Disqus - Latest Comments for Michael

Re: Atheistic Societies Are Happy Societies

Michael — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:23:56 -0000

Correlation does not imply causation. But when you check the math, the inverse is equally true. The more important religion becomes in lives of a population, the more crime and dissatisfaction they experience.

http://moses.creighton.edu/JRS/2005/2005-11.html

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Michael — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:54:10 -0000

How do we know the scientists are telling the truth when they talk about the evidence they claim to have? Without access to peer journals, it becomes difficult. At that point you have to have faith that the scientific community really is dedicated to uncovering the truth and reporting it as they find it. Conjecture is the name of the game: scientists try to explain what they see supported with the knowledge already amassed.

Peer review is really the key here. How do we know that the science is good? Because scientists have a vested interest in being able to prove or disprove evidence. Particularly during the cold war, international scientists were all about getting one up on their competitors. But their claims had to satisfy everyone, not just their political masters, so the math and logic chains had to be impeccable.

But suppose you don't trust the motives of the scientists behind the work? Suppose there's a massive conspiracy to undermine the veracity of religion? Then, as has been suggested, you can begin your own study based on the claims the scientists make. You can go to the sites where they claim to have found various fossils. You can set up your own experiments with simple lifeforms and control groups. You can use the scientific method to derive your own conclusions, and submit them for review. You can literally make the system work for you.

What's the alternative? Accept that the fossils found were "planted" there by an invisible deity? Conclude that dinosaurs walked the earth alongside mankind? Insist that microevolution can't possibly become macroevolution in the long term? If microevolution is possible then what's so difficult about macroevolution, the notion that incremental changes eventually add up to a large overall change?

Most of the time, religionists' complaints about evolution stem purely from the difficulty of reconciling their holy texts with actual data from the real world. You don't hear about religious complaints about astronomical data any longer. They had them originally, but the data was overwhelming. Neither do you hear religious complaints about medicine, although that too came under fire from religion once we started relearning everything we'd lost during the Dark Ages. Evolution is the among the newest genres of science that directly attack devoutly held religious beliefs, so inevitably suffers the same attacks.

Attacking evolution by nitpicking the details is akin to attacking astronomy because we don't have all the answers. Of COURSE we don't have all the answers; we wouldn't be studying it if we did. We don't have direct knowledge of what we call black holes because we don't yet have the capacity to visit and observe them in person. That doesn't mean creationists are attacking astronomers because they don't have all the answers. But like evolution we have sufficient data, including indirect observations, that allow us to make good theories about them. We can accept those theories because there's sufficient peer reviewed material to support those claims. But even in the case of those questions that are impossible for us to answer at this time, like where the Universe comes from or how life got started, the most honest answer is "I don't know." Substituting some sort of God as an answer to the unanswerable is simply wish fulfillment.

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Michael — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:27:32 -0000

That's not entirely accurate, Waldo. Just because a species can change to a certain degree in a certain time period doesn't mean it will continue that same degree of change proportionate to the increase in time. Evolution works on the principle that species change to meet the needs of their environment. For example, alligators haven't been seen to change much since the age of dinosaurs (with the possible exception of losing some mass) because their environments haven't changed much. They're sufficiently adapted to the degree that they don't need to change. They're a dead-end on the evolutionary scale.

Some species demonstrate greater change than others because they're attempting to adapt to sub-optimal conditions. That's why when biologists run experiments for evolution, they create inhospitable environments for the species they want to change while creating an optimized environment for the control groups.

I understand what you meant, but I thought I'd nitpick on your generalization.

Re: Report: For Every $2 Spent on Legit Software, $1 Goes To Pirates

Michael — Tue, 15 May 2007 11:57:21 -0000

Just remember to take statements from the BSA with a grain of salt. This is from an organization that wants to consider the money you pay for software as "lease" payments. Their principle member, Microsoft, now claims 235 patent infringements within Linux.

I don't dispute that software piracy exists. I simply dispute the numbers they post on the impact of it. Most of the time, software piracy increases revenues by exposing people to the software and giving them a chance to learn it before they pay for it.

Re: The Opera Browser Revisited

Michael — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:55:40 -0000

I've been running Opera 9.24 on Ubuntu 7.10 for a while now. I'm not experiencing the lagging issues you've described, although I don't use AJAX much that I'm aware of. My experience is that it's been just as fast as Firefox, hasn't demonstrated any memory leakage, and is running very nicely on an older system with 512MB RAM. Reviews I've read of the upcoming 9.25 update have been largely optimistic with regard to better memory usage and performance. Your Mileage May Vary, of course.

Re: Atheistic Societies Are Happy Societies

Michael — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 05:23:56 -0000

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Michael — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 06:54:10 -0000

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Michael — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:27:32 -0000

Re: 10 Tips on How to Spot a Liberal

Michael — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 08:55:48 -0000

Pardon the tears while I type this, my store ran out of Birkenstocks, and I think I got some tie-dye in my eye.

I'm really not sure why ideologues feel the need to vilify each other. I'm not particularly fond of conservatives at the moment, but I attribute that largely to the amount of mud-slinging that's become popular in the last few years. Politics has never been a pretty place, but in the last ten years or so it's gotten positively lethal.

I suppose that, given the way liberals dominated the political landscape for so very long, conservatives had to adopt a more extremist attitude in order to get attention. The natural liberal response was, "what? What the hell was that about?" Now we have conservative leaders in office who consider it their Constitutional right to lie to the nation in order to achieve their goals. We have other conservative leaders elected on moral platforms they themselves can't uphold. We have conservative pundits slandering political opponents as "flip-floppers" while they themselves shift stances to justify the means to their ideological ends. The hypocrisy is staggering, and yet the core conservative crowd maintains a cheerful, "everything is going according to plan, but liberals are still to blame" policy while public sentiment shifts away from them like an earthquake.

Seriously, folk. Polemicists like Ann Coulter are not helping to create a civil dialog between ideologies, they're just mocking each other and creating more hostility. The last thing we need is a jihad declared between conservatives and liberals.

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 11:59:14 -0000

Who has been burdened with the duty to disobey illegal orders? Who has to face the choice knowing they lose if they go and they lose if they protest? Who in this country would know what goes on in Iraq better than a soldier who has been there?

Adam Kokesh demonstrated far greater courage in demonstrating against this illegal war after being sent to participate in it than any armchair warrior blogging about it from home. Re-enlisting him simply to downgrade his discharge in retaliation for protesting says more about the pettiness of the government than him. He may have lost his "honorable discharge," but he's proven his honor more than General Bergman.

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 16:58:46 -0000

Hmm...according to Kokesh's blog (kokesh.blogspot.com) he's received numerous letters of support from pro-military organizations around the country. Several of them brought up the fact that the former Sgt. Kokesh wore camos without any insignia, fatigues like so many people wear casually at all manner of functions. Some have brought up that the Bush administration frequently uses soldiers in full military dress at political functions, nullifying their charge against Kokesh.

So let's sum up: he's a discharged veteran who protests against the war. He wore clothing that many people commonly wear without insignia and was charged for wearing a uniform at a political event. Other active duty soldiers are not being similarly charged for wearing full military dress at political events. Therefore, his primary crime is to exercise his First Amendment right to protest a government with whom he disagrees.

Go ahead and spin this one, gentlemen. I can't wait.

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:18:07 -0000

Two letters of support that he posted on his blog (which is why I provided the address) are Florida Veterans for Common Sense and The Military Project. Should you browse the site, you might find more answers to your questions.

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 17:27:55 -0000

I'm not sure why forgetting to mention that letter is important, but yes he mentions it in his blog. Kokesh also goes into detail explaining why he joined the Marines, what it meant to him, how he and his comrades joked about "signing away their rights" while in service and detailing both the plea bargain he was offered and his response.

He also goes on to quote George Washington, "When we assumed the Soldier, we did not lay aside the Citizen." He very neatly summarizes the action in this statement: "While there may be some purpose of this prosecution in order to maintain the, 'good order and discipline' of the inactive reserve, it is clear by its prejudice that it is intended to silence the voices of dissent."

Dissent is not unpatriotic, nor is it treasonous. Our nation was founded on dissent, but to hear the rhetoric spouted these days you'd think any kind of disagreement justifies reclassification as an "enemy combatant."

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:16:10 -0000

"He violated his oath..."

What oath did he violate? He was discharged, no longer bound to hold his tongue against what he perceives as abuses in our government. Even while in service, he acknowledges the right and duty of active duty servicemen to [i]conscientiously object,[/i] to speak out when circumstances warrant it.

The UMJC had to deliberately [i]reactivate[/i] him in order to downgrade his discharge. Furthermore, they went out of their way to schedule the review in such a venue where witnesses could not easily testify on his behalf. Finally, they're focusing on him for expressing an unpopular opinion while turning a blind eye to others who were far more blatant in their violations of the oath you site.

How do you condemn a man for wearing quasi-fatigues in violation of an oath he's been released from and not prosecute another for wearing full military dress at political speeches and fund-raisers?

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Michael — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 18:56:29 -0000

[quote]He was still in IRR and bound the rule against using the uniform of the US military for personal political purposes.[/quote]So the UMJC slapped his hand with the only charge they could possibly levy against him and did so in such a way that he had to go to extraordinary lengths to defend himself. For wearing a hat without insignia or other token of military service, folk here want to turn it into an honor-destroying event wherein he has violated sacred oaths. Meanwhile, others dress in full military regalia at political events without so much as a stern glance.

I therefore return to my earlier statement:[quote]So let's sum up: he's a discharged veteran who protests against the war. He wore clothing that many people commonly wear without insignia and was charged for wearing a uniform at a political event. Other active duty soldiers are not being similarly charged for wearing full military dress at political events. Therefore, his primary crime is to exercise his First Amendment right to protest a government with whom he disagrees.[/quote]

Disqus - Latest Comments for Michael

Re: Atheistic Societies Are Happy Societies

Re: How Would *You* Prove Evolution?

Re: How Would *You* Prove Evolution?

Re: Report: For Every $2 Spent on Legit Software, $1 Goes To Pirates

Re: The Opera Browser Revisited

Re: Atheistic Societies Are Happy Societies

Re: How Would *You* Prove Evolution?

Re: How Would *You* Prove Evolution?

Re: 10 Tips on How to Spot a Liberal

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: Anti-War Marine Adam Kokesh Kicked Out Of Corps With "Other Than Honorable" Discharge

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?

Re: How Would You Prove Evolution?