A Former Liberal Woman Said…

A formal liberal woman said:

The Left has declared war on Palin because she threatens their existence. Liberals need women dependent and scared so that women, like blacks, will vote Democrat. – Robin of Berkeley

I’d been truly wondering why the attacks from the Left on Palin were so vicious. I think maybe this lady is right.

-Popgun

Misinformation

The Obama administration’s talking heads (including Obama) frequently claim their opposition is spreading ‘misinformation’. Methinks that is like the pot calling the kettle black.

These days, finding the truth requires research. You sure as heck won’t find it by listening to Whitehouse spokes-heads. Or any other politician.

Sometimes, you can glean the truth by watching shows that pit persons of opposite viewpoints against each other in debate, such as Bill O’Reilly, or Huckabee, for instance. This requires critical thinking, however. Often you have to be careful to winnow out your own preconceived notions which distort your own view.

Quoting Robert A. Heinlein’s “The Notebooks of Lazarus Long”:

What are the facts? Again and again and again — what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking, ignore divine revelation, forget what “the stars foretell,” avoid opinion, care not what the neighbors think, never mind the unguessable “verdict of history” — what are the facts, and to how many decimal places? You pilot always into an unknown future; facts are your single clue. Get the facts!

Without the facts, it is impossible to accurately make good decisions about anything.

-Popgun

Quote of the Day..

“No concept man forms is valid unless he integrates it without contradiction into the total sum of his knowledge. To arrive at a contradiction is to confess an error in one’s thinking; to maintain a contradiction is to abdicate one’s mind and to evict oneself from the realm of reality.” – John Galt, “Atlas Shrugged”, Ayn Rand.

This is so inherently, obviously, true that it continuously surprises me that so many, many people clearly don’t grasp it. Examples of this might include:

• The silly idea that taking away honest, law-abiding people’s guns will make them, and other people, safer.
• The present administration’s insistence, ignoring all evidence and history, that spending trillions of dollars that do not yet exist will somehow bring about prosperity and economic growth.
• Basing major-impact government policy on a hypothesis (global warming) about which substantial doubt exists within the scientific community.
• The ability of many religious fundamentalists to ignore the massive body of scientific knowledge that demonstrates without reasonable doubt the age of the earth, for instance.
• And many, many others.

First, what are the facts?

Second, how do they fit with what I already (think I) know?

Third, reconciliation of apparent contradictions.

Believe it or not, this requires a voluntary effort – it is not automatic. Many people never learn to do this. This skill is fundamental to any sort of critical thinking.

When the percentage of people who understand and practice critical thinking becomes too small, our civilization will fall. This is the main thesis of Atlas Shrugged, a very thought-provoking book.

It’s too soon to be sure, but we may be seeing this in action.

-Popgun

Quote of the Day

“When a man, a business corporation or an entire society is approaching bankruptcy, there are two courses that those involved can follow: they can evade the reality of their situation and act on a frantic, blind, range-of-the-moment expediency-not daring to look ahead, wishing no one would name the truth, yet desperately hoping that something will save them somehow-or they can identify the situation, check their premises, discover their hidden assets and start rebuilding.”

from “For the New Intellectual: The Philosophy of Ayn Rand” by Ayn Rand.

Timely.

-Popgun

Do You Know…

Here’s a thought: you are going to survive everything that EVER happens to you – except the last thing.

So really, you’ve only got one thing to worry about, right?

Have a nice day!

-Popgun

Israel vs Hamas…

Interesting quote from Ed Morrissey on HotAir:

There is this underlying truth to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: if the Palestinians laid down their weapons, there would be no war, but if the Israelis laid down their weapons, there would be no Israel.

This kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

-Popgun

The Problem With Stimulus Packages

The Lady Tam says it so very well -

Any money that the government “pumps into” the economy to “boost” it had to be pumped out of the economy in the form of taxes in the first place. Why is this so hard to understand? You can’t raise the water level in a swimming pool by siphoning its contents from the deep end to the shallow end, nor can you build a wall higher by removing bricks from the bottom and putting them on top. Why is this extremely simple fact so terrifically difficult for otherwise smart people to grasp?

-Popgun

What the Muslim Extremists Want

By way of Powerline, this quote:

Hussein Massawi, the former leader of Hezbollah:
“We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.”

So much for negotiating.

Addendum: I took this guy’s statement to apply to all non-Muslims, not just Israel. But I’m not sure if he meant it that way. Either way, he wants a lot of people dead.

-Popgun

The Most Artistic Way to Lie

From Time Enough For Love by Robert A. Heinlein – the two most artistic ways to tell a lie.

“It’s not enough to be able to lie with a straight face; anybody with enough gall to raise on a busted flush can do that. The first way to lie artistically is to tell the truth – but not all of it. The second way involves telling the truth, too, but is harder: Tell the exact truth and maybe all of it .. but tell it so unconvincingly that your listener is sure you are lying.”

Politicians, take note…

-Pop

Quote for the Day #2

“Never try to teach a pig to sing – it wastes your time and annoys the pig.” – Lazarus Long, in Time Enough for Love by R.A. Heinlein