Pascal's Wager = ???

“God is, or He is not.” But to which side shall we incline? Reason can decide nothing here. There is an infinite chaos which separated us. A game is being played at the extremity of this infinite distance where heads or tails will turn up... Which will you choose then? Let us see. Since you must choose, let us see which interests you least. You have two things to lose, the true and the good; and two things to stake, your reason and your will, your knowledge and your happiness; and your nature has two things to shun, error and misery. Your reason is no more shocked in choosing one rather than the other, since you must of necessity choose... But your happiness? Let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that God is... If you gain, you gain all; if you lose, you lose nothing. Wager, then, without hesitation that He is. - Blaise Pascal

Pascal's Wager, boiled down, seems to mean, if you bet on God, the chances of his existence are 50/50. Betting that God exists, you gain all or nothing. Betting that God doesn't exist, you lose all or nothing. He also insists that you MUST wager. No other option is available.

I'm not much of a betting person and I believe that there are more choices than “God is, or He is not.” So I MUST reject Pascal's insistence that I must wager. I have many gods to choose from, or not. I'm currently an Agnostic and I have the freedom to change my mind whenever I have proof that satisfies me one way or another, this god or that, or no god(s). I don't have to buy into anyone's rationale or god(s). Right now there are a few incentives in not believing like saving money and time. Right now I might be wasting my time thinking about and writing my thoughts on this ancient apologetic philosophy. Fortunately I haven't spent any money on the research. So since I'm even on the money but possibly losing more time that I could use for my own selfish reasons, I will end here.

REALLY? SERIOUSLY?

I will never move to Michigan! Hell I don't even want to visit again! This is the most intrusive legislation I have seen, ever! Wonder if this will make it to the US Supreme Court?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/168607697/2-12-cv-10285-74

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT EASTERN DISTRICT OF MICHIGAN SOUTHERN DIVISION

Civil Action No. 12-cv-10285

...1. Responsible procreation and child rearing are well-recognized as legitimate State interests served by marriage.

Responsible procreation and child rearing are well-recognized as legitimate State interests served by marriage. One of the paramount purposes of marriage in Michigan — and at least 37 other states that define marriage as a union between a man and a woman — is, and has always been, to regulate sexual relationships between men and women so that the unique procreative capacity of such relationships benefits rather than harms society. The understanding of marriage as a union of man and woman, uniquely involving the rearing of children born of their union, is age-old,universal, and enduring. As illustrated by a plethora of research, social scientists have consistently recognized the essential connection between marriage and responsible procreation and child rearing...

Sunday's Suck...

Sunday's have always been depressing for me. When I was a small child, I had to get up early to dress for Mass which usually began around 6:30 am. My father was 'the Catholic' and my mother was 'the Convert'. I just went along for the ride. I never had any interest in reading the Bible with the thee's and thou's and other archaic words I had to look up. I even took Latin in high school so I could understand what the priest was saying at the altar. I thought it was some secret message he got from God. I found out that it was more or less crap, and it was repetitive crap. Ok, ok, I also took Latin because I thought I had a head start on an 'A' in class because I heard it chanted by the priest every Sunday. I could say the whole mass by heart. "Et cum spiritu tuo." I thought it would make fulfilling my language requirement in high school easy. It helped a little. What made Sunday's really sucky when I was a kid was that my Dad didn't have to go to work. Sunday was his day off and he wanted to make the most of it. After we left church at about 7:30 am, he let us know how he was pissed off about the content of the Sunday Sermon and railed about it and the #@$% priest all the way home. He used the rest of the day to direct me and my brothers on the finer points of 1) mowing the lawn 2) waxing the boat 3) cleaning out the fireplace 4) organizing his tool room 5) vacuuming and dusting the house 6) and anything else he could dream up. I actually said to him one Sunday, "Even God rested on the Sabbath." Not the smartest thing to say to my Dad when his list was only partially completed. Sunday's still suck for me. I don't go to Mass or any other service now. I don't miss sitting on hard pews and genuflecting/kneeling on even more uncomfortable kneelers. I can't actually put my finger on my problem with the one day I'm supposed to enjoy, but I don't enjoy it. I'm sure it's psychological. If I could make Saturday into Saturday, and Saturday2 instead of Sunday that would help. Maybe it's just the word, Sunday. I feel like Eeyore whenever I say the word Sunday. "Oh Pooh...It's all the same to me", Sunday Sucks!

A Visual History of Women in the US Workplace

         

           

                The History of Women in the Workplace  infographic
           

           
           
           
       

In other words...Republicans

I found an interesting passage in an e-book I am reading. It was eye-opening for me and a tad disconcerting. It almost sounds like the description of a psychological problem or dysfunction, but it describes many of my friends and neighbors.

From - The Party Is Over: 
How Republicans Went Crazy, Democrats Became Useless, and the Middle Class Got Shafted
August 2, 2012
by Mike Lofgren

"It is not difficult to find examples in everyday life of acquaintances and associates whose ever-present sense of persecution is nothing more than a rationalization of their own anger and hostility. According to Canadian psychologist Robert Altemeyer, who has written extensively about the characteristics of the authoritarian personality, fundamentalists exhibit a high quotient of authoritarian traits:

They are highly submissive to established authority, aggressive in the name of that authority, and conventional to the point of insisting everyone should behave as their authorities decide. They are fearful and self-righteous and have a lot of hostility in them that they readily direct toward various out-groups. They are easily incited, easily led, rather un-inclined to think for themselves, largely impervious to facts and reason, and rely instead on social support to maintain their beliefs. They bring strong loyalty to their in-groups, have thick-walled, highly compartmentalized minds, use a lot of double standards in their judgments, are surprisingly unprincipled at times, and are often hypocrites."

In other words...Republicans. (empahsis - mine)

I can "feel" it...

In the US, our national experience for most of the last century has been one of stability, in government, in economy, in climate. That is rapidly changing. Our stable climate has grown more and more uncertain over the last 40-50 years, a tiny blip in geological time. I felt the climate changing back in the 1960s. I admit I am much more sensitive to change, of all kinds, than most people. I feel temperature changes, social changes, governmental changes. I feel them before they are noticed by others. Articulating those feelings is useless until someone actually studies the changes and puts them in a chart or a book that details what has happened. "Silent Spring", by Rachel Carson (1962) was the first book to document some of those changes I was feeling at the time. She wrote about pesticides and our food supply and what changes we might expect in our way of life. Lately our government, the media, and business have ignored the science of 'climate change' too long and in future that will endanger our country's overall stability and our current way of life. The more floods, hurricanes, fires, droughts, weird winter storms, etc. we experience, the less our government and our economy will be able to sustain the money drain and disruption in every aspect of living associated with each disaster. We either need to prepare our citizens to expect less from FEMA and other state and federal sources of help, or we need to prepare for an onslaught of climate related disasters in advance. Now would be a good time to start. In fact it might be too late. Disasters can create anarchy locally until the state or US government sends in military help and economic aid. We have already seen what that looks like on TV during Katrina. Hurricanes Rita, Katrina, Ike, and Sandy are just a sample of what is hurtling our way like a locomotive out of control. These storms and mid-western droughts and western fires will grow more intense and more frequent. It is estimated that temperatures in this century will rise 7 to 10 degrees. The current rise of 1.4 degrees F in the last two decades is the hottest we have been in over 400 years. "...United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850." - National Geographic News. I won't be here to see all the changes take place but my grandchildren will. There may be an investment opportunity for them in all of this by trying to protect coastlines from rising waters, developing building materials that can withstand a category 5 hurricane, inventing some super fire extinguisher, building a home that can float, and more. I hope our future earth won't look like the apocalyptic films "Mad Max, Logan's Run, or Soylent Green". Sci-Fi? Sure. But what can be imagined can also become reality. If we can't stop it, we must be prepared to live with it. Climate change is here, I can feel it.

One year ago, today...

One year ago today, my 17.5 year old chihuahua, Pica, was peacefully euthanized in one of the most caring veterinary offices in MS. Dr. Scott Houston gave us as much time as we wanted to say goodbye in the special exam that has a view of his aviary. I held Pica in my lap while he gave her the shot that let her sleep. We held her and stroked her back for about 45 minutes before we called Dr. Scott to administer the final shot. He kneeled down beside me where I sat. When he got up to give us more time to say goodbye he had tears in his eyes. He told us that we had taken excellent care of Pica and this final act was the best we could do for her. She was close to 90 in human years. A long life for a dog. I don't know why pets live such short lives except that there are so many of them and so few of us to give them a home. So our pets are making room for another dog or cat to find their forever home. Their 'forever' is much shorter than ours and Pica has made room for Chee-Sy who was abandoned on the side of the road out in the country and rescued by some good people. We are finally able to start putting 'Pica things' away. Our sad days are fewer. I'm afraid the hole in our hearts will remain for some time to come. But giving Chee-Sy a home helps us and her, and that must be the reason for the shortened life cycle of our beloved pets. Each year, on February 8th, I will remember Pica's peaceful end and all the wonderful staff at Dr. Scott's clinic who understood our love, pain, and loss, one year ago today.

Chaining Social Security COLAs

Congress is proposing to chain COLAs (Cost Of Living Adjustments) to the CPI (Consumer Price Index) which supposedly adjusts for market basket switches (substituting a cheaper cut of meat or cutting out foods that one can't afford) when prices go up. I hear Dickens' Oliver Twist in the background now saying 'Please, sir, I want some more.' "Problem is that a lot of seniors have already switched to pork or chicken and have cut out foods that they cannot afford on a SS (Social Security) income. What can they switch to when they can't afford pork or chicken because their COLAs have been chained to an even smaller CPI calculation? I suggest that the Federal Government pay back the nearly three-trillion dollars it borrowed from the SS Trust Fund over the years to pay its bills so seniors can get a decent COLA when prices do go up. My COLA this year was $21/mo. That means I got a yearly raise of $252. We have been cutting back on many 'luxuries' (tongue-in-cheek here) since the economic downturn beginning in 2007. The increase in my medical, prescription, and supplemental insurance policies was approximately $16/mo. My policy deductibles have increased too. That leaves me with an annual COLA increase of $60. One reason we refinanced our home was to reduce the monthly payment to afford the increase in property taxes we had been advised was coming. This is the first COLA paid to SS beneficiaries in three years and it hasn't even been chained yet! I know I'm going to have to save up for a long time before I can afford to buy that 'filet mignon' for dinner!