The Many Hypotheses Hypothesis

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/large-hadron-collider-might-reveal-extra-dimensions

I have never liked Everett's many worlds hypothesis for both emotional and rational reasons, but the extra dimensions necessary for string theory?  We can hope!  Mini black holes, however, remain disturbing in spite of the assurances that they are too hot and unstable to last long enough to feed and become a threat.  

I wonder if we could look for them in cosmic ray collisions with our upper atmosphere.  The universe is a bigger and more powerful accelerator than any we will ever build, and it's already operating at no cost to us.

War? What War? I Ain't Seen No War!

I posted the following on response to the right wing's hysteria over the imagined war on Christians.

A new poll indicates this kind of extremism is causing a backlash.  It reports that Evangelicals are losing popularity as LGBTs gain it.  In fact, the results indicate LGBTs are more popular in America than are Evangelicals.

I don't know if Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research is reliable, but these results are reported on an ultrareligious Christian website which opposes  marriage equality:  http://www.christianpost.com/news/gay-people-more-popular-than-evangelicals-says-poll-from-lgbt-activist-group-117028/

I must add that, as a Christian, I haven't detected anyone waging war on me.  You'd think I would have noticed that sort of thing.  I wonder what's wrong with me.

Props

Agitprop is agitation propaganda, designed to enrage and frighten people into illogical and even self destructive behaviors.  Disinformation is false data intended to delude and mislead people.  These are the only items available on Fox News and other "conservative" sites.  I am reminded of the "news" once produced by the Soviet party organ called Pravda.  Pravda, by the way, means "truth".

My Right To Take Away Your Rights

During a discussion with friends on the issue of the religious right to discriminate, I posted:

The Religious Right has a point in that early American colonies, especially those of the Pilgrims, were solidly based upon the right to jail, whip, imprison and otherwise suppress all who did not believe exactly as they did.  Even minor doctrinal differences could result in brutal punishment.  The  Religious Right wants that "freedom" back.

Today, they are desperately  employing every tool they have and are burning up all their resources to try to turn the tide.  They have lost the cultural wars and know it.  These seeming victories are their swan song which makes them ever more unpopular as they try to regain their former position.  Gay rights were once unthinkable, but are now the norm.  They are in exactly the same position as the segregationists were in the 1960's.  They seemed to to be winning, but only on the surface.

Think about the 80's.  The ultra religious were crowing about how they had taken over government.  Today all they do is howl about how America has betrayed them.  

"You Can Discriminate As Long As You Don't Discriminate"

Updates on Indiana's "You Can Discriminate As Long As You Don't Discriminate" law:

Consider the first reported application of the law:

http://washingtonpost.com.co/marcus-bachmann-refused-service-in-indiana-store-owner-assumed-he-was-gay/. A store owner refused to serve Michelle Bachman's husband because he looked gay to her.

-- Holtz began to suspect that Bachmann was “perhaps a homosexual man”, and because it is now within her rights to refuse service based on religious beliefs, informed Bachmann she would be unable to serve him, and asked him to leave. --

So that's only one woman's interpretation?  Read on.

In spite of denials that the law intended to legalize discrimination, the groups who helped write the law and who stood beside the Governor when he signed it, openly declare that discrimination is the ONLY purpose of the law.

(The following lengthy quote is from http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2015/03/31/3640801/conservatives-indiana-discrimination/)

-- At the forefront of the conservative reaction is Micah Clark, who serves as executive director of the American Family Association of Indiana and who stood right behind Pence as he signed the bill. Speaking Monday to Tim Wildmon, head of the national American Family Association, Clark explained that conservatives should oppose any effort to clarify that the law does not legalize discrimination. “That could totally destroy this bill,” he explained.

Clark has been publicly advocating for the bill as a means for allowing anti-LGBT discrimination since December, long before the legislation was even drafted. This directly contradicts the claims made Monday by House Speaker Brian Bosma (R) and Senate President Pro Tem David Long (R) that the legislation never had anything to do with discrimination.

Eric Miller, Executive Director of Advance America, is another anti-LGBT activist who stood by Pence as he signed the bill. Advance America praised Pence for signing the bill last week, openly stating that it would allow wedding vendors to refuse to serve same-sex couples and allow Christian businesses to refuse transgender people access to restrooms. Miller was quoted as saying, “It is vitally important to protect religious freedom in Indiana. It’s the right thing to do. It was therefore important to pass Senate Bill 101 in 2015 in order to help protect churches, Christian businesses and individuals from those who want to punish them because of their Biblical beliefs!” Pence and Miller, it turns out, go way back.

On the national stage, conservatives are similarly defending the RFRA and arguing it needs no fixing. Andrew Walker, Director of Policy Studies for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, perhaps best summed up the distortion conservatives are using to argue that it’s not discriminatory:

A wedding vendor who chooses not to service a same-sex wedding is not discriminating against a person’s being. Instead, the vendor believes that material cooperation in a particular event encroaches on his conscience… To give relief to a particular wedding vendor who feels uncomfortable servicing a gay wedding isn’t in any way comparable to state-sponsored discrimination… To require a wedding vendor to service a same-sex wedding is not eliminating discrimination against the gay couple. It’s coercing the wedding vendor. --

This sayeth the writers and supporters of the bill.  Governor Pence, someone's telling lies

On 3/31, Governor Pence stated he would work with the legislature to modify the law to,"make it clear that" the law did not allow a business to refuse service.  However, Tony 

Cook of the Indianapolis Star reports that legislators are having mixed responses to this, a few feeling that outright repeal is preferable.

Tinkering With Rights And Authority

I sharply disagree with this editorial. The Tinker decision, in which --...the Supreme Court proclaimed that schoolchildren don't “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.”-- is a poor one.  Schools (k-12) are dedicated to education. While discussions of current events are critical to fulfilling that function, political protest can be profoundly disruptive.  The learning environment requires  mutual effort and cooperative interactions, while protest is defined as disruptive and conflict oriented.

Furthermore, the authority of the school is undermined by the Tinker decision.  If we insist that free speech rights can not be limited for students, how can the school limit vulgarity or defiance?  Why can a student not wear pornographic images?  Why must a student be silent while the teacher lectures?

Of course students do not lose their rights at the classroom door, but the nature of the educational experience does limit those rights under the special circumstance of attending classes.

The issue of the classic concept of schools acting in loco parentis, that is as a parent in the absence of the actual parents, has been deeply eroded, but surely some level of authority must exist if schools are to function.

Court ruling shows hazy high school freedom
http://lat.ms/1Dnd8Wg

Come Now, And Let Us Scream Together, Saith The Conservatives...Isaiah 1:18

http://www.liberalamerica.org/2015/02/11/28-reasons-im-done-talking-to-most-of-my-conservative-friends-and-family-members/

As the author of the article points out, there are plenty of things to be discussed with conservative friends, just as long as it's not about anything which is actually important. It's not that we don't like to talk about these issues and even desire to have intelligent conversations which include disagreements. It's just that we don't like being screamed at.

What today is labeled a "conservative" is a terrified reactionary, dreaming nightmares of glories past and disasters yet to come.  They live in a state of constant terror and endless rage, because they find these feelings comforting. Having lost the culture wars, they have nothing left with which to define themselves except their sense of abandonment and betrayal.  The past must have been glorious because then they were in power. The future must be a dystopian disaster because they will no longer get their way.

This means that reality and the facts which construct reality are an existential threat to them.  In a spiritual, philosophical, psychological sense, to use facts in a discussion with them is the equivalent of pointing a loaded gun at their body.  I feel great pity for people so trapped by fear, but that does not mean I make excuses for them.