Gregg R Thomas

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Unseen,

Zero gun violence is not the goal. Reducing the amount of gun violence is the goal. If one instituted an efficient and convenient public transportation system taking half the cars off the road, road deaths would go down somewhat proportionally.

Funny, you did not allow such nuance with the…

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TheEncogitationer wrote:
So did New York’s stringent weapons laws stop Salman Rushdie from getting stabbed by Shia’ lunatic Hadi Matar?

Zero gun violence is not the goal. Reducing the amount of gun violence is the goal. If one instituted an efficient and convenient public transportation system taking half the cars off the road, road deaths wou…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Unseen,

I’m not sure where you’re going with that. Stop hinting and be explicit, please.

Wouldn’t you have to say communications technology should be at least as restricted as guns, if danger to lives is your concern.

A free marketplace of ideas is inherently good. By, contrast, societies with stricter control over guns…[Read more]

jakelafort wrote:
Wall Street Journal headline: Early Bulletin Said Ammunition in Kirk Shooting Engraved With Transgender, Antifascist Ideology; Some Sources Urge Caution

I guess being antifascist has become a vile, nasty, evil thing.

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Unseen, Ideas in The Holy Bible, Al-Quran, The Communist Manifesto, and Mein Kampf put out by media technology beginning with the printing press have killed millions more than guns alone. Should such media technology be restricted to an elite few?

I’m not sure where you’re going with that. Stop hinting and be explicit, please.

jakelafort wrote:
Shitstorm is gonna intesnify a bit if the killer of Kirk is apprehended and it turns out he is a lefty. Probably is too. Imagine how the US and far right Europe would react if Trump is assassinated? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/11/europe-far-right-leaders-charlie-kirk-shooting-turning-point-usa

Trump is already…[Read more]

So, who was Charlie Kirk?

“I think it’s worth it. I think it’s worth to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment to protect our other God-given rights.” — Charlie Kirk

Well, I think we can feel a little bit more secure now, can’t we?

Some more about the BBC bias.

Jesus is Magic!!

TheEncogitationer wrote:
But I can attest today that a Jesus Fish on a work van or business sign doesn’t necessarily equal trust or quality. Televangelists and Noah’s Ark theme parks do not help matters either.

I think the “trust” thing works both ways with religious people.  I’m always suspiciously on the look out for tell-tale hypocrisy.

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Tribes and clans can be and were dismantled by travel and trade between different peoples.

Travel and trade come into the story.  But in the first place, if family, clan and tribe ties are dissolved to a great extent, then people become individuals.  And religion provided the trust necessary for individuals to trade, o…[Read more]

I think Holy Water is meant to have some spirit in it? And 10 year old scotch is no longer for 10 years olds.

“Always carry a flagon of whiskey in case of snakebite, and furthermore, always carry a small snake.…..W.C. Fields.

Ha! Enco, the Church guided water ignorance had a strange but happy side effect. It turns out that the locals (in the uk) discovered that people who drunk wine, gin or beer did not get sick, whereas those drinking water were keeling over everywhere.  As a result, adults and children alike were swigging back the alcohol, giving gentle rise to the…[Read more]

Was Diogenes Woke?

We agree. He was not! 🙂

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
I think the writer is “tilting at windmills” and is arguing a point that does not need to be made. It could even be deemed a “strawman argument”. Her critique seems aimed more at an imagined “scientific arrogance” than at how science is genuinely practiced.

I think she’s right that science has had ideological…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
* (That Christian Apologist Gish Galloping Galoot I once told you about one time even went so far as to claim that the entire Enlightenment experiment and even Atheism were the product of Christianity! That takes some real mental gymnastics!)

I’ve got a book that says just that, and they make a good point.  The Western…[Read more]

Burst into bull frog? There are a few known cases of it happening.

I think the writer is “tilting at windmills” and is arguing a point that does not need to be made. It could even be deemed a “strawman argument”. Her critique seems aimed more at an imagined “scientific arrogance” than at how science is genuinely practiced. Very few scientists claim perfect objectivity; rather, they emphasize the method as t…[Read more]

Reg the Fronkey Farmer wrote:
Scientific objectivity is a myth

I argue a more accurate view of science is that pure objectivity is impossible. Once you leave the myth of objectivity behind, though, the way forward is not simple. Instead of a belief in an all-knowing science, we are faced with the reality that humans are responsible for what is…

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