Scott Van Den Plas : Philosopher

At the Field Museum, there is a display on “African Genius in the Americas” at the end of the Africa exhibit.

It reads:

African-Americans have created technologies, philosophies, religions, political movements and artistic expressions that have helped shape every culture in the Americas. By doing so, they’ve made all our lives much richer. This list of African-American innovators and innovations, as well as African-American contributions to our shared history, is far from complete. It’s merely a sampling of African-American genius.

This seems completely benign and appropriate at first glance, but please note the entry in the far bottom left of the picture as well as second from the top at far right. Find it here.

For years, my father worked as the warehouse manager for Ethan Allen furniture. I don’t recall how long he worked for them, but I believe it was 10 or 15 years. Whatever it was, it was a fairly long time, and he had put in a lot of hard work for them.

One day in 2002, my father started to feel dizzy and disoriented at work. He felt as if he had the flu and had a hard time with balance, so he went to the doctor. His condition started to rapidly decline and he ended up being admitted to the hospital. The medical staff surmised that he was dealing with the repercussions of a brain infection and the swelling was causing the symptoms. They gave him a CT scan to confirm the diagnosis and ended up finding three very large, but fortunately benign, brain tumors… one of which was the size of an orange. These, coupled with an unknown infection (results came in later that he was also suffering from the West Nile virus), were causing his symptoms.

It was a hard diagnosis and my father needed to have brain surgery to remove as much of the tumors as possible. It was only moderately successful. They removed the one larger tumor, but there was too much bleeding and too high of a risk to remove the other two.

While in the hospital recovering from this surgery, head shaved with staples holding his skull together, my dad received a letter from Ethan Allen, his long term employer. This letter stated that they were eliminating my father’s position and that they would no longer need his services. Not only did this leave my father in a panic, but it also left him with no job, no money, no health insurance, and no possible recourse from the intensive care unit. Ethan Allen fired my father, for no cause, while he was devastatingly ill, after a decade of undeniably devoted service.

I hope you’ve found this page while searching for Ethan Allen furniture. I hope you read this story. I hope you decide to avoid giving Ethan Allen any of your money. Try Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, or Room and Board. They all have better furniture anyway. Send the message that character counts.

I love politics. I love the argument, I love the convictions, and I love the deep critical global meaning of it all. I had some serious issues in deciding my candidate, as I assume many people have this year from how close these contests have been.

Sure, I was disappointed with Bill Clinton’s behavior and Hillary’s manipulation of vocabulary. This certainly did not bring me any closer to voting for her, but ultimately it was not the reason that I voted for Barack Obama. I voted for Barack Obama for one simple reason. One deeply intellectual and experienced person in the Whitehouse can only do so much. One truly inspirational leader in the Whitehouse can drive the cause to a much larger group, and can motivate an army of intellectual and experienced people for the greater good.

I love the line “We are the ones that we have been waiting for.”

The Democratic ticket will not be decided tomorrow, but due to differences in the nominating procedures between the Democrats and Republicans, there is a real chance that John McCain will walk away about 24 hours from now with the Republican Nomination.

I just realized what this means. No matter who wins the Presidency, Republican or Democrat, the theory of evolution will return to acceptance in the White House.

Refreshing.

I am consistently amazed at how bad customer service can be, but I am especially amazed at how bad it can be around the most basic functions.

Beth’s wallet was stolen a few weeks ago, and the credit card we had associated with the Comcast auto-deduct was replaced with a new card. For some reason, Comcast cannot set up automatic payments over the phone, so they supplied us with our username and password to login to the site to update the card information. Seems easy enough.

We log in to comcast.net, go to My Account, and then View/Pay our Bill. And here’s where everything falls apart.

Clicking that link tells me that I need a Comcast account. Which, of course, we already logged in with, but it asks us to recreate our account. Attempting to recreate the account, tells me there is already an account with our associated information, so it cannot recreate it.

So we call support. Comcast Customer Support literally cannot tell you how to login to your account. I am not kidding, we have been working on this for 45 minutes with a customer support agent, and she cannot figure out what account we login to, how to reset the password, or even which domain (comcast.com or comcast.net, which use different credentials, both of which are required apparently) to log into.

