Tag Archives: science

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What a Difference a Mind Makes

witchcraftYou know it’s really funny. Prepare you face for it. To laugh that is.

When I talk about faith or religion here, it brings out the new atheists and their smarmy yak-yak about believing in fairy tales. When I talk about faith or religion on my actual religion blog, Walking in the Shadows, I sometimes get folks who deign to explain to me that I’m not practicing the right kind of Christianity from their point of view.

Yesterday, I was asked, after making a number of statements regarding various fairly technical aspects of Christian theology (atonement theory, faith/works), the sort of things that some of us love to discuss, whether I was a “follower” of Jesus.

I guess it caught me oddly since I can’t imagine why anyone would spend all that much time on a subject of which they had no interest. But then I thought of a few rather well-known scholars who had started their studies in faith, and then lost it, and remained in the discipline. So I guess it wasn’t so odd.

Which brought me to the well-known principle that on just about every subject known to man and woman, people see things very differently. To this person’s mind at least, because I didn’t believe as she did, I must not be a follower of Jesus as she was. There was one way to follow Jesus, and I wasn’t doing it.

Similarly, whether it be economics or climate change, or any of a host of human and worldly problems, you discover that people have views that seem idiotic to you. Yet, when you talk to them, they have the same passion as you do. They are just as sure. Well, I guess that’s not totally true. I always figure that I’m never totally sure about much of anything. Doubt to me is part of the package. Those who are diametrically opposed to what I think, they seem to be very sure.

Therein lies the rub as Shakespeare was wont to say. The “follower of Jesus” if asked, would assure me that her belief is absolute, without question. That seems to me to be the total opposite of faith. For to me, faith is such in the face of doubt. It’s a choosing to believe even when there is no proof that you are right, just no proof that you are wrong.

It led me to conclude that that is probably true about most people who are given to being “absolutely sure”.  I’m also engaged with a very reactionary type who is “very sure” there is no such thing as global warming. Even though logically he can’t be, since he has no training in any science even remotely related to the subject. He is adamant that he is right, because the people he aligns himself with say what he wants to be true.

A scientist will tell you that you can’t be absolutely sure that the sun will rise tomorrow. Something catastrophic could always happen. Is it true that only the reactionary right are “sure” about things? I wonder.

I’m not completely sure where this comes from. One can refer to the fundamentalist mind. People think it refers to super conservative church people, but it actually is a mindset. It refers to a person who likes things in neat little boxes, all tidy and a whole world gets constructed of rights and wrongs. Once they have established this nice world, they can finally relax, they have all the answers. Nobody is allowed to jeopardize that with actual facts to the contrary. They must be defeated, and they are, by naming them as suspect. They are “purveyors of lies”, they are “Marxists” or “socialists” or “one-world government” nuts. They are hucksters conspiring  to obtain grants based on known falsehoods, for the “money”. (of course nobody explains how tens of thousands are all in on this conspiracy and waste their careers getting grants to do things they know already are false). Nobody explains the lack of logic of it all.

One can refer to self-interest, and that explains a lot too. When you poke at the angry all too sure person, they generally erupt in a retort of “we’re going to be taxed to death, and all for nothing!” That is the crux of the issue when you puncture the pus-filled wound they carry around with them. They hate taxes, hate everything they perceive is keeping them from retaining every dime they make.

That is why the GOP mantra is so attractive. They not only support the angry right and it’s desire to pay less taxes, they give them all the reasoning as to why they need not feel guilty about it either. If you show them statistics that prove that raising the minimum wages doesn’t result in an uptick in the unemployment numbers and that it results in raising up the wages of all workers, they retort with a firm “no it doesn’t, all it does it deny poor black kids a chance at a job, and perpetuate poverty, which is all Democrats want because then they have a ready-made electorate who want those handouts.”

It’s so nice when people tell you aren’t racist, or sexist, or homophobic, or wrong period. It’s nice to be told that you are right in denying full rights to gay couples because “God wants it that way.” Nice to deny SNAP to women and children because it just “encourages laziness and relying on the government”. It’s nice to  leave the planet in a mess to the next generation because a few opportunists are willing to assure you that it’s really okay and you shouldn’t be scammed by and forced to pay more taxes to encourage green technology.

