A broken clock is correct twice a day, so the adage goes. I think I’m correct at least as often, possibly, hopefully, more. The other day I had an epiphany, of sorts, and shared it on Facebook. It went as follows: A person is mostly ignorant. People are ignorance compounded. Government is evidence of people’s hubris.
Tag: evidence
Funding Higher Education Debate: My Opening Statement
Why should higher education receive government support? There are two main arguments. The first is the economic argument. Government support is allegedly economically beneficial not merely for individual students, but for society as a whole. The second is the humanistic argument. Economic effects aside, government support is vital for the promotion of intrinsically valuable ideas, culture, and values.
Hypocritical Posturing Gets Old
The “progressive” Trump haters want you to believe they are the sensible ones, while in their minds, the “yokels” who voted for Trump, many of whom still support him, are “ignorant rubes.” This is their mantra, to be chanted until they get what they want.
Gina Haspel: Torturers Should be Punished, not Promoted
Gina Haspel doesn’t belong at the head of the CIA. She doesn’t belong in the CIA at all. Nor does she belong in any other position of government authority. Gina Haspel belongs in prison.
Explanation and Truth
Truth that is covered by many layers of explanation is useful, but the truth may be that the explanations are false. A thing which has no explanation may, nevertheless, be true. Only explanations that can be tested, that clearly show their underlying truth, that do not have confounding associations and byproducts can be connected directly to the truth.
Love and Assertiveness
Love and Assertiveness are two sides of the same coin; one necessitates and depends on the other. Loving yourself requires asserting your rights to liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Loving a partner requires assertiveness in creating and protecting an environment of honesty and communication. Loving a child requires asserting certain boundaries or limits around their behavior.
Rationally Speaking
The most important question in a debate is not “What’s the evidence for your point of view?” It’s “Why should anyone care to discuss the evidence for your point of view?” In any debate, the first type of evidence to demand is the kind that proves the debate is actually worth your time.
Just When You Thought “Russiagate” Couldn’t Get Any Sillier
April 20 is cannabis culture’s high holiday, and the Democratic National Committee celebrated it with fervor this year: Blaze up, get silly, file a bizarre lawsuit accusing the Russian government, Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and transparency activist group WikiLeaks of conspiring to steal an election.
The Essence of the Ruling Class
If you have government, you have a ruling class, by definition. No, I’m not talking about governance, the sort we see in managing property, a business, a charity, or any other private organization. A ruling class are those who calls themselves “government” or “the state”, or in some times and places “the church”, the organization(s) in society whose sole purpose of existing is to make and enforce rules, the first of which involve the generation of “revenue”. While that’s what the ruling class does, that’s not what the ruling class is. Here is the essence of what the ruling class is.
Guilty Statists?
How much guilt does the “average statist” have for their beliefs, and how much slack should we cut them? I’ve been having an interesting discussion with Jim Henshaw, the former Chair of the Hawaiian LP, recently of regions closer. He says I “come across as a bit unforgiving at times“. And, I can see that. I’m pretty sure this has caused me to lose followers and financial supporters. So, I asked his advice.