Vanishing Foundations

One of the things mathematics taught me is that you have to start somewhere.  Some things you just have to accept.  Axioms are assumed to be true (usually because they are self evident) but are unprovable.

One thing discussions with atheists have taught me is that everyone (no one is excepted, here) finds it easier to see someone else's assumptions while often remaining ignorant of their own.

Let's have some fun seeing what that looks like.  David Hume raised the is/ought problem, also known as Hume's law or Hume's gillotuine.  When used in an argument, Hume's law might be deployed something like, "You can't get an ought from an is."

"School education is a shambles, we ought to put more money into schools."
This doesn't necessarily follow, for example
"School education is a shambles, we ought to stop wasting money on a broken system."

Which contention is correct needs to be established by further argument.

That's a simplified application.

But here's a really interesting application of Hume's law to Hume's law.

This is Hume's Law as he originally expressed it:

Doh Moments

Despite the great Australian tradition of the "Der" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYmPXD7OCmk&feature=related  Nobody does stupidity as well as Homer Simpson.  So this new category is to record Homer moments when and where they happen.
Doh moments.

Now Britney Spears is in trouble for a music video that seems at face value to be a naked attention grab in the wake of the London riots.  (Sorry, mentioning Britney and naked attention grab in the same sentence was an unintended pun)

I know what Hackney's MP is trying to say but considering Britney's track record and all the material on public record, this has to be one of the stupidest things ever uttered,

"Britney should really know better,"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2042212/Britney-Spears-row-Hackney-Council-gun-toting-video-shoot-Londons-riot-zone.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

PS:  I guess there's nothing wrong with Hackney, but can you think of a better place name for Britney to trot out another music mush video from?

Born This Way - NOT

I was born this way.

What, with prosthetic shoulder, cheek and temple implants?

As much as the 'born this way' argument is appealling because it shuts down all opposition, Gaga herself shows what a lot of rubbish it is.

Whales Speak Oxford English

Optus and WSPA have combined forces to give wales a voice. Just not their voice.









This is the website: http://www.givewhalesavoice.com.au/?utm_source=Empowered&utm_medium=eDM&utm_content=URL&utm_campaign=Give_Whales_A_Voice

Apparently wales are one of the loudest animals on the planet, but they suffer in silence when hunted.

"But together we can make their voices heard"

The site encourages us to record a word from the Oxford English Dictionary, then this list of words will be sent to the waling commission.

Do wales want to speak with an Oxford English accent?

My whole problem with this campaign is my problem with the whole animal rights movement.

This ad talks about the wales' voice, but it's really our voice. People are making these recordings. It's not wales sneaking ashore and surreptitiously recording a word in Ahab's Internet Cafe.

People who get caught up in the animal rights causes do so because they have given human characteristics, human prerogatives, human feelings and human motives to animals.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm against animal cruelty, but that's not the same things as seeing animals as the same as humans. That's just bad logic, it's not empirical and it's just plain dumb.

I was talking about this very thing to someone the other day who mentioned their pet dog and how important he was. And I pointed out, gently, that it was your attachment to the dog, your human characteristics that made cruelty to the animal seem so wrong.

We are different to dogs. They don't actually mind cruelty (unless we teach them otherwise). Ever seen a dog play with a rabbit? Ever seen a fox rip a lamb out of a ewe?

Let's shepherd creation, fish the wales humanely and sensibly if we have to, and not at all if we don't have to. But let's keep things in perspective.

Making a human being out of a wale is making a mountain out of a molehill.

In fact, it is this effort to give wales a human voice that actually robs the wales of their own unique voice.

Knutty Environmentalists

Get some perspective. That's all I'm going to say.

Get some perspective.

Wake up to yourselves.

Two different articles in the same SMH bulletin.

The first one speaks for itself. Have a look around, PETA. Get some perspective. What's really important here?



The second one is the same tragic environmental myopia carried through to a sadly enviro-logical end.

A couple in Argentina attempted to kill one of their children, succeeded in murdering the other, then killed themselves and "wrote in a suicide note they were scared about the effects of global warming" (http://www.smh.com.au/world/baby-survives-three-days-with-bullet-in-chest-after-parents-suicide-pact-20100303-pgtm.html)

They don't have to worry about global warming now.

This sad story reveals the stupidity of the extremist end of environmentalism because this is the logical conclusion of the rhetoric.

Get some perspective. Take a breath. Pull your head out of the clouds of rhetoric and propaganda and have a look at the real issues that face the world.

I Really Admire Elton John

I really admire Elton John.

