quote for the day

Science is reality. At a time when a large and increasing fraction of the U.S. population does not "believe in" science (i.e., objectively provable reality) - or, worse, has bought into the idea that science is just one choice on the reality menu - NASA has again given concrete reason to understand that science works, and that science is not an option, not a theory, not a menu item, but instead represents the finest efforts of human minds in understanding, and addressing, objective reality.

Those on Earth who currently think that science is a political football should take note: not only are you endangering your own reputation, you are endangering the welfare of your constituents, and today, of the planet itself.

Any person or party which mocks science should be considered for what he or it is: a threat to the welfare and future of us all. Under the influence of political propagandists, misled religious zealots, and truly dangerous television and radio empires (such as Fox (Not) News and Rush Limbaugh), too many people today have been led to believe that science is in some way an option to opinion.

Science is as optional as gravity. Ignorant delusion is the only real option.

It is time for the U.S. to catch back up to the world in this matter, and recognize the value of scientific study and theory, the use of scientific consensus in guiding public policy, and the wonders that we can achieve when we abandon self-aggrandizing political fantasy in favor of objective scientific knowledge.

...

It is time for all Earth inhabitants to recognize the value of science. In doing so, we will find common ground for agreeing on other important things.

Mark Anderson, quoted by David Brin

quote for the day

"Ignorant themselves of the forces of nature, and wanting company in their ignorance, they don't want people to look into anything. They want us to believe like peasants and not ask the reason behind things... But we say the reason behind everything should be sought out."

Philosopher William of Conches, engaging in the raging Middle Ages debate on whether there was any value to scientific inquiry*. Some things never change, I guess. He also said this, referring to the need for the exploration and understanding of all things:

"To slight the perfection of created things is to slight the perfection of the divine power."




* As they understood it in the Middle Ages.

rerun

You know, there's a lot of talk talk talk out there about politics. The internet especially has lots of folks making earnest arguments for and against various and sundry things. Everyone is trying to come up with a truly killer line that will swing others into the "right" belief. I include myself in this cacophony, by the way.
Well, guess what? It's a complete waste of time.
Almost nobody changes their minds, not since they sprouted hair around their kiwis. Oh sure, there have been a few, struck down in the roadway like Saul, loudly proclaiming after how they've seen the light one way or another. But they are pretty rare.
You know what the secret is to the Republican success of the last three decades (and probably the next one or two to come)? Here it is: Political discussion is not the presentation of competing arguments in the hope of converting the undecided. It is nothing more than a dominance game. The chest-thumping and roaring of silverbacks, battling for their place in the hierarchy.
Currently, "conservatives" do it best. Consider the terms that people use to describe Democrats: "spineless", "wishy-washy", "pussies"; and that's people on the progressive side. However much of a bastard you may think that this or that member of the GOP may be, they are always powerful bastards, arent they? How many Democrats can you describe that way?
Obama won not because he provided America with a sound set of policies and was trusted to bring them to fruition, he won because he appeared unflappable and dignified, staying admirably focused and on-message. John McCain, on the other hand, had his own campaign usurped by his running mate.
Now we approach the mid-term elections and Republicans, however much they appear to be assholes, however little they appear to be accomplishing aside from derailing the train of State, are undeniably bull-roaring, chest-thumping, liberal-squashing, badass mutherfuckers. Democrats, who apparently cant even be bothered to support their own agenda, cave in at every turn to the bullying of the GOP, and as such appear to be (undeniably) lily-livered, yellow-(dog)-bellied, amoral, honorless, characterless, weak-willed, gutless pussies of a degree that would make Ichabod Crane look like Rambo.


I originally wrote this two years ago today. Not much has changed, sadly, except that Republicans continue to get crazier and the Democrats just wait around as if the GOP is just going to disappear up its own considerable asshole.

It is not.

quote for the day

"We worship money instead of honor. A billionaire, in our estimation, is much greater in these days in the eyes of the people than the public servant who works for the public interest. It makes no difference if the billionaire road to wealth on the sweat of little children and the blood of underpaid labor. No one ever considered Carnegie libraries steeped in the blood of the Homestead steelworkers, but they are. We do not remember that the Rockefeller Foundation is founded on the dead miners of the Colorado Fuel & Iron Company and a dozen other similar performances. We worship Mammon: and until we go back to ancient fundamentals and return to the Giver of the Tablets of Law and His teachings these conditions are going to remain with us. It is a pity that Wall Street, with its ability to control all the wealth of the nation and to hire the best law brains in the country has not produced some statesmen, some men who could see the dangers of bigness and concentration of the control of wealth. Instead of working to meet the situation [the Depression], they are still employing the best law brains to serve greed and self interest. People can stand only so much and one of these days there will be a settlement…"

Harry Truman, quoted in David McCullough’s Truman (page 233.)

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for International Talk Like A Pirate Day

geeking out... again

Death Star tea infuser, available here.

via

quote for the day

"The real difference between the far-right and the far-left? Both extremes are crazy. Both despise science. But one of them owns and operates an entire political party and ran the nation off a cliff. The other dominates a hundred university soft-studies departments, and almost nothing else. Big deal."

David Brin

quote for the campaign

"Candidates campaign in poetry but govern in prose."

Mario Cuomo

quote for the day

"If you expect to find people who will understand you, you will grow murderous with disappointment. The best you’ll ever do is to understand yourself, know what it is that you want, and not let the cattle stand in your way."

Janet Fitch, White Oleander

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poetry time

Thought for a sunshiny morning

It costs me never a stab nor squirm
To tread by chance upon a worm.
"Aha, my little dear," I say,
"your clan will pay me back one day."

Dorothy Parker, from The Portable Dorothy Parker