Oh good grief.
I am not against opinion or punditry, but facts are facts. Here is a fact; Limbaugh is an idiot.
Limbaugh claimed "you need abortions to get" embryonic stem cells
Friday, July 21, 2006
My Kingdom For An Editor
I found this bit of comedy from Peggy Noonan over at PZ Meyers' blog:
"During the past week's heat wave--it hit 100 degrees in New York City Monday--I got thinking, again, of how sad and frustrating it is that the world's greatest scientists cannot gather, discuss the question of global warming, pore over all the data from every angle, study meteorological patterns and temperature histories, and come to a believable conclusion on these questions: Is global warming real or not?...You would think the world's greatest scientists could do this, in good faith and with complete honesty and a rigorous desire to discover the truth. And yet they can't. Because science too, like other great institutions, is poisoned by politics. Scientists have ideologies. They are politicized."
I can't wait to tell my friends doing scientific research into surfactant, and its efficacy in the treatment premature babies, that they are merely political tools. Tools of ideology...the ideology that respirators damage the lungs. Those bastards!
And here she is in praise of ignorance and stupidity:
"I note here what is to me a mystery. It is that people with lower IQs somehow tend, in our age, to have a greater apprehension of the meaning of things and the reality of life, than do our high-IQ professionals, who often seem, in areas outside their immediate field, startlingly dim. I don't know why intellectuals--or cerebralists or eggheads or IQ hegemonists--seem to miss the most obvious things, floating on untethered by common sense. If you talk to a brilliant scholar at a fine university about social policy, chances are he will say with honest perplexity that he cannot understand--really cannot understand--why people would not want men to marry men, or women women. I wish there were a name for this, for the cluelessness of the more intellectually accomplished, the simpler but truer wisdom of those who are often less lettered and less accomplished."
This is the "absent minded professor" argument, and that went out of style with the eponymous movie. This one, not that one. The smart people I know (and there are lots of them, probably you in you know me) are smart about everything...because they are smart. Those with doctorates, or professional degrees know their subject matter far more intimitely than to which we can aspire. But being an expert in a field does not automatically make you clueless about the world around you. If I need folksy wisdom from the less accomplished, I will buy a book of Yankee sayings, or listen to Paul Harvey.
Nah, I would never listen to Paul Harvey. But that's another story.
UPDATE:
This from the comments section for Ms. Noonan's article - reproduced in its entirety as it is so fucking retarded:
"On the issue of global warming, the intellectual dishonesty of the scientific community is directly related to the rise of science-by-grant, with government and private foundations competing to disperse millions to academic petitioners. Such huge sums of money were naturally irresistable to academics, whose dirty little secret is their lust for the quick buck. In turn, the ideological leftism (read anticapitalism) which infected academics in the nuclear-McCarthy era meant science and the lucrative world of grants would be the province of the left. Conservatives need not apply. So a skewed "debate" exists in which the American people have been denied any real exposure to the controversies of global warming. Thus Stalinism is dead in Russia, and very much alive in the land of the free." - Randy Haddock - Culver City, Calif.
"During the past week's heat wave--it hit 100 degrees in New York City Monday--I got thinking, again, of how sad and frustrating it is that the world's greatest scientists cannot gather, discuss the question of global warming, pore over all the data from every angle, study meteorological patterns and temperature histories, and come to a believable conclusion on these questions: Is global warming real or not?...You would think the world's greatest scientists could do this, in good faith and with complete honesty and a rigorous desire to discover the truth. And yet they can't. Because science too, like other great institutions, is poisoned by politics. Scientists have ideologies. They are politicized."
I can't wait to tell my friends doing scientific research into surfactant, and its efficacy in the treatment premature babies, that they are merely political tools. Tools of ideology...the ideology that respirators damage the lungs. Those bastards!
