The twelve wackiest moments in Super Bowl history, according to Fox Sports. Disturbingly, many of them have nothing whatsoever to do with the game - the Janet Jackson "wardrobe malfunction," for example, comes in at #2.

But Green Bay did make the list:

#4. Max McGee: The hangover

After catching just four passes all season, Green Bay Packers receiver Max McGee figured he had the green light the night before the first Super Bowl.

He knew the Packers had a one-check system at curfew. After attendance was taken, he headed out on the town.

'I met some blonde the night before, and I was on my way to pay my respects,' McGee told teammate Jerry Kramer, who later wrote about the incident. 'I didn't feel I was letting the team down any, because I knew there wasn't a chance in hell I'd play. I waddled in about 7:30 in the morning, and I could barely stand up for the kickoff.'

But Packers star Boyd Dowler got hurt, so McGee was pressed into action.

'I almost fainted,' McGee said.

He somehow made a one-handed catch that was this game's first highlight-reel play. Overall, he caught seven passes for 137 yards and two touchdowns."

Just Might Be a Redneck



The picture doesn't show the limo in back that is up on cinder blocks.

(H.T. Wicked Thoughts.)

Scientific Jargon and Technical Vernacular for Dummies

Dr. John Ray translates 'science-ese' to vulgar English:

Phrase......................................... Translation

It has been long known............... I haven't bothered to check the references

It is known.................................... I believe

It is believed................................. I think

It is generally believed...................My colleagues and I think

There has been some discussion... Nobody agrees with me

It can be shown........................... Take my word for it

It is proven................................... It agrees with something mathematical

Of great theoretical importance...... I find it interesting

Of great practical importance........ This justifies my employment

Of great historical importance....... This ought to make me famous

Some samples were chosen for study... The others didn't make sense

Typical results are shown............ The best results are shown

Correct within order of magnitude.... Wrong

The values were obtained empirically. The values were obtained by accident

The results are inconclusive......... The results seem to disprove my hypothesis

Additional work is required.......... Someone else can work out the details

It might be argued that.............. I have a good answer to this objection

The investigations proved rewarding.. My grant has been renewed

From a Single Ovum






One of the above is George Clooney the other is Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal. I'm not sure which is which.

(H.T.Charlottesvillain on Tigerhawk.)

Wow.

Thousands apply for jobs at new Wal-Mart:

Eighteen months after the Chicago City Council torpedoed a South Side Wal-Mart, 24,500 Chicagoans applied for 325 jobs at a Wal-Mart opening Friday in south suburban Evergreen Park, one block outside the city limits.

The new Wal-Mart at 2500 W. 95th is one block west of Western Avenue, the city boundary.

Of 25,000 job applicants, all but 500 listed Chicago addresses, said John Bisio, regional manager of public affairs for Wal-Mart.

'In our typical hiring process, you're pretty successful if you have 3,000 applicants,' he said. 'They were really crowing about 11,000 in Oakland, Calif., last year. So to get 25,000-plus applications and counting, I think is astonishing.'

Guess Chicago showed them.

Well that's interesting. New Stossel column about school choice.

Townhall.com :: Columns :: Trapped in the wrong government school by John Stossel - Jan 25, 2006:

Why can't she choose her child's school? Most countries that beat America on international tests give their students that choice. In Belgium, the government spends less than American schools do on each student, but the money is attached to the kids. So they can go wherever they want -- to a state-run school, a Montessori school, or even a religious school.

Valuable Support from Those Close to You

Chuck Wepner, a heavyweight boxing title contender in the mid-1970's, offers some insight into his 1975 title fight with Muhammad Ali.

Before the fight he gave his wife a sexy negligee and told her, "Put this on tonight. You'll be sleeping with the heavyweight champion of the world."

She gushed with a twinkle in her eye, "Wonderful! Is Ali coming here or am I going to his house?"

Upon moving to a neutral corner after knocking Ali down in the ninth round, Wepner heard his cornerman say, "He's gettin' back up and he sure looks mad!"

The fight was stopped in the 15th round; declared a TKO victory for Ali in a successful title defense.

Chuck Wepner trivia: He is the only boxer ever to knock down the Champion Ali.

Respect the Experience of Your Elders

It has been said, "That which one generation does in moderation, the succeeding generation will often do in excess."

Monty Python's Flying Circus - "Four Yorkshiremen" [ from the album Live At Drury Lane, 1974 ]

#1-Michael Palin, #2-Graham Chapman, #3-Terry Jones, #4-Eric Idle

Four well-dressed men are sitting together at a vacation resort. 'Farewell to Thee' is played in the background on Hawaiian guitar.

#1: Aye, very passable, that, very passable bit of risotto.

#2: Nothing like a good glass of Château de Chasselas, eh, Josiah?

#3: You're right there, Obadiah.

#4: Who'd have thought thirty year ago we'd all be sittin' here drinking Château de Chasselas, eh?

#1: In them days we was glad to have the price of a cup o' tea.

#2: A cup o' cold tea.

#4: Without milk or sugar.

#3: Or tea.

#1: In a cracked cup, an' all.

#4: Oh, we never had a cup. We used to have to drink out of a rolled up newspaper.

#2: The best we could manage was to suck on a piece of damp cloth.

#3: But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were poor.

#1: Because we were poor. My old Dad used to say to me, "Money doesn't buy you happiness, son".

#4: Aye, 'e was right.

#1: Aye, 'e was.

#4: I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.

#2: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

#3: Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!

#1: Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh.

#4: Well, when I say 'house' it was only a hole in the ground covered by a sheet of tarpaulin, but it was a house to us.

#2: We were evicted from our 'ole in the ground; we 'ad to go and live in a lake.

#3: You were lucky to have a lake! There were a hundred and fifty of us living in t' shoebox in t' middle o' road.

#1: Cardboard box?

#3: Aye.

