Fargo, North Dakota has declared 24 September to be Freethought Day, thanks to the Red River Freethinkers.
We're definitely going to have to have a party up North that day.
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Two organisms may maintain the same feature because both inherited it from a common ancestor. These are homologous similarities, and they indicate 'propinquity of dissent,' to use Darwin's words. Forelimbs of people, porpoises, bats and horses provide the classic example of homology in most textbooks. They look different, and do different things, but are built of the same bones. No engineer, starting from scratch each time, would have built such desperate structures from the same parts. Therefore, the parts existed before the particular set of structures now housing them: they were, in short, inherited from a common ancestor.
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More articles by PZ Myers can be found on Freethoughtblogs at the new Pharyngula!
Whoa…Fargo appreciates the godless!
Category: Godlessness
Posted on: September 4, 2009 6:00 PM, by PZ Myers
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Comments
Posted by: Travis | September 4, 2009 6:07 PM
Cool. This is one of those states I know very little about, aside from what I saw in Fargo. Glad to see some people out there are being reasonable.
Can anyone enlighten me on how reasonable this mayor really is?
Posted by: aineolach | September 4, 2009 6:10 PM
veeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeery cool
Posted by: Islander | September 4, 2009 6:11 PM
Inch by inch...
Posted by: Paul Burnett | September 4, 2009 6:14 PM
Do all the churches in Fargo know about this yet? http://www.christianemergencynetwork.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=501&Itemid=225
Posted by: JefFlyingV | September 4, 2009 6:17 PM
Wow, Congrats PZ. Who'd a thunk Fargo would be progressive?
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
|
September 4, 2009 6:21 PM
Wow, PZ's reputation is getting big enough they are trying to appease him. Still don't see free calamari and beer though. Still, it's a start.
*my hats doffed to any in ND who helped this come about.*
Posted by: Randy | September 4, 2009 6:23 PM
All I can think of is that foot in the wood chipper... You just put creationists through an intellectual version and it amazes me how many people put their feet in.
Have a good time don't cha know... [my piss poor attempt at a Fargo type turn of a phrase]
Posted by: Prazzie | September 4, 2009 6:27 PM
Been reading this blog a long time. Never saw this one coming.
So this is Fargo, North Dakota, America, right? Incredible. Wikipedia says "Fargo is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Dakota" - very nice indeed.
Posted by: Glen Davidson | September 4, 2009 6:33 PM
Wow, I wouldn't have expected that.
No reason freethought shouldn't have a day along with the rest, and apparently the mayor recognizes that fact.
Well, enjoy it, these sorts of days are few and far between.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/mxaa3p
Posted by: teachingsapiens.wordpress.com
|
September 4, 2009 6:34 PM
Fargo is just jealous you are already a Ky Colonel.
Posted by: marc buhler | September 4, 2009 6:35 PM
Hey PZ,
It may have been asked in the other thread before, but....
How much of your students grade can they earn by posting here and how many words do their posts have to be?
(And do we have to reply to them?)
Posted by: jj | September 4, 2009 6:44 PM
w00t Fro September 24th, my b-day
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 6:44 PM
Wow!
Was there a debate about it, or is it something the mayor can just decide?
Posted by: Tulse | September 4, 2009 6:46 PM
I'm betting this only went through because the proclamation used the relatively unfamilar terms "freethinking" and "humanism", and not "atheist" or "godless". I'm also willing to bet that there will be people who protest this proclamation once its actual meaning is made clear to them.
Posted by: Peter | September 4, 2009 6:48 PM
get ready for a shitstorm from the Fargo Christians
Posted by: bastion of sass | September 4, 2009 6:50 PM
How much do thoughts cost on all the other days in Fargo?
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
September 4, 2009 6:51 PM
Wow, PZ makes Human of the Year and therefore Fargo allows free thinking on one particular day. Who'd have (free)thought it?
Posted by: Uncle Roger | September 4, 2009 6:53 PM
What a beautiful document and sentiment.
Posted by: Mena | September 4, 2009 6:53 PM
Damn, I won't be going through there until the 27th. :^(
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 6:54 PM
w00t!
Fargo is looking better and better. If they would do away with the ridiculous 90-minute parking all over downtown, I'd be thrilled.
Fuck, that reminds me of a parking ticket I was supposed to pay last month :-/
Posted by: Gregory Greenwood | September 4, 2009 6:58 PM
This is an unexpectedly encouraging move. It is a pity that Mayor Walaker has almost certainly signed his own political death warrent by taking this action. The woo-soaked of Fargo will make sure of that.
