The more I thought about it, the more clear it was to me that
Santorum's main problem (and there are many) is as simple as that: he
does not tell the truth. He makes things up as he goes along, assuming
no one will check. When the people of Pennsylvania figured that out,
they were done with him and fired him as their Senator, and Rick even
lied about that.
---SPSmith
Thursday, April 05, 2012
Problems With the Truth: Confessions of a 22-Year Rick Santorum Observer - Forbes
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jerrybowyer/2012/04/04/problems-with-the-truth-confessions-of-a-22-year-rick-santorum-observer/
Wednesday, April 04, 2012
Faramerz Dabhoiwala on the 18th Century Sexual Revolution | FiveBooks | The Browser
Thomas Cannon said that unnatural desire was a contradiction in terms.
Tuesday, April 03, 2012
Article: Don't follow the US on healthcare
Don't follow the US on healthcare
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2012/03/201232973826626886.html
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Article: Enough with the GOP's Faith-Based Economics | | AlterNet
Enough with the GOP's Faith-Based Economics | | AlterNet
http://www.alternet.org/story/154835/?page=3
full information" (that is, virtually no uncertainty in the marketplace). Needless to say, it is an extremely unlikely - if not impossible - situation.[10] In a similar vein, the economist Ha-Joon Chang writes that, rather than the theoretical society of rational actors who are intimately in tune with their own economic self-interest, the reality is that, "People do not necessarily know what they are doing, because our ability to comprehend even matters that concern us directly is limited ..."[11]Borrowing slightly from George Orwell, we might more accurately say that all citizens are rational, but some are more rational than others.
---SPSmith
Article: Intel outlines open source development projects
Intel outlines open source development projects
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/03/intel_open_source_projects/
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Article: Intel is wrong about ultrabooks being better than iPads
Intel is wrong about ultrabooks being better than iPads
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-19512_7-57408861-233/intel-is-wrong-about-ultrabooks-being-better-than-ipads/
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Schneier on Security: Harms of Post-9/11 Airline Security
| Return airport security checkpoints to pre-9/11 levels. Get rid of everything that isn't needed to protect against random amateur terrorists and won't work against professional al-Qaeda plots. Take the savings thus earned and invest them in investigation, intelligence, and emergency response: security outside the airport, security that does not require us to play guessing games about plots. Recognise that 100% safety is impossible, and also that terrorism is not an "existential threat" to our way of life. Respond to terrorism not with fear but with indomitability.Refuse to be terrorized. |
Monday, April 02, 2012
Check out: 'The Hidden Health Care Mandate' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
The Hidden Health Care Mandate
By Matthew Yglesias
http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2012/03/obamacare_and_the_individual_mandate_penalizing_people_who_don_t_have_health_insurance_is_nothing_new_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Issue 39616 - chromium - XML with XSL not shown under file:// scheme - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting
Issue 39616 - chromium - XML with XSL not shown under file:// scheme - An open-source browser project to help move the web forward. - Google Project Hosting: "Another workaround: start chrome with the --disable-web-security switch.
"
'via Blog this'
"
'via Blog this'
Skepticblog » Escape to Newage Mountain
Part of the human struggle is to understand the world around us, to understand ourselves, and to have some level of control of our lives by being able to predict at least the basic patterns and rhythms of the world. Ancient cultures made calendars and monuments to help them predict the seasons, for example. Accurate knowledge is difficult, however, especially since we live in a world that is far more complex than the one in which our poor monkey brains evolved.
One advantage of the skeptical world view is that it seeks to understand the weaknesses and biases of human cognition, and it respects accurate knowledge over our emotional desires and needs. Skeptics attempt to see the world as it actually is, not how they might want it to be. Examples of what can happen when you take an unskeptical view abound.
