Steve Ahlquist

January 26, 2012

2012-01-26T23:59:00.000-05:00

Got up, helped Jess make her interview with the BBC, then had lunch with her. Another long, busy day. But things are looking up.

January 25, 2012

2012-01-25T23:59:00.000-05:00

What a day. Worked all day to pull together the rally/protest at the Cranston School Committee meeting to take some of the heat off Jessica. It went really well. To tired to write more yet.

January 24, 2012

2012-01-24T23:59:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow morning at about 9am I'll be on the Helen Glover Show, WHJJ.

this is because of the press release I sent out about the mini rally I'm planning at the Cranston School Committee meeting tomorrow night.

I also videoed the RI Council of Churches Press Conference in support of Jessica, and would have had the video up already, except that I drove Jess to her New York Times interview.

Oh, and the BBC wants to interview Jess and I as well.

This has been crazy.

January 23, 2012

2012-01-23T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today I did not accomplish much, except the first draft of the longest blog post I've ever done.
I helped my wife Kathy out with her business, and spent my free time organizing the big event for the next Cranston School Committee meeting.

January 22, 2012

2012-01-22T23:59:00.000-05:00

Got up and checked out the paper: My niece Jessica was on the front page again. But this time, it was different. The paper was running a series of articles, five in all by my count, that were basically in support of Jessica and the ruling in her favor by Judge Lagueux. Check out:

Still a lively experiment

Religion still has a place in schools, says scholar

Mural at Bain removed without fanfare last year

Ex-prayer-mural supporter now advocates removing religious words

Timeline: The school prayer at Cranston West

Judge details how, why he ruled

Also, in a feature called "IN QUOTES THE WEEK THAT WAS" the Providence Journal ran the following:

“Not once in my four years have we been forced to read or say the prayer. Please consider appealing the decision to take down the prayer. … If we’re gonna go down, let’s go down fighting.”

Cranston West Student Council President Patrick McAssey, addressing the School Committee about the controversial prayer banner in his school.

I note this because Patrick McAssey is the student who emailed me and asked me to remove the video of his statement to the Cranston School Committee from last Tuesday night, claiming that his statements were for the School Board only and that as a minor he thought his comments should not be put on YouTube for all to see. I disagreed with his logic, but removed the video because he is a minor and I didn't want to link him forever to words he might regret. But this quote in the newspaper is making me rethink my decision.

Given the potential for a sudden swing in support for Jessica's position, I've organized a Facebook event to get people out to the next School Committee meeting this coming Wednesday. Here's the link:

Support Jessica Ahlquist at the Cranston School Committee Meeting

I'm hoping to get at least a hundred people to attend.

Meanwhile, Jessica was in Florida, giving this excellent talk about her experiences:

The rest of my day was spent grocery shopping and driving my son back to UMass Amherst.

I already miss him.

January 21, 2012

2012-01-21T23:59:00.000-05:00

Woke up to some good news. The providence Journal published my op-ed in defense of Jessica Ahlquist, "Roger Williams would have been proud".

My big plan to go to Connecticut and visit the florist who completed the order to Jess has been scuttled by the snow, but I'll get out there with my camera soon enough. Today looks like a day of shoveling, reading and hot chocolate.

January 20, 2012

2012-01-20T23:59:00.000-05:00

I spent the morning and early afternoon editing an interview with Ken Fish that I'm doing to help my friend Jenny Norris to complete her master's in social work. Ken is a 70 year old gay activist who has lived through the entirety of this recent period of gay rights and gay acceptance. He recounts the gay bars of the 70s, the AIDS epidemic of the 80s, the civil rights victories of the 90s, and the ongoing struggle for full marriage equality and acceptance.

If I had known how good the interview was going to be, I would have brought two cameras. As it stands, it is a compelling, moving watch.

As soon as Jenny and Ken give me permission, I'll post it here, and everywhere else too.

Also today, it snowed! I shoveled my walk and driveway, and my neighbors walk. She said she'd make me fritatas, and I did not say no.

More snow tomorrow. Fun.

Chris Young made a video about the prayer banner. Of course the comments have been disabled.

January 19, 2012

2012-01-19T23:59:00.000-05:00

Woke up and got to work writing my impressions of Tuesday night's Cranston School Committee meeting for Caution Church Ahead. Of course, there's worse new right away, as three florists in Cranston and now one florist in Warwick have refused to deliver flowers to my niece Jessica.

“No matter what I do, I get punched in the face,” said Daryal Romano, the owner of Greenwood Flower & Garden. Romano said he decided to nix the delivery to Ahlquist after customers who heard about the delivery threatened to stop doing business with him.

Coward.

I've also been fielding calls and emails from people who want to support Jessica in this ridiculous time of her life. Thanks you to everyone who wants to help.

Now a cool sign from out in front of a bookstore on Thayer St.

January 18, 2012

2012-01-18T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today, nearly my entire day was spent getting the video up on line from last night's Cranston School Committee meeting. Here's a sample:

Notice that the speaker is actually making sense.

January 17, 2012

2012-01-17T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today I went on the John DePetro show.

