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Of Changing Winds

It is beginning to feel like fall here, which makes me very happy. I've been missing football lately more than I had in college, and I think the two items might be related--the midwest doesn't do seasonal transitions quite like the east coast.

This weekend, Summer and I hung out with other neuroscience types, attended a showing of The Seventh Seal, the Ingmar Bergman film which established the "guy playing chess with death" precedent which I find very interesting, and got Petey some innoculations. As for the film, it receives my stamp of approval, as it contains some thought-provoking dialogue (in Swedish!), a mix of excellent and over-the-top acting, and some lovely images and ideas.

Earlier in the week we attended The Exorcism of Emily Rose, which I both enjoyed and found more frightening than I expected.

As far as other domestic happenings go, things are relatively quiet. Summer and I got mixing bowls and wooden spoons yesterday. We continue to make and consume delicious meals, including a Saturday night feast of coconut-ginger soup, pad thai, and sake. School is manageable for both of us, and Summer seems to be off on a good foot, having given a well-received presentation on "internal oscillators" which establish circadian rhythms without even having to rely on the presence or absence of light! I am still waiting to be called on for Socratic dialogue in any class, but I am feeling very on top of all my material. School keeps me busy with functions to attend and work to do during the day, generally allowing for rather peaceful evenings.

Incidentally, further regarding the cats, Petey took his shots quite well and was back to lap-sitting and purring later in the afternoon, while Nory went on a kitten-rampage last night, skidding back and forth across the floor and attacking Summer's and my feet well into the wee hours of the morning, then leaving a shredded tissue on the ground for us to wake up to.

That's your update for now; here are some excerpts from a rather famous case regarding a statute requiring students to recite the pledge before it even contained the phrase "under God." To affirm key American values and contrast them with those of repressive fascist regimes, Justice Jackson wrote in West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 640-2 (1943) (emphasis added):

Struggles to coerce uniformity of sentiment in support of some end thought essential to their time and country have been waged by many good as well as by evil men. Nationalism is a relatively recent phenomenon but at other times and places the ends have been racial or territorial security, support of a dynasty or regime, and particular plans for saving souls. As first and moderate methods to attain unity have failed, those bent on its accomplishment must resort to an ever-increasing severity. As governmental pressure toward unity becomes greater, so strife becomes more bitter as to whose unity it shall be. Probably no deeper division of our people could proceed from any provocation than from finding it necessary to choose what doctrine and whose program public educational officials shall compel youth to unite in embracing.
[...]
The case is made difficult not because the principles of its decision are obscure but because the flag involved is our own. Nevertheless, we apply the limitations of the Constitution with no fear that freedom to be intellectually and spiritually diverse or even contrary will disintegrate the social organization. To believe that patriotism will not flourish if patriotic ceremonies are voluntary and spontaneous instead of a compulsory routine is to make an unflattering estimate of the appeal of our institutions to free minds. ... If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. ...
We think the action of the local authorities in compelling the flag salute and pledge transcends constitutional limitations on their power and invades the sphere of intellect and spirit which it is the purpose of the First Amendment to our Constitution to reserve from all official control.

There you have it.

P.S. Thank you for the further information regarding the Presbyterian Church. Once further discussion has clarified the mud puddle of my mind, hopefully I'll be bringing it up again. In the meantime, I'll likely be moving your comment to the main page soon.