"Out of many, one"

I've always hated "In God we Trust" on our money and buildings. It's wrong and wrong. I would like to see it removed from our money, removed from the pledge of allegiance, and buildings.

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

E PLURIBUS UNUM
"Out of many, one"

Science can answer moral questions

Sam Harris talks about how science can answer moral questions.

Another one...

Greetings fly44d,
"...the god theory doesn't make sense." What god theory do you refer to? There are innumerable concepts of "God", not all are equally implausible, however, are you amongst those that presupposes that Islam posits the existence of an anthropomorphic God (ex. an "invisible man up in the sky" or perhaps some large humanistic observer completely separate from the universe?). And you are right, before accepting any way of life, you MUST challenge it sincerely.

Peace

At least he is polite. My reply (I had to go direct to him because the moderator of that video won't allow my comments anymore):

The moderator doesn't like me anymore...

To me, any concept of any god having any control of anything in this universe is the god theory. A theory being an explanation for observed data. At my level, it could be an old caucasian with a white beard, a Palestinian with long dark hair, a wooish wooy woo energy wooism in the 12th dimension, or a small white mouse. Whatever you might think god is, I doubt very much that it exists in any way shape or form. And so far the only evidence presented is scripture and interpretation of it. Meaningless to me.

Celebrating life beyond belief

"I may refrain from publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, but it's because I fear you. Don't for one moment think it's because I respect you."

I wish I could have gone to Australia to this convention, but then I'm sure there will be more in this country since the organizer is American.

Yamani or Your Life

A nasty attempt to coerce Danish newspapers into apologizing for the cartoons of Mohammed.

http://www.slate.com/id/2247256/

"It's not enough that faith claims to be the solution to all problems. It is now demanded that such a preposterous claim be made immune from any inquiry, any critique, and any ridicule."

Free speech is not negotiable as far as I am concerned. I think I'll go find a muslim to argue with on YouTube! :-)

Toot toot my horn...

I’ve been given a 60 day layoff warning and in defense of my position, I wrote the following:

“Mr. Tom Hail is being impacted by Mr. X. While Mr. X is an extremely bright employee it would be impossible for him to assume the duties and responsibilities of Tom Hail with six month’s training. Mr. X’S experience is in software development and project management which is not the position Tom Hail manages. This position is as the YYY spacecraft Certified Principle Engineer (CPE) as well as technical lead for YYY sustainment and reports to manager for 16 engineers. The CPE role itself requires extensive YYY knowledge to be able to assess impacts caused by proposed changes and on-orbit activities. The technical lead role manages the work flow of over 20 engineers in support of YYY sustainment which encompasses calibrations, state of health assessment, performance reporting and 24/7/365 anomaly response/resolution. Tom’s unique skill is his knowledge of the launch operations history, anomaly resolution and on orbit operations of the YYY constellation. Tom has nearly 30 years of geosynchronous spacecraft operations experience building this extensive background and knowledge of the YYY spacecraft. As the constellation ages, his expertise has been called upon more frequently in the resolution of on-orbit issues. The result is that the constellation is still, after over 50 years of combined on-orbit time, 100% mission capable partly due to Tom’s efforts. The launch of the ZZZ spacecraft is going to require this expertise by Tom and his team for sustainment and operations. Success of this planning is crucial for maintenance of the high award fees this contract traditionally garners. With the loss of Tom, the YYY team runs a very real risk of responding incorrectly or unacceptably slowly to anticipated hardware anomalies. Additionally, new, unanticipated anomalies are very likely to take longer for root cause resolution and potentially extended satellite downtime. Mr. X, on the other hand, has no YYY or any other relevant experience in the build, test, launch, or operations of any kind of ---- satellite. He appears to be a highly experienced software development expert which is unsuited for this position.”

Frankly, I haven't begun to try to find another position in LM. If they they do replace me (not likely at this point), I am not interested in working there anymore.