#1: You were lucky. We lived for three months in a paper bag in a septic tank. We used to have to get up at six in the morning, clean the paper bag, eat a crust of stale bread, go to work down t' mill, fourteen hours a day, week-in week-out, for sixpence a week, and when we got home our Dad would thrash us to sleep wi' his belt.

# 2: Luxury. We used to have to get out of the lake at six o'clock in the morning, clean the lake, eat a handful of 'ot gravel, work twenty hour day at mill for tuppence a month, come home, and Dad would thrash us to sleep with a broken bottle, if we were lucky!

#3: Well, of course, we had it tough. We used to 'ave to get up out of shoebox at twelve o'clock at night and lick road clean wit' tongue. We had two bits of cold gravel, worked twenty-four hours a day at mill for sixpence every four years, and when we got home our Dad would slice us in two wit' bread knife.

#4: Right. I had to get up in the morning at ten o'clock at night half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours a day down mill, and pay mill owner for permission to come to work, and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah.

#1: And you try and tell the young people of today that ..... they won't believe you.

ALL: They won't!

This 30 year old exhibition of victimology may perhaps have been brought to full flower in Britain, but I'm sure that it has not even taken root here in the U.S. (Except that Todd and Lance haven't listened to or believed in stories of the life lessons and hardships experienced by the older, wiser, and more mature generation of their father and uncle.)

(H.T. The Assistant Villiage Idiot.)

Tsunami!

I didn't know that the Badger Blog Alliance held any meetings in London.

From the minutes of their meeting:

"...the metal hoops that held the big vat together snapped and beer exploded in every direction, causing all the other vats in the building to rupture. A total of 8,500 barrels (1,224,000 liters) of beer smashed through the brick wall of the building and out into the crowded slum area of St. Giles. The sea of beer ran through the streets, flooded basements, and demolished two homes."...

(H.T. Pat Santy in her 'Carnival of the Insanities'.)

Fear of Retaliation

Since French President Jacques Chirac intimated nuclear retaliation against state sponsored terrorism harming French interests, I expect Lance Burri will more carefully choose his words when speaking of the French.

Todd apparently picked up on this threat long ago, and the older, wiser Grandpa John has gone into hiding altogether. (I heard from a couple of reliable sources that he bought Maxwell Smart's 'Cone of Silence' on e-bay and speaks only within its confines.)

"You Can't Handle the Truth!"

Gagdad Bob tweaks an old adage:

Ustabe,
"Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf":

Now enlightened,
"Evil people sleep peaceably in their beds at night because tenured wackademics and left-wing media sheep stand ready to make excuses on their behalf."

I Had No Shoes and I Complained, Until I Met a Man Who Had No Feet

Here are a few excerpts written in a long piece by Bruce Bawer entitled 'Hating America'.

"I moved from the U.S. to Europe in 1998, and I’ve been drawing comparisons ever since. Living in turn in the Netherlands, where kids come out of high school able to speak four languages, where gay marriage is a non-issue, and where book-buying levels are the world’s highest, and in Norway, where a staggering percentage of people read three newspapers a day and where respect for learning is reflected even in Oslo place names (“Professor Aschehoug Square”; “Professor Birkeland Road”), I was tempted at one point to write a book lamenting Americans’ anti-intellectualism—their indifference to foreign languages, ignorance of history, indifference to academic achievement, susceptibility to vulgar religion and trash TV, and so forth. On point after point, I would argue, Europe had us beat."

"Yet as my weeks in the Old World stretched into months and then years, my perceptions shifted."...

..."No, Europeans weren’t Bible-thumpers—but the Continent’s ever-growing Muslim population, I had come to realize, represented even more of a threat to pluralist democracy than fundamentalist Christians did in the U.S."...

..."This experience was only part of a larger process of edification. Living in Europe, I gradually came to appreciate American virtues I’d always taken for granted, or even disdained—among them a lack of self-seriousness, a grasp of irony and self-deprecating humor, a friendly informality with strangers, an unashamed curiosity, an openness to new experience, an innate optimism, a willingness to think for oneself and speak one’s mind and question the accepted way of doing things. (One reason why Europeans view Americans as ignorant is that when we don’t know something, we’re more likely to admit it freely and ask questions.) While Americans, I saw, cherished liberty, Europeans tended to take it for granted or dismiss it as a naïve or cynical, and somehow vaguely embarrassing, American fiction. I found myself toting up words that begin with i: individuality, imagination, initiative, inventiveness, independence of mind. Americans, it seemed to me, were more likely to think for themselves and trust their own judgments, and less easily cowed by authorities or bossed around by “experts”; they believed in their own ability to make things better. No wonder so many smart, ambitious young Europeans look for inspiration to the United States, which has a dynamism their own countries lack, and which communicates the idea that life can be an adventure and that there’s important, exciting work to be done. Reagan-style “morning in America” clichés may make some of us wince, but they reflect something genuine and valuable in the American air. Europeans may or may not have more of a “sense of history” than Americans do (in fact, in a recent study comparing students’ historical knowledge, the results were pretty much a draw), but America has something else that matters—a belief in the future."...

..."Which brings us to the thesis of this compact [Robert Kagan, Of Paradise and Power], meticulously argued work: that the “paradise” of peace and prosperity Europe now enjoys is made possible, quite simply, by American power. Provided with “security from outside,” Europe requires no power of its own; yet protected “under the umbrella of American power,” it’s able to delude itself that power is “no longer important” and “that American military power, and the ‘strategic culture’ that has created and sustained it, is outmoded and dangerous.”"...

..."Europeans mock American religiosity. But American religion, for all its attendant idiocies and cruelties, has never prevented Americans from acting pragmatically. Secular Western European intellectuals, however, have their own version of religion. It is a social-democratic religion that deifies international organizations such as the Red Cross, Amnesty International, and, above all, the U.N. Not NATO, which is about waging war, and which has for that reason been the target of much European criticism in recent years; no, the NGOs are about waging peace, love, brotherhood, and solidarity, and, as such, are, for the elites of Western Europe, beyond criticism, for they embody Western Europe’s most cherished idea of itself and of the way the world works, or should work. The elites’ enthusiasm for these institutions, whether or not they are genuinely effective or even admirable, is a matter of maintaining a certain self-image and illusion of the world that is intimately tied up with their identity as social democrats; America’s unforgivable offense, as Kagan notes, is that it challenges that image and that illusion; and the degree to which the reality of America is distorted in the Western European media is a measure of the desperate need among Western European elites to preserve that self-image and illusion. It sometimes seems to me a miracle, frankly, that America has any friends at all in some parts of Western Europe, given the news media’s relentless anti-Americanism. There is no question that the chief obstacle to improved understanding and harmony between the U.S. and Western Europe is the Western European media establishment. It is an obstacle that must somehow be overcome, for Western civilization is under siege, and America and Europe need each other, perhaps more than ever. More sane, sensible European books along the lines of Revel’s L’obsession anti-américaine and Bromark and Herbjørnsrud’s Frykten for Amerika can help."

In a similar vein, Jeff of Beautiful Atrocities argues that current multicultural PC in Britain is inviting a death sentence from REAL homophobes.

"George Bernard Shaw, that pacifist flaneur, said if the Nazis landed, he'd welcome them as tourists. New flash, sisters: the tourists are already in the house. Under Shariah, you'll really be giving head, & not in a good way. Then you'll be clicking your Giorgio Brutini heels together for asylum in Kansas, but we have enough problems without a bunch of grievance queens & speech monitors. Besides, you'd really hate our First Amendment; it doesn't go well with yellow."

Discuss.

(Mark Steyn says that Jeff's line, "Under Shariah, you'll really be giving head, & not in a good way.', deserves a Pulitzer.)

Out of the Closet?

Keith Burgess-Jackson speaks 'Ahh-noldese' with a modicum of sophistication.

"Somebody needs to say it, so I will. The Republican Party is the masculine party and the Democrat Party is the feminine party. “Masculine” doesn’t mean male, although it’s correlated with maleness; there can be, and are, mannish females. Nor does “feminine” mean female, although it’s correlated with femaleness; there can be, and are, womanish males. Masculinity and femininity are ways of being, thinking, and feeling. Republicans think and feel like men. Democrats think and feel like women. Republican policies are manly. Democrat policies are womanly. This is not to disparage either party, only to describe their difference."

'Girlie-men'!

I'd recommend reading the rest of the post written by this tenured professor.

I'm beginning to question my sexuality. I don't find Teddy Kennedy the least bit attractive.

Home Improvement

The Anchoress posted a good joke today.

A newlywed couple wanted to join a church. The pastor told them, “We have special requirements for new parishioners. You must abstain from sex for one whole month.”

The couple agreed and, after two-and-a-half weeks, returned to the Church. When the Pastor ushers them into his office, the wife is crying, and the husband is obviously very depressed.

“You are back so soon…Is there a problem?” the pastor inquired.

“We are terribly ashamed to admit that we did not manage to abstain from sex for the required month,” the young man replied sadly.

The pastor asked him what happened. “Well, the first week was difficult. However, we managed to abstain through sheer willpower. The second week was terrible, but with the use of prayer,we managed to abstain. However,the third week was unbearable. We tried cold showers, prayer, reading from the Bible…anything to keep our minds off carnal.

“And?” wondered the pastor.

“Well…one afternoon, my wife reached for a can of paint and dropped it. When she bent over to pick it up, I was overcome with lust and had my way with her right then and there,” admitted the man, shamefacedly.

“You understand this means you will not be welcome in our church,” stated the pastor.

“We know.” said the young man, hanging his head, “We’re not welcome at Home Depot, anymore,either.”

Dr. Santy Remembers Reagan

Dr. Pat Santy relates one of the saddest days of her life.

"I vividly recall the day I met President Reagan almost exactly 20 years ago. It was one of the saddest days of my life. I was at the Johnson Space Center memorial service for the Challenger astronauts on the Friday after the Challenger accident. The President had come to JSC to honor the fallen crew and to heal the nation."

"As the crew surgeon for that mission, I accompanied the families of the crew to a private meeting with President and Mrs. Reagan before he spoke to the large crowd of employees and officials. I felt a little out of place at this private meeting, so I tried to stay off to the side as, one by one, Reagan greeted all the immediate family members and talked with them."

"Much to my surprise, after he visited with them for a while, he walked over to where I was standing. Apparently he had asked who I was, because he addressed me as "Doctor" and held out his hand, saying, "It must be especially hard for you today to have lost those who looked up to you as their doctor and who put their trust in you." He said it very quietly and his sincerity and genuine concern for what I was experiencing resulted in bringing tears to my eyes. Until that moment, I had managed to keep it all together and not show my feelings in public."

"The next thing I knew, the President of the United States had put his hand on my shoulder and was comforting me; telling me that he understood my loss and that he knew I had been trying to be strong and take care of all the family members of the crew; but that he could see I was suffering too."

An inspirational treasure found in the midst of sadness and hardship.

Booty or Loot... You Decide

The Golden Globe Awards have been given out. 'Brokeback Mountain' garnered four, 'Capote' got one, 'Transamerica' was given one, 'Syriana' took one, and 'Narnia' received none. It doesn't take an aluminum foil pyramid on one's head to predict the criticism that followed. I'm beginning to believe that the Hollywood elite are politically left of center.

In the real world, however, 'Narnia' did bring home some gold that the others did not. According to Box Office Mojo.com, 'Brokeback Mountain' cost $14 million to produce and grossed $33 million in the U.S. and $35 million internationally since its opening on December 9th. 'Narnia', on the other hand, cost a whopping $180 million to produce, but grossed $265 million in the States and $586 million world-wide since it opened on the same day. $406 million over production costs is at least some consolation for that humiliating showing at 'The Globes'.

