I would wager that virtually all these altercations come from arguments over masks.  This can be eliminated by making this statement: “When you bought your ticket for this flight, you agreed to abide by this airline’s mask policy.  At this point, anyone who refuses to wear a mask will be arrested and charged with assault.  If it happens before we leave the gate, you’ll be escorted off the flight by police.  If it happens after we’ve left the gate, you’ll be arrested at our destination.”

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What Noam Chomsky says here is, of course, true.  It’s a broader, more generalized statement than what we say when we talk about the externalities of the fossil fuel world.  They keep the profits, we all pay the price of cleaning up after them.

 

 

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The anti-vaxxers really are taking themselves out.

I don’t wish this death on anyone, but if someone has to die this way, I’m glad it’s not someone who did the right thing.

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A reader sent me the photo here, noting: A very rare occurrence, the sun and the moon are visible at the same time in the horizon. This phenomenon is known as Selenelion. 
Comments include:
Absolutely amazing
Me: I wouldn’t call it rare; it’s impossible.  Looks like someone didn’t learn about the phases of the moon like (I thought) everyone did in 5th or 6th grade.
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The “Arizona Audit” found that the accuracy of the count was 99.98%. Can’t this be the end to this bull****?

Now Trump is demanding a recount in Texas, a state he won?  Can’t we have some level of rationality here?

And taxpayers are eating the cost of all this?

 

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IMO, there is no reason to believe that DeSantis is mentally ill.  He’s simply aiming himself for success in the sad state of current-day Republican politics, based as it is on anti-vax, anti-science, and citizens’ right to do as they please with respect to COVID.

Yes, this is destroying his state, but that’s the price Floridians have to pay for living there and electing him governor.

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Scientism is “an exaggerated trust in the efficacy of the methods of natural science applied to all areas of investigation (as in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities).”

I think anyone would grant that applying science to moral philosophy is not a sound undertaking.  For example, using science to evaluate the actions of people in certain societies as “good” or “bad” is going to be fruitless. There are countless similar examples.  As shown below, the movie “Dead Poets’ Society” pokes fun at an academic who tries to quantify the excellence of a poem. (more…)

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I got this from a reader who functions as a sales manager at a real estate agency, after graduating with a degree in liberal arts.

I would say that questioning the consensus reached by thousands of scientists who have spent their entire careers researching and publishing peer reviewed papers on a certain subject is, in fact, stupid.

Nobody cares what I think about anthropology.  That’s because I don’t know anything about it, just like this guy knows nothing about virology.

 

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A reader sent me this meme, which is typical of the twisting the truth we see so often.  The implication here is that removing the restrictions caused the infection rates to decrease, which is simply untrue.  From NPR:

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — After 548 days with restrictions to limit the spread of COVID-19, Denmark’s high vaccination rate has enabled the Scandinavian country to become one of the first European Union nations to lift all domestic restrictions.

More than 80% of people above the age of 12 have had the two shots.

“I wouldn’t say it is too early. We have opened the door but we have also said that we can close it if needed,” Soeren Riis Paludan, a professor of virology with the Aarhus University in Denmark’s second largest city, told The Associated Press.

As of midnight, the Danish government no longer considers COVID-19 “a socially critical disease.” Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said Aug. 27 that “the epidemic is under control” but warned: “we are not out of the epidemic” and the government will act as needed if necessary.

The vaccination rate is:

Inversely proportional to the number of per capita crackpots in the country, and

Directly proportional to the degree to which the country’s citizens honestly care about one another.

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A reader answers: The myth is that Trump thinks he won.

Exactly.  If he thought he’d won, he wouldn’t be telling state election officials, “find me 11,780 votes.”

He wouldn’t be plotting with his attorney on how Pence needed to say that the results of seven states is in doubt.

He’s evil, but he’s not delusional (at least that’s what I believe).

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