Virginia/Virgynia

I am planning to continue to bring up as frequently as I can the horrendous issue of mandatory ultrasounds - for no medical reason - being forced on women seeking legal abortion.  More than twenty states have or have tried to put laws on the books mandating these invasive ultrasounds. In the last year alone, at least seven other states have tried to pass similar anti-choice measures, with varying levels of success.  I worry that the Republicans will succeed in distracting women from this reality. I worry that women will forget that their freedom and human rights are in very real peril.

Rachel Maddow may be thinking along the same lines, and hopefully a lot of other prominent writers and journalists will not let this issue drop off the national radar as the election campaigning heats up.  This week, Ms. Maddow did a follow-up piece to her blog series about personalized Virginia license plates.  The video clip is great, but what is even more awesome is that one of my Facebook friends, Becky Kirkland Kremkau is one of the contributors!  The final - fantastic! - plate is Becky's:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Just to refresh your memory:

Charting the number of laws restricting abortion rights since 1985

Fabulous Fifteen - Greta Christina on Belief

A filmmaker who was working on a documentary about Christian beliefs about life after death interviewed Greta Christina.  That interview was later made into a podcast for "This is Really Happening".

The podcast features just Greta Christina's answers in the interview, giving the listener a pleasantly intimate experience. It feels as though Greta is confiding her thoughts about belief and the evolution of her personal set of beliefs to you, the listener, personally. (Spoiler alert!  Greta does not believe in the Rapture! Shocking, I know).

This is a quick, engaging and interesting 15 minutes.  Listen!  Greta Christina's podcast:

Update:  The first attempt to embed the podcast did not work,  so here is the link to the (free) iTunes version.

Musical Monday - Run Runaway

Need some get up and go on a Monday morning?

Sit up, turn the volume way UP and bounce along to this music!

Great Big Sea:  Run Runaway

Sunday Sermon Antidotes - P.Z. Myers At GAC

An idea can take over the world - until it is replaced by better ideas!

The Global Atheist Convention has just wound down, but I am sure that there will be amazing material - speeches, ideas, videos - coming out of Melbourne, Australia for weeks to come.  I complain a lot about computers and the internet, but I am very thankful for the technology that allows us to see, read and listen to the ideas presented at this and other conferences and events with such ease and almost instantaneously.

P.Z. Myers spoke last night and he posted his "talk" on Pharyngula this morning.  I'll be eagerly watching for the video, but for now, you can enjoy reading it.  Here is an excerpt:

"The most brilliant thing Christianity ever did was to take that idea of the Word, that concept of identity wrapped up in an abstract set of ideas and stories, and to open it up to everyone. Aww, Rome fell? You're all alone? Here, we can help you find yourself, we can give a new meaning to your life, we have a standard that you can hold high and find unity with a greater people. It’s called the Bible.

I repeat, absolutely brilliant. It made Christianity bulletproof.

Cities fall. Kings die. Bloodlines fade. But ideas can go on and on and on. Now, a 21st century person can feel continuity with a 5th century priest; an American can share a central element of their self with someone in South Africa, with someone in China, with someone in Australia; heck, with someone on the space station, or walking on the moon. We can have the concept of an ecumene; people tied together by a common belief that crosses borders. It’s a powerful tool. It’s widely used, too; what is a United States citizen but someone bound by a set of documents, the Constitution?"

He went on to challenge atheist stereotypes, Christian assumptions about themselves and about atheists, harms done to humanity by religion and finally how the small, but growing segment of humankind who have shaken off the dehumanizing shackles of superstition and embraced reality has begun to make an impact.  Religionists are enraged because they know that their grip on the psyche of humanity is weakening at long last - and that it is weakening because of the hard-won advances made by science.

P.Z. Myers zeroed in on exactly why religion fights science so ferociously - why it has always hated and feared science. He discussed how science has been the true savior of humankind over the centuries - with religion fighting progress and useful knowledge every step of the way, of course - and he finished with a rousing battle cry:

"Yesterday I was listening to our Christian protesters outside, and I thought, “Huh. So that’s what you get when you give a sheep a microphone, amplified bleating.” There they were, calling on everyone to deny the richness of human experience and join the flock in the narrow boring confines of the sheep pen, so mindless they didn’t even realize they were calling to the wolves.

I have a different metaphor for us, my brothers and sisters in atheism. We are not sheep; there are no shepherds here. I look out from this stage and I see 4000 pairs of hunter’s eyes, 4000 hunter’s minds, 4000 pairs of hunter’s hands. I see the primeval primate hunting band grown large and strong. I see us so confident in our strength that we laugh at our enemies. I see a people thinking and planning, fierce and focused, learning and building new tools to conquer new worlds.

You are not sheep. You, my brothers and sisters in atheism, are a fierce, coordinated hunting pack — men and women working together, and those other bastards have cause to fear us. So let’s do it: make them tremble as we demolish the city of god."

Here is a  link to P.Z. Myers' speech at GAC. Take the time to read it.  It is worth every minute.

Sunday Sermon Antidotes - Controlled

There are antidotes for the poison sprayed upon the multitudes in houses of worship across the continent every Sunday morning.

Sit back and take in some reality-based inspiration on this Sunday morning.

Tombstone da Deadman:  Controlled.

"You like that song?...I wrote that for you."

Cure For Cancer?

Exciting news in the world of cancer research!

On April 10, the Ottawa Citizen reported that researchers at McGill University in Montreal are developing a blood test for breast cancer that may soon render mammograms obsolete.

"Scientists have worked for years on such blood tests without much success. But the McGill team — including scientists specializing in nanotechnology, chemistry and oncology — have made improvements to the existing technology while discovering a biomarker "signature" for a common subtype of breast cancer — that which is estrogen receptor-positive."

The preliminary testing showed great promise, but the early trial group was very small. Further research and larger studies need to be conducted - and soon - to determine if this test is as good as researchers hope it is. Luckily, Canadian researchers are working in an atmosphere conducive to looking for ways to do better than the current expensive technology.

Currently, mammogram technology is the only imperfect diagnostic tool that women and their doctors have to work with in the effort to detect breast cancer early. Mammography is painful, often inaccurate, and results in far too many false positives - which then result in too many harmful interventions - and, even worse, too many false negatives.

It will be a great day for women when a simple blood test can definitely provide early diagnosis.

Encouragingly, even in the USA, where mammography is big business, research is ongoing to provide better ways to fight breast cancer. At the University of Pennsylvania, there have been promising results in a breast cancer vaccine trial.

On April 8, the UK newspaper, The Telegraph, reported even more exciting news in the general field of cancer research. This story is about what could potentially become the groundwork for an eventual cure for many types of cancer. Scientists have identified a molecule - called MUC1 - which is found on the surface of cancer cells and researchers at Tel Aviv University, backed by Vaxil Biotherapeutics have developed a prototype "vaccine" which uses a small part of the MUC1 molecule to excite a patient's immune system, in much the same way that vaccines for other illnesses (like measles or polio) do.

"The therapy, which targets a molecule found in 90 per cent of all cancers, could provide a universal injection that allows patients' immune systems to fight off common cancers including breast and prostate cancer."

The science information manager at Cancer Research UK, Dr Kat Arney, cautions: "These are very early results that are yet to be fully published, so there's a lot more work to be done to prove that this particular vaccine is safe and effective in cancer patients.", but she added that research into the MUC1 molecule is ongoing in several places around the world because it has shown such promise. Currently, trials will be done using the "vaccine" as a treatment for patients already battling cancer, rather than as a traditional vaccine to prevent cancer.

All that, just this week in cancer research!

