Dan

Kudos to Joe

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Joe Wurzelbacher, that is. He’s the “Joe the Plumber” of last night’s presidential debate fame. I’ve read about some of the interviews he’s given and I’m really impressed at the way he’s taking it. When asked about how he’ll be voting, he declined to say, but offered some words of wisdom.

I’m not telling anybody anything [about voting]. It’s a private booth. I want the American people to vote for who they want to vote for. I just want them to be informed.

He followed up with some words discounting his “celebrity” status.

I’m a flash in the pan, not a megastar. I’m not Matt Damon. I’m not any of those guys who have droves of women and men who want to be them or will vote for them because Matt Damon said so. I love his movies but I don’t have that kind of power.

Right now, I’m just completely flabbergasted by this whole thing and I’m sure if it happened to them they would be so, I just hope I’m not making too much of a fool of myself, and can get some kind of message out there, to watch actions and learn for yourself. Don’t take other peoples’ opinions. I mean, read it yourself.

He really comes off like a guy with a good head on his shoulders… well-spoken, humble, and intelligent. We need more people like him.

And no, Joe. You’re not making a fool of yourself. Cheers!

You’ve got to be kidding me.

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I just watched a video on Fox News of a Sean Hannity interview with McCain and Palin. It had its share of the usual claims that you would expect from either party’s candidate during a campaign, so that was no surprise and was expected. Both McCain and Obama regularly make claims about the other that are misleading (and sometimes blatantly untrue).

What really struck me in this interview, though, was McCain’s statement that Palin is “probably one of the foremost experts in this nation on energy issues.” He backed that up by saying that she was responsible for a 40 billion dollar pipeline bringing natural gas from Alaska and that she’s been on a board that oversees natural gas, oil, and other Alaskan resources. He says, “There’s nobody more qualified to take on our mission of becoming energy independence.” That’s not a typo. That was the quote.

I was dumbfounded by the claim that Palin is one of the foremost experts in this nation on energy issues. …Because she was the governor of Alaska? I suppose if you consider “energy” to be only oil and natural gas, that claim might not be quite so outrageous, but it’s still pretty far out there.

The 40 billion dollar pipeline claim is partially true, but misleading. She was partly responsible for moving the project closer to realization, but construction has not been started and the project isn’t a done deal yet. TransCanada, who is to be the builder, estimates that it will take 10 years to complete and will cost about 26.5 billion dollars, not 40 billion.

Either way, claiming that, because she’s been governor of Alaska, Palin is one of the leading experts in the country on energy is like saying that I have foreign policy experience because I can see Russia from my back yard.

Oh, wait…

Religulous Gets the Laughs

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Last Friday (October 3rd), a friend and I went to see Bill Maher’s new movie Religulous. It wasn’t showing locally, so we had a forty minute drive to get to a decent theater and we got there well ahead of time to make sure we weren’t thwarted by crazy crowds of Friday-night movie-goers. We had both been eagerly awaiting this movie for months and had very high expectations.

I’m happy to say that my expectations were easily met and even somewhat exceeded. From what I had understood about the movie from reading reviews and interviews, Maher was going for laughs. He was under no delusions that he would be coverting the “faithful” or changing peoples’ minds about their religious beliefs. He hit the nail on the head. Almost from the first minute, the whole audience was laughing. It kept on that way until about the last five minutes of the movie when the tone got more serious (but fitting) for the conclusion.

Maher is very deliberate to point out that he doesn’t describe himself as an atheist, which he defines as someone who knows God doesn’t exist. He says he is a doubter, since nobody can be sure one way or the other. However, what he is scathingly critical of is the unwavering faithful belief in something for which there is no evidence and which amounts to downright absurdity in many cases.

Thoughout the movie, he is extremely adept at pointing out these absurdities in many religiously cherished, irrational beliefs. For the most part, he simply asks questions in a variety of interviews with people from around the world. Most of his actual commentary comes in the form of video outtakes or in monologues delivered while travelling between interviews. Almost all the people he interviews are good natured and are happy to answer his questions. There are a few tense moments with a couple interviewees, but nothing major.

His simple questions and “what about this” scenarios do a great job at exposing the irrationality of religion… with hilarious effect. Whether he’s questioning Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Scientology, or Catholicism, he gets great laughs and even some of his interviewees join in the merriment. It’s a light-hearted journey for such a globally serious topic.

Maher will surely offend those who hold dear those same irrational beliefs that he amusingly questions, but for the rest of us, it’s a delight. I’ve even read some comments by people who have a great dislike for Maher, and even they enjoyed the movie. Of course, those who align with his beliefs will be the most appreciative of his religious mocking and it’s that crowd that will stay with him at the end of the movie when the tone gets serious, calling for an end to irrational, dangerous, dogmatic beliefs before it’s too late.

I stayed with him.