Purple?

I’m sorry; I didn’t wear purple today,
But I have to say, in fairness—
I’m not opposed at all to gay rights;
I’m opposed to “raising awareness”
I’ll speak my mind; I’ll teach my class;
I’ll probably reach a few;
But tell me… “raising awareness”—
What, exactly, does it do?
Some homophobic moron
Could be very much “aware”
He knows that he discriminates
And proudly does not care
“Awareness” is a fiction
Roughly on a par with “prayer”
Petitioning an entity
That isn’t even there.
I will not dress in purple
(even though it sounds like fun)
I will not raise awareness—
I would rather get things done.

Explanation, after the jump: [Read more…]

Last Donors Choose Post

Today, Friday, Saturday. That’s it.

The good news is, the Powers That Be are, for those three days, doubling all donations. If you donate (even as little as a dollar), they will (if I remember correctly) send you a voucher for you to choose where to spend that same amount on the same or other projects of your choosing. Hey, I only just found out about this, or I’d have asked everyone to wait.

Also, the scientopia blogs are catching up with us. You may or may not care, but it kinda irks me. Of course, they are catching up in total dollars, but not numbers of donors, so we still rule there.

Anyway, You know the spiel by now–widget to the right, deserving cause, right thing to do, every dollar helps. Now, every dollar helps twice as much.

So please help.

Back Of The Bus Again, Rosa

When she boarded the One-Ten in Brooklyn
And sat in her seat at the front
The men who were seated around her
Had a message, unwelcome and blunt:

Don’t ask, just move to the rear now
The answer is “God made the rule”
You have to respect our religion
You ignorant, secular fool

It’s Orthodox rules that apply here
So move to the back of the bus
If you think that it’s just segregation
Then it’s clear that you’re not one of us

So it’s “back of the bus, again, Rosa”
Though it’s not cos we’re white and you’re black
It’s not racism, no—it’s religion
But you still gotta sit in the back.

Context and rant, after the jump:
Women are required to ride in the back of the Boropark-Williamsburg bus.

The B110 bus travels between Williamsburg and Borough Park in Brooklyn. It is open to the public, and has a route number and tall blue bus stop signs like any other city bus. But the B110 operates according to its own distinct rules. The bus line is run by a private company and serves the Hasidic communities of the two neighborhoods. To avoid physical contact between members of opposite sexes that is prohibited by Hasidic tradition, men sit in the front of the bus and women sit in the back.

It is entirely possible that goyim will prefer not to ride that bus, and the passengers can voluntarily follow what rules they wish. But in New York City, God doesn’t make the laws.

Ross Sandler, a professor at New York Law School and editor of the CityLaw newsletter, said that anti-discrimination laws apply to bus franchises, but that religious groups are sometimes granted exceptions. “Do all these laws apply? Yes, they apply to buses that are franchises,” Sandler said. “The question is whether there is an exception for this particular bus line.”

The Transportation Department said that the B110 had not been granted any exceptions to anti-discrimination laws.

Respect goes both ways. I can expect respect for my positions to the extent that I respect the positions of others, and within the confines of the law. I won’t demand that Orthodox women sit in front, nor that Orthodox men sit in back. But their rules are not mine; their god is not mine.

The Comments at this story are particularly interesting–from remarkably thoughtful to incredibly prejudiced. Sounds like New York City.

Headline Muse, 10/19

Though it’s always liked Bobbies or Tims
And no problems with Saras or Kims
Google wasn’t a plus
For a subset of us
Now they’re changing their minds about ‘nyms

Headline: Google planning major upgrades to Google+ ‘within days’

The only change I’m wondering about is their change in policy regarding pseudonyms. Rumor has it they will be possible. Cynical rumor has it that pseudonyms will be possible, but for those who have a different sort of identity–that is, corporations (which are people, too, you know).

I will probably wait, out of paranoia, and by the time I try it out all the good appropriate cuttlefishy names will have been swept up by lesser cephalopods.

20/20 Hindsight (or, The Basis Of Objective Morality)

Cos it’s coming up on that time of the semester. Another one for my students.

The non-religious viewpoint—that a moral sense evolves—
Raises up some thorny questions, while some others it resolves
The thing about selection that can give a fellow blindsight
Is that all success and failure is revealed to us in hindsight.
Predicting evolution is a right and awful mess,
Cos a change in the environment will influence success;
When selection pressures differ, they result in different features
In morphology, of course, and the behaviors seen in creatures
“Successful” might be bigger, might be smaller, might be smart
From a cuttlefish in hiding to a peacock’s walking art
From the flora in intestines to domesticated cow
Each of these has been successful; only hindsight tells us how.
A selectionist analysis applies to culture, too—
There’s variety apparent in the many things we do,
As we teach them to our children, replication of a sort
Differentially effective, when attempts may come up short.
When we ask the loaded questions, “What is moral? What is good?”
“Are there independent standards, what we shan’t and what we should?”
As the most successful culture, it should fill us with delight—
We will always look behind us, saying what we did was right
What we did was good and moral, and the gods looked down and smiled;
Now it’s thoroughly objective, and we teach to every child
All the Thou shall not’s we followed, every moral, every rule,
As the basis of our culture, in the church and in the school
In the battles over culture, had another party won
Then morality, objectively, is what that group has done.

