A Letter Explaining Science

If you haven't seen this already, you should read it.

Ed Brayton on Atheist Talk

Tomorrow is looking to start off well. Ed Brayton who I know from his Dispatches from the Culture Wars blog is talking with Greg Laden and Mike Haubrich on AM 950 June 12th at 9:00 AM CST. For those outside the Twin Cities you can live stream the station here. (Enter a Minnesota zip code, like 55103)

Ed is a great communicator of the intersection of law science and politics. His blog is such a great read, I can even forgive the fact he is a libertarian. The show should be fun.

Goodbye dear friend

Cupid at Lake Itasca. Age 12.

Yesterday was a hard day, today hasn't been much better. Yesterday I had to say good-bye to an old friend. A friend, a family member, of over fourteen years. It is with great sorrow that I say good-bye to Cupid our dog, companion, quiet supporter after all these years.

It was an otherwise quiet Christmas morning that Cupid entered my life. I was a graduate student in Tucson living with my fiance who has a passion for German Shepherd dogs (all animals actually). Several months earlier we had flown to Reno to breed Viva with a big black gorgeous German Shepherd called Boss, we also used this time as a vacation to see some of Northern Cal including Sacramento, wine country, and San Francisco. That was the time we got through Donner Pass just before it was closed because of the weather.

Viva was now noticeably pregnant and due in the next day or so. She went into labor around 5:00 in the morning Christmas of 1997 and the first pup came shortly thereafter. We had already been through a litter or two and realized this one was not going according to plan. It was taking too long between pups. So shortly after the time most parents are finally rolling out of bed on Christmas, we packed up Viva and, I think, 2 pups and headed to the nearby vet. We spent probably the next 8 - 10 hours celebrating Christmas there with the arrival of an occasional pup, talk about a Christmas present. We weren't at the vet's long before I proposed that if there were 9 pups in the litter, they be named after Santa's reindeer. The general approach was to use a letter of the alphabet and name all the puppies using that letter. But it was Christmas! This suggestion was approved and needless to say Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Donner (I know), Vixen, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, and Rudolph (the one nut wonder) arrived throughout the day. I could tell you stories about Blitzen and Vixen as puppies and young adults, but Cupid was the one who stayed in the family and stays in our hearts.

When Cupid was a young adult, I moved away to start a post-doc in New York. Because we had some dominant personality and older German Shepherds, Im looking at you Fia and Dancer (different litter), Cupid seemed kind of hidden in the background. When I was home, she didn't run around screaming 'look at me! look at me! see what I can do!' like the others. In the pack hierarchy she was low girl on the totem pole, but she didn't cower or hide. She just blended. Maybe this has more to do with the little time I got to spend with the dogs during this time because I was only back every few months.

I lived apart from my family for a couple of years and then landed a position in Minnesota. I moved my stuff there from New York and headed to Arizona to get the family. We had lost the other dogs and only had Cupid left to make the trip with us. So, a moving truck loaded up the household items and furniture  and we took Cupid in the minivan with us. Cupid got to see Northern Arizona (again), Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota (where she visited Mt. Rushmore and saw the 'wild' donkeys), and finally Minnesota. All this and only 4 years old.

We rented a townhome for the first year we were in the Twin Cities area out in the boonies. Cupid spent her days hanging out there, but got long walks in the wooded areas around us each morning and afternoon. There were some commercial-industrial places that had large grassy areas and ponds, not to mention Otter Lake, nearby wildlife center, and the wetland area right next door. During the winter, we often walked on 'Squirrel Trail' which was a short nearby trail that surprisingly enough housed many squirrels. There were geese in abundance most of the year, and goslings some of the year. There were also deer more often than not. We almost lost Cupid early on when she decided to chase a flock of geese that flew over the road near the townhomes. We also had turtles running, well not running, around. One afternoon a turtle was scratching at our sliding door, I guess it was too lazy to go around the townhomes and wanted to cut through our place. Anyway my now wife opened the door so Cupid could say hi. I saw the turtle and shouted "Get Cupid back from" and didn't bother finishing because Cupid had just yelped and jumped back about 10 feet with a gash on her nose from the snapping turtle she was checking out. She kept a small scar on her nose from that encounter.

Cupid moved into the house we bought later that year and truly enjoyed having a private grassy backyard and deck to take sunbaths in. She also enjoyed her new job of keeping rabbits and squirrels on their best behavior as well as making sure the neighborhood cats, whose owners cant bother to take care of them, do not spend any amount of time in the yard hunting birds. This explains why the cardinals and blue jays always seemed to appreciate her.

At this point Cupid entered he professional career. She tried her paw as a sheepherder but decided early on that if she couldn't actually catch them, what was the point. She then moved over to tracking and showed some real potential. I remember one time we had traveled to Wisconsin with the tracking club and my wife, 7 or 8 months pregnant at the time, had just finished a long track that Cupid did awesome at. As they were walking back across this large field that was filled with all these divots, my wife disappeared into the grass, bounced right back into view saying "Im alright," and instantaneously disappeared into the next divot with the timing perfect for a prime time comedy. (Neither mother nor child, AFAIK, were harmed in the two crashes.) When they got back to us, Cupid was quite proud of her accomplishment on the tracking course, although I think I detected some ridicule at all us two legged mammals that have intrinsic issues with gravity.

Cupid was 6 when our son was finally born. The first night after he was delivered, I went home to take care of her and brought a blanket my son had been swaddled in for her to get used to his scent. I honestly had some trepidation about how the new arrival would go over. However, Cupid had no problems acclimating to him. She was the perfect grandmother. I would say mother, but anyone who has had a litter knows the moms are perfectly happy to bite, albeit gently, the puppies little heads when they get annoying. She often slept next to his crib and always checked his baby swing in the morning which was where he often slept.

Things pretty much settled down after that. There were frequent walks in the wooded area next to our house. (Its somewhat ironic that that area is being ripped up and replaced with houses starting this summer.) There were also many walks to the nearby lake with swimming and around the wetland across the street. She took on the habit of waiting until you were doing dishes or looking for something in the refrigerator and then stopping right behind you to see if she could trip you (Im pretty sure that was her way of rubbing in our faces that two-legged animals are more easily toppled).

I think Cupid was 8 when we learned she had degenerative neuromyopathy. This is a neuromuscular disease that seems to affect German Shepherds more than other large breed dogs. It causes the slow loss in muscle tone and function. With age comes interesting new growths, loss of hearing, and eyesight problems. This is also true in dogs. But the old girl got around just fine. She had to stop going up and down the basement stairs and for awhile I carried her up and down them so she could hang out with Alpha. As time went on, we started covering the wood floors with carpets because her back legs would slip too easily. Finally, last summer I built a ramp from the deck to the lawn so she didn't have to even use those steps.

During all this time she was basically happy and enjoyed being with the family, going for rides in the car, sun baths. But this last week she finally started having leg pain that we couldn't remedy. This had become a more recent problem, but would generally clear up after a nights rest. This time was different. I could see it in her eyes that this wasn't resolving, that it wasn't fun anymore, that the time had come. The vet was great and Cupid got to stay in the car for her final goodnight, she never was a fan of a Vet's office.

I do not believe in heaven or the afterlife like most people do when they say these terms. But Cupid was an important part of my life for over 14 years. Because of her I am not the same person I would have been if I didn't have Cupid. So I can honestly say that Cupid lives on in me. I can also say that in a way, since  I affect others, Cupid is playing a part in those interactions and maybe that's what the afterlife is or at least that's all it needs to be to me. So as tears wet my cheeks again I just want to say goodbye dear friend, I miss you.

Cupid: 12/25/1997 - 6/8/2011

Not a DOMAss

Well said Representative Kriesel. Well said.

