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- Yeah, in a Minute... is the personal dumping grounds of Paul Landry:
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News Gathering vs. Confirmation Bias
- Remember, if you do not have at least one source of news that you turn to regularly, with which you routinely disagree, then you are not practicing news gathering! You are practicing [confirmation bias].
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Science
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.
— Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (New York: Ballantine Books, 1996) at p.32.
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[S]cience is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time – when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
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More Recent Entries
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- Oh no! The “Woke” Police are Going to Have to Cancel Their Precious Chick-fil-A
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Tag Archives: commentary
NextDraft: Fallible
Dave Pell at NextDraft on the Chicago Tribune’s report that over 500 Catholic priests accused of sexual abuse have yet to be publicly identified by the Catholic Church: We’ve become desensitized by the vast number of these stories. But keep in mind, we’re talking about the number of perpetrators. The number of victims is much, […]
Quote of the Day
John Gruber at DaringFireball.net: Facebook is to privacy what Enron was to accounting. Ouch.
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Ronnie Van Zant on Gun Control
If I Leave Here Tomorrow: A Film About Lynyrd Skynyrd (Passion Pictures/Showtime 2018) at 51:21: Interviewer: ‘Saturday Night Special’ is a song that deals with a very real and dangerous subject in today’s America. Our interview of Lynyrd Skynyrd focuses on this now. Ronnie Van Zant: ‘Saturday Night Special’, we’d just known some friends, that, […]
Dear Young People, “Don’t Vote”
This country belongs to whomever shows up. And do you know who shows up for every election? Old people. But only 46% of people 18-34 years old voted in the last election. Do vote. Please, please vote.
Kavanaugh Lied to the Judiciary Committee—Repeatedly
Thursday’s hearing didn’t prove whether Kavanaugh assaulted Ford. But we do know the Supreme Court nominee wasn’t honest in his testimony. William Saletan at Slate: Maybe Kavanaugh is an honest man in other contexts. Maybe he’s a good husband, a loving dad, and an inspiring coach. And maybe there’s no way to be certain that […]
Taibbi: Why Did John McCain Continue to Support War?
Matt Taibbi writing at Rolling Stone: But he did have one unshakeable conviction: Wherever America had a foreign policy problem, the solution was always to bomb the fuck out of someone. Long before he became a symbol of anti-Trumpism (despite having contributed significantly to the Trump phenomenon by unleashing Sarah Palin on national politics in […]
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Prosecutors
Unfortunately, John Oliver is—once again—right on point:
5 things white people can do before they call the cops on a black person
Reasonable list from Mashable, should be filed under “common fucking sense.”
Donald Trump Jr., Sub-Master of the Universe
Matt Bai, writing at Yahoo News: Say what you will about President Trump, and I’ve said plenty; you can’t say he ever lacked for what New Yorkers call chutzpah. He had the brass ornaments to risk his modest inheritance, to plow through bankruptcies, to court public humiliation in pursuit of far-flung enterprises. I actually admire […]
Measles Case Confirmed in Tennessee, Risk Grows
The Lebanon Democrat: Dr. Tim Jones, the state’s epidemiologist, said even with just one known measles case, the Tennessee Health Department is taking a proactive approach to curtail the spread of the highly contagious, airborne disease. “So far, we’ve only identified one case,” he said. “I will say that I will be shocked if we […]
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