I recently picked up a book called “Excel for Chemists” by E. Joseph Billo.  The book is written for simpletons like myself who use MS Excel but, for one reason or another, haven’t invested the time to become “Power Users”. The book has a chapter on the deconvolution of data.  For those who may not know what this is, it is a technique of extracting individual signals from coincident signals that are overlapped and therefore summed in the detected signal. 

Thinking about this concept of apparent signals as actually consisting of summed components got me to consider how the concept shows up in nonscientific aspects of our lives as well.  In particular, the controversial matters of the evolution of life and the definition of marriage come to mind as separate examples of convoluted “signals”.

One of the more strident voices out there on the topic of marriage is Rep. (R-CO) Marilyn Musgrave.  Musgrave is doggedly pursuing a Marriage Amendment for the US Constitution.  She and her party are concerned that the granting of marriage rights to same sex partners somehow threatens the sanctity and stability of marriage. This issue of same sex marriage is a sure-fire initiator of moral outrage and blowtorch sermonizing by the evangelical Visigoths of the airwaves.

I have heard no public discourse taking into account the fact that in the US, marriage is typically sanctioned under two spheres of influence. Parenthetically, it is along the lines of what Stephen Jay Gould has called “non-overlapping magisteria“. 

(Note: try to ignore for a moment the fact that divorce is the biggest threat to marriage and instead focus on what marriage actually is so we can move forward with this argument.)

Here is the deconvolution part. There are really two domains of marriage- 1) Marriage under the state, and 2) Marriage under the church.  In domain 1) , the state has a compelling interest in regulating marriage in part because it will likely be called on to intervene in the dissolution of the marriage agreement.  The interest of the state is in the disposition of minor children, property, debt, and other aspects of settlement. It is called divorce. Marriage is a type of partnership that almost always entangles others in a community, so the state has imposed its presence in the matter.

In domain 2), the realm of the supernatural interface, women and men are married by exchanging vows in the presence of the community and in plain view of the diety. In the end, as the doctrine goes, persons are accountable only to their creator in regard to their marital conduct on earth. Rules of conduct have been rendered liturgical and passed down through this formalism we call religion.  The dominant religion in the US is obviously Christianity and it is widely interpreted that marriage specifies the union of a woman and a man to be united in a bonding under the all-seeing, unblinking eye of the creator. 

The taxonomy that has shaken out over the millenia is that the term “marriage” has been widely accepted to mean the union of male & female. It conveniently aligns with the biological imperative for reproduction.  Centuries of precedent have made a strong case for a fixed definition of “marriage”.

However, in modern times there is growing interest in sanctioned same-sex pairings. Proponents argue that same sex partners should be accorded the same rights that are taken for granted with partners in conventional marriage. The more politically astute have advanced the term”civil union” and have argued that the state should construct a statutory or constitutional safe harbor. 

In the domain of the state, marriage is a type of partnership not unlike business partnerships.  A civil union can be thought of as a type of partnership, but with spousal rights that might be a bit more far reaching than that found in business.

Use of the term “marriage” when applied to same sex pairing will drive some religious citizens barking mad. Conversely, use of the term “civil union” is cynically dismissed as a transparent ruse to demolish the meaning of marriage by application of a sly semantic subterfuge.

By deconvoluting the problem, we’re left with two domains that historically have input on the issue of same-sex marriage- The state and the church. The states authority is backed by the courts and the penal code for enforcement and punishment.  The church can offer excommunication or other forms of dis-affiliation as earthly punishment and threats of punishment by searing hellfire in the afterlife.  

Conclusion.  At the very best, this is an issue that affects only a small fraction of the population of citizens. I have seen nothing that serves as a tangible threat to married citizens.  While I think that reserving the term “marriage” for opposite sex pairings is justified on the basis of precedent, I do think it is reasonable to codify similar rights and priviledges into an analogous partnership between same sex partners. It would be interesting to see if the Equal Protection clause applies. 

Note: This essay is a work in progress. Like a block of marble where the figure is inside waiting to be found by the artist, the rhetorical form of the point I’m trying to make is still partially buried in the marble. It takes me a while to find the form.  -Th’ Gaussling

If you don’t read The Atlantic magazine, you should.  The writing is good and the content seems to be reasonably researched.  James Fallows is especially amusing to read.  A while back he wrote an essay called a “Nation of Ninnies“.  Perhaps my fondness derives from the fact that this essay expresses my own sentiments on risk and how we respond to threats.  Fallows observes that whereas at one time our national character might have been exemplified by the Gary Cooper persona, we now resemble Mr. Bean or Pee Wee Herman. 

