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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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Tag Archives: government
The Obama GITMO myth
Glenn Greenwald writing at Salon.com: New vindictive restrictions on detainees highlights the falsity of Obama defenders regarding closing the camp During the Bush years, the plight of these detainees was a major source of political controversy, but under Obama, it is now almost entirely forgotten. On those rare occasions when it is raised, Obama defenders […]
Romney = Akin?
Ok, let’s just recap the events of the last few days. First, Missouri Representative Todd Akin, running for Senate in that state, made statements to the effect that a woman’s body shuts down when she is legitimately raped and that this prevents pregnancy from occurring. These statements are patently false, and are so very far […]
Ebert: Don’t tear down that wall!
Roger Ebert gets the separation of Church and State; unfortunately, many, many Americans don’t. Writing at his Chicago Sun-Times site “Roger Ebert’s Journal”: And make no mistake: it is a principle we’re discussing here. If I believe my church’s teachings are correct, my obvious course should be to convert you to my church, not pass […]
Also tagged constitution, politics, reason, religion
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Random find on Twitter: Bragging about paying 13% in taxes
Guy Endore-Kaiser (@GuyEndoreKaiser): Bragging about paying 13% in taxes is like wanting an award because you threw a can at a homeless person that bounced into a recycling bin.
Chick-fil-A and free speech
Teller (@MrTeller) on Twitter: A clear little essay on Chick-fil-A and the 1st Amendment in Boston. In addition to dealing with what the Mayor of Boston, and others such as certain Chicago Aldermen, have said on the matter, the linked piece is actually a clear and concise primer on Chick-fil-A and the First Amendment, and […]
Also tagged freespeech, reason, religion, society
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Daylight Savings Time is Senseless
I understand and appreciate its historical significance during the WWI and WWII eras, but the practicalities that necessitated it during those bygone days haven’t existed for at least two generations. Plus, it’s backwards: why move the clock forward at the point of the year when the days are naturally “growing longer”? I can’t help but […]
MacDonald Murders +42 years
On this day in 1970, the wife and daughters of Army Green Beret physician Jeffrey MacDonald were murdered at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. This is a fascinating, if terribly sad, case. If you’re even slightly into “true crime” you couldn’t pick a better case to read about. And, if you think you know about […]
Dioxin causes insanity
Trevor Butterworth, writing in The Daily: …but the scientific criticism of the EPA is not coming from billionaire energy moguls, it’s coming from one of the most august scientific institutions in America: the independent National Academy of Sciences. Even the EPA’s own Scientific Advisory Board thinks it’s left the orbit of reason. We’ve known the […]
Also tagged bullshit, environment/environmental
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