Surreal.

Then, after a very short time to get some stuff done, like shower and change, it was off to the Cranston School Committee meeting to videotape the proceedings.

I will attempt to write a more detailed description of both events tomorrow for my blogs, but tonight I need to get these movies off my camera and onto YouTube, so that's going to be my priority.

January 16, 2012

2012-01-16T23:59:00.000-05:00

My Martin Luther King Day became unexpectedly poignant when I was picked up by my friend Jenny to go to her house in West Warwick to tape an interview she was doing with sixty-nine year old Ken Fish, a man who has been an out homosexual for over forty years, and has seen the battle for gay rights from a generational perspective. When he recounted the friends he watched die of AIDS, or the ongoing fight he has been engaged in for decades to attain something full equality, I actually felt choked up. With luck i will get the entire interview posted online soon.

Then my day completely shifted gears as I went to Three Sisters in Providence and held our monthly project planning meeting for the Humanists of Rhode Island. Three members I had not met before showed up, and the meeting went really well. Our group is truly just starting to take of, and we have nothing but potential.

After the Humanists meeting I went across ton to the Rhode Island Atheists meeting, because we had accidentally scheduled our meeting the same night. No matter, our meeting was at 6, there's was at 7:30, and anyone who wanted to make both meetings could.

I have more to say on all this, but it's late and I'm tired.

And i just noticed I didn't set this to post at midnight, so here it is, late.

January 15, 2012

2012-01-15T23:59:00.000-05:00

Woke up and took a long walk in the freezing cold. Got back, took a warm shower, put on a tie, and worked on some video for the RI ACLU and caught up on email. Then my friend Adam picked me up and it was off to Warwick for the Humanists of Rhode island FFRF photo shoot.

Reporters from the Projo were there. We got a great little article out of it and of course a ton of nasty comments. This event was just the beginning of what I hope will be more cooperation between the various secular groups in Rhode Island. Thirty people is a great turnout for a day that was never warmer than 15 degrees. I love the Vulcan salute to the right.

After such a freezing cold morning is was great to attend my friend Nancy's ice cream party and play Bananagrams.

After that my wife and i ate dinner with some friends at Abyssinia, and Ethiopian restaurant here in Providence. The food there is amazing. Highly recommended.

And that, was that for today.

January 14, 2012

2012-01-14T23:59:00.000-05:00

This morning I had a bunch of emails and updates to take care of, but all that had to wait because I was volunteering with Habitat for Humanity. I was there with the Humanists of Rhode Island, and proud to be joined by Beverly, Adam, Sarah and Alex. While Beverly, Adam and Sarah installed insulation, Alex and I installed a staircase and worked on building a closet. My hammering arm is sore...

Adam and Sarah either preparing to install insulation or cook meth...

Then it was home where I proceeded to take care of well over 00 emails and Facebook notifications concerning Jessica's case.

Jess made the front page of the ProJo for the third time in a row today, because of the extensive bullying and threats she had received. The ProJo article was great, ad I'll have more to say on this at Caution Church Ahead in the days ahead.

But tonight I plan to relax, eat out, and watch a movie with friends.

More craziness tomorrow.

January 13, 2012

2012-01-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

Woke up to literally hundreds of Facebook notifications letting me know that many of those opposed to the judges ruling in the Cranston "prayer banner" case were now using the Internet to post bullying and threatening remarks against my niece Jessica. Over the course of the night a wonderful blog calling itself Jesus Fetus Fajita Fishsticks spent the night grabbing screenshots of the worst comments and putting them up in a too long list of hateful and threatening invective. It bothered me a lot, because some of the stuff was way over the top, including one supposed classmate of of my niece who tweeted, “what a little bitch lol I wanna snuff her”.

Cute.

So I spent my morning writing the following email to all the members of the Cranston School Committee (I've redacted the names here of the specific students):

My name is Steve Ahlquist and I am a brother to Mark Ahlquist and an uncle to Jessica Ahlquist, a student I am sure you are well aware of.

After Jessica's court win and subsequent press release, a rising tide of cyber bullying and threats of physical harm have been directed at her, and many of those doing so are students at Cranston West High School.

One student, Xxxxxx Xxxxxxx, has posted on Twitter that "everyone is going to beat you up now prob" and "gods going to fuck your ass with that banner you scumbag" among other pleasantries, including the admission that she is a proud racist, but that Jessica is worse than blacks. Another student, Xxx Xxxxxxxx says, "I think everyone should just fight this girl".

It gets worse. XX Xx Xxxxxx, another student, wrote, "...what a little bitch lol I wanna snuff her".

One of your students has publicly said that he wants to kill another student.

A website:

http://jesusfetusfajitafishsticks.blogspot.com/2012/01/ahlquist-screenshots-if-by-christian.html

Has collected an entire page of such bullying invective. Some of it is not from students under your care, much of it is.

All of this rises to bullying under Title 16:

http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/statutes/title16/16-21/16-21-33.HTM

And appropriate action must be taken.

