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What I’m Reading Tuesday, November 15, 2011

By on November 15, 2011 in Uncategorized, What I'm Reading

Politics

Culture

Science

Climate & Climate Politics

Media

Economics

On WordPress and Blogging

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What I’m Reading Thursday, November 10, 2011

By on November 10, 2011 in Uncategorized

Climate & Climate Politics

Politics

  • Christopher Hitchens on the Tea Party – YouTube
  • The Rick Perry Watch—
  • Perry debate lapse undermines credibility – USATODAY.com

    Texas Gov. Rick Perry has tried to laugh off his embarrassing prime-time memory lapse during the Republican debate in Michigan but the lasting impact of the gaffe may lie in the fact that it re-emphasized an old stereotype about Perry: He’s just not that bright.

    Perry’s now infamous inability Wednesday night to list the third of three government agencies he would eliminate if he was president was the latest in a series of lackluster debates in his run for the White House.

    “The problem is if this gaffe reinforces the unfair-but-increasing belief that he doesn’t have the intellectual heft,” said Fred Malek, a veteran Republican fundraiser…

    I don’t think it is unfair at all. I don’t think is that bright at all. He didn’t come up with this three “three government agencies he would eliminate” pitch. It wasn’t his original thinking or idea it was created by his team of handlers and he couldn’t remember what his lines were that they went over in rehearsal. If it was his thinking, his idea, he never would have drawn a blank on such a big important concept.

  • What do the Departments of Commerce, Education and Energy think of Rick Perry’s plan? – The Federal Eye – The Washington Post

Religion (& Politics)

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What I’m Reading Saturday, October 15, 2011

By on October 14, 2011 in Uncategorized

Politics

Human Rights

Economics & The Economy

Fox News

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What I’m Reading Tuesday, October 4, 2011

By on October 4, 2011 in Uncategorized

Ugly Right Wing Politics:

Politics:

Climate Politics:

Economics:

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What I’m Reading Friday, September 23, 2011

By on September 23, 2011 in Uncategorized

Misc. Politics,News, Opinion, etc.

Economics & the Economy

Science

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What is Humanism?

By on August 21, 2011 in Uncategorized

via What is Humanism?.

The Core Beliefs of Humanism

Humanism has two core beliefs, from which many important implications follow. An analogy to a court of law may help to clarify these beliefs.

  • In the American system of law, jurors attempt to reach decisions about the guilt or innocence of a defendant based solely on evidence. In much the same way, a good Humanist will try to find good evidence for all of his or her beliefs, including his or her religious and political convictions. This analogy with a court of law can be extended: jurors must, of course, be alert to misleading testimony. Even outside of a court of law, Humanists believe that people must learn how to sift and assess what they are told by the media, or by figures of authority, no matter who those figures happen to be. Defendants cannot always be relied upon to provide reliable, unbiased testimony. Similarly, the media, and authority figures too, often have an agenda of their own—frequently the enhancement of someone’s wealth or power. And even when this is not the case, authorities are themselves often uninformed or confused. In short, then, the first Humanist core conviction is that all beliefs, no matter what sort, must be grounded in carefully sifted facts.
  • Humanists believe that the evidence that our values have a supernatural basis is weak; on the other hand, Humanists find compelling the evidence that our values are based in the human person. Therefore, in order to know whether a given course of conduct is meaningful or right, we can ask ourselves whether it promotes the maintenance or development of the normal capabilities of human beings, such as thinking, feeling, and physical health.

Some of the important implications following from these core convctions are:

  • People should try hard to get the facts before forming opinions or commiting to values.
  • People should base their values primarily upon the worth and inherent dignity of the human person.
  • The refinement of any good value system is the project of a lifetime. There is no single, comprehensive, authoritative source of truth.

The idea that all people are much the same everywhere, and are equally entitled to justice and opportunity regardless of race or gender, owes much to Humanism.

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From: Climate Denial Crock of the Week: The Big Swindle Movie

By on July 14, 2009 in Global Climate Disruption, Uncategorized

I just dscovered via Tim Lambert’s Deltoid blog that Peter Sinclair who produces the YouTube video series Climate Denial Crock of the Week has produced a new episode that provides futher debunking and discrediting to Martin Duurkin’s now infamous piece of trash "The Great Global Warming Swindle"

Thanks Peter (and Tim). I added this great video essay to my own list of debunking references : “The Great Global Warming Swindle”? Shams & Lies

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The Last Supper at TAM 2

By on December 1, 2007 in Humor, Uncategorized

I got a huge kick out of this last night. I had just gotten done watching a video of an excellent lecture given by Barbara Forrest on Inside Creationism’s Trojan Horse and surfing around for something else educational and scientific I ran across a bunch of videos from the latest edition of James Randi’s Amazing Meeting. Before I could even start to view I had to laugh out loud. Get a load of the visual imagery in the shot of the panel discussions.

The Amazing Meeting Last Supper

Leonardo The Last Supper

 

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