Satisfying non-explanations: an intriguing non-dream about ball lightning

My interest in explanations was brought to a new higher intensified while I watched a movie. I must regress many more years to tell the entire story. Before I begin, though, I need to assure you that my story is absolutely true.

About 20 years ago, I awoke at about 3 a.m., and I saw the strangest thing. A small orb with a soft greenish glow hovered five feet over my bedroom floor, about an arm’s length out from the foot of the bed. The orb was about the size of a ping-pong ball. I walked toward the orb until my face was one foot from the orb. I tried to see if I could account for the glowing ball by checking for an external source of reflected light through the bedroom windows. I couldn’t find any such external light source, though. The orb itself was glowing and it was still in my bedroom. I considered touching the orb with my hand, but I didn’t. For a moment, I wondered whether it would try to communicate with me—a strange thought, given that I have never believed in disembodied sentience.

I noticed that the orb was slowly descending. It didn’t make any noise. After 30 seconds of descending, the orb reached the floor, then it took the shape of a sunny-side up egg as it melted into the bedroom floor. I went downstairs from my second floor bedroom to the first floor to see whether the orb was “melting” through the …

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Continue ReadingSatisfying non-explanations: an intriguing non-dream about ball lightning

Step One: Don’t call it a “bailout.”

I don’t always agree with Ron Paul, but what he stated on October 3, 2008 to the U.S. House of Representatives, about the alleged “bailout” bill, rings true to me:

Madame Speaker, only in Washington could a bill demonstrably worse than its predecessor be brought back for another vote and actually expect to gain votes. That this bailout was initially defeated was a welcome surprise, but the power-brokers in Washington and on Wall Street could not allow that defeat to be permanent. It was most unfortunate that this monstrosity of a bill, loaded up with even more pork, was able to pass.

The Federal Reserve has already injected hundreds of billions of dollars into US and world credit markets. The adjusted monetary base is up sharply, bank reserves have exploded, and the national debt is up almost half a trillion dollars over the past two weeks. Yet, we are still told that after all this intervention, all this inflation, that we still need an additional $700 billion bailout, otherwise the credit markets will seize and the economy will collapse. This is the same excuse that preceded previous bailouts, and undoubtedly we will hear it again in the future after this bailout fails.

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Continue ReadingStep One: Don’t call it a “bailout.”

If you are a U.S. citizen you are sponsoring torture.

Andrew Sullivan published more evidence that the United States is torturing its prisoners.  Complete with evidence that we are causing the prisoners to go insane purportedly for the purpose of getting information from them. Writing a complaint letter to the President to complain sounds so incredibly naive and trite, though…

Continue ReadingIf you are a U.S. citizen you are sponsoring torture.

Note to John McCain: We can’t trust you around America’s nuclear weapons.

Yes, John McCain. We know quite well who you are, and we don't want anyone with your ego and your temper to have the power to fire American nuclear weapons. While we're on the issue of violence, are you consciously trying to get one of your enraged followers to inflict…

Continue ReadingNote to John McCain: We can’t trust you around America’s nuclear weapons.