Quote of the day: Thos. Jefferson on Christian dogmatism

the greatest of all the reformers of the depraved religion of his own country, was Jesus of Nazareth. Abstracting what is really his from the rubbish in which it is buried, easily distinguished by its lustre from the dross of his biographers, and as separable from that as the diamond from the dunghill, we have the outlines of a system of the most sublime morality which has ever fallen from the lips of man; outlines which it is lamentable he did not live to fill up. Epictetus and Epicurus give laws for governing ourselves, Jesus a supplement of the duties and charities we owe to others. The establishment of the innocent and genuine character of this benevolent moralist, and the rescuing it from the imputation of imposture, which has resulted from artificial systems,* invented by ultra-Christian sects, unauthorized by a single word ever uttered by him, is a most desirable object, and one to which Priestley has successfully devoted his labors and learning. It would in time, it is to be hoped, effect a quiet euthanasia of the heresies of bigotry and fanaticism which have so long triumphed over human reason, and so generally and deeply afflicted mankind; but this work is to be begun by winnowing the grain from the chaff of the historians of his life.

* e. g. The immaculate conception of Jesus, his deification, the creation of the world by him, his miraculous powers, his resurrection and visible ascension, his corporeal presence in the Eucharist, the Trinity; original sin, atonement, regeneration, election, orders of Hierarchy, &c.

From Jefferson's letter to William Short, Oct. 31, 1819.

House Expands Federal Aid to College Students

Hip Hip Hooray. Say good-bye to the multi-billion-dollar annual boondoggle that generously pads the profits of banking institutions for writing up student loans, while the Federal gov't (translate: taxpayers) takes all the risk:

“This legislation provides students and families with the single largest investment in federal student aid ever,” said Representative George Miller, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, who wrote the bill. “Today, the House made a clear choice to stop funneling vital taxpayer dollars through boardrooms and start sending them directly to dorm rooms.”

Under the current program, the government pays subsidies to lenders and guarantees the loans. All colleges would be required to convert to the federal Direct Loan program by July 1, 2010.

The measure passed handily in the House; looks like it will breeze through the Senate also. Finally some measure of sanity prevails, if only for a moment.

Cutting back on salt could save U.S. billions

Cutting back on salt could save U.S. billions - Diet and nutrition- msnbc.com:

...researchers estimate that if the average sodium intake fell to the recommended level of 2,300 mg per day, there would be 11 million fewer cases of high blood pressure each year. (Estimates are that about 70 million American adults have high blood pressure.) The costs of treating high blood pressure and related heart disease and strokes would fall by $18 billion.

Cutting sodium consumption down to 1,500 mg, they say, could save $26 billion.

So before we go spewing about how some group of Others costs the taxpayers money we didn't agree to spend, each of us oughtta check our diet. How many mg of sodium a day do you consume? Do you know? If not, why not?

Wanna give your baby its best shot at life? Move to a country with socialized health care.

posted by i.n.kazar

As a follow-up to my examination of life expectancy here is a selected list of countries in order of "number of infant mortality deaths per 1,000 live births. On this list, the closer one is to #1 the worse the survival rate of newborns, so I'm starting from the end.


224. Singapore: 2.31 infant deaths/1000

223. Bermuda: 2.46

222. Sweden: 2.75

221. Japan: 2.79

[and again: "OK but where's the U.S., did you skip it??"]

217. France: 3.33

214. Norway: 3.58

211. Czech Republic: 3.79

204. South Korea: 4.26

198. Netherlands: 4.73

196. Australia: 4.75

193. United Kingdom: 4.85

189. Canada: 5.04

["WHAT ABOUT THE U.S.?!" ... hang on, I'm almost there]

181. Cuba: 5.82

[and now quite a decline between Communist Cuba and the next one on the list ...]

180. United States: 6.26

Yes, that is right, according to the CIA's figures your baby born in this country is 2.7 times as likely to die in infancy than a baby born in the top-ranked Singapore. At number 38 from the end of the CIA's reverse-ranked list, the U.S. ranks near the bottom of the second decile when looking at the survival rate of infants around the globe.

Still think that our money-driven health system is something to cling to? I have some ideas as to why our infant mortality rate would be so high, but I'll leave that for a possible future post.

Photos of the day: California Wild Fire

The Boston Globe has assembled a stunning, scary collection of photos for their Big Picture online section, such as this one: