Again with 'Belief'?

 

“Science is just a bunch of wild guesses.”

That was what one responder claimed. He reiterated that claim several times. “A bunch of wild guessing assholes…”

It’s more than evident that this dude had no idea about scientific method, the process of peer review and specifically what the word ‘theory’ means.

In science, theory is a technical term. In normal informal language ‘theory’ might be a wild guess. (e.g. My theory is that he wasn’t hugged enough as a child.) However, in science, the word ‘theory’ is reserved for a working hypothesis which serves as the best answer to a phenomenon. 

More precisely: “A theory is a carefully thought-out explanation for observations of the natural world that has been constructed using the scientific method, and which brings together many facts and hypotheses.”

 

We’re not talking wild guesses here. There’s a lot of problems with the lexicon of science which derails appreciation. Other examples are the words ‘fact’ and ‘law’. Look them up as they are used in discussion of science by scientists. 

Back to theories; Evolution is a theory. Yes!

So is gravity a theory.

So are cells.

So are germs.

So is the heliocentric model.

Plate tectonics is a theory.

The Big Bang is a theory.

A theory is the highest level that an idea can attain in science.

 

That said, another word that serves as a stumbling block for many is the word ‘believe’. (Cue the eye-rolls. Here we go again.)

Like many words in English, there is more than one meaning for this word. That plurality of meaning stems from context. If the word is used in an informal conversation, the word 'belief' might only mean ‘notion’ or ‘speculation’. (e.g. I believe it’s going to rain.) There is no proclamation of a deeply held tenet. It’s just an opinion based on a commonplace observation regarding an ordinary meteorological event. (Bring an umbrella.) 

However, in a discussion about religion, the word’s connotation changes with the more formal context; ‘I believe in the Bible’ indicates that that book is a basis for a deeply held religious tenet. In matters of ‘faith’, the word becomes a mighty touchstone. It takes on a technical definition specific to matter of faith much as the word ‘theory’ is a technical term in the fields of science.

 

The confusion arises when a person of faith asks ‘Do you believe in science (or evolution of the Big Bang Theory). Scientific theories do not require faith; they do not require ‘belief’ in the more technical sense of the person of faith. 

 

Whether or not you ‘believe’ in gravity, you’ll fall down.

Our Special Tribe; Wise?

 

Douglas Adams wrote a very compelling bit of allegory about a sentient puddle of water which, upon viewing its condition remarked how well the hole it was in fit it so perfectly; as if the hole was created specially to fit the puddle. Then, as the day went on and the sun rose higher and the puddle evaporated, a bit of panic struck the sentient puddle as it slowly became non-existent. 

 

The allegory was meant as a counter-argument to the proposition that the earth was made, designed, created especially for human beings. (That the planet is populated with thousands of species suited to this planet and no other seems to have gone unnoticed to the proponents of grand design.)

 

As record-setting temperatures continue to topple to new record-setting temperatures, as glaciers evaporate and melt to raise ocean levels rise, as droughts grind on causing crops to fail amid rising world hunger, it must be understood that our own species; Homo Sapiens Sapiens, a twig on the branch of the Great Ape family, is NOT the sentient puddle. This world was NOT created to fit us. Homo Sapiens have been around for fewer than half a million years. A slim trifle when compared with the estimated four billion-year existence of the earth, itself. 

 

It is estimated that more than 99% of all life on the planet has gone extinct over the course of the planet’s existence. Humans are but a slim sliver of the history of the planet of water, oxygen and life. Others of far more scientific erudition than this writer have stated that this is so and have provided reams of evidence in peer-reviewed papers.  

 

However, the hubris of humanity, bolstered by the self-serving mythology that ‘we are special’ has placed the very existence of our species at risk. We are at risk of destroying our own bio-sphere – the sentient puddle’s hole – upon which our survival depends. Excessive heat warnings are issued by meteorological agencies and scoffed at hubristically by those whose very survival is at risk. (Recall the sight of the US Senator offering a snowball as proof that climate change is a hoax!)

