Category Archives: Uncategorized

Conspirituality:

Conspirituality, …, was coined by researcher Charlotte Ward. She describes conspirituality as “a rapidly growing web movement expressing an ideology fueled by political disillusionment and the popularity of alternative worldviews.” There is no official indoctrination video, no book to read; the hundreds of thousands of people who embrace these New Age-like beliefs find them on YouTube vlogs like [Lorie] Ladd’s, as well as Instagram and Facebook. Recently, conspiritualists have begun to overlap with the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. [“Why some New Age influencers believe Trump is a ‘lightworker‘,” Nicole Karlis, Salon]

Yes, properly vague. The article inspires no confidence in members of the movement, either.

What else could it be? Minneapolis’ Bryant Lake Bow drone shot:

Back to this thread, Universal Basic Income had another small, limited but real-world experiment recently completed, with positive results:

Residents of Stockton, Calif., who received $500 a month from a first-of-its-kind guaranteed-income program were more likely to find full-time jobs, be happy and stay healthy, according to a year-long study published Wednesday.

Supporters of universal income programs — which provide regular, unconditional payments from the government to people — say the findings should dispel common criticisms of the idea, such as that money with no strings attached will become a disincentive for people to work or will encourage them to spend it on drugs and alcohol.

Recipients of the monthly payments were twice as likely to gain full-time employment than others, according to data analysis by a pair of independent researchers, Stacia West of the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Amy Castro Baker of the University of Pennsylvania. Most of the money distributed was spent on food or other essentials. Tobacco or alcohol made up less than 1 percent of tracked purchases. [WaPo]

Limited, yes – but encouraging, at least for the left. For conservatives, it’s a small, but potentially important, strike against the ideological pillar that people will waste what’s given to them.

This piece by Tim Miller is just the latest bit of evidence of the importance of experience:

But as he is poised to sign into law a massive, legacy-defining COVID relief package that will, among other things, fund the vaccine surge that will ensure every desiring adult will be jabbed by May, well ahead of the pace he inherited. I feel compelled to point out that we got here thanks to luck that Joe Biden made for himself, and for all of us.

In November of 2017 Joe Biden did an interview with Peter Hamby of Snapchat and Vanity Fairduring which he laid out what a campaign that he didn’t exactly want to run would be premised on. Hamby summed up the Biden message as one about how “a certain set of ideals tether us together as Americans, and that above all else, character counts.”

This was…not the prevailing view about the state of the country or the path to victory among the other Democratic candidates, strategists, or left wing pundits. Biden was derided for his obliviousness and naivete when he would bang on about bipartisanship. He was underestimated and in every interview I gave about the Democratic Primary his campaign was compared to my former boss, Jeb!

Yet, when he launched his campaign he was undeterred, calling the unity doubters out explicitly saying, “I know some of the smart folks say Democrats don’t want to hear about unity. The angrier a candidate can be, the better chance they have to win the nomination. I don’t believe it. I really don’t. I believe Democrats want to unify this nation.”

It turns out Biden was right and almost everyone else was wrong.

Since, well, just about the time Biden won the South Carolina primary, I’ve felt like I’m watching a professional running rings around the amateurs. Biden’s tactics for each goal he attains are not always obvious, but it’s clear that he’s at least two steps, and sometimes more, ahead of everyone else, from conservative critics to old Senate colleagues to possibly even his old friend, President Obama.

And, unlike Miller and his colleagues, I don’t think this is at all up to luck. I think this is experience and faith in the American character at work here. He’s nearly 80 years old, almost 60 years of public service, and that counts for more than something. That’s marinating in how the political struggle goes, whether working in a polite and even friendly manner with the “other side”, or dealing with political neophytes such as Hawley and Cruz – and I do mean they are neophytes, because those two, along with all the other politicos of their generation or younger, grew up in an environment where compromise with the other side, where actual governing, is no longer taught, at least by the Republican Party.

They are, in effect, cripples when it comes to actual governance. They know how to win a seat in Congress in the environment of five years ago, but they know nothing about the important responsibilities of being a Member of Congress. And when their next election comes up with an electorate who saw them associated with an Insurrection, failed as it was, will they even win reelection?