So, add another point to how to determine when you are hearing the truth, or when you are hearing what somebody wants you to believe for their own purposes. Are they sure? If they are, and they don’t have the background to make that determination, look for something else at play, and tread carefully when you make your decision of what you believe.

Belief and surety are not the same.

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I’m Arabically Dsylexic He Cried

timeWe start with the faux reality that time is and ever was and not a function of space. After all, it is called the SPACE-TIME continuum is it not? This is the reality that the Contrarian lives within, where time has always existed. This somehow makes him comfortable rather than the TRUTH which is that time has no meaning unless it has something to relate to like MATTER and SPACE!

Okay, calm yourself. That is hardly the story here.

You see, it is the Contrarian’s JOB to get up in the morning, turn on my coffee and wake me gently at 5:45 a.m. so that I can have a few sips of coffee with Morning Joe before I am hauled into the desert for romping with Diego. Simple enough, right?

So, this morning, I turn over in my usual, half-dream state and just start to settle into my favorite left-leg over right leg and head snuggled into the pillow supported by my right arm which is at a 85° angle to my shoulder. Too much information? Oh, well okay.

So, just as I am settling, as I said, I hear, “babe, it’s 5:45!”

After cursing my birth, the universe, and time itself I start to roll to a sitting position, whereupon I am assaulted with the slobbery kisses of aforementioned dog, who whines quite clearly, “let’s not be late, I have bushes to pee on!”

I thereafter engage in all the processes of which you are no doubt not interested, until I have reached the point of making the bed, whereupon said Contrarian shuffles into the bedroom and whispers, “I was a little off,  about an hour,” and scurries away ducking and dodging to avoid being hit in the head with whatever might be at hand.

I curse. I fume. I cry.

I look at the clock for the first time, having until now been confident that a 62-year-old-man can be entrusted to so simple a task. Yes, it is now, 4:50 a.m.

So I endured an hour of the dog, “is it time yet?”

I got more than a few sips of coffee.

I got to see more of Morning Joe than I’ve seen in months.

As I prepared to take the walk, I wandered into his office.

“You owe me big time you know,” I assured him.

“But it’s not my fault. I’m Arabically dyslexic! I had all the numbers right, just in the wrong order.”

“The numbers are 5:45, and you woke me at 4:40 to be exact, how is that the same numbers?” I queried.

“Well, dyslexia is like that you know, it’s a most mysterious syndrome. I can’t be held responsible for such a troublesome malady.” He actually smiled at this, figuring that once again, he’d managed to come up with an air-tight excuse for his mistake.

“Find me flash cards online! I’m starting Diego’s number recognition training as soon as possible,” I sighed.

The halo GOD, if you please!

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.

Or, at least meanwhile.

Las Cruces, while incredibly sane and rational as cities go, has its supply of idiots, managing to exist within its environs. Take this little ditty from the local Sun-News. A man called police to report a crime. The crime? The prostitute he had hired stiffed (oh please) him out of ten minutes. Police calmly sympathized and got his location. They sent a car. Imagine his surprise when the cuffs went on him.

Meanwhile, government forces sprayed the crowd that had accumulated at the capital. Cairo? Damascus? Um, no. Try Lansing, Michigan.

It seems the GOP, unable as usual to read the tea leaves, handwriting on the wall, or any other metaphor for JUST PLAIN FRACKING STUPID, are trying to pass right to work legislation in a state that is pretty much noted for its unions. So when people came out to protest this action, the Governor ordered, first the capital closed, and then when that didn’t disperse the crowds of protestors, he had them sprayed. Yeah, the GOP has nothing left in the tank but stupid.

Meanwhile, somebody did a study and decided where the best place to be born is. Hint: it ain’t the US of A. In fact, the US is not even in the top 10. It used to be. But no more. I’m sure the far-right will blame that on the black guy in the White House. But of course we know better.

By the by, if you think all search engines are the same? No they are not. I did a search on the above story because I heard it on the news. Ask.com provided me with NO good links. Google gave me three immediately. I have no clue about Bing? Do you have a favorite search engine? Why? Grades will be given so show your work.

If you ask me, the best place to be born right this minute is Washington state. The legalization of pot went into effect at midnight or something, and well, the whole state looked pretty darn happy to me. Just sayin’.