 

Our species is most assuredly special in many ways; others have counted the ways in Shakespearean fashion.  However, our species is less than 1% of all the species which were formed on planet earth and are now extinct. It must be kept in mind that there have been numerous mass extinction events on this planet; the end of the Age of Dinosaurs is but one such event. Another is the Permian Extinction – the Great Dying – which happened 250,000,000 years ago. It is the worst, most extensive extinction event in the planet’s history and all but eliminated life on ‘our’ blue marble. Keep in mind that there were at least 4 other mass extinction events before our little tribe split off from the bonobos, chimps and other great apes on our way to becoming Homo Sapiens about 300,000 years ago.

 

Doomsayers claim that we may be witnessing one more such mass-extinction event. Are we - Homo Sapiens Sapiens, the ‘wise man’- actually wise enough to understand how precarious our existence is on this tiny orb in space? 

Roe, Roe Roe the Vote!

 

I’m stumped.

For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the GOP are shooting themselves in the foot after they’ve lodged it firmly into their mouth. 

To the point: Roe v Wade. The Religious Right has worked for decades to get this done, driven by somebody’s myopic, misogynic reading of a book from the Bronze Age. The GOP made their deal with Donnie the Devil to stack the Court with the nefarious assistance of Mitch McConnell who’d blocked Garland’s nomination. Everyone expected it. The historic leak of the drafted decision alerted everyone that this long-awaited catastrophe was imminent.

But, why now!?

The Court could have sat on this decision until after the mid-terms. The Court could have sand-bagged the decision; that would have been understood by even most ‘pro-lifers’.

If the Court had back-burner’ed the decision until after the Jan 6 Committee’s final report, that would have been understandable, as well. From the standpoint of the GOP leadership, such a move might have been seen as ‘good optics’

To release this decision now, on the heels of their declaring the New York’s long-standing gun law unconstitutional, in the midst of a very damaging Jan 6 Committee hearings and in the same news cycle with Biden signing a new Gun Bill, seems ‘bad optics’, at the least, and, at the worst, tantamount to discharging a firearm into your ear. 

Couple the continuing mass shootings, the stripping of human and civil rights, the gross greed of corporate overlords, the undermining of voting rights, the immense level of sedition and treason exercised by Trump and his heinous minions; all of which are the result of GOP policy and what we have here is a vast failure by the GOP to govern in a representative republic.

This bodes rather well for a resounding GOP defeat at the polls in November of this year.

 

Expand the Court

 

Well..

They did it. They over-turned Roe-v-Wade.

The GOP gambit succeeded. They courted the imbecilic, sociopathic insanity of Donald ‘the Narcissist’ Trump and got the ‘conservative’ majority on the Court. Of course, as Senator Susan Collins might acknowledge, these are not ‘conservatives’; they are reactionaries. 

 

They are also perjurers, liars and sociopaths as well: ACB, Beer Boy, Alito Thomas, Gorsuch. They all lied during their confirmation hearings. They all prevaricated. They all deserve to be impeached and removed from the Court for their felonious dissimulation.

It must be noted that lying to Congress is a felony. All of the aforementioned Justices lied through their teeth regarding Roe.

 

This radical decision of the highest Court means that more women will die from botched abortions. More women and young girls will be forced to carry the woeful result of rape and incest. This stripping go human rights will ruin their lives. It will, most probably, ruin the lives the resultant people whom these poor women will be forced to give birth to as unwanted babies.

 

As preamble to this egregious decision, the Court saw fit to intervene on gun safety by tossing out the New York state law restricting the open-carry of side-arms. 

It will become evident in coming months that the combination of these two woefully unfortunate decisions will result in the deaths of many in the US. People will be shot and killed in the street

Women will die on make-shift operating table and in back-alleys as they did before Roe was supported.

 

Reaction to the Court’s over-turning Roe has been swift; streets are filled with protestors in all major cities and in front of the ‘Marble Palace’, where "Equal Justice Under Law" is chiseled.

