My Saint

My Saint, Saint Ursula, is really awesome. She isn't even a saint, there was just a cult that developed around her and she didn't exist [so they say].

Saint Ursula ("little female bear" in Latin) is a British Christian saint. Her feast day in the Catholic Church is October 21. Because of the lack of sure information about the anonymous group of holy virgins who on some uncertain date were killed at Cologne, their commemoration was omitted from the Catholic calendar of saints for universal liturgical celebration, when this was revised in 1969, but they have been kept in the Roman Martyrology, the official, though incomplete, list of saints of the Catholic Church.*

Her legend, probably unhistorical, is that she was a Romano-British princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of Dumnonia in south-west England, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan Governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica (Brittany), along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. However, a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, where Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded the Pope, Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records), and Sulpicius, Bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383 (the date varies).**

-Wikipedia, accessed April 3, 2010

*This is a horrible paragraph, here is a revision that makes sense.

Saint Ursula is a British Christian saint. Her feast day in the Catholic Church is October 21.

The information about St. Ursula, whose name means little female bear in Latin, is not well supported. The virgins that accompanied her were never identified and the exact dates of events are completely unknown. When the Catholic Church revised their calendar of saints for universal liturgical celebration in 1969, Ursula was left off. She has remained in the Roman Martyrology, which is the official, though incomplete, list of saints of the Catholic Church.

**This less horrible paragraph could use some work too. There are too many passive sentences up in here.

Her story has become more like an unhistorical legend. She is said to be a Romano-British princess who, at the request of her father King Donaut of Dumnonia in south-west England, set sail to join her future husband in Armorica (Brittany). The legend indicates that she was accompanied by 11,000 virginal handmaidens.

Before she could arrive to marry the pagan Governor Conan Meriadoc, a storm caused the ship to land at a Gaulish port. This storm is dubbed miraculous because it transported Ursula and her handmaidens incredibly far in one day and saved her and the virgins. At the Gaulish port, Ursula declared that she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage before marriage. She headed for Rome, with her followers, and persuaded Pope Cyriacus (unknown in the pontifical records), and Sulpicius, Bishop of Ravenna, to join them. After setting out for Cologne, which was being besieged by Huns, all the virgins were beheaded in a dreadful massacre. The Huns' leader shot Ursula dead, supposedly in 383 (the date varies).

Brave New World

Huxley vs. Orwell

What the $&@% are You Talking About?

I forgot my new Alternet password, so you will start to be treated to the comments I may or may not make over there. I finally posted a comment that I would like to send to Sister Lauren, but I can't figure out how to contact her. And today, I was reading about characterizing the American right wing like the characters in Animal House [a move that I don't really care to see]. The article was ok until I got to this part:

Such people are on the fringes. But those fringes are growing. In any case, it only takes one angry person with a gun to make the difference.

No, it does not take one person with a gun to stir the American public. It does not take one person with a &^$%ing plane to stir the American public.

I will be [very pleasantly] surprised if it gets any better before it begins getting worse, maybe much worse.

To Sister Lauren

On an otherwise stupid post about "New Atheists", filled with comments pointing out the flaws in the article, was a comment from Sister Lauren about the abuse she suffered from many of us "New Atheists". Her emotional trauma sounds real, and although she is a religionist, I recognize her as a generally compassionate and good person.

I wondered why, when I set out to start a new religion based on freedom, "new atheists" regularly made the argument that I was insane and should be locked up in a mental institution. That is not a lame threat, that is a very serious threat. I found it well enforced and positively life threatening.
-Sister Lauren

Some of what she says sounds, without me having additional evidence, paranoid. However, what most people fail to grasp is that many paranoid people would have their fears eased greatly if someone sat them down, listened to them, then explained why their fears are unjustified with facts.

I may think Sister Lauren is misguided in her attempts to find reason and meaning in the universe or in her religious beliefs, but she's a human being. I'm really sick of the internet atheists who think any good is done by calling otherwise good people who have God delusions "stupid" or "crazy". It represents a massive lack of maturity on their part and it is not what atheists should want to project. It just shows that atheists, just like religionists, can be d-bags too.

Dear America,

No matter what the current state of the government is, it is still, in letter and by law, your government. In order to keep tabs on what is yours, you may want to know exactly what it is doing. I implore you to go directly to the primary source material yourself. Therefore, I have placed a direct link to the Thomas.gov entry for your Health Care Reform Bill and Thomas.gov on the top of the right navigation bar.

And pull up your pants.

Thanks,

Counter Commute

Last week, Amanda had a post on commuting, happiness, and how it relates to our current American political climate. The comment thread got too long for me to be able to read, because I have my own story that basically proves the point of the article.

• I commute 45 minutes to work one way, driving.
  
• I used to have a 3 mile, 10 minute commute before I moved here.
• I am much happier now than I was before I moved.

But wait, you say, that's the counter point? Oh, silly me, here is what makes me different.

• I often find driving at freeway speeds to be therapeutic, giving me time to sort out thoughts and practice explaining myself and my ideas.
• I live in a urban/semi-urban residential area, 3.5 blocks from a BART station. I routinely leave my car unused for entire weekends and spend the weekends with friends, shopping along Telegraph, seeing movies, planning events, and having engaging, intelligent, and fun conversations. My apartment here is not in some estate, it is one of 7 units in a building with character. I enjoy spending time by myself at home, and like making the place look good.
  
• The traffic congestion in the Bay Area is always in the opposite direction of the direction I am going [with the exception of random accidents -- 3 in 8 months].
• I work in a suburban area with strip malls, manicured lawns, and multi-million dollar homes. When I lived there, I could not walk anywhere that I wanted to be. I sometimes spent my weekends in Berkeley or San Francisco, but it required a lot of preparation and I was far from home. Other weekends were spent inside my apartment, completely alone and bored just because I didn't want to drive anywhere, even at freeway speeds. And my apartment was a stifling place, with beige carpets, oversized rooms, and no character. In short, I hated the place, and I had no desire to keep it looking nice, ever.

Not only do I not sit in traffic while I commute, I live in a real community area, validating Amanda's point about the factors that do influence happiness.

Counter Protests

One of the most heartening things for this empiricist is the prevalence of fellow empiricists speaking out against the massively mean and stupid elements of our society. One aspect is the growing effectiveness of the members of SANE at Berkeley. Another is the way more and more people are learning how to effectively counter the misinformation thrown out by certain "entertainers." But specific to this post, I have two links to videos of counter protests to the presence of the Westboro Baptist Church.

Turning the presence of the WBC into a big diversity festival

Using the opportunity to help people make donations to organizations that help LGBT populations and anti-AIDS groups in honor of Fred Phelps and the WBC.

Thank You Silent and Baby Boomer Generations*

Thank you for the work you did to popular music. You wanted something syncopated, uptempo, with back-beats, and definitely physically charged.

Your work has, so far, culminated in awesomeness. And knowing the artist in this case, we may have only seen the beginning.

Wa-wa-what did you say? Huh?; You're don't think this is awesome? [you're wrong] Sorry; I cannot hear you, I'm kinda busy

Nostalgia for the Ventura Years?

He may have really low popularity, due to the furthering the anti-tax stance of this state, but still promising utopia. The same state where a couple of the primary industries pay incredibly low wages for all of the jobs they create and most others are either office-type or low skill service jobs.

Still, I will miss the Governator.