See, I’m a big mouth. I gotta waste your time with my chatter. I think you NEED my opinion. Squatlo Rant just gives you the cartoons and lets your think for yourself. Go and enjoy yourself. I’ll stay here and keep talking.

Jim DeMint is leaving the Senate. Hurrah, Goodbye, Don’t let the door hit you in the rear. Another Tea NUT gone. Slight uptick in the IQ of the Senate. I didn’t know it was possible for the Heritage Foundation to sink to a lower low, but it has.

Speaking of people who can’t count–Mitch “The Turtle” McConnell pops to the fore. Seems the dope called for an up or down vote on the president having the authority to raise the debt ceiling on his own. Except that when he finished counting, he didn’t have the votes to win. So when Harry Reid called for the vote, Mitchy Mucho Muttonhead filibustered his own motion. And they say animals are stupid. I bet a few species could give old Mitch a run for his money.

Okay, I’ll shut up.

Until tomorrow.

When my mouth runneth over once more.

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What Time is It?

 

 

If you want to start a fight in my house, just mention TIME. Yes, you heard me, I said time.

While neither the Contrarian nor myself have a degree in astrophysics or quantum physics or even the Dummies Diploma of Basic Astronomy, just mention the issue of whether time is real or not, and the feathers start to fly. (or fur)

Now Einstein said time was relative–it moved faster or slower depending on how close one approached the speed of light. And time slows down at the event horizon of a black hole. Every knows that. Steven Hawking wrote a book called the History of Time, though I’m not sure which side of the fence he sits on regarding the reality of the concept.

I would suggest that the Contrarian lacks the imagination to see the possibility that time is a human construct. It is a way of measuring change and movement in sequential bits. Before the Big Bang, (if you posit the non-existence of parallel or multiple universes), there was NOTHING, so no way to measure it.

Think of it this way: You die. In ten years you are dead. In three million years you are dead. To you, it is irrelevant. You are just as dead.

So to me, it seems realistic to imagine a “time” of no time, and a future of “no time” when our universe ceases to exist. I don’t have any problem with it.

The Contrarian, on the contrary, (*snicker*) sees time as independent of anything, and that it goes blithely on regardless of whether there is anyone there to notice.

Now scientists of the physicist persuasion, differ on this issue themselves. Some see an infinite growth of universes, such that time is eternal. Others see it the right way, as I do. No judgment of course.

So anyways that is my take on the issue. I want to be sure that my opinion is noted for the future when all this is sorted out. I’m sure that it will matter which side you are on.

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It appears that when you take the stupidity of your constituents for granted, that well, you might as well go all the way.

If you recall, the Willard and his merry men of mincemeat, decided to take a Obama remark completely out of context a few weeks ago. “You didn’t build this” was said in the context of reminding us all, that the infrastructure that supports us all in our daily lives from roads and bridges to sewers, water pipes and so forth were things that helped business owners in their growth and prosperity. Most businesses could not in fact have built their businesses if they had to pay for roads to carry their goods, and sewer systems and so forth.

Willard, dependent as he is on lies, distorted that and claims that Obama actually said, that people didn’t in fact build their own businesses, but others built it for them. Of course that’s not true, and would be a ludicrous thing to claim. But no matter.

The GOP has decided to use “We Built This” as their theme. Of course the stadium they are going to do this in, was . . . wait for it. . .built by government funds.

Dontcha just love the irony?

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It pretty much defies explanation. Why in all the world would sensible people want to hand the reins of governing over to a group of people who deliberately and with malice aforethought, set out to destroy a presidency before it even was sworn in?

“. . . secret meetings led by House GOPWhip Eric Cantor (in December 2008) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (in early January 2009) where they laid out their daring (though cynical and political) no-honeymoon strategy of all-out resistance to a popular president-elect during an economic emergency. “If he was for it,” former Ohio senator George Voinovich explained, “we had to be against it.”

And we elect these people for what reason?

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Gosh, I almost forgot the other wingnut of the day. This one from Texas, big surprise. You see, if you take a map of the US and you circle it on itself to create a funnel, well, as it is well known that stupid is heavier than intelligence, stupid slides southward into you know where–TEXAS. This is all a pain in the keister to regular Texans who find their state infested with vermin who should all be shipped to Alaska, where there is more room for idiots, and frankly, idiots seem more or less welcome there anyway.