Beyond that, some of this behavior may rise to the level of hate crime, because as an atheist Jessica is part of a minority group, and entitled to the same protections as any other minority student under your care. Would this behavior be tolerated if the student wee Jewish, or black?

I am eager to receive your response.

I got a response three minutes after sending the letter. I don't get that kind of response from people who like me. Andrea Ianazzi was first to respond:

I am troubled by much of what I have seen and said so yesterday. However, I will not break confidentiality by discussing students behavior or discipline with you.

Followed by Frank Lombardi six minutes later:

Under no circumstances is this acceptable. While I advocated for the Mural to remain I tried to protect Jessica during meetings from some overly zealous members of the public. I assure you I will call mr nero immediately to have the subject of this email investigated.

P McFarland was next:

I agree with Mr Lombardi, so it will be addressed immediately.

Followed by Steven Bloom, Michael Traficante and Janice Ruggieri.

I summed it all up in a post I did for Rhode Island's Future, which can be seen here.

That lead to the Providence Journal posting two articles on their website:

Cranston West student's uncle decries 'cyber bullying' in wake of prayer banner decision

Which mentioned me, my post on Rhode Island's Future and my blog Caution Church Ahead by name. Nice to get the shout out for my blog work, I guess. The other article was by Maria Armental, who has covered a lot of this case.

Cranston officials investigating threats against student who filed prayer-banner suit

Later I wrote a piece on the case that I submitted as a possible Op-Ed for the Providence Journal. I hope they will run it, It was quite good, I think. But if they don't run it, I will, somewhere.

I want to thank everybody who helped me out today on this bullying thing. Stefan, Craig, Debbie, Stacy, and so many others were very helpful with information or just kind words.

Switching gears, if the world were normal right now, the thing I would be most excited about would be this:

We got Park Avenue in Cranston, which goes past the Cranston City Hall, the School Department building, several churches and a synagogue. This is living our values.

This is what we're about.

January 12, 2012

2012-01-12T23:59:00.000-05:00

What a day. Got up, took a bus downtown to the headquarters of the Rhode island ACLU and made a video of Jessica Ahlquist's Press Conference. Jessica, in case you've been unaware, just won her lawsuit against the City of Cranston concerning an unconstitutional "Prayer banner" on display in the auditorium of her high school, Cranston West. Very big news that has the theocrats all very upset, ranting and raving all over talk radio and the Internet. Jess puts up with a lot of bullying behavior at school, but some of this stuff borders on hate crime.

After the press conference I worked on editing the John M. Barry video I shot last night. At 90 minutes it's pretty long, but I didn't want to cut anything out. It was a great talk by a terrific writer concerning one of the most important historical figures of all time, Roger Williams. Here it is:

The subject of Roger Williams came up at the press conference, and comparisons were drawn between his circumstances and Jessica's case. The rest of my day, beside visiting my father-in-law at the hospital (he's doing much better and may be released tomorrow) was spent editing the Press Conference, and sorting through the enormous amount of email I'm getting concerning the case, and the preparations for the various activities planned for the weekend, including Habitat for Humanity on Saturday, the FFRF Group Photo on Sunday, and the Humanist meeting on Monday, as well as the Atheist meeting also on Monday. And Tuesday night I'll probably be down at the Cranston School Board Meeting to watch them vote on whether or note to appeal Jessica's case.

Whew.

It's been a hell of a day.

January 11, 2012

2012-01-11T23:59:00.000-05:00

I wrote a great little piece for caution Church Ahead entitled "Valerie Huber and the National Education Abstinence Association's Lies" that went live today. In it I attack a most vexing problem: why does he media insist on equating the opinions of ignorant, uninformed people with educated doctors and educators? Why does an article that starts off telling us what a consensus of the best experts in the country think about a subject end by quoting the opinions of a ignorant Christian from Ohio?

The other piece I wrote today is running over at the recently relaunched Rhode Island's Future. Written in response to Ron Paul's speech in New Hampshire last night, in which Paul gave a shout-out of sorts to Atheists, "Ron Paul no Friend to the Non-Religious" shows just how backwards the impression many people have of the man is. Buzzwords like FREEDOM and shout-outs to the fasting growing segment of the youth vote only serve to mask Paul's reactionary political views. Do we really need a president committed to destroying all the social and civil rights gains we have made over the last two hundred years?

Today I officially weigh 245 pounds. Still too much, but I've lost 22 pounds since December 1st.

I had two events tonight. First up was author John Barry speaking at 5:30pm on Roger Williams & the Origins of Church/State Separation at the John Carter Brown Library 94 George Street, Providence, RI. Barry recently wrote the book Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty which I've been enjoying immensely, but will not finish in time for tonight's talk. No problem though, because I taped it. The crowd was well over two hundred people, and Barry's talk left no doubt about the importance and historical significance of Roger Williams and church/state separation.

I was going to go to The Providence Blogosphere Post-Holidays Party from 7–10pm at The Salon, 57 Eddy Street in Providence, right behind City Hall, but while I was leaving the John Barry event I got an amazing phone call. Jessica Ahlquist, my niece, had won her lawsuit against the city of Cranston concerning the Prayer banner in her school. This was an amazing piece of news, so of course i headed right over.

Jess, and her sister Julia and brother Zack were all very excited of course. Facebook was buzzing with excitement, and we were all of us on our computers and mobile devices trying to keep up with it all. Channel 10 and 12 were clamoring for interviews, but the ACLU wanted Jess to wait until the morning press conference. We did drive out to Cranston West so that the Providence Journal could get a photo for tomorrow's paper. When we got to the high school the reporters were itching to talk to her, but ere very cool with not being able to. They understood that they would have to wait until the press conference.

Of course, the night got a little sour when reports came in that the good Christians who opposed removing the prayer from the wall started posting ugly threats on the ProJo and Cranston Patch comment sites. At one point someone posted Jess' home address, followed by a comment that hinted she should be run out of town. Really ugly stuff. But fortunately pother, better people managed to flag such comments as the inappropriate bullying it was, and many of those comments were removed. I'm both proud and saddened that my sixteen year old niece has the toughness required to weather such threats with a shrug of her shoulders. She's used to this kind of behavior, unfortunately.

I hope to make the press conference tomorrow.

January 10, 2012

2012-01-10T23:59:00.000-05:00

Did not do or accomplish much, beyond reorganizing my blogs slightly. steveahlquist.com now redirects to this blog, and this blog now automatically posts to my Facebook wall and to my Twitter account. Also, I have simplified this blog's design, and put links to the other places I write, most notably Caution Church Ahead, Humanists of Rhode Island and Forces of Geek. I hope to add Rhode Island's Future to that list as soon as the site is up and I am re-registered. There's a party tomorrow night that I want to make, but I may be a little late for, because of the Roger Williams talk I'm taping.

Other, smaller tweaks to the blogs will be forthcoming as well.

So this is my personal blog, which will not be very interesting to most people. Here I write all the stuff that's either too small for inclusion in other blogs, too trivial for even Facebook or Twitter, or doesn't concern Humanism, Geekery and Politics, though all that stuff inevitably gets mixed in. Here is where I chart my meager daily accomplishments, and collect my thoughts about my past, present and future.

So today I worked out a "media advisory" for the Humanists of Rhode Island event coming up this Sunday. We're meeting at FFRF billboard in Warwick, RI, (across the street from the Extended Stay Hotel at 245 West Natick Road) for a group photo. We invited members from secular groups located all over New England to join us, so we're hoping for a decent crowd. And we invited the press to cover it, promising them an interesting story and a photo op.

It's going to be a busy weekend for my Humanist group. Beside the photo on Sunday, we are volunteering at Habitat for Humanity on Saturday, and we have a project planning meeting on Monday, scheduled just before the RI Atheist meeting. This accidental same night scheduling can't happen again, because it's way too hard on me.

Anyway, here's the ~~press release~~ media advisory:

Ended the night writing a piece on Elaine Pagels' talk at took place last Friday night over at Caution Church Ahead. I actually liked her talk quite a bit, but felt her comments on atheists that came right at the end were unfair. I also completed the posting for tomorrow, and it's a really good one.

My father-in-law was admitted to the hospital this evening, and my wife, Kathy and her sister Sara are there now seeing to him. He's to be admitted to the hospital tonight, but it doesn't look too serious yet.

January 9, 2012

2012-01-09T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today I used the gift certificate to J.C. Penny that my mother gave me for Christmas to buy some new sneakers and some socks. I also got a haircut at Super Cuts on Thayer St. While waiting for the Providence Place Mall to open I sat at the Panera Bread and finally wrote the piece for Forces of Geek, which is a real load off my mind. The piece is entitled "The War in Corporate Heaven" and concerns the invasion of McDonaldland by the forces of the Burger King Kingdom.

Since December 1st I've been dieting and exercising more, and I've lost just over twenty pounds. I'm not especially proud of the fact that I weighed 267 pounds at one point, and that for the first time in over ten years I now weigh less than 250 pounds. My goal is to reach 200 this year. Dieting isn't that easy, but it's not too hard either. The exercise is a bit more difficult, because it requires time, and I don' always have that. Two days ago I started doing 100 situps a day, and now my abdomen is so sore it's difficult to do ten situps in a row. I also did fifty push ups, but only ten full. I did the rest from the knees. Still, I can feel it in my shoulders.

It's funny, but I never really cared about exercising until I fully embraced my role as a Humanist. And even that's not really it. When I was in Washington DC for a class with the Humanist Institute, I was the biggest, fattest person there. The pictures of me I see from that weekend don't please me. I felt embarrassed. Then I got back and was almost right away interviewed on television as part of the "Holiday Tree" controversy at the State House. I had just started dieting but the image of myself on TV bothered me. I don't want to be the fat guy on TV talking about Humanism. I want to be a guy on TV talking about Humanism.

I've never thought about being a public person before. I was always content to have friends and family, and be a cloistered intellectual, reading the books that interested me, and writing whatever I wanted on whatever subjects struck me. But with the realization that I need to start living and demonstrating my values came the realization that selling my ideas to the public meant presenting to the public the most attractive version of me possible. Hence the weight loss and the exercise.

