More from the Opposites files:
Too dangerous for kids to have - causes them to commit violence.
Totally OK for kids to play - not violent at all....
Wednesday, December 26, 2018
Sunday, December 23, 2018
Charity and Doonesbury
When I was young there was a hymn with that title, loosely based on "Ubi Caritas". The lyrics go like this:
Where charity and love prevail, there God is ever found; Brought
here together by Christ’s love, by love are we thus bound.
With grateful joy and holy fear His charity we learn; Let us with heart and mind and soul now love him...
Wednesday, August 15, 2018
No Words
I am surprised and dismayed about the extent of the abuse scandal in PA, and the lies of the bishops of the USCCB. I guess I sholdn't be, looking around me. You see, we can point at the priests who did these horrible things, and the bishops who excused them or even supported them, but the fact is, the priests and laity all around us are looking excusing...
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Fully Semiautomatic
This week's "Chicken Little" rant is by Chuck Schumer. According to Schumer, the decision that the first amendment allowed for someone to post schematics for a 3D printable gun makes the United States "a lot less safe." Not to be left out, NJ Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal sent a “cease and desist” letter to Defense Distributed saying that they...
Sunday, June 24, 2018
Not the Same
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By White House [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
To all the people comparing the expulsion of Sarah Sanders from a restaurant to the refusal of Jack Phillips to bake a cake, they are not the same. Here's why.
Jack Phillips did not refuse to serve David Mullins and Charlie Craig, he refused to make a product that was against his religious...
Sunday, April 15, 2018
Thoughts on gun violence Part 7: The Second Amendment
There are an endless supply of other solutions to the "gun violence" problem, such as age limits, mental health requirements, etc. but there are two important points that have been ignored. First off, there is no gun control law that has ever been implemented that has shows to be effective in reducing crime. The star in the crown of the anti-gunners'...
Thoughts on gun violence Part 6: Background Checks and "The Gun Show Loophole"
Another oft-proposed solution for the gun violence problem is closing the alleged "gun show loophole." The hype is that you can go to a gun show and buy a gun without going through a background check.
For the record, the background check laws in the USwere proposed by and supported by the NRA! The current system, called NICS (National Instant Criminal...
Thoughts on gun violence Part 5: More on Assault Weapons
The following statistics are taken from the CDC "National Vital Statistics Reports, Volume 66, Number 6, Deaths: Final Data for 2015" published November 27, 2017. In 2015 there were 36,252 firearm related deaths. Of those, 22,018 were suicides. 487 were unintentional. For 2014, the same report shows 33,594 total firearm related deaths, 21,386...
Friday, April 13, 2018
Thoughts on gun violence Part 4: Assault Weapons
One of the biggest most popular "solutions" to the gun violence problem is to ban "assault weapons." This is problematic on a number of levels.
First off, what is an "assault weapon?" It's whatever the people banning it want to say it is. The term "assault rifle" was a Nazi propaganda name for the MP44 machine pistol in World War II. It was basically...
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Thoughts on gun violence Part 3: magazines
One of the proposed "common sense" gun laws is the restriction of magazine size. First off, what is a magazine? A magazine is a box, usually made of plastic or metal, with a spring in it. Cartridges are loaded into the magazine, and the magazine is used to feed the cartridges into the gun's receiver. When the magazine is empty it is reloaded or in...
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Thought on gun violence part 2, red flag
One of the proposed solutions to gun violence are "extreme risk protection" aka "gun violence restraining order" aka "red flag" laws. Sounds good on the surface. If you see your neighbor or anyone whom you think is a risk to themselves or others you can have the court take away their firearms and put them on a list to be barred from purchasing more....
Thoughts on gun violence
I have been debating whether to write this post because (a) there are so many posts out there, written by people so much smarter and more eloquent than I am and (b) people seem recalcitrant on the issue - everyone has made up their minds. Still, there is a lot to be said on the subject, and I never expected people to actually read what I wrote anyway,...
Sunday, March 18, 2018
Evidence Part 7: What is claimed and not claimed
In the previous part we covered existence. Let's take a break and go over some things, because the following posts will be different in nature.
So far I have talked about basically two of the arguments - existence and contingency. That is "something exists" and "things are dependent on other things." Each of those claims, as demonstrated, becomes...
Thursday, March 15, 2018
Self Interest
I'm fed up! The latest trope that keeps getting trotted out is that "at least liberals care about kids getting shot." By implication, and sometimes explicitly, others do not. Those others are called out as conservatives/gun owners/pro lifers.
But let's get past the rhetoric and think about it. What do gun owners, et. al. have to "gain" by kids getting...
Sunday, March 4, 2018
Opposite Ageism
Another story from the Opposite Files. For newcomers, the opposite files
are my record of double standards and hypocrisy. You can click on the link to see the whole list - and more are being added all the time.
Youth are responsible enough to stop gun violence.
Youth are not responsible enough to handle gun...
Friday, February 23, 2018
Opposite Communion
Another story from the Opposite Files. For newcomers, the opposite files
are my record of double standards and hypocrisy. You can click on the link to see the whole list - and more are being added all the time.
OK for German Non-Catholics (who don't pay tax) to receive Holy Communion
Not OK for German Catholics who don't pay tax to receive...
Saturday, February 17, 2018
Evidence Part 6: Existence
In the last post we covered contingency. This time it's existence.
OK, so having dispelled some myths about science and cosmology, let's get philosophical. Why is there something rather than nothing? As shown earlier, science can't answer a "why" question, although that doesn't stop people who believe in Science™ from trying. People like Richard...
Sunday, February 11, 2018
Opposite Sitting
Another story from the Opposite Files. For newcomers, the opposite files are my record of double standards and hypocrisy. You can click on the link to see the whole list - and more are being added all the time.
OK to sit to protest oppressive regime.
Not OK to sit to protest oppressive regim...
Friday, February 9, 2018
My second favorite season!
Lent starts next week - on Valentine's Day - early this year. Lent is a (nominally) 40 day period leading up to Easter. It is a time to spiritually prepare oneself for Easter, and that preparation consists of three practices - Fasting, Prayer, and Almsgiving. Let's go over the rules:
Fasting
The Catholic church uses two terms, abstinence, which...
Sunday, February 4, 2018
Evidence Part 5: Contingency
In the last post we covered cosmology. This time it's contingency.
The argument from contingency is an attempt to get around the "turtles all the way down" problem of infinite regression (see the previous post int this series for a definition of turtles all the way down). The argument is pretty simple, and goes like this:
I exist, but I didn't...
Opposite Pain
Another story from the Opposite Files. For newcomers, the opposite files are my record of double standards and hypocrisy. You can click on the link to see the whole list - and more are being added all the time.
Cruel because creatures can feel pain without a cortex.
What we think is just a reflex is really pain.
OK to dismember, because...
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