Palin Posts Healthcare Opinions On Facebook

Sarah Palin (& everyone else) REALLY needs to stop lying about the health care bill. Please be intelligent about this. No bill is perfect, but spreading lies of this caliber is completely irresponsible.

Ancient Rumblings

Here is an intriguing article about sin and salvation by the author of The Evolution of God, a book I would really like to read. It posits that our evolitionarily useful sense of guilt was developed by religion into the concept of sin. The need for salvation is a consequence of this, and the author implies what I have always believed - that whether or not God exists in the way that perceive or believe her or him to, the drive for salvation is a useful human urge. Therefore the belief in God is more practically useful on a general plane than not believing in God. Of course there are drastic exceptions on both sides - deeply moral atheists and unabashedly hypocritical believers.

I am reading another book right now called The Alphabet Versus The Goddess, by Leonard Shlain, which covers similar ground for different reasons. The section on human evolution is particularly fascinating. The hunter/gatherer stage lasted around 2,990,000 years (!), and so many if not all of what feel like natural human instincts were developed during this time. The right and left sides of the brain developed different tasks during this time, and this in turn was caused by the development of an opposable thumb to climb trees, a heel when the trees in the jungle parted, and then the consequent mastery of throwing things, which led to the particularly hominid means of hunting from a distance. But as hominid brains got bigger, the size of the brain was limited by the circumference of the female pelvis, which led to babies born without being fully developed, as other animals are. You then have a baby who cannot walk or even lift its head at birth and thus requires a type of nurturing that is unique among the species. Human brains continue to develop for twenty years, which necessitates a division of labor as females care for babies who cannot care for themselves or even cling properly to their mothers.

So, Shlain argues, this accounts for the division of labor in primitive societies, and the differences in the brain, which cause a huge psychological rift between men and women. Hunters survive by being analytical, thinking in a linear way, concentrating with a single-minded focus. Mothers, on the other hand, need more peripheral vision (which they have, since they have more rods in their eyes than men), to be able to care for children while simultaneously gathering subsistence food. The other duality that comes into play here is between relationship to others (gathering) and survival (hunting), which in many ways contradict each other. Survival necessitates an us vs. them mentality, leading eventually to the particularly human act of murder, even of the family. The resultant dualities in the brain (since men and women all contain all of these elements) is the split that has caused much confusion and anxiety, as well much of the ability to recognize the beauty and fragility of the world.

Shlain's thesis is that these hunter/gatherer societies were the most egalitarian in history, as well as the best balance in the brain hemispheres. But with the domestication of crops and animals, hunting was no longer necessary, and so the outlet for male aggression, previously so vital for survival, was diminished to almost nothing. This is when the era of human sacrifice began, as well as sports, battles, and wars. But where he's headed with the book is how the development of the alphabet made the left brain dominant, though it was the younger twin. Like Jacob to Esau, the younger twin supplanted the elder, which is a theme throughout the bible and all the religions and philosophies of the Axial Age. In the Hebrew Bible, true human nature begins with the murder of Abel by Cain, and Genesis is not complete until the younger brother (Joseph) not only supplants but finally learns to forgive his brothers. But that imbalance, between the twin hemispheres struggling for dominance, is what we are left struggling with today.

Of course, we have moved beyond the agrarian society (almost none of us have any real idea how out food makes it to our plates), but we are left with 10,000 years of patriarchal instincts, on top of and often in conflict with 2,990,000 years of hunter/gatherer ones. No wonder we feel alienated and confused!

I am just beginning to process a lot of this (I am familiar with most of the theories from Joseph Campbell's Primitive Mythology, a true masterwork on the topic), but I hope to write more about it, since it fascinates me so deeply and has for so many years. We have shifted so much to the left brain, with its surgical spotlight focus, but you can tell by the insistence of religion in spite of scientific evidence, by the persistence of art despite the dominance of cheap commercialism, and by the hunger for mythology as evidenced by the Harry Potter and Twilight phenomena, that the older twin is beginning to demand her birthright once again. Deep in the recesses of the psyche, the goddess is beginning to stir once again.

Sotomayor et al. v. The Old Boys Club

There are some good articles coming out about Sotomayor. Let me say first off that I am glad she will be confirmed, because I have been impressed at how she is handling herself, and most importantly, impressed by her spotless judicial record. What I want to write about here are the wider social implications of these hearings. It's amazing how confronting just a little bit of diversity brings out the underbelly of society in such a profound way.

Here's an intriguing article from Slate Magazine. Favorite quotation:

Sen. Graham would never have lectured Justices Roberts or Scalia about being bullies, because he thinks it's perfectly normal when men ask tough questions. He can't even see the irony in saying he welcomes wise Latina women—so long as they don't change a thing.

And here's an article The Daily Beast that makes the case that Sotomayor is a liar. The comments are pretty rabid on this one. I think she should be confirmed because she seems to have a good judicial record, but I agree that she's lying and also agree that this is the fault of the Good Old Boys' Country Club she has to pass through to get the job. Hearing the debate about all this makes my stomach turn, especially on morning radio talk shows. I am grateful to Sotomayor and Hillary Clinton and their ilk, but deeply embarrassed for them as they have to navigate this process. I know they have weathered worse than this, and will weather worse still, and I know they are more than capable of rising to the challenge. It just saddens me that they have to deal with this at all. Obama says we are now in the Joshua Generation, and that MLK and Malcolm X, etc., were the Moses generation. I agree this seems to be true in terms of race, but in terms of gender, we haven't made it to Joshua yet. We're still in the time of Miriam.

And though I hate to hear the name Sarah Palin in the same sentence as Hillary Clinton or Sotomayor, this article makes a good point that they are just using opposite tactics in fighting the same machine.

At least the Episcopal Church has finally recognized the difference between homosexuals and pedophiles. And in a recession, no less. There is hope that they may soon recognize the God-given right to get married too. It's almost enough to make me go to church again...

SpaceX

My little brother (who is at least a foot taller than I am) is an engineer on the team that designed this rocket that launched successfully this week. You can watch the launch on the website. Poke around on there if you want for more info on the company. Their goal is to increase reliability and reduce cost on space travel by a factor of 10. It's owned by the same people who created the ultimate dream car, the Tesla.

Here's the SpaceX website, and here's the launch video.

A few thoughts on Iran

There are many people who are writing far more effectively on this subject than I can right now, but here are a few scattered thoughts:

Just as we did after 9/11, America stands at a major crossroads. After the World Trade Center fell, we had the goodwill of the entire world on our side, and we completely squandered it. There was a brief moment just before the Iraq war when the UN inspectors were saying they needed more time to determine if Iraq had WMD, but instead, we invaded the country before they could complete their work, and of course found no WMD. At that moment, we had the opportunity to empower the UN to do its job of peacekeeping and insuring justice between nations, just like Washington does between all the different states in America. Now, it seems (one would hope) that our new President will continue to speak out on human rights, but I am also proud so far that he is not using US military power. There are many Americans right now who are wondering why Obama is not doing more - many of these are the same people who criticized Bush for invading Iraq. Though it was a proven lie, the justification for the Iraq War was the same as the current justification for wanting Obama to do more - human rights. We must never use military might or violence to achieve the ends of human rights. Not only that, but, as the BBC points out, it would actually be harmful to the protesters for Obama to do more than he's doing. Here's a quotation from their article:

But the BBC's Jon Donnison in Washington says the president is treading a fine line - he does not want to be seen to be interfering, which could stir up anti-American sentiment within Iran and work against the protesters.

As I was thinking about this tonight (and realizing that it's 20 years to the month after the Tiananmen Square Massacre), I finally got around to watching Obama's speech in Cairo. It was wonderful, and worth watching, so I've included it below. Here's a short paragraph, but you really should watch the whole speech.

For we have learned from recent experience that when a financial system weakens in one country, prosperity is hurt everywhere. When a new flu infects one human being, all are at risk. When one nation pursues a nuclear weapon, the risk of nuclear attack rises for all nations. When violent extremists operate in one stretch of mountains, people are endangered across an ocean. And when innocents in Bosnia and Darfur are slaughtered, that is a stain on our collective conscience. That is what it means to share this world in the 21st century. That is the responsibility we have to one another as human beings.

I've heard this type of thing before, in John Donne's Meditation 17.

No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were: any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.

It's pretty amazing to be able to watch all this develop in the present moment on Twitter, but I think there's something to be said for the old style of journalism too - the kind that verified its facts before spreading them. Fox News and CNN are pretty much using only Twitter and Facebook as their sources, which is basically just relying on gossip. We have to be careful before we rush to action, careful about mob mentality, careful not to sacrifice our principles when we become outraged at violations of human rights. That is what led us into Iraq, and so many other atrocities throughout history. Obama is right to proceed slowly and carefully. It's what we elected him to do.

I've tried not to get my hopes up since we've stood at this same crossroads so many times before. The beginning of the Iraq War was pretty much the last blow to my optimism about this. But although it's more cautious this time, I can feel that hope starting to build again. Maybe this time we'll choose the right path...

Google Bookshelf

Ok - so this is amazing. With Google Books, you can now upload the books that you have by their ISBN, which you can either enter by hand on a keyboard, or with a barcode scanner. I have a T-Mobile G1, which I was able to use to scan, and I'll be the iPhone would be able to do this too. Without a scanner, you can just type the numbers directly into the import feature. All the details are at this link, including this video which will walk you through everything you need.



The real kicker, though, which they mention at the end of the video, is that not only can you use your computer to search the titles of all your books, but because it's Google Books, you can type in any word that would be IN any of your books! If you are wondering where that quotation came from, and are just not sure which of your books has it, search your books online, and it will lead you right to the book, and in many cases, will actually show you the page number of what you're looking for. Pretty amazing!

Fluteboxing!

These guys are unbelievable.