WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush offered a broad defense of his foreign policy and said his message that “the world is more peaceful and more free under my leadership” will be a prominent theme of his bid for a second White House term.

*** jaw drops to floor ***

1. This being said by the person who has done more to erode freedom in his own country than any president in memory.

2. This being said by the person who made the United States an unprovoked aggressor for the first time in its history. Well, the first time we didn’t even pretend to have been provoked, anyway.

3. “the world is … under my leadership.” That is not out of context. What more can be said? This man has world war III written all over him.

Can’t sleep. Again. Ambien bottle empty. I’ve been reading RFs diary to pass some of the poorly named wee hours. File under: Guitar Craft / Aikido:

A quiescent body is a considerable achievement. A relaxed, engaged physical presence is a necessary beginning to establishing a discipline. If we can’t persuade our body to co-operate & be still, what hope for raging emotions & a racing mind?

Certainly no hope for sleep. This reminds me, I haven’t read Furuya’s diary in quite some time. Not surprising, given my fading connection to aikido. Here, the practice is below the threshold of intensity that can maintain my interest. Plus, there’s the recently sprained ankle, and not recently sprained elbow, which may be a serious problem.

Isaac Hayes kicks ass.

I haven’t managed any regular practice schedule as of yet, but I have picked up the Ovation a few times. I even (lamely) performed for some visiting in-laws. My left hand was the dictionary definition of “cramp” by the time I got through Prel. II. I’m thinking about leaving my spare in the lab.

Wednesday I take over the Astronomy course. It already seems I’m pulling a full load. Hard to imagine another class preparation (test making, grading, etc) heaped on top. And how much research am I getting done? Har. I can’t even keep up with reading Kant.

At least I’m writing journal entries again.

I�ve been reading Heisenberg�s Physics and Philosophy. This is an excellent book. It�s been a very long time since I�ve studied the Copenhagen interpretation. Certainly long enough that my understanding now will be radically different from what it was. It�s not much discussed beyond the undergraduate years now. If interpretation is discussed at all, it�s bound to be restricted to Bell�s theorem and decoherence. Bohr and their boys had a better handle on things than I remember�

This means that the equation of motion for the probability function does now contain the influence of the interaction with the measuring device. This influence introduces a new element of uncertainty, since the measuring device is necessarily described in the terms of classical physics; such a description contains all the uncertainties concerning the microscopic structure of the device which we know from thermodynamics�

I find it interesting that Werner brings in thermodynamics here. I don�t recall that being discussed before, it�s suggestive of the decoherence approach.

If we want to describe what happens in an atomic event, we have to realize that the word �happens� can apply only to the observation, not to the state of affairs between two observations. It applies to the physical, not the psychical act of observation, and we may say that the transition from the �possible� to the �actual� takes place as soon as the interaction of the object with the measuring device, and thereby with the rest of the world, has come into play; it is not connected with the act of registration of the result by the mind of the observer.

This is a point often misunderstood by scientific journalists and people reading laymen�s books on quantum mechanics. You can�t put it much more simply or clearly than that.

The concepts of classical physics are just a refinement of the concepts of daily life and are an essential part of the language which forms the basis of all natural science� There is no use in discussing what could be done if we were other beings than we are. At this point we have to realize, as von Weiz�cher has put it, that �nature is earlier than man, but man is earlier than natural science.��we have to remember that what we observe is not nature itself but nature exposed to our method of questioning. Our scientific work in physics consists in asking questions about nature in the language that we possess and trying to get an answer from experiment by the means that are at our disposal.

Note the last sentence especially; this is why linguistics is by biggest intellectual fetish. The better we understand the nature of the questions we are asking, the better we understand the nature of nature.

George Lakoff is one of my favorite thinkers, beginning with linguistics and cognitive science. He wrote an online article applying his family model metaphor to the California recall. While there are limitations to any model, I think he is right on the money as far as it goes. Dean campaign, take notice.

I’m perfectly willing to admit, as Mr. O’Reilly pointed out in the NPR interview, that the founding father’s intention behind the establishment clause was one of not favoring one branch of Christianity over another, rather than applying to religion in general. The historical record is pretty clear. Although there were members of that group who were secularists for their time, they still couldn’t get away with revealing their true opinions in public discourse.

“The United States is in no way founded upon the Christian Doctrine.” -George Washington

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.” -Thomas Paine

“I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.” -Thomas Jefferson

“The Bible is not my book, and Christianity is not my religion. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma.” -Abraham Lincoln

quotes as listed in salvation for Sale by Gerard Thomas Straub

However, these (Abe accepted, obv) were also the people who penned “all men are created equal”, but owned slaves, and only allowed land owning white men (the aristocratic minority) the privilege of voting. They were visionaries of their age, but still men of their age. Just as we now apply the doctrine of freedom to all persons, regardless of skin color or gender, their vision of separation of church and state must be expanded to global scale.

Their America was an agrarian British Colony. They never envisioned a country of Africans, Indians, Arabs, and Asians along side all manner of Europeans. One’s appeal to the intentions of the founding fathers can only be taken so far. Neither can one hide behind the “religious tradition” crap the courts use to justify “one nation under god.” The intentions of those who made the addition in 1954 were crystal clear, and they were to declare the United States a Christian country.

It’s long past time for the courts to correct this. But considering we are currently ruled by the Protestant Pope, that’s not going to happen.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to hear a case involving whether schoolchildren can be allowed to recite the Pledge of Allegiance voluntarily, putting a family’s custody dispute at the forefront of a constitutional legal battle.

…The court also announced Justice Antonin Scalia took no part in consideration of the pledge case. Newdow had asked Scalia to recuse himself from hearing the appeal.

Can we ask Scalia to recuse himself from hearing any appeal?

This is weirder than it should be. Apparently the suit was only brought against a ‘teacher-led’ pledge recitation. It really doesn’t matter what the court rules, in my experience teachers do whatever the hell they want. I’ve seen science classrooms with giant Jesus posters.

I listened to today’s Fresh Air with Bill O’Reilly, a figure generally loathed in my circles. I have to say, Terri did a lousy job. Sure, Bill sounds like a jerk and is a total ignoramus when it comes to the natural world, but he was certainly grilled like no one else on that show, and not too effectively.

Bill got one thing right–there is a culture war, with ideologies driving both sides. One would peg me as a leftist but I shun that label. I see a lot of liberals/leftists using the same distortional tools as those on the right, which doesn’t do liberalism any favors. Besides, how could you call someone who demands people step into seiza in the correct order a liberal?

I’m fascinated with how western civilization has been divided into these two entrenched political philosophies. Politics is a spectator sport, and the fans are about to riot.

Good lord, its been more than a week again. I feel compelled to write something. Lessee… current events.

It will be totally pathetic if Schwarzenegger wins. We can just throw out any illusion that substance counts for anything in politics. I’ve already talked about government as entertainment. It seems nobody that supports Arnold has any idea why, except that he’s famous.

The same party that spent $70M in taxpayer money trying to impeach the former president over a consensual blowjob (which is only illegal in the south) suddenly seem very forgiving of multiple sexual assaults, which are illegal anywhere.

If he wins, I think he should have to defend his governorship in a cage match with Jesse Ventura.