3/5/12

Sure but you are missing the real point

Drill Baby Drill, Redux - NYTimes.com: "Therein lies the biggest weakness in the Republican litany. A country that consumes more than 20 percent of the world’s oil supply but owns 2 percent of its reserves cannot drill its way out of high prices or dependence on exports from unstable countries. The only plausible strategy is to keep production up while cutting consumption and embarking on a serious program of alternative fuels."

'via Blog this'

The real point is that we should be living car free. We should give up conventional and high rise housing and go in the direction of flexible modular communities. No one seems to see this yet. But they will.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Stow the austerity and the GOP be damned

States of Depression - NYTimes.com: "In fact, if it weren’t for this destructive fiscal austerity, our unemployment rate would almost certainly be lower now than it was at a comparable stage of the “Morning in America” recovery during the Reagan era."

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

It's not the name, it's the content and the obscurantism that need work

Philosophy by Another Name - NYTimes.com: "Our current name is harmful because it posits a big gap between the sciences and philosophy; we do something that is not a science. Thus we do not share in the intellectual prestige associated with that thoroughly modern word. We are accordingly not covered by the media that cover the sciences, and what we do remains a mystery to most people. But it is really quite clear that academic philosophy is a science. The dictionary defines a science as “a systematically organized body of knowledge on any subject.” This is a very broad definition, which includes not just subjects like physics and chemistry but also psychology, economics, mathematics and even “library science.”"

'via Blog this'

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Bad taste and ostentation take a dive in Vegas

Las Vegas Gun Range Offers New Way to Let Loose - NYTimes.com:

"LAS VEGAS — For Vegas die-hards bored with the $750 tasting menu at Guy Savoy, the $250 Elton John tickets at Caesars or the $200,000 single-hand baccarat bet at the Bellagio, this city is serving up a new way to find high-priced thrills."

'via Blog this'

And the NYT joins the circle of idiocy.


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Some Ken Wilber Links from An Email

That's why this manifesto calls for a reappropriation of Ken Wilber's AQAL matrix. To those who would dismiss it—or its chief architect and the integral scene he helped spawn—as overly theoretical and out of touch with real-world concerns, we say, occupy it! More than anyone, Ken Wilber has given us a conceptual framework for having the conversation about a "post-postmodern" approach to social transformation in the first place. And not only did Ken gives us the map, but he also connected thousands of us in a community of discourse that speaks a common, multidimensional, radical evolutionary language—one that's fundamentally adaptive and vital. That's why he remains an indispensable cultural figure; why we must find our way to a mature, yet not uncritical, appreciation of his work; and why it's still invaluable to learn AQAL. (We can even forgive the occasional integral geeking out that sometimes giddily arises among hardcore students of Ken's work.)

I think the text above is self-explanatory. It is hard to lead a movement within a marketing-context. Then again it is hard to lead one in any context these days. Which is why Occupy is leaderless. And why the Web manages to get things done without leaders.




Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

How Republicans Can Best Say They Don't Want Romney


They can deny him Ohio
That means contacting Ohio voters

They can vote for Gingrich in any race
They can vote for Santorum and hold their nose
They can vote for Paul 

This is a real problem
Apathy may be Romney's best friend
Republicans who are disturbed by the unseemly movement toward him
will need to get out and protest
A vote for an opponent is the most effective move
 
The goal - get this to Tampa unresolved

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Rallying to the Not-Obama

Republican Party Moves Toward Romney - NYTimes.com: "Two leading fiscal conservatives declared their loyalties for the first time on Sunday, with one, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, the majority leader, saying, “Mitt Romney is the man for this year.” The other, Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, described Mr. Romney as “best equipped to solve the urgent problems before us.”"

'via Blog this'

This is almost as comical as watching Karl Rove or John Boehner try to tell the truth. I would assume another downtick in the Romney approval index.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Rupert's troubles are not over

A Disconnect From News Corp.’s Scandal - NYTimes.com: "What happened back in New York? News Corporation’s stock went up.

