John Keturi, acting moderator, said that he had a solution to the squabbling in Congress - bring back dueling. As Charles Gessert stepped up to the mike, he replied, "The Republicans are probably better shots."
Charles Gessert told about the petition by the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the Kansas Board of Education to have its theory of the creation also taught. The theory of gravity is wrong; it is the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) who holds people down to the earth with his numerous invisible tentacles. The adherents of the FSM are also known as the Pastafarians. But be safe on the web; I discovered that the website of that name is only a come-on to many commercial sites.
Charles Gessert also made several observations during the following give and take. I take any blame for misquoting him or falsely attributing him.
We choose problems on the basis of the solutions that are available that fit our ideology. (Discussion of "war on terror")I asked people to vote what they believe, not against a candidate. If you vote according to the polls, you may be wrong. I pointed out how neither Truman nor Ventura were predicted to win by the polls. In reply to another speaker who mentioned the accuracy of the polls, I pointed out that statistical sampling is fine for widgets on an assembly line, but that people are too variable. Others pointed out that large number of people don't even respond to polls. An afterthought: the polls will never reach people who have only cell phones and no land lines; this means many younger voters will never by polled - shades of Dewey-Truman poll predictions.
To have democracy we must have confidence in the integrity of the elections. (Discussion of fairness of elections)
Bill Sanville, a retired EPA employee, told about the closing of many EPA libraries, libraries that were open to scientists and made much research available to the public via the Internet. The reason is budget cuts. Somebody pointed out that the budget for the EPA libraries is $200 million, a drop in the bucket compared to much of the waste in the Federal government.
You can get over two million hits on "EPA" and "libraries". I chose the EPA Online Library System and entered frogs as the subject. I was shown 35 titles and chose
Sensitivity of Vertebrate Embryos to Heavy Metals as a Criterion of Water QualityIt was an abstract which said copies were available on microfiche or on paper at many EPA libraries. Could it be that certain people don't really want the public to know about such studies?
John Keturi said that a stable neighborhood can lose trust of one another if a single person can instill fear. I think he made this observation in a discussion of the "war on terror".
I didn't intend to be a minutes-taker and only jotted a few interesting thoughts down.
The Lake Superior Freethinkers is a loose coalition of people dissatisfied with traditional religion, and so there is no website or even contact person. It generally meets on the first Sunday in each month at the Radisson Hotel in Duluth, Minnesota. Coffee and conversation start at 9, brunch for $9 at 10, and speaker at 10:30 or 11. No topic or speaker were mentioned for the November 5th meeting.
