Barack Obama Speech on Faith - Text and Video

...I am hopeful that we can bridge the gaps that exist and overcome the prejudices each of us bring to this debate. And I have faith that millions of believing Americans want that to happen. No matter how religious they may or may not be, people are tired of seeing faith used as a tool of attack. They don't want faith used to belittle or to divide. They're tired of hearing folks deliver more screed than sermon. Because in the end, that's not how they think about faith in their own lives.

Read the full text of the speech here. Read it a few times. Amazing.

Watch the videos (a bit messed up in a few spots, but okay):

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

Iowa Electronic Market: Looking good for Obama and the Dems

Here's a description of the market.

As of 7:45PM PST today, Obama has is running at a 73% chance of getting the nomination and the Dems have a 62% chance of winning the White House.

This is when I love democracy...or at least where hope dares tilt towards optimism.

Obama: Skinny, but Tough

This shows the brilliance and grace of this man. Wow. Laughing and smiling.

[Original video]

Sound's Presidential, Doesn't He?

Obama's Iowa Victory Speech

In other news, Huckabee takes first for the Republicans. Keep in up kids. Please, keep in up.

Video: Ken Miller on Intelligent Design

Wow! Check in out.

His content is generally fascinating, but he centers around the case of Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District.

Ken Miller was an expert witness at the trial, in which a Bush-appointed judge concluded:

Teaching intelligent design in public school biology classes violates the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States (and Article I, Section 3 of the Pennsylvania State Constitution) because intelligent design is not science and "cannot uncouple itself from its creationist, and thus religious, antecedents."

His discussion and analysis are brilliant, in one case mentioning the famous textbook disclaimer stickers:

This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

His reply was brilliant and simple: the stickers don't go far enough. The alternative:

This textbook has material on science. Science is built around theories, which are strongly supported by factual evidence. Everything in science should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully, and critically considered.

He also references a comic that I have blogged about before:

 

Very funny. Very important.

Quote of the day

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.”

-Howard Thurman

Discovered via an email signature. Thanks, Briana.

Tell the world to ignore Bush on climate change.

From our friends at Avazz.org:

UN Climate talks in Bali, Indonesia are down to the wire to set new global emissions targets--but the Bush administration is trying to prevent any concrete agreement on cutting carbon.

Tell the world that President Bush doesn't speak for us. Sign the petition below, and Avaaz will deliver it to delegates in Bali--letting the Bush administration know that we don't agree with its obstructionism, and telling the world not to give up hope on Americans. We're ready for progress, even if our government is not.

Please, sign the petition.

Cool stuff from Lessig: Corruption, Obama, Fox News Porn?

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Kevin's Seattle Voter Cheat Sheet

The Stranger does it. The Municipal League does it.

Why not me?

I go in order for folks in Seattle. Hope this helps. Would love your thoughts.

Initiative 960

Stranger says no. Muni League says no.

Tim Eyman is a jerk.

Kevin says no.

Initiative 67

Stranger says yes. Sounds good to me.

Kevin says yes.

SJR 8206, 8212

Stranger says no. I buy their argument.

Kevin says no.

HJR 4204, 4215

Stranger says yes. I buy their argument.

Kevin says yes.

Initiative 25

Stranger says no. MuniLeague says no.

Kevin says no.

King County Proposition 1 (Medic One)

Stranger says yes. I buy their argument.

Kevin says yes.

King County Prosecuting Attorney

MuniLeauge gives both candidates 'outstanding'. Stranger likes Sherman (the Dem). (Not that I like Dems, just that I don't like Republicans.)

Kevin says Sherman.

King County Assessor

MuniLeague gives Scott Noble 'outstanding' and James Nobels 'adequate'. Stranger likes Scott.

Kevin says Scott.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position #2

MuniLeague gives Gael 'outstanding'. Stranger likes Gael.

Kevin says Gael.

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position #5

MuniLeague gives Fisken 'outstanding'. Stranger agrees.

Kevin says Fisken.

Transportation District

This one is a bitch. Stranger doesn't like it. The Sierra Club doesn't like it.

The MuniLeague likes it. FutureWise (a group I support a lot) likes it. Friends of Seattle likes it.

No proposal (especially of this size) is perfect. Given the list of supporters and my love of transit, I'm going for it.

Kevin's says yes to Roads and Transit.

Seattle Council #1

MuniLeague gives Godden and Szwaja both 'good'. Friends of Seattle likes Godden. Stranger likes Godden.

Kevin says Godden.

Seattle Council #3

MuniLeague gives Harrell and Velazquez both 'very good'. Friends of Seattle likes Harrell. Stranger likes Valazquez.

Damn, now I have to think.

Reading through endorsements and web sites, I'm going with Harrell.

Kevin say Harrell.

Seattle Council #7

MuniLeague gives Burgess 'outstanding'. Friends of Seattle likes Burgess. Stranger likes Burgess.

Kevin says Burgess.

Seattle Council #9

Stranger says Clark. Friends of Seattle says Clark. MuniLeague gives Clark 'very good'.

Kevin says Clark.