And here she is in praise of ignorance and stupidity:
"I note here what is to me a mystery. It is that people with lower IQs somehow tend, in our age, to have a greater apprehension of the meaning of things and the reality of life, than do our high-IQ professionals, who often seem, in areas outside their immediate field, startlingly dim. I don't know why intellectuals--or cerebralists or eggheads or IQ hegemonists--seem to miss the most obvious things, floating on untethered by common sense. If you talk to a brilliant scholar at a fine university about social policy, chances are he will say with honest perplexity that he cannot understand--really cannot understand--why people would not want men to marry men, or women women. I wish there were a name for this, for the cluelessness of the more intellectually accomplished, the simpler but truer wisdom of those who are often less lettered and less accomplished."
This is the "absent minded professor" argument, and that went out of style with the eponymous movie. This one, not that one. The smart people I know (and there are lots of them, probably you in you know me) are smart about everything...because they are smart. Those with doctorates, or professional degrees know their subject matter far more intimitely than to which we can aspire. But being an expert in a field does not automatically make you clueless about the world around you. If I need folksy wisdom from the less accomplished, I will buy a book of Yankee sayings, or listen to Paul Harvey.
Nah, I would never listen to Paul Harvey. But that's another story.
UPDATE:
This from the comments section for Ms. Noonan's article - reproduced in its entirety as it is so fucking retarded:
"On the issue of global warming, the intellectual dishonesty of the scientific community is directly related to the rise of science-by-grant, with government and private foundations competing to disperse millions to academic petitioners. Such huge sums of money were naturally irresistable to academics, whose dirty little secret is their lust for the quick buck. In turn, the ideological leftism (read anticapitalism) which infected academics in the nuclear-McCarthy era meant science and the lucrative world of grants would be the province of the left. Conservatives need not apply. So a skewed "debate" exists in which the American people have been denied any real exposure to the controversies of global warming. Thus Stalinism is dead in Russia, and very much alive in the land of the free." - Randy Haddock - Culver City, Calif.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
Back in August...
So me and the shui's are off for some beach time. We will be out of cyberspace contact for two weeks. So I apologize in advance for the inevitable decline in wit and dare I say maturity, in the average post that will no doubt occur in my absence...
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
I Believe In Miracles - And Unicorns!
When cyclist Lance Armstrong won his seventh Tour de France, he castigated his audience and detractors for daring to believe that his success was due to anything more than clean living and intense training. How dare they impugn the good nature of this fellow? Lance went so far as to question his critics' ability to discern reality from fiction. He said "I'm sorry for you. I'm sorry you can't dream big, and I'm sorry you don't believe in miracles."
So true. How dare we not believe in miracles when one is presented to us? Like a god perched high atop almighty Olympus, Lance is the alpha and omega of cycling. In fact, the ouster of Jan Ullrich and 13 other riders from this year's Tour only proves Lance's point. If he managed, without any help at all, to beat the elite of the cycling world (who were doping) then that is truly a miracle. To do so seven years in a row would be a miracle of Biblical stature. Obviously the only answer is that Lance is the greatest athlete ever. And unicorns exist and are pretty.
So true. How dare we not believe in miracles when one is presented to us? Like a god perched high atop almighty Olympus, Lance is the alpha and omega of cycling. In fact, the ouster of Jan Ullrich and 13 other riders from this year's Tour only proves Lance's point. If he managed, without any help at all, to beat the elite of the cycling world (who were doping) then that is truly a miracle. To do so seven years in a row would be a miracle of Biblical stature. Obviously the only answer is that Lance is the greatest athlete ever. And unicorns exist and are pretty.
Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill, Brother!
Hey there Hulkamaniacs, when you are training hard, saying your prayers, and taking your vitamins, there ain't nothin' better than a good, home-cooked meal. That's why I recommend the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill brother. Don't waste your time on cheap imitations brother. Besides, I was supposed to get that grill deal first, but I was driving Brooke and Nick to school and missed the call brother. I was robbed brother! And don't you worry Hulkamaniacs, this grill is the real deal, not like my blender - that piece of crap was sabotaged by the Iron Sheik, brother. Whacha gonna do brother, when the Hulk Hogan Ultimate Grill cooks savoury salmon, for you!
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