You Should Have Heard Just What I Seen..

Does Religion Cause Rape? « MoronWatch

2012-01-29T15:19:00.001-08:00

http://moronwatch.net/2012/01/does-religion-cause-rape.html

---SPSmith

Francis Fukuyama on the Financial Crisis | FiveBooks | The Browser

2012-01-27T12:50:00.001-08:00

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/francis-fukuyama-on-financial-crisis?page=3

But if authoritarian states need more accountability, you can make the case that democratic political systems have been paralysed by the multiplication of checks and balances over time. That really creates a situation of what I call "vetocracy". There are no forcing mechanisms to make the polity take a difficult choice, but there is enough participation that everybody can block things that they don't like. In the US we have a particularly severe form of this because our constitution mandates many more checks and balances and many more vetoes in political decision-making than do the constitutions and basic laws of other societies. The economist Mancur Olson was right, I think, that over long periods of peace and prosperity, the vested interests that take advantage of this kind of political system tend to multiply. So I would relate our current problem to a bad institutional set of rules.

---SPSmith

Home : Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission

2012-01-27T12:33:00.001-08:00

http://cybercemetery.unt.edu/archive/fcic/20110310172443/http://fcic.gov/

---SPSmith

Neil deGrasse Tyson Sympathizes With Newt Gingrich's Moon Mission | Mediaite

2012-01-27T11:59:00.000-08:00

Neil deGrasse Tyson Sympathizes With Newt Gingrich's Moon Mission | Mediaite: " “If the nation dreams big and that percolates its way through society, the dreams are enabled by prowess in science. Once everybody gets the feeling through them, they want to become scientists and engineers and participate in this adventure,” Tyson exclaimed. “Scientists and engineers — who are the seeds of tomorrow’s economies in this competitive 21st century we’re entering.”"

'via Blog this'

Article: ARIZONA ATHEIST: The Bible: An Exposé: Myth or History?

2012-01-27T07:48:00.001-08:00

ARIZONA ATHEIST: The Bible: An Exposé: Myth or History?
http://arizonaatheist.blogspot.com/2012/01/bible-expose-myth-or-history.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Article: The 10 Most Brazen Lies Offered By the Remaining GOP Presidential Hopefuls

2012-01-26T19:51:00.000-08:00

The 10 Most Brazen Lies Offered By the Remaining GOP Presidential Hopefuls
http://www.alternet.org/story/153911/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Dole assails Gingrich in plea to conservatives – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

2012-01-26T17:31:00.000-08:00

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/26/dole-assails-gingrich-in-plea-to-conservatives/

"If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices," Dole said. "Hardly anyone who served with Newt in Congress has endorsed him and that fact speaks for itself. He was a one-man-band who rarely took advice. It was his way or the highway."

Dole, who served in the U.S. Senate when Gingrich was House speaker, harkened back to Gingrich's style during his time in Congress.

"Gingrich had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall," Dole said. "He loved picking a fight with Bill Clinton because he knew this would get the attention of the press. This and a myriad of other specifics helped to topple Gingrich in 1998."

---SPSmith

Molalla City Council Agenda—Page 2 of 2

2012-01-26T16:44:00.001-08:00

http://www.cityofmolalla.com/vertical/Sites/%7B8B732F6F-BF3A-4831-820E-E60E2A3E5AA4%7D/uploads/Agenda_and_Packet_January_20_2012_REV.pdf

Jim Needham: ass where ever he goes:

Councilor Needham made a motion to table this item.

CM Barnes stated that there is already a motion on the table.

Councilor Needham stated that a motion to table is always in order.

Councilor Rogge stated that he has to have a second.

Mayor Clarke stated that beings that there is no second he will go back to the original motion and second that we adopt the Council Rules as they are.

Motion approved (5-1) Mayor Mike Clarke, Aye; Councilor Clark, Aye; Councilor Needham, Nay; Councilor Rogge, Aye; Councilor Thompson, Aye; Councilor Wolfe, Aye.

Councilor Needham stated that he can't believe this; this is a total mockery.

---SPSmith

Article: 'Headless body in topless bar' convict denied parole

2012-01-26T12:06:00.001-08:00

'Headless body in topless bar' convict denied parole
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2012/01/headless-body-in-topless-bar-convict-denied-parole.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Inside SAP's Skunkworks as It Takes Aim at Oracle - WSJ.com

2012-01-26T08:45:00.001-08:00

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052970203430404577092651330963684-lMyQjAxMTAyMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html

---SPSmith

Article: Atheism as Lacking a Moral Foundation

2012-01-26T08:05:00.001-08:00

Atheism as Lacking a Moral Foundation
http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2012/01/atheism-as-lacking-moral-foundation.html

In America, it casts atheists as untrustworthy, as least likely to share American values, and as being likely to establish a Stalinesque totalitarian regime complete with programs to round up and execute all believers if it should come to pass that atheists get political power.