The moral code of conduct that determines saints and sinners
Is the product of selection, in the history of the winners

The rest of the lesson, in prose, after the jump: [Read more…]

Home Stretch

The science bloggers’ challenge, in Donors Choose, is rapidly coming to an end. The official challenge (which FtB is leading handily, even with PZ mis-categorized) ends this Saturday, one day after the end of the world.

As of this writing, four of my pet projects have been funded (yay!), one timed out without being funded (sob!), and there are several more still searching for money (including one that is in its final days). I am tempted to add still more projects; it would be a false sense of accomplishment to pretend that the job was ever “finished”. There will, at least under our current structure, always be more to do, and more left undone.

But you don’t stop paddling just because you can’t see the shore. If you are going the right direction (“second star to the right, and straight on till morning”) the only way to get there is to keep moving.

So let’s keep moving.

There are still my projects, and plenty more where they came from; if you don’t want to support poetry, you can look around for science, or history, or music, or sports, or search by state or town (a former student of mine puts in a plea for Memphis TN, where funds are desperately needed). Find a project that speaks to you, or screams out to you. Find projects that are ending soon, and listen to the sighs of relief from teachers and cheers from students. Find projects that remind you of your grade school days.

I was going to suggest a spoof on the “we are the 99%” movement, encouraging people to make donations (as many as they can, of course) of 99 cents. As the 99% protests show us, numbers count. A lot of “we are the 99 cents” donors can make up for a few big donors. And it is absolutely true that every dollar helps.

And yeah, you can do that. Or you can give a lot (I’m looking at a particular recent donor from Brooklyn, here. Thanks!). But we are running out of time to give at all. So please take the time to click through the widget on the right, and experience the pleasure of helping out kids and teachers who need, and who appreciate, your help.

Fred Karger For President

Technically, Ron Paul was the first candidate to file for New Hampshire’s “first in the nation” primary (date, to be decided, after everybody else jostles for an early time. It might be next week.). But in the Granite State, Real Candidates file in person. And the first candidate to file in person was… *drum roll* …Fred Karger.

That’s right, Fred Karger. That Fred Karger. The one 99.99% of NH voters have never heard of. That’s one reason he’s getting the much sought-after Cuttlefish recommendation.

Lemme ‘splain. After the jump: [Read more…]

Headline Muse, 10/18

When “the man in the white shirt” let loose
His behavior was seen as abuse
Now he’ll lose accrued time
For his boneheaded crime:
Breaking standards of pepper spray use

Headline: NYC inspector broke pepper spray rule

He may appeal (but frankly, he’s not terribly appealing), but as it stands, the report (on conditions of anonymity) is that he’ll lose vacation time. Gee, I wonder what the penalties would have been if the roles were reversed, and the women he sprayed had sprayed him instead.

My First Experience With Faith-Healing Death

My most recent post touched a very sensitive nerve with me; I’ve bumped up against faith healing before. I can’t blame the believers too much in these cases, but I certainly can blame the religion.

A friend of mine, some thirty years ago,
The eldest son, a farming family’s pride,
Was gone from school, about a month or so
Before we heard the truth—the boy had died.

He’d fallen from a tractor in a field,
Though whether he was dead first, we don’t know;
The coroner’s exam? Too late to yield
An answer; there was nothing it could show.

His parents tried to cure the boy with prayer–
They brought him home, and put their son to bed.
Devout and faithful, hope turned to despair;
It broke their hearts, admitting he was dead.

Their church—to whom they turn when times are rough—
Blamed them, and said they had not prayed enough.

Again, these are the examples that leap to mind whenever I hear “but religion gives people hope”. Perhaps there was nothing medicine could have done for my friend; we will never know. But to have a system in place for blaming the parents for their lack of faith, that is just cruel.

Prayer ‘Cure’ Kills Three

Throw away your medicines!
God alone can cure!
Trust in Him, repent your sins
Make sure your thoughts are pure!
God can cure your HIV
With love that never fades
Trust in Him, and you will see
He’ll cure you of your AIDS
God’s healing is omnipotent
And infinite in worth
It brings an end that’s heaven-sent
To illness on the Earth
So throw away your medicines
Sing praises to His name!
And when your illness kills you, then
Your lack of faith’s to blame.

Deadly pinheaded faith-healing nonsense, after the jump:
[Read more…]