The moral of the story: Cowboys coming out of the closet get the booty, children going into the closet get the loot. (Or in case Rob drops by... 'Brokeback Mountain' proves to be a slippery slope... 'Brokeback 2' will be about a Wyoming cowboy with his horse in a cozy, nicely decorated line shack.)

(H.T. Becky Perry of World Magazine Blog.)

The Authors of the Alito Hearing Questions

Wicked Thoughts revives some old 'profundities' as demonstrated by the athlete.

Football commentator and former player Joe Theismann, 1996: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein."

Senior basketball player at the University of Pittsburgh : "I'm going to graduate on time, no matter how long it takes."

Chuck Nevitt, North Carolina State basketball player, explaining to Coach Jim Valvano why he appeared nervous at practice: "My sister's expecting a baby, and I don't know if I'm going to be an uncle or an aunt."

Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: "I told him, 'Son, what is it with you? Is it ignorance or apathy?' He said, "Coach, I don't know and I don't care."

Amarillo High School and Oiler coach Bum Phillips when asked by Bob Costas why he takes his wife on all the road trips, Phillips responded: "Because she is too ugly to kiss good-bye."

I had coached girls basketball for over 10 years and can remember a couple of gems as well. Once during a timeout late in a game, I was outlining a strategy for our next offensive scheme. One of the new players then asked, "Offense... that's when we have the ball, right?"

Just before leaving for a game with our crosstown rivals, one player asked me if our team should 'put on our costumes now or wait 'til we get to the gym?'

Separation of Science and State

David S. Oderberg, Ph.D., in The San Francisco Chronicle expresses concern over the state of scientists doing 'science' in the modern world.

"In our secular, post-religious society, the figure of the cassock-clad priest has been replaced by that of the white-coated scientist. Dispensing wisdom from the laboratory -- the secular sanctuary -- his every word is awaited breathlessly by a world thirsting for knowledge."...

..."It's all very well having secular shamans, but when they're caught cooking the holy books once too often, the faithful start to get worried. Scientific fraud, like that perpetrated by South Korean stem-cell researcher Hwang Woo Suk, is not new. Newton did it; Dalton did it; even Sigmund Freud did it. In more recent times, IQ researcher Sir Cyril Burt (wanting to show in his studies of twins than genetics trumped environment) committed fraud, as did Australian gynecologist William McBride (he of thalidomide fame)."...

..."Some scientists fudge data; others omit inconvenient evidence; yet others misrepresent the evidence they do have, obtaining levels of precision discordant with what may reasonably be expected from frequently messy experimentation with its many variables. Some scientists do all of this and more. How rare cheating is in science is hard to answer."...

..."In her recent op-ed piece for the Los Angeles Times, Professor Laurie Zoloth, wringing her hands in anguish, appealed to the spirit of Immanuel Kant in her plea for a "truthful narrative" from scientists. Yet she should realize that Kant himself thought we could never know how things really were, and that for humans truth lay, to put it crudely, "in the head." If calling up the ghost of a skeptic (albeit a subtle one) such as Kant -- one of the fathers of that tarnished project called the Enlightenment -- is the best we can hope for, what chance is there that scientists will forget their prizes and the mammoth paychecks dangled in front of their eyes?"

"It may be inviting poison e-mails to say it, but I venture to suggest that contemporary science is now so corrupted by the lust for loot and glory that nothing less than root-and-branch reform can save it. For a start, although I distance myself wholly from his anti-rationalism and methodological anarchy, I share the late philosopher of science Paul Feyerabend's demand for a separation of science and state, or at the very least a radical curtailment of public financial sponsorship of scientific research. How could the millions thrown at scientists be anything other than a veritable inducement to misconduct? When you combine it with the innumerable honors and awards that await the next would-be secular savior of humanity, one wonders that fraud is not even more common than it appears to be."...

..."It would be an act of utter folly and of contempt for honesty and integrity were Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's beloved California Institute for Regenerative Medicine now to go ahead. Were a bishop to be caught doctoring the Gospels, I doubt any scientists would be rushing to approve the Church's latest request for help to build a new cathedral. Why it should be any different for the secular bishops of science is difficult to discern."

Science is a valuable tool, but humans will be humans. The utopian promises that science proclaimed in the early and mid 20th Century have failed to materialize. (I can remember studying the sociological problems that would be caused by the overabundance of leisure time produced by science and technology through its miraculous problem solving abilities.) The pressures to 'publish or perish', and the competition for reputation and research dollars have given venue for much demonstration of the shady side of human nature.

Science is a valuable tool, but not a god, and scientists make poor priests. Science can be used to improve the external environment, but not to improve the internal aspects of human nature.

Ideologues often wield it in inappropriate ways in attempt to assert their influence and power over society. The result has been a that culture loses its depth and weakens. The situation may be reversable, but not by science or scientists. The first step is to recognize the finite nature of science and not revere its fallible proclamations as the word of god.

There's Science, and Then There's the Real World, Part 1

In World Magazine's Interview: Endangered species, Marvin Olasky interviews Dr. Charley Dewberry, a highly experienced field researcher, who asserts that science needs to be saved from itself.

Dewberry's research involves many years of examining problems of salmon restoration in the Pacific Northwest.

..."That may seem like a narrow topic, but Mr. Dewberry's analysis of salmon research shows why there's something fishy in much of science these days."...

..."He questions whether scientists who spend little time in the field really understand their subject."...

..."Salmon recovery in the Pacific Northwest is helping to define science and its role in culture nationally, not just regionally."...

..."The scientists looked to as the authorities—are they really skilled in making judgments regarding salmon recovery?"...

..."Most people selected for key roles in salmon recovery are scientists selected because of their publishing record in peer-reviewed journals. I don't believe that's a good basis for selection. A person's publishing record tells us little about his ability to make decisions. What should matter instead is a track record showing experience and a demonstrated ability to make good judgments."...

..."If science is viewed as a method that leads to more certain knowledge than other pursuits, then doing science is reduced to carefully following the method which has a mechanical nature; the mechanical method, not the scientist, ensures the outcome."...