This type if attitude deserves more that, "Pardon me, but i do not think that reason and evidence properly supports the conclusions you are asserting."

It deserves, "If your fraking religion grants you such a strong moral foundation, why didn't it teach you about the evil of promoting hatred and fear of others for the purpose of harvesting social and political power? Where is that in your moral code and why don't you start practicing it?"

---SPSmith

Article: Religious tolerance

2012-01-26T08:00:00.001-08:00

Religious tolerance
http://freethoughtblogs.com/crommunist/2012/01/26/religious-tolerance/

---SPSmith

Article: Good Minus God: The Moral Atheist - NYTimes.com

2012-01-25T21:22:00.001-08:00

Good Minus God: The Moral Atheist - NYTimes.com
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/good-minus-god/

Rather, we find moral value to be immanent in the natural world, arising from the vulnerabilities of sentient beings and from the capacities of rational beings to recognize and to respond to those vulnerabilities and capacities in others.

---SPSmith

Poll Results | IGM Forum

2012-01-25T16:10:00.001-08:00

http://www.igmchicago.org/igm-economic-experts-panel/poll-results?SurveyID=SV_0IAlhdDH2FoRDrm

One of the leading reasons for rising U.S. income inequality over the past three decades is that technological change has affected workers with some skill sets differently than others.

---SPSmith

Article: State of the Republicans

2012-01-25T10:58:00.001-08:00

State of the Republicans
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/state-of-the-republicans/

Funny

---SPSmith

Article: State of the Republicans

2012-01-25T10:52:00.001-08:00

State of the Republicans
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/25/state-of-the-republicans/

it's an odd thing when a leading Republican candidate has the children of his first wife attacking his second wife for things she said about his third wife and this candidate is the one getting social conservative support.

---SPSmith

Skeptic Money » Blog Archive » Do Atheists Know More About Religion? – Pew Forum Study. - You make sense but does your money?

2012-01-25T10:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.skepticmoney.com/do-atheists-know-more-about-religion-pew-forum-study/

---SPSmith

Emrys Westacott, The Virtues of Our Vices: tA Modest Defense of Gossip, Rudeness, and Other Bad Habits

2012-01-25T09:58:00.001-08:00

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9522.pdf

Morality, in my view, is not some special nonnatural domain. it is a human invention, although as a number of recent studies in evolutionary ethics have suggested, it probably has its roots in our evolutionary heritage. For the most part, moral systems were not consciously designed with particular ends in mind; they emerged naturally, and those that helped their societies to thrive tended to be selected in. Within recorded history, moral revolutionaries like Moses, the Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, and Muhammad sought more or less consciously to construct new ethical systems. They did so with certain goals in mind, and in most cases viewed the moral rules they proposed as reflecting a divine will. This divine sanction justified viewing the rules as objectively correct; it also provided people with a motive to abide by them.

The enlightenment secularized our view of morality but sought to uphold the objective status and binding force of moral principles by seeing them as dictates of reason rather than divine commandments. since the eighteenth century the secularization of our culture has proceeded apace, and this has made possible a more relativistic view of reason and a more flexible conception of morality. of course, there are plenty of religious believers who still think that the moral precepts they favor express God's will. The more traditional among them even hold that we have a duty to make our society mirror some divinely ordained ideal. But a thoroughly secular approach sees things differently. Morality is a tool. it is a set of values, beliefs, principles, practices, and ideals that we use to help promote certain personal and social goals. naturally, people can and do sometimes disagree over what these goals should be. Fascists will sacrifice individual rights to achieve a certain kind of political state; liberals see the state as serving to guarantee basic individual rights. some people posit ideals of nonviolence and brotherly love; others value rugged individualism and the frontier spirit. But wherever there is com mon ground, there is room for reasoned discussion, and we can entertain some hope that, in the long term, people's fundamental values will tend to converge.

-- Emrys Westacott, The Virtues of Our Vices: tA Modest Defense of Gossip, Rudeness, and Other Bad Habits

http://press.princeton.edu/chapters/i9522.pdf

---SPSmith

Skepticblog » Rescuing People from Aliens

2012-01-25T09:00:00.001-08:00

http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/01/24/rescuing-people-from-aliens/#more-16555

---SPSmith

10 Misconceptions Rundown

2012-01-25T08:53:00.001-08:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCzXZfNIu3A&feature=youtube_gdata_player

---SPSmith

Apple Hits Sales, Profits Record « VOA Breaking News

2012-01-25T08:25:00.001-08:00

http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2012/01/25/apple-hits-sales-profits-record/
Apple's profit exceeded the total revenue for the quarter of the
popular Internet search firm Google.

