Xmas gifts for the crazy Christian you love

Ship of Fools presents great gifts for the religious nutcase in your life this holiday season. My favorite is their favorite (#1):

My parents would so put this in their yard.

Early xmas

My beautiful wonderful wife got me the G1 phone with Google's open source Android platform. I love it. I've never had a "smart"phone before and so that alone is great, but adding on the awesomeness of Android is even better. I won't review anything, since you can find hundreds of those in seconds, but I'll just say that the phone is great and the software is sublime, which is the major reason for buying the G1.

Schism on "-isms"

There's been a modern divergence in thinking on how to treat various addictions to substances. The old 28-day treatment and AA ever-after absolute abstinence plan is completely without individuality or spectrum thinking. I was reading a piece in the NYT by an alcoholic on the holidays and how he avoids parties so as to avoid drinking, and saw his two references to the modern skeptics of AA/absolutism: Drink/Link and Moderation Management. Although it may be possible that some people's brains are too tuned to alcohol to enjoy it moderately (which he self-identifies with), it has to be true that there is a spectrum to the "disease" of alcoholism just as with any other. Those on the "less sick" side of it can almost certainly receive a different treatment method.

From my own background and the people I've known who have been on other substances than alcohol or pot, there is probably a very different truth about addiction to opioids and such. I would apply zero tolerance there, in fact, as these drugs don't have the same pharmacology and cannot be "enjoyed moderately" as pot and alcohol might.

(BTW: Jim Atkinson wrote two other interesting pieces on drinking here and here)

On a slightly tangential note (but still drug-related), last night Amber and I watched an interesting program called "Marijuana Nation" on NGC and I was fascinated and educated. It went through a number of issues on medical marijuana, the federal vs. state legal clashes, the way growers use state parks and trash natural resources, and inside a professional growing operation that has to be one of the most scientifically-advanced in the country. It almost makes one want to have another dance with Mary Jane, and if not with her, then an interesting evening with a toadstool.

Seth doesn't sleep much

My cute little guy doesn't like to sleep very much.

At the risk of sounding like a zillion other parents who think their child is gifted or special in some way, I have done my homework on this one. My kid sleeps less than 10 hours a day, sometimes 8. The average newborn should sleep about 16 hours a day, but Seth probably never slept more than 12.

In looking at him, I noticed how alert he was early on, and so did the nurses and doctors, who all commented on how much he watched his surroundings and how little he slept. As time has gone on, he learned early to hold his head up all the time on his own and interacts with toys and his play station. I am happy to see him developing so fast (Amber wants him to stay a baby as long as possible: something about that maternal instinct of needing to be needed), but the sleep thing has become more of an issue lately.

I was reading about how sleep is seen as the enemy by CEOs and defense contractors for the military but people forget just why we need sleep. It may be that gifted people sleep less than others; that's been proposed before:


Also:

Hyperactive is a word often used to describe gifted children as well as children with ADHD. As with attention span, children with ADHD have a high activity level, but this activity level is often found across situations (Barkley, 1990). A large proportion of gifted children are highly active too. As many as one-fourth may require less sleep; however, their activity is generally focused and directed (Clark, 1992; Webb, Meckstroth, & Tolan, 1982), in contrast to the behavior of children with ADHD. The intensity of gifted children's concentration often permits them to spend long periods of time and much energy focusing on whatever truly interests them. Their specific interests may not coincide, however, with the desires and expectations of teachers or parents.

I'm not sure if Seth is gifted or not, but I'm hopeful that's what it is from the evidence I've seen. Now I know you're a genius if you're reading my blog, and I know that I'm a little fixated on the idea of giftedness generally and especially studying the lives of the highly gifted. Thus this may be me fixating on something that doesn't exist, but that I hope does. Otherwise, he may be autistic or something...but I'm not too worried about it, since he makes eye contact, smiles, coos and goos, &c.

Haggard floats back up

It's like a train wreck: you can't look away.

Since the guy fell from grace and his church took a huge hit, he just hasn't gone under; people with megalomania rarely do.

Update: Dixie County Lawsuit media coverage

A few months ago I mentioned that I was going to contact some people with the ACLU and the local Dixie County papers to try to get an update on the status of the case.  I didn't hear anything back, and now I found out from Prof. Friedman's excellent blog that proponents of church-state separation have won a primary challenge:  we have legal standing to sue.  The ACLU found a non-resident of the county who was nonetheless given legal standing because of the nature of this anonymous person's business with the county in buying land there.  Here is the LexisNexis link to ACLU of Florida Inc. v. Dixie County Florida, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61177 (ND FL, Aug. 8, 2008)

I have updated the list of media related to the whole Dixie County debacle as it has unfolded.

Regarding LTE (letters to the editor) "con" means the person writing is againstthe 10C monument & "pro" means they approve of it:

1. Gainesville Sun -- 11/28/06
2. Dixie County Advocate -- 11/30/06
3. Alligator -- 11/30/06
4. Alligator -- 12/1/06 (editorial)
5. FFRF Press Release -- 12/1/06
6. Gainesville Sun -- 12/02/06
7. 3 Letters to the Editor at the Sun -- pro, pro, con (12/2/06)
8. Dixie County Advocate -- 12/7/06
9. 2 More Letters to the Editor at the Sun -- pro (12/12/06), con (12/17/06)
10. St. Petersburg Times -- 1/3/07
11. St. Petersburg Times (LTE) -- con, 1/13/07 (4th letter down; response to 1/3/07 article)
12. Gainesville Sun -- 2/7/07
13. ACLU News Release -- 2/7/07
    
14. Reuters (Miami) -- 2/7/07
15. Gainesville Sun -- 2/8/07
16. St. Petersburg Times -- 2/8/07
17. Alligator (LTE): -- con, 2/9/07, (see text here)
18. Dixie County Advocate -- 2/15/07
19. Orlando Sentinel -- 2/17/07
20. Gainesville Sun (LTE) -- pro, 2/17/07
21. Dixie County Advocate (LTE) -- con, 2/24/07
22. Liberty Counsel -- 3/8/07
23. CNS News -- 3/12/07
24. Florida Humanists Association -- 4/9/07, (also here and here)
25. atheism.about.com -- 4/27/07, Austin Cline
26. Dixie County Advocate -- 9/27/07, Issue 40, Page 18
27. Dixie County Advocate blog -- 6/11/08, linked to my YouTube video

other media (blogs):

1. KipEsquire -- 11/28/06
2. Florida Progressive Coalition -- 4/4/07
3. John Pieret -- 4/15/07
4. Prof. Friedman -- 8/14/08

rev 11/22/08

I'm on a roll

I don't know if I'm just taking good luck with me everywhere I go or what...

1) Obama gets elected.
2) The Gators have a real shot at the BCS National Championship.
3) The Hammond Skyhawks won their third state football championship in a row (SCISA AAA). The State has video and an article. This is after RHS won in 2006.

Conservatism at any cost

Shortly after the economy's tailspin began, I wrote two items on the misplacing of blame on the poor and/or Democrats and/or Fannie & Freddie for the credit crisis. One of the things I addressed in the last item I wrote was the market share of subprime lending was 84% privately-held. Today, Krugman links to an article with a neat graph showing the market share of mortgages through 2003, and the NYT published a great article on Phil Gramm, whose actions seriously undermined regulation of the financial markets and helped precipitate this crisis. Excerpts below the fold:

On Capitol Hill, Mr. Gramm became the most effective proponent of deregulation in a generation, by dint of his expertise (a Ph.D in economics), free-market ideology, perch on the Senate banking committee and force of personality (a writer in Texas once called him “a snapping turtle”). And in one remarkable stretch from 1999 to 2001, he pushed laws and promoted policies that he says unshackled businesses from needless restraints but his critics charge significantly contributed to the financial crisis that has rattled the nation.

He led the effort to block measures curtailing deceptive or predatory lending, which was just beginning to result in a jump in home foreclosures that would undermine the financial markets. He advanced legislation that fractured oversight of Wall Street while knocking down Depression-era barriers that restricted the rise and reach of financial conglomerates.

And he pushed through a provision that ensured virtually no regulation of the complex financial instruments known as derivatives, including credit swaps, contracts that would encourage risky investment practices at Wall Street’s most venerable institutions and spread the risks, like a virus, around the world.
...
“Phil Gramm was the great spokesman and leader of the view that market forces should drive the economy without regulation,” said James D. Cox, a corporate law scholar at Duke University. “The movement he helped to lead contributed mightily to our problems.”

In two recent interviews, Mr. Gramm described the current turmoil as “an incredible trauma,” but said he was proud of his record.

He blamed others for the crisis: Democrats who dropped barriers to borrowing in order to promote homeownership; what he once termed “predatory borrowers” who took out mortgages they could not afford; banks that took on too much risk; and large financial institutions that did not set aside enough capital to cover their bad bets.

But looser regulation played virtually no role, he argued, saying that is simply an emerging myth.

“There is this idea afloat that if you had more regulation you would have fewer mistakes,” he said. “I don’t see any evidence in our history or anybody else’s to substantiate it.” He added, “The markets have worked better than you might have thought.”
...
From 1999 to 2001, Congress first considered steps to curb predatory loans — those that typically had high fees, significant prepayment penalties and ballooning monthly payments and were often issued to low-income borrowers. Foreclosures on such loans were on the rise, setting off a wave of personal bankruptcies.