So, where was I?

Yes. Texas. Lubbock County Judge, Tom Head (the surname is an old English one denoting lack of brains–play on words ya see), he figures that if President Obama is re-elected, good folks like himself cannot sit still.

He would like the good people (there must be some) of Lubbock to drop some money in the county coffers to beef up law enforcement.

Why you ask? To combat lawless protestors?

No, no. This is Texas remember, where Longhorns are more plentiful than IQ points.

Good ole Judge Tom says that beefin’ up is necessary, because he’s quite sure that civil war will ensue–Lexington and Concord kinda violence to “take this guy out”, and he is also quite sure that the President will hand over sovereignty to the UN. When the peacekeeping forces are sent in, Judge Tom swears he will be on the front lines to oppose them, musket in hand.

After receiving assurances by the PO-lice chief that he would “back him” Judge Tom advised that he wanted some “seasoned veterans” who were well armed, hence the need for a new property tax.

Yes, and you thought that fairy tales were only for children. Welcome to America–Land of the seriously stupid.

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Now go out there and do something good for your fellow sane person.

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Oh Todd, Can Ya Feel the Love?

 

 

Don’t name you kid Todd. It’s a bad name. Bad things happen to guys named Todd. They are born stupid for starters. They suffer from foot in mouth disease, and we hear it’s dang near incurable.

And they become TeaHatters and anger is their number one priority. They are angry about everything, but mostly they are angry that they aren’t winning the hearts and minds of normal people, which would be stupid when you think about it, but given they are stupid, they get angry at this.

Todd Akin is one angry man. He’s angry because he is stupid for starters. The “I’m Stupid” engraved on his butt in bright red pimples reminds him every morning when he showers, and every time he sits down.

He’s angry because a lot of people, mostly from his own dang party, want him to step down, step over, or more hopefully fall into a black hole. He figures they are just spendthrift RINOS. Like stellar intellects like Sharon Angle and Christine O’Donnell, he feels misunderstood. He reminds himself that he too is “not a witch.” So what is the deal?

I mean this man has worked nigh unto three whole weeks to become the candidate for the Senate representing the GOP. He’s not gonna lie down, go away, slip-slide into the weeds just because some GOP politicians tell him he’s ruining their chances of taking the Senate. He ain’t payin’ no attention to finger-waggin’ ole Sean Hannity, whose finger has been stuck up his ass all night long and is getting a fresh breath of air waving under his nose! No! I say no!

Run Toddy Akin, run! Or get run down by a bus, hurts the most. And dude, you couldn’t find a woman’s vagina if’n you had Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. Now go wipe that big L off your forehead and kick a can down the street.

(the foregoing was the work of bad Sherry who knows exactly where her vagina is and thinks that Missourians must be crazier than Floridians and Texans put together–don’t pay her no mind, she’s a product of desert delirium.)

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This just in–Diana Nyad has failed once again in her attempt to swim from Cuba to the US. She fell victim to the jellyfish again. Since she is not Cuban, I cannot see this woman’s fascination with trying to get to the US. Can’t she just fly?

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The Piglets are busy in the pen drafting the GOP platform. That is the document that they will wave about, and then throw in the trash win or lose the election. It’s just for show. But in keeping with their usual backward and “only white straight war-mongering white people count” mentality, they have so far:

  • Decided to ignore civil unions where ever they might think they are, while not seeing them, because God wouldn’t approve so they conclude from their 7th grade religious primer, “God Wants YOU to Obey”.
  • Voted down any suggestion that a two-state solution is right for Israel, because of course we all know we gotta fight that grand final battle there, so peace is not an option.
  • Dancing with the distinct possibility of writing a “human life amendment” to the constitution which would outlaw abortion for any reason. The religious right is in orgastic spasms of happiness.
  • Auditing the Federal Reserve made the list bowing to the nuttery candidate Ron Paul. All nuts are welcome and we accommodate them all!
  • Wind tax credits were removed, which made Iowa sick but made Willard happy since he thinks tax credits impede “free markets” except when it comes to oil and gas and coal because they are “natural” you know, whereas wind is sneaky, invisible, and only real if you believe in science. Need I say more?

