Democracy is as good as its participants. An informed, interested & engaged citizen is the lifeline of a healthy society. A liberal citizen is vital to our American democracy as a conduit for progress. This liberal citizen advocates humanism, scientific reason, and a progressive culture of life.
Why do some countries fare better (in any way you want to measure) than others? One reason is the prevailing conditions, like war, poverty, political instability, natural disasters. Another is the choices the citizens make as to their leadership, their priorities, treating of each other, personal views and public sentiment. Of course, leadership matters a lot, but in a democracy isn't the people the ultimate deciders? [this is a topic requiring lots of discussion]
In order to have a reasonable discussion, logic and facts (as much as we can ascertain them) should feature prominently. Of course, we know, this is not always the case--and I may even argue, it's more rare than the reverse.
In the US, politics often is like a sport. People pick teams and consume only one source of information, disregarding anything (even valid) that falls outside their frame of mind--the preconceived f.o.m. That's why we see people still clinging to ideas that have been discredited, or are considered obnoxious, highly prejudicial, ignorant, and outdated.
Climate change/global warming is happening and has accelerated. The problem is the alerts mostly came from the progressives first. Oh, yeah, and the scientists, who have a liberal bias--the bias the majority of educated people sport. Then we have special interests in certain industries who have been buying politicians and a campaign to doubt/deny global warming.
Here's Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) who addresses this topic succinctly.
-------
Fake Questions to Raise Concern
There's a rumor (who cares who started it) that Mr. Lincoln is beating his wife regularly. That's terrible even by 19th century standards. So, it's good question to ask of Mr. Lincoln whether he's thought about stopping beating his wife, whether he feels remorse, and whether he treat all women in his life similarly.
In similar fashion, I hear that the EPA wants to stop our 4th of July fireworks; it wants to regulate our freedom! Libertarians complain about the government that wastes money on studying the weather on Mars, the sex lives of fruit flies, and monitors volcanoes. Humbhag.
I also hear that we'll experience something similar to Hitler's invasion when Obama-care goes into effect. Here's a video--actually it includes segments of the original video that raises some fake questions to alarm people, and a doctor responding to those concerns:
The easy way: While you're viewing this page, log into your Yahoo, Gmail, etc. (another tab). Then return here and hit the link above. Accept the new content on your Yahoo, etc., page and you're all set. You can read the posts from this blog on your customized page of your favorite application.
What kind of society, exactly, do modern Republicans want? [...] They say they want a smaller government but that can’t be it. Most seek a larger national defense and more muscular homeland security. Almost all want to widen the government’s powers of search and surveillance inside the United States – eradicating possible terrorists, expunging undocumented immigrants, “securing” the nation’s borders. They want stiffer criminal sentences, including broader application of the death penalty. Many also want government to intrude on the most intimate aspects of private life.
"They call themselves conservatives but that’s not it, either. They don’t want to conserve what we now have. They’d rather take the country backwards – before the 1960s and 1970s, and the Environmental Protection Act, Medicare, and Medicaid; before the New Deal, and its provision for Social Security, unemployment insurance, the forty-hour workweek, and official recognition of trade unions; even before the Progressive Era, and the first national income tax, antitrust laws, and Federal Reserve.
They’re not conservatives. They’re regressives. And the America they seek is the one we had in the Gilded Age of the late nineteenth century."
Santorum is Right: The Conservatives Won't Win the Smart Thinkers
The conservative disposition lies in the individual's own temperament, and his aversion to progress. The elites always used the conservative disposition of the masses to extract their loyalty. The "bargain" has been God, religion, morality, stability, the known-and-true. Primitive taboos against innovation and change. Education and tolerance of diversity are deadly threats to conservatism!
Donate to Good Charities
The Role of Government
You be the judge!
______________________________________________
Below, a place tea-baggers would love....
...
Basics of Critical Thinking
The Skeptics Guide to the Universe
On Occasion, Size Does Matter!
Sure, we can all attain a high material life with ever-increasing possessions. The whole world hopefully will become like us someday--by which time we'll be even more prosperous and wealthy.
What? We need 6 Earths to do that? Noooooooooo!
A Form of Child Abuse
I have an affinity for education, but I define education as a means to learning, not indoctrination. Every child starts with a blank slate, so it's up to the parents and the society-at-large to rear this young human being into a critically-thinking adult. When you teach religion as fact--like people literally turning into pillars of salt, snakes bite the sinners, the earth is only 6,000 years old, and all that garbage--then it's a form of child abuse. It's stunting the development of the human mind and turning people into obedient ignoramuses.
As it often happens, especially around xmas time, I get into discussion whether the US is a Christian country. [discussed here in an earlier...
Even Fools Should Have Free Speech! Idiocracy Further Exposed...
Dangerous Attitudes
"Forty-four percent of the American population is convinced that Jesus will return to judge the living and the dead sometime in the next fifty years. According to the most common interpretation of biblical prophecy, Jesus will return only after things have gone horribly awry here on earth. It is, therefore, not an exaggeration to say that if the city of New York were suddenly replaced by a ball of fire, some significant percentage of the American population would see a silver lining in the subsequent mushroom cloud, as it would suggest to them that the best thing that is ever going to happen was about to happen—the return of Christ.
It should be blindingly obvious that beliefs of this sort will do little to help us create a durable future for ourselves—socially, economically, environmentally, or geopolitically. Imagine the consequences if any significant component of the U.S. government actually believed that the world was about to end and that its ending would be glorious. The fact that nearly half of the American population apparently believes this, purely on the basis of religious dogma, should be considered a moral and intellectual emergency."
With beliefs like this, who cares about climate change? Maybe Marge Simpson is right...
An Easy Step to Help the Environment
Do you get tons of catalogs that clutter your mailbox? Catalogs that you don't really use since it's easier and more up-to-date to simply use the internet? Here's something you can do to help yourself and save a few trees: Catalog Choice, a sponsored project of the Ecology Center, whose mission is to "improve the efficiency of catalog distribution by reducing the number of repeat and unsolicited mailings, and to promote the adoption of sustainable industry best practices."
Give it a try. It's free & easy.
Quoting intelligence...
"Being a cynic is contemptibly easy. If you let yourself think that nothing you're working on is ever going to make a difference, why bust your tail over it? Why care? If you're a cynic, you don't have to invest anything in your work. No effort, no pride, no compassion, no sense of excellence, nothing...
..Any good teacher will tell you that aiming at the lowest common denominator is poor practice. In communicating anything, you do better if you aim slightly above the heads of your audience. If you make them stretch a little, they respond better. If you keep aiming at the dumb ones, you never challenge them and you bore the hell out of the bright ones. You also commit the grievous and pernicious error of thinking the that people is dumb. One of the most horrific results is that the people start to think so themselves."
--Excerpts from Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She?
Understanding Evolution: We're Here 'Cause of It!
It's amazing that the majority of Americans--sadly, including students--not only don't understand the theory of evolution, but they reject one of the strongest scientific theories we have in favor of superstition, myths, and theories with no evidence or rule of reason!
And, this is a more serious explanation by Richard Dawkins..