Still, a step forward at least.
Posted by: Wowbagger, OM | September 4, 2009 7:02 PM
Oh, yah. That's a good one.
Posted by: Itchy Brother | September 4, 2009 7:06 PM
Nothing like having a signed and sealed government proclamation affirming that one is a member of the reality based community. Congratulations.
Posted by: Greta Christina | September 4, 2009 7:08 PM
Nifty! It does kind of make me wonder if they knew exactly what "freethinker" means. But I'll take what I can get.
(Even if it is making me think relentlessly of quotes from the movie. Did you know that there's an entire section in Steven Pinker's new book, The Stuff of Thought, on the sentence, "I was just thinking we could take care of it right here, in Brainerd"?)
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 7:08 PM
Downtown Fargo has a Catholic and a Lutheran (i think... some flavor of Protestant, anyway) church right across from each other (I always imagine them glaring at each other from across the street every sunday morning), just a few blocks from the theater. I wonder if either congregation will come to protest all that deliberate freethinking?
Anyway, this is a bit OT but the best thread in which to tell this story:
I've never known there were any women's health clinics anywhere in Fargo, which was one of the reasons I was always preferring Minneapolis as the next place to move to. However, on the last trip to Fargo we were walking around downtown when we saw a bunch on people standing around on the sidewalk, all wearing bright-orange shirts. First thought was "construction site", but on closer inspection they weren't; then we thought "people handing out pamphlets/petitions", but they weren't actually talking to anyone walking past them, just standing there. So it started dawning on me that this is some weird silent protest, and I glanced at the wall of the building they were standing in front of, and indeed: a small, unobtrusive and easily missed sign stated that there was a woman's health clinic inside!
If it weren't for the Orange Singing Catholics, I'd have never noticed that downtown Fargo has a woman's health clinic at all! :-p
Posted by: steve_h | September 4, 2009 7:13 PM
When you get there, either close your car door or turn your lights off - those warning bleeps get really annoying after a while.
Posted by: strange gods bless 'merica | September 4, 2009 7:19 PM
At the bottom of PZ's letter of thanks:
"P.S. No take-backs!"
Posted by: chuckgoecke
|
September 4, 2009 7:45 PM
North Dakota is, unknown to most of the rest of the world, a very pretty, nice and cool state. Cool, not only in the temperature sense of the word, but in the progressiveness of many its people and politicians.
Posted by: (((Billy))) The Atheist | September 4, 2009 7:53 PM
So will the GOP tell parents that they have to pull their kids out of Fargo for the day to avoid intellectual contamination? Or to avoid learning something?
Posted by: Quine | September 4, 2009 8:04 PM
Go north, young man!
Posted by: Earrnz | September 4, 2009 8:24 PM
Hey, that's my birthday! How appropriate!
Posted by: Brian Jordan | September 4, 2009 8:33 PM
@Jadehawk: "If it weren't for the Orange Singing Catholics, I'd have never noticed that downtown Fargo has a woman's health clinic at all!"
From this side of the Atlantic, that sounds like an unbelievable problem. Is it a euphemism for that euphemism "Family Planning" clinic? Which, in its original sense of contraception is so universal here as to be separately provided only for wayward children.
Posted by: Carolyn Ann | September 4, 2009 8:37 PM
Congratulations, PZ! :-)
That's quite an accolade, and well deserved.
Carolyn Ann
Posted by: ChimaeraLaurie
|
September 4, 2009 8:48 PM
The City of Sacramento does that every year! http://freethoughtday.org/
Last year we had Lori Lipman Brown, Mike Newdow (he's spoken here several times) and Matthew LaClair http://bit.ly/DisjH
We do have a different mayor this year. We'll have Freethought Day, but we'll see about the proclamation...
Posted by: Dustin | September 4, 2009 8:54 PM
All I can say is....
AWESOME!!!
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 4, 2009 8:55 PM
And why, you might ask, is freethought so strong in the north? Why do so many up here appreciate that there are, in fact, no gods?
Well, let's put it this way: have you ever had to get up at five am to shovel the driveway... and it's still almost as dark as midnight, 'cos the sun's not coming up 'til eight... and it's cold enough the frostbite would take all of two minutes on any skin you left exposed... and still, you put in two hours of risking a heart attack to dig out the car...
... And then, just as you're almost read to fire 'er up, the plow comes by and plows you back in?
(/That's why.)
Posted by: kamaka | September 4, 2009 9:04 PM
AJ Milna @ 36
30 below at wake-up is quite invigorating.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
September 4, 2009 9:09 PM
I'm disappointed with one part of the proclamation. Shouldn't it have been typed in Comic Sans?
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 4, 2009 9:13 PM
Shhh!
I mean, I know. I'm one of those, too... And I'm in a bit of a torpor, even, on hot days, don't even function quite right until it starts hitting at least 15-16 outside regularly, and I've even got a Perl script I run that tells me how many days are left until Mont Ste-Anne (earliest big hill in the East of Canada, typically, to open) might just be starting things up (70 days today... since I count 'til Nov. 15... tho' that might be a bit optimistic)...
... But I find if I mention such things out loud at this time of the year to some folk, as they're watching the first leaves fall somewhat more glumly than I do, they do tend to break out the pitchforks and torches and come climbing up the hill en masse, baying for blood...
(/So again: Shhhh!)
Posted by: Bert | September 4, 2009 9:18 PM
Very very nice. Grats PZ.
Posted by: BenW
|
September 4, 2009 9:20 PM
Wow.
Anyone thing Selma, Alabama will do this soon?
Yeah I didn't think so either but it is still great.
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 9:24 PM
I'm amazed that we could be members of the same species. Such a range of variation. I go unconscious at temperatures significantly below zero. Unconscious.
Posted by: Carlie | September 4, 2009 9:27 PM
AJ Milne - that reminds me, I still haven't bought wood for this year yet. Uff da.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
|
September 4, 2009 9:36 PM
We got folks like you 'round here too. Good thing the snow never quite gets deep enough in Edmonton to hide a body.
As for me, on those really hot summer days, when the sun beats down on my parked car, I'll hop in and just bake for a few extra minutes before starting 'er up and unrolling the windows, just to savour the heat.
Of course, the exact wrong way to survive a northern winter is to run from the house to the car to the office to your car to the house again. It really is a much more pleasant season if you slap on a pair of skates once in awhile.
Posted by: kamaka | September 4, 2009 9:39 PM
Ummm...30 below is, shall we say, easy to deal with. That 44 below morning was a bit tough, though...
What are you waiting for, Carlie?
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 9:41 PM
weirdo. I like cold. it's invigorating. on the other hand, anything above 75 and I start going catatonic... I guess I'm of AJ Milne's subspecies(alas, no mountains around here... oh how I miss the Alps...). Unfortunately, my boyfriend is of SC's, which results in all kinds of interesting situations.
:-p
Posted by: zimm | September 4, 2009 9:42 PM
Maybe we are all confusing the message completely. The proclamation states that Sept. 24th is freethought day, which means that all other days might then be non-freethought days. Could this be a conspiracy by non other than said orange wearing pamphlet pushers?
Congrats PZ!!
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 9:44 PM
though, I will admit that having your eyelids trying to freeze shut on the way to work is something that takes some getting used to, hehe
Posted by: Lilie | September 4, 2009 9:44 PM
Even the 40 below would be ok once in a while, and the snowstorm after snowstorm, but I dont think I can take another flood. That was too much. We need to get that flood control taken care of soon, or people (like me) are seriously going to snap.
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 4, 2009 9:46 PM
See... that's just...
Okay, I don't even know what that is... But I need something poured over ice having just thought about it...
(/No, I'm not planning on drinking it... More thinking I'm gonna swim in it.)
Yeah. Me too. And if I actually have to keep moving, it gets ugly... This madness sets in. You start to thinking: 'okay... took off as much as I'm likely to get away with... didn't help... mebbe if I just peel off my skin...'
Posted by: Lilie | September 4, 2009 9:47 PM
And in the midst of the flood, of course, everyone was praying for everyone to make it through ok. I think that is part of what put me over the edge. As though praying to god would make a difference, even though if this diety actually existed, he was the one who gave us the flood in the first place, probably to test our faith. And of course, we had Westboro Baptists actually say that "God hates Fargo"
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
|
September 4, 2009 9:49 PM
Sorry to hear about the flooding, Lilie.
While it's true the weather up here can kill you, it's probably not going to as long as you've got a place to go and a way to get there. (Sadly, many homeless die every year with the cold snaps, and even a few youngsters who tie it on a little too hard on New Year's).
Other than that, and the windshield scraping, it's not too bad.
But floods...floods suck.
Posted by: kamaka | September 4, 2009 9:49 PM
Lilie @ 49
The Red River Valley is the biggest floodplain in the world, I do believe. Stupid humans insist on living there.
