Daily Kos: 10 Republicans vote against Pi (Day!)

[LongTomH]

From the "You just can't make this stuff up!" department: Daily Kos is reporting that 10 Republican members of the US House of Representatives voted against a non-binding resolution declaring March 14, 2009 (3/14/09) as Pi Day.

The House periodically passes meaningless non-binding resolutions that frankly have no point, but they usually pass unanimously, the like one the previous day about NASA

Pi day, first celebrated by a bunch of scientists from San Francisco 21 years ago, honors arguably the most famous mathematical constant.

Pi, of course is the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, roughly 3.1415. Actually, it's an irrational number; mathematicians are continually adding more digits to the value of Pi. The Daily Kos diarist: Democratic Luntz discusses this in more detail than you probably want, unless you're really a math geek.

I got the original link from a post on Phil Platt's Bad Astronomy website: Some people in Texas have lost their grip on reality. Actually, I have trouble with any sentence that has "Texas" and "grip on reality" in it!
:eyes:

[Idealism]

1. "I just can't vote for a non-binding resolution orally supporting anyone from San Francisco!"

- Signed GOP

[Wetzelbill]

12. You said "orally"

heh heh heh.

[L. Coyote]

22. speaking of which

[47of74]

2. Republicans and math/science....not so much!

[MADem]

3. Clearly, they are irrational politicians! nt

[L. Coyote]

15. Irrational politicians fear their days are numbered. Alabma Rs found a solution

LOL. On that clever note, first I'll say something irrational: 3.141592653589793238462643383279502884197169399375105820974944592307816406286208998628034825342117067...



I know what to do about this conundrum. Deny them a piece of the pie!

[MADem]

17. No WONDER Porgie wanted to make the pie higher!!!! nt

[liberalhistorian]

4. Jeebus. That's so pathetically petty, stupid, senseless

ridiculous, absurd and, and, and.............oh, hell, I don't even know whether to laugh or cry! Good gravy, someone needs to send them all back to Romper Room until they can learn to play with the adults.

[Rider Haggard]

5. I understood they would vote for it if they would round pie to a more understandable 3.14

so their constituents wouldn't find it intimidating and elitist.

[L. Coyote]

21. The infighting is ongoing, 3.0 vs. 3.14 vs. 3.2. Why can't they just go along with the irrational?

They have been doing that all along with Bush :rofl:

[JohnnyRingo]

6. Phil Plait has a great site.

He caught a lot of heat last fall in his comment section from Repubs who "demanded" he focus on science instead of politix. He saw the two intertwined, and denounced McCain as "anti-science".

He's a good man, and "Bad Astronomy" is a daily stop for me:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/

[L. Coyote]

20. Thanks for the good link.

[bbinacan]

7. Did they say why

they voted against it? Who are the 10 idiots?

[Why Syzygy]

9. I fail to see how this is being used to kick Texas in the teeth. Again.

The ten anti-pi congressmen include some of the most conservative and/or libertarian members of the GOP: Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Jeff Miller of Florida, Randy Neugebauer of Texas, Ron Paul of Texas, Mike Pence of Indiana, and Ted Poe of Texas. Dean Heller of Nevada and Bill Shuster of Pennsylvania are generally pretty conservative as well, but neither has shown any tendency to vote against these kinds of resolutions. The tenth, Tim Johnson of Illinois, however, is a moderate.

http://thephoenix.com/BLOGS/talkingpolitics/archive/2009/03/12/who-s-anti-pi.aspx

Why? Because roughly a pi amount of the 10 are from Texas?
The Texas story is completely unrelated to this vote! (It's related to education.)

This story is from Indiana.

On January 18, 1897, after emerging from the House Swamplands and Education Committees (legislatures sometimes work in mysterious ways), Indiana House Bill 246 was introduced to codify Dr. Goodwin's discovery. Legislators freely admitted they did not understand the jargon-filled bill, although they were certain it had something to do with circles. Of course they passed it unanimously.

Somewhere past the middle of the three-section bill, the legislation proclaimed "the ratio of the diameter and circumference is as five-fourths to four." The mathematically challenged legislators had voted to change the value of pi to 3.2.

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1237109404232830.xml&coll=1

[rainbow4321]

11. It's OK....at some point our state will go blue and we will know who

suddenly jumps on the bandwagon when it happens and who has been supportive of TX (and TX Dems) from the get go....I always like to use the comparison that if people are going to use geography and place of residence as an issue of good vs bad that they must have been a fervent chimp supporter since they lived in the USA for the last 8 years. That usually clams them up.

[Why Syzygy]

13. But, they love Ann and Molly, don't they?

Texas Brass Tacks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_tacks

[Blue_Tires]

23. well is Ron Paul is against it

surely pi is a Illuminati plot from the jew-controlled One-World Government!!

[BlooInBloo]

8. Not as bad as Indiana legislating that Pi = 3.2, but still.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indiana_Pi_Bill

[Dr. Strange]

14. Idiots. Don't they know pi equals 3?

[L. Coyote]

16. See image added in #15 above for Alabama's story.

[liberalmuse]

10. The economy is in the crapper, people are living in tent cities...

but dear god, it is imperative that Congress have a vote on Pi. I fucking hate these rubes.

[tangent90]

18. I like

Ω made Π
:D

[muriel_volestrangler]

19. I support the Republicans: this was American cultural imperialism!

From the resolution:

"supports the designation of a `Pi Day' and its celebration around the world"

Bugger off, Congress. We don't write the 14th of March as "3.14"; it's 14/3. Keep your irrational celebration to yourself.

:sarcasm: , but with just a touch of real feeling in there.

And comparing this meaningless resolution to one that congratulated NASA on the success of the Mars rovers is insulting to NASA. DemocraticLuntz needs some re-education.

[L. Coyote]

24. Remembering pi to 22,000 places. This kid can in about four hours!!

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4913196365903075662&hl=en