DOMAsses in Minnesota

The small government republicans of Minnesota are trying to make sure government is small, but not so small that it cannot limit what we can do, especially when gonads are involved. Minnesota is one of those dumbass states that has law prohibiting same sex marriage. However, that is not good enough for the religious right of Minnesota, no they need to make sure that the whole male-female 1:1 ratio marriage issue is carved in stone, you know old testament style.

I am completely and totally against these bans, they are bullshit and driven strictly by perverse Christian dogma. I will concede that 0.001% of DOMA supporters are not against it from a religious viewpoint, and are simply fucknut insane. Actually, I am interested in why people are opposed to this issue (independent of the fact your god, who spent a bit too much time with 12 strapping young men if you ask me, said so).

Cats you'll be inheriting

One problem arises from the very word 'marriage'. When you say/hear marriage I am willing to bet you think church, white prom bridle gown, tearful ladies, and hooking up with a veritable stranger after the  reception. From the states' standpoint all of this is irrelevant. From the states' perspective you pay some money to get a license and this license confers upon you certain legal rights. Your immediate family, mom, dad, child, sibling automatically have certain rights. For example, if your parents die, you as a child are considered the benefactor of assets. If your mom has a heart attack and is in the hospital, you as the child can visit. In fact, it take's legal work to change these rights. Such as your mom having a will that says her young stud boyfriend gets the house and car, while you get the fourteen semi-feral cats.  So while 'marriage' as a word is tightly associated with a religious ritual, from the states' perspective it is simply a convenient historical term. Indeed, you can get married, without being in a church, without a priest, without a white dress (for either bride or groom), and without the post-ceremonial love-fest. I was married without any of this stuff (god didn't help out with the ceremony and as far as I know no one hooked up afterwards) and you know what? My marriage is as legally valid and carries the exact same legal ramifications as Michelle Bachmann's (the Colonel Sanders of the DOMA movement).

Bachmann asked for a non-evangelical
rationale to support DOMA 

The point here is that 'marriage', again from the states' perspective, is a civil contract. We can argue why the states need to have this kind of civil contract, but I think that is ultimately futile. This type of civil union serves to give a non-family member, family member-like protections/rights. This is similar to adoption which grants a legal parental status to non-parents. It also grants rights to the child analogous to those granted biological children by simply being born. Michelle Bachmann, nut-job that she is, should be familiar with this concept.

One of the issues I hear opposing same-sex marriage is the slippery slope argument. If the government allows 2 adult men to have the rights accorded to 2 heterosexual adults, then ultimately we'll have a woman 'marrying' a horse and Catholic priests 'marrying' young boys. But these are bullshit soundbite asides to distract you and the non-elitist masses. A contract, including the civil variety, can only be entered into by consenting adults. Children can not say Yes, neither can a horse, a turtle, nor a houseplant.

"But what about bigamy?" you ask! Good point. Personally, I do not have a legal issue with bigamy. I do have a social issue as bigamy is essentially only found in societies that limit the rights of women. However, if a woman wants several men to have the same legal right to visit her in the hospital that her brothers have, then why should the state be involved? The same is true if the sexes are reversed. Again, I want to point out DOMA is being pushed by the party that screams for smaller government and for government to get out of the way (except when gonads are involved).

While DOMA advocates often advocate from the standpoint of children. Marriage is perfectly legal and the rights clearly applicable to post-menopausal women and to heterosexual adults who choose not to have children. A woman who had a hysterectomy gets all the same rights Michelle Bachmann does if and when she gets married. Should this woman lose her house and assets to her husband's immediate family if her husband were to die suddenly?

