Early on the bandwagon?

I am aware of all internet traditions. 

Aren't you? 

For Warcraft fans only: some of the best Guild names EVER are eventually mentioned in the comments field.  "She Swore She Was Level 18" made me snort coffee out my nose.

New survey!

Part II of the Pew Foundation's recent research involving religion and public life in America has just been released:

U.S. Religious Landscape Survey

Among the findings, surprising and not so surprising, from the 35,000 respondents:

24% of respondents classified themselves as Catholic.  Mainline Protestants were at 18.1%, while evangelical Protestants composed 26.3%, mostly Baptist.  So that explains something about why evangelicals have been so influential in the past few elections.

In Catholic politics: 33% describe themselves as Republican or leaning Republican; 48% describe themselves as Democratic or leaning Democratic.  Most describe themselves as "conservative" or "moderate".  The other social and political views info is unsurprising perhaps, showing significant splits within the Catholic population on the issues of abortion laws and homosexuality.  

Abortion remains a contentious issue in this population with 48% stating it should be legal in all or most cases; 27% legal in some cases; 18% illegal in all cases.  I wish this stat had been around when I was still taking women's studies courses, as a few of my professors insisted that all Catholics and all Christians wanted to make all abortions illegal.  I'd have loved to be able to prove their sweeping generalization wrong because it hides an important conflict within a population they'd like to overlook.  Also, in self-defined conservative evangelical churches, only 25% of respondents believe abortion should be illegal in all cases.  This reinforces other studies I've seen which indicate the vast majority of Americans would like to see strict regulations on abortion but not outlaw it completely.  Not that this is an issue where simple majority-rule democracy should necessarily be the guiding moral standard, but I did find the data interesting because of the obvious distance between church leaders and believers on this issue.

Another interesting data point was the apparent Catholic commitment to environmental causes--60% of Catholics are in favor of stricter environmental regulations.  Perhaps this shows we're taking our responsibilities as stewards of the earth more seriously these days.

Anyway, the site is easy to navigate and the stats aren't lost in pages and pages of prose, so if you're curious about religion in America, I can wholeheartedly recommend taking a look at the data.

Camping. A guest post by the bug.

This is my dad.

This is me and my mom at the Rocky Mountain National Park. We're sitting by the fire.

We're sleeping together.  It was very cold. That's my new sleeping bag with the flowers.

This is a girl elk.  She doesn't have horns on her head.  That's how you can tell.

This is my mom and daddy.  I took this picture.  We were hiking and they were smiling and said "Cheese!"

Then we packed up and went home. It was a good trip. My favorite part was the sleeping. Because I like staying up forever in the tent.

And on a political note...

Glass Booth

This website asks you to take a quiz, then lets you know the top three candidates that best match your positions.  This isn't all that unique, but you can also browse all candidates on all issues (including many smaller parties like Greens, Libertarians, etc.). The site goes into depth on how it's figured out what the candidates' positions are, including actual past votes, quotes from discussions on political talk shows, and legislation drafted or sponsored.  A useful resource, I think, regardless of party affiliation.

It also demonstrated to me that I disagree with both of the two major-party candidates on a majority of the 14 issues, but then, I didn't find that particularly surprising.

Food for thought.

Real Food for Long Workouts

This makes me feel slightly better about never having gotten around to a true "nutrition plan" when I was training for triathlons the last few years.  Since I'm taking this season off and am watching what I eat for prenatal reasons, though, it did get me thinking about next season and what I'd like to be doing.  Besides taking care of the new baby and potentially working and being with my family, of course.

I got in my first two swims of the season this week before the weather turned rainy, and it's nice to know there is at least one sport I can do, albeit lumberingly, right up until delivery.  It felt really good to be back in the water.

Many of my friends are on the move this summer: moving soon, travelling a lot, raising kids, training for races...what are you all doing in terms of fitness this summer that you find enjoyable?  And what are you eating for pleasure?