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I hear two women have been offered membership in the erstwhile male bastion of testosterone (assuming that sort of thing is possible when your “sport” is golf), Augusta National. Why they want to join is beyond me. The jackets are shit-green ugly. But those Augusta boys were smart, I’ll give them that. They picked a white chick and a black chick, killin’ two birds with one stone. (if you are British you see the other play on words with birds, no?) How does Augusta do with Jews and Asians? Is there more excitement to come?

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They say that Jesus walked on water in the Sea of Galilee. Somehow it seems kinda creepy to skinny dip in it.

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The headlines keep saying that scientists were stunned when they found a cave-dwelling spider–in a cave. They said it was a new family of spider.

I can understand all this I guess. But our neighbors were not “stunned” when we moved in as a new family. And frankly, unless that spider can speak French and do the breast stroke in Olympic time, I’m not that impressed.

More than likely, I would have stepped on it, and saved the scientists all that “stun”. But then, I’m not a spider person.

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Willard is just an idiot. He said this in New Hampshire:

Mitt Romney, returning to New Hampshire on Monday with his new running mate, lasted only about 30 seconds before stumbling right into the issue that has dogged his candidacy like no other. ‘Gosh, I feel like I’m almost a New Hampshire resident,’ … Romney said. ‘It would save me some tax dollars, I think.’ D’oh! Does Mr. Thirteen Percent really want to remind everybody how determined he is to keep his tax returns private?

The dude pays less than most of us and he’s STILL complaining. And he’s still hiding something he figures will be a deal breaker if we knew. We KNOW this Willard, and frankly, we are treating it the same as if we KNEW the real thing. So game, set, match old boy. . .back to dressage.

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Pinch Yourself–Did You Burst?

 

 

This is one of the first shots taken by Curiosity of its new home in a crater, looking out on a mountain that is in that same crater.

No word yet whether Curiosity can see Russia from her porch.

Yeah, I know, she’s a non sequitur now, no need to beat a dead horse.

Å

Given that Willard tends to avoid like the plague any discussion regarding his faith, you might be interested in a New Yorker piece about four new histories of the movement. I am not a person who makes fun of what anyone chooses to believe as long as it doesn’t include harm to others, but after attempting to read the book of Mormon, simply as an exercise in being “informed” I gave up, finding it to unalterably boring to push through.

But the story of Joseph Smith and his magic tablets is fascinating, so you might decide, after reading the New Yorker review to pick up one and have a go.

Å

Willard must have the shortest memory in the history of homo sapien sapien. I swear he must. Again, he is vilifying the president for something he (you got it) supported himself. The President would allow states to opt out of certain welfare work requirements upon proof that they had come up with a more innovative (lest costly and workable) alternative. Now Willard says that amounts to just sending people a welfare check. Of course he said the opposite when he was governor of Massachusetts, when he praised and pushed for such a waiver system. Click on the link and you can see his fat signature on the letter.

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I almost hate to post this as a joke, since frankly, you and I both know, it’s all too possibly true.

From the Onion:

H/T to Joe.My.God.

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We have been a waiting for weeks now Willard’s tax returns. Willard says he ain’t a gonna give ‘em up, since the mean old Democrats will only twist them, and ya know, ask for more.

Well, I have moved that “answer” around in my mouth for a good while now, and it’s time to spit out the truth. Whatever the tax returns say are FACTS. They are what they are. Perhaps they can be twisted but they can’t be made into some awful lie because facts are facts. Unless of course you are of the Romney mind: then facts are irrelevant and you can just say they mean the opposite of what they commonly mean. Is that what he is afraid of? That the Obama folks will invent new meanings like he does?

The burden is on Willard. As everyone says, he can clear this up in a heartbeat. Release them, and fair-minded people will read the truth.

But Willard can’t stand the truth. And that must mean that there is something gawd-awful in them.

As Hunter at Daily Kos says:

Whatever’s in Mitt Romney’s old taxes, whether it be zero-tax years or Swiss tax amnesties or non-tithing or that he made several million dollars on a new product called Fetus Chow, it’s apparently so bad that America wouldn’t vote for the rich business guy if they saw it.

It ain’t goin’ away Willard. You can refuse, deny, and look the other way, but we can smell a rat.

Å

Editorial alert:

As a law student, I heard this phrase a dozen or more times: We believe it is better than a 100 guilty go free rather than one innocent be wrongly convicted. Indeed nothing can be more shameful than the periodic release of yet another innocent who has been imprisoned for years for a crime he did not commit. (The phrase goes back at least as far as Blackstone and English law, but has been attributed to many others, including several justices down through the years.)

What this speaks to is our special commitment to justice.

If there is a hallmark to a democratic state it must be the right to vote. I can think of no other more important right than the ability of one to cast their vote for a candidate of their choice. Indeed, one wonders why the far right which is always a titter about “our freedoms” isn’t more vocal on this most important freedom of all.

Yet, clearly the GOP is trying mightily to inhibit the right to vote for literally millions of Americans across the country–and doing so quite openly, all under the guise of “stopping voter fraud”. This voter fraud of course proves to be non-existent when looked at, averaging less than one possible case PER state, per year. In NO CASE has there been any fraud that changed an election of threatened to do so.

Is is not better that 100 potentially fraudulent votes be cast rather than one rightful voter be denied the vote? I would think so.

You?

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Inside Every Tighty-Righty is an Ethel Merman

This isn’t exactly new news. In fact it was alluded to in Max Blumenthal’s Republican Gomorrah. But a new study confirms the old, and well, frankly, confirms what we secretly always suspected.

The study done a research team from three universities shows that those who are most vocal in their denunciation of gay folks and their having normal rights, are, yeah, you guessed it, more like to be repressed homosexuals themselves.

They are most likely to have attraction for those of their own sex, especially where such feelings were severely restricted by authoritarian parents. Gays remind them of what they can’t bear to admit about themselves, as it were.

Our thanks to Juanita Jean for the heads up. And some whacked out group in Maine who is fighting against marriage equality, urges its members to refer to same-sex marriage as “sodomy based marriage.” Why some are so ugly I do not know. But then we do know don’t we?

I hit the top of some search engine the other day, and posted visits of like nearly 1,000 on Saturday. It was a post from a year ago on Good Friday. No idea why it peaked any interest. The Internet is just plain weird.

Here in the meadow, things are plugging along. I have pretty much finished with the packing of all but the necessities needed for the next few weeks. I’m fairly generous since I’ve already found I needed that jar of unopened olives that I’d already packed. The POD is ordered and will be here on Monday next. We are starting to look for a car to buy. We have a long list of little things to do, mostly calls to make and short visits like  to the bank (things get complicated with you have direct deposit, and with my SS starting in June). But I’m starting to see that there is indeed light at the end of the tunnel now.

A couple of weeks ago, Chris Hayes’ UP had a really great discussion about faith and science. Dawkins was on as well as Steve Pinker, both atheists, or agnostics as even Dawkins admits to. Susan Jacoby rounded out that side, with Robert Wright bringing up the more, I would say, nuanced side. Stanley Fish, in the NYTimes, Opinionator, has a really interesting two-part article discussing the issues, here and here. He makes a very thoughtful argument that, while it changes nothing in the determination of scientific reality versus religion, he sets the discussion on a more rational (I think) base.

I cannot vouch for the accuracy of this, and rather doubt it is accurate, but I nearly fell off my chair in laughter when I saw it.

It came from the Constant Weader.

It’s an interesting thought experiment.

Now some of you will spend more time in reverie on that possibility of the physical experience, and will miss the fine political statement.

And most of you who do will be men.

Women just have a finer sense of morality and decorum.

But then, I’m not telling you anything new there am I?

Rick Warren never was a middle of the roader. He’s a thinly disguised righty, who harbors the usual right-wing belief system that supports all the Ryanesque harshness as Americanism at it’s best. This is what he said to Jake Tapper a few days ago:

Well certainly the Bible says we are to care about the poor….But there’s a fundamental question on the meaning of “fairness.” Does fairness mean everybody makes the same amount of money? Or does fairness mean everybody gets the opportunity to make the same amount of money? I do not believe in wealth redistribution, I believe in wealth creation.

The only way to get people out of poverty is J-O-B-S. Create jobs. To create wealth, not to subsidize wealth. When you subsidize people, you create the dependency. You— you rob them of dignity.

Sounds fairly tame? No. Not at all. First of all, Jesus never suggested that there were limits to “caring for the poor“. And what is fairness? Nobody on the left is suggesting that everyone “make the same amount of money”. We recognize that some are more ambitious, more talented, and more delay gratification in order to educate themselves to the level that will put them in a higher wage bracket.