Wow, a PHD in history and ancient languages. The years of learning and wisdom that he has accumulated is impressive.

The thoughtfulness with which he constructs each senstence, his devotion to the true, the good and the noble.

His commitment to following the truth where it lead him rather than shaping the world to his own desiring. His-

Oh wait, That's not the real Elton John. That's a made up one.

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/people/elton-john-jesus-was-gay-20100222-oom2.html

Elton John: Jesus was gay
February 22, 2010

God botherer ... Elton John claims Jesus Christ was gay.

Sir Elton John has claimed Jesus was a "super-intelligent gay man".
The openly homosexual musician made the claim in a magazine interview and admits he admires the Christian Messiah because his aim was to spread peace and love in the world.
The Rocket Man singer - who is married to Canadian filmmaker David Furnish - told Parade magazine: "I think Jesus was a compassionate, super-intelligent gay man who understood human problems.
"On the cross, he forgave the people who crucified him. Jesus wanted us to be loving and forgiving.
"I don't know what makes people so cruel. Try being a gay woman in the Middle East - you're as good as dead."
The Catholic League, the largest US Catholic rights group, condemned the comments.
"Jesus was certainly compassionate, but to say he was 'super-intelligent' is to compare the son of God to a successful game-show contestant,'' league president Bill Donohue said in a statement."More seriously, to call Jesus a homosexual is to label him a sexual deviant.''
Meanwhile, Elton also revealed he fears he could be killed by a crazed fan - just like John Lennon and Gianni Versace.
The 62-year-old singer was close friends with fashion designer Versace - who was shot dead in July 1997 on the steps of his Miami Beach mansion by Andrew Cunanan - and admits he decided to increase his personal security following the tragedy.
Referring to Versace and Lennon, he said: "Two of them shot outside their houses. None of this would have happened if they hadn't been famous. Fame attracts lunatics. I never had a bodyguard ever until Gianni died. I don't like celebrity anymore."
Beatles legend Lennon died in 1980 after being shot by deranged fan Mark Chapman outside his apartment building in New York.
Bang Showbiz and AFP

Leadership Integrity

Freedom

But What is the Unintentional Result

I know, let's make the ones who believe that stuff so uncomfortable that they have to leave. What would happen then?

Unity by Decree

I've been cleaning up...

Callous Indifference

A newspaper article today praises a young man who rescued a woman from a submerged vehicle.

The Newspaper article is here

A young woman driving along a seaside road was distracted by an insect and her car left the raod to become submerged upside down. A passing motorist rescued her and then disappeared.

While police and various groups praise the man PETA want to know what happened to the insect.

Ultimate Authority

There's a bit of a debate going on in Anglican circles about who can lead The Lord's Supper. It's no big deal, they're just working some things out, but it's been in the media, because it can be beat up into a fracas if you try hard enough.

One interesting comment that came out of the article (http://www.smh.com.au/national/legal-challenge-brewing-over-holy-communion-row-20091018-h2yo.html)

The rector of St John's Church, Gordon, Father Keith Dalby, said diaconal and
lay presidency contravened the type of church services and ministry role as
prescribed in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, which is the ultimate standard of
worship in the Anglican communion.

Penultimate, he should say. There's this book called the Bible...

The Post-Race President

Barak Obama was supposed to be the historical president that moved America beyond race.

It doesn't seem to be so.

In fact, it seems that in the United States it is becoming impossible to criticise Obama (Joe Wilson) or do your job (Sgt. James Crowley) without being accused of racism. Now you can't commit a crime without being racist.

To be sure this is nasty if it is a crime, and with the facts I have at this stage make it seem unlikely to me to be an accident or self harm.

But the last paragraph in this report is totally unwarranted:

Some reporters have also theorised that Sparkman's work for the Census Bureau - which is a federal government agency - linked him in the minds of his killers in conservative, mainly white rural Kentucky with President
Barack Obama, the first black US president.

Is it good reporting to finish an article with the unsubstantiated theory of other journalists that this crime was racially motivated when there is absolutely no evidence at this stage that this is so?

The fact that the deceased had "Fed" written on his chest is a fairly good indicator of anti federalism, or separatists or a southern grudge, but it in no way indicates racism.

What has the racial make up of the state, or their rural nature, or their political leanings got to do with a nasty crime in the woods. If it becomes an established fact that racist right wing guerrillas perpetrated this, then report it, but until then leave out the wild theories dripping with implications and veiled allegations.

It seems to me that it is not the conservatives who cannot move beyond race, but rather the liberals who would see racism rather than report the facts or deal with the issues.

Michael Hutton,
Conservative, mainly white rural Ariah Park

Blast From The Past

Found this when cleaning up the study. A comment (cynical comment) arising out of the cafuffles in the Uniting Church at the time.

Moroney's Lane, Temora

Moroney's Lane, Temora
July 2009

Probably about 5km down Moroney's lane from Temora, just after a rocky outcrop where the road narrows in the scrub as the hillside steepens there are two rubbish tips in what are probably two old mine diggings. Lots of wire and steel, a few bottles from about 50's or 60's and some broken bottles from approx 1920's.

Kevin Webb and I had a dig and excavated one pit and half of the other. The best find was two O.T. bottles, also a Reschs bottle with the Lion from about 1920's.

O.T. Registered
Refilling by Others
Is Illegal

This Bottle is
The Property of O.T. Limited
Australia
& London
1920's with beautiful picture of a chilli. Apparently a chilli fruit punch used as a mixer. The Maharaja's secret recipe, would you believe.

Later I went back and completed the dig and found a few more nondescript bottles from about 1920's and some bottles with trademarks and brand names from a later vintage.

Back Mimosa Road

Back Mimosa Road, Temora
July 2009
An old brick building starting to go to ruin on the Back Mimosa Road. I went back to the farm house and asked for permission to have a look around. She reckoned that it had already been looked over and there wouldn't be any there. Funny thing is, I found two Moglia and Smith bottles, one on either side of the road, on my side of the fence.

MOGLIA & SMITH
Trade Mark
TEMORA

With AGM skirt beneath.

Faithless Hermeneutics

Why is it Relevant?

Why is it even mentioned?

A SMH article (SMH link) describes the successful suit of a Muslim woman against her employer, a bar, for discrimination.

She sued because she was going to be forced to wear a tight uniform that was too revealing and made her feel "like a prostitute".

She won the case because the male staff were not made to change to a similarly humiliating uniform.

A couple of questions?

Why is it mentioned that she is Muslim? It has nothing to do with how she won the case. It was a case of sexual discrimination.

The wording makes it clear that a pivotal point was that the men didn't have to wear a similar uniform. Would it be OK if the men had to sleaze themselves for the job too? I suspect it would. Our community has lost its moral compass and the only way we can measure things are the woefully inadequate "consent" and "equal"

What is a Muslim woman doing serving alcohol in a bar anyway? This is why the mention of her religious background is weird. Good Muslims have nothing to do with alcohol.

Do we get to pick and choose which aspects of our religion we will sue others over and which we disregard when it suits us.

Should religious tolerance be extended to those who don't practice their faith consistently?

Some good questions there.
Probably some good answers somewhere.

But, I suspect, not to be found in the British law courts or with this particular Muslim woman.

Air Tax Controversy

Civil liberties groups are protesting the inclusion of a Oxygen Levy, or Air Tax, in the Australian Government's recent federal budget.

Buried in the fine print the levy has been largely unnoticed until now.

Margot Leifft of the Citizens Rights Coalition says, "It's only a small percentage now but it opens the door to further increases. Free air is an inalienable right."

The federal Treasurer disagrees, "A responsible government will tax the carbon a citizen puts into the atmosphere and a legitimate government can tax the oxygen you take out."

The coalition is researching to take a case to the supreme court, but it seems to be a long shot.
"There is nothing in the constitution, no case, no precedent. We've been right through the UN's declaration of human rights, and at the moment we can't find it clearly stated."

"What is clear is that the current laws were not framed with an oxygen levy in mind," he said in an issues paper released yesterday.

Couldn't happen?

Tell me this is isn't the same logic

http://www.smh.com.au/national/routine-operation-may-be-a-crime-20090602-bueh.html?sssdmh=dm16.379913

Note that only 50 years ago the majority of boys were circumcised, surely the conclusion must be that the law rests on the assumption of the complete and utter legality of circumcision.

You will find the same underhand argument in the case of the ordination of homosexual ministers in the Uniting church in Australia and the redefinition of Marriage to include homosexual etc unions.

What was common territory and universally assumed was not spoken of, hence a bit of fancy footwork can paint it as an area of doubt, or a grey area for interpretation.

Dishonest and Distasteful.

Be honest and just say, "We want to change everything."

Same Old Story

Quandary.

Same old story. All the best bottles are broken. On a ride around the bent triangle of Quandary Road, Old Wagga Road and Canty's lane James and I found a few odd thrown botles. Just North of Canty's Lane the Old Wagga Road had a couple of old tips with very nice shards, but no whole bottles.