The overturning of Roe is the realization of sociopathic, misogynic fever-dream of the right Wing. It must act as the catalyst for Dems and Independents to elect sane, educated, enlightened representatives to Congress. It must be the driving force that brings about the expansion of the Court and the expulsion of Thomas, ACB, Beer Boy and a return to humanistic justice.

News Flash: Evolution is Hard!

 

News Flash! 

Evolution is difficult. Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated. Learning even the very basics of the mechanics of evolution theory requires real effort. 

It’s little wonder that most (including yours truly…) would prefer to leave the heavy-lifting to the professional scientists, teachers and professors. It’s a small wonder that many would rather just claim ‘god made it all!’ than to actually study and grasp the intricate implications of evolutionary theory.

 

(Here, there must be a side-bar that addresses the definition of the word ‘theory’. A theory is not just a wild-hair, off-the-cuff notion that is declared without reflection or substantiation. A ‘theory’ in the parlance of science is nothing of the sort. (e.g. Your uncle at Thanksgiving may propose his theory that all ‘millennials are spoiled’ and cite his own nephew who refuses to come to the family table or purposes that the media is controlled by a certain Semitic community. (ahem) That is NOT a theory; your uncle is simply a blatherskite; he’s blowing it out his arse.)

 

Gravity, for example, is a theory. That diseases are caused by pathogens is the ‘Germ Theory of Disease’. Both ‘theories’ are the best explanation of the phenomena of gravity and disease which have been tried and tested and accepted as fact by the scientific community.

 

One is tempted to include a link to a video of Hemant Mehta listing the Top Ten list of asinine attempts to rebut evolution theory. Forrest Valkai (the Renegade Science Teacher of Tik-Tok fame) would be another video link that entices this writer. The dear reader might avail themselves of those video counter-arguments as they wish.

Caveat: Be prepared to think and to do further cursory research. As was stated at the beginning; ‘Evolutionary science is incredibly complicated.’ However, as a scientific theory, it is the best explanation available for the diversity of life on our planet.

It is no wonder that some would choose, in their utter and willful ignorance, to blurt out ‘god did it!’ 

Barr and Jan 6

 

 The obvious and pronounced reason for the televised January 6^th Committee is to gin up the public, make them aware, enlightened, entertained and pissed. The sessions are not primarily to educate the vast majority of the primary and secondary viewing public.

MAGA-dolts donated about $250,000.00 ($25 million!) to what they (in their addled brain-pans) was a ‘worthy cause’: ‘Save America!’.  Not only could they send thoughts and prayers, they could send their hard-earned money. Predictably (for those paying attention), instead, the needed trip to the dentist went into the grimy, fingered coffers of Donald J. Trump, Conman.

That should raise some MAGA-hackles. It should. They may blame Joe for inflation but reminding them on the TV that the Orange Scrounger made off with half a car payment is a very finessed move. Don the Con gets revealed as the louse he is. On the telly. And on repeat! 

That the money to ‘Save America’ would squandered on aught else but Trump perquisites should have been both obvious and expected. With the second televised hearing, that simple, fundamental fact of Trump-land – that all was for the greater glory of the Grand Persimmon and feck everybody else - was made clearly evident.

Kimberly Guilfoyle getting $60,00 for a 3-minute speech introducing El Grifto at the Rally prior to the Insurrection should make some MAGA-folks miffed at the former Scamster-in-chief and his crew of wanna-be douche nozzles. (One wonders if she got paid by the word…? $20K a minute to scream some version of her tag line seems extreme even for a former Fox regular.  Would Kilmeade have gotten that much? Or Hannity?)

As for the douche-nozzle ‘B’ team; Jason Miller had to have a filthy hand in the dissemination of ‘Stop the Steal’ missives. That little scanky merkin replacing his missing chin will not save him from prosecution. He undoubtedly signed a deal with the DOJ. The smart ones do. 

Trump’s last campaign manager, Bill Stepien, has most assuredly cut a deal for testimony. The opportune breeching of his child spared him from a ‘perp-walk’ into Committee Chambers, but his video-ed testimony, with this lawyer by his side, bland and hesitant as it was, verified the more candid remarks from the former AG, Barr.

One might be inclined to give an appreciative nod to Bill Barr for throwing The Donald so colorfully under the bus. We must take measures not to lionize this pole-cat. Barr is the under-handed arsehole who scuttled the Mueller Report, recall. He made like a Romanian gymnast in bending over for Trump and warped the rule of law to serve the Orange Monstrosity. He has done the good guys a favor with his colorful language but one must conclude that it was to save his own fat back-side. 

Hopefully, Barr’s apostasy will induce other MAGA-muddle-heads to break ranks with ‘El Trumpissimo’. That the damn has burst and the wall fallen may seem too Pollyanna, but considering Ivanka Trump sided with Barr against dear-ol’ dad… That speaks volumes.

Kevin, listen up!

This article is meant to go towards answering the dissatisfied clamor over what is perceived as Merrick Garland’s inaction.  The DOJ ain’t going anywhere and neither are Trump’s crimes.

The aim of the televised committee hearings is this;

First, get the more peripheral MAGA-folks riled up enough to turn against Donald Trump.

Second; present clear facts of criminality for those who have been paying attention all along.

Third, prosecutorial referrals fall like cleansing rain on the seditionists.

Stay tuned.

WTF and Why?

 

There is one, all-encompassing question that has plagued me since the first evidence that the GOP were actually englamoured by Trump.

Why?

Why fear this bumbling bozo of a clown, born on third base but thrown out at home trying to steal countless times?

Why attach oneself lamprey-like to such an infamous fraud?

To the point, why do Kevin McCarthy, et al. continue to provide aid and comfort to such an enemy of democracy as Donald J. Trump?

One can understand the warped reasons that impel McConnell to pitch in on the evil; Supreme Court picks and association with a fellow graft-master.

But McCarthy, Jordan, Cotton, Hawley? What’s the deal?

(Notice I left off Boebert, MGT and Gosar from that short list. They all, clearly, grabbed the short-end of the stick. When they passed out brains, these three heard ‘rain’ and ran for an umbrella.)

I have always suspected blackmail as the glue that adheres these venal people together. Given the Donald’s crime-blotched past and well-known use of such tactics, blackmail has suited me as the motivating factor.

However, there was always a niggling reminder that Trump, himself, would be subjected to counter-slander in a heartbeat. Then, it hit me; another part of the dark substance that holds the GOP in thrall to the Orange Pumpkin.

It might be called ‘Alt-blackmail’. It was also known in former times as ‘calumny’, vicious, false gossip. Nowadays it’s called ‘slander’.

Such accusations, founded or unfounded involve lawyers, court cases, suits and counter-suits, motions and motions and motions upon motions. This is a game that Donnie excels in; backed by Daddy’s money, this is how Trump survived all his failures and scandals

Playing the shady side of the legal system was what Donnie had learned at Roy Cohn’s knee.  

To wit: Should any of the GOP muckety-mucks choose to throw-up their hands and back away from The Donald (as Kevin tried to do in the emotional wake of the insurrection), then the muck-raking would commence. Dirty laundry would be displayed with no regard to the source or in-authenticity of the soiled undies in question.

None of these folks are like driven snow; they all have dark secrets. Hence, though acclimated to potential blackmail, the fear of prolonged expenditures in attorney’s fees, retainers and court costs with little hope of out-lasting The Donald’s neurotic resolve is call for concern. On an existential level.

As Trump loses his influence more Republicans will draw away from him. His failing forays into social media and "Tish" James having the Donald’s yarbles in a vise both went a good way to that end.

Kevin (et al.) trashed their lives and tossed away any shred of honor or reputation they had clung to in order to serve The Donald’. How they deal with it will be at the core of the book deals they sign.