Hasn't Pete Stark been an out atheist in congress for over a decade?
Pete Stark is an atheist, but lists his religious affiliation as "Unitarian Universalist". (As does the newly elected Ari Bera in California, the first Indian-American representative since Bobby Jindal.)
Democratic voters in Hawaii's second district put a Hindu in the House (Tulsi Gabbard) and a Buddhist in the Senate (Mazie Hirono).
The distinction made in the article between those self-describing as "none" (no religious affiliation) and those declining to specify is strange to me:
Sinema is the first member of Congress to publicly describe her religion as "none," though 10 other members of the 113th Congress (about 2%) do not specify a religious affiliation, up from six members (about 1%) of the previous Congress.2 This is about the same as the percentage of U.S. adults in Pew Research Center surveys who say that they don't know, or refuse to specify, their faith (about 2%).
Somehow it never occurred to me that "don't know/refuse/none specified" would be different from specifying "none". It almost makes it sound as though specifying "none" amounts to declaring atheism as a form of faith. As the quoted bit puts it, "publicly describe [her] religion as none". Weird.
In any case, I've had a bee in my bonnet for quite some time about the barrier to public office that is atheism.
My bad misuse of square brackets there: 4.3 should be "publicly describe [one's] religion as none"
Huh, I guess I had heard the name Rush Holt before, but I didn't know he was a Friend and a research physicist with a patent and several published articles. That's pretty cool.
Not saying is a null value--it could be Catholic. Explicitly saying none cannot be another value.
Rush Holt's supporters have bumperstickers that say: "My Congressman *Is* a Rocket Scientist"
Since directories of congressional religious affiliation are usually (always?) compiled by outside parties, it can also be interpreted as "the compiler was unable to find out."
7: Right; I suppose I'm wondering how the form reads. I'm imagining a series of choices: Catholic, Jewish, Protestant (various subgroups), Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, etc., and then there's a choice called "none"? Or perhaps a line for Other. Or you can just not fill out any of those choices, in which case you're a not-specified.
But as Minivet notes, maybe there's no single form whatsoever. I guess this just irritates me for the sense I'm forming that an explicit "none" counts as a religious or faith-based affiliation, perhaps the difference between agnosticism and atheism. God knows this has been worried enough in the last while, however, with the celebrity atheists who have cropped up.
The Congressperson who put "none" is Congress' first openly bisexual member. Since bisexuality violates all of the world's religions, she had no choice but to put "none".
12: Oh, I'd missed that. I thought the first openly bisexual member was Tammy Baldwin, but she's just openly gay. Pshaw. That's practically like being affiliated.
But to the extent "none" functions as a social marker - and it does - then it's no different from a religion in its effects. It's not like putting "Catholic" on the form means that you actually obey the church's teachings. It just identifies you a bit more profoundly than your shopping choices.
it's no different from a religion in its effects
In its political or electoral effects. Gawd this makes me grumpy.
In a slightly different direction, I'm surprised that Sinema won election in Arizona, of all places, rather than one of those godless hippie places like Vermont.
Sinema, who's no hippie, represents Tempe and some of the southern (less godawful) portion of Phoenix. Vermont doesn't have a monopoly on godlessness.
Tempe, by the way, is where U of A is located -- thus the godlessness and the arugula (which is flown in from elsewhere, I'm sure, and thus might as well be marinated in crude oil).
I didn't know Phoenix had non-awful portions. Except for the canyon, I've given the state a miss.
Well, you have to like the desert, which I don't really, but Tempe is an okay college town located right next to a gigantic city that has some pretty interesting neighborhoods of its own. I mean, it's not as nice or as godless as Tucscon -- where I'm pretty Sinema grew up -- or Sedona or maybe even Flagstaff in some ways, but it's a pretty nice place to live, filled with more than its share of latte-sipping arugula worshipers.