When uncertain, when in doubt, run in circles, scream and shout

There has been another outbreak of good news.  Dr. Senator Bill Frist, M.D., is returning to the healing arts and away from a run in the 2008 presidential campaign.  Somehow the prospect of being up to his elbows in smelly bowel resections or skewering goiters was preferable to running for president.  It’s just my opinion, a shameless personal bias really, but I’d like to see someone from north of the Mason Dixon line live in the White House for a term or two. We could all use a breather.

Finally, the US has banned the sale of iPods to North Korea.  Darned tootin’.  That’ll fix their wagons.  Makin’ nuculer weapons … we’ll show ’em.  According to the AP, this was designed to personally aggravate that tufted Stalinist weasel, Kim Jung Il. OK, I’m for that.

The mind boggles at the recent passing of Alexander Litvinenko in London.  This poor sod was evidently dosed with some radiological hellbroth, possibly at a sushi bar. Crimony. Authorities found the radionuclide Polonium-210 in his urine.  According to the Radiological Health Handbook, US Department of Health, Education, & Welfare, January 1970, Po-210 is an alpha emitter (5.31 MeV) with a half-life of 138.4 days. It decays to Lead-206 which is stable. The specific activity of Po-210 is about 4,500 Curies per gram. 

This bad actor has a half-life long enough to handle, but short enough to be intensely radioactive.  Like the proverbial ice dagger, the evidence rapidly decays to the asymptote of the background.  And, alpha particles are more problematic in their detection, given their low penetration ability.  Not all survey counters will pick up alpha’s, so samples must be taken and prepared for analysis.  And, someone must first have cause to suspect radiological mischief. 

Obviously, this is the work of some fiendish mind. 

The decay table shows the decay events from Radium-226 to Lead-206.  The decay of Polonium-210 is the last decay in the series.  This graphic is from the Radiation Health Handbook.  Unfortunately, the 1970 edition of the Handbook does not give a target organ.  I have no clue as to common chemical forms of polonium compounds.  However, given it’s high specific activity, chemical toxicity may be negligable relative to the radiological insult. 

I show the decay table only because some might find it interesting to see where Po-210 comes from.  Hopefully, the health physics people who investigate this might find other nuclides that could give a hint as to the production source of the Po-210.

This reprehensible action reminds us that civilization is a veneer that is only a millimeter in thickness.  A radiological assault of this sort is especially sneaky in its execution and savage in its effects.

(*Weasel words- I am not a health physics person. My experience is limited to a semester course in radioisotope techniques and safety in grad school given by a radiation biology department.*)

What an amazing thing it is to see, the great ship of state shifts its mighty rudder and the bow turns a few degrees in another direction. With the US House of Representatives under a Democratic majority, the whole calculus of power changes sign. The house that Gingrich built has found unruly new tenants.  Congressional oversight of the executive branch will begin in earnest.  The revolution will be televised.  Subpoena’s will swarm up Pennsylvania Avenue like the swallows of San Juan Capistrano.  

Verily, pity not the wretched and rejected Republicans, for they still own the Executive branch, the Senate, and the supreme court.  And Lo! Malleable though the Senate may be, the smirking majority voting bloc of SCOTUS- Scalia, Roberts, Alito, and Thomas- are tenured unto their last breath. 

Thus spake Zarathustra.

(*End Dream Sequence*)

Another far right-wing character bites the dust.  Seems that Colorado Springs preacher-man Ted Haggard, mullah of the New Life Church, commander of the “Spiritual NORAD”, weekly advisor to George Bush II, and PT Barnum of the New Testament, has been leading a double life.  Seems he has a private taste for what he publically condemns.  Holy revelations, Batman. 

This is a tragic comedy.  There is some smug satisfaction in seeing a prominent theocrat get tangled in a web of his own construction. A most humiliating experience it must be, to be caught indulging in the most forbidden pleasures of the flesh.  But the fall of Ted Haggard is only the tragic part. 

The comedy part relates to the mechanics of operating theocracy.  Theocracy is governance by revelation.  Self-appointed persons claiming to have received special instructions by, or have special sensitivity to, a supernatural being are the governors of a theocracy.  There are no checks and balances. There can be only unblinking obedience.  This event forces us to pause and think about the pragmatics of operating a theocratic state. How divine is the leaders inspiration? How can you discern the direction from God vs the directions from people? This mode of governance is fundamentally flawed because people are forced to interpret nuance and testamonials as opposed to objective, measurable, reality.

Ted Haggard is (was) a prominent leader of a nascent conservative theocratic movement in America.  See for yourself. Look it up.

Soon we’ll see the obligatory sobbing plea for forgiveness and the posturing.  In 5 years he’ll be back preaching from Arkansas or Indiana on the DayStar network. His fall from grace will be the basis of a book and a CD set.  Maybe this is part of the cycle that the Hindu’s talk about.