Post Script: Sadly, within a few short years,  we won't be seeing research of this calibre coming out of Tennessee, Oklahoma, Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas or any of the other states currently considering legislation to allow the teaching of religious creationism in science classes and/or undermining evolutionary theory.  All of these promising treatments, like most modern medical treatments, are derived from our understanding of evolutionary biology.

If the religious right succeeds in undermining education in this country to the degree that they have declared they hope to, then all future world-changing scientific research will occur in other countries going forward.  I guess the Republican party is A-OK with forcing the USA to stand on the sidelines gaping in ignorance as the rest of the world advances far ahead of us in every important aspect of human scientific, medical and technological endeavor. Good work, Republicans.

Tuesday Tonic - Purpose!

Tombstone da Deadman 

Sit back and take in some inspiration on a Tuesday morning.

To Understand Newfoundland

Sunrise in St. John's, Newfoundland

Writer's block is a bastard!  I have at least ten posts in the pipe in various stages of incompletion, and two nearly done but damn it, they are just not ready to go up yet.  And I am fresh out of words at the moment.

Luckily, I have a small stock of really great stuff to show people when this old hag descends. Today's selections include a nice little write-up about my birthplace complete with an impossible-to-pry-loose (grrr!) video featuring Simon Calder (I'm sure I've heard that voice before - on Planet Earth perhaps?),  and a video of a walking tour of St. John's, including lots of video of hiking a (tame) part of the East Coast trail system.

The NiftySpouse picked up the secret SOS signal I emitted around noon-ish -  we atheists can send secret SOS signals (via evil mind waves, of course) to our significant others (bet you didn't know that, hm? Come over to the dark side - we have SSS's!) - and he sent me the link to a story post haste as a restorative. It did the trick! Read and enjoy!

And, since I was unable to rip share the video from that link above, I found an even cooler one for your viewing pleasure.  I have some hiking/climber friends who would enjoy some of these trails.  I also walked the Signal Hill one with a California friend and our assorted offspring -  it was fun walking along that low cliff edge - thoughtful of the city to provide that handy rope to hang onto in the places where the ledge is only a couple of feet wide!

Watch and enjoy!

Dust That Sings

P Z Myers posted this on his blog this week and I've only just had time to view it.  It is amazing.

Beautiful, thoughtful, and utterly amazing.

Please take twelve minutes to watch this.  It is worth your time.

Hillary 2016? Hell, Yes!

This week, I will indulge myself imagining Hillary Rodham Clinton as our future president.

Former president Bill Clinton talked about the possibility - however remote at present - that Hillary could still be persuaded to serve her country once more, after she steps down as Secretary of State later this year.

Hillary 2016?

Cool Cutting Edge Science On Wheels!

We've just got back from a long road trip, so my apologies for the dearth of posts!

But here is something which I hope will make up for that!  Driving up I-65 between Indianapolis and Chicago, we spotted this! :

I had a feeling this was something really cool -  I mean, just look at those bright colorful symbols all over the thing! - so, since I was driving, I had the nifty spouse look it up on his smartphone. 

Turns out this bus is a converted 70's era road cruiser, fitted out as a mobile DNA sequencing lab!  This is so cool!  The mobile lab travels around the country to conferences and to universities and other places by request, where they demonstrate their new ion semiconductor sequencing technology by sequencing the DNA of interesting things they find at each locale they visit.

The bus was on its way to Chicago when we spotted it.  If only I hadn't been behind the wheel, I would have whipped out my camera and taken a picture. But the stock photo above will just have to do.  

Here is an annoying (I hate visuals that spin and quick cut editing), but fun little video from their website:

Women, Be Fearless!

On Shakesville, Melissa McEwan now and then posts a photo of my idol, Hillary Rodham Clinton.  She made a joke about how often she posts these photos and several commenters echoed what I was thinking - she could post them every day and I might actually visit her blog even more often, not less often! Hillary is that much of a draw to me.