---SPSmithDavid Albert pans Lawrence Krauss’s new book « Why Evolution Is True
http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/04/02/david-albert-pans-lawrence-krausss-new-book/
According to relativistic quantum field theories, particles are to be
understood, rather, as specific arrangements of the fields. Certain
arrangements of the fields, for instance, correspond to there being
14 particles in the universe, and certain other arrangements
correspond to there being 276 particles, and certain other
arrangements correspond to there being an infinite number of
particles, and certain other arrangements correspond to there being no
particles at all. And those last arrangements are referred to, in the
jargon of quantum field theories, for obvious reasons, as "vacuum"
states. Krauss seems to be thinking that these vacuum states amount to
the relativistic-quantum-field-theoretical version of there not being
any physical stuff at all. And he has an argument — or thinks he does
— that the laws of relativistic quantum field theories entail that
vacuum states are unstable. And that, in a nutshell, is the account he
proposes of why there should be something rather than nothing.
---SPSmith
Science on the Rampage by Freeman Dyson | The New York Review of Books
Physics on the Fringe describes work done by amateurs, people rejected by the academic establishment and rejecting orthodox academic beliefs. They are often self-taught and ignorant of higher mathematics. Mathematics is the language spoken by the professionals. The amateurs offer an alternative set of visions. Their imagined worlds are concrete rather than abstract, physical rather than mathematical. Many of them belong to the Natural Philosophy Alliance, an informal organization known to its friends as the NPA.
Sunday, April 01, 2012
Legacy Matters: James Q Wilson, R.I.P.
http://www.estatevaults.com/lm/archives/2012/03/03/james_q_wilson.html
Many authors over the decades have demonstrated the self-evident truth
that without a healthy moral culture, a democratic capitalist society
cannot survive. But Wilson showed—not with vague philosophy but with
natural experiments and data analysis—that the moral sense is so much
more than just what we need to prosper. It is the rhythm of our human
flourishing. Wilson understood that the moral sense is what statist
regimes crowd out with technocratic socialism—and why they ultimately
deliver unhappiness. The moral sense is the reason freedom and
individual responsibility give us the best chance at a meaningful
life.
Many authors over the decades have demonstrated the self-evident truth
that without a healthy moral culture, a democratic capitalist society
cannot survive. But Wilson showed—not with vague philosophy but with
natural experiments and data analysis—that the moral sense is so much
more than just what we need to prosper. It is the rhythm of our human
flourishing. Wilson understood that the moral sense is what statist
regimes crowd out with technocratic socialism—and why they ultimately
deliver unhappiness. The moral sense is the reason freedom and
individual responsibility give us the best chance at a meaningful
life.
---SPSmith
James Q. Wilson, 1931-2012 by James Piereson - The New Criterion
http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/James-Q--Wilson--1931-2012-7326
Everyone, he argued, is born "with a natural moral sense," a concept
originally developed by the philosophers of the Scottish
Enlightenment, principally by Adam Smith and Francis Hutcheson, and
then picked up by prominent Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison. The moral sense consists of four virtues—sympathy,
fairness, self-control, and duty—that individuals absorb through
family relations and community life. As
Everyone, he argued, is born "with a natural moral sense," a concept
originally developed by the philosophers of the Scottish
Enlightenment, principally by Adam Smith and Francis Hutcheson, and
then picked up by prominent Americans such as Thomas Jefferson and
James Madison. The moral sense consists of four virtues—sympathy,
fairness, self-control, and duty—that individuals absorb through
family relations and community life. As
---SPSmith
The Phantoms I’ve Killed | Do the Math
One answer is that the average American household uses about 30 kWh/day of electricity
---SPSmith
USA TODAY: Obama's insurance requirement not the only health mandate
Check out this article that I saw in USA TODAY's iPad application.
Obama's insurance requirement not the only health mandate
http://usat.ly/H4KkEj
To view the story, click the link or paste it into your browser.
To learn more about USA TODAY for iPad and download, visit:
http://usatoday.com/ipad/
---SPSmith
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
John Gray on Critiques of Utopia and Apocalypse | FiveBooks | The Browser
http://thebrowser.com/interviews/john-gray-on-critiques-utopia-and-apocalypse?page=3
He is able to demonstrate that although the belief systems were
different – in the case of Leninism and Stalinism it was grounded in
dialectical materialism, in the case of Nazism in a pseudo-science
founded on racism – and different from the belief systems that
animated the medieval and early modern millenarians, the categories of
thinking were strikingly similar. For instance, the idea of history as
moving towards a cataclysmic conflict between dark and good forces
which would shake the foundations of the world. That is just one
example of the type of thinking that was preserved and reproduced in
20th century totalitarianism
---SPSmith
Check out: 'The Supreme Court’s Dark Vision of Freedom' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
The Supreme Court's Dark Vision of Freedom
By Dahlia Lithwick
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/supreme_court_dispatches/2012/03/supreme_court_and_obamacare_why_the_conservatives_are_skeptical_of_the_affordable_care_act_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Book Review: The Righteous Mind - WSJ.com
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304692804577281311514282028.html
These moral foundations fall under six broad headings: care, fairness,
liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity.
