I listen to the news when I walk after work. I just like knowing what’s going on in the world, and the news gives me something to focus on other than how tired I am of walking in circles.

There was a horrifying segment on mass graves in Iraq. Over 7000 missing persons reports were filed in Baghdad between 2005 and 2007.

Seven thousand civilians have disappeared.

What struck me the hardest was a comment by a man who’s brother is still missing.

“He is not a dead person, yet he is not a living person, either.”

It struck me that this is Schrödinger’s cat at it’s most horrible, and I wonder whether these situations were what Schrödinger had in mind at some point.

Schrödinger lived through both World War I and World War II–and in fact left German because of Hitler. When he created his example of Schrödinger’s Cat, I wonder whether it was the situations of the families after WWI and during WWII that brought this to mind.

How horrible for these families to have no closure. To be living Schrödinger’s dilemma, not knowing whether their loved ones are alive or dead.

And this situation has been repeated since WWII, and throughout history.

FYI, Wabi-Sabi is live blogging the convention from the WV delegates section.

ADDENDUM the First:

Defective Yeti is also live blogging the convention. From his living room where he is ensconced with a legal beverage.

Here is something I will never understand…

Well, let’s take this back a bit first.

I’m a Democrat with a big D. Have been most of my life, although I admit to Libertarian tendencies. But the why is what I want to address here for a moment. I’m a Democrat because the Democratic party is the major party that aligns most with what I believe and hold to be most important.

First and foremost I believe it is my responsibility to care for others. That means it is our responsibility as a country to care for those in need, regardless of who they are. To me, that means providing health health care to those who can’t afford it. It means providing a safety net to keep children and other at risk individuals from slipping through the cracks. It means providing a living wage for all workers. It means providing a quality education for all children, not just the children of the rich who can afford private school. It means preserving our forests and our wildlife for future generations, not just because so future generations can see trees and animals, but because I believe that biodiversity will be critical to the survival of our species. It means protecting the environment, not just for ourselves and our future generations, but for the entire world.

It means that it is our responsibility for look out for those who are most vulnerable, and if that means that some people game the system and take advantage, so be it. We cannot allow the actions of a handful individuals to become an excuse not to care for those in need.

And I believe that the policies of the Democrats are most in-line with these strongly held personal beliefs.

(Don’t even talk to me about the Green Party or any other “third” party. The US is a two party system. That’s the way it is. In order to affect change, at least for now, we have to work within the system. I won’t waste my vote on a third party candidate unless I am opposed to both candidates.)

So where am I going with this?

Where I am going is my disbelief at the rabid Hillary “supporters” who say they refuse to vote for Barak Obama.

Did they not listen to a word she said during her campaign?

Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama hold many similar beliefs, and the differences between them are minimal compared to the difference between them and John McCain. If they truly believed as she did, if they truly felt that her beliefs were their beliefs, then there is no way they could vote for John McCain.

John McCain does not stand for the things that Hillary Clinton finds important. And so to claim that one would prefer to vote for McCain over Obama means to me that these individuals never truly listed to a single word she said. It means they saw her as the flavor of the month and wanted to jump on her bandwagon, but never understood in the slightest what was important to her and what is important to the Democratic Party.

No, I was not a Clinton supporter. I have been saying for years that she has too many liabilities to be elected. But if she had won the primary, you can be damned sure I would have rallied behind her.

Because what is truly important is the system of beliefs for which she stands, and that they match the system of beliefs for which I stand.

An e-mail conversation got me thinking again about a subject I’ve been considering off and on for several years now, and that’s the change in attitudes in the United States towards multiculturalism.

My grandmother talks about how she regrets her parents never taught her Polish and Lithuanian. I have friends my age who speak only English, despite having a parent for whom English is not their first language.

Yet when I look at friends my own age with children, there is a push for the child to be bilingual, to speak the native languages of both parents (or of a grandparent in one case.)

It seems to me that between there is something profoundly different about my generation and those who are having kids now, and that is those my age want their children to be aware of their ancestry, their history, and the language and stories from which they descend.

So what changed between my parent’s generation and my generation? Well, the big thing that comes to mind is Civil Rights. The country had a radical shift from separate but equal to equality for all in the eyes of the law. And I think that profoundly changed the way my generation and those after me think.

In my grandmother’s time, having an accent meant that you dealt primarily with other immigrants. And I have to admit that until the great-depression, this worked very well for my great-grandfather. But I imagine that he came across prejudice for the way he spoke, and wanted to make sure his children would not suffer the same prejudice.

That doesn’t mean accents are acceptable across the US now. Unfortunately, there is still plenty of prejudice for those who speak with an accent of any sort. But being bilingual and fluent in more than one language is seen as something else entirely.

But even more than that I think there is a difference in how multi racial children are treated. Remember, it has been only 40 years since the Loving Decision. Only two years before I was born it was illegal in many states for interracial couples to get married. In such an atmosphere, is it a surprise that parents of a multiracial child would want to protect their child from the racism they may well have experienced in their daily lives?

But now such prejudices, although they still exist, are hidden away for the most part. There is no more rock throwing or name calling.

And I think this is a very important thing.

Is everything perfect? Hell no. There are parts of the country where you can be arrested for driving while black, where someone with dark skin and an accent is assumed to be either an illegal immigrant or a terrorist.

