February, 2015 archive
“Facts Are What People Think” 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., explores the mania for “secret knowledge”:
(snip)
Bad enough the Secret Knowledge drives our politics (Barack Obama is a Muslim from Kenya), our perception of controversy (Trayvon Martin was a 32-year-old tough with tattoos on his neck), our understanding of environmental crisis (there is no scientific consensus on global warming) and our comprehension of tragedy (9/11 was an inside job). Apparently, it now drives healthcare, too.
Read the rest.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Exercise courtesy on the roadways.
Bimmer Boy is in custody.
Diligence 0
Not even bothering to go through the motions.
Anti-Vax Facts 0
The Deseret News skewers the notion of “religious objections” to vaccinations.
But the world’s major faiths — Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam — have no explicit prohibitions against oral or injected vaccines. At times, some followers or preachers within a given religion or sect may have spoken against vaccination, but researcher John D. Grabenstein of Merck Vaccines, writing in the scientific journal Vaccine in April 2013, could find no sustained teaching against the practice in any major faith community.
According to the story, even Mary Baker Eddy said that vaccinations were okay.
In Spite of Evidence 0
Paul Krugman wonders:
The question, as I said at the beginning, is why. Why the dogmatism? Why the rage? And why do these issues go together, with the set of people insisting that climate change is a hoax pretty much the same as the set of people insisting that any attempt at providing universal health insurance must lead to disaster and tyranny?
Follow the link for his answer.
Facebook Frolics 0
Chauncey Devega dares tell a truth about the Southern reign of Judge Lynch. Frolicking ensues.
News, Ripped from the Ticker 0
In the usual bad taste . . . .
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness is de rigeur at the club.
(snip)
George said she doesn’t know specific details about what happened.
“It was just a simple accident, the gentleman’s gun jammed and then discharged,” she said.
I thought a gun that was “jammed” was unable to fire itself. In my world, that’s what “jammed” means.
Panderers on Parade 0
Clarence Page watches the hucksters and bumpkins march by.
“The Lost Cause” 0
One more time: When you hear someone lament the Lost Cause, ask, “What, precisely, was the cause that was lost?”