The wave of incriminating headlines and the surging stock price reflect the cognitive dissonance generated by News Corporation’s phone hacking scandal. Even while Rupert Murdoch, the company’s chairman and chief executive, has doubled down on one of the newspapers at the center of the worsening scandal, creating a new Sunday edition of The Sun, investors have been cheering the possibility that the negative news in Britain could prompt the company to spin off its newspapers."

'via Blog this'

Rupert's troubles are not over
He is not out of the soup
US justice is not clover
He will soon be in its loop


Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Here's my fail-safe Putin test

Tearful Putin Claims Russian Election Victory | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics:

'via Blog this'

Hi Vladimir. Do the following and you can remain in office as long as the Good Lord wills.

Reverse your horrendous position on Syria. Unite with the rest of the world in ridding it of the Assad genocide regime.

Do that and I will cut slack.

Fail to do that and you will be on the verge of tears frequently as the Russian people accomplish your removal.

Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Chalk up a victory for reason - Limbaugh buckles

Limbaugh Issues Lukewarm Apology To Student As Advertisers Withdraw | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics: "ProFlowers said Sunday on its Facebook page that it has suspended advertising on Limbaugh's program because his comments about Georgetown University student Sandra Fluke "went beyond political discourse to a personal attack and do not reflect our values as a company."

The six other advertisers that have pulled ads from his show are mortgage lender Quicken Loans, mattress retailers Sleep Train and Sleep Number, software maker Citrix Systems Inc., online data backup service provider Carbonite and online legal document services company LegalZoom."

'via Blog this'

A tiny bit of sunshine peeks through in these struggles against unreason and vitriol. It suggests that people possess a modicum of power. It seems that once a week lately, wingnuts have had to walk back or face a loss of money or office. The Web and Social Networks are proving a match against the presumptions of impunity. Let's hope it continues.

The Present Worthlessness of Politics

Ad War Across Country As Super Tuesday Approaches | National Memo | Breaking News, Smart Politics:

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When something is worth something, as Jesus suggested, you will run to obtain it. No one is running to the GOP polls. Voters know the fix is in and that even the words of the candidates are themselves worthless to do more than to suggest a direction or intent. The suggestions of intent amount to Romney's suggestion that he loves America, Newt's that he will solve everything (in his dreams) and Santorum's little boy retro act encased in a noxious rage. No this is a worthless charade whose only sign is that it will go to the one with the fattest wallet. It will be up to the President to exegete this sorry mess and remind us that there is a sign that conquers the blunt truth of the GOP attack (hate) and arrives at the continuing incremental effort to set the Bush-Clinton legacy right. (You heard that right - the repeal of Glass-Steagall was Clinton's work).

Wrong - Waylon's Version on Spotify


Wrong by Waylon Jennings on Spotify

This is one of my favorite Waylon songs
Last saw him in a Nashville studio
After a road trip some years earlier when the drugs were doing their work
Singers who last are those who have found their voice
Waylon sure found his
He lasts and last
Though gone
Wrong
We have no idea

C1harles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

Altruism is not that hard to explain

The evolution of eusociality : Nature : Nature Publishing Group: "Eusociality, in which some individuals reduce their own lifetime reproductive potential to raise the offspring of others, underlies the most advanced forms of social organization and the ecologically dominant role of social insects and humans. For the past four decades kin selection theory, based on the concept of inclusive fitness, has been the major theoretical attempt to explain the evolution of eusociality. Here we show the limitations of this approach. We argue that standard natural selection theory in the context of precise models of population structure represents a simpler and superior approach, allows the evaluation of multiple competing hypotheses, and provides an exact framework for interpreting empirical observations."

'via Blog this'

All you need to do is examine the incredible degree of parenting and care that is given as a matter of course when original parents are somehow not present. Altruism does not trump Darwin - we are a spectrum. The lack of subtlety within the binary mentality typical of much scientific thinking frustrates the capacity to perceive that in human beings there is a little thing called freedom that enables a person not merely to say yes and no but also to devise a way beyond that dyad.

We live mainly in the beyond. That is who we are.




Charles Sanders Peirce - Thinking in Threes

RECCMENDATION Richard Gordon Quantum Touch

The Slow as Molasses Press