These moral foundations fall under six broad headings: care, fairness,
liberty, loyalty, authority and sanctity.
---SPSmith
Monday, March 26, 2012
Anti-science legislation offers prospect of a new Scopes trial | The Tennessean | tennessean.com
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20120326/OPINION03/303260004/Anti-science-legislation-offers-prospect-new-Scopes-trial
What high-tech employer will want to open up shop in a state that
allows ideology and prejudice to trump science education? Reacting to
such bills in 2006, the president of the Biotechnology Institute
warned, "we are greatly diminishing our chances for future scientific
breakthroughs and technological innovations, and are endangering our
health, safety and economic well-being as individuals and as a
nation."
---SPSmith
Adam Savage at the Reason Rally
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDyBZwwZWYk&feature=youtube_gdata_player
---SPSmith
Adam Savage on Reason | TsuKata's Org*
http://tsukata.org/2012/03/25/adam-savage-on-reason/
And finally, I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and
much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of
what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought,
giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I
believe they know everything I do and think and they still love me and
I've concluded, after careful consideration, that this person keeping
score…is me.
And finally, I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and
much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of
what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought,
giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I am capable of. I
believe they know everything I do and think and they still love me and
I've concluded, after careful consideration, that this person keeping
score…is me.
---SPSmith
Sunday Morning: Stanza I Summary, Wallace Stevens
Sunday Morning: Stanza I Summary:
"Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice."
'via Blog this'
"Complacencies of the peignoir, and late
Coffee and oranges in a sunny chair,
And the green freedom of a cockatoo
Upon a rug mingle to dissipate
The holy hush of ancient sacrifice."
'via Blog this'
Check out: '“ Patriotic Gore is Not Really Much Like Any Other Book by Anyone”' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
"
Patriotic Gore is Not Really Much Like Any Other Book by Anyone"
By David Blight
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/history/2012/03/edmund_wilson_s_patriotic_gore_one_of_the_most_important_and_confounding_books_ever_written_about_the_civil_war_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Sunday, March 25, 2012
@ebertchicago, 3/25/12 7:42 PM
 Roger Ebert (@ebertchicago)3/25/12 7:42 PM Mother Jones' review of "The Hunger Games" has a nice opening sentence. bit.ly/GQFbkl |
You know the feeling you get when you wrap a waist belt around your femoral artery and tauten it until you start to experience fatigue, discomfort, and extreme frustration? Such is the sensation derived from viewing the lavishly praised and mega-hyped adaptation of The Hunger Games.
---SPSmith
---SPSmith
Never let the facts get in the way of a good conspiracy tale | The Atheist Experience
People with a certain mindset often feel frustrated about the fact that they don't have a lot of power in their own lives. The idea that the entire world is controlled by a group of elite people with a deliberate and terrifying agenda is appealing on multiple levels. First, it is makes them feel like it's not their fault that they aren't more empowered themselves. Since the malevolent forces are running everything, Ican't become as rich or famous or self-actualized as I'd like, because they don't want me to.
---SPSmith
---SPSmith
Check out: 'Everything Was a Problem and We Did Not Understand a Thing' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
Everything Was a Problem and We Did Not Understand a Thing
By Graham Lawton
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/new_scientist/2012/03/noam_chomsky_on_linguistics_and_climate_change_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Article: Climbing Film Screening | Climbing | OutsideOnline.com
Climbing Film Screening | Climbing | OutsideOnline.com
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/climbing/Sender-Films-Screening.html
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Check out: '“He Was Scum.”' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
"He Was Scum."
