tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-169561292011-09-11T15:54:15.318-07:00Arguments for a Reasonable approach to modern lifeMr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1131351022643602552005-11-07T00:10:00.000-08:002005-11-07T00:10:24.266-08:00

Back from a long break with a quick discussion on what Albert Einstein meant to Reason.  I’d be very interested to do the research (here’s a promise, I will report back when this is done) on when Natural Philosophers became scientists, and Philosophers turned their backs on science. Somewhere in the 18th or 19th centuries, science became too real, I suppose. But, in my ignorance of philosophy

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129839373897976642005-10-20T13:16:00.000-07:002005-10-20T13:16:13.916-07:00

I’m writing today in response to Phillip Johnson’s book, “Darwin on Trial”. Mr. Johnson is a leading opponent of evolution, who seeks to show that evolution is a fraud by logical means as opposed to strict declarations of faith.  Like all anti-evolutionists, he proposes an uneven playing field; in his contest those who believe in God are allowed to argue that faith is a proof, but those who

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129617328218416772005-10-17T23:35:00.000-07:002005-10-17T23:35:28.233-07:00

I’m fortunate that I’m not a scientist, so that I can make unsupported claims in a blithe manner that would give any scientist hives.  Today, I’m speculating that one or two gene mutations (a very small number) caused religion.More than that, I am going to guess that at least one of them was the FOXP2 gene which is one of two that differs from chimpanzees in an area that seems to control some of

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129399491497752232005-10-15T11:04:00.000-07:002005-10-15T11:04:52.233-07:00

I am reading “Long Shadows” by Erna Paris, a book about how people in the 90’s dealt with their countries’ shames of the 20th century. The section on the US covers the South’s memories of the Ku Klux Klan era.  That brought to my mind an analogy that may be helpful in understanding the Islamic community today.Al-Qaeda and the Ku Klux Klan represent the same phenomenon to me.  They are both

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129262247132647072005-10-13T20:57:00.000-07:002005-10-13T20:57:27.206-07:00

I read an editorial on the web that credited the Bush tax cuts with raising the tax revenues.  Now, this is eminently possible; in fact, it’s a reasonably reliable way to get a short-term stimulus for the economy.  And in fact, the fiscal 2004 revenue numbers were up over the preceding year.  You can easily get the information yourself; one of the benefits of being an open society is that there

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129178403894733952005-10-12T21:40:00.000-07:002005-10-12T21:40:03.933-07:00

Lighter fare today …  I signed up to be a micropatron for my favorite Internet film reviewer, MaryAnn Johanson,  so here is my list of my favorite films.  Note that for the most part I don’t think these are the best films; they are just the ones that I watch over and over whenever they play on the movie channels.Spinal Tap – “but it goes to 11 …” – ‘nuff said.The Godfather and the Godfather II  -

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129083339758093772005-10-11T19:15:00.000-07:002005-10-11T19:15:39.883-07:00

A belief that individuals are all different underlies the politics of  Reason.  We share many similarities; after all, if 96% of our DNA is the same as a chimpanzee, surely 99.9% is shared with other humans; but in the long run, our differences define our identities.  Morally and ethically, however, we have an obligation to treat all humans the same.  When Thomas Jefferson said that all men are

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1129006383652087262005-10-10T21:53:00.000-07:002005-10-10T21:53:03.690-07:00

Today’s post responds to Sam Harris’s blog in the HuffPo.  He argues that Islam as a religion encourages suicide bombing; I responded with these refutations:Suicide bombing is a very recent phenomenon in Islamic HistorySuicide bombers have not attacked China or Japan despite their overwhelmingly secular culture.Sam certainly didn’t prove his case that it’s Islam not politics that motivates

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128915622466962752005-10-09T20:40:00.000-07:002005-10-09T20:40:22.510-07:00

Well, it looks like Sunday is going to be, “What’s wrong with the Niners” night for the next 11 Sundays.  So here are my suggestions for Mike Nolan based on the tenor of this blog.1. Don’t confuse decisiveness with making good decisions.  After years of waffling from Dennis Erickson, Niner fans were ecstatic to have a coach who would make commitments, say what was on his mind and make clear final

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128834531623117802005-10-08T22:08:00.000-07:002005-10-08T22:08:51.676-07:00

Back on September 23,  I talked about how some of us have greater or lesser sensitivity than others.  Today, I’d like to cover a particular sense, one that we don’t count in the 5 senses we learned in nursery school.  I’m talking about the sense of well-being.  Surely this phrase is familiar to you, but have you considered that when you feel good, you are sensing something?When you Google “sense

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128750620386882372005-10-07T22:50:00.000-07:002005-10-07T22:50:20.420-07:00

Today, let’s look closer at understanding fear of choice.  Complexity is unavoidable in today’s society, and of course, complexity implies a profusion of choices.  Clearly some people prosper in a modern society, and others rebel against freedom.  Now, those who hate choice may argue that wishing for a regression from modern life, is not hating freedom, that modern life is sinful, that modern man

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128660763915051712005-10-06T21:52:00.000-07:002005-10-06T21:52:43.943-07:00

Still laying down the foundations of my beliefs …I have to admit that during the halcyon days of the early ‘90’s, I read “Wired” as if it was the publication of record for the digital generation.  And I’ll still maintain that before they sold out, they made thinking more popular than any other mass-market book. And in one of their sidebars, they printed an opinion piece by a fellow, who I didn’t

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128490124282909772005-10-04T22:28:00.000-07:002005-10-04T22:28:44.303-07:00

I learned one of the keystones of my philosophy from a dog.  I was visiting a friend who had trained his dog (a Lab if I remember correctly) not to go into his kitchen.  We were visiting for several days, and the dog was very good about staying where he belonged.  The dog knew that humans could go into the kitchen, but dogs must stay outside.  Another friend came by with his dog, and they both

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128404935276890162005-10-03T22:48:00.000-07:002005-10-03T22:48:55.303-07:00

I’ve often said that George W Bush is the worst POTUS since Warren G Harding.  Here then is the full list going from best to worst:FDR laid the foundation for the success of Western democracy in the latter half of the twentieth century. His masterwork of balancing democratic freedom with economic justice has proven to withstand the test of time and has led to one of the longest continual runs of

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128323629520263572005-10-03T00:13:00.000-07:002005-10-03T00:13:49.530-07:00

Another gray day around the scatter …At times like these (when the 9ers lose horribly to a mediocre team), I have to ask myself why a supposedly intelligent man would let himself get affected by something as remote from my own existence.  Even though New Orleans may be geographically remote, there is a human connection that explains why one might be depressed to see such suffering as that caused

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128191876874262442005-10-01T11:37:00.000-07:002005-10-01T11:37:56.880-07:00

A little while I talked to a woman who said she thought Yusuf Islam (Cat Stevens) was a “traitor”.  I was surprised because – 1) she is an atheist for all she thinks about religion.2) she is a Democrat.What does she think Yusuf is betraying?  And if someone closer to the left than the right would say this in an unguarded moment, what would Pat Robertson say? I believe that Yusuf’s conversion from

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128114238497966662005-09-30T14:03:00.000-07:002005-09-30T14:03:58.526-07:00

Recently, the Schwarzinator vetoed legislation that would have changed the legal definition of marriage in California.  He said he did it to reflect the will of the people who voted against gay marriage in a previous statewide referendum. I don’t blame him for doing that; however, he can no longer take the high road when it comes to human rights. When the majority is wrong on an issue, it takes a

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1128049386233794572005-09-29T20:03:00.000-07:002005-09-29T20:03:06.263-07:00

Recently, Tom Delay was indicted on charges that may or may not stick. At the same time, numerous top-level officials in the Bush administration have been shown to be grossly underqualified or perhaps worse, eminently qualified to destroy the very organizations they lead.  A single Google can show an embarrassingly large number of situations where this gaggle of buffoons has actually changed the

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127970238325026442005-09-28T22:03:00.000-07:002005-09-28T22:03:58.803-07:00

Lighter fare today …I had an MRI scan today – hopefully nothing serious! – and it brought to mind an interesting little marketing foible.  I was involved as an OEM provider to some of the first companies that built Magnetic Resonance Imaging systems. However, at the time, they were talking about Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Imaging.  What happened as the products were actually released into the

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127851744695301652005-09-27T13:09:00.000-07:002005-09-27T13:09:08.646-07:00

Yesterday, I proposed that the mind is like a muscle, that it gets stronger with use, and that it can be made more flexible with mental gymnastics.  But, in some ways, the mind is different than our body. I certainly don’t know all the ways, but the difference I’d like to consider today is the way our minds are influenced by neighboring minds.  If a number of people all pull together to hoist a

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127758590537715292005-09-26T11:16:00.000-07:002005-09-26T11:16:32.813-07:00

Materials Science teaches us that materials subject to stress (for example, metals that are bent) deform in one of two ways:  they can deform reversibly or they can break.  Reversible deformation is merely bending in such a way that they can be bent back to the original shape.  If materials are subject to repeated reversible deformation, they will fatigue (wear out).  However,  living organisms

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127721352587152442005-09-26T00:55:00.000-07:002005-09-26T00:55:52.636-07:00

When I use a capitalized word, such as “Reason”, I mean that I’m using it in my own sense, rather than in the sense it may be used generally.  Any good programmer will tell you that you have to define your terms precisely. I’m not doing this to be obscure, just refining the common definition so that my wanderings are more consistent.  Here are some of “my” terms.Reason -  logic applied to human

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127631375828556342005-09-24T23:56:00.000-07:002005-09-24T23:56:15.916-07:00

Got a cold today, but … must post, must keep to my discipline. I remember reading Stanton Delaplane in the SF Chronicle (the late author famous for bringing Irish Coffee to America)  He was ostensibly a travel writer, but all I remember of his columns were the ones he wrote when he wasn’t traveling. He must not have traveled much towards the end of his life because every day when I read him in

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127537810242883942005-09-23T21:56:00.000-07:002005-09-23T21:56:50.280-07:00

There’s a new show on TV called the “Ghost Whisperer”;  some years ago there was a movie called the “Horse Whisperer”. I’m not familiar with the usage, and I haven’t seen the shows, but I assume it means that the stars hear something that other people can’t. If they are going to make a show about it, then it must be a good thing.  In our search for Reason, what are we to make of this?First of all

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127419775912974352005-09-22T13:09:00.000-07:002005-09-22T13:11:11.226-07:00

The US has had a dearth of positive options in Iraq. Ever since we put foot in the quagmire, all of our choices seem to be lose-lose. Here’s a modest proposal for a win-win proposition.We put the Coalition presence in Iraq up for a referendum. If the Iraqi people decide that we’re not helping them, we agree to get out completely in 30 days. If they vote we stay, we stay, with the acknowledged

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127327712468839972005-09-21T10:34:00.000-07:002005-09-21T11:38:53.853-07:00

George W Bush and his cronies do not follow conservative policies, despite the way they may label themselves. The dictionary and I agree that conservative means "tending to oppose change", "cautious". So, in my mind, a conservative is someone like your dad, telling you to buckle your seatbelt, stock up on canned goods in case of earthquake, and above all, listen to your mother.In the years

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16956129.post-1127279619303236342005-09-20T22:06:00.000-07:002005-09-20T22:31:48.010-07:00

Like all programmers, I'll start learning this new language, the language of the blog, by writing "Hello World". I am an amateur historian who sees America's current polarity as our modern expression of the centuries old conflict between Reason and Faith.I will be taking the side of Reason and presenting my views on the issues of the day. However, being on the side of Reason doesn't completely

Mr Bhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12666669714778139169noreply@blogger.com0