The divisiveness of the toddler-in-chief is never more evident than in this brief clip. As well, his supporters clearly will not tolerate a dissenting view as they react rather than reflect. The following video might take a moment to load: Nearly one year after President Donald Trump took office, @FrankLuntz
Continue readingTag: critical thinking
Scripturient: Raw water: the New Age death wish
Would you willingly expose yourself to cholera? While treatable, this highly infectious disease causes great physical distress and suffering to its victims, and is even fatal to some. Most readers have never experienced it because it’s rather a rarity in developed nations, those that have the benefit of modern water
Continue readingScripturient: Oumuamua: just a piece of rock
If you can watch the whole bit of this piece of New Age woo hoo without flinching or giving up, you will likely shake your head at the utter, mindless gullibility of humankind. And it’s not even political. But by now you know the Net is crammed full of conspiracy
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: In Praise Of Critical Thinking
Here are five resources that can aid us in what really is a life-long journey: Recommend this Post
Continue readingScripturient: Why the panic over Julie Payette?
Governor General Julie Payette made comments in a speech to the Canadian Science Policy Conference on Nov. 1 in which she encouraged her audience at a science convention to ignore misinformation, fantasy and conspiracy theory and support facts and science, and to engage in “learned debate.” That has the right
Continue readingScripturient: It’s about the process, stupid…
My negative comments on the impending privatization of our electrical utility (and potentially our water utility once the first deal is sealed) drew some online criticism recently. None of those critics refuted any of the facts I offered, or attempted to debunk any of the numerous documents I quoted and
Continue readingScripturient: The ignorati rise
Chapman University recently published the results of a depressing, but hardly surprising, survey that shows American believe in codswallop continue to rise. Not political codswallop – this is the supernatural, paranormal, wingnut type. And the numbers are huge. Or yuge as the ignorati-in-chief would say. The article notes, “nearly three-fourths
Continue readingScripturient: Idiot lights: aka fog lights
Have you noticed how many people drive with their idiot lights on all the time? These are supposed to be “fog” lights, but idiots drive with them day and night, good and bad weather. Hence the name: idiot lights.* Not that they’re illegal (they should be…): the Ontario Highway Traffic
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Too High A Price To Pay
This year, The Star has been running an Atkinson Series entitled The New Newsroom, which looks at both the challenges and the possibilities facing journalism in this age of Internet freebies. It is an excellent series that I hope you get a chance to check out. Here is an excerpt
Continue readingScripturient: Collingwood’s first postliterate council
At the Corporate & Community Services standing committee meeting this week, the committee discussed the Art on the Street festival, its operation and management to be taken over by the BIA. That’s probably a good thing because any affinity to culture and cultural events at the council table evaporated early
Continue readingScripturient: Prayer isn’t stopping the violence
An acerbic piece in Maclean’s Magazine from June had the title “America’s mass delusion.” The subtitle read, “Surprisingly, the strategy of praying to God is not stopping the mass shootings in the U.S.” That piece was recirculated when the news of the latest and largest mass shooting in the USA
Continue readingScripturient: Nibiru apocalypse failed again
Since you’re reading this, the world didn’t end, Saturday. Again. Damn… All those wacky “predictions” from the fringe of the ignorati didn’t come true. Again. Not that that’s surprising: what’s surprising is that these conspiracy-minded folk keep proposing the end of the world as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) over and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Not A Hopeful Sign
As much as I have long been an advocate for the development and honing of critical thinking skills (while readily admitting that I often fall short of the mark – for me, it is always a work in progress), I regret to report, via the CBC, that there is much,
Continue readingScripturient: Montaigne and The Block
I do love reading Michel de Montaigne. And writing about him. In 2014 alone, I wrote ten separate posts about him and his famous book, Essays. But since then, my reading habits moved on to other writers and topics. I hadn’t actually been reading Montaigne in the past few years,
Continue readingScripturient: Brian just keeps bashing our hospital
I see DM Saunderson continues his assault on our hospital with his motion on the upcoming Sept. 11 council agenda: Whereas the Collingwood General and Marine Hospital has received information from the Ministry providing additional comments regarding their redevelopment submission; And Whereas Council is concerned this information may be of
Continue readingScripturient: The work of politics
Politics is like many other skills, jobs and pastimes in that it requires work to succeed. Hard work, sometimes, for some folk, and easy for others, but always it requires attention, study, and focus. It isn’t something you can do when you’re not paying attention or even when you’re napping
Continue readingScripturient: Cultural appropriation is the new gluten free
Like food fads, political fads wax and wane as the gnat-like attention span of their followers gets diverted by the Next Big Thing. Political Correctness has of late given birth to Cultural Appropriation just like the gluten-free food fad gave rise to lectin-free food fad. All such fads are fuelled
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: We All Have An ‘Opinion’
In a democracy, it is hardly expected that we will all be of one accord on anything. Opinion and debate are the lifeblood of a healthy and free society. The problem arises, of course, when the debate is fueled, not by reason and facts, but by rancour and misinformation. Such
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Timely Reminder
George Carlin died in 2008, but the following could have been performed last night. Although some of the language is coarse, it somehow seems entirely appropriate: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Are Trump’s Ties To Russia About To Be Made Transparent?
You can read the long version here, or watch the short version below. For a slightly different slant, The Raw Story’s evaluation of the writer of the article cited provides a basis for some critical reservations. Recommend this Post
Continue reading