Tempus Fugit

My inspirational video of the day.

Sarah and I did a lot of research into baby gear when we had Atticus. We wanted to buy quality products that would last us at least for another child. We wanted products that wouldn’t frustrate us (parenthood is stressful enough). We didn’t want to buy products that we didn’t need, or that only had a limited utility. Now, we’ve taken that effort and shared it with the world, with the launch of Have Baby. Need Stuff!

With this site, we cut past the mountain of junky products that are shoved in parents’ faces. You get to skip all the laborious research and get right to the answer for “but which one should I get?” Check it out, and share it with any new parents you might know!

Dan Savage takes on the hypocrisy of Christians who follow Leviticus with regards to dehumanizing homosexuals, but ignore its promotion of slavery and its issuance of capital punishment for female fornicators.

Ben Huh says, of the current copyright situation:

This disconnect between the public’s view of copyright and fair use and what should and should not be prosecuted, versus the “copyright maximist” view of the law, is our generation’s Prohibition.

Congratulations! You bought a big, fancy, expensive SLR camera. You’re fighting the camera phone movement and are making physical sacrifices in order to capture better images. Well done.

But you’re probably holding it wrong.

Wrong

See how my thumb is under the lens? This makes for poor support of the camera. Try this, and then slightly loosen your right hand grip. See how the camera immediately wobbles? That’s because it only has your thumb supporting it.

Right

Much better. Now my entire palm is supporting the lens and the camera. I can actually completely release my right hand, and the camera won’t move. It won’t even wobble. Next, notice how switching to this position naturally draws the left elbow in towards the body. This creates a sort of tripod. Your elbows should be in, tight against your chest. They form two legs of the tripod. The third “leg” is the camera being pulled against your face. This is more stable, and means that you’ll have less camera shake, which means fewer blurry photos.

P.S. Before you ask, the Nikon logo is blacked out because I find it distracting to see its bright white reflection in people’s eyes when taking portrait shots. And also because I like to pretend I’m Batman, with black logo-less tech tools.

A few years ago, I came to the rather life-changing conclusion that God doesn’t exist. In the past couple of years, my friends and family have noticed me becoming more vocal about my skepticism of theism and my pointed disdain for religion. Many people in my family are fervently religious, and I have more than a few God-fearing friends. After catching wind of my thoughts on God and religion, some of them have asked me to share how I came to this position. I’ve explained it to a few, and promised to talk about it with others over a beer in the future. If only I had access to some sort of internet-connected publishing platform that I could use to lay out my story for everyone all at once! Oh, right.

Before I begin, I have some words of warning. This will be a long read. Very, very long. For a better reading experience, you can download this post in ePub format, MOBI format (for Kindle), or add it to Instapaper by clicking this button: .

I’m going to tell my entire story; from my religious experiences in early childhood, to my rejection of religion and God in my mid-twenties. The backstory is important, as my skepticism isn’t something new, but something that has been a lifelong struggle.

Next, I should warn you that if you are a person of faith, I’ll probably offend you gravely with this tome. Make no mistake: I have no compunctions about doing so. I’m not one to hide the truth behind deferential embroidery. Still, if you are the type who is likely to take offense and refuse to continue reading, it would be most courteous of me to offend you early on, so as to respect your valuable time.

To that end: God is almost certainly a lie, religion is a scourge upon the world, and you are wasting your life with a cultish devotion to nonsensical superstitions and soul-crushing dogmas. Also, you don’t have a soul.

Now that I’ve dispensed with the discourteous courtesies, and we are rid of the chronically hyper-offendable, let us begin.

(more…)

“Change we can believe in” was the campaign slogan of Senator Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. But if you thought that the Obama campaign meant that it would listen to citizens and be willing to change course when new information became available, well, you must be new at this.

The petition system at WhiteHouse.gov was much heralded.

 This tool provides you with a new way to petition the Obama Administration to take action on a range of important issues facing our country.

New tools are nice. But if the administration doesn’t actually become more adaptive, then these new tools provide nothing more than a faster, more high-tech “fuck you” to petitioners. I suppose that’s not nothing… a “fuck you” today is preferable to a “fuck you” many months later (or more realistically, never). But it’s not what people ultimately want from their government.

As an example, take the multiple petitions about legalizing (and taxing and regulating) marijuana. Half of all Americans support legalizing marijuana. Marijuana has lower addiction rates than tobacco, alcohol, and even caffeine. There is no possibility of overdose (alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine can all kill you if you take too much). All of the arguments against legalizing marijuana apply much, much more to alcohol. The Obama administration’s response to the petition about marijuana by former police chief Gil Kerlikowske was insulting, and full of misdirection, outdated studies, and lies.

When the President took office, he directed all of his policymakers to develop policies based on science and research, not ideology or politics. So our concern about marijuana is based on what the science tells us about the drug’s effects.

Surprise! All of their “science” is outdated, selectively quoted, and made to match ideology and politics.

According to scientists at the National Institutes of Health- the world’s largest source of drug abuse research – marijuana use is associated with addiction, respiratory disease, and cognitive impairment.

Less addictive than alcohol, nicotine, and caffeine. No physical symptoms of withdrawal. Respiratory disease is only related to people who smoke the plant. And more recent studies have shown that there is no permanent cognitive impairment even for chronic marijuana users. As for the temporary cognitive impairment, well gee, that’s sort of the whole point.

We know from an array of treatment admission information and Federal data that marijuana use is a significant source for voluntary drug treatment admissions and visits to emergency rooms.

Nope and nope. Most marijuana use treatment admissions are involuntary (court-ordered). And marijuana has a much lower emergency room admission rate than alcohol.

Studies also reveal that marijuana potency has almost tripled over the past 20 years, raising serious concerns about what this means for public health – especially among young people who use the drug because research shows their brains continue to develop well into their 20′s.

When potency goes up, you take less. And for people who smoke the plant, this means less wear and tear on their lungs — a good thing!

Like many, we are interested in the potential marijuana may have in providing relief to individuals diagnosed with certain serious illnesses. That is why we ardently support ongoing research into determining what components of the marijuana plant can be used as medicine. To date, however, neither the FDA nor the Institute of Medicine have found smoked marijuana to meet the modern standard for safe or effective medicine for any condition.

Of course not. The FDA likes isolated drugs in specific doses. THC could easily be extracted and taken in pill form. This is a straw man argument.

As a former police chief, I recognize we are not going to arrest our way out of the problem. We also recognize that legalizing marijuana would not provide the answer to any of the health, social, youth education, criminal justice, and community quality of life challenges associated with drug use.

Yes it would. It absolutely would. It would solve all of the problems you mentioned.

That is why the President’s National Drug Control Strategy is balanced and comprehensive, emphasizing prevention and treatment while at the same time supporting innovative law enforcement efforts that protect public safety and disrupt the supply of drugs entering our communities. Preventing drug use is the most cost-effective way to reduce drug use and its consequences in America. And, as we’ve seen in our work through community coalitions across the country, this approach works in making communities healthier and safer.

Marijuana is only a public safety issue because it is illegal. And you’ll never succeed with a law enforcement approach. Marijuana can be grown indoors, in a box the size of a mini-fridge. You’re not going to get rid of it.

We’re also focused on expanding access to drug treatment for addicts. Treatment works. In fact, millions of Americans are in successful recovery for drug and alcoholism today. And through our work with innovative drug courts across the Nation, we are improving our criminal justice system to divert non-violent offenders into treatment.

Great. Why not go all the way, and stop making non-violent marijuana use a crime altogether?

Our commitment to a balanced approach to drug control is real. This last fiscal year alone, the Federal Government spent over $10 billion on drug education and treatment programs compared to just over $9 billion on drug related law enforcement in the U.S.

Legalizing (and regulating) marijuana would net $10-$14 billion for the federal government. We could double our treatment programs for methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and other drugs that are actually harmful.

Thank you for making your voice heard. I encourage you to take a moment to read about the President’s approach to drug control to learn more.

Thank Fuck you too, Gil.

Update: Perfect.