Potential Disaster in Minnesota

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Wednesday November 03, 2010 · 1:16 PM PDT

2010/11/03 · 13:16

As many of us who were watching Minnesota election results closely last night know, Democrat Mark Dayton appears to have eked out a slim win over freaky Republican Tom Emmer in Minnesota's gubernatorial race. Echoing the Franken/Coleman slugfest of two years ago, however, it appears that this race is headed for a recount, too: with all precincts now counted, Dayton leads by 8,854 votes, or 0.42% of the total cast. That's within than the 0.5% threshold that will trigger an inevitable recount. (Note that three weeks of canvassing and error-correcting still lie between us and the certified results.)

Dayton will almost certainly win the governorship—but in the end, Democrats (and indeed Minnesota) seem frighteningly likely to lose much more.

Rieux

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Thursday August 05, 2010 · 11:11 AM PDT

2010/08/05 · 11:11

Any self-respecting atheist diary series needs a "What do the words mean?" article, and this year it falls to me to write it. What is an "atheist"? What's an "agnostic"? Why are non-believers so adamant about these words and what they do or don't mean? These are the kinds of issues that need to be hashed out at the beginning of any in-depth discussion of non-believers and our ideas. The idea is to head off a number of disputes that constantly bedevil public discussion of atheism and related concepts; the disputes in question are based on common misconceptions regarding what "atheism," among related terms, even means.

So, if you're tempted to respond to any diary in this series by pointing out, say, that atheism requires just as much of a "leap of faith" as belief in God does, please read this diary first. It is very likely that you are operating from an understanding of the term "atheism" that conflicts severely with the widespread consensus, among self-declared atheists, regarding what that term means. At the very least, you need to be aware of that conflict.

Rieux

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Tuesday May 26, 2009 · 11:31 AM PDT

2009/05/26 · 11:31

By now surely you've seen multiple diaries bringing the sad news that California's Proposition 8 has been upheld in a 6-1 decision of the California Supreme Court. That the 18,000 same-sex marriages that took place before Prop 8 passed were also allowed to stand is, unfortunately, small comfort. I know I'm one of thousands of Kossacks who will be working and donating to the fight to overturn Prop 8 at the ballot box as soon as legally practicable.

But to the extent that we're discussing the legal ins and outs of today's decision, I think Justice Carlos Moreno's dissenting opinion deserves some attention. Those--including several legitimate supporters of GLBT rights--who argue that today's decision was correct on the law would do well to review Justice Moreno's dissent.

Rieux

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Saturday April 04, 2009 · 1:49 PM PDT

2009/04/04 · 13:49

You know those silly "Security Check" things Facebook makes you do periodically, when you're commenting or adding friends or other things, to make sure you're not a 'Net-cruising robot?

Rieux

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Tuesday March 31, 2009 · 1:40 PM PDT

2009/03/31 · 13:40

The election contest court adjudicating Norm Coleman's challenge to the 2008 Minnesota Senate election has finished and published its order (32 pages, almost half of it exhibits) this afternoon. It calls for up to 400 absentee ballots to be opened and counted on April 7 and otherwise dismisses all of the parties' legal arguments that are specifically relevant to absentee ballots.

Last I looked, there's still nothing on the official court website. I'm told it should be posted at that site as soon as the clerk gets it, though.

Nef, in comments below, says The Uptake has the PDF of the Order (same thing I'm reading) up on the web at http://old.theuptake.org/... . I think ~~(s)~~he's right.

I put this up as I was reading, so it's a little bit discombobulated; sorry.

Rieux

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Monday March 09, 2009 · 10:32 AM PDT

2009/03/09 · 10:32

Scholars compiling 2008 edition of the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) have just publicized some of their numbers--and they show an American populace that is rapidly becoming more secular, less Christian, and less theistic.

Rieux

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Tuesday February 24, 2009 · 2:27 PM PST

2009/02/24 · 14:27

As you may well have noticed, the past several days have seen yet another flare-up in the argument between faithful and faithless on Daily Kos. For what is not the first--and assuredly will not be the last--time, one faction decries the negative consequences of atheist attacks on religious beliefs and/or people, while another argues that criticisms of religion are an unavoidable part of atheists' mere openness about who they are.

But an article published last week in the online version of Wall Street Journal suggests that there is at least one other way to come at the issue: the author, a Catholic professor of literature, argues that the current spate of atheist "attacks" on religion are good for religion, because they demonstrate a serious and public engagement with religious ideas that otherwise get too little play and interest in modern America.

I for one found the essay inspiring; perhaps you would too.

Rieux

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Thursday January 22, 2009 · 8:30 AM PST

2009/01/22 · 08:30

This week, Mrs. Rieux and I are joining millions of our fellow Americans heading toward Washington, D.C., to see our forty-fourth President--my former law school professor--inaugurated. I'd like to record the events of our nine-day trip in diaries; even if no one reads them, at least I'll have a nice scrapbook.

But if you're interested in following along as two Obama volunteers take a trip to the Inauguration and points beyond, read on....

Rieux

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Monday January 19, 2009 · 9:36 PM PST

2009/01/19 · 21:36

But if you're interested in following along as two Obama volunteers take a trip to the Inauguration and points beyond, read on....

Rieux

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Monday January 19, 2009 · 11:20 AM PST

2009/01/19 · 11:20

But if you're interested in following along as two Obama volunteers take a trip to the Inauguration and points beyond, read on....

Rieux

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Sunday January 18, 2009 · 6:46 AM PST

2009/01/18 · 06:46

But if you're interested in following along as two Obama volunteers take a trip to the Inauguration and points beyond, read on....

Rieux

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Saturday January 17, 2009 · 6:03 AM PST

2009/01/17 · 06:03

This week, Mrs. Rieux and I will be joining millions of our fellow Americans heading toward Washington, D.C., to see our forty-fourth President--my former law school professor--inaugurated. I'd like to record the events of the next several days in diaries; even if no one reads them, at least I'll have a nice scrapbook.

But if you're interested in following along as two Obama volunteers take a trip to the Inauguration and points beyond, read on....

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Potential Disaster in Minnesota

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