Ah. Thanks, Wafer. We should have a temporary reprieve on our ignoring policy, you and I, by the way, because sometimes I think it gets in the way of conversation. Is that okay?
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Meanwhile, I'm exercised by this bit captured by digby on the rise in health insurance premiums in the last while. I find myself making faces about the coverage of this, stemming from a NYT piece, which then the WaPo's Wonkblog sort of waves off as alarmist. I might try to work up something about this in the next while, when I'm not quite so disgusted.
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I don't recall having signed on to the ignoring policy in the first place, parsi, but I'm happy to set it aside regardless. I always wish you well -- even when I'm annoyed with you -- and especially so lately, as it seems like you've been dealing with a bunch of crap. I hope the coming year is kind to you and yours.
I meant ASU in 17. Not that it matters, but U of A is in Tucson, which is a great town.
I'm ignoring both of you and I'm writing a dissertation. I'm just not very good at those particular tasts.
Why are you writing a dissertation? I thought you were Lon out of grad school.
Long, not Lon. No implication of lycanthropy was intended.
I'm glad VW corrected himself in 23 before I had to.
There are as many Jews as Episcopals in America? That surprises me. I thought there were more Episcopals. When did you people decline to our numbers? (Are any of you Episcopals? I think of them as the gay-marrying church, because All Saints in Pasadena was one of if not the first gay marrying church and I went to see some gay marrying there and took communion, quel frisson.)
Are any of you Episcopals?
I can think of at least two regular commenters who are. I suspect a lot of people with Episcopalian backgrounds no longer identify as such but have shifted to other identities such as "unaffiliated" (which according to the link includes 20% of US adults).
28: I corrected 17 because I knew you were watching.
Bostoniangirl is Episcopalian, I believe.
Also Halford. I'm sure there are others.
Now I guess we need an Unfogged religion survey.
That whole "Jews live like Episcopalians and vote like Catholics" joke is really confusing today.
I'm not sure if you sanitized it intentionally, but the line as I know it is "live like Episcopalians and vote like Puerto Ricans."
I'm glad VW corrected himself in 23 before I had to.
I was set to correct after I read it, too. A close college friend of mine teaches there.
Speaking of correcting me, I'm almost finished reading my new book, and I've only found four obvious errors, three of which were introduced by the copy editor or the production team after I looked over the galleys. So, when you all -- and I do mean all -- by and then read the book, please note that the obligatory passage in the introduction in which I say that all of the mistakes that remain are my responsibility is bullshit. Only 25% of the mistakes that remain are my responsibility.
Whose responsibility was "by" for "buy"?
Since you have the power to change it but have chosen not to, I think the answer is clear.
Interestingly, looking more closely at Pew's Religious Landscape Survey (which I presume underlies the "% American adults" column), Episcopalians and Jews are each 1.7% of the population, but only if you count Episcopalians in the evangelical tradition. (I wonder who that is.) Mainstream Episcopalians are just 1.4%.
"Evangelical" (I've learned) has a highly evolving meaning, though, and (for example) the Evangelical arm of the Lutheran Church (the ELCA) is relatively liberal and wrestles with whether or not pastors can be gay (yes) and stuff like that. It has some meaning rooted in Martin Luther and I forget the rest.
If I actually believed in God I'd probably stick with the church of my childhood (Episcopalian). My son went to church with his girlfriend this morning -- he could probably count the services he's attended on his hands, maybe one. She's a regular, and he ended up liking it more than he thought he would. Congregational, in the U district.
If I actually believed in God I'd probably stick with the church of my childhood
Of all the things that please me about being Jewish, the non-application of this kind of reasoning is high on the list.
3: And I understand Hawaii would have had two Buddhist senators if the governor had appointed the person Sen. Inouye recommended, Colleen Hanabusa.
(In practice - pun not intended - Hawaii now has a Buddhist senator and a Jewish senator.)
In greater Los Angeles, there are on the order of 20x more practicing Buddhists than there are members of Episcopal churches, and infinitely more Jews than Episcopalians. There are probably far more practioners of various southeast Asian hill tribe animistic religions than Episcopalians in the region, though that's harder to count. We do have money and run some nice educational institutions that offer preferential admissions to church members*, though, so if you're a particularly craven and ambitious parent we're clearly the go-to religion.
*one excellent Westside elementary school limits admission exclusively to members of the parish, which has created a congregation whose piety is ... questionable.
Though I should say if anyone here is looking for a church my particular church is (sincerely) fantastic, very liberal, casual, full of smart, cool and interesting people. I am not a representative member!
Is Halford's life the photo-negative of my life?
Have you ever dug up the corpse of an overly curious hobo?
Nope!
The evidence is mounting!
I was trying to imply that Halford buried a hobo, twice.
|| In news on my employment front, instead of being layed off, I've been cut to around twenty hours a week, doing random unpleasant tasks, without a schedule. If I wasn't familiar with the past five years of bad management, I'd think they were trying to get me to quit. I can clean basements for longer than they have basements to clean, through. Tomorrow I apply for partial UI and foodstamps.|>
Have they taken away your red stapler yet?
But that's really awful. On the other hand, you've got some money coming in, and twenty hours a week to look for a new job.
Yeah, Light Rail, I wouldn't want to tell you how to feel about this, but it seems like an interim arrangement that's .. better than full-on laying off. Don't know if you need or could use a positive employment reference from the current place, but if so, this might mean you'd get one. So that's something as well.
56: And apparently the ratio of people to cake is too big.
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What's an eloquent way of saying "according to friends of friends, who are objective because they never met me,..." ?
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The latter phrase just needs to be implied, in a way it isn't necessarily implied by "friends of friends".
I can't think of a circumstance in which you'd need to specify the friends of friends part.
But Downton Abbey is coming on!
58: yeah, I'm just extra grumpy because I had to start work at 5 am instead of 9 am today.
When you're alone and life is making you lonely
You can always go
When you've got worries, all the noise and the hurry
Seems to help, I know
"People liked our thing we wrote and colored in, and their opinion is worth more than if it came from just our friends, but obviously we're networkless shmucks, so here's how we know them" sounds even clunkier.
"we were surprised and gratified to learn of the kind words of Mr. and Mrs. Pablo Dinkletooter ("it sparkles!", they said), especially as we have not yet had the pleasure of their acquaintance"
Use that word for word, you'll be fine.
Thanks! Both helpful in their sparkly ways.
But look word for word, okay? That's important. Change nothing.
You can only kill then with a silver dildo propelled from a whoopie cushion.
What you mean because of Depardieu?
I am currently (finally) reading Easy Riders, Raging Bulls and it would not surprise me one bit if somebody ended up getting killed by a silver dildo fired from a whoopie cushion by the end of this. A whoope cushion wielded by Dennis Hopper, no doubt.
What exactly did you think happened at Newtown?
Anyway, Dennis Hooper is new money.
I am indeed Episcopalian. I'm pretty sure that Flippanter is of Episcopal descent. We required higher levels of education that the Methodists did in the 19th century, so they spread faster.
There are definitely working-class Episcopalians especially among Caribbean and African immigrants, but the main reason that you think there are more of us than there are is that they are disproportionately represented among professional classes and the well-off. The same thing is true of academia and Jews. I bet that, if most of us count up our acquaintances, more than 2% of them are Jewish.
We also have this somewhat obnoxious habit of trying to be the established (and not just the church of the establishment) church. So, somebody decided to call the Cathedral of the Diocese of Washington, DC, "National Cathedral," and they like to make themselves available for funerals of presidents etc.
If concerned about verisimilitude you could switch "Dinkletooters" to "Glamrockers".
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"Archimedes shouted 'Eureka', and it became the motto for scientists all over the world. It is my motto, too. When I was a precocious five-year-old I used to dream every night about what it might be like to fall into a black hole. By emulating Richard Feynman's approach of calculating the right answer and then understanding why it must have been the obvious truth, as well as his devilish smile, I am destined to show the world the true meaning of Archimedes' shout. I will help us to truly understand what it is to fall into a black hole. By now it should be obvious that you must admit me to your graduate program, because your institution is the only place in the world deserving of my intellect."
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We required higher levels of education that the Methodists did in the 19th century, so they spread faster.
New mouseover text!
That's kind of a mash-up of three or four different essays, but most of the elements of it are real.
All the elements are real but some are highly unstable.
Ok, time to fess up that we all applied for the job in Essear's department. Who had "precocious smile" and "Eureka!" in the pool?
I mean, I am exaggerating a teensy bit. Usually the really pompous sentences are scattered through a couple pages of more reasonable-sounding stuff. But there is a lot of pomposity.
I love "the approach of calculating the right answer and then understanding why it must have been obvious." Yes, why doesn't everyone do it that way?
Are these applications for grad school or a job?
response fitting to 85:
The candidate it sent a short note The committee sits formally at 3pm, in room 278 of McSwarthy's hall. Your attendance is requested
Attending at the appointed time, the candidate finds a room filled with many people in academic regalia, including a front table with five people facing forward. The candidates name is read, and everyone silently awaits their arrival befor the table.
Upon arrival of the candidate, one person reads aloud 85. at the conclusion the room falls into laughter, building to a crescendo, whereupon the candidate is retrieved by way of a long shepards crook, and led from the room by a clown in bright dress and makeup.
Personally I'm a fan of calculating the wrong answer and then giving up in frustration.
Never mind, grad school is the only place worthy of their intellect.
The Feynman part reminds me of this.
Wow, and I thought it was bad that someone I loosely recommended for a position sent an e-mail with the subject line: "Excellent Candidate: [Her Name.]." Ah, aren't you supposed to wait for someone to make up their own mind that you're so excellent?
100 is my new go-to backhanded compliment.
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Weirdest sentence in a recommendation letter: "I must omit the det/ails of the pro/ject here as some of the work is of a sens/itive nature (altho/ugh not classified)."
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I mean, it's not as nice or as godless as Tucscon - I have been to Tucson. I am now terrified of all the rest of Arizona.
The northern half's much nicer than the southern half. Not really any more godless, though.
Terror is an appropriate reaction to the state in general, though.
85: "I will help us to truly understand what it is to fall into a black hole."
Well, I do kind of believe them on this one. Though perhaps not in the sense that they seem to mean.
Pfft, I divinely intuit the right answer without any grubby calculations. Amateur.
105. Building a computer at Bletchley Park?
109: I assumed there was an implicit "BWAHAHAHA!" following that.
105: maybe commercially sensitive, rather than a government secret?
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Now I've found a student who opens his essay by saying he lost his virginity to physics. I... don't really want to think about what that means.
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I suppose, in a way, we* all lost our virginities to physics.
*the non-virginal
Dear Penthouse: I never thought this would happen to me, but there I was one afternoon in the physics lab, setting up what I thought would be an ordinary experiment....
.. And I've never looked at a liquid nitrogen dewar quite the same way since.
And now I truly know what it is to fall into a black hole.
Student's CV: "Grader for Number Theory and Real Analysis"
So I emailed the student, for whom I'm writing a recommendation: You weren't a grader for those classes. Did you mean to say that?
Student responds: In my CV I put my job descriptions. Since you can grade for a class as long as you made a B or higher in it; I could be a grader for those classes.
I emailed him back and told him bluntly that that's lying, and to take it off. I was his instructor for both those classes and there is no way I would have authorized him to grade at a later date.
More importantly, I'm irritated and now writing him recommendations. Why don't kids realize that you shouldn't piss off people that write you recommendations?