30 minutes into the call, we’re finally transferred to another support person. That person transfers us to another person, who then says we need to supply her with a PIN to continue. Our response… what PIN? And why the hell would we have to give you a PIN 45 minutes into this god damn support call? Finally, this representative tells us that everything that every other rep has told us so far was incorrect, and then gave us the proper credentials to log in. To simply setup automatic payments with Comcast, prepare for a 45 minute conversation with 3 customer service idiots.

I’m currently looking for viable broadband options, if anyone has a good suggestion in the Chicago area. The sad thing is that I know, no matter who we end up with, this is going to remain a problem. It is easier to ditch your service provider and pick up a new one every time there is a problem rather than try to talk to support.

I recently caught the videos of the Richard Dawkins Foundation’s “The Four Horsemen” on YouTube. At some point, I may embed all of them, but I thought that this exchange between Dawkins and Hitchens was amazingly insightful.

Hitchens - A question I wanted to ask is this, we should ask ourselves what our real objective is. Do we, in fact, wish to see a world without faith. I think I would have to say that I don’t. I don’t either expect to, or wish to see that.

I don’t think it is possible, it replicates so fast, faith, as often as it is cut down or superseded, or discredited. It replicates, extraordinarily fast, I think for Freudian reasons. Principally due to the fear of extinction.

The other thing is, would I want this argument to come to an end? With all having conceded that Hitchens really won that round, and now nobody in the world believes in god. Now apart from being unable to picture this, I am not completely certain that it is what I want. I think it is, rather, to be considered the foundation of all arguments about epistemology, philosophy, its the thing that you have to always be arguing against.

Dawkins - I understand that you’re saying that it will never work, but I don’t understand why you wouldn’t wish it.

Hitchens - I think a bit like the argument between Huxley and Wilberforce, or Darrow and William Jennings Bryant. I want it to go on.

Dawkins - Because it is interesting?

Hitchens - I want our side to get more refined and theirs to be more exposed, but I can’t see it with one hand clapping.

I have to say, my appreciation of Hitchens is growing with every encounter. Buy the DVD here, and watch the exchange here:

I normally either bike or run in the mornings for my workout… but this morning I woke up to a foot of snow trapping me indoors. After being inspired by the local news telling me that I can burn 500 calories an hour shoveling snow, I decided to do just that.

I highly recommend it, it was a blast. I ended up shoveling snow for our house, and all of our neighbors. It took me 2 hours, but at least a dozen grateful people and 1000 calories later, I was done. Now I just wish I could get my car out of our garage.

You’re welcome 900 block of Paulina! =)

As a follow up to my earlier posting about the locations for early voting in Chicago… here is a handy map to use for a reference if needed. Remember, you can vote at ANY of these sites, no matter where you live! Pick the one easiest for you!

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I have a love-hate relationship with Hitchens due to his incredible raconteur philosopher-like qualities marred by his betrayal of Blumenthal. I have recently come to the realization that Hitchen’s side of that story is completely understandable, and in the least fits his personality perfectly… thus I have nothing to add to this:

Have you ever prayed in your life?
I probably once did pray for an erection, but not addressed to anyone in particular. Nor completely addressed to my cock. You’re too polite to ask if the prayer was answered.

Was it?
No. There was an answer, but I don’t think it was the result of the prayer. After all, if one was not a mammal, and could get erections on demand, there’d be no need for prayer in the first place.

Source.

From here:

Early Voting Sites & Hours
Chicago voters may use any of these sites for Early Voting, which will be offered January 14 - 31, 2008, for the February 5, 2008 Primary Election. Remember:

1. Bring a government photo ID.
2. You don’t need an excuse or reason to vote early.
3. Use any Early Voting site, no matter where you live.
4. All sites open Mon.-Sat. 9 to 5, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
5. All Early Voting sites in Chicago are fully accessible.

Early Voting Hours:

Monday - Saturday, All Locations, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
All sites open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!