..."Unfortunately, science can never be reduced to this mechanical process. Doing science is an art. It is a human endeavor that takes skill and genius as well as a little luck to be great. Skills are honed by experience."...

..."Furthermore, reviewers are doing much more than checking the experimental methods, data collection, and the appropriateness of the conclusions, and thus their beliefs and values enter into the process at many points."...

..."Who, then, wears the robes of authority concerning the truth of science?"

"Virtually everyone involved... assumes that the authority of science rests with the scientific community through the peer-review process. I find this curious and ironic."

"At the dawn of modern science, it was the Catholic Church that argued that the authority of science rested with the community of practitioners (theirs, of course). It was the Copernicans, especially Galileo, who argued that the authority of science and truth rested with the individual scientist. Moving the authority of science to the individual scientist was one of the key steps in the Copernican Revolution and the foundation of modern science. We have essentially come full circle. We just replaced one priesthood for another. We have returned to the model of authority of the medieval Catholic Church."...

..."What I find curious is why scientists are picked to respond to questions such as "What is science?" or "What is good science?" These are not scientific questions, and the methods of science are not useful nor appropriate for answering these questions. They are philosophical questions and fall within philosophy of science."

"The fact that scientists are virtually the only people asked to respond, and that they are more than willing to respond, is a symptom of a serious problem. As long as scientists believe that they are the final authorities and they continue to make pronouncements about subjects in which they have little background or experience, it does not bode well for science over the long run."

"As long as scientists really believe everyone else, including philosophers of science, possesses mere anecdotal knowledge and has no platform from which to speak, we will not have any reasoned discourse about Intelligent Design."

There's Science, and Then There's the Real World, Part 2

Madeleine Bunting, in a commentary in The Guardian, discusses an 'anti-religious polemic' television program by famed atheist and scientist Richard Dawkins. The writer may be pro-religious, but her commentary mainly critiques Dawkins' methods as indicated by her subtitle, 'Richard Dawkins's latest attack on religion is an intellectually lazy polemic not worthy of a great scientist'. She makes some very interesting comments.

..."By all means, let's have a serious debate about religious belief, one of the most complex and fascinating phenomena on the planet, but the suspicion is that it's not what this chorus wants. Behind unsubstantiated assertions, sweeping generalisations and random anecdotal evidence, there's the unmistakable whiff of panic; they fear religion is on the march again."...

..."There's an aggrieved frustration that they've been short-changed by history; we were supposed to be all atheist rationalists by now. Even more grating, what secularisation there has been is accompanied by the growth of weird irrationalities from crystals to ley lines. As GK Chesterton pointed out, the problem when people don't believe in God is not that they believe nothing, it is that they believe anything."

"There's an underlying anxiety that atheist humanism has failed. Over the 20th century, atheist political regimes racked up an appalling (and unmatched) record for violence. Atheist humanism hasn't generated a compelling popular narrative and ethic of what it is to be human and our place in the cosmos; where religion has retreated, the gap has been filled with consumerism, football, Strictly Come Dancing and a mindless absorption in passing desires. Not knowing how to answer the big questions of life, we shelve them - we certainly don't develop the awe towards and reverence for the natural world that Dawkins would want. So the atheist humanists have been betrayed by the irrational, credulous nature of human beings; a misanthropy is increasingly evident in Dawkins's anti-religious polemic and among his many admirers."...

..."He uses his authority as a scientist to claim certainty where he himself knows, all too well, that there is none; for example, our sense of morality cannot simply be explained as a product of our genetic struggle for evolutionary advantage."...

..."His conclusion is that no children should be exposed to religion until they are old enough to make a choice; anything else is indoctrination."...

..."That lack of empathy also lies behind Dawkins's reference to a "process of non-thinking called faith". For thousands of years, religious belief has been accompanied by thought and intellectual discovery, whether Islamic astronomy or the Renaissance."...

"...but at the same time, science has to concede that despite its huge advances it still cannot answer questions about the nature of the universe - such as whether we are freak chances of evolution in an indifferent cosmos (Dawkins does finally acknowledge this point in the programmes)."

"Dawkins seems to want to magic religion away."...

When ideologues press to impact culture under the authority of 'science' it demeans both science and culture. When they usurp and use the power of government, it becomes dangerous.

Applied Tolerance and Diversity

John Hawkins at Right Wing News compiled a sampling of salient comments on Kos concerning the emotion shown by Mrs. Alito during the Senate confirmation hearings. Here is a portion:

Pacified: and do we want a judge who would marry such a weak-willed b*tch?

tjb22: Poor woman...she probably teared up when she saw what a bigot she was married to...I'd cry, too. And come to think of it, if they made me wear those ugly republican clothes I'd probably get a little emotional, too.

fugue: This is the MOST blatant attempt to manipulate public emotion. She should go f*ck herself.

phoenixandrew: Mrs. Alito is the typical conservative woman. Martha-Ann Alito is an idiot and a moron. She'll REALLY have something to cry about if she doesn't grow up.

Buzzer: What a whiny little b*tch. I'm GLAD she was reduced to tears. These hyper-pampered Stepford wives have never endured anything more stressful than making it to Saks Fifth Avenue before it closes. If seeing her poor widdle hubby getting caught in an avalanche of lies about his not-exactly-concealed racism triggers the weeping-willow response, I'd venture to say Martha needs to get out a little more. Maybe visit a black neighborhood or two and get acquainted with a few strong women who DON'T burst into tears while DAILY dealing with hardships that Martha's fragile, feeble mind could not even conceive of. What a phony, fraudulent, sheltered twit.

Maine Atticus: WTF is she doing there, anyway! She should be home baking cookies and making more home-made clothes! Why do wives, or husbands for that matter have to hang around, looking like complete *sses at these hearings? Another stupid cow married to another Nazi motherf*cker. Cry, you cow. You moron. You sh*thead married to a man who would destroy this country! Cry? You ain't seen nothin' yet.