---SPSmith

Nov2011: Nasal Packing With Strips of Cured Pork as Treatment for Uncontrollable Epistaxis in a Patient With Glanzmann Thrombasthenia

2012-01-24T21:23:00.001-08:00

http://www.annals.com/toc/auto_abstract.php?id=15789

Title:

Nasal Packing With Strips of Cured Pork as Treatment for Uncontrollable Epistaxis in a Patient With Glanzmann Thrombasthenia

---SPSmith

Article: CrownHeights.info » Christopher Hitchens: The Fall of a Worthy Adversary

2012-01-24T15:23:00.001-08:00

CrownHeights.info » Christopher Hitchens: The Fall of a Worthy Adversary
http://www.crownheights.info/index.php?itemid=39953

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Energy Report - Government Financial Subsidies

2012-01-24T10:58:00.001-08:00

http://www.window.state.tx.us/specialrpt/energy/subsidies/

The price of your soul: How the brain decides whether to 'sell out'

2012-01-24T08:39:00.001-08:00

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-price-soul-brain.html

---SPSmith

Seeking the neurological roots of conflict - MIT News Office

2012-01-24T08:36:00.001-08:00

http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/empathy-conflict-0123.html

---SPSmith

Man Wants to Live Like Bear Grylls for a Year, Dies in Less than a Month | Oddity Central - Collecting Oddities

2012-01-24T08:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.odditycentral.com/news/man-wants-to-live-like-bear-grylls-for-a-year-dies-in-less-than-a-month.html

---SPSmith

Left/right differences

2012-01-24T07:49:00.001-08:00

The political left rolls with the good and the political right confronts the bad: connecting physiology and cognition to preferences
Dodd, et. al., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 5 March 2012 vol. 367 no. 1589 640-649.
... the central message of these findings is not that one political orientation is somehow superior to the other but rather that, in light of the connection between location on the political spectrum and physio-cognitive differences, those on the political right and those on the political left may simply experience the world differently. It is probably because of these differences that some on the right view those on the left as hedonists who ignore pressing issues while some on the left view those on the right as doomsayers who obsess over constructed threats and problems.

Full paper for review: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/367/1589/640.full

---SPSmith

Against relativism: cultural diversity and the search for ethical universals ... - Ruth Macklin - Google Books

2012-01-23T18:41:00.001-08:00

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=BajHzj0Di8AC&oi=fnd&pg=PA3&dq=Ruth+Benedict+common+denominator+religion&ots=HV1XwcQG2Q&sig=_PEvZvWNJ2pMrc8IkMwVQNeaRk0#v=onepage&q&f=false

---SPSmith

Jonathan Haidt and the Moral Matrix: Breaking Out of Our Righteous Minds | Guest Blog, Scientific American Blog Network

2012-01-23T18:36:00.001-08:00

http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2011/12/08/jonathan-haidt-the-moral-matrix-breaking-out-of-our-righteous-minds/

---SPSmith

Richard Dawkins & Steven Pinker: Is Science Killing The Soul - Page 8

2012-01-23T18:07:00.001-08:00

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dawkins_pinker/debate_p8.html

That may also be true, at least according to some philosophical
arguments, for morality. Many philosophers believe that some abstract
entities, such as numbers, have an existence independent of minds.
That is, many philosophers and mathematicians believe that the number
three is not just a figment in the way that the color red is, but that
it has a real existence, which mathematicians discover and explore
with their mathematical faculties; they don't invent it. Similarly,
many moral philosophers argue that right and wrong have an existence,
and that our moral sense evolved to mesh with them. Even if you don't
believe that, there's an alternative that would make the moral sense
just as real -- namely, that our universal moral sense is constituted
so that it can't work unless we believe that right and wrong have an
external reality. So if you want to stop short of saying that moral
truths exist outside us, you can say that we can't reason other than
by assuming that they do. In that case, when we get down to having a
moral debate, we still appeal to external standards of right and
wrong; we aren't reduced to comparing idiosyncratic emotional or
subjective reactions.

---SPSmith

Article: Theism, Atheism, and Blame

2012-01-23T15:45:00.001-08:00

Theism, Atheism, and Blame
http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2011/12/theism-atheism-and-blame.html

If you take "atheism" and its counter-part "theism" NEITHER of these are a source of violence or evil. You cannot draw any moral implications from the statement, "It is not the case that at least one God exists" just as you cannot draw any moral implication from the statement, "It is the case that at least one God exists." They are both behaviorally, morally, and practically impotent.

In order to get to any moral conclusion – any type at all – you have to add something to your fundamental premise, regardless of whether it is atheist or theist.

In order to get violence against homosexuals, you have to combine, "At least one God exists" with "That god commands that homosexuals be put to death" and "We all have to duty to do that which God commands." Then, you can get behavior worthy of condemnation.

However, on this level, the same reasoning applies to atheism. In order to get any form of behavior – any type at all – out of atheism you have to add something to your fundamental premise. We might add, "Man is a rational animal, and it is irrational to provide help to others unless one expects a sufficient profit in return that more than compensates the cost of the help. Therefore, man ought not to help others. Selfishness is a virtue."