Oh, well, this stupid human likes North Dakota.
Posted by: (((Billy))) The Atheist | September 4, 2009 9:50 PM
Wait. I just had a thought (shut up, (((Daughter))), it happens all the time). Perhaps Fargo is, in honour of PZed, declaring the day to be a day free of thought? A day when thinking of any kind is frowned upon? Sort of a GOP/fundogelical creationist IDiot type day. Then again, could a modern fundogelical religious Christianist dominionist asshat really be that subtle?
I'll stick with my earlier comment.
Posted by: Major Kong | September 4, 2009 9:52 PM
People up there like to say "40 below keeps the rif-raf out".
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 9:52 PM
*reads*
*faints*
:)
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 9:52 PM
a women's health clinic is standard OB/Gyn plus family planning, without the condescension and preaching you may risk at your regular OB/Gyn. Not a problem to find one in most cities or populous states, but a wee bit scarce on the ground in the emptier and more conservative states. (there is no Planned Parenthood here, which is the main source of those clinics)
And after having a nurse give me a "look" after I answered with a shrug to her question about whether or not I was gonna marry my boyfriend, I no longer feel comfortable in any other clinic other than those women's health clinics. I prefer non-judgmental people poking around in my girl-parts.
Posted by: Nerd of Redhead, OM
|
September 4, 2009 9:53 PM
When I was in dah UP, the walks home after work into a brisk breeze from the west and the temperature at minus 10-15 was a little much after the first quarter mile--and only another three quarters of a mile to go.Posted by: PsyberDave | September 4, 2009 9:58 PM
I think this sort of thing is a big fat waste of time and resources. I don't know that the amount of time, money and energy is particularly large relative to all the other government waste per se, but I just wish governments would stop declaring days, months or years to be special. It just seems silly to me; the year of the bible, Broccoli Appreciation Day, Cephalopod History Month etc.
If legislators are bored, I think they should stop billing the tax payers, go home and get a job.
Posted by: eric b | September 4, 2009 9:59 PM
Maybe that is where I should move....it has to be better than this backwoods place I live in currently. If not for my lovely wife and kids, I would have hit the road a long time ago.....need to find at least ONE like-minded person.
Posted by: Mike Haubrich, FCD | September 4, 2009 10:00 PM
I lived in Fargo/Moorhead for three years and not once did anyone try to talk me into going to church. There are three Universities there, and only one of them Lutheran. Maybe that explains it.
Posted by: kamaka | September 4, 2009 10:02 PM
Keep going or die...
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 10:04 PM
indeed. and this is generally when I start cursing the fact that unlike the male half of the population, i don't get to run around shirtless
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 4, 2009 10:07 PM
Seriously, I figure heaving the Westboro nutters say anything like that about you should probably be taken as something of a badge of pride... Even when he rants against other religious groups, I find myself thinking: 'Hrm... well... mebbe they're not so bad, after all...' Me, if I could somehow get him to picket me or somethin', I'd have a t-shirt printed up to commemorate the occasion, and wear it proudly.
(/Or, say, a bumper sticker. Text: 'Fred Phelps hates me... Honk if he hates you too...')
Posted by: kamaka | September 4, 2009 10:10 PM
this is generally when I start cursing the fact that unlike the male half of the population, i don't get to run around shirtless
Thank our godder buddies for that stupid rule.
Posted by: Brownian, Most Vicious & Petty of Pharyngulites
|
September 4, 2009 10:10 PM
There's one thing about the cold that one misses in a mild winter: bragging rights.
Our winters are long: it usually snows by Halloween and doesn't go away until mid-March to early April. It's dark, it's dreary, and gloomy. But unless there's at least one week of -35 or lower, you feel a little ripped off, like you joined the Navy Seals just after they'd gotten rid of hell week and replaced it with three weeks of potato peeling.
Ooh, and another benefit of the cold I learned on Boxing Day: if your car won't start for you because of the cold, it won't start for would-be thieves, either.
Hey, I'm not stopping you.
*grins mischievously*
Posted by: Rorschach | September 4, 2009 10:13 PM
Orange juice, meet keyboard !!
:D
Posted by: Eric B | September 4, 2009 10:20 PM
#67
You let OJ fly, I just shot a sunflower seed through my nose....pain...oh pain, but so funny nonetheless.
Posted by: Headwrench | September 4, 2009 10:21 PM
But, please, remeber that September 19 is worldwide "Talk Like A Pirate Day".
Arrrrrrrr!
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 10:23 PM
Shit. It's still September and you're making me depressed.
I can relate to what you're saying - fighting through it (though we don't get that cold), the camaraderie,...
Then again, fuck that. I'd move to Hawaii in a heartbeat.
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 4, 2009 10:24 PM
Yeah. Besides which, you can't so much shovel freezing rain (nor ski on it, nor, generally, skate on the canal after it's been bucketing down half a day), but you can still slide into a semi on it. And it pulls down power lines a lot faster than snow does...
I mean, it's all very nice they're talking about growing wine grapes at this latitude in a few more years, but honestly, otherwise, climate change bites, pretty much. Give me a bit of -35 here and there and a nice, normal winter, this year with lots of snow, and I really won't complain.
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | September 4, 2009 10:27 PM
Still don't see free calamari and beer though
Seeing as how Red Lobster is about the extent of the calamari in this part of the country (ND), it's best avoided.
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | September 4, 2009 10:36 PM
I'm amazed that we could be members of the same species. Such a range of variation. I go unconscious at temperatures significantly below zero. Unconscious.
This is why I laughed at Bostonians. They'd be going on about how cold it was, and I'd be thinking, "What are you talking about? It hasn't been below zero in three years."
Posted by: no2religion | September 4, 2009 10:47 PM
This poll needs correcting:
Should the motto "In God We Trust" be removed from U.S. currency?
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10103521/
Posted by: Chas
|
September 4, 2009 10:52 PM
Wow! Sometimes being in Oklahoma kind of sucks.
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 10:53 PM
*snarl* :)
But the snow, the ice, the freezing rain,... Ugh. (And yes, I know - don't make me link to that Little House on the Prairie Christmas episode which scarred me for life...)
(BTW, got your message and one from another friend during the last seconds of the Sox game. Thought you must be texting about that! Will write soon, but hope all is well out there, love.)
Posted by: R. Schauer | September 4, 2009 10:55 PM
I have a sister in Fargo, PZ that is nice and I've had many discussions with her re: gawd v. reason.
She teaches kindergarten in a Lutheran church school that is connected with her church that her deceased husband was the minister of. Man, would I love for you to meet her.
September 24th, hmmm, lemme see what I can do to get her there...oh man, would I love for you to meet her.
(wicked grin)
Posted by: Gyeong Hwa Pak | September 4, 2009 10:57 PM
Where I'm from, it gets hot enough to bake cookies in the car. So soaking in the heat wouldn't be ideal.
Posted by: Interrobang | September 4, 2009 11:00 PM
I'm an acolyte of Brownian's, I guess, being as since we've had a cool, wet summer this year with only about two weeks of proper hot weather in the whole time, I'm feeling cheated. I'm watching the trees start to turn and going, "Noooo! Curse you! We haven't even had a summer yet!" I'm gonna be really pissed once the snow comes, especially since last year, the snow came three days before Hallowe'en and didn't see fit to leave again until late May. I frankly want winter suspended this year. I loathe ice, don't like the cold, and think I would die if I had to move back to Alberta. On the other hand, unlike here in Ontario's tropical belt, it's at least dry cold out there...
this is generally when I start cursing the fact that unlike the male half of the population, i don't get to run around shirtless
Move to Ontario. It's been legal for everyone to walk around shirtless for years. Nobody does, but it is legal to do so.
Posted by: atom jack | September 4, 2009 11:01 PM
All this O.T. talk of temperature reminds me...I've spent 2 winters in Idaho, with -28F and a wind chill factor to -60F. One of my favorite activites in that weather was doing some welding on farmer's implements- the molten metal from the torch and the arc welder really helped with frostbite evasion. So, now, here I am in sunny California, where it was relatively cool: 92F in the shade, and I was out building a gate in the not-shade. I guess I can take the cold, but I'd still rather sweat than shiver.
Posted by: 'Tis Himself, Quel Dommage
|
September 4, 2009 11:03 PM
Now you know why I left Wisconsin and haven't been back later than September or earlier than April.
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 11:11 PM
It's confusing, but I believe it may be legal for women in New York City. I think people often assume it's illegal in places where there's no actual law against it.
Posted by: Jing-reed | September 4, 2009 11:12 PM
The Fargo christians are no doubt already preparing their wardrobe for the shitstorm - http://www.christianshirts.net/ [CAUTION: website is a scary place !]
Posted by: Chas
|
September 4, 2009 11:17 PM
Except for the weather of course. 95 degrees is optimal working conditions for me (up until the 3rd month, that is).
Posted by: Ktesibios | September 4, 2009 11:23 PM
Freethought Day is only 5 days after International Talk Like A Pirate Day.
Kewl!
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 11:25 PM
It's confusing, but I believe it may be legal for women in New York City. I think people often assume it's illegal in places where there's no actual law against it.
completely regardless of whether it's legal or not, i'd still be driven to the police station by the first cop around, and maybe even stuff me in the padded cell (after all, they stuffed my bf in it for wearing a chain around his neck)
Posted by: Bunk | September 4, 2009 11:27 PM
Maybe I'm a bit of a cynic, or maybe it's the paranoia associated with being an atheist in Alabama, but don't get too close to any wood chippers.
Posted by: Amy G | September 4, 2009 11:29 PM
Yay! I think it should be a national holiday.
Posted by: SC, OM | September 4, 2009 11:34 PM
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/08/24/2009-08-24_halfnude_women_march_by_park_for_right_to_bare_breasts_ya_cant_top_this.html
OK, it's the Daily News, and I'm not even going to look at the comments, but the event itself is interesting.
Why does everything in the US have to be such an issue? Our whole country is one giant fucking sneeze-guard.
Posted by: John Morales | September 4, 2009 11:36 PM
[OOT]
Chas @84,
That reminds me of March, 2008 here:
Adelaide had 15 days of temperatures above 35 degrees Celsius, including 40.5 yesterday, setting a capital city record in Australia.
Also, 2009 is officially Australia's hottest ever winter.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 4, 2009 11:37 PM
oh, I don't know if that was clear in my comment or not, I was talking about running around topless here in ND :-p
Posted by: MAJeff, OM | September 5, 2009 12:09 AM
But the snow, the ice, the freezing rain,... Ugh. (And yes, I know - don't make me link to that Little House on the Prairie Christmas episode which scarred me for life...)
So, you'll be visiting in the summer, then.
Posted by: SC, OM | September 5, 2009 12:24 AM
One word: inland. (Just typing it, the claustrophobia kicks in...)*
Possible. More likely, you'll want to pop back? I'm moving soon, to somewhere far more appealing! :)
*And don't underestimate the limitations imposed by a tiny income, Dr. Tenure-Track. :P
Posted by: TheVirginian | September 5, 2009 1:03 AM
I can't give you the dates off the top of my head here, but Mayor Nagin and the City Council of New Orleans have issued several National Day of Reason declarations over the past several years at the request of the New Orleans Secular Humanist Association. Also, NOSHA president Harry Greenberger has given several invocations at council meetings, including one just a few days ago. I'm not sure why N.O. is so liberal in this regard. Check newsletters on NOSHA's Web site for details.
Also, NOSHA has put freethought/atheism signs on a streetcar and a billboard.
http://nosha.secularhumanism.net/
Posted by: Meat Robot | September 5, 2009 3:03 AM
While you're all whooping it up and thinking freely, just remember to give a free thought for those 4 souls in Brainerd.
The two cent stamp is a fine stamp.
Posted by: Draken | September 5, 2009 3:41 AM
Where I'm from, it gets hot enough to bake cookies in the car.
Ouch, I read "cook babies".
Incidentally, I thought minus 40 was one of those inflated Fahrenheit numbers when I figured out that it is, in fact, also precisely minus 40 Celcius.
That is fecking cold. No I can't brag about Copenhagen or Oslo anymore.
Posted by: John Scanlon, FCD | September 5, 2009 4:32 AM
Re appreciation of godlessness; I've just watched this talk by buckyball-codiscoverer Harry Kroto from this year's Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting. I checked it out because on The Science Show today there were comments by various audience members after that very talk (postgrads and postdocs in chemistry from various nations), some generally agreeing but others a bit upset with his attitude to religious brainwashing of children. It's a few hours since I listened in (podcast is at the Science Show link, transcript will be up later) but one American voice was heard calling him a 'fundamentalist', and another one or two echoed the accommodationist line (essentially, that when Nobel laureates give highly entertaining presentations attacking the influence of god-belief on science education, it will turn students off going into science). Nothing we don't see every other day here at Pharyngula, but he seems to be doing some good stuff. And he works at Florida State!
Posted by: Aquaria | September 5, 2009 4:39 AM
I've been to Fargo. Not bad, as prairie towns go. I liked the weather, silly me. At least when it got cold in winter, it stayed cold for a while, unlike the worst place on earth, Rapid City, South Dakota. I swear, the temps there were psychotic. One day it's 20. The next day it's 70. Then it's 35. Then it's 68. Then it's 26 below.
Ugh. The wild variations gave me bronchitis that wouldn't go away. I'll never live there again.
Of course, right about now, I could go for 40 below. The past few months of being in San Antonio means that I've fucking had it with summer, which started for us in April.
Posted by: Richard Harris | September 5, 2009 5:08 AM
Every day should be Freethought Day!
For some of us, it already is. But we belong to a (mostly) social species, so it ain't gonna happen, not with any great degree of ubiquity, anyway.
And it's not only religion that infects humanity with irritating pseudo-viral memes.
Posted by: Freeman
|
September 5, 2009 5:24 AM
Congratz! PZ,
I wonder; is the expanding size of your head a genetic advantage?
Love the work you do!
Posted by: Matt Heath | September 5, 2009 5:30 AM
O yaaah!
Posted by: RHM | September 5, 2009 6:00 AM
I've been nearly giddy with excitement the last few days because we are finally (finally!!) installing our wood stove. Now, as I've been reading these posts, I can literally feel my seratonin levels plummeting: "shit!shit!shit! It's coming - face it. I need to get the blower serviced. Shit! I want pasta, garlic bread and pie for dinner (or fricassee?). Shit!"
I used to feel like you, AJ Milne, but now I'm asking myself: "why the fuck did I want to leave Arizona?!" Maine isn't ND, but it's too similar for comfort. Ice storms, we got 'um. Floods, you betcha. The occasional -30 F - un huh.
And, there's the snow.......
I need my head examined.
Before I go off for a sulk: Congrats PZ, for being a catalyst for Freethought in Fargo!
Posted by: Rixaeton | September 5, 2009 6:34 AM
So that is the ONLY temperature that makes sense? Silly Imperial US people.
Metric Rules!
*groan*
Posted by: daveau | September 5, 2009 7:07 AM
Today: Fargo, tomorrow: the world!
Since my Fargo experience is out of date, I don't know how many hardcore fundies you are dealing with there, but I would guess it's mostly Lutherans and Methodists; who, if they disapprove of atheism, will keep it to themselves, or possibly provide the scathing criticism: "Well, that's different."
Posted by: Hu | September 5, 2009 8:40 AM
Jadehawk, OM (#63):
Unlike some females as well. Isn't she gorgeous?
Posted by: Grant N | September 5, 2009 8:42 AM
PZ, congrats. Listed positively within four 'Whereas's'! Gotta be some kind of record. Do get an official copy for the PZ Freethought Library.
Posted by: Steve M. | September 5, 2009 10:23 AM
Why I'm not a lawyer:
WHEREAS. This word implies a recital, and in general cannot be used in the direct and positive averment of a fact in a declaration or plea. Those facts which are directly denied by the terms of the general issue, or which may, by the established usage of pleading, be specially traversed, must be averred in positive and direct terms; but facts, however material, which are not directly denied by the terms of the general issue, though liable to be contested under it, and which, according to the usage of pleading, cannot be specially traversed, may be alleged in the declaration by way of recital, under a whereas. Gould, Pl. c. 43, Sec. 42; Bac. Ab. Pleas, &c., B. 5, 4; 2 Chit. Pl. 151, 178, 191; Gould, Pl. c. 3, Sec. 47.
A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
Posted by: bobxxxx | September 5, 2009 10:27 AM
The mayor of Fargo almost makes me want to move to North Dakota from south Florida.
Posted by: Steve M. | September 5, 2009 10:29 AM
Come to think of it, why is legal/political speak so bizarre? PZ's "Proclamation" has a single sentence that spans half a page and still manages to be grammatically incomplete...
Posted by: Carlie | September 5, 2009 11:17 AM
Hu, those photos are pretty awesome.
I need to buy wood, but I hate doing it SO MUCH. It costs too much since we need it delivered, the last three guys I bought from gave me too much punky crap wood, I always feel like I'm getting ripped off, stacking it is a pain in the ass. But RHM, having the stove itself rocks so hard. Takes forever and a day to warm up, but then it's heaven.
It's hard to describe what happens once it's below 0 (F) - I was surprised at it the first time we had a big cold snap after I moved further north. The air is brittle and crystalline and sound travels differently... it's just weird. And after a week or two of it, 10 degrees feels like a heat wave. What I still can't get used to is having 2-3 feet of snow dump in a night, and having to go out every 2 hours to shovel out what's there so as not to get completely buried under by the end of it.
Posted by: Lilie | September 5, 2009 11:25 AM
When I was a girl, in the middle of Minnesota, we kept our whole house warm with a wood burning furnace. We had a lot of experience hauling and chopping wood. The furnace was in the basement and it was a pain to get to. One mild winter my mom got a little wood stove and we closed off part of the house and were able to keep it warm with just the little barrel stove.
Brrrr.
Posted by: Scott | September 5, 2009 12:28 PM
40 below? Yeah, that's bad for the prairie chickens. It's warmer than that here. Except when it snows, melts, freezes, snows more here, it's pretty bad. Maybe worse.
Because the city is built up and down a mountain. And you're going nowhere. Flat street? Ha.
A few of them. And some big hills too.
Nobody in Calgary gets to make fun of us if they haven't tried driving up Granville street in a foot and a half of snow, or navigate thed tree gauntlet hill sections of Grandview "Highway" when the entire road is sheathed in black ice and topped with slush.
Stupid Vancouver.
Posted by: AJ Milne | September 5, 2009 12:31 PM
(/Gets faraway look...)
But yeah, wood is a bit of a pain. We have a fireplace we don't use (not real efficient, but very pretty on the odd occasion... tend to just keep the damper blocked with one of those inflatable insulating pillows generally, tho') and a woodstove we do use (very efficient and very pretty, but almost too much--blasts so much heat at a decent sustainable fire I tend to have to hide a long distance from it most of the time, tho' certain others 'round here do appreciate it more), and I'm a bit overdue for picking it up this year, too... Adding to this the fact that some nasty beetle or other has tightened down restrictions on moving wood this year, and damn... I should probably get on the phone real soon now...
Posted by: John K | September 5, 2009 1:05 PM
As a native of Fargo I applaud them for doing this. I gave up going to the downtown Lutheran church when I was eight years old (realized that 'Big Blue Marble' on PBS had better value) I only wish that many of my friends would have figured out the same thing back then. I'm sure the Forum will have a field day with this... Wish I could be up there for the event but I'll be back in sunny AZ by the 20th.
Posted by: Jadehawk, OM | September 5, 2009 2:49 PM
indeed. the only redeeming value of having to walk to work at 5 in the bloody morning was the way everything looked. I shit you not, the air fucking sparkles!
Incidentally, I quit that job when in the middle of summer the AC broke and I was forced to work in 100F heat.
Posted by: Odonata | September 5, 2009 3:58 PM
Congratulations to PZ and to the Red River Freethinkers for making this declaration happen! I wish my city had a mayor like Dennis Walaker.
Posted by: Rebecca | September 5, 2009 5:11 PM
I was born and raised in Fargo. Back in the mid-80s, when I came of age, Fargo had a liberal mayor, Jon Lindgren (actually, he was mayor from the late 70s until the late 80s, I believe), who was vocal in his support of gay rights. And yes, there was and is a "woman's clinic" there which is the only clinic in ND to provide abortion services.
Also back in the 80s it was targeted by a religious group called the Lambs of Christ. They often tried to shut down abortion clinics like Fargo's -- single clinics that provided services for a broad geographical area. I had an abortion there in 1985. The picketers shoved pictures of bloody fetuses in our faces as my sister and I entered the clinic, and shouted "I know you don't want to kill your baby! We want to help you!" But when I came out a couple hours later, they wouldn't look at me. I remember being struck by the feeling that they didn't care about me or about women as individuals -- once we left the clinic, we are of no use to them. So much for "helping" me.
It's interesting that so many people had never heard of Fargo before the Coen brothers movie. Now everyone hears Fargo and thinks "woodchipper."
Posted by: Robor | September 7, 2009 5:13 AM
Onload of page my antivirus put alert, check pls.
Posted by: JM Shep | September 7, 2009 1:27 PM
@108
I had a friend from ND in college who frequently wore a shirt that said, "North Dakota, Alaska's Florida." Your comment made me think of that.
My dad is thinking about taking a job in Fargo, maybe the freethought will rub off on him. Or maybe I'll send him to Morris on his way up (he lives south of Minneapolis/St. Paul)...
Posted by: Casey | September 18, 2009 4:31 PM
As a Fargo citizen, I am very proud.
Fargo ranks #1 best overall environment by the Earth Day Network, as well as this free thought day.
Just tootin our own horn a bit . haha.