By Elon Green
http://www.slate.com/articles/life/longform/2012/03/richard_nixon_idi_amin_and_elizabeth_taylor_a_collection_of_the_best_obituaries_ever_written_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Friday, March 23, 2012
The Joan Baez Web Pages - Lyrics
http://www.joanbaez.com/Lyrics/lovesong.html
How long since I've spent a whole night in a twin bed with a stranger
How long since I've spent a whole night in a twin bed with a stranger
---SPSmit
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
why human morality is a tricky calculus… » weird things
why human morality is a tricky calculus… » weird things: "We’ve already seen the scope-severity paradox, the tendency of humans to lose track of the heinousness of a crime when the numbers of those affected by it are high enough, which explains why millions are outraged when a self-appointed neighborhood watch captain shoots and kills a harmless teenager in his zeal, while a continuing genocide in Sudan wasn’t mentioned in the news until Clooney’s arrest. Basically, when a million people are affected by systematic crime, we start tuning out because we can’t visualize the scale of what they experience and muster up the appropriate empathy. "
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
Article: Stand Your Ground, Racism, and the Second Amendment | The X Blog
Stand Your Ground, Racism, and the Second Amendment | The X Blog
http://freethoughtblogs.com/xblog/2012/03/19/stand-your-ground-racism-and-the-second-amendment/
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Dylan's debut album 50 years on: the birth of an enigma | Music | The Observer
Dylan's debut album 50 years on: the birth of an enigma | Music | The Observer: "How Bob Dylan, music's great enigma first revealed his talent to the world 50 years ago
Released on 19 March 1962, Bob Dylan's debut remains a landmark of popular culture"
'via Blog this'
Released on 19 March 1962, Bob Dylan's debut remains a landmark of popular culture"
'via Blog this'
Check out: 'Torturing Bin Laden' on Slate
I thought you might find this Slate article interesting:
Torturing Bin Laden
By William Saletan
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/frame_game/2012/03/war_against_islam_bin_laden_s_documents_show_obama_was_right_and_gingrich_and_santorum_were_wrong_.html?wpisrc=sl_ipad
---SPSmith
Is A Baby Conceived After Dad's Death A 'Survivor'?
I found the following story on the NPR iPad App:
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/19/148453252/is-a-baby-conceived-after-dads-death-a-survivor?sc=ipad&f=1001
by Nina Totenberg and Steven Chen
NPR - March 19, 2012
Two eras clash on Monday at the U.S. Supreme Court, when a law written in 1939 is applied to in vitro fertilization. At issue is whether children conceived through in vitro fertilization after the death of a parent are eligible for Social Security survivors benefits.
At least 100 such cases are pending before the Social Security Administration.
This test case was brought by a mother whose twins were denied benefits because they were conceived after their father died. Karen and Robert Capato were married for only a few months before Robert was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in 2000. Fearing that his chemotherapy treatment might leave him sterile, Robert deposited sperm at a fertility clinic before his treatment began.
Although he initially appeared to recover, by Thanksgiving of 2001 his condition had begun to deteriorate. Because the couple wanted siblings for their son, they made plans for Karen to use the frozen sperm to conceive a child after Robert's death.
Less than four months later, Robert died at the age of 44. Karen then resumed the couple's attempt to have another child. And in 2003, after a successful round of in vitro fertilization using her husband's sperm, she gave birth to twins.
As she had with her other child, she immediately applied for survivors benefits for the twins, based on Robert's earnings under the Social Security system. But the agency denied the claim.
The government concedes the twins are Robert's biological children. But the Social Security Administration says that it determines eligibility based on the inheritance laws of each state, and in Florida, where the couple lived, children conceived after the death of a parent cannot inherit property, unless specifically provided for in a will.
Karen Capato counters that under the 1939 Social Security Act, survivors benefits go to any child of a covered individual, and the word child is "plainly defined" as the biological offspring of a married couple. She contends that the section of the law dealing with state inheritance statutes only kicks in when the "biological parentage is disputed."
Last year, a federal appeals court in Philadelphia agreed with Capato, saying that "undisputed biological children of a deceased wage earner and his widow [are] 'children' " under the meaning of the Social Security law. The court noted that this was a case "where medical-scientific technology has advanced faster than the regulatory process."