---SPSmith

Article: Theism, Atheism, and Blame

2012-01-23T15:44:00.001-08:00

Theism, Atheism, and Blame
http://atheistethicist.blogspot.com/2011/12/theism-atheism-and-blame.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Article: Why I despise the Catholic Church especially

2012-01-23T15:17:00.001-08:00

Why I despise the Catholic Church especially
http://furtherthoughtsfortheday.blogspot.com/2011/12/why-i-despise-catholic-church.html

I know that it is not a prerequisite of becoming a Catholic clergyman to be a peadophile, and that, of the clergy the vast majority are not peadophiles (just under 10% of ordained priests from 1970 onwards were peadophiles,based on the Vatican's own reports). However, the reason I hold the entire organisation accountable is due to how they dealt with the problem: They utterly failed the children in their care when they discovered what was going on.

---SPSmith

Article: What the Right Gets Right - NYTimes.com

2012-01-23T15:01:00.001-08:00

What the Right Gets Right - NYTimes.com
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/what-the-right-gets-right/

the Republican Party has won seven of the last eleven presidential elections; controlled the Senate from 1981 to 1987 and from 1995 to 2007; and controlled the House from 1996 to 2006 and 2011 to 2013.

---SPSmith

Article: What the Left Gets Right

2012-01-23T14:58:00.001-08:00

What the Left Gets Right
http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/what-the-left-gets-right/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

| Righteous Abortion: How Conservative Christians Promote What They Claim to Hate

2012-01-23T08:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/1/22/19617/0671/Front_Page/Righteous_Abortion_How_Conservative_Christians_Promote_What_They_Claim_to_Hate

One of the great ironies of American society is that most abortions in the U.S. are caused by conservative Christians. Read the statistics: Forty nine percent of pregnancies in this country are unintended, a rate that has been painfully stable for almost 30 years. Almost half of those pregnancies end in abortion. Or, to turn it around, over 90% of U.S. abortions are the result of accidental pregnancy. U.S. rates of unwanted pregnancy and abortion far exceed any other country with similar economic development. So does our rate of religiosity. The fact that we are outliers on both is not a coincidence.

---SPSmith

Apple, America and a Squeezed Middle Class - NYTimes.com

2012-01-23T08:06:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/22/business/apple-america-and-a-squeezed-middle-class.html?_r=1

"We sell iPhones in over a hundred countries. We don't have an obligation to solve America's problems. Our only obligation is making the best product possible."

— an unnamed Apple executive, in a New York Times article titled "How the U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work," which examines why Apple and other U.S. tech companies choose to make their products — the increasingly popularsmartphones, tablets, e-readers and more — overseas. Among the many complicated reasons, according to the article: the global economy; the scale, speed and flexibility of overseas factories; and the companies' belief that there is a lack of qualified American workers. One famous Chinese factory, Foxconn Technologies — which has many facilities in Asia and elsewhere — where an estimated 40 percent of the world's electronics are put together, was mentioned in the article as an example of massive scale. At Foxconn plants, workers live onsite in dorms and work 12 hours a day — at least officially. Foxconn has been in the news lately for other things: It apologized last week after CEO Terry Gou reportedly referred to Foxconn workers as animals, with the companysaying his comments were taken out of context. A couple of weeks ago, Foxconn said it had come to an agreement with some employees who had threatened to commit mass suicide over a pay dispute. By the way, Appleannounced earlier this month that it would allow independent monitoring of its suppliers' factories.

---SPSmith

The Keystone - China connection is overblown

2012-01-23T07:49:00.001-08:00

Hey, check this out from CNN:
The Keystone - China connection is overblown
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/23/news/economy/keystone_china/

---SPSmith

The Nordic model

2012-01-22T16:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.etla.fi/files/1892_the_nordic_model_complete.pdf

---SPSmith

Sweden - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

2012-01-22T16:26:00.001-08:00

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden#Public_policy

---SPSmith

Newt Gingrich’s Alternative History : The New Yorker

2012-01-22T12:33:00.001-08:00

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2011/12/19/111219taco_talk_hertzberg

As the protagonist of the tale, imagine, if you will, a man who, as
Speaker of the House, orchestrates the impeachment of a President for
an adulterous affair with a White House aide twenty-six years his
junior while he himself is conducting an adulterous affair with a
congressional aide twenty-two years his junior, having earlier left
the first of his three wives while she was hospitalized with cancer.
Imagine a man who attributes these behaviors to "how passionately I
felt about this country." Imagine a man who, told he can't sit in a
front section of Air Force One, shuts down the government. Imagine a
man who becomes the only House Speaker ever to be disciplined for
ethics violations. Imagine a man who, in a country just staggering out
of the worst recession of the past fifty years and facing the threat
of worldwide economic collapse, proposes to hire small children to
work as janitors, mopping floors and cleaning toilets in their schools
(or their orphanages, perhaps). Imagine that man as
Commander-in-Chief. It's no stretch for him. His fantasy life is so
rich that he has already compared himself to Abraham Lincoln, Charles
de Gaulle, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and (for sheer
perseverance) Ho Chi Minh.

---SPSmith

Rate of abortion is highest in countries where practice is banned - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent

2012-01-21T21:08:00.001-08:00

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/rate-of-abortion-is-highest-in-countries-where-practice-is-banned-6292070.html

The global abortion rate remained virtually unchanged from 2003 to 2008, at about 28 abortions per 1,000 women aged 15 to 44, a total of about 43.8 million abortions, according to the study. The rate had previously been dropping since 1995.

---SPSmith

Has Violence Declined? John Gray on Steven Pinker | Practical Ethics

2012-01-21T15:23:00.001-08:00

http://blog.practicalethics.ox.ac.uk/2011/10/has-violence-declined-john-gray-on-steven-pinker/

---SPSmith

Hitchens and Hell - NYTimes.com

2012-01-21T15:18:00.001-08:00

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/hitchens-and-hell/#more-15781

---SPSmith

Steven Pinker's History of Violence - NYTimes.com

2012-01-21T15:09:00.001-08:00

http://douthat.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/17/steven-pinkers-history-of-violence/

---SPSmith

Article: BBC's The Romantics: The Birth of the Individual in Modern Society

2012-01-21T15:00:00.001-08:00

BBC's The Romantics: The Birth of the Individual in Modern Society
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2011/06/28/bbc-the-romantics/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Ayatollah Santorum the Sanctimonious (ASS) by Thomas DiLorenzo

2012-01-21T11:53:00.001-08:00

http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo226.html

---SPSmith

The Origins of Nazi Genocide: From Euthanasia to the Final Solution - Henry Friedlander - Google Books

2012-01-20T16:00:00.001-08:00

http://books.google.com/books?id=gqLDEKVk2nMC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=Exclusion&f=false

---SPSmith

Malcolm Muggeridge -- The Great Liberal Death Wish

2012-01-20T15:05:00.001-08:00

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles/MuggeridgeLiberal.php

We used to boast in those days that we had an Empire on which the sun
never set, and now we have a commonwealth on which it never rises, and
I can't quite say which concept strikes me as being the more derisory.

---SPSmith

Charles Foster on Living Prudently | FiveBooks | The Browser

2012-01-19T16:59:00.001-08:00

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/charles-foster-on-living-prudently?page=2

Odysseus is the great hero of prudence in all of our literature. He
thinks before he acts, and bases that action on caution

---SPSmith

‘How do atheists find meaning in life?’ - - The Washington Post

2012-01-19T09:23:00.000-08:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/how-do-atheist-find-meaning-in-life/2012/01/18/gIQAbiFP8P_blog.html

Theistic religion reduces life to something that has no value other
than as the creation of an imagined deity. It decrees that purpose and
meaning can only be found in being that deity's puppet, having no
purpose but its purpose and no value other than as its handiwork.
Theistic religion looks on all that is best and most noble in human
impulse and endeavour and dismisses it as meaningless and worthless
--or worse: corrupt --unless done in the name of God. It is time to
abandon this baseless worldview. It is time to reject theistic
religion and start viewing ourselves and others with real dignity, as
beings with value in our own right and not just as the distorted
shadows of a fictional creator.
---SPSmith

In Piracy Bill Fight, New Economy Rises Against Old - NYTimes.com

2012-01-19T09:10:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/19/technology/web-protests-piracy-bill-and-2-key-senators-change-course.html

---SPSmith

Article: Creationist paper in a medical journal

2012-01-19T08:00:00.001-08:00

Creationist paper in a medical journal
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/intelligent-design-paper-in-a-medical-journal/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Cambridge Journals Online - Abstract - THE TEXAS SHARPSHOOTER FALLACY

2012-01-18T13:33:00.001-08:00

http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7950491&fulltextType=RA&fileId=S1477175610000412

A man fires a gun several times at the side of a barn and then draws a circle around a cluster of most of the bullet holes. Drawing a target retrospectively like this doesn't prove the shooting skills of the gunman – no one would consider him a sharpshooter if they knew what he'd done. When the equivalent of this happens in other circumstances we call it the Texas sharpshooter fallacy. As with many fallacies, it may not appear fallacious at first inspection

---SPSmith

The Will to Believe

2012-01-18T11:41:00.001-08:00

http://www.princeton.edu/~grosen/puc/phi203/will.html

James discusses three cases of this sort, of which the religious case
is the third. One of these is a very special case — the sort of case
in which, as James says, faith in the fact can help create the fact.
Where the fact in question is something to be wished for, in these
cases, James believes, faith is obviously reasonable.
---SPSmith

