Randall Cerveny is a professor of geographical sciences at ASU, where he has taught since 1986. He received his B.S., M.A. and Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Nebraska.

Dr. Cerveny serves as Rapporteur on Extreme Records for the United Nations/World Meteorological Organization, and in this connection is responsible for researching and verifying global weather records. At ASU, he directs the meteorology program, and was awarded the title of President's Professor in recognition of his contributions to undergraduate education. He is contributing editor for the magazine Weatherwise, and is the author of numerous journal articles as well as two books, Freaks of the Storm, Thunder's Mouth Press, 2006, and Weather's Greatest Mysteries Solved!, Prometheus Books, 2009.

Kyrsten Sinema is a Democratic member of the Arizona House of Representatives, representing the 15th District since January 2005. Born in Tucson, Arizona to conservative Mormon parents, Sinema moved to Phoenix in 1995. She attended Arizona State University where she earned a Masters degree in social work and then a Juris Doctor. She was a social worker in the Washington Elementary School District before becoming a criminal defense lawyer.

In 2006 she chaired Arizona Together, the statewide campaign that defeated Proposition 107 which would have banned the recognition of same-sex marriage and civil unions in Arizona. In 2008, she also led the campaign against Proposition 102, a narrowed down version of Proposition 107. Proposition 102 was approved by 56% of voters in the general election on November 4, 2008.

A supporter of Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Sinema was a delegate to the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. In July 2009, she published her first book, Unite and Conquer: How to Build Coalitions That Win and Last.

We were delighted to welcome Rep. Sinema back to speak to HSGP!

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)

From Booklist:

The revoking of Robert Oppenheimer's security clearance, which caused his dismissal from the National Security Council and effectively ended his influence in the shaping of U.S. nuclear policy, constituted a tragic last act in the career of the father of the atomic bomb. Harvard professor McMillan offers a meticulously detailed account of the trial and the McCarthy-era shenanigans that surrounded it. Much of this story has been told before, most recently in Bird and Sherwin's definitive biography of Oppenheimer, American Prometheus (2005), but McMillan digs deeper, providing more evidence of the double--dealing by Oppenheimer's nemesis, security council member and McCarthy ally Lewis Strauss, and by rival physicist Edward Teller. She also argues persuasively that, had Oppenheimer remained on the council, he might have prevented the full-scale escalation of the arms race. Unfortunately, the security hearing makes for much less compelling reading than the human story of Oppenheimer himself, told so effectively in American Prometheus. Still, this account provides rich supplementary reading for those with an intense interest in the beginnings of the atomic age. --Bill Ott

Thomas Blackson holds a B.A. from De Pauw University (1980) and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the Univ. of Mass. (1988). He has been Associate Professor of Philosophy, Arizona State University since 1997. His research interests are primarily in ancient philosophy and in issues connected to artificial intelligence. Dr. Blackson is the Book Symposium Editor for Philosophical Studies, and has published numerous articles. This year will see the publication of "Early Work on Rationality: the Lorenz-Frede Interpretation" in the History of Philosophy Quarterly and Ancient Greek Philosophy: From the Presocratics to the Hellenistic Philosophers, to be published by Wiley-Blackwell.

This was your chance to speak up! Our members shared their thoughts.

The Humanist Book Club meets on the fourth Saturday of each month at 10:30 a.m. at the Mesa Main Library, 64 East 1st Street (East of Country Club Way at the intersection of N. Centennial Way -- N.W. corner)


Don Quixote is a middle-aged gentleman from the region of La Mancha in central Spain. Obsessed with the chivalrous ideals touted in books he has read, he decides to take up his lance and sword to defend the helpless and destroy the wicked. After a first failed adventure, he sets out on a second one with a somewhat befuddled laborer named Sancho Panza, whom he has persuaded to accompany him as his faithful squire. In return for Sancho’s services, Don Quixote promises to make Sancho the wealthy governor of an isle. On his horse, Rocinante, a barn nag well past his prime, Don Quixote rides the roads of Spain in search of glory and grand adventure. He gives up food, shelter, and comfort, all in the name of a peasant woman, Dulcinea del Toboso, whom he envisions as a princess.

Alan Proctor is the president of the Arizona State University chapter of NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. A Michigan native, he and his parents moved to Peoria, AZ when he was 12. After graduation from Centennial High School, where he played basketball and maintained a 3.8 GPA, he enrolled at ASU, where the 19-year-old is currently a freshman, studying Civil Engineering. His true passion is entrepreneurship. He started the NORML chapter at ASU in September 2009.

Alan writes, "I believed the general exaggerations and lies about cannabis until my Junior year in high school, which was when I first tried marijuana and started looking into the history of the plant. I've learned a lot and heard many fascinating stories from being involved with cannabis education."

Dr. Peter de Marneffe is Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Faculty of the Philosophy School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at ASU. Dr. de Marneffe writes about liberty and liberalism, individual rights, government paternalism and government neutrality toward conceptions of a good life. His new book, Liberalism and Prostitution, has just been published by Oxford University Press. Other recent publications include “Avoiding Paternalism,” Philosophy & Public Affairs (Winter 2006) and The Legalization of Drugs (with Doug Husak; Cambridge University Press, 2005). He received his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Harvard University in 1989, and wrote his dissertation, "Liberalism and Education," under the direction of John Rawls and Thomas Scanlon. He has been a visiting fellow at the Princeton University Center for Human Values, the Edmond J. Safra Foundation Center for Ethics at Harvard University, and a visiting assistant professor at Stanford University.