Future.

A physician friend is featured in two videos embedded below. For those readers who know me, further foreshadowing is unnecessary. If you don't me, I don't feel like explaining, at least yet. At this precise moment, I'm not sure what to say, so I won't say anything. If it's possible to be shocked, unsurprised and saddened all at the same time, then those are my coordinates. I'll need to work my way through cognitive dissonance, all the while trying to retain the example of Shimon Peres in the recent article at The Atlantic.

Understanding how dissonance operates reveals a few practical lessons for overcoming it, starting by exafarm-near-me/">mining the two dissonant cognitions and keeping them separate. We call this the “Shimon Peres solution.” Peres, Israel’s former prime farm-near-me/">minister, was angered by his friend Ronald Reagan’s disastrous official visit to a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where members of the Waffen SS were buried. When asked how he felt about Reagan’s decision to go there, Peres could have reduced dissonance in one of the two most common ways: thrown out the friendship or farm-near-me/">minimized the seriousness of the friend’s action. He did neither. “When a friend makes a mistake,” he said, “the friend remains a friend, and the mistake remains a mistake.” Peres’s message conveys the importance of staying with the dissonance, avoiding easy knee-jerk responses.

I'm not sure I can.

From April 29:

From July 13:

As for how this intersection of Christianity and medical science makes me feel, that's easy. It makes me feel profoundly uncomfortable.

Subtle bigotry against atheists is still discrimination.

I've never been shy about being an atheist.

I try to be who I am all of the time, publicly and privately. In part, this is to offer support and solidarity with those who feel they cannot openly embrace their absence of religious belief. In my case, this absence has been lifelong. The concept of "god" never made sense to me once I was old enough to be in school.

Being an atheist should not matter, and it does not matter -- except, of course, at times it does.

There are occasions during the course of my existence in New Albany when I get the strong impression that otherwise inexplicable behavior on the part of others can only be explained by their disapproval of my atheism. I could go into greater detail, but it isn't necessary. I ponder the extent to which certain opportunities have gone by the wayside because of this. Sleep isn't lost over these conjectured rejections; I'm the contrarian, combative and defiant sort. Maybe atheism has nothing to do with it, and they merely dislike the way I roll.

I still think about it every now and then. Consider these words to be philosophical musings, nothing more. It wouldn't be the first time that honesty raised hackles or inspired push-back.

I may be an atheist, but if you'd like to wish me a "Merry Christmas," I won't be bothered. It doesn't offend me, primarily because I'm keen on the notion of Saturnalia in ancient Rome, and that's where most of the specific Christian observances were borrowed, anyway.

However, if I reply to you by saying "Happy Holidaze," or "Superlative Godlessness for All," will you then be looking for ways to isolate me, or to shut me out of society? You needn't worry, atheist or not, because as Groucho Claus once said: "I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members."

Following is a letter I wrote to the News and Tribune in 2017.

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Subtle bigotry against atheists is still discrimination

Figures vary, but nine of ten Americans might believe in God. At least that’s what they say when asked. Many of these believers are Christian.

If another recent study is accurate, 69% of view a belief in God as necessary to be a genuine American.

This is highly disconcerting. Throughout history, atheists have been subject to criticism, persecution and at times overt eradication at the hands of believers of all faiths.

At the very least, atheists often experience a more subtle form of bigotry. For instance, a survey showed more than 30% of respondents preferring atheists be banned from the teaching profession.

Insecurity, intolerance and outright humbuggery always have been regrettable components of human society, and while majoritarian disapproval of atheism isn’t (yet) comparable to racism, sexism and other forms of institutionalized violence, it represents a form of discrimination characterized by ignorance, and one deserving of periodic counterpoint.

The News and Tribune sees fit to publish not one, but two Christian advocacy columns on a weekly basis. When I made my dismay known in a social media comment, I was told by a reporter that this makes perfect sense because many readers are Christians.

Interestingly, research published in the archive of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science suggests that more Americans (and newspaper readers) are atheists than may seem apparent, perhaps as many as 25 – 30%.

That’s because the stigma of atheism, as perpetuated by believers, causes many atheists to pretend they’re pious.

How very sad, indeed.

Council to consider revised noise ordinance: Paving the way for randomly scattered "noise traps," or non-enforcement according to the New Albanian norm?

Big noise on one-way Spring -- will Irv flick his Bic?

To reiterate past news, I'd love to be able to take the twice-monthly council packet and cut 'n' paste with text, but it is available only as a .pdf, so this is the best I can do.

Tonight's marquee item is a revised noise ordinance, to be introduced by at-large councilmen Knable and Barksdale.

Here's a look-see. If you're a believer, please pray that some day, city communications will catch up to the Year of Our Gahan 2016.

File under: Not Here.

Being a Tribune local guest columnist is so easy, a caveman can do it.

... and did, yesterday.

OLSON: Palin-osis spreads among some liberal women, by Doug Olson, Local Guest Columnist

In which a male "former teacher" (ouch) endeavors to speaks for womankind, while in the process pole vaulting over the thin line that separates satire from mean-spirited bile of the sort that currently is poisoning the presidential campaign.

Here’s a sneering snippet.

Palinosis is a near-fatal, always traumatic malady occurring in epidemic proportions among aging, left-wing “feminazis” (a little Rush Limbaugh lingo here) that long ago bought into the notion that all men were sexist pigs bent only on keeping women ignorant, barefoot and pregnant. In other words, women that are suddenly realizing they've been living a toxic lie for the last 30 years or so.

Presumably only Healthblogger is laughing.

The mystery to me is what the newspaper has to gain from encouraging sexist diatribes, but perhaps it’s just another sad measure of how far the level of discourse in America has fallen ... or how few reasonable local people are willing to aply for the position of local guest columnist.

Photo credit: http://www.gigglesugar.com/152917

Revamped council district map.

There'll be more time to barbecue the bologna.