But Mr. Gramm did everything he could to block the measures. In 2000, he refused to have his banking committee consider the proposals, an intervention hailed by the National Association of Mortgage Brokers as a “huge, huge step for us.”
...
In late 1999, Mr. Gramm played a central role in what would be the most significant financial services legislation since the Depression. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, as the measure was called, removed barriers between commercial and investment banks that had been instituted to reduce the risk of economic catastrophes. Long sought by the industry, the law would let commercial banks, securities firms and insurers become financial supermarkets offering an array of services.
...
In November 1999, senior Clinton administration officials, including Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, joined by the Federal Reserve chairman, Alan Greenspan, and Arthur Levitt Jr., the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission, issued a report that instead recommended legislation exempting many kinds of derivatives from federal oversight.

Mr. Gramm helped lead the charge in Congress. Demanding even more freedom from regulators than the financial industry had sought, he persuaded colleagues and negotiated with senior administration officials, pushing so hard that he nearly scuttled the deal. “When I get in the red zone, I like to score,” Mr. Gramm told reporters at the time.

Finally, he had extracted enough. In December 2000, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act was passed as part of a larger bill by unanimous consent after Mr. Gramm dominated the Senate debate.

“This legislation is important to every American investor,” he said at the time. “It will keep our markets modern, efficient and innovative, and it guarantees that the United States will maintain its global dominance of financial markets.”

But some critics worried that the lack of oversight would allow abuses that could threaten the economy.
...
“He was the architect, advocate and the most knowledgeable person in Congress on these topics,” Mr. Donovan said. “To me, Phil Gramm is the single most important reason for the current financial crisis.”

Mr. Gramm, ever the economics professor, disputes his critics’ analysis of the causes of the upheaval. He asserts that swaps, by enabling companies to insure themselves against defaults, have diminished, not increased, the effects of the declining housing markets.

“This is part of this myth of deregulation,” he said in the interview. “By and large, credit-default swaps have distributed the risks. They didn’t create it. The only reason people have focused on them is that some politicians don’t know a credit-default swap from a turnip.”

But many experts disagree, including some of Mr. Gramm’s former allies in Congress. They say the lack of oversight left the system vulnerable.

“The virtually unregulated over-the-counter market in credit-default swaps has played a significant role in the credit crisis, including the now $167 billion taxpayer rescue of A.I.G.,” Christopher Cox, the chairman of the S.E.C. and a former congressman, said Friday.

Mr. Gramm says that, given what has happened, there are modest regulatory changes he would favor, including requiring issuers of credit-default swaps to demonstrate that they have enough capital to back up their pledges. But his belief that government should intervene only minimally in markets is unshaken.

“They are saying there was 15 years of massive deregulation and that’s what caused the problem,” Mr. Gramm said of his critics. “I just don’t see any evidence of it.”

So far as I am able to tell, Gramm was not joking in any of his quotations.

An end to this occupation after a war of choice

Assuming the new agreement passes the Iraqi parliament, the war in Iraq now has a definite end in sight:

The draft approved Sunday requires coalition forces to withdraw from Iraqi cities and towns by the summer of 2009 and from the country by the end of 2011. An earlier version had language giving some flexibility to that deadline, with both sides discussing timetables and timelines for withdrawal, but the Iraqis managed to have the deadline set in stone, a significant negotiating victory. The United States has around 150,000 troops in Iraq.

It's still hard to believe how duped we were by the lies told by Bushco. And it's also hard to believe that so many still don't realize it.

The waning Southern strategy

The NYT had a great front-page item today following up on what I wrote a few days ago about the (sad) role of Applachia in the election.

Along the Atlantic Coast, parts of the “suburban South,” notably Virginia and North Carolina, made history last week in breaking from their Confederate past and supporting Mr. Obama. Those states have experienced an influx of better educated and more prosperous voters in recent years, pointing them in a different political direction than states farther west, like Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, and Appalachian sections of Kentucky and Tennessee.

Southern counties that voted more heavily Republican this year than in 2004 tended to be poorer, less educated and whiter, a statistical analysis by The New York Times shows. Mr. Obama won in only 44 counties in the Appalachian belt, a stretch of 410 counties that runs from New York to Mississippi. Many of those counties, rural and isolated, have been less exposed to the diversity, educational achievement and economic progress experienced by more prosperous areas.

They accompanied the analysis with a great graphic too:

Basically I would just say that I hope the party continues its slide into irrelevance and ignorance. Let the GOP be the party of the uneducated religious zealot, the bigoted redneck and the gun-crazed nutjob. According to Beliefnet, 52% of the anti-intellectual elements of the party (namely Evangelicals) apparently believed that Obama was a Muslim. Yet they still believe the media is ridiculously liberal, despite the media's inability to inform them of the basic fact of the President-elect's religion. Sad.