More Religious Hypocrisy

Porn consumption is positively correlated with a state's religiosity. Every time I think that the Christian right has gone into Obama-induced hibernation and will no longer be providing hilariously entertaining hypocrisy, something like this gets published. This is common sense to anyone who looks from the outside into the world of institutionalized sexual repression, but to see it in print is fantastic.

Utah wins the race for online consumption of porn.. and comparing this list to the Gallup survey from a few weeks ago is enlightening.

V-Day

I saw the Vagina Monologues tonight for the first time. I left feeling like it should be required for high school seniors to sit through the play, or--like the one dude in our group of attendees and a former frat guy himself suggested--required watching for fraternity pledges and their elders. It was uplifting, inspiring, enlightening, sad, and so very honest all at the same time. I identified with parts of all of it, and even learned a few things about myself I hadn't known before. There are certain things that you have a hunch are experienced by others but you never quite are in the position to ask--and I felt at home with the women on stage because they were answering questions and confirming answers that have resided in me for years. It's something everyone should see at least once. My friend Shannon, who had seen the play before, told me that I would leave the play being very proud to have a vagina. I understand entirely what she meant, but more than that, I felt proud to have found ownership of myself at 24. The stories did not tell me any facts I did not know, but they did remind me that I am truly never alone.


until the violence stops.

It's (An Appropriate Time to be Awake) Somewhere

I'm suffering from my first serious bout of insomnia. Went to bed a little after midnight, woke up at 2:30 completely unable to fall asleep. After two hours of tossing, I gave up, got up, and did some laundry. I really should be reading at this point--as long as I'm awake--but it just doesn't feel right. I also can't bring myself to have my morning coffee because I'm hopeful of a few more hours of sleep so I'm stuck in 5am purgatory. I'll admit my inability to sleep may have something to do with a small case of giddy but that's another story. In reality, I should just read my defense organizational management articles and that would probably do well enough to knock me out for a few hours. This is honestly just painful, and I can't imagine not being able to sleep involuntarily with any sort of regularity. Knowing you have to stay up all night, or til 4:30, to finish a paper you didn't write far enough in advance is one thing, but having the time to sleep and not being able to is complete torture. The laundry's done now. So maybe I'll give sleep another chance. At least it's Friday...

If this is free speech... I've had it

Seriously, this is as close to inciting a riot as I'm comfortable with when it comes to these gun-toting, holier-than-thou "patriots".

Neil deGrasse Tyson

I first learned of Neil deGrasse Tyson when Nicole emailed me with an adamant request that I (her favorite space nerd) should be sure to watch a recent interview on the Daily Show with this guy who was "really excited about space". He's an astrophysicist with the Museum of Natural History and he NEEDS to the next NASA director. Soon enough I will go into a detailed discussion here about why NASA's main problem is that they have a terrible (or no) PR department and are the most misunderstood of all federal agencies. But for now, I'll just say that last night, while the policy nerd council was gathering to watch our leader speak (intelligently!), I got into the most recent of a long line of friendly debates about NASA.

During these periodic debates, I defend NASA funding and argue for its value as an organization of research and exploration. Neil deGrasse Tyson would be good for NASA, not only because he's an astrophysicist, but because he's awesome. And exciting. With an air of badass. Rocket scientists aren't exciting or badass. Unless they're in the movies. And even then, the rocket scientists aren't badass enough so Bruce Willis and his band of merry men of oil drillers have to save the planet. So anyway, here's a clip of Neil DGT talking about doomsday. Go to hulu to watch The Daily Show interview, because it's definitely worth it. And there will be more space talk coming up, since I'm going to watch Gene Krantz speak tomorrow. Google him.

I have a new thing for maps..

Several of my friends are pretty obsessed with maps, and I think they're pretty cool too. I just got turned on to The Map Scroll, a blog about... you guessed it....MAPS! It's pretty awesome and today was a particularly interesting post about how to find Bin Laden. The last line is awesome, particularly since one of my classes this semester is partially about how the CIA is and is not effective. Read it here.

The West Wing

While this will be only of minor interest to most, I'm getting close to re-starting the West Wing series from Day 1. I've probably watched seasons 1-4 five or six times, season 5 about twice, and seasons 6 and 7 once through. I remember once the show ended, before the later seasons came out on DVD, owning the early years and watching them over and over during the height of Iraq War scandal and constant reminders that George W. Bush may as well have attended the Derek Zoolander center for kids who can't read good. It was a relief to have a Nobel Laureate Economist no less as my fake president. Even without Bush in the White House, I think President Bartlett will be a comfort.

Below, a scene about maps with Josh and C.J.

Chocolate Souffle

I've taken to reading Mark Bittman's food blog on the NYT website. When he published an "easy" chocolate souffle recipe, I decided to go for it. Dad used to make souffle's all the time when I was a kid. And I distinctly remember discussion about the dessert "falling" before we could eat it. Dad sounded skeptical when I told him Bittman's recipe called for no roux, just eggs, cream of tartar, some salt, sugar, and chocolate. I made it tonight, and it was excellent. I think next time around I'll put more chocolate than he calls for, after consulting Dad about whether or not that will screw up the chemistry of the whole affair. I also think I left it in the oven about 3 minutes too long, because the top half is a little dry. But! For a first effort, I'm pleased. Picture and recipe below. I took the picture after I'd already enjoyed a bit... apologies.


Preheat oven to 350.
Butter dishes, sprinkle with sugar, invert dishes to get rid of excess.
Melt 2 oz. (good!) bittersweet baking chocolate in a double boiler.
Separate 3 eggs
In a medium bowl, whip egg yolks and 1 Tbsp. sugar until very light (in color) and thick. It is important that the yolks get white-it took about 5 minutes.
Stir melted chocolate into the yolk mix until well incorporated. Set aside.
Wash beaters well.
In another bowl, beat the egg whites, a pinch of salt, and a 1/4 tsp. cream of tartar until the whites hold soft peaks. Beat 1 Tbsp. sugar into the whites for just a few seconds, until the whites are glossy.
Stir a spoonful of the whites into the yolk and chocolate mixture to lighten it up.
Fold the remaining egg whites into the yolk and chocolate, carefully and slowly.
Once all the whites are in (don't over mix!), transfer the mixture into your prepared dish(es).
bake 20 minutes (for individual) and 25-30 minutes for one.

Third Grade Maps

Maps for orientation's sake. If you can't tell from this, I'll be crossing the equator more than a few times. Jinja, the nearest city to where I'll be is an equatorial town.


For more detail, I'll be about half the distance between Kampala and Jinja east of Jinja, if that makes sense. Nearer to the Kenyan border than the Congolese. Which is good.

Gallup is my new friend

So a few weeks ago I posted about a Gallup poll that showed the 50 states party-affiliations. Now they've released a nifty study on religiosity in the 50 states and around the world. Rhody (home of religious freedom), turns up on the right (read: progressive) side of the spectrum.

Note: I mean this as no offense, just look at the numbers and you will see that once you get above 75 percent religious fervor, you're dealing with states that often choose to ignore that pesky separation of church and state idea embedded in the Constitution.

New England as a whole is less religious than Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Louisiana, which round out the top 5 most religious states in the Union. Irony is that Alabama is about as religious as Iran. If only we understood better how much more similar we are to our enemies than even sometimes to our friends. Find the rest of the report here.

Uganda Village Project

It's been a while, but I got great news last night. I was accepted as a summer volunteer with the Uganda Village Project in the Iganga district in southeaster Uganda. I'm only slightly torn about committing to this project prior to hearing about the UN position. The UN job would be with the Department of Disarmament Affairs--my resume made it through the first round of "cuts" a few weeks ago--but I won't hear until March. My instinct is to believe that hanging out in the Ugandan jungle for 9 weeks is greater than pushing paper at an office in New York but it's still the UN. But really, it's been a really long time since I've been out of the country--save those 5 days in Thailand last March--and I'm really excited about the prospect of spending 9 weeks in a completely different environment. So yes, in the run-up to what I expect with be an incredible summer, I will try to write more, and then I will write a lot once I'm there.