I was one of those housewives she did not choose to be like back in the 1990's (though my kids can tell you I was stronger on "exploring" and crafts than I was on baking cookies),  but I could not understand the uproar over her remarks back then.  That was my first glimpse into the hatred that conservative women have for progressive women and it was probably my first inkling of just how deep and complicated the schisms in American society have become. This will be one of many posts on this topic.

What Hillary was pointing to was the truth: in spite of the lie that we can "have it all", women can't be everything they would like to be - at least not at the same time - not really.  We can be full-time homemakers, but then we will not be respected as persons who have something to say outside of domestic issues.  We can be full-time employed workers (and obviously full-time moms still), but then we are vilified by the stay-at-home contingent as 'bad mothers'. Many of us can and must be something in between- struggling to be both full-time moms and part-time workers - and discovering the awful truth that we are not allowed to feel good about either of them. Hillary wanted to make a difference in this country, but she knew that in order to do that she would not be able to stay at home full-time, even if she had wanted to do so.

Many of us can and must be something in between- struggling to be both full-time moms and part-time workers - and discovering the awful truth that we are not allowed to feel good about either of them. 

I found Hillary refreshingly honest, admirably capable and formidably intelligent.  I knew what she was saying - women just don't get to do both of those things in our culture, not really, and she was speaking to that - I found her impressive and likable.  I heard in her remarks the painful conundrum that is a woman's experience in public life - no matter what she did, she was going to be wrong and ridiculed for even trying. And yet, she did keep working. She did continue to work and she did continue to put herself out there in public life. She has never stopped trying to make a difference for women in the world, and she has succeeded.

Women the world over are inspired by Hillary Rodham Clinton.  I am inspired by her.

I have so much I could write about Hillary.  And no doubt I will (I am just warming up, but I've got several posts started in the pipeline).  But I will spare you a long screed and just post short bits with awesome photos or videos whenever the mood strikes me!

Here is a short clip from the Women in the World summit held earlier this month at the Lincoln Center. Hillary urges women to be "fearless"in fighting for equality, justice and civil rights for women.  Coming from someone who has had to be fearless in the public sphere,  her words have particular power.

Yay! Reason Rally Coverage! Part 1

Reason Rally 2012: Attendance reports vary: 10,000 - 20,000 according to parks district.

Washington Post article 'Godless' rally for recognition...

Greta Christina's exhilarated and uplifting post on the Reason Rally here.
"If you came to the Reason Rally, and you do just one thing for atheism that you haven’t done before? If you tell one person that you’re an atheist? If you start wearing atheist T-shirts? If you start crossing “In God We Trust” off your money? If you start hanging out with your local atheist group? If you organize one event with the local atheist group you already hang out with? If you donate money to one atheist organization? If you run for public office as an out atheist? If you start re-tweeting things about atheism?

If you do just one thing for atheism that you haven’t done before… this movement will be radically changed."

Mythbusters' Adam Savage's excellent speech here.

Nate Phelp's speech:



Richard Dawkins (via David Singer):


Video streaming by Ustream

Reason Rally Today!

Today is the day! Atheists, freethinkers and people who value truth and science will be pouring into Washington DC and filling the national Mall with the sounds of great music, inspiring speakers and intelligent conversation.  The Reason Rally has arrived!

I will be watching the various news outlets for coverage of this important event.  Other, patently stupid events received huge media coverage, so I expect at least as much media attention for the Reason Rally.

Whatever happens, though, it is sure to be an exciting day for the participants (estimated crowds could be as large as 30,000-50,000 people!) and an eye-opener for those closeted atheists in the rest of the country who still think they are alone.

NPR's Woodstock for Atheists (March 23, 2012).

Watch This!

This is a documentary about atheists and it looks really good from the trailer.  I am not sure when it will be coming out (heh) but as soon as I do know I will post about it!

Several of the people featured in this trailer write blogs on freethoughtblogs.com and they are excellent blogs.  There are links to some of them in my sidebar. -->

Seriously, watch this.