What does fair opportunity mean? Arguably we have always had that, although the journey may be very arduous for some, extremely so, but there have always been rich people who bucked all the odds and succeeded. And frankly this is what Warren means. And most people can’t achieve under these circumstances. Fairness to us means that everybody pays their fair share without resort to fancy accounting practices that effectively reduce one’s taxes to zero, all the while that the average person is paying a painful amount.

While jobs are everyone’s goal, and frankly I cannot fathom a man who believes that receiving government assistance amounts to being “subsidized wealth”. Show me the wealth in SS benefits and we can talk.

Warren and the Right in general attempt to place the onus of poverty on the impoverished and to help the middle class feel victimized and threatened by efforts to redress the injustice. And they use the Bible to make the middle class the traditional poor that Jesus talked about.

How many times can we remind everyone that Projectionism is at work here.  

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My Head Swims With New Factoids

I learned that the “new atheists” are largely just religious fundamentalists with a different “religion”–the idolatry of mankind.

I learned that they have no interest in joining forces with believers for the purpose of ensuring that our schools teach science in science and not religious doctrines of creationism and intelligent design.

For they have a second goal–eradicating ALL religion. And so any believer is condemned at the start as an idiot. People like Robert Wright who advocate a more nuanced argument, are deemed dishonest.

I learned that it is as worthless to try to have a rational discussion with them as it is with a fundamentalist in religion.

I think I learned this once before, but hope springs eternal that the blind will see as it were.

I learned from Ellen DeGeneres that there is a new reality show that I’ve been missing–a family of shall we say, rather “countrified” who happened to be sitting over a natural gas pocket or something. Anyway, they are now billionaires and have a reality show. Ellen was showing a clip from when the daughter and dad got “teeth”. Anybody have the name? Doomsday preppers are beginning my attention as it’s the same old same old every week mostly.

I learned that Republican men continue to “not get” women. Willard refers all “lady issues” to the Missus, who promises to show us his junk to prove he’s not stiff–is that a Mormon thing?, while Rinsed Penis (Rience Priebus) says we are like caterpillars.

I learned that golf men in Georgia like their women to serve drinks in the bar, and don’t think they look particularly good in green–jackets that is. It’s understandable of course when you think about it. How else to pee off to the side in the middle of the course when there might be a woman about.

I learned that sexual orientation is a lot more complicated than I thought.

I wonder what “other” would be?

Let me see.

“Straight woman, but married, and old enough to be less interested in sex than I used to be, but not a dried up prune quite yet, except when I’ve seen a Johnny Depp movie and feel a bit more randy than usual”, but almost never aroused by Victoria Secrets ads, unless you can jealousy arousal.”

And that is not a representation of me, just so you know. The reference to Mr. Depp is purely so that I get more hits on this post.

(h/t to Joe.My.God)

I learned that Willard is a bold liar. He now accuses the President of “having spent too much time at Harvard” and thus being out of touch with America. Except that Willard spent one more year there than did the President, and they’ve given him something like $32,000 in campaign donations so far.

Yesterday Willard told some potential voters in PA that “Obama said that we live in an unlimited land of plenty and we can spend whatever we want.” What the President actually said is “IF we lived in an unlimited land of plenty we could spend whatever we want. But that is not the reality. We don’t and therefore. . . .” 

For a man who is by all claims a very religious one, who supports his church with large amounts of cash, and who have served for OVER A DECADE as a pastor, the lack of morality this man expresses is breathtaking.

I learned that a journey of a thousand miles does indeed begin with a single step. When we first determined to move to New Mexico, the task ahead seemed almost too huge to accomplish. For months I felt stuck between home plate and first. But bit by bit, and step by step, I’m nearly third and can see home plate at last.

I learned that some of my blogging friends are standards by which I can judge my own sanity. Read that however you wish. Always running in that race are Jimmy from OKJimm’s Eggroll Emporium and Hansi’s Hallucinations. Hey Hansi, I liked the tumor one today!

I learned that while Republican led legislatures throughout the country are assaulting women in various ways as part of “getting our freedoms” back, Connecticut is poised to abolish the death penalty. Some of our legislators appear to have brains inside those big things on their shoulders.

Just in case you were at all confused: