Friday, August 26. 2005
Bainbridge on the Vioxx verdict, juror ignorance, etc., here. An excerpt: In any case, in her WSJ op-ed McCaughey offers an alternative that would retain the juries that Beldar praises, while still strengthening barriers against junk science and support for good science; namely, specialized courts: The jury's verdict shows that our system is failing to provide justice reliably in medical cases. The remedy? Specialized state medical courts, where judges stop lawyers and hired-gun witnesses (for the plaintiff or the defendant) from misleading juries with theories disguised as science, something Judge Ben Hardin failed to do in the Ernst case. ...
Evolution, Religion, Cultural Matters Lee Harris at TCS has written one of the most thoughtful pieces on this subject - a subject which I have been avoiding because I see no conflict between evolutionary theory and Christianity. But that is just me. Harris has many things worth saying about knowledge and culture. Excerpt: Left unmentioned in the movie, however, is (Wm Jennings) Bryan's actual motive for coming to Dayton. He came not to defend his own theological creed, but his political creed. He believed that the people of a community should be permitted to control what their children were taught; he believed it was wrong for an elite outside of a community to come into that community and to commandeer the education of the children for its own purposes and to promote its own agenda; he believed that human beings had a fundamental right to imagine the world as they saw fit, and to teach their children to imagine it in the same way.
Before we scoff at this position, let us make a thought experiment. Suppose that tomorrow aliens of a vastly superior intelligence were to land all over the world. Because they have mastered technology that is far beyond our ken, and because their science is (literally) light years ahead of ours, there is no one on the planet who is in a position to evaluate or assess their enormous fund of knowledge. Would we, the human community, be willing to turn over our schools to this alien elite, and let them decide what to tell our children about the universe and our place in it? Would we say to ourselves, "Look at their superior knowledge-it makes ours look shabby and pathetic. Let's abandon our scientific tradition and simply adopt theirs, lock, stock, and barrel. So what if we don't understand it. So what if we can't even begin to understand it-at least, by taking it on blind faith, we will be able to believe the right things, even if we cannot hope to know them for ourselves."
But even this analogy is not strict enough. Because the alien elite in my thought experiment would also have to tell the leading authorities in our scientific community, "What you think you know is all wrong. Your so called scientific tradition is a joke, and should not be treated with seriousness or dignity-it just needs to be junked."
If an elite group of men enter into a community and claim to possess a truth that no one in the community can judge for himself, by the standards of common sense that the community normally falls back upon to make judgment calls about the ordinary questions, then this elite group may be said to possess a gnosis-a Greek word that we shall use to indicate a special source of knowledge that gives cognitive authority to those who have it, and where those who lack this knowledge are in no position to be able to evaluate it. For example, if you tell me that a long series of numbers add up to 123, and if I can check your addition by adding these numbers for myself, either in my head, or on paper, or by means of a calculator, then we are not dealing with gnosis, because we each are capable of adding the sum, and because we both recognize the legitimacy of the other's method: if our tallies conflict, we both agree that one of us has made a simple error in our calculations, and we will redo them until we find the error and are thus able to come to an agreement.
Read the whole thing.
Don't tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.George Patton
Thursday, August 25. 2005
From the Chronicle of Higher Education: |
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8th grade or less | 6.3% | 6.5% | 6.1% | 8.2% | 6.6% | 9.6% | 5.8% | 6.4% | 5.3% | 25.1% | 25.7% | 24.6% | 3.3% | 3.3% | 3.3% | Some high school, no degree | 8.6% | 8.7% | 8.5% | 5.0% | 4.7% | 5.4% | 13.6% | 13.3% | 13.9% | 16.5% | 17.0% | 15.9% | 6.7% | 6.8% | 6.6% | High-school diploma | 32.0% | 31.1% | 32.8% | 19.8% | 17.5% | 21.8% | 36.0% | 38.4% | 34.1% | 27.7% | 27.4% | 28.0% | 32.8% | 31.6% | 34.0% | Some college, no degree | 17.0% | 16.8% | 17.3% | 10.3% | 10.8% | 9.9% | 19.2% | 18.7% | 19.6% | 13.2% | 13.3% | 13.2% | 17.6% | 17.2% | 17.8% | Associate degree | 8.4% | 7.5% | 9.3% | 7.3% | 6.7% | 7.8% | 7.8% | 6.8% | 8.6% | 5.4% | 4.8% | 6.0% | 9.0% | 8.1% | 9.9% | Bachelor's degree | 18.1% | 18.6% | 17.6% | 29.9% | 29.1% | 30.6% | 12.3% | 11.4% | 13.0% | 8.8% | 8.4% | 9.1% | 19.8% | 20.8% | 18.9% | Master's degree | 6.7% | 6.9% | 6.6% | 12.2% | 15.0% | 9.6% | 4.1% | 3.6% | 4.4% | 2.2% | 2.2% | 2.2% | 7.6% | 7.7% | 7.5% | Doctoral degree | 1.3% | 1.8% | 0.8% | 3.6% | 5.4% | 2.0% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.4% | 1.4% | 2.0% | 0.9% | Professional degree | 1.6% | 2.1% | 1.1% | 3.8% | 4.3% | 3.3% | 0.8% | 1.0% | 0.6% | 0.7% | 0.7% | 0.6% | 1.7% | 2.5% | 1.1% | | Number of adults (in millions) | 186.9 | 89.6 | 97.3 | 8.0 | 3.8 | 4.2 | 20.8 | 9.2 | 11.6 | 21.6 | 11.0 | 10.6 | 134.1 | 64.4 | 69.7 | Note: The figures are based on a Census Bureau survey of 50,000 households conducted in March 2004, and |
Chavez Follies Republicans in sheep's clothing? Spector and Chavez? What is going on? This girl blogger speaks her mind. Read the rest here: Atlas Shrugs: Enemies Inside Aid Enemies Outside Is Spector effing nuts? He is making love to Chavez? Is he a member of the Fifth column or just plain stupid? Look I know we had to back him or lose his seat to a Dem but frankly this new trend of running on the Republican ticket while secretly being a Democrat is more than a wolf in sheep's clothing, it's a Pali in an IDF uniform.
RINOs (Republican in Name Only) Chris Cannon, Chuck Hagel, McCain, Lincoln Chafee, DeWine, Graham, Linda Lingle, Collins, Snowe, Bloomberg, it's a nightmare. WE NEED A STOP THE RINO MOVEMENT (but don't tell PETA)ClickPhoto
Definitions, from Moonbat Central: "Borking" is the acceptable practice of telling reprehensible lies about well-qualified conservatives or other figures unpopular in the left-wing. See also Thomas, Clarence.
"Swift Boating" is the unacceptable practice of telling the truth about anyone the Left wishes to promote, no matter how craven or unbalanced she may be. See also Clinton, Hillary.
 A War Hero, and an incredible story
Bennett tells the story of the hero who survived a bizarre B-17 collision over Germany: Tomorrow morning they'll lay the remains of Glenn Rojohn to rest in the Peace Lutheran Cemetery in the little town of Greenock, Pa., just southeast of Pittsburgh. He was 81, and had been in the air conditioning and plumbing business in nearby McKeesport. If you had seen him on the street he would probably have looked to you like so many other graying, bespectacled old World War II veterans whose names appear so often now on obituary pages. Read the whole story.
Ralph Peter's new book, reviewed by Col. Gordon Cucullu: With the conviction of a visionary, Ralph Peters dismisses the negativity of those he accuses of promulgating America’s “bizarre cult of pessimism.” In New Glory: Expanding America’s Global Supremacy, Peters’ latest soon-to-be-bestseller, the author steadfastly expresses a belief in the innate goodness of an America he describes as “the greatest force for freedom and change in history.” But New Glory is no mere paean to an idealized America. There have been mistakes. “We have stumbled forward while looking wistfully over our shoulders at the past,” he acknowledges. Unlike those consumed with the cult of guilt for past sins – real or imaginary – Peters urges readers to “set our eyes firmly on the future once again.” New Glory is a page-turning guide on just how glorious that future could be. Read entire.
Brewton digs into Marbury v. Madison, here. The BBC on Brother Roger's death, about which we posted yesterday. The CAIR-Graham story, Dallas Morning News: My unease with this is the victory it chalks up for the kind of ideological thuggery that passes for public discourse at CAIR. If all criticism of Islam is hate speech, debate has no meaning. And until CAIR sprouts the guts to point fingers at the radical, murderous wing of its own faith, its claims of moderation are meaningless as well. Read entire.
Australia: Love it or leave it. Right on! LGF has the story. Chastity scholarships in Uganda. There's an idea. Any takers? Prager on Marxism, materialism, etc: First, devoid of religious meaning in their lives, for many on the Left, social change -- or as it is known today, "social justice," the term for left-wing social change -- has become their substitute religion and provider of meaning. Second, given that the only reality is material, any denial of materialism's supremacy disturbs the Left. The true leftist objects to the notion of poorer people leading happy lives. For the heirs of Marx, which is what the Left is, the "good" is not so much a moral, let alone a spiritual, category, as it is an economic one. Hence the left's preoccupation with economic inequality, taxing the rich, etc. Read entire: Click here: Dennis Prager: The rejection of materialism (Part XXI)
UMass vs. Ole Miss: Not football or basketball - growing pot. Kudlow is sanguine about oil prices. Read why. Powerline bashes Joanie: C'mon guys. Pick on someone your own size. Try to remember Joan Baez in 1965. Nyhan has some fun facts about Election 2008 Jaws in Ammagansett?
Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin to my companions.
Are they lost or are they found, have they counted the cost it'll take to bring down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin, comin round the bend. I had a woman down in Alabama,
She was a backwoods girl but she sure was realistic.
She said "Boy, without a doubt, you gotta quit your mess and straighten out,
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic."
There's a slow, slow train comin, coming round the bend. Excerpted from Bob Dylan's Slow Train
Wednesday, August 24. 2005
Free the Pritkin One and a Half Jihad sympathizer detainee denied Snickers. Iowahawk does Michael Moore at the spa.
Death of Brother Roger Brother Roger, founder of Taize in 1940, was murdered one week ago at the age of 90. His funeral reported in the NYT, here. By coincidence, we have written on Taize several times in the past month, here and here. The photo from Taize says most of what can be said.
Housing Bubble No doubt. Look at Shiller's graph, on Marginal Revolution. That is a Sell signal.
Telling a young, seemingly healthy patient that they have terminal cancer Every physician has had to do this hundreds of times, but Dr. Bob wrote it down. "How do you deliver a death sentence?" Dr. Bob explains how he does it. I wish I had written this piece, but Bob did it better than I could have done. The saddest part is always trying to find a way to offer hope, when you know that, statistically, there is none. We sometimes feel like liars, but we need to believe in the power of hope and prayer, despite the terrifying inevitability of the truth of the numbers. There's a lot more to being a doctor than playing golf, folks. Trust me.
 No Turtles, Please
The entirely worthy, and still-available, American Princess wants a diamond, and not a turtle, when she becomes engaged. I just can't understand that, can you? What normal gal wouldn't rather have a nice turtle? (This one, as our readers know, is a nice Eastern Box Turtle.)
I just got word from my migration 
source that the Nighthawks are on
the move in New England, heading to South America for the winter. No longer as common as they once were in the Northeast, these aerial acrobats catch bugs on the wing and often nest on flat gravel rooftops. Their falcon-like shape, their flight, their white wing-flash, and their loud beeping noise are easy diagnostics. They are seen as often in town as in the country - maybe more often in town, at dusk. The photo, courtesy of P. LaTourette, obviously shows a perched nighthawk, but I have never seen one that was not flying. Read more about this bird here.
The Ouija Board approach to the Bible, and How the Bible reveals truth From Evangelical Outpost: There is an old preacher’s tale of a young man who turned to the Bible for guidance on making decisions. Using the text as a divining rod, he would flip through the text and let his finger land on a verse, using the result as a divine insight into how he should decide. One day while wondering what to do with his life, he flipped his Bible open and pointed to Matthew 27:5. He read, "[Judas] went and hanged himself." He decided to try again and on the second attempt landed on Luke 10:37, "Go and do likewise." He tried flipping one more time and arrived at John 13:27, "What you do, do quickly." Although we might find the story amusing, most Christians have done something similar themselves. Eventually, though, we outgrow the “flip and point” method of guidance. As we mature in our faith we begin to recognize that just because the Bible is the word of God does not make it a sanctified Ouija board that will answer whatever questions we might ask. Unfortunately, we often discard such childish approachs only to replace them with more sophisticated, yet equally flawed, hermeneutical methods. Once such approach is what philosopher Roy Clouser calls the “encyclopedic assumption”:
Read entire.
Daniel Pipes explains how terrorism is slowing the progress of radical Islam: before terrorism, they were quietly and successfully insinuating themselves throughout the world. Now, they are on the radar. Interesting. At Dhimmi Watch. Wind Power: We know it kills birds. Now we find it slaughters bats too. Rather than being environmentally friendly, wind farms are nothing but a mass of knives spinning in the sky. Nuclear is where we need to be going - this idea is environmentally nuts. At Env. Economics The "You dont speak for me, Cindy" Tour moves forward. At Move America Forward. Eric takes an open-minded look at the Green Party and their positions. Classical Values. The CT lawsuit against the Feds re No Child Left Behind and unfunded mandates - AG Blumenthal is doing it as a favor to the teacher's unions. Ex-Donk. More Krugman-bashing. Every bit of it well-deserved for this lying and distorting propagandist. Patterico. And Baer adds his two cents at RCP: Click here: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/Commentary/com-8_22_05_RB.html
Economics is extremely useful as a form of employment for economists. John Kenneth Galbraith
Tuesday, August 23. 2005
 World Mis-spent Youth Day
Curt Jester did a good job with this, but I was looking for Benedict's speech. This will have to do for now. Jester here.
Yet one more example of why news blogs are necessary Did you read in the paper that military recruitment is up? No, but Powerline has it, among others. On TV tonite The real truth about 9-11, Part 2, from National Geographic. Can you handle it? Thanks, LGF.
Holiness, and Isaiah From my blog comrade Brian at Real Meal Ministries: Isaiah 6:2-4 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
Isaiah is dumbfounded. He is standing in the temple and God is visible in all of his awesome glory. Yet there is even more. Seraphs are circling above God’s throne. These heavenly beings function as God’s attendants. The word seraph is related to the Hebrew word for fire. It is likely that these creatures appeared to Isaiah as flames of fire. Unlike God who remains silent, the seraphs proclaim two key messages about the One who is High and Exalted.
Read the rest, and find out what holiness really means, from a preacher who digs turtles and Dylan.
Egyptians move into Gaza Egyptian Generals - hopefully not Egyptian psychiatrists. Curious how this has happened. From DebkaFiles: A high-ranking 100-man Egyptian military delegation has taken de facto charge of Palestinian security forces in the Gaza Strip and is handling talks with Hamas to avert an outbreak of terrorist violence. DEBKAfile’s military sources report General Ibrahim Shukri heads the team of three Egyptian generals and several colonels and majors. The same general also led the probe of the October 15, 2004 al Qaeda Taba bombings. His appointment betokens Cairo’s anxiety over the threat of al Qaeda terror infiltration of the Gaza Strip. Our sources add that all Palestinian operations, including the deployment of 24 battalions in the evacuated territory are coordinated with Israel indirectly through a direct channel set b y by General Shukri and Israel’s Shin Beit HQ. A second Egyptian general, Muhammed Ibrahim, is in close communication with the Hamas to guard against wildcat action including gunfire on Israeli targets
Political Medicine It used to be quite hip for medical schools to discuss the cultural aspects of medicine, but that fad has passed - there are just too many facts to learn, and young doctors don't have patience with the soft stuff. But the subject comes up after reading about Dr. Adel Sadeq, an Egyptian psychiatrist who puts suicide bombers in this context: When the [suicide bomber] dies a martyr's death, he attains the height of bliss. As a professional psychiatrist, I say that the height of bliss comes with the end of the countdown: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. And then, you press the button to blow yourself up. When the martyr reaches 'one,' and then 'boom,' he explodes, and senses himself flying, because he knows for certain that he is not dead. It is a transition to another, more beautiful world, because he knows very well that within seconds he will see the light of the Creator...
Puts Prozac to shame. He goes on to argue the necessity of driving the Jews into the sea. If you are a Jew in Egypt, and need a psychiatrist, I suggest avoiding Dr. Sadeq. Sometimes cultural differences are underestimated because people seem so much the same in so many ways, but when you read something like this, you realize that many Moslems, inclduing prosperous, professional Egyptians, are living in a different reality entirely. They have modern medicine, embedded in 7th century ideas. Entire piece here, on neo neo-con.
Horowitz is Always Right He says lots of things that sound either unbelievable, or paranoid, but he always turns out to be right. In this case, the American Thinker reveals the latest in the Left-Islamic alliance against Western Civilization: ...the hard left and the Islamists have established a coordinating committee, according to Douglas Davis of the London Spectator. In Britain the steering committee of the Marxist–Islamist alliance consists of 33 members — 18 from myriad hard-Left groups, three from the radical wing of the Labour party, eight from the ranks of the radical Islamists and four leftist ecologists (also known as ‘Watermelons’ —green outside, red inside). The chairman is Andrew Murray, a leading light in the British Communist party; co-chair is Muhammad Aslam Ijaz, of the London Council of Mosques. Read entire.
The Civil Rights Movement, etc. I have never understood why the Democratic Party has become closely associated with the Civil Rights movement. As I recall, it was the southern Dems that opposed it, and northern Repubs who pushed it, in the tradition of Repubs Lincoln and Eisenhower. Anyway, it is interesting to read about a generational shift in political loyalties for American blacks.
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