When Biden first threw his hat in the ring, I applauded, but expressed concerns about his age. With age can come experience, but can also come stultification, even petrification. President Biden appears to have managed to escape the latter two, while collecting the former.

The Republicans may be in for a rough, rough four years, as the smilin’, happy warrior, Joe Biden, teaches them what it really means to be American. Because they don’t seem to know about that.

And I think that’s what this guy sees:

Jeremiah Johnson, the self-described prophet who faced backlash from fellow evangelical Christians after publicly apologizing for prophesying former President Donald Trump would be reelected president, is ending Jeremiah Johnson Ministries. …

His new website outlines plans for a ministry called The Altar Global.

Instead of offering what Johnson called “prophetic commentary” on current events, The Altar Global will “help prepare the Bride of Christ for the return of our glorious Bridegroom King Jesus,” according to the website.

That includes a one-year intensive program called The Altar School of Ministry, based in Concord, North Carolina, where Johnson and others will train students “on the lifestyle of an end-time messenger and the return of the Lord.” It also includes local and national conferences, monthly Zoom calls with supporters and books and other resources. [RNS]

And if you think I went all that way just for the punnage, you just might be right.

If you’re not an avid fan of C-SPAN, the non-profit cable network that carries much of the public hearings and business of the Federal government, then you may not know about their potential big new attractions in the Senate.

Real filibusters.

“He made me filibuster this!” shouted a very young Jimmy Stewart.

Once upon a time, the Senate had real filibusters, which Hollywood dramatized in Mr. Smith Goes To Washington (1939). Politicians actually had to take the floor and declaim for hours on end, hoping the legislation they were delaying would lose support, either as a result of their arguments, or from sheer ennui. Meanwhile, if sixty or more Senators responded positively to a cloture motion, then the filibuster was ended and the voting began, no matter how the Senator felt about it.

Then, more than a few years back, the Senate adopted a new rule which stated that any Senator could notify whoever was running the Senate that day that they sufficiently hated a piece of legislation that they refused to let that legislation come to a vote unless, of course, a cloture motion voided their notification.

And all the effort went out of filibustering. It made it into a video game. And not only no effort, but the Senator didn’t even have to open their yap. Sit back, put their feet up on their desk, take a nap, secure in the knowledge that the legislation would never get its vote.

If my reader is unfamiliar with how the Senate has conducted itself in recent years, especially under GOP and sometime-Senate Majority leader Senator Mitch “No!” McConnell (R-KY), but suspects this could bring the Senate to a grinding halt, they’d be right. In the last twenty years, passing legislation in the Senate has required trickery (the “reconciliation process”, which is exempt from the rule and involves budgets and anything else that sneaks past the Parliamentarian) or the invocation of the Ghost of George Washington, and the latter is making less and less impression upon Republicans.

But now one of the Democrats who opposes changing the rules, Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV), is showing signs of changing his mind:

Sen. Joe Manchin said Sunday he is open to altering the Senate filibuster to make it more “painful” for the minority party to wield, while reiterating his opposition to ending the procedural hurdle altogether.

“The filibuster should be painful, it really should be painful and we’ve made it more comfortable over the years,” he said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Maybe it has to be more painful.”

Manchin (D-W.Va.) has previously supported efforts to require senators to filibuster by talking on the chamber floor in order to hold up a bill, an idea he raised on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“If you want to make it a little bit more painful, make him stand there and talk,” Manchin said. “I’m willing to look at any way we can, but I’m not willing to take away the involvement of the minority.”  [Politico]

While everyone is excited about what’s right in front of their nose, I’m wondering what sort of effects this will have beyond the obvious.

1. Retirements. Filibustering can take quite a toll on a physical body. A surprising five Republican Senators are already planning to retire in 2022. Will other older members, such as Senators Kennedy, McConnell, and Grassley, finding filibustering to be tougher than putting feet up on the desk and snoozing, decide that they can’t meet the new demand? And how about the older Democrats? Will we see some movement among them?
2. Campaigns. This could provide damaging material to competing candidates, not only in that a filibustering candidate can literally be seen to be dedicated to deep-sixing an important and popular piece of legislation – nothing like a visual to rile people up – but who knows what will come out of their mouth? I know when I get tired I’ll occasionally say something I regret. Is this going to become an important part of campaigning?

