Home › Blog › Page 2

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Two comments on the meme here:

a) It’s next to impossible to know whether or not 1970s rocker Alice Cooper actually said this.  Today, it’s common for the MAGA crowd to fabricate stories about celebrities who are known to be kind and thoughtful people who, for instance, “refuse to work with Disney because the organization is ‘woke.'”  Idiots believe this, and we live among them. It’s pathetic, but true.

b) Fortunately for us all, we Americans enjoy the protection of most (but not all) forms of speech under the First Amendment to our constitution. Yes, there are people who, erroneously, believe that Trump’s inciting the January 6th insurrection or lying about the honor of the judges presiding over his prosecution of the 88 felonies he is alleged to have committed are similarly protected.

But here, we have popular people who simply want to express their views.  These people include billionaires, star athletes, actors, and musicians.  If you have a problem with that, you really have no idea what First Amendment means.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

Two old friends are having a discussion about Benjamin Netanyahu and his level of intelligence; one says he’s “stupid,” and the other disagrees.

Now, I don’t follow Israeli politics as closely as either of these two, but here’s my take on the matter: Insofar as he’s a demagogue, and an extremely effective one at that, we need to grant that he possesses intelligence along a certain dimension that is sufficient to enable him to figure out, with fabulous precision, how to address his audience and control their behavior at the polls.

It’s unclear if he’s capable of solving differential equations, speaking half a dozen languages, or following the advancements in particle physics, but that’s completely irrelevant.  The only matter at play here is his love of power, and his capacity to manipulate “common” people, using rhetoric to stir up the passions of the masses so as to push him into power and keep him there.

Here in the U.S., we frequently have the same conversation about Trump.  Those outside his base see him as unintelligent, a conclusion we draw from his childish use of the language, and his total lack of interest in information that would have helped him do his job (Where is Israel? Should COVID patients ingest bleach?)  But again, this is irrelevant, in the same way that characteristics like charisma and height are irrelevant to the success of chess players.
In addition, Trump is clearly a criminal sociopath.  Now, most people don’t think of people like Netanyahu (or Hungary’s Orban or Turkey’s Erdogan) as kind and decent people, but they don’t seem as deeply disturbed as Trump.
Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — No Comments ↓

I don’t believe this claim about the cause of atheism.

True, hypocritical Christians are a huge turn-off to most of the world’s population; this has been the case for centuries.

But most atheists make their choices based on their perception that science and reason form a stronger belief system than faith in an invisible friend in the sky.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — No Comments ↓

In response to what Neil deGrasse Tyson says here, all I can say is, “I hope so, but I don’t see too much evidence that this is where we’re going.”

How much science and other forms of clear-headedness are we applying to ending the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and elsewhere around the world?  To climate change mitigation? To preventing the death of U.S. democracy? To optimizing our approach at the southern border?

Tagged with: ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

My father was a B-17 bomber pilot in the European theater of WW2, who, by 1944, had flown with his 10-man crew, 29 successful missions destroying Nazi crude oil refineries.  They were shot down on November 25 of that year, on the return trip from what would have been their 30th. Still over Germany, about 10 miles short of the French border and having lost three of their four engines, they had run out of luck.

Dad and his men had no option but to bail out, parachute to the ground, and hope for the best.  They did, however, have a decision to make, and an important one at that.  They had the choice to remain in uniform, making them a cinch to identify (and capture) as allied troops.  Alternatively, they could change into civilian clothes, making it far easier for them to make their way on foot into neighboring France without being noticed by the enemy.

There was a considerable risk, however.  Choosing to remain in uniform prohibited the Germans, under international law, from gunning them down on sight; if captured, they would be made POWs, treated humanely, and released unharmed at the end of the war.  On the other hand, changing clothes enabled the Germans to treat them as spies and execute them by firing squad.

This tale is only partially a tribute to my father. It’s more an illustration of how common Americans who become soldiers in wartime face momentous decisions that former presidents do not.  If you’re lucky enough to be Donald Trump, it appears that you can conduct yourself with immunity, and thus spying, in his case, leaking top secret military documents, doesn’t even lead to criminal prosecution, let alone an array of bullets through your heart.

 

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

It’s kind of funny that these people consider themselves “conservatives,” while there is essentially zero that they wish to conserve.

Most obviously, they want an immediate end to the rule of law in the United States; they want a democracy which no one is above the law–except the U.S. president.

 

Tagged with: , ,

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Science — No Comments ↓

People have been talking about this subject ever since theoretical physics became a thing around the turn of the 20th Century, and, simultaneously, we had the onset of the “philosophy of science.”

IMO, there are no distinct answers here, other than the basic: if a statement can’t be subjected to an experiment that could potentially disprove it, it can’t be considered scientific.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — 1 Comment ↓

Apparently, it’s news when working class America support a Democrat for U.S. president, even when the Republican candidate’s track record while in office featured lavish tax breaks ….. for corporations and billionaires.

The decline of quality in public schooling and the deep-seated frustration of the common American seem to have combined to draw these voters toward Trump, who is a true expert at fanning the flames of anger among the poorly educated.

It’s possible that Biden has, at least in part, turned this around.  All the disinformation in the world can’t change the fact that the current president has been very good for the welfare of “the little guy.” It’s nice to see that this is being recognized.

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — 1 Comment ↓

We all know that Elon Musk is no fan of wokeism.  But does what he says here make any sense?

Most people would agree that there is nothing funny about being considerate of other people’s feelings, or working to build a fair and just society.

If I wrote that no one laughs at oranges because they’re not tomatoes, would readers find that meaningful, or would they think that perhaps Craig has lost a step?

Tagged with:

by craigshieldsPosted on Posted in Renewables - Politics — No Comments ↓

I’d like to shake the hand of the guy who went rogue with the road sign here.  But, while his message is funny, it makes an important point.

Americans from the baby-boom and the earlier generations remember a time when our personal politics meant relatively little in the way we regarded one another.

As an example, 50 years ago, few parents were upset if one of their children proposed to marry someone from the other major political party.  Yet that’s no longer the case.  Today, more than half of Democrats interviewed said they would object if one of their kids wanted to marry a Republican (and vice versa).

What has changed fundamentally?  In particular, how did the MAGA movement come to divide us so completely?

In my mind, it’s largely a function of the fact that what we now call “news” is no longer information; it’s content designed to capture our round-the-clock attention and make us loyal to one club or another.  News is no longer a service; it’s an extremely lucrative business, and the only way to establish and maintain these megaprofits is to have two halves of America, each of which considers the other half “assholes.”

Tagged with: