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.