I must admit, I’m rather hoping that we return to the old form of filibustering, because Senators should be willing to put their political and personal lives on the line if they really dislike some piece of legislation.

And not merely because the legislation was proposed by the opposition.

The passing of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 by the US Senate over the weekend, and the probable passing of it by the House and subsequent signing by President Biden, brings to the fore the actions of Republicans in response to this bill.

In the House, it passed its initial test with no House Republican support; in the Senate, no Republican voted for it. It now returns to the House to approve the changes made by the Senate.

We can call the Republicans’ actions intransigence, provincialism, belief in their own propaganda, even fear, whether it be political or personal.

But, to me, this is a version of purity.

For Republicans, each of their actions are measured against a metric of faithfulness to the Republican creed, and that creed includes assertions of the evils of Democrats, of socialism, expertise; the importance of knowing that God is behind your every move so long as those moves are blessed by God – or, more importantly, its representatives on Earth, namely the leading, attention-hungry clerics. An important corollary of that last is the evil of compromise, as Barry Goldwater noted more than 50 years ago.

So motivations will be various, but I think will fall into the four categories above. And the result?

The base, as it slowly deflates from demographics and defections, may love it.

But everyone else is watching. We’re in the middle of a national crisis, and every single Republican dug in their heels and shrieked No!

So this is the Big Bet: Will the Biden plan work? The Republicans, whether Senator McConnell and Rep McCarthy, the Republican Congressional leaders, understand it or not, have harnessed their Party’s future not to a Republican horse, but to a Democratic horse. Rather than using their positions to try to get a Republican plan to work, they’ll be using their positions to attempt the opposite with the Democratic plan.

And, if they succeed, a lot of American citizens, voting citizens, will get hurt.

So even their big bet, if they win it, will be bitter wine.

But this is what their amateurism, their unseriousness, has led to. They now have to rely on their ability to lie and distract, on Fox News, OANN, and Newsmax to distract and lie for them, and for President Trump to get out and do what he does best – lie for them.

All while Trump hates on them and insists on purifying the Party to his own liking.

Like most theological and ideological purity schemes, there’s little actual substance beyond the dislike for the experts who come up with conclusions inconsistent with their ideology, their frantic need for power, and their mad, mad theology, and that lack of substance, that lack of honesty, in the end results in disaster. Or, as I noted years and years ago, someday the Republican Party will have all of three members – and two of them will be on probation for impurity.

That dagger called a RINO has much more work to do, I suspect. The only question is whether it’ll be Trump, the clerics, or someone else.

Soliton:

1. (physics, mathematics) A self-reinforcing pulse or travelling wave caused by any non-linear effect (found in many physical systems).
   Synonyms: carrier wave (obsolete), solitary wave, wave of translation [Wiktionary]

Noted in “The US Army is building the most powerful laser weapon in the world,” David Hambling, NewScientist (27 February 2021, paywall):

Normal lasers are ineffective over long distances because the beam spreads out, but ultrashort pulses can be shaped into self-focusing light pulses called solitons that turn the air itself into a lens, continually refocusing the pulse.

Such a weapon would produce dramatic effects. The rapid temperature rise from the ultrashort pulse would vaporise the surface of a target rather than melting it, a technique used industrially to drill precise holes through metal. The resulting rapid expansion of gas can also produce a powerful blast wave.

A handy characteristic. I wonder how such systems change over time. There’s no such thing as endless energy.

For long time readers of what was once called the blogosphere, the name Frederik deBoer may be familiar. After a couple years break as a blogger, he’s back, revealing his struggle with mental illness. I found this bit concerning lithium particularly interesting:

Other side effects are drug-dependent. For me, lithium is the basis of everything. It is the foundation of my treatment. A mood stabilizer, it is one of the most reliable and widely-prescribed psychiatric medications in the world. The pills flatten you out, trimming off the emotional highs and lows that can, for many, cause so much wreckage in their lives. An element of the periodic table, lithium cannot be patented and is thus available fairly cheaply at almost any pharmacy. The emotion-moderating effects are apparent after 3-4 weeks and those benefits make it easier to stay on the pill. Not only is the clinical evidence of its efficacy in patients clear, multiple studies have found that places with higher natural levels of lithium in the drinking water have lower rates of violent crime and suicide. This came as little surprise to me. When you have experienced bipolar mania, the shaking delirious heart-racing paranoiac acceleration of everything you are, lithium’s steady and reliable presence is as comforting as a drug can get.

