June, 2010 archive
What I Learned in Philosophy 201 (Updated) 0
The most important thing in any argument is to define your premises.
Of course, if you start up with a premise that is demonstrably false, everything that flows from it will be falser.
Exhibit A: Cal Thomas (oh, why did I waste my time on him this morning?)
Addendum, after TWUUG:
The Booman has more on false premises and falser results.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Neighbors say the shooter has always been a little nutty about his lawn.
The shooter claims that his neighbor intentionally loosed the feared beasty upon his lawn. In response, he pulled his gun; the dog-walker then started to punch him (politely, no doubt), so he shot the dogwalker, politely no doubt.
The dogwalker’s wife claims that witnesses saw the shooter chase the dogwalker down the street, then shoot him. Once again, politely, no doubt.
QOTD 0
George Bernard Shaw, from the Quotemaster:
We are ashamed of everything that is real about us; ashamed of ourselves, of our relatives, of our incomes, of our accents, of our opinions, of our experience, just as we are ashamed of our naked skins.
Get your own quotes here.
Freedom of Screech 1
The despicable and hateful demonstrations of the Westboro Baptist Church appall almost everyone (you can google Westboro Baptist; I shan’t link to them).
Through their very name, their existence insults churches, baptists, and even westboros.
Indeed, to those who believe that the central message of Christianity is to “love they neighbor,” Westboro Baptist Church blasphemes. (As someone who was raised Baptist, I must say that Westboro is not affiliated with any respectable or even semi-respectable Baptist convention. One of the embarrassing things of having a Baptist heritage is that any crackpot who wants to set up some nutcase church sticks “Baptist” into its name.)
Nevertheless, saying hateful things is an American right and, in the United States and blasphemy is not illegal (nor should it be).
It is one thing to require that protestors maintain a specified distance from the targets of their protests. The chants and shouts of protesters can sometimes be considered fighting words. I think such separations are often enforced, not because the protesters are actually using “fighting words,” but to emasculate the protest; nevertheless, I believe that the words that the adherents of Westboro Baptist say (rejoicing in the deaths of soldiers), combined with the places where they say them (at the funerals of soldiers), easily qualify those words as fighting words.
God forbid, should it be my son, I should not want their presence to soil his funeral.
As despicable as Westboro Baptist is and as much as I find many of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli’s positions wrong-headed and even comical, I have to say that I think he got this one right.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Tom Levenson on why the logic of the galt is lame:
Follow the link and watch the video.
Virginia Beach Takes Step for Pedestrian Safety 0
There’s a stretch of Shore Drive (US 60) not far from these parts which has seen 10 pedestrian fatalities in the past eight years.
Now the city is lowering the speed limit from 45 to 35 for the stretch in question.
View Larger Map
I spent 45 minutes googling (well, actually I was startpaging because Startpage is more secure) for statistics on the causes of pedestrian accidents. I found one link to a study (PDF) regarding the relationship of speed and pedestrian injuries (the faster the vehicle, the more severe the pedestrian injuries; duh.), but mostly the search was overwhelmed by ambulance chasers personal injury attorney websites and safety brochures.
The eastern end of the stretch in question, the most dangerous portion of it, is lined with houses, condos, apartments, eateries, and little shopping centers; most of the accidents have happened late at night and involved persons crossing the road to get to another nightspot or to go home.
The road is four lanes, sometimes increasing to eight at intersections with left and right turn lanes; it’s one of three major roads connecting Norfolk and Virginia Beach and consequently heavily travelled. Even at a crosswalk in daylight, a pedestrian with a green light can take the duration of the green to get across the road. (I watched one just Monday as she was heading toward the beach.)
Crosswalks are few and far between, especially in the most hazardous area, which is also the area most cluttered with shops and eateries. Depending on the starting and end points, using a crosswalk could add as much as 15 or 20 minutes to crossing the road.
I hope that lowering the speed limit helps, though I fear it won’t.
I suspect that visibility, the distance between crosswalks, and the width of the highway has more to do with the accident rate than does the speed limit.
I wish I weren’t so pessimistic, but I would place more more hope in a crosswalk or two with on-demand stoplights.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Hotdog Dept. 0
Most of the criticism I’ve heard and read concerning President Obama’s handling of BP’s wild well boils down to this:
Prez ain’t talkin’ enough trash.
More trash talk, that’s the ticket.
More trash talk, that’s the fixit.
Self-Revelations 0
I have my own domain address (see email link at the top of the page), a Gmail address which I don’t use much, an AIM (AOL) address that I use for a spam trap, and an username@ISP.net address.
Where do I fit?
Via Mithras.
The Hawks Are Circling 0
Dean Baker is bird-watching at the Guardian:
So, if you feel like giving all your money to the Wall Street gang, then you should take the deficit hawks seriously. But, if you think that people who are not Wall Street millionaires have rights too, then get out the pitchforks and send the deficit hawks and their economist accomplices running.
The Immigration Catch-22 0
It’s the best catch there is. Steve Chapman at the Chicago Tribune:
The supporters of the law, meanwhile, overlook the obvious. There is a simple way to stop the lawless stream, protect Americans living on the border, improve adherence to law and reduce the costs of accommodating people who have no right to be here.
The solution? Stop focusing on trying to keep illegal immigrants out and start focusing on letting legal immigrants in.
Enforcement-only advocates often say they are not opposed to foreigners coming here as long as they follow the rules and obey the law. They should take a number and wait their turn, we are told, like the teeming masses of yore. It makes perfect sense until you discover that for most of those who want to come, legal admission is just about impossible.
A co-worker several years ago told me of a friend of his, a carpenter. The carpenter had a helper who was illegal and wanted to be legal. The helper was smart, industrious, honest, all those things one would want. My co-worker knew and liked the helper and believed that he was an asset to any community.
So the helper returned to Mexico and they began to work through the paper work to prove that the helper was qualified to do the job, that no one else could or would do it, and so on. After months and months of red tape, the helper was ready reenter. It looked like everything was fine.
At the border checkpoint, the last official he refused him entry for some reason never really made clear.
It was an arbitrary and capricious act, a symptom of an arbitrary and capricious process.
My co-worker, who tends to be quite conservative politically leans so far right his right shoulder touches his right ankle (he and I used to have great conversations on the way to the jobsite, because he was also open-minded and able to disagree without being disagreeable) was and is outraged at the injustice of the immigration what-passes-for-a system
Have Cake, Eat It Too, Galt and the Lamers Dept. 0
When their deeds prove their theories wrong, it confirms that they were right all along.
This is called “The Great Circle of Ideation.”
Note: “Ideation” is done by persons too important to think.
“Starving Time” Related to Drought 0
The “Starving Time” occurred shortly after the Jamestown colony was established.
Tree ring evidence has indicated that one of the factors was drought.
The BBC reports research involving oysters that provides additional evidence of this.
(snip)
Previous data based on tree rings and historical documents show that the arrival of the English colonists in Virginia coincided with a severe regional drought.
The years 1606-1612 were the driest in nearly eight centuries.
“Shortages of food and fresh drinking water, combined with poor leadership, nearly destroyed the colony during its first decade,” the authors of the latest study write in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences–ed.).