Watched the second episode of the British Sherlock series, "The Hounds of Baskerville". As good as the show is, it's the relationship between Holmes and Watson that really sells the series. Holmes is a complete ass, and at one point Watson suggests he might have Asperger's. At another point, Holmes is going on about being able to control his emotions, and Watson calls him Spock in jest. I'm used to Sherlock Holmes references in Star Trek, but Trek references in a Sherlock Holmes story is a new one.

Still reading Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty. Two days left.

January 8, 2012

2012-01-08T23:59:00.000-05:00

Spent the morning walking and listening to Podcasts. My favorite right now is one James Croft turned me onto, The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps, by Peter Adamson of King's College London. Honestly, there's more to these Podcasts than I ever got studying Philosophy in college. There's over 60 episodes right now, and I'm only just starting number eleven, concerning Empedocles, the man who came up with the theory of the four elements (or was it six?) that everyone knows, even if they know nothing about preSocratic philosophy. (Hint: Earth, Fire, Water and Air)

Wrote a piece on the Providence Journal's review of the new Roger Williams book this afternoon. I really think people are missing the point about this state's founder. Williams established his colony to be a place where church and state were firmly separated. Finding ways to mix them, whether via Christmas Trees or prayers in schools, is simply wrong.

For my birthday my sister-in-law Sara gave me a gift card to the new P.F. Chang's that recently opened downtown at the Providence Place Mall. This was a pretty funny gift, because originally Sara wanted to try the restaurant out for her birthday, but when my wife called for a reservation, she was told that they could not accommodate a reservation for eleven people, unless we all wanted to be seated separately. This refusal to help out a reservation that was going easily generate between two and three hundred dollars of business angered my wife, and she arranged the dinner/birthday party at another restaurant. My wife then said that she would never eat at P. F. Chang's, because she was treated so poorly on the phone.

With the gift card, my wife of course changed her mind. My wife and I invited Sara and my daughter Ayla to go to P. F. Chang's today at four o'clock, so we could use the gift card together. A little after noon I called the restaurant and attempted to get a reservation for four at four o'clock. I talked to Amanda, who told me that they weren't taking reservations anymore today, because they were full up. I said something like, "Oh, you don't have any tables?" and Amanda said, "No, you can still come in and get a table, there are plenty of empty tables now and I don't think they'll be much of a wait at 4:00 PM, we just can't take anymore reservations."

Now, I couldn't understand this at all. I asked how can they have empty and open tables, and yet be unable to take a reservation for four people at four o'clock. This wasn't a big deal, this is the way restaurants work. Amanda was like a broken record. She simply repeated the same thing over and over, unwilling to help me out. I hung up the phone frustrated, and told my wife what had happened. She suggested I look on-line and try to find out what the reservation policy at P. F. Chang's was.

When I got on line, I found a link on the restaurants website that would allow one to make a reservation. I clicked it, filled in my name, email and phone number, and voila! I had a reservation for four people at four o'clock, no problem at all. We arrived at the restaurant, they confirmed our reservation on their computer, and sat us right away, no problem at all. The meal was great: the food was clean and good, the service was excellent. A fine time was had by all.

But I can't help wondering, what the hell is wrong with P. F. Chang's that you can't just call and get serviced without a hassle?

After getting home I went to work on a Media Contact List for Humanists of Rhode Island, so we can broaden the impact of our Press Releases. we want to heavily advertise the photo we're taking under the FFRF billboard.

January 7, 2012

2012-01-07T23:59:00.000-05:00

Kathy was lent the use of a friend's car this weekend, so we didn't have to worry about getting a ZipCar to o our shopping. Bank, grocery shopping, birthday gift for my nephew Ben at Target, and a quick stop at Michael's (a craft store) for some supplies for Kathy's day care.

It's my nephew Ben's birthday party today, so we got him a set of HexBugs. These have been my go to toys for kids 5-12 lately. They're just little plastic and metal bug robots that react to light and sound, or scamper about in ridiculous ways. Every kid I know loves them or wants them. If I was a kid... Who am I kidding? I'm supposedly grown up and I want some.

I made do with buying myself something called Tankbot, from a company called Desk Pets. I bought it with a gift card sent by my father.

I got the blue one. What I thought was cool was the fact that you can control the Tankbot with an ap for your iPad. The remote control works pretty well, but my favorite bit was setting up a maze so that it could use its object avoidance mode and navigate the maze without destroying it. Pretty great toy.

On my walk I went down Thayer St, and was surprised to see a snowman, made of plastic and about six feet tall. It was fully decorated with sunglasses, scarf and hat, and seemed to be made of plastic. Thre girls, about twelve to fourteen years of age were walking past this piece of art when the snowman suddenly moved, causing the girls to scream. Apparently there was someone inside the snowman, causing it to move. From where I stood I couldn't tell if the snowman talked or not, but the sight of the three girls yelling at the plastic snowman, trying to provoke a reaction, was hilarious. the snowman didn't move again, but stood immobile, so to passersby the three girls seemed to be yelling at an inanimate thing. I should have taken a picture. A quick search on Google reveals that this snowman is not that an uncommon a sight, as this Brown Blog indicates. Here's a photo from there:

Freaky the Snowman?

Party for my nephew Ben at my brother Brian's house was great. Brian and his wife Renee always put out a terrific spread. The food was delicious, and I ate way too much. Brian gave me my birthday gift, two nonstick frying pans, made for industrial use. Wow. I thought they were just amazing.

I really love my brothers.

Ben seemed excited to get the HexBugs, he opened them right away.

All in all it was a very pleasant day.

January 6, 2012

2012-01-06T23:59:00.000-05:00

Day started nice, with a walk to Whole Foods to buy some breakfast, and to read some chapters of Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty which I trying to get through before the author arrives for a talk at Brown next Wednesday. the first few chapters are less about Williams and more about his patron, Edward Coke, the premiers jurist in English history. There's also some interesting bits about king James (of the King James Bible fame) who is described as fat, with spindly legs, leering eyes and fingers that couldn't stop fiddling with his privates. In other words, a complete troll.

Besides the reading I managed to write two posts for Caution Church Ahead. One was just a picture of the sign outside Mt. Hope Church at the corner of Hope and Fifth St, a source of constant amusement for me. The other was about the Catholic League's president William Donohue's recent attack on Thomas Nast, a 19th century cartoonist, for being an anti-Catholic bigot.

I think Nast was pretty great. Above is a picture he did of crocodile-bishops threatening children. Of course, in real life Bishops simply raped the kids, they didn't eat them.

I also helped plan and spread the word about a photo we're doing at the new Freedom From religion Foundation billboard in Warwick. Secular groups from Rhode Island, Massachusetts and other parts of New England will be converging at the billboard in Warwick to have a group photo taken. It should be both a logistical nightmare and a lot of fun. I hope the weather is good. Here's the info:

The billboard is located next to the Glen Hills Service Center parking lot, (across the street from the Extended Stay Hotel) at 244 West Natick Rd in Warwick, Rhode Island, and can be seen by southbound traffic on Rt 295, just north of Exit 2.
TIME: Please plan to arrive between 1:00-1:30 PM
We have a short window of time due to possible sun glare.
Photos begin promptly at 1:30 PM
Family, friends, kids, pets - all invited!

At six o'clock I was at the Central Congregational Church on Angell St to hear Elaine Pagels talk about The Book of Revelations. It was a free lecture, and interesting. She set about answering several questions, including: Who wrote the book? Why did he write it? and How is it interpreted today? For the most part I found her explanations quite helpful in understanding the book. I really liked the way she broke down the timeline of events in Jerusalem, giving the book a historical perspective. Things became woo-y during the Q & A though, as Pagels attempted to explain how Jesus might have actually made an accurate prophecy about the destruction of the Jewish Temple, even though many now consider the prophecy to have been inserted after the fact. She was quick to point out that it didn't matter to her thesis whether or not Jesus mactually made the prediction, but her attempt to hold the door open for miracles was bothersome.

More bothersome was her cheap attack on the new atheists that came right at the end. Saying that Dawkins and Hitchens don't (or didn't) understand the importance of emotion in religious belief is just plain wrong. Of course they understand the importance of emotion in such beliefs, it's central to their very criticism. Here's Hitchens on the subject:

Does this mean that the inexplicable or superstitious has become “obsolete”? I myself would wish to say no, if only because I believe that the human capacity for wonder neither will nor should be destroyed or superseded. But the original problem with religion is that it is our first, and our worst, attempt at explanation. It is how we came up with answers before we had any evidence. It belongs to the terrified childhood of our species, before we knew about germs or could account for earthquakes. It belongs to our childhood, too, in the less charming sense of demanding a tyrannical authority: a protective parent who demands compulsory love even as he exacts a tithe of fear. This unalterable and eternal despot is the origin of totalitarianism, and represents the first cringing human attempt to refer all difficult questions to the smoking and forbidding altar of a Big Brother. This of course is why one desires that science and humanism would make faith obsolete, even as one sadly realizes that as long as we remain insecure primates we shall remain very fearful of breaking the chain.

In the God Delusion, Dawkins points out:

It is amazing how many people seemingly cannot tell the difference between 'X is true' and 'It is desirable that people should believe that X is true'. Or maybe they don't really fall for this logical error, but simply rate truth as unimportant compared with human feelings. I don't want to decry human feelings. But let's be clear, in any particular conversation, what we are talking about: feelings, or truth. Both may be important, but they are not the same thing.

I don't think that Pagels was being dishonest when she misrepresented the views of these two men. I think she mistakes their stridence for intolerance, and acts out of ignorance. But how else can a believer react, especially if they are given to the possible acceptance of miracles, however minor?

As I write this I think I'll canabalize it for a Caution Church Ahead piece.

Here's a picture from an old morality play, The Fairy's Dilemma. The man is dressed as the Demon Alcohol:


The Demon Alcohol

I don't drink alcohol at all. I gave it up on my 18th birthday. Not a decision I regret. Alcoholism runs in my family, on both sides. My parents seem fine, but all four of my grandparents drank way too much. I really want to take life as it is, not drunk. I think about this because I got my birthday present from my father today in the mail. it was a very generous, even thoughtful gift. My father and I are not on the best of terms. He lives in Florida now, and I appreciate the distance. It is difficult to write about my father, and I don't know if I will. Maybe someday.

Talked to my friend Paul Auger on the phone. Apparently Helen Glover, a Tea Party talk show host here in Rhode Island (and reality TV star) went off on the FFRF billboard on her show this morning. No other press as of yet, but the Providence Journal article is heating up in the comments.

Right now it's off o bed, and some more reading. I've got a busy day tomorrow.

January 5, 2012

2012-01-05T23:59:00.000-05:00

Woke up to a pleasant surprise. My pre-order for Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul: Church, State, and the Birth of Liberty downloaded to the Kindle on my iPad, so I was able to put aside the to books I had been reading, so that I could read this book before the author, John M. Barry, speaks at Brown University next Wednesday. I got permission to video the talk from the author, so that should be interesting. Roger Williams is such a fascinating historical figure, and so little regarded, even in Rhode Island, today. This is the guy who established the first government with true separation of church and state, so of course the state is embroiled in at least two church/state separation legal battles, not to mention the entire "holiday tree" nontroversey. In fact, when Governor Lincoln Chafee pointed to the charter that Williams fought to bring here, his critiques seemed almost confused, as if fundamental historical principles had no bearing on their opinions.

After reading two chapters I went for a long walk, and met Stefan Blitz of the compulsively browsable Forces of Geek website at Starbucks in Wayland Square. As much as I appreciate the free wifi at Starbucks, as much as possible I try not to buy anything there, because I'm still angry with the company for suing comic book artist Kieron Dwyer over this satirical take on their holy corporate logo:

Fuck you, Starbucks.

Anyway, it was nice catching up with Stefan.

Comics from yesterday:

Greg Rucka's doing a bang-up job on Punisher, with number 7 just out. Irredeemable 33 by Mark Waid seems to be building to some sort of conclusion, but maybe Mark Waid will surprise me and keep this going for a while longer. It is certainly a dire and frustrating piece of work. I also enjoyed Ed Brubaker's Fatale #1, an occult noir tale with great art by Sean Phillips. I hope it maintains the high standards of the first issue.

Wrote a piece on the Ghost Hunters over at Caution Church Ahead. Apparently they're investigating ghosts at the Providence City Hall downtown, and for this they get front page coverage in the Providence journal. And we wonder why people seem so stupid. Maybe it's because we all like to pretend that ghosts might be real.

Made dinner, then I met with Jessica, took her to Chili's for dinner, since she hadn't eaten anything. Paid with Christmas gift cards. We mostly talked about family stuff, but we're also planning a big event for Darwin Day, February 12th. After dropping off the ZipCar near Thayer St, I walked home. I went past the Avon theater and watched the preview for the new movie there, The Artist. Hopefully I'll be able to see that this weekend.

By the way, here's a puppetry act from the January 1st Empire Revue that totally blew me away:

January 4, 2012

2012-01-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Got a ZipCar again, for another try at videotaping the FFRF billboard going up. Arrived at 7 AM and ended up waiting a long while. This is the billboard going up.

While waiting, I listened to NPR and specifically to the results of the Iowa Caucuses. What the fuck is wrong with Iowa? Rick Santorum comes in a close second? The guy who wants the states to have the right to outlaw birth control and sodomy? These people are out of their minds. It's startling to think that 24% of Republican Iowans want Christian Theocracy to replace our present government. And the Ron Paul supporters might actually be worse, what with their sad allegiance to Paul's faux Libertarianism. At least Bachmann and Perry are toast. Those two loonie need to go back into obscurity.

I also watched Jean-Luc Goddard's 1960 classic Breathless, as part of my effort to learn about the French New Wave. What I found most interesting was how similar this movie was to American Film Noir, and indeed, Goddard makes these comparisons himself, by having his main character, Michel, idolize Humphrey Bogart. I spent the movie hating Michel, a petty hood and thief turned murderer, but by the end, when (spoiler alert) his girlfriend, Patricia, betrays him, I couldn't help but feel that she was a jerk. Odd, because I kind of hoped she would turn him in early on, but instead she waited until her betrayal could do the most possible psychic damage. I love crime films like this, but my favorite of the kind is Gun Crazy (1950), because in that the main character, Bart Tarr, is conflicted about his behavior. In Breathless Michel revels in the kind of sociopathic narcissism I really dislike, whereas Gun Crazy's Bart is a man in conflict about his crimes. Michel spends the movie as a feral animal, and is only partially redeemed by his love for Patricia by the movie's end.

The billboard went up between 1 and 3 in the afternoon. It was a slow process. I got home, prepared dinner, and edited the footage to about 3 minutes. I'll post it here soon.

I ended the night with a call from Jessica. Apparently most of the kids at her school believe in ghosts, and as justification for their belief brought up the story about the doctor who weighed people as they died. Snopes, of course, did an excellent job deconstructing that particular belief.

Here's the video I shot today:

January 3, 2011

2012-01-03T23:59:00.000-05:00

I bought train tickets for Alex and Mike yesterday, so that they could head to New Rochelle and hang out at Mike's house for most of the rest of vacation. I also completely failed to write anything for Forces of Geek yet, but I think I'll finish in a couple of hours. I hope so.

I spent the morning in Warwick waiting for a billboard to go up, so I could film it and post it on YouTube. After waiting from sunrise to 10 AM, I found out that the board is going up tomorrow. The board is for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and should be a big deal for us local humanist/atheists. I'll write more about it over at Humanists of Rhode Island when the board is up and I get the chance to do so.

The ZipCar I rented to get myself to Warwick smelled like pot, cigar smoke and perfume. It was sickening. If I wasn't in a rush I'd have switched out cars, but I needed to get to Warwick for the billboard. When I got to the site of the billboard, I found myself at the intersection of Natick Rd and a bike path. There's an old train bridge that crosses a river not too far off. It was pretty cool. My brother Mark joined me and we watched a team put up another billboard. There was some excitement when we thought it might be ours, but it turned out to be "We Buy Gold." Very disappointing and sadly indicative of our current economic mess.

My current resolution is to spend no money, except on essentials, like food and books. Today I went to Panera Bread for breakfast, so I broke that resolution already, but since then I haven't messed up. I think resolution shouldn't be abandoned when they're broken. We should reaffirm them, and learn from our mistakes. In my case, the mistake was going out into the freezing cold without an adequate breakfast. I got real hungry real fast.

Yesterday I watched the BBC-TV Sherlock, series two, "A Scandal in Belgravia." I swear, Stephen Moffat is one of the best writers working. Period. He just knocks me out. I kind of like the Sherlock Holmes movies starring Robert Downey, but these BBC episodes put those to shame. A thought occurred while watching these versions of Sherlock Holmes: I think Watson is the person Sherlock Holmes wishes he could be. Holmes is a super genius, and a bit of a freak and an outcast. He can never be normal, but if he could be, he'd want to be Watson.

I also finished reading Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah. The idea of the book is to establish a theory that might allow those who grok it to better articulate what it means to be a citizen of the world, rather than to be tied to any one nationality or cause. I found it interesting, but I also thought some of his ideas were unnecessarily pessimistic, especially as regards a one-world state. Appiah seems to think that such a world government would aggregate too much power to itself, but I think some sort of checks and balances system would mitigate such problems. Besides, when all the nation states work together harmoniously to secure the human rights of their people, what will all the nation states be but a large, one-world government?

I also thought today would be a good day to study the French New Wave films, for some reason, so I'm starting to pull a bunch together, specifically the ones mentioned on the New Wave Film Guide as being good introductions to the genre.

I made stir fry for dinner, and walked 3.5 miles and ran 1.5 miles.

January 2, 2012

2012-01-02T23:59:00.000-05:00

Today started very well, with a three mile walk/run. I returned home, showered, and began the work of editing the Empire Revue show into act size chunks for YouTube. The process is simple, but a bit time consuming. What I have to do is find the beginning and end of the act, add some fade-ins and fade-outs to the beginning and end of the clip, title it and export it. Then each clip needs to be converted to be put up on YouTube, a process that can take hours. Then I have to step away from my computer entirely as I put the vids up on YouTube, a process that can last all night.

One of the nice things about editing the Empire Revue clips is that I can watch TV while I do so, to pass the time as the clips are processed and output. I caught up on that series Once Upon a Time, which is both enjoyable and disappointing at the same time. Enjoyable because it's a decently executed fantasy series, disappointing because it doesn't have nearly the amount of wit or originality it thinks it does.

On another note, it's nice to have Alex, my son, home from school. His friend, Michael, is staying with us, and he's a great guy. I do miss having the kids in the house.

Kaileigh, my oldest daughter, is on her way to India, which is awesome. I can't wait to see her pictures.

Even though Ayla is right here in town, I sometimes miss her the most, because she's so close, when I don't see her, I feel like I'm slacking.

My next piece of work, after making dinner, will be to prepare a piece for Forces of Geek for tomorrow. I have a few ideas about what it will be, and need to get started.

January 1, 2012

2012-01-01T23:59:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was my 49th birthday. I spent the morning helping my wife, Kathy, set up a Mitten Tree at the First Unitarian Church of Providence. A Mitten Tree is a place where people can hang mittens, scarves, gloves and hats for people to take when they need them. Most of the items hung on the tree are knitted by Kathy's knitting group.

After that we had a birthday party for me at my house, with family and close friends stopping by. It was very nice.

In the evening I went the Empire Revue, where I film the show to be put up on YouTube. It was an excellent show, with some very memorable acts. One in particular totally freaked me out, there was a puppeteer with a human chicken thing... I'll post it soon enough, and you can see for yourself.

I ended the day with a three mile walk.