...

Posted by Kevin at 07:16 PM | Permalink