I haven’t examined his links, so I don’t know if the studies he cites attempt to compensate for culture – itself undoubtedly influenced by lithium – in a credible way. But it does remind me of Kevin Drum’s notes on lead in the environment, and how its presence and cessation correlate with falling levels of crime.

Whether there’s anything practical to be drawn from the lithium studies is not immediately obvious to me. If the effects were dramatic, I’d expect evolution to weed out the particularly vulnerable.

But it is a fascinating clue that the old mind-body dualism argument is really not viable.

My Arts Editor, due to an injury, has been watching a great deal of YouTubes involving sewing, but this doesn’t come from her, but rather an old friend who I hardly ever get to see anymore:

I’ve always liked orange. This is the creation of Teuta Matoshi of Bosovo. More here.

[H/T MCI]

“The Dragon” was played by Pope Pius XII in an uncredited role, or so the backstage rumor mill had it.

The Golden Coach (1952) is one of those whimsical productions which indulge in sundry bits of unlikely occurrences in order to make a point, and whether you like it or not depends on your taste in drama.

A troupe of the commedia dell’arte type is commissioned to travel from its home in Italy to Peru, to perform for the local colonists. Their dreams of performing in a city where the streets are paved in gold go up in dust, when not only the cold reality of colonial Peru means the gold is being drained away by the colonial governors, but productions such as there’s are expected to perform for free, and depend on the largesse of the local colonial administration to cover their costs.

Fortunately for them, the local administrator, the Viceroy, takes a liking for the leading lady of the troupe, Camilla, a woman who wears her emotions on her sleeve, has lost the leash for same, possesses a hot temper, and pursues a wide variety of, ah, interests. Through the Viceroy’s support, they can continue to perform, if only to earn enough for passage back to their homes. Meanwhile, Camilla finds, besides the Viceroy, two other men of surpassing interest: the gracious Don Antonio, who came over on their ship, and the local champion bullfighter, Ramon, an intensely popular man whose enthusiasm for the work of the troupe also contributes much to its success.

And what of the eponymous golden coach? The Viceroy ordered it from Spain, and it was also on the ship. He wishes to use it to impress other Administrators, the Dons under his jurisdiction, and, well, it’s useful for impressing Camilla as well, now that he’s met her.

But there is a war brewing. and Don Antonio leaves to fight; soon enough, the war impacts the Viceroy, whose financial acumen is already lamentable. But with Camilla still to win, even as he presses his unwilling Dons to contribute more in taxes, he gifts the golden coach to her.

As well as to another woman.

Soon enough, the Viceroy’s position is threatened, as he can be stripped of his post by the nobility, the Dons, if the local Bishop agrees that the Viceroy has become unsuitable to the job. What is to be done? What of Don Antonio, back from the war and world-weary, and the impetuous Ramon? Will the Bishop sign on to the removal of the Viceroy?

And will Camilla, dismayed at the sudden timidity of her wooer, ever respect him again?

It’s all a bit silly, but not in that way where you wonder why you bothered; it’s a professional production, and in English, rather than the expected Italian or Spanish. If you need something to take the weight of the world off your shoulders, this may be a good tonic.

I know CPAC was last weekend, but I can’t help but be fascinated on a hint of what appears to be an attempt to rip the conservative movement apart. From LifeSiteNews:

A spirited discussion during a breakout session at CPAC today brought out into the open what many religious Americans have been saying the past several years, namely, that the conservative movement is compromising on social issues in order to win over gay and pro-LGBT voters.

Pro-life activist Abby Johnson lit the fuse Saturday with remarks she gave during a panel conversation on Christianity that also featured former Trump legal advisor Jenna Ellis. Johnson’s comments resulted in a twenty minute, sometimes combative, back and forth between herself, other panelists, and audience members.

“They haven’t had one keynote speaker stand up there and talk about the attack on traditional marriage,” Johnson thundered. “And they can’t. Because some of their sponsors are gay conservatives.”

