I don't feel like thinking too hard today, so instead I'll make and defend a simple observation: Today's conservative politicians rely overly-much on visceral topics instead of intellectual arguments in order to attract the undying support of those who hold those emotional trip wires tautly. In other words, modern conservative activists and many ( Read more... )

It's generally bad. For example, take this painting, one shared by The Archdruid Himself:


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Relating to my previous post, from Radio Free Taikonaut comes a panel from the comic The Invisibles, Vol. 1, #8, April 1995.


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I almost forgot to wish everyone well! Not for holidays or any other such rot, but for the end of our history as we know it! The Eschaton (pronounced EH-ska-ton) arrives tomorrow. Finally! Terrence McKenna's coined the term to refer to a theory of his called the Novelty Theory. The Eschaton is the completion of the universe being pulled from ( Read more... )

Waaay back in 2008, I came up with a theory of conservatism I called the Deist Miasma, an attempt to understand for myself why the religious in general and conservatives in particular have such violent reactions against theories that challenge traditional interpretations of reality (specifically in that post, Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection vs ( Read more... )

Just a bit ago, badlydrawnjeff brought up priming, the concept that preparing people can affect perceptions, especially of ambiguous or even non-sense material. Fair enough, that.

I think we should, however, pursue this concept just a bit farther. Consider the following graphic:


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bill_sheehan got his godless preach on the other day and dropped knowledge about The Ten Commandments. It turns out there aren't ten, but about 24 listed do's and don'ts mentioned in Exodus, the book describing Moses and his solo ascent of the mount. It turns out that each Abrahamic religion picks from that legal menagerie those commandments they like best ( Read more... )

. . . but not to your own facts.

After a year of use, red light cameras have failed to deliver the promised safety benefits in Baytown, Texas. The Houston suburb activated the majority of its cameras on July 13, 2008. Since then, the number of accidents at eight camera locations has increased 40 percent, contrary to predictions from city officials ( Read more... )

Ever wonder what would happen if the biblical Jesus was the Jesus of the Tea Partiers? Wallow in his red-lettered insight.


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Of the books I've read lately, Clay Shirkey's Here Comes Everybody had some interesting notes on how the internet and easy connectivity has changed how society reacts to, well, everything ( Read more... )