I'm not supposed to judge them, so they might be right.

(H.T. Max Jacobs.)

'Go Chug a Leinenkugels' Didn't Quite Make the Cut

Wicked Thoughts offers some insight into the origins of some commonly used phrases. One in particular caught my eye. The contributors on the Badger Blog Alliance would probably also be interested.

"Early politicians required feedback from the public to determine what was considered important to the people. Since there were no telephones, TV's or radios, the politicians sent their assistants to local taverns, pubs and bars who were told to "go sip some ale" and listen to people's conversations and political concerns. Many assistants were dispatched at different times. "You go sip here" and "You go sip there." The two words "go sip" were eventually combined when referring to the local opinion and thus, we have the term "gossip.""

Generalized View of 'The Metaphysics of Conservatism'

Edward Feser has written another dandy piece of chaw on which to ruminate, published in TSC Daily. He traces the roots of conservatism back from Aristotle, Plato, to the Middle Ages, and modern times. It's somewhat of a long article, but not nearly long enough. I have included only one paragraph from the body of the article and his concluding paragraph. I recommend that it be read in its entirety-- and more than once.

"...I have already described Realist Conservatism as committed to the existence of timeless and unchanging essences from which derives a natural law that applies to all human beings in all circumstances. Reductionist Conservatism, then, might be defined as a variety of conservatism that agrees with Realist Conservatism in affirming that there is such a thing as human nature and that it is more or less fixed, but which would ground this affirmation, not in anything like an eternal realm of Forms, but rather in, say, certain contingent facts about human biology, or perhaps in the laws of economics or in a theory of cultural evolution. The Reductionist Conservative is, accordingly, more likely to look to empirical science for inspiration than to philosophy or theology. He is also bound to see grey in at least some areas where the Realist Conservative sees black and white, since facts about economics, human biology, and the like, while very stable, are not quite as fixed or implacable as the Forms. But he is less likely to see grey than is the Anti-Realist Conservative, who might be characterized as someone doubtful that any relatively fixed moral or political principles can be read off even from scientific or economic facts about the human condition. Whereas Realist and Reductionist Conservatives value tradition because there is at least a presumption that it reflects human nature, the Anti-Realist Conservative values it merely because it provides for stability and order. The closest thing we have to an objective moral order, in the view of the Anti-Realist Conservative, are whatever principles happen to be embodied in the history and practice of a particular society. Since those principles can change, though, the conservative ought, in the view of the Anti-Realist, to be willing to change with them..."

"...My own view, for what it is worth, is that Realist Conservatism is true, and that this is the main reason to support it. But establishing that thesis is something that would require a book, and not just an (already overlong) essay. So let me end by citing another, and more practical, reason someone with truly conservative instincts ought to favor the Realist brand of conservatism over its rivals -- namely, that it isn’t clear that the other versions are really versions of conservatism at all, any more than nominalism or conceptualism are versions of realism. For the Anti-Realist Conservative, as I’ve said, does not really oppose liberal measures per se, but only their overhasty and excessively disruptive implementation. Historically, the pragmatists, politicians, and others who exemplify Anti-Realist Conservatism have merely served to consolidate the gains of liberalism -- hence Newt Gingrich’s famous dismissal of Bob Dole as the “tax collector for the welfare state”; hence Prof. Hart’s desire to put a Burkean imprimatur on Roe v. Wade. And Reductionist Conservatism, to the extent that it risks collapse into Anti-Realist Conservatism, seems threatened with the same unhappy fate. Moreover, even the best writing done by Reductionist Conservatives -- and some of it is very good indeed, and important -- seems too beholden to purely social-scientific categories, and light on serious engagement with fundamental philosophical or moral issues. The farther a conservative gets from the Realist inheritance, the more he talks in terms of “costs and benefits,” “trade offs” and the like -- and the more he thereby approximates the liberal technocrat and the “sophisters, economists, and calculators” so despised by Burke. Communists, it used to be said, are liberals in a hurry. Conservatives need to be wary lest their creed degenerate into something indistinguishable from a leisurely liberalism."

"You Were on the Indianapolis?"

The Assistant Villiage Idiot has an interesting take on the far Leftists' disjointed reality-to-rhetoric disconnects.

"Instead of saturation, I use the analogy of a movie soundtrack. To convey tension, a high, sustained note will be played. Important events are identified by a louder Da-DUHH!, traveling will be underscored by something rapid, light events by something melodic. The music supports the action, or even tells us what to think, much as a laugh track or drum roll has a specific cued meaning."

"Imagine if the soundtrack were wildly off, so that random events were pulsed underneath as important, and innocent conversations had this false tension injected into them by the violins. The movie would become difficult or impossible to understand. The meaning cues would compete against the actual words of the characters and pictures on the screen (Bergman would do this intentionally; Brecht may have started it on the stage). To achieve meaning from the film, one would have to ignore the scoring or impose tortured explanations on the script."

I keep hearing the musical theme of the movie, "Jaws".

The Good Old Days?

We are having exchanges in the comment sections here and here that are reminiscent of the early days on Grandpa John's.

Kabeer Gbaja Biamila to start in the Pro Bowl!

Um, well, sort of.

Am I the only one who still clicks over to Mister Pterodactyl?

He is still alive, I know. At least, he was on Christmas.

You Forgot to Dot an "I"-- In Triplicate

In an essay concerning FISA's 72 hour rule to obtain an emergency order to approve electronic surveillance, Pat Santy discusses the complexity of government rules, regulations, and paperwork and obtaining a timely, positive outcome.

"This was dramatically brought home to me as I was reading about the West Virginia mining tragedy yesterday. It is now known that the trapped miners were alive for at least 10 or more hours after the explosion that trapped them. Rescue workers did not get to them until 41 hours later. When asked to explain why it took so long, one official said that they were trying to follow the reams of state and federal government regulations about mine rescues which are in place to protect rescuers; and which prohibit going into the mine when it isn't completely safe."