William James (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)

2012-01-18T11:37:00.001-08:00

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/james/
The Will to Believe also contains James's most developed account of
morality, "The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life." Morality for
James rests on sentience — without it there are no moral claims and no
moral obligations. But once sentience exists, a claim is made, and
morality gets "a foothold in the universe" (WB 198). Although James
insists that there is no common essence to morality, he does find a
guiding principle for ethical philosophy in the principle that we
"satisfy at all times as many demands as we can" (WB, 205). This
satisfaction is to be achieved by working towards a "richer
universe…the good which seems most organizable, most fit to enter into
complex combinations, most apt to be a member of a more inclusive
whole" (WB, 210). This work proceeds by a series of experiments, by
means of which we have learned to live (for the most part) without
"polygamy and slavery, private warfare and liberty to kill, judicial
torture and arbitrary royal power." (WB, 205) . However, James holds
that there is "nothing final in any actually given equilibrium of
human ideals, [so that] as our present laws and customs have fought
and conquered other past ones, so they will in their turn be
overthrown by any newly discovered order which will hush up the
complaints that they still give rise to, without producing others
louder still" (WB, 206).

---SPSmith

William James, part 7: Agnosticism and the will to believe | Mark Vernon | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

2012-01-18T11:30:00.001-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2010/nov/29/william-james-agnosticism-will-to-believe

---SPSmith

A field guide to bullshit - opinion - 13 June 2011 - New Scientist

2012-01-18T11:15:00.001-08:00

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028160.200-a-field-guide-to-bullshit.html?full=true

---SPSmith

Check out: 'The Very Real Paranoia Over Genetically Modified Foods' on Slate

2012-01-18T10:13:00.001-08:00

God debunking article

The Very Real Paranoia Over Genetically Modified Foods
By Emily Willingham
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/01/genetically_modified_foods_ari_laux_s_alarmism_in_the_atlantic.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad

---SPSmith

Article: Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, with Jonathan Miller

2012-01-18T08:41:00.001-08:00

Atheism: A Rough History of Disbelief, with Jonathan Miller
http://www.openculture.com/2012/01/atheism_a_rough_history_of_disbelief.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Article: What is Wrong with SOPA?

2012-01-18T08:38:00.001-08:00

What is Wrong with SOPA?
http://www.openculture.com/2012/01/what-is-wrong-with-sopa.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Not Very Appealing | The Digital Cuttlefish

2012-01-18T08:06:00.000-08:00

Not Very Appealing | The Digital Cuttlefish: "The Christians in Cranston are singing the blues
With their bigotry bared on the six-o’clock news
They’ve all learned a lesson, what it feels like to lose
And it’s setting their senses to reeling
Now between God and Country, the mob has to choose
Will the school board soon be appealing?"

'via Blog this'

Garry Owen

2012-01-17T21:21:00.001-08:00

http://www.contemplator.com/ireland/gowen.html

Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed
But join with me, each jovial blade
Come, drink and sing and lend your aid
To help me with the chorus:

Chorus
Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

---SPSmith

Momday: On Parenting, Science, and Trust | The Mother Geek

2012-01-17T21:04:00.001-08:00

http://www.science3point0.com/themothergeek/2012/01/09/momday-on-parenting-science-and-trust/

Because I trust scientists and doctors, I didn't question the CDC's vaccination schedule. I didn't pore over vaccine research or agonize about the decision to vaccinate my child. Instead, I trusted that the committees of experts at the CDC and AAP carefully make the best recommendations possible based on the data available. Maybe that is naïve. Maybe I am a lazy mother for not trying to become a vaccine expert before I allowed those first needles to enter my daughter's thigh. Or maybe not.

What would be naïve is for me to think that I could become an expert on vaccinations. It would be naïve for me to think that I could understand the vaccine field better than the committees of scientists and doctors who have made this their life's work. I know how much work it took me to become an expert on one or two corners of nutrition and fetal physiology. It took thousands of hours of reading textbooks and journal articles, sitting in lectures, attending conferences, and struggling at the lab bench before I started to feel even a little bit comfortable calling myself an expert in any field. So I think it is naïve for a parent to think that she can become an expert on vaccines by spending some time on the Internet reading questionable sources, almost all of which have some agenda. I accept that I can't know everything, and I have enough faith in humanity that I trust others who know more than me.

