2009-02-23 2245: I was glad that Sean Penn won best actor for his title role in the movie Milk, if only because of his acerbic comments in support of gay marriage when receiving his Oscar. (I have yet to see the movie.) I was even more impressed by the emotional and courageous speech by the screenwriter, Dustin Lance Black, when he won his Oscar for original screenplay. If anyone thinks that these artists won their Academy Awards because Hollywood is pro-gay, or that voicing support for gay marriage in the Kodiak Theatre was preaching to the converted, they need to consider that in this society, it is still often difficult to be openly gay. For example, most organized religions oppose homosexuality, as does the LDS Church that Dustin Lance Black grew up in. But even if the awards were in part a matter of politics, it should be acknowledged that gay rights and gay marriage are contentious issues—and to the extent we demand art to be free of politics, we limit the relevance of art.
The previous Sunday, the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, the Very Reverend Mark Bourlakas, gave a sermon stating the moral imperative of accepting gay people and their relationships in the community and in the church. He used the Lectionary readings (2 Kings 5:1-14 and Mark 1:40-45), which speak of leprosy, to compare the rejection by society and the churches of gay people to the rejection people with leprosy faced in the past, and the need for healing caused by this rejection. Now I am a member of Christ Church Cathedral in part because they are gay-friendly. But I am all the more glad to be a member of the church after the Dean's strong statement of support for gay people.
2009-02-19 0810: I just emailed my Indiana state senator (Sen. Connie Sipes of the 46th district), to ask for her support for the statewide smoking ban, and to support a ban that has no exemptions for bars and casinos.
2009-02-12 2045: Yesterday evening, I happened across a colleague of mine at the tavern, a lecturer in biology. She was celebrating Darwin's birthday with some friends, and she had a wonderful little toy with her: A cloth Darwin doll. It was adorable. She told me she got it at the Unemployed Philosopher's Guild web site.
2009-02-12 0630: Today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday!
On Tuesday night, KET (the local public television station) re-ran the NOVA episode on Kitzmiller v. Dover, the "intelligent design" court case of 2005. This episode was spectacular, because it did a marvelous job explaining why scientists believe in evolution, and it did a wonderful job of explaining the religious and political motivations of the proponents of creationism and intelligent design. The story of the court case—why it happened and what happened—was fascinating, and compellingly told by the participants themselves. This court case was a huge setback for the creationists who hoped to use intelligent design to attack evolution in the schools. I was particularly struck by the lawyers for the plaintiffs, who described having to have a crash-course in biology and evolution (taught by leading biologists who were expert witnesses for the plaintiffs); they were surprised and astonished by how detailed and convincing the evidence was. They had not seen this evidence when they were kids in high school. They learned that this is because for decades, high school biology texts avoided the subject of evolution to avoid the controversy (because books that included that subject wouldn't get adopted in many school districts). The plaintiff's team (teachers, scientists, lawyers and the plaintiffs themselves) understood that this why their case was so important.
I looked to see if they're going to run this show again, but unfortunately it's not on the schedule (for the high-definition channel at least). But they have a good web site with information on creationism, intelligent design and evolution: NOVA: Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial. More detailed information is available at the National Center for Science Education, which defends the teaching of evolution in the schools. An excellent book which details the political and religious background of intelligent design, and gives a concise and convincing scientific critique of intelligent design, is Creationism's Trojan Horse: The Wedge of Intelligent Design, by Forrest and Gross (Oxford University Press, 2004). The paperback edition (2007) contains a good summary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover case, and why it was so devastating to intelligent design proponents.
2009-02-11 2045: We had high winds today, and as feared, there is another round of widespread power outages this evening in southern Indiana. My county (Floyd County) has more than 2,000 Duke Energy customers without power, and the neighboring county (Clark County) has 8,000. Fortunately, I have power. And the power outages aren't as bad as two weeks ago, when Duke had as many as 19,000 customers in Floyd County without power.
The windstorm was impressive. The sustained winds reached 40 mph with gusts (recorded at the airport) above 60 mph. The worst of the storm was at dusk, when I taught my 6:00 p.m. class. The forecasted line of thunderstorms came through the area earlier in the afternoon, but the wind actually became stronger after they came through. In fact, the sun came out from time to time as the winds grew stronger. A local meterologist explained (on the web site for the local NBC affiliate) that the sun was not good news, because it would lead to convection and bring the sustained 75 mph winds higher up in the atmospher down to the ground. A tornado watch was allowed to expire at 6 p.m., but the high wind warning was left up. (In fact, the high wind warning is still up, until 10 p.m. EDT., but the winds seem to be diminishing now.)
2009-02-11 0820: We are under a high wind warning: sustained winds to 40 mph and gusts to 55 mph. A strong cold front with possible severe thunderstorms will pass through the area today. There is the threat of new power outages. This is only two weeks since the record ice storm outages.