Much of this problem is a problem of biology. We essentially know who the direct relatives are and we consider these people to have rights a stranger doesn't. Family makes for a, generally, clear line in the sand. But it is only clear much of the time. Again adoption serves as a good example. Adopted children have the same rights as biological children. An interesting question is what is the logical basis for this intrinsic protection of family rights. What is this idea based on other than it always happened this way and I can't think of a better way. We have countless examples where families do not deserve the rights the have. For example, the abusive parents of a child have rights the kindly neighbor does not have and the child suffers inordinately while the legal system goes through the process of changing the status quo. Adoption like marriage is a legal way to confer familial rights to non-family members. Ill note the sex of the adoptee does not matter in this legal contract, why does the sex of the marriage partners?

Hey religious right! The legislature voted to put a state constitutional ban on the ballot like you wanted. We still got a tornado in Minnesota that killed someone (who happened to be a deacon returning from church). Does that mean god doesn't want this to pass? I ask because every fucking time there's a storm on the planet after a homosexual person gets even the the smallest iota of respect, you can bet your damn ass some religious fucknut claims that its gods' judgment.

Finally, I want to close with the idea of putting these kind of issues on ballots. I see the rationale and use of ballots. However, our founding fathers (who the religious right seem to appeal to) understood the potential problem, particularly in relation to religion. The phrase you want to google is 'tyranny of the majority'. This is a problem with democracies, which is one of the reasons we have a republican democracy, not a true democracy. The majority will not, usually, grant privileges they enjoy to minorities. This is one of the reasons for the first amendment; this is why Jefferson discussed a wall between the state and the church. I could discuss this at length but I expect an example serves better. What would be the outcome of a state ballot measure for African Americans to attend 'white' schools in Arkansas, what about in 1957? Could interracial couples marry in Mississippi? Would we still have the freedom to practice or not practice the religion of our choice in the 50 states of our union if left up to popular vote?

You can find the senators who voted for passage of this bill here.
and the representatives who voted for it here.

I would like to thank my representative Mindy Greiling for voting NAY, and ask John Marty, my senator, what the fuck were you thinking?!?!

BTW republicans. How is this creating jobs or is that not a priority anymore?

UPDATE: John Marty actually voted against the bill, but he did vote in favor of the wording change.

Student research blogs to follow

Some undergraduate students are blogging about their travel abroad research experiences. You should check them out and give them some encouragement.

We have Chelsey doing some work in South America.
You can also check out Lauren in Guatemala.

Enjoy and if you know of other students blogging about summer research let me know and Ill add them.

Its the End of the World as We Know It....

...and I feel fine.

So the rapture is tomorrow, it little less than 24 hours from now. On campus a few days ago believers were handing out flyers to save our souls. I didnt want one, but had one thrust into my midsection as I was walking by. Normally, I just try to go my merry way, but since I was actually interfered with my dander was up.

The young man who decided I absolutely must have this pamphlet had already moved on to force pamphlets onto unsuspecting students. I stood there and looked at the pamphlet and then called to the young man.

"Do you actually believe this stuff?" I asked.

"Of course I do" he replied emphatically.

"OK, tell you what, can you get the title to your car and sign it over to me? You have to date it, so just date it for the 22nd, since you won't be needing it anymore."

Several students had slowed down to follow the exchange.

"What?" he stammered.

"Look, if you're being raptured on the 21st, you won't need your car anymore. So why don't you sign it over to me starting on the 22nd? You've already stated that this is after the time when you will no longer be on planet Earth. It would help me out, which will likely look good for you with god. Plus, it will avoid issues of ownership for those of us left behind." 

I could hear some students appreciating this explanation.
  
"Oh, well I don't have a car." He almost begged.

"OK, I get it. Well tell you what, why don't you ask your parents or church leaders or whoever convinced you to stand here handing out pamphlets the same thing I asked you. See how strong their beliefs are when something tangible is on the line, like ownership of their primary transportation." I replied as I turned to walk away.



The sad thing  about all this is that actual real people are going to be hurt. The gullible parting with their retirements to help spread the good word about the end of the world. Some might think those hurt by these people deserve it, 'a fool and her money' and all that. But I don't. We prosecute con artists and frauds usually, but I guess if your con is based on religion you get a pass.