Dave's Verse

Andrew Sullivan has a post up titled "The Pope Embraces Doubt". Andrew commends the pope for acknowledging agnostics in his speech. Here is the part Andrew quotes and what I took issue with: They (agnostics) are “pilgrims of truth, pilgrims of peace”. They ask questions of both sides. They take away from militant atheists the false certainty by which these claim to know that there is no God and they invite them to leave polemics aside and to become seekers who do not give up hope in the existence of truth and in the possibility and necessity of living by it. But they also challenge the followers of religions not to consider God as their own property, as if he belonged to them, in such a way that they feel vindicated in using force against others. These people are seeking the truth, they are seeking the true God, whose image is frequently concealed in the religions because of the ways in which they are often practised. Their inability to find God is partly the responsibilit...

Rick Perry has come out with this tax plan and Matt Yglesias points out that its just a little better than Herman Cain's. This is a more modest regressive tax shift than the one implied by Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, but it’s exactly the same in its scope and direction. One of the interesting things about today’s GOP presidential campaign is the extent to which it reveals a total lack of policy disagreement about this. The different candidates’ ideas are all variants on the idea that what America needs is not just lower levels of taxation, but a specific focus on taxing rich people less. What you hear very little about is a theoretical explanation of why this addresses the unmistakeable economic disappointments of the past ten years. Did we not try this? Did Bush’s tax cuts not deliver enough “certainty?” Cain wants to raise everyone's taxes except for the rich, who would get massive reductions. Perry wants to do the same, just on a smaller scale. Obviously they don't go a...

Andrew Sullivan has a continuing post on the national anthem. This came about after Zooey Deschanel sang it before the World Series on Sunday. Apparently some people didn't like the fact that she didn't sing it in a triumphant manner. She certainly sang it a bit differently. And like many of Andrew's readers have pointed out, I think it was a nice change of pace, and appropriate: I am so glad that you picked up the Deschanel/National Anthem question. I just watched the video of it earlier today and was so pleased. The part of the song that we sing the most - the first stanza - is really a series of questions. This form betrays the seriousness and uncertainty present in the hymn, and I am always touched by the searching tone of it, especially the last question: "Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave; O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?". It is a meditation of concern on whether or not we are going to make it, not a triumphant ode t...

He is getting a lot of criticism for the bullpen mishap last night. He tried to get Jason Motte up so he could face a right handed hitter. But something was wrong with the phone and the coach in the bullpen thought he said a different name. So when LaRussa went to make a pitching change he had to bring in a left hander instead of Motte. The Cards the proceeded to give up a few runs and lose the game. Could LaRussa have done more to make sure he could bring in Motte? Maybe. But what I think everyone I've heard talking about this is missing is that its still up to the pitcher and the defense to get the batters out. Just because he had to use a left hander doesn't mean that pitcher had to give up a run. Plus they are also assuming Motte would have gotten the batter out. The probabilities were probably in the Cards' favor with Motte pitching. But you still don't know. And the Cards still had a chance to tie the game. So let's lay off LaRussa. The players have to play.

* Spoilers if you haven't seen the first two episodes of the new season * It was a slightly less exciting episode this week. But it was more emotional given the circumstance with Rick's son. I like how they aren't too heavy handed with showing the emotions of the characters. The actors deserve a lot of credit for that. I also think they way they shoot the scenes and the score they use adds to it. Something I learned from watching Buffy is that often times when you are showing emotional scenes less amounts to more. You don't have to spell out everything and force things in order to get the audience to connect with the characters. So far I think the show is doing a good job on this front. As for the actual plot, the lost girl is almost and afterthought since Rick's son was shot. Its been, what, over a day, maybe two, since she ran off and got lost. I can buy that she got away from walkers. But for a girl that young I would think it will be getting difficult to fin...

Its funny how I said last week that I wanted the Dolphins to lose every game except the Jets and Patriots games so that we could get Andrew Luck. The Broncos put me to the test. Tebow and the rest of the team sucked for the first three quarters. And while the Dolphins continued to be pretty mediocre, they miraculously got a TD inside the red zone along with a few FGs to get a 15 point lead going into the 4th quarter. At that point I was find of excited. I actually wanted to win. And it was fun to start to get that feeling you get when your team has won. But typically, they blew it and let Tebow look like John Elway. Granted, when Tebow finally let loose in the 4th quarter he started throwing with accuracy, which he wasn't doing for the first three quarters. He still has not very good mechanics. But for some reason he seems to throw more accurately when he is on the run or off balance. Its weird, and it certainly helped the Broncos win, along with the poor defense from the Dolphin...

About 30 minutes ago I had a woman from a baptist church come to my door in order to try and get me to support her and her church. For some reason I have an impulse to not be an asshole, or to not come across as one to other people. So I let her ramble on without interrupting her and saying I'm not interested. About five minutes in I think she got the sense that I wasn't interested and asked if I was an atheist. I said yes. But that didn't shake her up much at all. She just kept going with her speech, barely taking a breath. I even mentioned a second time I was an atheist and she just kept going. Eventually I nicely said I wasn't interested a she went on her way. That experience made me wonder what would happen if atheists went around evangelizing about their beliefs. And I don't mean doing so in a combative manner. Most christians aren't too bad with their door to door stuff. I mean just calmly asking people to give up their beliefs and join atheists in not b...