In a past post, Grumpypilgrim asked : “Why do the two parties divide the issues the way they do, and who decided that the issues should be divided the way they are?” I’ve often wondered that too. After all, you would think that the “pro life” Republicans would also be against capital punishment. You might think [...]
After reading this account by someone who attended a so-called “mega-church,” I was struck by the many parallels between the methods used by that church and the methods used by Hitler. Slick propaganda, belittling and scapegoating of outsiders, blending religion with nationalism, using fear to manipulate emotions, praising self-interest, etc., were all techniques used by [...]
Why do people engage in religious rituals? In keeping with suggestion of ethologist Niko Tinbergen, this question is actually four separate “why” questions. Rather than dealing with the first three Why questions (Phylogeny, Ontogeny or Function), I’d like to consider only the fourth Why, Proximate Cause, with regard to the practice of engaging in religious rituals. [...]
See Peter Daou’s latest post, for a little peek inside of Mr. Bush’s mind. What more can one say? Maybe it simply leads to this question: what IS it that allows 1/3 of the country to still admire and respect this president?
In Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud recognized the many benefits of civilization, including beauty, cleanliness, order and the regulation of social relationships. For Freud, however, nothing better characterized civilization than “its esteem and encouragement of man’s higher mental activities-his intellectual, scientific and artistic achievements-and the leading role that assigns to ideas and human life.” [...]
While attending a book fair at the age of 17, I bought a Catechism published in 1850 1850 catechism excerpts.pdf Back then, I found it sycophantic, scientifically backward and full of veiled threats. Fast forward 33 years . . . I now find it sycophantic, scientifically backward and full of veiled threats (p. 47, 60). [...]
As reported in Think Progress, Fox News analyst Jonathan Hoenig reported this weekend that global warming was “bogus,” and “dreamed up” by environmentalists to stop economic development. http://thinkprogress.org/2006/05/29/global-warming-bogus/ There’s no scientific proof that global warming even exists. To be honest, it’s a bogus consensus dreamed up by Greens because they hate industry. They hate advancement. [...]
In the United States, we often hear that the U.S. is the world’s greatest place to live. There is still much good to be said about the United States, but there is also increasing dysfunction. In his 2004 article, “The European Dream,” Jeremy Rifkin dared to compare the U.S. way of life to that of [...]
When I was a kid, I was always curious about why there were so many different kinds of Christian churches in America: Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Unitarian, Congregational, Baptist, Episcopal, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, United Church of Christ, Reformed Church of Christ, Mormon, Quaker, Shaker, Greek Othodox, Russian Orthodox, Christian Science…the list seemed endless. It seemed [...]
{ Common Dreams presents the entire transcript from today's Q & A. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2013/06/17-1 } – Jun 17, 11:06 PM { Jason: You wrote: "You agreed to keep the secrets of the job regardless of how they may clash with your own ideals or ethics." Would you apply your own principle to members of the SS in Nazi Germany? I'm looking for a meaningful conversation. I don't we've had anything approaching a meaningful national conversation regarding America's Surveillance State. And yes, I do believe that the public has been kept almost completely in the dark. I believe that the NSA has been caught in blatant lies. I don't believe there are any meaningful checks and balances in the system (See Amy Goodman's interview of James Bamford, which I just posted on). I also believe in the spirit of the Fourth Amendment and, that Amendment is still on the books, and it does not contain any exception for "terrorism." } – Jun 16, 11:09 PM
{ I disagree with this guy's status as a whistleblower. Its not "whistleblowing" to divulge classified information. It's a crime. You agreed to keep the secrets of the job regardless of how they may clash with your own ideals or ethics. Imagine if everyone just decided it was ok to reveal classified because they felt it was a "bad" secret. My guess there would be a spectrum, in every case, from the majority feeling that it was a bad secret that should have been revealed ...to possibly the majority feeling should have been kept secret and now we are all less safe because our enemies now know this information. But it's not up to a vote! Do we build a statue to the man if 51% of people agree that he should have talked but put him in jail if only 49% think it was a good idea? This man's actions... } – Jun 16, 7:13 AM { I would like to know the truth about the NSA. I would like to turn the NSA inside out. To what extent are their employees and operatives able to read our private emails and listen to our phone calls? To what extent do they retain data demonstrating the people I choose to contact? Ad homimem attacks on Edward Snowden serve only as distractions to much more important issues. What, exactly, are America's spies doing as part of their jobs? It's time to peel back the secrecy on both the process of electronic surveillance and the laws and oath of secrecy preventing the American public from knowing the extent to which their privacy has been violated. Last year, 483,236 private contractors had top-secret security clearances, compared to 791,200 government employees, according to a report by the office of the Director of National Intelligence. It appears that many of them have been... } – Jun 15, 10:17 PM
{ Love his response. I feel like our non-representitive government is a disease and has many repercussions throughout society that can be indirectly linked to Americans' increased sense that they lack any kind of a say in decisions made in our name. } – Jun 14, 8:37 PM
{ Back in the 80's I heard a bit on the Dr. Demento show by an Australian comedian. I only remember a few bits where he'd say "I'm tough!" and the audience would respond "How tough are ya?" then he'd reply "I'm so tough, when I go to a fancy restaurant I don't order steak Diane I order steak Steve!" "I'm so tough, when I go to the beach I kick sand in me own face!" "I'm so tough, my poo-poo scares flies away!" Anyone know who? } – Jun 14, 3:47 PM
{ Full version of the movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yaqUI4b974&feature=em-subs_digest } – Jun 14, 7:46 AM { Why be concerned about the Surveillance State? Moxie Marlinspike offers this thought at Wired: "If the federal government had access to every email you’ve ever written and every phone call you’ve ever made, it’s almost certain that they could find something you’ve done which violates a provision in the 27,000 pages of federal statues or 10,000 administrative regulations. You probably do have something to hide, you just don’t know it yet." http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/06/why-i-have-nothing-to-hide-is-the-wrong-way-to-think-about-surveillance/ } – Jun 14, 12:21 AM { Jim: It does seem impossible to achieve any progress is one is a skeptic of skeptics, in other words, wedded to a position regardless of the facts. } – Jun 12, 2:51 PM
{ Excellent...though all the links to "skepticalscience.com" are a non-starter for the target audience....they being skeptics of skeptics, and all. } – Jun 12, 10:14 AM { Bertrand Russell's proposed 10 Commandments: 1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. 2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. 3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. 4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavour to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory. 5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. 6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you. 7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. 8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent that in passive agreement, for,... } – Jun 11, 7:21 PM { Therefore, it seems that we ALL agree with President Obama on this critical issue. } – Jun 11, 12:32 PM { More commentary on the odd alliances taking shape on this issue: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/11/nsa-leak_n_3421415.html } – Jun 11, 12:28 PM { Most embarrassing Obama quote I can recall. I just hope he realizes how embarrassed he should be for uttering these words. It's becoming pretty clear that Obama's presidency will be seen as a huge missed opportunity for real change. And he squandered that opportunity for what? Respect from the political class in Washington? Pathetic. } – Jun 10, 9:01 PM
{ Greenwald. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/10/glenn-greenwald-mika-brzezinski-nsa_n_3414722.html } – Jun 10, 12:58 PM { Financial inequity continues to rise in the U.S. http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/16849-us-inequality-now-literally-off-the-chart } – Jun 08, 8:23 PM
{ Good post here. I had a similar path to Ehrman and try to help folks understand the depth of the Bible. One interesting group of stories is in Genesis regarding Abraham and Isaac. Here it is if you want to check it out http://www.christianevolution.com/2013/06/bible-inerrant-wife-sister-narrative-genesis.html } – Jun 08, 1:57 PM { Planetary Paul - thanks for the tip. I can't get over the beauty of these patterns, and the powerful demonstration of emergence. } – Jun 07, 11:15 PM { And one or more people risked life in prison to get this out to Americans, I'm afraid. Based on Obama's logic, writing this story violates the Espionage Act of 1917 because it tells "terrorists" that we are listening to them ... and, oh, year hundreds of millions of innocent people. } – Jun 07, 11:10 PM { I see I can't include a URL in the body text apparently. Search for "Chladni plates" to get to all sorts of info on them and video's. } – Jun 07, 3:37 PM { Chladni plates are great! I spent a fair amount of time constructing the classic ones that you exite with a violin bow. At some point I had a clamp to fixate round, square and random shape glass plates in any position. The sand patterns varied wildly. I also made a fluid Chladni plate by mounting a large glass bowl on a lab stand and filling it with denatured alcohol, the blue kind. When exiting the rim of the bowl transversally with the violin bow, the alcohol surface would erupt with tiny clear drops that would float to the quiet regions on the blue surface, forming a beautiful four pointed star at the ground frequency. When exited transversally with a frequency generator and motor, I could make all kinds of spectacularly beautiful stars! Because of all the alcohol vapour, this was also a highly dangerous experiment :-/ } – Jun 07, 3:35 PM
{ Thanks Erich. I didn't see this Washington Post article in time to include it in the post, but it's extremely relevant as well: US Intelligence mining data from 9 leading internet firms Quite stunning that NSA has direct access at the server level to at least the following internet firms: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple } – Jun 07, 6:48 AM { Brynn: This is spot on. Thank you. I Love the quote by Neil Richards. If they didn't have the information they couldn't abuse it. Similarly, because they have that information, they will abuse it. History is an objective observer. } – Jun 06, 11:19 PM { So it turns out I was somewhat optimistic about the speed of my recovery. The pain and spasms have been part of my life for the past 2 months (including at work), gradually easing but with some ups and downs. However, things have been improving steadily the past 2 weeks or so and the pain is now actually quite bearable -- and I can stave it with various techniques -- see below. A few things have helped me which I would like to expand on. Wrapping the injured hamstring, about 5/6 of the way up the leg helped provide support and forced me to limp (thus reducing movement of the affected area). Also I just yesterday took some herbal supplements, Valerian root the main ingredient (recommended by my local herbal store). Also they gave me topical Arnica. I have had to go back on the pain killer a few times... } – Jun 03, 1:49 PM { Reminds me of a public lecture by a brain surgeon I attended long ago. He used a classification of the level of deterministic chaos in the brain from 0=dead to a maximum of 5 (I believe), which represents a perfectly healthy brain. Healthy because many situations require hair trigger response times and continuous adaptations, which would not be possible in a system only capable of strictly procedural responses. He used a mathematical procedure to analyse EEG's in order to derive the chaos level. During an epileptic seizure there would be a sudden drop and then a rebound to a normal high level of chaos. He theorised that the brain constantly checks itself and if it detects a dangerous drop in its chaos level, it may do a reset on itself in the form of a seizure. } – May 25, 12:35 AM
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