I’m a Ph.D. of many years, published a lot in the biobehavioral/medical psychology areas. I was trained, and believe, than a Ph.D. means that you should have the skills to critically review a content area, be able to abstract its salient point and controversies, and be able to design and execute studies that clarify these controversies. Granted, I’m thinking in terms of both biological and behavioral research- fields such as English literature don’t have testable hypotheses (at least as I understand them…)

The reason I say this is that I was struck by the contrast between Joel’s extremely thorough and persuasive posts here and WinSmith’s similarly polished and well reasoned posts I have seen on NON-Israel related topics, versus Winsmith’s posts here and on other posts involving the “I” word. Joel and “non-I Winsmith” review a range of facts and show how they lead to reasonable conclusions. “ I-Winsmith”, on the other hand, looks just like many bright students I have worked with to improve their critical thinking skills. Their work, when deconstructed, shows that they are starting with a premise, then “mining the data” to look for support, while simultaneously ignoring or devaluing contradictory data. This type of pseudo-logic is not limited to students- ever heard of the Cold Fusion controversy? It’s a type of self-delusion practiced by very smart people:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathological_science

Winsmith, please believe me when I say this isn’t a personal attack. I am suggesting you apply some critical thinking here. As far as I can tell, the alternative hypotheses can be summarized as follows:

1) You are right, everybody else is wrong and/or conspiring together against you; or

2) Perhaps you are emotionally over-invested in this topic and have lost some objectivity, and are working your considerable intelligence and language skills overtime defending your position, rather than considering that MAYBE you’re, well, in error here?

Here’s a hint. The highest-level, “executive” functions of the human brain involve self-monitoring- being able to recognize that one’s behavior isn’t working, and shifting to something else. In other words, a big part of being "smart" is knowing that you can be wrong! Be good to your frontal lobes and they will be good to you…

Peace Out

the phrase would be:

"there are lies, damned lies, and anything printed on the WaPo editorial pages"

Thanks for ruining a halfway decent morning, Glenn...:-)

1. In a perverted way, there actually is a case to be made that pot can be a "gateway" drug. Since all the public data from the war on drugs tells young folks that pot will turn them into either vegetables or crazed killers, when a teenager actually tries some and sees it just makes them feel good and that they feel fine the next day...some kids may think the same about coke, meth, Oxycontin, etc. New research on addictions clearly shows that some drugs are more or less addictive than others. Crack, meth, and herioin are the worst, pot is the LOWEST- less addictive than tobacco or alcohol. By saying that pot is just as dangerous, it misleads the public in a dangerous direction.

2. Smoking ANYTHING is not healthy- the byproducts of combustion are carcinogenic, and carbon monoxide decreases one's oxygen carrying capacity for weeks. Check out vaporizers as a healthier alternative. At about 250 farenheit, THC boils off the surface of the herb. No carbon monoxide, no carcinogens, no throat irritation (and no nasty smell on you clothes :-)

I know Bat Cave, NC very well. It's truly sad that it's beauty is tarnished by a sexist, self-righteous shithead such as you.

PS- based on my knowlege of the women of the area, I doubt you'd have the balls to make such statements except in the safe anonymity of the internet. Otherwise you'd be struggling to digest them...

what the hell does that article have to do with anything in this thread? Assume that the doctor is in fact incompetent-he lost his license, which is what should happen. Perhaps if doctors didn't have their lives and families threatened by Xtian nutjobs for providing a LEGAL service, more of them would be willing to do so. Is that the goal- chase the competent doctors away, so any woman desiring a "evil" procedure like abortion will get treated by an incompetent? By teh way, when a Christian tele-evangelist's teeneage daughet gets pregnant, they get a top-quality abortion by a professional- daddy just has her flown to Europe on his private jet. First hand knowlege...

If abortion were illegal, how long should the woman go to jail? You f**kers never cease to amaze me with your self-righteous stupidity...

or, perhaps a simpler hypothesis would explain the observed data. Could it be that you are, at best, an oppositional-defiant child, and at worse, a total fucking moron?

Enquiring minds have already forgotten you...

Just an FYI from my area of expertise...

Zoltan/Lotus is/are wackjobs. Rocky is a idiot, taking moron classes, and skimping on his homework. E-man and Shooter are simply contrarians. They should be grateful to the tiny-brained trio for making them look at least halfway literate...

Seriously, I enjoy Glenn's thoughts and the discussions of most of the posters here. But y'all are wasting way too much bandwidth on these fools. They don't want a debate- they just want your attention. I am very busy and jump to this place in my too-rare spare time, and I'd appreciate less chaff to go with the high-quality wheat...

Thanks

for proving my point beyond any doubt whatsoever.

Peace Out

you have truly accomplished that which I thought was impossible.

You actually made Shooter look good...

you have truly accomplished that which I thought was impossible.

You actually made Shooter look good...