---SPSmith

Article: The world has far too much morality

2012-01-17T20:21:00.001-08:00

The world has far too much morality
http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2012/01/world-has-far-too-much-morality.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

Quote from Steven Pinker (p. 622 of The Better Angels of Our Nature): "The world has far too much morality. If you added up all the homicides committed in pursuit of self-help justice, the casualties of religious and revolutionary wars, the people executed for victimless crimes and misdemeanors, and the targets of ideological genocides, they would surely outnumber the fatalities from amoral predation and conquest. The human moral sense can excuse any atrocity in the minds of those who commit it, and it furnishes them with motives for acts of violence that bring them no tangible benefit. The torture of heretics and conversos, the burning of witches, the imprisonment of homosexuals, and the honor of killing unchaste sisters and daughters are just a few examples. The incalculable suffering that has been visited upon the world by people motivated by a moral cause is enough to make one sympathize with comedian George Carlin when he said, "I think motivation is overrated. You show me some lazy prick who's lying around all day watching game shows and stroking his penis, and I'll show you someone who's not causing any fucking trouble!'"

---SPSmith

Leonard Cohen - Darkness by leonardcohen

2012-01-17T17:52:00.000-08:00

Leonard Cohen - Darkness by leonardcohen

The Battle of Blenheim, by Robert Southey

2012-01-17T11:40:00.001-08:00

http://www.poetry-archive.com/s/the_battle_of_blenheim.html

---SPSmith

The Ignorance of Defining Atheism as a Religion | Al Stefanelli

2012-01-17T09:22:00.000-08:00

The Ignorance of Defining Atheism as a Religion | Al Stefanelli: "atheism is not a religion and cannot be categorized as a belief system, but since when did knowledge stop a believer from being willfully ignorant. "

'via Blog this'

How To Make God Die A Little More | Camels With Hammers

2012-01-17T08:53:00.000-08:00

How To Make God Die A Little More | Camels With Hammers: "This is a little bit more confirmation for my hypothesis that the dominant religious institutions lose their grips slowly as each of the myriad of psychological and social functions they serve are stably replaced by secular alternatives. Social and political stability with sufficient means of guaranteeing pro-social behavior and punishments for antisocial behavior alleviates the anxieties which keep gods around. Now if atheists can provide outlets for people’s metaphysical wonder and for their longings for identity-shaping community, grounded values, rituals, meaning, and ecstatic and meditative practices, we can take away the last bargaining chips that authoritarian and superstitious faith-based religions use to win human minds in the modern world"

'via Blog this'

Test Tube Yeast Evolve Multicellularity: Scientific American

2012-01-17T07:54:00.001-08:00

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=test-tube-yeast-evolve

---SPSmith

Stephen Law: New Scientist - interview with me on bullshit

2012-01-17T07:21:00.001-08:00

http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2012/01/new-scientist-interview-with-me-on.html
Intellectual black holes are belief systems that draw people in and
hold them captive so they become willing slaves of claptrap. Belief in
homeopathy, psychic powers, alien abductions - these are examples of
intellectual black holes. As you approach them, you need to be on your
guard because if you get sucked in, it can be extremely difficult to
think your way clear again.

---SPSmith

Nick Reynolds At Work

2012-01-15T19:55:00.001-08:00

http://nickreynoldsatwork.wordpress.com/2011/07/13/the-moral-high-ground/

The moral ground can be a lonely place.

---SPSmith

Focus on the Family | Right Wing Watch

2012-01-15T09:44:00.000-08:00

Focus on the Family | Right Wing Watch:

'via Blog this'

Article: Football, With God On Our Side

2012-01-15T08:24:00.001-08:00

Football, With God On Our Side
http://freethoughtblogs.com/cuttlefish/2012/01/15/football-with-god-on-our-side/

We gather each Sunday
We won't miss a week
It's more than just victory
It's salvation we seek
It's more than religion
It's the reason Christ died
So we could play football
With God on our side

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Tebow

2012-01-15T07:59:00.001-08:00

Sorry Tim Tebow, god was way too busy not existing to help you win
your football game. Now about your support for that Christian hate
group Focus on Family whose homophobic and misogynistic policies
remove natural rights from gays and women: american troops should be
pissing on you instead of dead Taliban soldiers.

---SPSmith

Richard Dawkins celebrates a victory over creationists | Education | The Observer

2012-01-15T07:41:00.001-08:00

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/jan/15/free-schools-creationism-intelligent-design

---SPSmith

Bitter Politics of Envy? - NYTimes.com

2012-01-15T07:32:00.001-08:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/14/opinion/blow-bitter-politics-of-envy.html

---SPSmith

Perry: Obama administration over-reacting to Marine controversy

2012-01-15T07:20:00.001-08:00

Hey, check this out from CNN:
Perry: Obama administration over-reacting to Marine controversy
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/15/perry-obama-administration-over-reacting-to-marine-controversy/

Perry: let's go piss on his mother's grave.

---SPSmith

Article: Motorcycle Travel Equipment - Odds n' Ends

2012-01-14T17:24:00.001-08:00

Motorcycle Travel Equipment - Odds n' Ends
http://motojournalism.blogspot.com/2011/01/motorcycle-travel-equipment-odds-n-ends.html

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

ExtremeTech

2012-01-14T13:11:00.001-08:00

http://m.extremetech.com/extremetech/#!/entry/how-intels-medfield-will-dismantle-arm,4f0dbc9d890708bd1a00a14e/1

---SPSmith

Classic Fallacies -- Every Natural Number can be Unambiguously Described in Fourteen Words or Less

2012-01-14T08:25:00.001-08:00

http://www.math.toronto.edu/mathnet/falseProofs/numbersDescribable.html

---SPSmith

Best in show: 6 gadgets that defined CES – USATODAY.com

2012-01-14T08:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-01-13/ces-gadgets/52536792/1

Lenovo K800— While Nokia's been shut out of the U.S. phone market, Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, has been shut out of phones entirely. Its PC chips use too much power to go into a smartphone: they'd drain the battery in no time. That's a big problem for the company, since PC sales are flat in the developed world, while smartphone sales are exploding. Now, Intel says a new line of chips is ready for smartphone use, and Lenovo of China is the first to take them up on it, with a smartphone to be sold in China in the second quarter. Outwardly, it's indistinguishable from any other touchscreen phone, and it runs Android.

---SPSmith

The Rise and Fall of Climate Change Denial - Forbes

2012-01-14T08:02:00.001-08:00

http://www.forbes.com/sites/petergleick/2011/11/21/the-rise-and-fall-of-climate-change-denial/

---SPSmith

Article: Andrew Wakefield | Great Science Frauds | Healthland | TIME.com

2012-01-14T07:55:00.001-08:00

Andrew Wakefield | Great Science Frauds | Healthland | TIME.com
http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/13/great-science-frauds/slide/andrew-wakefield/#andrew-wakefield

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

JesusFetusFajitaFishsticks: [AHLQUIST SCREENSHOTS] If by "Christian love" you mean hatred & contempt...

2012-01-13T17:12:00.001-08:00

http://jesusfetusfajitafishsticks.blogspot.com/2012/01/ahlquist-screenshots-if-by-christian.html

---SPSmith

Coyne, after war

2012-01-13T12:41:00.001-08:00

http://www.ccoyne.com/Coyne_-_After_War_-_Chapter_1.PDF

non-intervention and free trade deserve at least a fair hearing as a viable alternative to spreading liberal democracy via military occupation. Given the less-than-stellar record of the U.S. in spreading liberal democracy at gunpoint, such alternatives must be seriously considered.

---SPSmith

Peter Boettke on Austrian Economics | FiveBooks | The Browser

2012-01-13T12:32:00.001-08:00

http://thebrowser.com/interviews/peter-boettke-on-austrian-economics?page=4

The last book you've recommended is After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy, by Christopher Coyne.

This book is amazing. Coyne took on the topic of how successful the US can be at exporting democracy and the free market in after-war situations. This became a big venture in the 20th century, when the US became much more aggressive about this idea that we could intervene to try to help make other countries better off. Part of it was for geopolitical reasons – after 9/11 we believed that one of the things we had to do was make the Middle East more conducive to free markets and democracy, because then it's less likely to generate terrorists. So then the question is, is that an effective strategy? Coyne takes the strategy as stated by the officials, and then assesses whether the means employed are successful. He uses a very low threshold, which is, after the US intervention, after the country is supposedly settled, does it meet the standard on thePolity Index of modern day Iran? What he found was that in US-led efforts, basically somewhere between two-thirds and three-quarters of the efforts failed to meet even that minimum standard.

Yes, I'm looking down his list of 30 or so invasions that have taken place, and it's not looking too good.

---SPSmith

The Official Parrondo's Paradox Page

2012-01-13T08:12:00.001-08:00

http://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/Groups/parrondo/

---SPSmith

Tebowie (1/12/12)

2012-01-13T07:55:00.001-08:00

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHB0o9lCizQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

---SPSmith

Article: Western Flyer: TOM BIHN

2012-01-13T07:38:00.001-08:00

Western Flyer: TOM BIHN
http://www.tombihn.com/page/001/PROD/500/TB0950

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

Article: Prayer mural in high school ruled unconstitutional

2012-01-13T07:27:00.001-08:00

Prayer mural in high school ruled unconstitutional
http://freethoughtblogs.com/singham/2012/01/13/prayer-mural-in-high-school-ruled-unconstitutional/

(Sent from Flipboard)

---SPSmith

GoLocal Prov - Home - NEW: ACLU Applauds Cranston Prayer Ban

2012-01-12T15:06:00.001-08:00

http://m.golocalprov.com/186935/show/b378f83bb0a88bdbcdba2f4f9aae2bae/

In his decision, the judge stated: "No amount of debate can make the School Prayer anything other than a prayer." While acknowledging that "the Prayer espouses values of honesty, kindness, friendship and sportsmanship…. the reliance on God's intervention as the way to achieve those goals is not consistent with a secular purpose."

---SPSmith