Seattle City Charter Amendment 17, 18

Stranger says yes on both. Sounds fine.

Kevin says yes.

Seattle School District 1

Pos #1
ML: Maier is outstanding.
Stranger: Maier is cool.

Kevin says Maier.

Pos #2
ML: Carr is outstanding. Flynn as 'very good'.
Stranger: Flynn. Says that Carr "stumbled on our basic questions about high-profile issues like intelligent design and student free speech".

Kevin says Flynn.

Pos #3
ML: Martin-Morris is 'very good'.
Stranger: reluctant endorsement.

Kevin says Martin-Morris.

Pos #6
ML: Ramirez and Sundquist are both 'very good'.
Stranger: Sundquist.

Kevin says Sundquist.

Ken Burns talks about his new documentary on WWII

Another lucky Tuesday night.

KUOW. Word for Word.

Filmmaker Ken Burns on "The War"

From the National Press Club on September 19. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Check out the Documentary web site on PBS.org.

Now I really want to see this movie. Their commentary is eloquent and compelling.

Believing the Unbelievable: Sam Harris at the Aspen Ideas Festival

One of those happy accident. Sitting my car waiting for a friend on Tuesday when Word for Word came on KUOW.

The program: A clash between faith and reason?

You can listen to the talk using their flash audio player.

YouTube has the videos. Brilliant.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

I've read The End of Faith by Sam Harris. He's a bit argumentative, but the content is quite educational.

Fixed some dead links: 2008-01-01.

My Morals, Your Morals

Via Lauren, (from whom I shamelessly copy):

Via Andrew Sullivan, an interesting survey that assesses your attitudes about five basic “moral foundations” and allows you to compare your answers against others who have taken the test and self-identified as “liberal” or “conservative.”

Andrew took the survey to try to confirm or deny his assertion that he’s “still a conservative,” in spite of the stance he’s taken against Bush and his war.

I didn’t have too many doubts about which side of the issues I’d end up on…

This is my score. I'm green. Blue and Red are self-explanatory.

Like Lauren, I'm not surprised.

I really want to throw this at my 'conservative' friends and see how they come out.

I'm leaving Microsoft

A re-post from my work blog.

You read that correctly. September 14 is my last day at Building 10 on the Redmond Campus (well, at least as an employee).

Here is (most of) the goodbye email I sent to colleagues and friends last week.

Where to start. Iowa State. Fall of 1998. A career fair. I was a freshman looking for free stuff. The MS recruiter wanted to see a resume. I didn’t have one. (I didn’t think I would need one.) I ran back to my dorm, wrote enough to fill a single page, and brought it back to him.

Early that spring I flew to Sea-Tac and had an on-campus interview. (I was warned that that winter had 100 sunshine-less days.)

In May 1999 I showed up in Redmond for an internship. Building 25. I shared an office with a woman who’s a great friend to this day.

After 3 internships, a stint as a Microsoft Student Consultant at ISU, and 5 great years as an stock option award earning employee, I’m going to try something drastically different.

Friday, September 14 will be my last day in the office.

Monday, September 17 I’m going to work at a small, actuarial company building internal, web-based LOB apps.

• No, I’m not crazy. (At least I don’t think so.) It’s been almost a decade since I’ve built anything substantial end-to-end. I’ve got pretty good at designing the tiny pieces of something XXXL. I’d like to try my hand at implementing a huge pieces of something M.
• Yes, I’ll be staying in the area. Actually, working from home most days.
• Yes, it’s all .NET still. I’m actually looking forward to cranking on SQL, ASPX, WCF, Workflow, Linq, ADO Entities, etc.
• Yes, it’s hard to leave. I’ve been plugged into Microsoft since just after high school. It’s been a great ride. I’ve learned an amazing amount and met some amazing people. Recently though, I’ve realized that if I was ever going to unplug, it was never going to get easier than it is now.

http://j832.com is my web site. It mostly just links to my blogs. I plan to keep work.j832.com going for any WPF stuff I hack on. The other blog will be everything else. :-)

(If you want the j832 thing explained some time, just ask.)

I have two closing thoughts.

First, Doug Purdy shared a tag line that Don Box and he used on a presentation once: “There is only one program…and it’s still being written.” Microsoft was a gig. My new company is a gig. There will be gigs after. The gig is not the important thing. It’s the stuff you’re building. I love software because in the end it’s all about helping people record, explorer, and communicate thoughts, memories, and ideas. If we keep making that faster, easier and just better we will all still be working together...and making the world just a bit better.

Second, a video I discovered a couple months ago. While it was after I’d made most of my decisions, it does a good job of representing the stuff in my head right now…the stuff I’m trying to figure out. It’s absolutely worth sharing: http://blog.j832.com/2007/07/music-and-life.html

I will close out the way my good friend Robby did. A master of great design: simple and to-the-point.

Goodbye and thanks again,

>Kevin

Q: What does this mean for me, loyal reader of work.j832.com?
A: Hopefully not much. I plan to keep working with and blogging about WPF. I have some clever project ideas that I still want to hack on. A cool upside: I can actually collaborate in substantial ways with community members. I may blog a wider variety of stuff, but given the new job I'm sure it'll be mostly .NET-related. I'll keep my non-geek stuff on my personal blog: blog.j832.com.