But when I sit and think that just 40 years ago interracial marriages were illegal, it seems to me that even if we still have a ways to go, we have still come very far, and it is important to remember and celebrate that fact.

May it not take 40 more years for us to come the rest of the way.

This US gas “temperature” map shows you gas prices around the country by color.

Sorry Alaska and Hawaii, apparently you’re not US states.

I HATE zombies.

(Shamelessly stolen from Eric)

As it’s political season, we’re seeing all kinds of BS about who believes what and why those beliefs are important to the country.

Just as an exercise in clarifying my own beliefs, I went to a website that listed the candidates positions and platforms, copied their list of important issues, and then filled in what I believe.

It was an interesting exercise, and I highly recommend it. Reading it you’ll learn something about me. Doing it on your own, you might learn something about yourself. (I, for instances, learned I have absolutely no opinion about “Infrastructure.”)

And if you want more of a why than I provided, feel free to ask.
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Everyone else has been saying it, so I wasn’t going to say anything, but then I realized that it’s important to say something, because silences can be taken as tacit approval or disapproval.

So here it is:

I am thrilled and delighted that California is allowing same sex couples to get married. I think this is one of the best things that has happened in years.

I’ve been married now for 9 1/2 years, and I think there is something awesome about standing up and saying, “I love this person! I want to spend the rest of my life with this person!”

Marriage is an amazing thing. It’s a way of saying before the world that this is the person I love. No matter what, I am going to stick with this person and they are going to stick with me, because we complete each other.

I think that the more people that can say this and mean it and stick with it, the better the world will be.

Because really, how can the world have too much love?

Took him long enough. I was beginning to think he was as tone deaf as Bush.

WVU’s president to resign Sept. 1

West Virginia University President Mike Garrison says he’ll resign Sept. 1 to end the controversy surround the awarding of a master’s degree to the governor’s daughter.
By The Associated Press

West Virginia University President Mike Garrison says he’ll resign Sept. 1 to end the controversy surround the awarding of a master’s degree to the governor’s daughter.

Garrison told the Board of Governors on today that only he can stop debate and it’s the most difficult decision he’s ever made.

Garrison’s nine-month administration has been dogged from the start by the degree scandal and the sudden departure and lawsuit involving a former football coach. His presidency started last Sept. 1.

Garrison says no one member of the board asked him to leave and each has been a counselor and a friend.

The board called his decision an unselfish action that should begin a period of healing and recovery.

See also here.

Also? This:

Here are a couple suggestions for the next Presidential search:

First, don’t use anyone from the last search committee. Second, consider offering a salary that’s at least as much as the offensive coordinator of the football team. And third, understand that running WVU or any major university of its size requires a unique skill set.

My take on this, under the cut.
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Obama is the (presumed) Democratic Presidential Nominee!

As much as Manchin isn’t my favorite state politician, I appreciate his statement regarding the scandal and the resolution.

I am not in a position to make a recommendation to them in this instance even if I wanted to because, regardless of what it might be, it would not be viewed as being made objectively – and I absolutely understand and accept that.

I don’t think he was involved in the scandal, although I do believe that the fact he is governor strongly influenced Garrison’s decision making.

The WV Board of Governors met today in a closed session to discuss Garrison.

No decision was made in the three hour meeting.

The reporters asked several of the BOB members questions after the meeting, and I was amused by one response.

When asked if the discussion involved Garrison, (Steve Goodwin) said, “I don’t think it takes too much imagination.”

I also heard that when Garrison made several unannounced appearances at graduation ceremonies across campus, there were graduates who refused to shake hands with him, as well as a rumor that some faculty members who spoke out against Garrison have had their offices moved, however, that is just a rumor.

It astounds me that in the face of all of this, including two votes of no confidence, Garrison can continue to act as if nothing is wrong, and as if his continued presence was not only a hindrance to the functioning of the university, but an embarrassment to the state.

California’s top court has ruled that a state law banning marriage between same-sex couples is unconstitutional.

The follow-up to the Faculty Senate vote happened today. The Faculty Assembly gathered for a vote of no confidence and demand for Garrison to resign.

First off, this was not the best time to have a Faculty Assembly. The semester ended this week, and summer session doesn’t start until this week, so nine month faculty members may be gone, and if you work full time, this is a good time for a vacation. So getting all the faculty members to attend was not going to happen. So there were not enough members for a quorum, however, they agreed to take an unofficial vote (not that if there was an official vote it would make the slightest bit of difference).

91% of the faculty voted that Garrison should resign in the wake of this scandal.

This comes on top of the news yesterday, from Rich Rod’s deposition. I’ll quote from the Metro News article:

Rodriguez says he was told months before Garrison was hired that he was going to be the new President. Rodriguez said he talked to Board of Governors members Steve Farmer and Drew Payne about Garrison. Rodriguez said of Farmer, “I felt he had great influence, in particular, because he told me months before President Garrison was elected that he was going to be the next President of West Virginia.”

Also:

Rodriguez admitted that when he signed a contract amendment just prior to the 2007 season that he did not ask that the $4 million buyout be reduced or eliminated. He reiterated his contention that he had been told by new WVU president Mike Garrison that the buyout would be reduced or eliminated should he choose to leave.

Why is this important? Because Garrison wasn’t yet President before the 2007 football season.