I often argue against situational ethics, but that is in the areas of morality based activity. In the case of the mine tragedy, the situation called for actions by experienced, skilled miners, not the wisdom of OSHA bureaucrats. Perhaps the outcome would have not differed or even may have caused more injury or death, but we'll never know.

In much the same way, NSA surveillance that bypasses the FISA rules may save lives or may cause harm to someone's rights. The helpfulness or harmfulness of the 72 hours difference is something we may never know. The terrorist threat is certainly real and serious contravening measures are necessary.

A Stud Named Cindy

Just a short rib to all those who snorted at the idea when brought up during the gay marriage discussions. Rebellion against tradition and perversion 'rights' knows no limits.

I've Married a Dolphin

WACKY Sharon Tendler has married a DOLPHIN.

Clothes designer Sharon, 41, wore a white silk dress and a pink tiara for the potty ceremony in Eliat, Israel.

Her tame dolphin pal Cindy swam to the side of his enclosure accompanied by a shoal of pals.

Sharon, of Redbridge, East London, kissed Cindy and whispered “I love you” in his blow hole.

She said: “Cindy is 35 and I’ve been visiting him on holidays for 15 years. He’s lovely.”

She consecrated the marriage by diving into the water in her frock to give Cindy a hug.

Marxist Theory Takes a Hit

Arnold Kling assesses a study done by the World Bank, 'Where is the Wealth of Nations?', and draws some surprising conclusions.

...is a landmark event in this transformation of economic viewpoint. First, it adds to the growing body of evidence that institutional factors, such as property rights, play a significant role in economic development.

Moreover, the study comes from an organization that was founded on the opposite belief. The World Bank was created at the end of World War II in order to promote economic development by providing capital to poor countries. Given its history and raison d’être, the conversion of the World Bank to a belief in intangible factors as determinants of economic development would be equivalent to a fundamentalist religious group's endorsement of gay marriage...

...As social scientists, however, we have noticed that a large share of wealth comes from factors other than basic labor and capital. This phenomenon was first documented by Nobel Laureate Robert Solow, and came to be known as the Solow Residual. The term "residual" suggests something small, mysterious, and unexplained. But the Solow residual is not small -- it is several times larger in importance than the stock of physical capital.

Because the Solow Residual is too large to ignore, much recent research has focused on explaining it. The current consensus is that institutions matter. The rule of law is important. Clear property rights are important. On the negative side, protectionism, corruption, and barriers to entrepreneurship are important...

Why are we fortunate enough to have institutions that are conducive to growth, while other societies are stuck with dysfunctional institutions?...

...Tyler Cowen... He writes, "Imagine economics is no longer built around the dual of preferences and constraints. We would instead have the following starting points: ...beliefs ...peers ...stories..."

Here, I wish to focus on the role that beliefs play in determining economic institutions and performance. I claim that:

1. People behave differently based on what they believe.

2. People support different institutions and policies depending on what they believe.
3. Some patterns of beliefs are self-reinforcing.

4. People's beliefs tend to reflect the beliefs that they are exposed to in their immediate family and peer groups.

5. Because of the importance of peers and family, beliefs among a group can remain stable for a long time, and then rapidly evolve when a critical mass of people experience a change of mind.

Ironically, one of the most difficult beliefs to change is the belief that physical resources are the main causal factors in economics. From Karl Marx's Das Capital to Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel, the materialist belief captures people's imaginations. However, as the evidence for the intangible sources of wealth becomes more and more salient, our beliefs will adapt accordingly. When a book produced under the auspices of the World Bank challenges the materialist assumption, a broader change of beliefs may be imminent.

I don't believe that he is talking about the institution of federal government that is the final authority in all affairs, public and private.

This... a from a study by the World Bank. What's next, the United Nations acting responsibly?

PPD-- Pandemic Encephalic Avian Influenza

Gagdad Bob Godwin of One Cosmos tweeks the diagnostics of a mental disorder originated by John Moore. Godwin is a clinical psychologist.

DSM-IV 301.95 PROGRESSIVE PERSONALITY DISORDER, symptom excerpts:

1. Utopian thinking - A delusional belief that there exist simple, linear, side effect-free solutions to all social problems.

2. Anthroplastic ideation - The delusion that behavioral conditioning performed by the government or some other collective will cure all behavioral and social problems.

3. Anti-theistic rebellion - An emotional antagonism to the Judeo-Christian tradition, rooted in an abnormal persistence of adolescent rebellion (may also be related to the need to avoid counter-arguments that would question utopian, anthroplastic ideation).

4. Naturist delusion - The belief that mankind is evil and nature is benign.

5. Environmental spasm - Chaotic, unreasonable, or incoherent episodes of manic activity on behalf of the environment or "mother nature."

6. Control obsession - The tendency to strive for excessive control over others through government intrusion.

7. Racist/feminist hypocrisy - Passionate advocating of government-enforced discrimination based on sex or race, while aggressively proclaiming opposition to policies which are "racist" or "sexist."

8. Overemotional perception - Excessive concern with how a social action "looks" or "feels," to the exclusion of actual effects in the real world, in particular, any effects beyond the immediate.

9. Sexual dysfunction - Significant anxiety about sexual matters, manifested as:

--A. Obsession with sexual and gender roles.

--B. Passionate celebration of nontraditional sex roles and preferences.

--C. The compulsion to define individuals by their "sexual preference" and to design social policy as if all individuals share the obsession.

--D. An inordinate interest in preserving inappropriate, lewd, or antisocial forms of sexual expression.

--E. Fascination with immature or deviant expressions of sexuality; reduction of human sexuality to animal sexuality.

The faintest praise or even mention of George W. Bush brings these symptoms to a head like a zit ripe for a-poppin'. References to the Bible or Jesus Christ elicit a response of apoplectic proportions.