Johnson, who has previously spoken on CPAC’s main stage, said she was referring to the influence of groups like Log Cabin Republicans and Atheists for Liberty, which had booths at the conference.

“Transgenderism is running rampant through CPAC and we’re not talking about traditional families, we’re not talking about traditional marriage …. because we have compromised to this false sense of diversity.” …

And here’s the giveaway, the tell of someone who’s desperate for power:

“We have a problem with the conservative movement … we don’t hear enough of [the word of God] from the main stage,” she said. “I think gun rights, election integrity is important … but we need to hear more about God from the largest conservative conference in the United States.”

Rather than support the organization’s bid to increase its influence, she’d rather take the next step in the accumulation of political power. Because this is all about political power, because that’s what CPAC is all about. Like many zealots, it doesn’t seem reasonable to her that her grab for power will be just like Jello squeezing, with much of it running away, but that’s what will happen. Especially those who think she’s committing blasphemy.

Which, by the way, this appears to be most perilous, trying to use her religious mania to accumulate power in the world. Not that there’s anything new in that, but I did have to laugh at this:

She also criticized a golden statue of President Trump that was wheeled into the conference. Attendees could be heard praising the statue as “awesome” as it made its way through the convention floor.

Good for her for spitting into the wind. Too bad she’s not self-aware enough to know she’s treading on equally God-forsaken – literally! – ground herself.

But all of this speaks to an ongoing fracturing of the conservative movement. I wonder how long it’ll take for the Mormons to get run out of the movement, despite being more authentic than the purifiers.

The size of the March 4th “Inauguration” crowd:

Trump's inauguration crowd today. @seanspicer pic.twitter.com/lcYEDeXVGi

— Cheri Jacobus (@CheriJacobus) March 5, 2021

Trying to make that into the biggest inauguration crowd ever might be unkind to the Photoshoppers. Still, keep an eye out for Don, Jr., appearing half a dozen times throughout the crowd. That’ll be your clue to fakery.

Excuse me: Fake News.

Ersatz:

Ersatz is a German word literally meaning substitute or replacement.^[2] Although it is used as an adjective in English, it is a noun in German. In German orthography noun phrases formed are usually represented as a single word, forming compound nouns such as Ersatzteile (“spare parts”) or Ersatzspieler (“substitute player”). While ersatz in English generally means that the substitution is of unsatisfactory or inferior quality compared with the “real thing”, in German, there is no such implication: e.g., Ersatzteile ‘spare parts’ is a technical expression without any implication about quality, whereas Kaffeeersatz ‘coffee substitute‘ is not made from coffee beans, and is thus inferior. [Wikipedia]

Noted in “Fact check: Images of alleged giant human skeletons are altered,” Reuters:

Followers of this conspiracy contend not only that “the trees we see now are small ersatz versions of giant, 20-mile-high trees that used to exist on earth in ancient times,” as related in a Quartz article here , but also that giants who once roamed the earth were the ones who cut them down.

I was not aware of the exact connotations of ersatz. There’s a pun in this somewhere, but I’m too crabby to dig it out. Oh, there’s one in that, too.

Take my keyboard away from me. Or my sense of humor.

Maybe someone should tell these folks there were monstrous dogs that roamed the earth, and they formed the Rocky Mountains in a process that is not for the delicate. And then they chased down and ate Paul Bunyan. The ravaged skeleton can be seen here.

Attack of the kewpie dolls, eh?

Does the idea of turning Cthulhu into a minion and calling it – unknowingly – Spot deeply amuse you or fill you with disgust?

If the former, then Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (2016) might be a suitable night’s entertainment.

But don’t go into this expecting to be impressed. This effort, while entertaining in parts, suffers from second-rate animation, such as a lack of tracks when traversing snow fields, poor artistic choices (I agree with my Artistic Editor), minions of the antagonist being radically underwhelming and vaguely amusing when they should have served to put Howard in mortal peril, and some plot holes that needed cleaning up.

The result, while it has its moments and made me laugh a couple of times, is generally a bit disappointing. There’s a sense that it could have been quite a bit more, but the makers didn’t quite see how much better it could have been.

And they didn’t put Cthulhu in a tutu. Very disappointing.

A reader remarks on the GOP members of Congress in response to Senator Tuberville’s pursuit of the title The Clown of the Senate:

There is no shortage of idiots in Congress. How so many graduated law school and passed the Bar is a mystery.

Indeed. And although the dis-esteemed Tuberville does not have academic achievements beyond being a football coach, Senator Sasse (R-NE) is a former University president. Senator Hawley (R-MO) is a former University professor. Senator Cassidy (R-LA) is an MD.

It leaves me wondering: did these people benefit from ‘legacies’, did they buy their honors, or are the institutions actually in such bad shape that people like Hawley and Rep Gaetz (R-FL) (Florida State U Law School) can get through?

Or is there a disconnect between academic achievement and provincialism? Does the former not erase the latter?

I see Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) is unwilling to concede the race for the title of Clown Of The Senate. Here he’s seen trying to present a critique of the Covid-19 relief bill (American Rescue Plan):

why are they like this pic.twitter.com/QGYOQrJX1l

— Elizabeth Pancotti (@ENPancotti) March 3, 2021

Yes, that does say “Thickness of a $1 bill: ...”, followed by a bunch of math.

Because, heaven knows, this is a relevant metric when evaluating a proposed piece of legislation. Especially legislation designed to bring relief to a large proportion of America suffering due to a national emergency.

Of Wisconsin, you ding-bat.

It’s another example of ideology over competency, and how that damages the nation. Do better next time, Wisconsin. Johnson’s beyond help, I fear.

The legendary Bruce Schneier doesn’t see much happiness for the customers of the software industry unless government steps in:

The only way to force companies to provide safety and security features for customers and users is with government intervention. Companies need to pay the true costs of their insecurities, through a combination of laws, regulations, and legal liability. Governments routinely legislate safety — pollution standards, automobile seat belts, lead-free gasoline, food service regulations. We need to do the same with cybersecurity: the federal government should set minimum security standards for software and software development.

In today’s underregulated markets, it’s just too easy for software companies like SolarWinds to save money by skimping on security and to hope for the best. That’s a rational decision in today’s free-market world, and the only way to change that is to change the economic incentives.

Which aligns with my long-held view that software should always have a substantial warranty on it, and that the old “this software is not warranted for any particular use” was a scam and should have been made illegal. If we’re going to run a capitalist economy, then it’s necessary that costs of insecurity flow to the responsible party where possible – and while out ‘n out malefactors are not always found and prosecuted, and often can’t pay the piper, the companies selling insecure software can pay for it.

And, because they want bigger profits, they have a motivation to fix their damn software. No surprise here, right?

The question is how far are we going to have to go to create secure software, because products are delivered on the shoulders of other products: operating systems, compilers, software libraries proprietary and free, and all vulnerable to insecurities. As I’ve mentioned before, we need a software equivalent to Underwriters Laboratories (UL), which tests consumer hardware, such as can openers, for safety issues.

On the other hand, it strikes me that I may be pushing the UL analogy too far. After all, UL works on assuring bad designs don’t make it out into the world, while the software problem involves malevolent outside forces attempting to take advantage of mistakes in software design.

There is a difference, and it may affect how we should approach the problem. For example, perhaps these same companies should be permitted to sue the people taking advantage of software flaws, and, if successful, perhaps attach some percent of their incomes for the rest of their lives.

That might get their attention.

In any case, motivation of those producing the software is the key here. As Schneier points out, there’s currently little motivation for producing secure software; time to market and gimmick gimmick gimmick are the leading lights of the software producers. This has to change.

From last night’s Colbert, it’s John Batiste:

Erick Erickson, who I will refrain from saying is my favorite far-right extremist, has an actually interesting piece on critical theory and its interaction with the “American church,” by which I suspect he means mostly Protestant fundamentalist denominations. I don’t know enough about critical theory to say whether or not his summation is accurate, but it seems congruent with Andrew Sullivan’s frequent observations on it – so that’s a point in its favor.

But I wasn’t going to comment on it until I ran across this little gem:

Critical theory has invaded the church — a post-modern Marxist theory that believes there are oppressors and oppressed and that reality is constructed through language, not objective reality. It is trying to speak into and explain the world and theology to a people who worship absolute, objective truth.

