jakelafort

I think it is safe to assume that the abuse of children at the hands of the Catholic Church was far worse in past centuries than it is presently.

I recommend a movie. Spotlight If’n ya aint seen it ya might wanna.

If the Catholic Church is going to die what will become of the aspiring molesters, abusers, deviants, freaks, and assorted neerdowells and tatterdemailions?

I see the similarity. West Cork and Mendocino are competing for earth porn status. Inland, the Sierras are so damn lovely.

Thanks Reg.

Nice to read something positive in terms of good trends.

I have a friend in rural No. California and the terrain is spectacular but the people are overwhelmingly and spectacularly religious and fundamentalist at that.

Reg, what is your perception of the attitude of young’ns in Ireland towards Catholic Church. Any idea the percentage of young Irish Atheists?

Brain droppings:

Off topic is on topic when digression is the oxygen of intelligence.

Neb by neb
the sighted sign
that waxing on
is so much brail
in declensions
of deforming
glancing meaning
but who can describe?

We have the temerity, audacity, egoism to characterize inorganic intelligence as artificial intelligence! Intelligence will only…[Read more]

I am reminded of Oliver Sacks who has some cool books about fascinating aptitudes. He gives descriptions of savants and autistic persons who have mind blowing aptitudes for things like math and art. Some of them have no more intelligence than a dull chimpanzee. But they have brilliant aptitudes.

You can make the case that it is a construct. I don’t buy that but it is plausible.

Intelligence deals with the general but universal whereas aptitudes deal with specific talents.

Reg, you use the word intelligence the way i use the word aptitude.

Pattern recognition without discrimination is an abomination. Handicapping horse races involves a great deal of pattern recognition. That ability alone is insufficient. One must understand when a pattern is significant and when it is not.

People often ascribe agency to…[Read more]

Unseen, I have some vague formulations or notions of what constitutes intelligence. Notwithstanding my thoughts which would be seen by some as incorrect or idiosyncratic i am in agreement that intelligence is a difficult concept. Acknowledging it as such is odd since we all judge ourselves and others as being intelligent or stupid. We do it all of…[Read more]

Yeah, intelligence is a slippery concept.

Any legit debate requires terms like race and intelligence be defined. On the other hand do any of think that Trump cultists are average intelligence? I do not. Even without limning the lemmings i am not out on a limb in that assertion, or am i?

I was not advocating censorship of the topic. That would be going way too far. However it would be better if science and politics avoided the subject because any conclusions of superiority will come to be utilized improperly. The USA for instance had decades of immigration policy directly tied to racist notions promulgated by guys like Madison…[Read more]

If i had even the slightest confidence in our species i would not opine as i have but history has lesson after lesson. It is like allowing the gov. to censor some speech. It is pathetic that such a policy is imo necessary but there ya go.

Unseen, that is a reasonable treatment of a delicate topic.

I think there may be some genetic differences relating to genetics. On the other hand you can always count on humans turning harmless and nebulous findings into social darwinism or bad policy. So on balance it is probably better if the topic is not put under the microscope of science or…[Read more]

If it is okay to ascribe superior athletic performance to biological variations in black athletes why is it wrong to ascribe superior intelligence to intellectuals of a certain group? I suppose we don’t have the biological super twitch of intelligence. But even if it is discovered will the proponents of that explanation be given the Charles Murray…[Read more]

That is the first time i heard a man refer to his tits.

As a kid i discovered our afghan had gotten into the garbage and was after chicken bones. I readily removed the bones having heard how they’re dangerous for dogs. Alsab opted not to go for my tits and instead bit me on the cheeks and left me in disbelief as i staggered inside with blood…[Read more]