To this point clinicians have found no cure. Some sufferers have been known to escape its clutches spontaneously and it doesn't appear to have any genetic basis nor does it necessarily pass along generationally. There are also some signs that the pandemic is on the decline.

Sepsis In the Urine Stream

One of my favorite terms used regularly in a negative manner is 'mainstream'. One is often criticized by saying, "He is far outside the mainstream." We have been told nothing, but with great moral authority. But, on the other hand, it may say a lot... about the illogic of the speaker.

In my line of work, mainstream conjures up aspects of urine flow. In sampling urine for various testing procedures, one is required to obtain the 'clean' sample from the mid-mainstream to enable the testing procedures to be valid. I therefore generally assume that a speaker using the term is 'pissing on my leg and trying to tell me that it is raining'.

When 'mainstream' is used by a Liberal/Progressive/Leftist/Socialist/Communist family member it seems quite out of place. Those promoters and defenders of the avant-garde, the eccentric, and those otherwise pushing the envelope in changing traditional standards should actually celebrate anyone 'out of the mainstream'. Instead, it leaves the impression that they are constructing the facade of conservatism.

The critical use of this term also goes against the grain of one's upbringing. Who among us hasn't had a conversation similar to the following: "But, Mom, everybody is doing it!" "If everyone was jumping off a cliff, ..." So criticizing unmainstream-like behavior would be effective when used to garner young teenage sympathies, but as they mature and become their parents, it translates into 'everyone jumping off a cliff'. (Except, of course, to the avant-garde, the eccentric, and those despisers of American culture.)

So when Teddy Kennedy, et al., assert that President Bush is 'far outside of the mainstream', I assume they are saying that Bush isn't an eccentric urinater jumping off a cliff. It does, however, indicate that the speaker really has nothing rational to say and is pissing on himself and others as he stumbles around trying to find a cliff from which to jump.

Recycled Integrity

From the archives of The Yale Law Federalist Society: A 1990 N.O.W. poster concerning President George H.W. Bush's nomination of David Souter for the Supreme Court





Society of Women: You've fed the kitty...





Stop bluffing and bet your hand.

It's a sign from God!

When I first joined the Army, the recruiter handed me a thick green book - the Book of Common Tasks. These are the things every soldier is supposed to know.

He said: "Put this in your bathroom. Every time you use the bathroom,* read a task." So I did, and by the time I got to Basic I already knew most of the book.

Like a lot of churchgoing folk, I find it difficult to keep up with regular study of the Bible. So I decided to try the same tactic on my Bible reading that worked so well with Army reading. I bought two Bibles at the Dollar Store, and put them in our bathrooms.

I know what you're thinking. Reading the Bible? On the toilet?

Like God doesn't know what I'm doing, or something.

You can't make any jokes I haven't already heard from the guys at my church. In fact, they let me have it pretty good the first time I told them what I was doing.

And then, the next time I...um...sat down to...um...read, I opened up to Revelations, chapter 4. In particular, verse 2:

At once I was in the spirit, and there in heaven stood a throne, with one seated on the throne!

And that, my friends, is a sign from God.


*Not his exact words.

Oh, crap!

A Madison Progressive is
agreeing with me on the most important topic in Wisconsin!

Proposed Name Change for the Modern Democratic Party

As our culture and language evolve, it is often the case that terms no longer adequately denote that for which they were originally intended. In some cases the meaning of the word changes over time. One example of this is the word 'gay'. Its original meaning involved a joyful frivolity, but now it has changed to label a sexual orientation. At other times an aspect of culture changes rendering a word's (or phrase's) unchanged meaning irrelevant to its original, particular target. An excellent example of this is 'Democratic Party'. To most mature adults using this term conjures up thoughts of Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry Truman, or John F. Kennedy. A modern observer, however, could find little, if any, common relationship. The culture beneath the umbrella of the 'Democratic Party' has shifted so radically that the original term finds no place with its modern 'counterpart'.

I propose, therefore, that we allow the term 'Democratic Party' to continue to reference the political genre of J.F.K., et al., and update our present language with a phrase that would most consistently represent the party as we experience it today. I submit that we designate the party of Howard Dean, John Kerry, Al Gore, Teddy Kennedy, Dick Durban, Harry Reid, Michael Moore, Cindy Sheehan, et al., as the 'Euhirudinea Dipteric Party'.

I would like to parse the phrase, 'Euhirudinea Dipteric', to demonstrate how accurately its language portrays the realities of the modern party. First, Euhirudinea is pronounced 'You hear a Dean, eee-yah?' Very discriptive of the auditory environment produced by the modern progressives. Second, Euhirudinea is the name of the zoological family of leeches. Some parallel characteristics include: "They feed as blood sucking parasites and can ingest several times their own weight in blood at one meal. After feeding the leech retires to a dark spot. It tends to change position frequently, and explore by head movement and body waving. In response to disturbances by an approaching host, the leech will commence "inchworm crawling", continuing in a trial and error way until the anterior sucker touches the host and attaches. There may also be a delayed irritation and itching after a bite. But they are of great value to plastic surgeons. The most common enquiry regarding leeches concerns repellents. It is unknown whether a specific preparation is commercially available but there is a plethora of tried and tested, but unproven leech-protection ideas."

Next, Dipteric, a form of Diptera, "...that carries common names such as flies, gnats, maggots, midges, mosquitoes, keds, and bots. Flies are found everywhere and do just about everything. The economic importance of the group is immense. One need only consider the ability of flies to transmit diseases. Mosquitoes and black flies are responsible for more human suffering and death than any other group of organisms except for the transmitted pathogens and man! Flies also destroy our food, especially grains and fruits. There are more known flies than vertebrates."

Both Euhirudinea and Diptera are banes to the living. In addition, however, the Dipterans also provide the benefit of aiding in consumption of the corpses that they may have helped mortify with pestilence.

So, thus goes the summary of my pitch for changing the name of the Democratic Party to the Euhirudinea Dipteric Party: Truth in advertising.