Q: What about the bag-o-tricks?
A: The current URL (blogs.msdn.com/okoboji/pages/BagOTricks.aspx) is going to die when my MSDN blog dies. (I'm not sure about when that'll happen, actually.) So I'm introducing a new, even more stable home for the latest-and-greatest: j832.com/BagOTricks. I hope this will be valid as long as I remember anything about WPF and I pay my ISP bill.

Q: Are you planning any updates the bag?
A: Great question! I can't say much, but...um...expect great things from a lot of what's in the bag. (This is my subtle and evil way of leaning on Larry. Sorry dude.)

Q: What about the NetFX install stuff?
A: I'm going to hand this off and make sure that those who've emailed me are taken care of--hopefully by making the code generally available.

As I've said to many folks, I'm looking forward to the transition from a Microsoft High Priest for WPF to just another geek in the big city.

See you on the other side, my friends.

Muni League: Democracy isn't completely broken

I went to presentation at work this summer that fascinated me. I was introduced to an organization that is dedicated to an unbiased and thorough analysis and review on local candidates and initiatives.

The Municipal League of King County

As they say:

The Municipal League's ratings assess each candidate's potential to be effective in office and ability to serve the community. The non-partisan ratings are based on four criteria: Effectiveness, Involvement, Knowledge and Character.

Join and you'll receive their newsletters and reports.

Want to move our democracy forward? Put your money where your mouth is.

With Faith, Ignorance is Bliss

From the LA Times: Religion beat became a test of faith

Fascinating read by a writer who was sucked into a mega-church at a low point in his life, taken through a brain-washing religious weekend, and came out "reborn".

His new-found faith inspired him to push his editors to cover the religion beat for his paper.

Hilarity ensues.

Covering the Catholic child-abuse scandal:

I never imagined Catholic leaders would engage in a widespread practice that protected alleged child molesters and belittled the victims.

Covering Mormon's disowning their non-spiritual family members:

I wondered how faithful Mormons — many of whom rigorously follow other biblical commands such as giving 10% of their income to the church — could miss so badly on one of Jesus' primary lessons?

Covering "healing crusades" meant to con terminally sick people of their money:

Hinn tells his audiences that a generous cash gift to his ministry will be seen by God as a sign of true faith. This has worked well for the televangelist, who lives in an oceanfront mansion in Dana Point, drives luxury cars, flies in private jets and stays in the best hotels.

In the end, a familiar (at least to me) conclusion:

I began to pray with renewed vigor, but it felt like I wasn't connecting to God. I started to feel silly even trying.

Fascinating read.

The Nation on Healthcare vs. Profit

Fascinating write-up. They make an example of a Dr. Prem Reddy, who owns 8 hospitals in California. (Emphasis mine.)

Dr. Reddy--who is, incidentally a high-powered Republican donor--has a principled reason for his piratical practices. "Patients," the Los Angeles Times reports him as saying, "may simply deserve only the amount of care they can afford." He dismisses as "an entitlement mentality" the idea that everyone should be getting the same high-quality healthcare. This is Bush's vaunted principle of "private medicine" at its nastiest: You don't get what you need, only what you can pay for.

Sobering at the least; infuriating at the worst.

Let the kids decide (Ha!)

The definition of brilliant satire...

Found via Miguel's blog (supposedly from the 2005-08-04 Washington Post)

Penn (of Penn & Teller): I believe that there is no God

via RichardDawkins.net, via This I Believe:

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, ''I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith.'' That's just a long-winded religious way to say, ''shut up,'' or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, ''How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do.'' So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Well said.

Lessig moves from noble fight to more noble fight

From Lessig's blog:

We've all been whining about the "corruption" of government forever. We all should be whining about the corruption of professions too. But rather than whining, I want to work on this problem that I've come to believe is the most important problem in making government work.

Lessig's work on free culture has been profound. (This remix of a 2002 presentation is amazing.)

Here's hoping he'll have a more profound impact on the culture of corruption.

I am Seattle Traffic (.org)

I went to a meeting at work today about the future of the 520 bridge.

While waiting 10 years doesn't sound all that good, I did pick up a brochure I found very entertaining and enlightening. The source:  

http://www.iamseattletraffic.org/

I love people who are proactive about these types of issues.

The "Tenets of Traffic Zen" I found quite inspired. My favorite: Merge Gracefully.

All vehicles involved in a merge are ideally traveling the same speed with enough gap to fit each other perfectly. Think of it as teeth in a zipper. If one of the teeth of a zipper stuck out and waited until a few other teeth on the side passed, it would not work. Likewise, you must not stop when merging (unless all others are stopped as well). You must let others in. They need but one car length, and you have plenty to spare. Allowing them in front of you will mean they will not have to be confronted by a less enlightened driver, which could cause you grief you have no control over. Even if the merge happens behind you, you are being selfish, and you would not wish the same upon yourself.

Brilliant. Kudos!