The Obama administration appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending that the lower court had ignored more than 70 years of government policy dictating how to determine the eligibility of survivor benefits for children.
In its brief setting out its arguments, the government maintains that posthumously conceived children fall outside the class of children entitled to survivors benefits because "they were brought into being by a surviving parent with the knowledge that the deceased biological parent will not be able to contribute wages for their support."
The administration also makes a states' rights argument, contending that "child-parent relationships are generally determined by state law" and that nothing in the Social Security Act "suggests that Congress intended to depart from that approach."
Lawyers for Karen Capato reply that the Social Security Act is a federal program conferring federal benefits. They accuse the government of making an argument that "makes no sense at all" and indeed is "perverse."
Under the government's reading of the statute, say the Capato lawyers, a posthumously conceived biological child of a married couple is not entitled to survivors benefits, based on state inheritance law, but those state laws do not disqualify adopted children, stepchildren, grandchildren or even step-grandchildren. [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]
To learn more about the NPR iPad app, go to http://ipad.npr.org/recommendnprforipad
---SPSmith
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Trailer by Chard DeNiord : The Poetry Foundation
wool, and rayon, chewing the future
inside their heads, slicing the air
---SPSmith
“National Defense Resources Preparedness” executive order: Power grab or mere update? « Hot Air
http://hotair.com/archives/2012/03/18/national-defense-resources-preparedness-executive-order-power-grab-or-update/
It all sounds pretty scary, and it wasn't long before the usual
suspects were citing this as evidence of some kind of plan for martial
law, just as there were people on the left and far-right in asserting
that George Bush was going to declare martial law and cancel the
elections in 2004 and 2008. Considering who it was who was spreading
the meme that this was some kind of power grab by the Obama
Administration, I wasn't inclined to believe it to begin with.
However, once you actually look at the facts (yes, I know, how dare I
muddle up a good conspiracy theory with actual facts) it becomes
pretty clear that not only is the reaction to this wildly over the top
in some corners, but the Executive Order itself is nothing more than a
restatement of policy that has been in place in decades and grants no
authority to the President or the Cabinet that they don't already have
under existing law. …
---SPSmith
I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right - Telegraph
I'm starting to think that the Left might actually be right - Telegraph: "is the Left right after all? You see, one of the great arguments of the Left is that what the Right calls “the free market” is actually a set-up.
The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything."
The rich run a global system that allows them to accumulate capital and pay the lowest possible price for labour. The freedom that results applies only to them. The many simply have to work harder, in conditions that grow ever more insecure, to enrich the few. Democratic politics, which purports to enrich the many, is actually in the pocket of those bankers, media barons and other moguls who run and own everything."
The Neuroscience of Your Brain On Fiction - NYTimes.com
The Neuroscience of Your Brain On Fiction - NYTimes.com: "Reading great literature, it has long been averred, enlarges and improves us as human beings. Brain science shows this claim is truer than we imagined."
The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, by Dale Carpenter - NYTimes.com
The Story of Lawrence v. Texas, by Dale Carpenter - NYTimes.com:
The result is a book that turns conventional wisdom about Lawrence on its head. Indeed, the readers most likely to be surprised by “Flagrant Conduct” are those who think they already know the basic outlines of the case....almost no one familiar with the incident believed the police report. The judge handling the case suspected that Quinn had either made up or embellished the sex charge, and the county’s top prosecutor seemed personally reluctant to pursue it.
What kept the case alive, Carpenter shrewdly explains, was relentless pressure from opposite sides of the political spectrum: Republicans seeking a “family values” issue, on one end; gay rights activists handed a good “test case,” on the other....
For Smith and Lambda Legal, the case against sodomy laws hung on the “twin pillars” of “equal protection and the due process right to privacy.” But Smith went further in his argument to the court. As Carpenter notes, he “articulated the substantive idea that sexual intimacy among gay Americans was a good thing, not merely a tolerable thing.” Gay partnerships strengthened the fabric of society, a perception Americans increasingly grasped and accepted. In recognizing this, Smith declared, the court would not be leading a reluctant nation to a moral precipice, but rather catching up with realities of modern life.
Arguing for Texas was Chuck Rosenthal, the flamboyant, if woefully unprepared, Harris County district attorney. His brief was simple: the Supreme Court had rightly decided this issue in Bowers, and there was no reason to reverse. Sodomy laws reflected the people’s wisdom channeled through their elected representatives. When such laws become archaic, they should be discarded by the legislatures, not tossed out by the courts — in short, judicial restraint.
The result is a book that turns conventional wisdom about Lawrence on its head. Indeed, the readers most likely to be surprised by “Flagrant Conduct” are those who think they already know the basic outlines of the case....almost no one familiar with the incident believed the police report. The judge handling the case suspected that Quinn had either made up or embellished the sex charge, and the county’s top prosecutor seemed personally reluctant to pursue it.
What kept the case alive, Carpenter shrewdly explains, was relentless pressure from opposite sides of the political spectrum: Republicans seeking a “family values” issue, on one end; gay rights activists handed a good “test case,” on the other....
For Smith and Lambda Legal, the case against sodomy laws hung on the “twin pillars” of “equal protection and the due process right to privacy.” But Smith went further in his argument to the court. As Carpenter notes, he “articulated the substantive idea that sexual intimacy among gay Americans was a good thing, not merely a tolerable thing.” Gay partnerships strengthened the fabric of society, a perception Americans increasingly grasped and accepted. In recognizing this, Smith declared, the court would not be leading a reluctant nation to a moral precipice, but rather catching up with realities of modern life.
Arguing for Texas was Chuck Rosenthal, the flamboyant, if woefully unprepared, Harris County district attorney. His brief was simple: the Supreme Court had rightly decided this issue in Bowers, and there was no reason to reverse. Sodomy laws reflected the people’s wisdom channeled through their elected representatives. When such laws become archaic, they should be discarded by the legislatures, not tossed out by the courts — in short, judicial restraint.
‘Cosmic Constitutional Theory,’ by J. Harvie Wilkinson III - NYTimes.com
‘Cosmic Constitutional Theory,’ by J. Harvie Wilkinson III - NYTimes.com: " this modest book is an invaluable reminder of the lost virtues of bipartisan judicial restraint. For law students and citizens who are frustrated with the way that all the constitutional methodologies fail, in practice, to deliver on their promise of helping judges separate their political views and judicial decisions, Wilkinson’s primer offers a diagnosis of the problem and a self-effacing solution. As he suggests, the great proponents of restraint in the past, like Holmes and Brandeis, embodied a spirit of humility rather than a grand theory; they displayed “modesty” about their own views “and respect for the opinions and judgments of others.” "
'via Blog this'
'via Blog this'
How the Fundamentalist Mind Compels Conservative Christians to Force Their Beliefs on You | Belief | AlterNet
Religion has a set of superpowers—ways it shapes or controls human thinking and behavior. Chief among these is the fact that religions take charge of our moral reasoning and emotions, giving divine sanction to some behaviors and forbidding others. Because there are many kinds of "good," all of us make moral decisions by weighing values against each other. For example, most parents place a value on not hurting their children and yet get them immunized because long-term health trumps short-term pain. Religion can alter the way we stack those competing values, adding emotional weight to some, removing it from others.
---SPSmith
Women troll ‘Rick Perry for President’ page over State Rape bill, hilarity ensues – FreakOutNation
Women troll ‘Rick Perry for President’ page over State Rape bill, hilarity ensues – FreakOutNation: "Women are taking the piss out of Governor Perry (Tx-Big R) trolling his ‘Rick Perry for President‘ page (feel free to add a comment) over his signing of the State sponsored rape bill. Rape by the State has taken effect solely in Republican controlled states. After the stuffy, all male hearing on reproductive rights, an uproar ensued. Since these overbearing, self righteous men know more about vaginal concerns, the trolling was on.
It must be comforting to have a Governor whose knowledge of the female body surpasses that of a gynecologist.
Don’t ever say women don’t have a sense of humor. Some women asked Dr. Rick what type of tampons they should use, one asks about menopausal effects, another requests a referral to a doctor and another asks if her husband should be put to death for leaving his ‘seed’ on the sheets."
'via Blog this'
It must be comforting to have a Governor whose knowledge of the female body surpasses that of a gynecologist.
Don’t ever say women don’t have a sense of humor. Some women asked Dr. Rick what type of tampons they should use, one asks about menopausal effects, another requests a referral to a doctor and another asks if her husband should be put to death for leaving his ‘seed’ on the sheets."
'via Blog this'
Article: The Reason Rally ought to have some standards : Pharyngula
The Reason Rally ought to have some standards : Pharyngula
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/03/the_reason_rally_ought_to_have.php#commentsArea
affiliated with a patriarchal, hierarchical, medieval institution that oppresses women, celebrates poverty, wallows in its own wealth and privilege, and has actively disseminated pedophiles into communities all around the world…and has worked hard to protect and defend these child rapists. This is an organization that is currently fighting for the right to refuse life-saving care to women, that even opposes making contraception available to men and women, that endorses discrimination against gay couples.
---SPSmith
---SPSmith
Conspiracy, Again - The Editors - National Review Online
|
---SPSmith
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Fox News viewers less informed than those who don’t watch news at all: study - New York Daily News
A poll released by Fairleigh Dickinson University on Monday found that people who get their news from Fox News know significantly less about news both in the U.S. and the world than people who watch no news at all.
In a survey of 612 New Jersey natives, Fox News fans flunked questions about Egypt and Syria when compared with people who don't watch the news. Fox viewers were 18-points less likely to know that Egyptians toppled their government and 6 points less likely to be aware that Syrians have not yet overthrown theirs.
---SPSmith
Totalitarianism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Karl Popper, in The Open Society and Its Enemies (1945) and The Poverty of Historicism (1961), articulated an influential critique of totalitarianism: in both works, he contrasted the "open society" of liberal democracy with totalitarianism, and argued that the latter is grounded in the belief that history moves toward an immutable future in accordance with knowable laws.
In The Origins of Totalitarianism, Hannah Arendt argued that Nazi and State communist regimes were new forms of government, and not merely updated versions of the old tyrannies. According to Arendt, the source of the mass appeal of totalitarian regimes is their ideology, which provides a comforting, single answer to the mysteries of the past, present, and future. For Nazism, all history is the history of race struggle; and, for Marxism, all history is the history of class struggle. Once that premise is accepted, all actions of the state can be justified by appeal to Nature or the Law of History, justifying their establishment of authoritarian state apparatus.[14]
---SPSmithIsrael: The Knesset vs. Democracy by Dimi Reider | NYRblog | The New York Review of Books
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/mar/15/israel-knesset-democracy/
sustained assault on such fundamental democratic principles as the
right to asylum, the right to free association, the right to freedom
of speech, and the right to an independent judiciary
---SPSmith
Benefits of Male Circumcision—Reply, February 1, 2012, Tobian and Gray 307 (5): 457 — JAMA
We agree with Dr Masem that medical recommendations should be "based on the effective treatment of disease." It was not possible in a Commentary to review all studies of male circumcision, so we focused on the randomized trials, the criterion standard of evidence-based medicine. All 3 circumcision trials demonstrated remarkable consistency in the efficacy of male circumcision to reduce STIs, similar to that reported in numerous observational studies and meta-analyses.1,2 In addition, the majority of observational studies demonstrate that neonatal male circumcision reduces urinary tract infections and penile inflammatory disorders, such as meatitis, balanitis, and phimosis, as mentioned by Drs Klausner and Morris
---SPSmith
---SPSmith
Fetal Awareness - Review of Research and Recommendations for Practice | Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists
http://www.rcog.org.uk/fetal-awareness-review-research-and-recommendations-practice
In reviewing the neuroanatomical and physiological evidence in the
fetus, it was apparent that connections from the periphery to the
cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most
neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain
perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain
in any sense prior to this gestation. After 24 weeks there is
continuing development and elaboration of intracortical networks such
that noxious stimuli in newborn preterm infants produce cortical
responses. Such connections to the cortex are necessary for pain
experience but not sufficient, as experience of external stimuli
requires consciousness. Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that
the fetus never experiences a state of true wakefulness in utero and
is kept, by the presence of its chemical environment, in a continuous
sleep-like unconsciousness or sedation. This state can suppress higher
cortical activation in the presence of intrusive external stimuli.
This observation highlights the important differences between fetal
and neonatal life and the difficulties of extrapolating from
observations made in newborn preterm infants to the fetus.
---SPSmith
Arizona abortion bill stirs debate on fetal pain
"In the 1980s, we saved 26-weekers. Now, that's nothing," he said. "We're pushing into 24, 23 and 22 weeks. Even 20 weeks is not unreasonable."
Other physicians, however, say the 1987 article includes no conclusive evidence of fetal pain at 20 weeks. They instead point to a March 2010 article from the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and a 2005 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"Connections from the periphery to the cortex are not intact before 24 weeks of gestation and, as most neuroscientists believe that the cortex is necessary for pain perception, it can be concluded that the fetus cannot experience pain in any sense prior to this gestation," the Royal College article states.
"Furthermore, there is increasing evidence that the fetus never experiences a state of true wakefulness in utero and is kept, by the presence of its chemical environment, in a continuous sleeplike unconsciousness or sedation."
Dr. David Grimes, a clinical professor at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine who has done his own research in the area of abortions and contraception during his 39 years as an obstetrician, said he believes nerves don't reach the brain until the 26th week of pregnancy.
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2012/03/09/20120309arizona-abortion-bill-stirs-debate-fetal-pain.html#ixzz1pOBeNzkn
---SPSmith
Article: Legislation Is Violence, Too
Legislation Is Violence, Too
http://open.salon.com/blog/odetteroulette/2012/03/17/legislation_is_violence_too
It is evil to subjugate other people, to make them practice your religion and not freely practice their own. It is evil to force other people to live in manner not consistent with liberty. It is evil to force women to have a long, large electronic dildo forcibly shoved up their vaginas, to try to frighten and intimidate them into compliance with your religious beliefs. In fact, once upon a time, not so long ago, pushing an object into someone's vagina against her will, in this country, was considered rape, wasn't it?
---SPSmith
Friday, March 16, 2012
TEDxPeachtree - Frans de Waal - Morality without Religion
Check out this video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-74R9C6Bc&feature=youtube_gdata_player
---SPSmith
Morals Without God? - NYTimes.com
http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/morals-without-god/
Perhaps it is just me, but I am wary of anyone whose belief system is
the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior
Perhaps it is just me, but I am wary of anyone whose belief system is
the only thing standing between them and repulsive behavior
---SPSmith
New Statesman - The Joy of Secularism: 11 Essays for How We Live Now
Societies become truly secular not when they dispense with religion but when they are no longer greatly agitated by it. It is when religious faith ceases to be a vital part of the public sphere, not just when church attendance drops or Roman Catholics mysteriously become childless, that secularisation proper sets in. Like art and sexuality, religion is taken out of public ownership and gradually privatised. It dwindles to a kind of personal pastime, like breeding gerbils or collecting porcelain. As the cynic remarked, it is when religion starts to interfere with your everyday life that it is time to give it up. In this respect, it has a curious affinity with alcohol: it, too, can drive you mad.
---SPSmith
New Secularism: James Woods on George Levine’s “The Joys of Secularism” · Habitus
http://habitusmag.com/2011/08/3891/new-secularism-james-woods-on-george-levines-the-joys-of-secularism/
the fact that we can no longer look outside of our phenomenal world
for answers makes it hard to experience spiritual "fulfillment" in the
same way that our ancestors did. Our increasingly reductionist world
is making it easier and easier to explain away notions like altruism
in a neuroscientific language that fails to account for its nobility.
the fact that we can no longer look outside of our phenomenal world
for answers makes it hard to experience spiritual "fulfillment" in the
same way that our ancestors did. Our increasingly reductionist world
is making it easier and easier to explain away notions like altruism
in a neuroscientific language that fails to account for its nobility.
---SPSmith
Article: Soraya Chemaly: 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts
Soraya Chemaly: 10 Reasons the Rest of the World Thinks the U.S. Is Nuts
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/womens-reproductive-rights_b_1345214.html
(Sent from Flipboard)
---SPSmith
Adam Winkler: 'Unprecedented' health care mandates actually have plenty of precedents - San Jose Mercury News
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