Mary Soderstrom's Blog, page 100

Saturday Photo: The Burning Bush

Don't know the name of this shrub, but it has been spectacular over the last week or so.  The leaves are falling now, but for a while they blazed.

Gorgeous, and perhaps a harbinger, which we didn't see, of the end of the long slog toward a slightly left  of centre election in the US.


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US--Finally, Perhaps--Becomes More Secular, But What Does That Mean for Science?

The results of Tuesday's election seem to show that the appeal and influence of the Christian right wing, both Catholic and Protestant, is waning.  Maybe not a lot, but enough so thata Obama won as did measures to legalize same-sex marriage and decriminalize marijuana possession.  The New York Times today has an interesting analysis of this trend.

But if the US is becoming more secular, will that have any effect on the striking scientific nay-saying that shows up in attitudes toward evolution?  A poll released last summer showed that 46 per cent of Americans believe in Creationism,  32 percent believed in theistic evolution and 15 percent believed in evolution without any divine intervention.

There's a lot of talk about making Ameicans cutting edge when it comes to science and technology, but when one of the foundation blocks of scientific thinking is so roundly denied, one can't have much hope.

BTW,  61 percent of Canadians and 69 per cent of Britons think human beings evolved from simpler life forms.[image error]

Small World Dept: The Walter Art Museum Shows a Portrait of Africans in Europe Long Ago

[image error] One of the things that fascinated me in my research for Making Waves: The Continuing Portuguese Adventure was the evidence of contact on a nearly-equal basis between some Europeans and Africans  following the great European wave of exploration. 

For example, after the Portuguese reached Kongo at the end of the 15th century, Dom Affonso, the Kongolese king, sent his son and other members of his family to study in Portugal, and he himself wrote quite acceptable Portuguese.  

And  the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin was the grandson of a man from an African royal family (sometimes recorded as being from Chad, sometimes Abyssinia), who was captured, sent to the Turkish capital of Constantinople in the mid-eighteenth century, and then sold to the Russian Tsar.  His elite status was recognized from the beginning; he was sent to France for military training and ended up marrying into a wealthy land-owning family.

 These contacts left traces in a number of works of art, many of which are on display at recently opened exhibit ‘Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe,’ at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.  The portrait of the  thoughtful woman above dates from 1580: she was a slave but her steady, intelligent gaze says much about her character and about what the painter (probably Anibale Caracci) thought about her.  [image error]

Getting Things to Work: It's up to the Republicans

First question of the day: how will Obama convince the Republican majority House to sign on to his plans?
 Probably the only way that  will happen is if the Republicans themselves change.

Second question of the day: Will they?Maybe, with two "ifs." If they decide to change in order to appeal to a broader base, and if they realize that big money can't buy elections. Place your bets, Mesdames, Messieurs.
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Google Annoys Me with Birthday Greetings

How does Google know when my birthday is?  I have very deliberately avoided listing it on Facebook (although apparently you can find it: a friend did yesterday) and in replying to those who ask to include me on their birthday calendars.

Nevertheless, this morning when I opened Google I was greeted with "Google" spelled out in cakes and candles.  I presume they got that information from my registry info but I certainly never gave permission for them to use it in any way.

Bah humbug![image error]

Krugman Speaks from the Other Side of the World: Obama Won't Do Anything Stupid

Seems that Paul Krugman was in Singapore yesterday (must have voted in an advance poll or by mail.)   He had some most interesting things to say, as quoted in the Bloomberg newsletter:

“If it’s possible, we could use some modest additional stimulus, mostly in the form of aid to state and local governments.

“A lot of what’s required right now is just plain not doing anything stupid that derails the recovery. We can count on President Obama not to do anything stupid.

“We have a still very extreme Republican party so legislation is going to be very difficult to pass and there are going to be sharp limits on what Obama can do. To the extent that he is going to have big achievements in his second term, it’s mostly because he’s already passed the legislation.” [image error]

Work on the Ground Wins Election for Obama

Mitt Romney helped Obama a bit with his stupid comment about Big Bird, but what really won the election was slogging in the trenches, that is work on the ground.

You have to connect with the voters, have to be on the game all the time if you want to get them out to the polls.

Occasionally there are crazy sweeps, like the Orange Wave in Canada in 2011, or times when public enthusiasm runs ahead of the ground game.  That happened in 2008 with the Obama victory, but this time around it was just plain, hard work.

There's a lesson here for all of us political junkies.  Now let us hope that the Obama team turns it attention to wresting the country away from the Republicans in Congress, and listening to people like Paul Krugman who really have the interests of the country and the world at heart.  [image error]

Politics in November 2012: Now in the Autumn of Our Discontent...

Shakespeare was has Richard III say "winter"  but the sentiment is appropriate this season.  Not only has a liar got a chance at winning the White House, Gerald Tremblay, the mayor of Montreal, has resigned after flurry of revelations about corruption in city government.

To give Tremblay credit, I don't think he ever was as self-deluding a prevaricator as Romney seems to have always been.  And in this legal system, a person is innocent until proven guilty.  But it is tragic that politics has once again thrown up evidence of the way twisted men can manipulate the system.

Tremblay began his resignation speech by saying, in French,  that "When I was a young man, my father told me not to get into politics because it was dirty and would destroy me."  The current scandals do nothing to change that impression among a large percentage of the population, unfortunately.

Politics should be a high calling.  Politicians have the well being of everyone in their hands.  That millions will wait in line to vote in the US today, and that thousands around here are looking for change for the better is a tribute to faith in the system.  Let us hope that faith is respected.


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Hello There, Are You Listening? Obama for President

Four years ago I spent the three days before the US presidential election telephoning to prospective voters in a several states, particularly Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Nevada.  The message was a general get out the vote one, much like what we use around here, and I figured that calling where my accent wouldn't be offensive might help the cause. (I'm a dual citizen and vote by absentee in California, so I feel I have every right to campaign in the US for president)

This time around it seems that the phone banks are even more efficient, but people aren't answering.  In an evening of calling into Ohio last week, I only got one person who picked up, which according to The New York Times is par for the course. People are tired of getting calls, although someone knocking on your door still gets an answer.

Campaigns are about getting out the vote as much as they are about issues.  As a foot soldier in many, many elections, I know what a slog it can be, but also just how important it is.

Needless to say, I was discouraged after my evening's effort, so despite the fact that I expected I'd spend quite a bit of time helping out with telephones, I'm reduced to keeping my fingers crossed when it comes to the US.

But the unspent energy may come in handy here, where we've got a big battle ahead of us, three years down the line... [image error]

Hello There, Are You Listenting? Obama for President

Four years ago I spent the three days before the US presidential election telephoning to prospective voters in a several states, particularly Ohio, Pennsylvania, Colorado and Nevada.  The message was a general get out the vote one, much like what we use around here, and I figured that calling where my accent wouldn't be offensive might help the cause. (I'm a dual citizen and vote by absentee in California, so I feel I have every right to campaign in the US for president)

This time around it seems that the phone banks are even more efficient, but people aren't answering.  In an evening of calling into Ohio last week, I only got one person who picked up, which according to The New York Times is par for the course. People are tired of getting calls, although someone knocking on your door still gets an answer.

Campaigns are about getting out the vote as much as they are about issues.  As a foot soldier in many, many elections, I know what a slog it can be, but also just how important it is.

Needless to say, I was discouraged after my evening's effort, so despite the fact that I expected I'd spend quite a bit of time helping out with telephones, I'm reduced to keeping my fingers crossed when it comes to the US.

But the unspent energy may come in handy here, where we've got a big battle ahead of us, three years down the line... [image error]