Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Three Religions of science…

November 25, 2010 at 10:58am

What are the Three Religions of science or the three sets of laws?  First, to handle the really big stuff, we have Einstein’s general theory of relativity, string theory, M-Theory, etc.  Second, for the medium-sized stuff– that is generally understandable by the human mind– we have Newton’s classic laws of physics and for the really small stuff we have the third child in this sibling rivalry called Quantum Physics .   The problem with all three of these separate and distinct sets of rules is that no one can stitch them together into a consistent set of rules that are universally applicable.  In short they are not in agreement.  All three theories are true except when they are not.  The solution is for us to change our religion or more precisely our epistemic system based on what we are observing.  So, is there some enduring truth to be offered up by science or is science just a grand illusion based on the pragmatist philosophy that if it works then it’s true?  What kind of enduring truth have we found here?  We change our rules based on what works as dictated by our environment; but we are not very well equipped to probe beyond merely being a reaction to external events and then inventing a language and a resultant description of what we have observed.

We can create and then memorize the Phylum, Genus and Specie of every plant and insect in the Trans-Pecos Wilderness but what do we really know?  As gods we sit on our lofty body of knowledge assured in the truth of what we know but what do we know really?   Just because we can regurgitate the Phylum, Genus and Specie of the Creosote bush, do we know more about the Creosote bush than the Creosote bush grasshopper who makes his living there?

The religion of science…

October 18, 2009 at 11:12am

Science…I believe in the empirical method. I also believe that many in our scientific community have let their emotions and political point of view turn their science into a religion. You either believe certain “well-established facts” or you do not get tenure or you are ridiculed or…. These “well-established facts” represent a dogma or a credo similar to any religion. The result is that many place their minds in a box and their ability to take in new information and process this information critically and honestly is aberrated.

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Great Books of the Western World

Words of Wisdom from the forward of the Great Conversation (Great Books of the Western World)

February 2, 2010 at 11:47pm

We believe that the reduction of the citizen to an object of propaganda, private and public, is one of the greatest dangers to democracy. A prevalent notion is that the great mass of the people cannot understand and cannot form an independent judgment upon any matter; they cannot be educated, in the sense of developing their intellectual powers, but they can be bamboozled. The reiteration of slogans, the distortion of the news, the great storm or propaganda that beats upon the citizen twenty-four hours a day all his life long mean either that democracy must fall a prey to the loudest and most persistent propagandists or that the people must save themselves by strengthening their minds so that they can appraise the issues for themselves.

From Robert M. Hutchins, page xiii
December 1, 1951
Preface to the Great Books of the Western World.
The Great Conversation

America’s Favorite Sport…

March 5, 2011 at 11:25am

American Politics basically boils down to whose lies you like better…do you like the Democrat lies…or, do you like the Republican lies? Once you take sides, you turn your brain off and start yelling at each other until one side gets tired. After a short rest the cycle starts all over. Meanwhile, whilst you are busy passing your time with this popular American sport, your masters in D.C. are taking everything you own. Nice system.

The side you take depends on your assumptions which are usually based on a mixture of very limited life experiences and state or media propaganda…sometimes there is a dash of logic thrown into this soup but usually not enough to change the flavor.

Religion is the root cause of all Wars. Not…

March 20, 2011 at 8:08am

Folks, I hate to disabuse my good atheist friends of their beliefs–even if you are atheists–but the facts just do not support your mythology. The worst genocides of the 20th Century were not conducted in the name of religion or as a result thereof…but rather by your side, to wit:

Mao Ze-Dong (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) 49-78,000,000

Jozef Stalin (USSR, 1932-39) 23,000,000 (the purges plus Ukraine’s famine)

Adolf Hitler (Germany, 1939-1945) 12,000,000 (concentration camps and civilians WWII)

Leopold II of Belgium (Congo, 1886-1908) 8,000,000

Hideki Tojo (Japan, 1941-44) 5,000,000 (civilians in WWII)

Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000

Kim Il Sung (North Korea, 1948-94) ) 1.6 million (purges and concentration camps)

Menghistu (Ethiopia, 1975-78) 1,500,000

Fidel Castro (Cuba, 1959-1999) 30,000

Don’t be Pavolv’s Doggie!

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May 21, 2011 at 9:55pm

We’ve all heard the headlines…”Recent $2M Jackpot Winner Leroy Fick Still Uses Food Stamps for Groceries”.   And in unison we all chant “What a horrible and despicable man this is!” and we’re on to the next headline.  But who are the real villains here? Let’s not act like Pavlov’s doggies every time the media throw us a bone.

The real evil doer here is the state and federal governments.  First, everything Leroy has done is legal and provided for by law.  Leroy didn’t make up the rules here.  His winnings are not considered income when calculating his eligibility for food stamps according to law, so he is still eligible, period.   Did Leroy write the law? No.

Second, the most egregious crime committed here is that this American citizen won (or arguably earned by investing in a lottery ticket) $2 million dollars and what did he get?  $850,000, less than half his winnings.    The media are still reporting Mr. Fick as a millionaire but 850K a millionaire doth not make last time a checked my calculator.  How then can it be ethical or just that the government claimed $1,150,000 of Mr. Fick’s money?  What did they do for this money?  Nothing.  This is the real crime that the media have ignored.   How much does Mr. Fick get per month in food stamps by comparison?  $200.

So the news media would have us focused on the $200 that Mr. Fick is getting legally rather than the $1,150,000 that our gluttonous government helped its self to by threat of force.

Education…

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June 12, 2011 at 8:37pm

“In authoritarian and totalitarian societies schools exist to indoctrinate students in the orthodoxy of the state. In a democracy, by contrast, we teach students how to think, not what to think. In other words, in a free society the very purpose of education is to open students’ minds and encourage future citizens to figure out what conclusions to draw by themselves. It is not the purpose of a democratic education to force-feed students opinions on controversial issues that the teacher deems ‘politically correct’.” ~David Horowitz

A 40 thousand foot view of the World Wide Financial Crisis

A 40 thousand foot view of the World Wide Financial Crisis

October 27, 2011 at 9:38am

World Wide Financial Crisis explained…

China as the growth engine of the world is now slowing down.  China’s own internal debt bubble is about to burst.

Europe’s deadly debt contagion is spreading from the PIIGS in Europe (PIIGS:  Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Spain.) to Germany, France and the USA.  The recent debt “hair cut” in Greece will slow but not stop this contagion without structural changes in government spending.  This bailout will only last a few months and the root of the problem will still not be resolved.

Who did the most lending to the PIIGS?  France and Germany ~ $1.6 Trillion.  Currently France’s economy is weak and Germany’s is strong because of massive exports to China but China is now in trouble. This does not bode well for Germany.   Money printing only pushes out the inevitable to the future but does not solve any underlying structural financial problems.  France and Germany do not care about saving the Euro…they only care about saving their banks.   The US Federal Reserve is propping up many of the banks in Europe with money printing. This allows European central banks to borrow money from the Fed and then give that money to private European banks.  This is done to save our own banks who have loaned money to Europe.

China has a debt crisis?  Yes.  As a percentage of GDP China has printed more money than the USA to stimulate their economy.  The crisis is coming to a head now as the borrowers cannot pay just like here in the USA with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  China’s crisis has already started so now China has their own form of TARP to bail out their failing banks.

Exporting countries like Australia, Canada, Brazil, South Korea, Japan and Germany are seening their exports come to a halt as a result of China’s economic problems.

Bottom line is that many countries have become dependent on exporting to China and now that China’s economy is slowing down, they are seeing huge drops in their economy.

What this means is that the debt contagion is spreading from the weak economies to the strong economies which will eventually bring down the whole system.

BELOW:  With the exception of Germany which exports machinery to China, Green arrows represent the export of raw materials.  Canada, lumber; Brazil and Australia minerals and raw materials, etc.  These economies seem to be doing well but are dependent on China’s continued consumption.  Red arrows represent the export of credit.  The entire globe is tied together in a death spiral dependent on China which is rapidly coming unraveled.

The US could restart the World economy by consuming more but can’t because businesses are taking a defensive position caused by fear and uncertainty. Why won’t US Banks loan money to small businesses?  They too are taking a defensive posture in the face of economic uncertainty and are thus accumulating cash.  Besides the Federal Reserve has inadvertently provided another more secure source of income for the banking industry.  The Federal Reserve allows banks to borrow money from the Fed at 0.25% interest, then loan that money to the government at interest rates ranging from 2 to 3%. This represents a subsidy to banks in the form of a risk-free profit only limited by the Federal Government’s appetite for spending. How would you like to have a sweetheart deal like that? Just think of the billions in profit you could make with other people’s money with no risk. BTW, this is not capitalism.

An Obituary

August 21, 2011

In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:

“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”

“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

  1. From bondage to spiritual faith;
  2. From spiritual faith to great courage;
  3. From courage to liberty;
  4. From liberty to abundance;
  5. From abundance to complacency;
  6. From complacency to apathy;
  7. From apathy to dependence;
  8. From dependence back into bondage.”

Born 1776, Died ????

Do you see a pattern here?

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by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | JUNE 12, 2011

Do you see a pattern here? Believing in the primacy of the state over the individual is a religion in every sense of the word yet spreads undetected into all aspects of our lives. Although Darwin himself was not an atheist, the Darwinian Theory is based on the materialism that man is just a soulless animal or a series of chemical reactions; a cog in a wheel, and thus merely an effect –not cause over effect– converges with the godless belief system in the state over the individual. This epistemology is devoid of any real morality and produces a barren moonscape robbed of meaning or the juice of life. This epistemology contains no external standards which cannot be modified whimsically to fit the fashions or the politics of the day. Their standard is not a standard at all. Not believing in the individual, freewill or individual personal responsibility, the progressive Democrats –which are in fact authoritarians– regularly check themselves into rehab after engaging in socially unacceptable behavior thus taking no real responsibility for their actions as individuals. It is always someone else’s fault. It’s a mental illness, It’s their childhood, it’s big business, it’s society’s fault, its poverty, it’s mom or dad…it’s fill in the blank with anything but the person actually responsible. All they require is some counseling, group therapy, new religion or a magic pill and they will be all better. This aberration in identifying the real culprit frustrates any attempt to take responsibility; break away from the old ways that did not work and to make meaningful changes so that the individual can grow into new healthy and prosperous ways of living. True healing and corrective action can only come after the total destruction of the old faulty assumptions, the old habits and the old ways of thinking that did not work so that a rebuilding of healthy habits that do work can take place on new ground thus provided.