Critical theorists cannot actually, truly understand, interpret, or follow the God of all Creation because that God calls Himself the way, the truth, and life. He is objective reality. Critical theorists will scream about me saying this, but a theory that cannot acknowledge absolute, objective truth is a theory that cannot explain or orbit around Christ.

I fear this is an objective reality for which there’s no objective evidence, at least that I’ve never heard of. In fact, the claim of objective reality has at least a shadow of blasphemy about it, for faith, the keystone of the Christian edifice, is the belief in something for which there’s no dispositive evidence, technically speaking, although I would go further and say there’s very little evidence at all. I generally agree that the existence of the Universe may point to a Divine, but that leaves open the question of the origin of a Divine for which, again, there’s little other evidence.

But my feeling is that Erickson’s also trying to bail out a sinking boat. The conservative movement has been the origin of science denial, of racism, and of the January 6th Insurrection. These are not inconsiderable, and I suspect that certain members must be looking at the results of these positions and incidents and begun wondering about walking away, not only from the movement, but from the evangelical movement.

An idol if I ever saw one.

Because science has that shiny little ornament hanging on it called evidence. Science, as the study of reality, has a lot going for it: objective evidence, self-examination, self-correction, a past and future filled with positives, such as curing the ill, technology, and enabling exploration. And while there’s no denying that many of its practitioners have their distressing flaws, such as racism, misogyny, egotism, fraud, and narcissism, science emerges, time and again, from the shadow of those flawed figures, corrects itself if necessary, and continues onward.

Flinging faith against science is becoming a more and more difficult proposition, as science racks up achievements and victories, while Christian faith has led so many astray of late that the younger generations are failing to sign up for religions, stable or new. So what to do?

Declare your Divine is an objective reality. Never mind it won’t come down to boom its commands, plead its case, or stand by with a sneer on its face. No fingerprints are found. no objectively identified miracles. But it’s a matter of propaganda, truth be told: use the same words as those of that malignant idol, Science, and apply them to the Faith, and hope the faithful never notice.

I wonder how well it works.

Having received and torn into the three-layer packaging for a book today, I am now ready to submit a new phrase to the quantum lexicon:

Quantum Packaging: Packaging so tough that the basic probability function concerning the identity of the book so packaged never collapses.

Unless it meets a Wustof knife.

Certain conservative atheists are all excited about some of the results of CPAC:

For those who shit on my efforts to secularize the right, you can apologize anytime. Also, you're welcome.

How would you like a choice of secular parties to vote for? Coming soon, thanks to AFL. https://t.co/CdWDrpS9QP

— David Silverman (@MrAtheistPants) February 28, 2021

I’ve never heard of Silverman, who apparently is a conservative atheist, but it’s not hard to see how years of hard work – or at least hard wishing – can make it easy to misinterpret the results. People see what they want to see, not what is there. I include myself as an occasional member of that group.

So how is Silverman wrong? This is not a straw poll of the conservatives, the Republicans, or the base.

It’s a straw poll of the attendees of CPAC, and to a poll professional, which I am not, I am quite sure they’d note this is not a random, representative example of anything at all. This is a self-selecting group within the stratified hierarchy of the conservative movement. In fact, it’s probably near the top of the movement.

In fact, a liberal reading of those stats would suggest this: CPAC, being a gathering of conservative/Trumpist leaders, have placed abortion down at the bottom of the straw poll, which reveals them to be deeply out of touch with their base, which remains strongly anti-abortion.

Now, is there any repercussions for telling the truth? How many of the base pay attention to such trivia as straw polls at CPAC? It’s hard to say, actually. The aliens (to sober governance) now infesting CPAC are relatively new to the game, and they may not realize how important it is to posture properly to keep the base happy; indeed, the lack of imposition of anti-abortion laws on the nation may have contributed to the failure of the traditional Republican leadership, who’d been stringing the anti-abortion forces along for decades.

It’s something to keep an eye on.

(For those wondering, I picked up this Tweet and a link for a future post from this Friendly Atheist post by Hemant Mehta. Mehta and his crowd are a bit repetitive and abrasive – like me, come to think of it – but I do appreciate their work on collecting information such as this.)

I’ve been remiss in checking in on Retraction Watch, but was pointed that way by Paul Fidalgo’s blog this afternoon. This is from the abstract of a paper that has gained an Expression of Concern, which Retraction Watch covers here:

Current practices in allopathic medicine measure different types of energy in the human body by using quantum field dynamics involved in nuclear medicine, radiology, and imaging diagnostics.

Red flag #1: Someone mentioning “allopathic medicine,” which means evidence-based or science-based medicine, immediately gets my attention, because it can be considered a denigrative term in some contexts. If evidence must be denigrated, it’s a big signal that someone’s terrified of actually having their work examined.

Once diagnosed, current treatments revert to biochemistry instead of using biophysics therapies to treat the disturbances in subtle energies detected and used for diagnostics. Quantum physics teaches us there is no difference between energy and matter.

Red flag #2: No, quantum physics does not. You bang your nose into matter, and while you may burn your nose on energy, given enough power, you don’t bang it. E=mc² doesn’t make the two equivalent, it merely shows that the two are mutually convertible, with enough struggle. That’s why there’s a c² term.

All systems in the human being, from the atomic to the molecular level, are constantly in motion-creating resonance. This resonance is important to understanding how subtle energy directs and maintains health and wellness in the human being. Energy medicine (EM), whether human touch or device-based, is the use of known subtle energy fields to therapeutically assess and treat energetic imbalances, bringing the body’s systems back to homeostasis (balance).

Red flag #3: Energy Medicine is not something I’ve heard of, and that’s a red flag all on its own. No, it’s not radiology, which may sound like it. If you feel like you’re moderately well-read in the medical field and you run across a broad term like this that you don’t recognize, go look it up and expect it’ll be bullshit. If context suggests it’s a narrow term then it’s far more likely that I’m ignorant of it, but when it’s broad based, ignorance is a less likely hypothesis.

“Christina Ross, PhD, is a Board Certified Polarity Practitioner (BCPP), Registered Polarity Educator (RPE), and Certified Energy Medicine Practitioner (CEMP), who has earned bachelor’s degrees in both psychology and physics from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. She earned her PhD in Energy Medicine from Akamai University, with a research appointment to the Wake Forest School of Medicine’s Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), through the Wake Forest Center for Integrative Medicine (WFCIM).” [E-Wellness Solutions]

Red flags #4-7 come popping right up. I’ve never heard of any of these specialties, and Akamai University, which has no accreditation to speak of, handing out Ph.D.s is about as valuable as a five year old holding forth on -ahem- quantum physics.

Ya gotta wonder about the journal that published it, Global Advances in Health and Medicine. Or maybe just disregard it completely.

There, a healthy laugh at some horseshit masquerading as science.

Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) continues his quest to be the laughingstock of the Senate:

Teaching children moral values by “putting God and prayer back in school,” … were among the educational priorities Republican Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville cited during his first speech on the Senate floor.  [AL.com]

Of course, the media focus I’ve seen on this assertion, of which he said little more, is on how the Constitution and SCOTUS forbid it. Yes, it would help if Tuberville had a clue as to the nature of our democracy.

But that is not the most important facet of this speech.

Returning prayer to public school was a rallying cry of the right at one time, before it was effectively repulsed. But here’s the thing: a public school is a government institution. Even though they are locally controlled, the Federal Government exercises a degree of control over them.

And, for the conservative reader who thinks Tuberville is enunciating a good thing, here’s a question: Do you really want a government, possibly controlled by your political, or even religious, opponents, dictating the prayers of your children, from time to even – perhaps – content?

Let that sink in for a moment. I’ll wait.

This is why Tuberville’s suggestion is the nightmare of every American, whether they’re atheist, agnostics, or consider themselves deeply religious. That’s why the Establishment Clause is the best thing about the Constitution, again for every brand of American. So long as religion remains a distributed institution, free of government control, it can do what it does best – serve the spiritual needs of its adherents, no matter how silly. But, when its adherents seek political power on religious grounds, then every American who is not part of whatever little sect has gained control of the Department of Education – or maybe the Department of Moral Values – loses control of building their children’s moral character.

And that’s why Tuberville’s statement is such a clownish thing to do. For anyone who takes a moment to think, it becomes clear that this is no one’s preference, except for the power hungry who don’t think – or don’t think others think.