Sundays: Only at Election Board Headquarters, 9 a.m. to noon

Need more info? See below or call 312-269-7900 / TTY 312-269-0027

1st Ward Goldblatts Building 1615 W Chicago Ave
2nd Ward Mabel Manning Library 6 S. Hoyne Ave.
3rd Ward Chicago Bee Library 3647 S. State St.
4th Ward M L King Community Ctr 4314 S. Cottage Grove Ave.
5th Ward Jackson Park Field House 6401 S. Stony Island Ave.
6th Ward Whitney Young Library 7901 S M. L. King Jr., Dr.
7th Ward Jeffery Manor Library 2401 E. 100th St.
8th Ward Olive Harvey College 10001 S. Woodlawn Ave.
9th Ward Palmer Park 201 E 111th St.
10th Ward Vodak/East Side Library 3710 E. 106th St.
11th Ward McKinley Park 2210 W. Pershing Rd.
12th Ward Back of the Yards Library 4650 S. Damen Ave.
13th Ward West Lawn Park 4233 W. 65 St.
14th Ward Archer Heights Library 5055 S. Archer
15th Ward West Englewood Library 1745 W. 63rd St.
16th Ward Sherman Park Library 5440 S. Racine Ave.
17th Ward Thurgood Marshall Library 7506 S. Racine Ave.
18th Ward Wrightwood-Ashburn Library 8530 S. Kedzie Ave.
19th Ward 22nd Police District 1900 W. Monterey Ave.
20th Ward Coleman Library 731 E. 63rd St.
21st Ward Woodson Regional Library 9525 S. Halsted Ave.
22nd Ward Piotrowski Park 4247 W. 31st St.
23rd Ward Clearing Library 6423 W. 63rd Pl.
24th Ward Douglass Library 3353 W. 13th St.
25th Ward Chinatown Library 2353 S. Wentworth Ave.
26th Ward Humboldt Park Library 1605 N. Troy St.
27th Ward Union Park 1501 W. Randolph St.
28th Ward West Side Learning Ctr 4624 W. Madison St.
29th Ward Amundsen Park 6200 W. Bloomingdale Ave.
30th Ward Portage Cragin Library 5108 W. Belmont Ave.
31th Ward Blackhawk Park 2318 N. Lavergne Ave.
32nd Ward Pulaski Park 1419 W. Blackhawk St.
33rd Ward Independence Library 3548 W. Irving Park Rd.
34th Ward West Pullman Library 830 W. 119th St.
35th Ward Logan Square Library 3030 W. Fullerton Ave.
36th Ward Hiawatha Park 8029 W. Forest Preserve Dr.
37th Ward West Chicago Library 4856 W. Chicago Ave.
38th Ward Wright College - Science Bldg 4300 N. Narragansett Ave.
39th Ward N. Park Village Admn Bldg 5801 N. Pulaski Rd.
40th Ward Budlong Woods Library 5630 N. Lincoln Ave.
41st Ward Roden Library 6083 N. Northwest Highway
42nd Ward Access Living 115 W. Chicago Ave., Floor 2
43rd Ward Lincoln Park Library 1150 W. Fullerton Ave.
44th Ward Merlo Library 644 W. Belmont Ave.
45th Ward Edgebrook Library 5331 W. Devon Ave.
46th Ward Truman College 1145 W. Wilson Ave.
47th Ward Welles Park 2333 W. Sunnyside Ave.
48th Ward Edgewater Library 1210 W. Elmdale Ave.
49th Ward Pottawattomie Park 7340 N. Rogers Ave.
50th Ward Warren Park 6601 N. Western Ave

* The Chicago Election Board site at 69 W. Washington St. is the only Early Voting site with Sunday hours, from 9 a.m. to noon.

Unlike voting absentee, you DO NOT need an excuse or reason to utilize Early Voting. Those who vote early cannot vote again on Election Day. A list of all early voters will be provided to the judges of election prior to the opening of the polls on Election Day.

REMEMBER: If you are registered to vote, you may use ANY site during Early Voting. Voters who wait until Election Day may cast ballots only at their assigned polling places.

Each early-voting site is equipped with touch-screen stations. The touch-screen stations are loaded with every type of ballot.

Pollwatchers are allowed to monitor early voting.

Early voting ballots will not be tabulated until the close of the polls on Election Day.