I am a meteorologist and a former youth leader at church…I have a lot to say on both subjects…and then some
Nightline – Darker Side of Sin City This was pointed out to me by the XXXChurch people. There is a whole other world under Las Vegas. Wow.
Recently, I have been reading things about the politics of the country, and I have to say that it has been going in a depressing direction. I’m not talking about politically, but the fact that there is little civility in the process. As a kid, there was Watergate and then the country floundered for years. When I was in high school, Ronald Reagan became President and by a such a resounding margin that it looked like the Democrats wouldn’t recover. However, after Pres. George 41, we elected Bill Clinton, twice. Those 12 years, I felt that there we gradually walked away from the discussion and drifted toward the dissonance of hot air on both sides of the spectrum.
So where do I lie on the spectrum? In the middle. I have voted for Republicans and Democrats. I have described myself as a little right of center, but when I take quizzes I’m left of center.
I recently listened to a pastor talking about the fact that Christians should do things to bring healing, but the political scene had devolved into each side making a caricature of the other and shredding the caricature. I’m tired of it.
I read a blog about state politics from from the Democratic side of the aisle and about 1/4 of it is good, with 3/4 hot air. Notice, I didn’t mention Republican blog, they were all hot air. That’s why Michigan is in the mess it is in, hot air from both sides. We are floundering.
So I’m tired of Glenn Beck, Bill O’reilly, and Rush Limbaugh. I’m tired of Keith Olberman, Chris Matthews, and the Daily Kos. While they all may have good or interesting points from time to time, or they may catch the others in inaccuracies, they all yell and create hot air on both sides of the spectrum. An astronomer that I watched during a Q&A for a book that he wrote mentioned that if we could get rid of the hot air on both sides, maybe we could have a conversation.
I get tired of Jimmy Carter insulting me by calling me racist if I disagree with a policy, or others from the left calling me a teabagger (a sexual insult) if I go to a protest. I get tired of the Republicans using me because they think my protest against the current ones in power will help them.
I read today,
“We’re being out-Alinskyed by the anti-Alinskys”- Ben Jealous, NAACP president, on the ACORN story and other conservative Internet exposes.
I had to look that up what was being Alinskyed? I found this link on the rules for radicals. Read the link to understand it fully, but suffice it to say that this dude came up with ways to confront the powers that be. I’m not sure, but I almost feel like we in the middle need to rise up and confront the fringes. If you have something constructive to say, say it, and be part of the conversation, if you have hot air, prepare to be confronted.
Online Slide shows are a little hard to follow sometimes, since you don’t get the presentor with the presentation. However, I was able to get the gist of the this. Pretty decent. 
I watched one of the the Youth Specialities podcasts and they mentioned that we should start working with our graduating seniors now so that when they graduate next year they can transition into a college world easier. Interesting thoughts on how to do it.
John Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.) posts articles on his blog about environmentalism’s extremes and provides a bit of commentary as well. The first article in the post that I have marked was interesting because I keep hearing about this war on science, but when it comes down to it, there isn’t.
“For six and a half years under President Bush,” Senator Hillary Clinton told an audience in October 2007, “it has been open season on open inquiry.” Senator Edward Kennedy, in an April 2007 speech at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, bemoaned the many ways in which “the truth is taking a beating” under conservative influence in Washington. One popular recent book on the subject is entitled The Republican War on Science; another, by former vice president and Nobel laureate Al Gore, is called The Assault on Reason.
But beneath these grave accusations, it turns out, are some remarkably flimsy grievances, most of which seem to amount to political disputes about policy questions in which science plays a role. Ethical disagreements over the destruction of embryos for research are described instead as a conflict between science and ignorant theology. Differing judgments about the proper role of government in sex education in schools are painted as a quarrel between objective public health and medieval prudishness. A dispute about the prudential wisdom of a variety of energy policy alternatives is depicted as a clash of simple scientific facts against willful ignorance and greed.
The American right has no desire to declare a war on science, and nothing it has done in recent years could reasonably suggest otherwise. The left’s quixotic defensive campaign against an imaginary enemy therefore has little to tell us about American conservatives-who, of course, do have a complex relationship with science, though it is not the one the left seeks to describe. But if this notion of a “war on science” tells us little about the right, it does tell us something important about the American left and its self-understanding. That liberals take attacks against their own political preferences to be attacks against science helps us see the degree to which they identify themselves-their ideals, their means, their ends, their cause, and their culture-with the modern scientific enterprise.
I have heard the same things from Democratic leaning scientists whom I respect, such as Neil deGrasse Tyson, a noted astronomer. When asked the question at a forum in Los Angeles, he responded with, and I’m paraphrasing, there is no Republican war on science.
Read the whole first article. You can read the second and third articles as well, if you want.
I have been hearing this meme as of late, but thinking back, I can remember the same sort of theme in some of politics of the past. I’m not sure I completely buy into the whole thing, but it is an interesting read which looks like, at times, what is going on. I agree that there is criticism and self-criticism with in the society, that is needed to keep the country from tilting one way or another. The claim of exaggerated criticism or exaggerated self-criticism pushes democracies over the edge is interesting, but I’m thinking that they are temporary and are pushed away by the mainstream once recognized as such.
Ok, now that I have gotten the new blog going, I need to tell everyone here to go there. I already transported my Feedburner feed over to the new site, but I never did a formal announcement. I see Loudtwitter is working again, so I may keep this old site for posting all of my twitter posts through the day. They will have the links to the new site for any new posts that I write. A couple of reasons I went to a new site with WordPress:
So the new site is at Ministry & Meteorology? I couldn’t get wxym.com someone else already had that for some business. All of the links that come from the new site on twitter will go there, so if you click on a ping.fm link from a post that is on my daily wrapup here then you will go to the new site. If you were on the feed, then you already are on the new site. One new feature that I like is Featured Content. If I post something I can keep it on the front page for a while. I have some boxes for some of the categories that I really like to write about and I do have a box for the actual feed so that you can click on my most recent posts, even if they aren’t featured or in my opinion or ministry categories. I like the control over the layout that I have.
Last but not least, I have to thank my wife for all that she has done. She has undertaken creating a business setting up WordPress sites and has taught me how to mess with my site.
Cross posted to the old site.
