In the US we are constantly regaled with stories in the media of high-level people in al Qaeda being killed by drone strikes and how few civilians have been harmed. We are constantly reminded of how precise drones are. But of course, all that means is that there is a high probability that a drone hits the target that it was aiming at. It says nothing about whether the target was the right one to begin with, even if one concedes that the US government has the right to target and kill anyone it pleases. [Read more…]
Here is a review of the new science fiction film that is supposed to be a prequel to the successful Alien series, which I did not see.
The review is long but funny as it dissects all the gaping plot holes. It pretty much gives away the whole story so don’t read it if you have not seen the film yet but plan to. I was never going to see it so I did not care and enjoyed reading it. [Read more…]
Back in 2006, I speculated in a post titled Is the Pope an atheist? that it was possible that many religious clergy were atheists, with the probability increasing the higher they were in the religious hierarchy. I had no evidence that this was actually the case but was basing my argument on what I thought were plausible premises. [Read more…]
As an immigrant who never studied US history formally as part of a curriculum, my knowledge of it has large holes. So although I knew that Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth in a theater in 1865 at the beginning of his second term of office during the waning days of the Civil War, I was not aware of the precise motive or that the murder was part of a larger conspiracy that sought to also kill the vice-president and the Secretary of State. [Read more…]
I linked recently to Stephen Colbert’s report on the new sport of freestyle canoe dancing. It turns out that there is another exotic new sport that will appeal to the more ‘macho’ types (aka stupid young men) and that is Ultimate Taser Ball. [Read more…]
I have bad news.
Orly Taitz lost her bid to become California’s next senator. She came in fifth in the primary, garnering 3.1% or 121,000 votes, which is not too shabby. [Read more…]
Dr. George Murray Levick was a member of the ill-fated Scott expedition to the South Pole in 1910 where he observed penguin behavior, including necrophilia, that so shocked him that he recorded his observations in Greek so that others would not be able to read about them accidentally. [Read more…]
Some time ago, I commented favorably on an essay by philosopher Richard Rorty titled Religion as Conversation-stopper. In his essay, he responds to another essay by Stephen Carter in which the latter said, “One good way to end a conversation — or to start an argument — is to tell a group of well-educated professionals that you hold a political position (preferably a controversial one, such as being against abortion or pornography) because it is required by your understanding of God’s will.” [Read more…]