Pope Francis says god is not a misty ‘god-spray’

When sophisticated theologians talk about god, one quickly finds oneself wandering around in a rhetorical fog in which god becomes a constantly shape-shifting entity described by metaphors whose meanings are always just beyond one’s grasp. One has to struggle to understand what they are talking about because what these sophisticated thinkers imagine to be god is so far removed what any ordinary person thinks that I have long suspected that they are actually atheists struggling to find a way to salvage belief in something transcendental that would not be seen as manifestly anti-science or otherwise ridiculous in the circle of intellectuals amongst whom they move. [Read more…]

The continuing abuse of Guantanamo prisoners

It seems like each passing day we hear worse news from Guantanamo where flagrant violations of simple decency, let alone legal rights, are practiced routinely. Waterboarding may have ended but prisoner abuse continues unabated. Now the New York Times has published on its op-ed pages on April 15, 2013 a heart-wrenching piece by Guantanamo detainee Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel titled Gitmo is killing me. Moqbel has been held there for over eleven years without charges or trial and is now on a hunger strike and is being force-fed by guards. His description of his treatment (delivered verbally and transcribed) is horrific. [Read more…]

Film review: Skyfall

Skyfall is the latest in the James Bond saga. It starts out with the obligatory very long chase sequence using multiple modes of transport and has the usual large quota of action scenes, but it also tries to make the characters of Bond and his boss M more complicated and develop her character and their relationship. At times Bond looks old and weary, more like The Spy Who Came in From the Cold. [Read more…]

An easily frightened nation

[UPDATE: According to the transcript of the questioning of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on April 22 by the authorities (see page 4), he actually was read his Miranda rights. So it looks like there was a change in policy on this and that is a good thing.]

What is it about acts like the Boston bombing that make people become so unhinged and overthrow all due processes? Already we have calls for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to be tortured, denied Miranda rights, and treated as an enemy combatant. [Read more…]

Documentary: War on Whistleblowers

I wrote earlier about guerilla film maker Robert Greenwald’s new documentary called War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State. The documentary has now been released and Greenwald is offering free copies to anyone, though of course it would be nice if people donated some money to help him produce more films and also spread the word about it.

You can find out more here and here’s the trailer again.

The Higgs Story-Part 16: Design challenges of the LHC

The most obvious design challenge to detect the Higgs particle is that the colliding particles needed to have energies that are sufficient to produce the Higgs. Not knowing the mass of the particle complicated things but having a good idea that the upper limit of mass should be around 1 TeV helped. (For previous posts in this series, click on the Higgs folder just below the blog post title.) [Read more…]

How tax software companies fought simple tax filing

The way we file taxes in the US is odd. For most of us, almost all the documents that we use to prepare our tax returns are also provided directly to the government, so the government has the same information that we use. We then prepare our returns, send it in, and the government checks to see if we did it right. Surely it would make more sense for the government to calculate our taxes and then send us a statement to check to see if there was any error, the way that credit card companies compile a bill based on all our expenditures and then tell us how much we owe. If we wish, we can check their calculations with the receipts we have. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Spain already have such systems. [Read more…]

Because Israel is special, that’s why

It is no secret that the US exempts Israel from the strictures it applies to other countries and carves out special exemptions from the rules. For example, violations of UN resolutions that are given as the reason to justify invading other countries are ignored or supported when the violations are done by Israel, which holds the lead for the most violations. You can see a list of the resolutions here. [Read more…]

Absurd arguments on gun control

The debate over gun control is a complicated one. A case can be made that people should have the right to own guns of their own. But there is no question that opponents of any form of gun control invest in the Second Amendment an almost mystical quality that suggests that any regulation of any kind is a horrendous violation, and this is taking them over the cliff leading to a kind of extremism that can backfire. [Read more…]