February 24, 2008

Weekly Worth News: Islands in the InfoStream

scientistknowshit.jpg Surfing the InfoStream we tend so scan more than read. Since last Sunday, I've clipped excerpts from over 150 essays or articles that I felt were clearly more than cutting comments or snarks upon the passing scene. These are selected shorts from writing that deserves to be read rather than scanned.

David Warren on "the worldview in which "science" is openly substituted for religion, and the sciences (plural) are thereby opened to corruption, to regulation and censorship, to serving the agendas of various smelly little orthodoxies."

Morgan Freeberg asks why atheism claims this age: "This is the age of fifty gazillion wonderful new inventions, all of which are dedicated to finding new ways to play personal music collections and carry dogs around in purses."

Stuff White People Like defines National Public Radio: "All white people's opinions are developed from Public Radio. So if you want to sound smart in front of White People, just bring up a topic that was discussed on Public Radio."

On Lent: "Who told you that you were naked?" by The Anchoress "The need to be vulnerable and open to God is part and parcel of having a real relationship with Him, just as it is the necessary component in human relationships."

Portents of things to come: Paul Martin Lester describes the history of Faking images in photojournalism. Published first in January, 1988.

Unqualified Reservations teaches you "How to read and enjoy bogus history" --

"If we have learned anything, we have learned that we have no reliable source of news. So the art of reading nonsense matters, and it never gets easy. Once your brain detects that an entire school of thought is in fact best classified as canting, manipulative tripe, a sort of allergic reaction sets in that makes the stuff physically painful to read. Perhaps worst is the realization that the material is created for an audience and the audience is, more or less, buying it. The sense of being outnumbered by one's enemies produces a deep reflex terror in the hominid brain. And there is the endless nagging temptation to give in, to go with the flow, to believe."

Of Its and It's in the comments to neo-neocon's Confessions of a semicolon lover: "It's is is not, it isn't ain't, and it's it's, not its, if you mean it is. If you don't, it's its. Then too, it's hers. It isn't her's. It isn't our's either. It's ours, and likewise yours and theirs."

Against the tide of treason coming out of Hollywood's "war" movies: The Lost Art of War by Andrew Klavan, City Journal Winter 2008

Liberty, tolerance, the harmony of conflicting voices -- these things didn't materialize suddenly out of the glowing heart of human decency. People thought of them, fought and died to establish them, not in the ether, but on solid ground. That ground has to be defended or the values themselves will die. The warriors willing to do this difficult work deserve to have their heroism acknowledged in our living thoughts and through our living arts. We should hear their voices every day, saying: Earn this. Earn it.

delete.jpgJonathan Brink @ Missio Dei contemplates the sublime beauty of The Delete Button:
"The beauty of my blog is that I can save the post and just let it sit. Some times for days. And then I'll come back to it later and take a look at it again and say, "What was I thinking?" I begin to see how other people would feel if they read that. I'll begin to see the argument it would have created and the fiend in me that would have been fed by that argument. And something in me will still want to post it, so I'll let it sit for another week, stewing in the Wordpress database, fermenting to a ripe smell that resembles rotting flesh. And then I'll revisit the post again and realize, "What was I thinking?" Only this time I'll actually hit the delete button."

Paul Costani tours the Seattle Truthers Towers of Babble "This is why the 9/11 Truth movement is brilliant," Robin says, "because we're on the web and we have DVDs and we're out handing things out" -- specifically, he says, in places they aren't wanted. "We're doing what I'd like to call civil informationing."

William M. Briggs, Statistician asks Is climatology a pseudoscience? He recalls the Paranormal certainties when that science was settled, "We are only just starting to see parallels with parapsychology and climatology, the most prominent now is model patching."

testiclelockbox2.jpgRegarding that testicle lockbox, the chicks @ Feministe think this Question From a Reader is an important issue in their blighted lives:

"Random aside, does anyone have any advice for weeding out the misogynistic programing in a man? My husband is a great guy, and for the most part a feminist. Problem is he lives in the real world and has internalized a lot of the stereotypes that we're trying to dismantle. For instance, the idea that an extremely underaged girl can consent to sex. Or upon hearing about a rape immediately wondering if she's lying (got that one gone). Or most recently, that Hillary Clinton is a power hungry bitch."
Go for the question. Stay for the helpful comments and mourn that "great guy" of a husband who will FLEE! if he knows what's good for him.

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Posted by Vanderleun at February 24, 2008 9:39 AM | TrackBack
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AMERICAN DIGEST HOME
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

re: the feministe website link.

hfs! Are you sure that "question from a reader" is not a parody? I mean... Either it is a brilliant parody, or they are all barking mad!

I mean, can you imagine the poor sods married to these...insane, yes they have to be insane... women?

Posted by: pdwalker at February 24, 2008 12:17 PM

Thanks for the nod.

Posted by: Jonathan Brink at February 24, 2008 5:26 PM
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