Letters to the Editor
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Fantastic, RMP!
I saw that at Digby's site just a few minutes ago, RMP! Very inspiring.
And guess what, Barron is from Billerica, MA, right next to my home town of Bedford, MA. We pronounce it "Billrick-ah."
Well, I am glad I came here on the first day of the new year. I have been very worried because my grad assistantship was eliminated as part of a group layoff (by a callous authoritarian wingnut AVP, of course). I found another assistantship at the University Press, but it's a 45% cut in pay. Gadzooks. So I am sitting here with the heat on 60 degrees, wondering how I will pay the gas bill! Of course, I am not the only one whose situation has worsened during the Bush years. I know people who have lost jobs, insurance, and homes. So it is time to look outward and think about how I can do some good this year. I will start by getting my daily dose of Truth from Glenn and inspiration and information from the good people here. Presumptuous Insect will be buzzing loudly in 2008!
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@WT - It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.
Respectfully, L.W.M., your take on the necessity of our entry into WWI isn't persuasive for a number of reasons having nothing to do with your assertion that WT would avoid war even when it's offered unequivocally...
Bebop has it about right, as usual. Avoid being adversarial if you can....
Sure. It is better to jaw-jaw than to war-war.
QUOTATION: To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.
ATTRIBUTION: WINSTON CHURCHILL, remarks at a White House luncheon, June 26, 1954. His exact words are not known, because the meetings and the luncheon that day were closed to reporters, but above is the commonly cited version.
His words are quoted as “It is ‘better to jaw-jaw than to war-war,’” in the sub-heading on p. 1 of The New York Times, June 27, 1954, and as “To jaw-jaw always is better than to war-war” on p. 3.
The Washington Post in its June 27 issue, p. 1, has “better to talk jaw to jaw than have war,” and The Star, Washington, D.C., p. 1, a slight variation, “It is better to talk jaw to jaw than to have war.”
Lynn Margulis Blog Tour at Pharyngula. Fascinatiing:
Sample question:
Prof. Margulis,
What significance do you attatch to epigenetic processes in evolution?
Posted by: SteveF | March 12, 2007 9:03 AM
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/03/lynn_margulis_blog_tour.php
Amazing!
And here's one for the linguists!
Category: Creationism
If you've ever been curious about the intelligent design of language, here's a new one for you: Edenics.
Here you will discover that ALL human words contain forms of the Edenic roots within them. These proto-Semitic or early Biblical Hebrew words were programmed into our common ancestors, Adam and Eve, before the language dispersion, or babble at the Tower of Babel -- which kickstarted multi-national human history.
Oh, joy. They're after all of our sciences.
Previous entry: Creationist Physics 101
They won't quit.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/
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@ WT
I forgot to add that even the jaw-jaw can be adversarial. If only we could just eat our adversaries and let them live in our bellies like endosymbiont Fat Bastard and endosymbiont Mini-Me.
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Fantastic PI
You're the kind of young people we need for leadership in the future. Hang in there and look at each experience as valuable regardless of how painful it might seem at the time. As I just told my 5-year-old grandson, doing something hard feels a lot better than doing something easy. You are very mature and wise for your age and I enjoy your comments.
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Fascinating thread - for actual scientists
Lynn Margulis has sent the opening statement for her blog tour below. You should feel free to respond to it, raise other questions of any relevant sort, or say whatever you want in the comments; she'll be along later today to respond to those that interest her. I will be policing the comments, so trolls, please don't bother; serious comments only, and keep in mind that she's only going to respond to a limited subset, so make 'em good.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/03/lynn_margulis_blog_tour.php
I don't know if she answered the epigenetics question, I'm still reading, long thread, but the thread got right into her controversial statements vis a vis HIV/AIDS and the evidence of, or lack of, a causal connection. It looks like it stayed on that and became quite political. We are transitioning from the era of the religious into the political. Her answers are revealing none the less.
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I'll just note
From my perspective, it appears that she does this to enhance the apparent contrast between current thought (which is really a pretty broad spectrum) with her ideas about symbiogenesis. But when the dust settles, I'm not sure the positions are necessarily as diametrically opposed as suggested.
(From LWM's link:)
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/03/lynn_margulis_blog_tour.php
It seems a similar dynamic is happening here.
Ron Paul ( a physician and hence someone who knows better) says he doubts evolution. He's doing so because a significant portion of his base object to science on religious grounds and he doesn't want to alienate them.
This is clearly dishonest.
Bucky, who has made it clear that he DOES believe in evolution has nevertheless found himself in a position where he needs to defend Ron Paul so he pretends that there's some rigid orthodoxy that I am defending other than a belief in the lawfulness of nature and the validity of the scientific method. In doing so he creates a controversy that needn't exist all of which is needed to provide cover for the pandering of his hero to his base.
This too, is clearly dishonest.
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Paul Dirks..
Perhaps you can give me an example of someone in politics who is not dishonest.
Or is your definition of an honest politician one who stays bought?
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GMTA
I love PZ.
Published on LewRockwell.com. Right.
Posted by: PZ Myers | March 13, 2007 7:54 PM
In response to this:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig7/culshaw1.html
If only Bucky would realize that after Glenn Greenwald (and one or two others folks who have agreed to let them reprint their stuff), the rest of it is complete bullshit.