Speaking of human emissions ...

Earlier this month, the Pew Research Center and the American Association for the Advancement of Science unveiled the latest embarrassing evidence of our nation’s scientific illiteracy. Only 52 percent of Americans in their survey knew why stem cells differ from other kinds of cells; just 46 percent knew that atoms are larger than electrons. On a highly contentious issue like global warming, meanwhile, the gap between scientists and the public was vast: 84 percent of scientists, but just 49 percent of Americans, think human emissions are causing global warming.

Makes you proud to a 'marcan, don' it?

Hmmm

A John Cleese YouTube clip making the rounds mentions that a person needs a certain level of knowledge and self-awareness to realize if he or she is ignorant. (He uses the word stupid, but I will be kinder.) His point is that some people are too ignorant to know they are ignorant, and that many such people seem to exert a heavy influence in our culture through the media and news.  It is funny and oh, so sad.

Sports myth

So now we know that the New England Patriots cheated last Sunday by slightly deflating footballs. And the former quarterback for Tampa Bay admits to a similar cheat in 2002. And NCAA football players have sued to be paid -- as if the free tuition, luxury dorms and private tutoring they have received in the past were not enough. We could probably finance President Obama's free community college program with the money wasted on feeding high school athletes by college scouts out to lure them to a money-making powerhouse. When I was a kid, it was a big and valued part of Olympic sports that the contenders were not paid -- at least not until after they took home the gold and picked up lucrative endorsement deals. Now there is no pretense at all. We used to sneer at the Soviet Union for footing all the bills and essentially professionalizing their Olympic athletes. Now we do the same thing with barely a nod to amateurism. Because the Olympics has become just another money-making event.

So why did anyone assume the Super Bowl would be untarnished by the greed that undergirds American culture today?

"Oh, it wasn't cheating exactly ..."

"Yes, it was."

"Well, it made no difference."

"Yes, it did."

"Well, other people may have done it, too."

"Yes, they did."

"See? They always do it. It's just part of the game, you  know, like eating properly and getting enough rest."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and the referees always screw it up anyway."

Parisian suit -- not the fashion sort

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo told CNN Tuesday that she may sue Fox News because the network "insulted" the city with its coverage of "no-go zones" that are supposedly only for Muslim residents.

Such zones don't exist and Fox News has repeatedly apologized for the errors.

"When we're insulted, and when we've had an image, then I think we'll have to sue, I think we'll have to go to court, in order to have these words removed," CNN quoted Hidalgo as saying to the network's Christiane Amanpour. "The image of Paris has been prejudiced, and the honor of Paris has been prejudiced."

Michael Clemente, executive vice president for news at Fox News said in a statement: "We empathize with the citizens of France as they go through a healing process and return to everyday life. However, we find the Mayor's comments regarding a lawsuit misplaced."

"We have made some regrettable errors regarding the Muslim population in Europe, particularly in regard to England and France," a Fox News anchor said Monday on air. "We deeply regret the errors and apologize to any and all who may have taken offense, including the people of France."

In a series of reports that have been widely criticized and mocked, Fox News reported that some neighborhoods in Paris are so heavily Muslim that some young men openly wore Osama bin Laden T-shirts. Displaying a map that supposedly outlines these "no-go zones," Fox News also reported that terrorists groups recruit members in the areas.

A French TV show later explained that the map actually shows the zones in the city that are targeted for development based on residents' income levels and employment rates.

Another Fox segment, with host Jeanine Pirro interviewing guest Steven Emerson, reported that Birmingham, England, is totally Muslim and other cities in Europe have zones that are dominated by Muslims, operate Sharia courts and police fear to enter.

"When I heard this, frankly, I choked on my porridge and I thought it must be April Fool's Day," British Prime Minister David Cameron told ITV News. "This guy is clearly a complete idiot."

Still, Paris would have a "difficult" case against Fox News in the U.S. since the city would be treated as a public figure, says Karl Kronenberger, partner attorney at Kronenberger Rosenfeld LLP. Paris "would need to prove that the information published by Fox News was false and that the information was published with actual malice," he said.

Speaking as a lawyer, I must say that such a case would probably never come to judgment. But what a hoot if Faux News were to be proved to be a publisher of malicious lies. Proved in the legal sense, that is, since the most casual observer realizes that such is their stock-in-trade.

Together, either way

Well, it's a start ...

Fox News took time out of four broadcasts on Saturday to apologize for four separate instances of incorrect information that portrayed Muslims in a negative light. Several of the cases involved incendiary comments about "no-go zones" in Europe, where Islamic law supposedly supersedes local law and where non-Muslims fear to go. Other media outlets have accused Fox of exaggerations and falsehoods, and even British Prime Minister David Cameron mocked one of the assertions. On Saturday, Fox apologized morning, noon and night. Jeanine Pirro issued the final correction of the day, at 9:10 p.m., for something her guest Steve Emerson said a week earlier: that Birmingham, England is a "totally Muslim city where non-Muslims don't go in." Emerson was ridiculed for his comments, and he subsequently apologized.

Source: CNN

One may now wonder when CNN [and any number of other outlets] will apologize for some sensational and slanted coverage of any number of topics.

Worth mentioning

Yes, I mean you.

Today's card: Five of Swords

"The Five of Swords sees you engaging in conflict or finding yourself disagreeing with others, leading to tension and hostility. Despite thinking you have won, you may still end up the loser because you have hurt or annoyed others and have subsequently isolated yourself. You will need to make a decision about whether your point of view is so important to you that it is acceptable to put your relationship with others in jeopardy, or whether you can compromise and try to see eye-to-eye with others. 

"Alternatively, the Five of Swords can be seen from quite a different angle – that of a hollow victory. It is possible that the two ‘defeated’ men in this card were really not defeated at all; they simply laid down their arms and walked away. The men either knew that they would lose, or they knew that trying to win would be a waste of energy and a pointless exercise. By choosing not to fight, they are really the winners here, because he who knows when to fight, and when not to fight, will be victorious. 

"The advice of the Five of Swords is to pick your battles. You may be tempted to fight every conflict to ensure you get your way, to prove that you are right, or to defend yourself when you are feeling challenged or threatened by another person. However, most experts agree, choosing your battles wisely is a much better way of life than battling out every disagreement. Not only will picking your battles lead to a more peaceful existence, it is also more likely to strengthen your interpersonal relationships."

Difficult advice for a retired lawyer! But it strikes me as pertinent.

I am not much of a tarot believer, but our good friend Leonardo reads them and ... well, I have to admit sometimes they seem to be spot on. For example, before Damien and I had even met, Leonardo read my cards and a lot of what he saw there suddenly made sense when Damien appeared in our lives.

I know it is all in my head, but that's okay. I am grateful for anything that helps me deal with what's in my head.

Smile

Okay, that does make me feel better.

Media locuta, Roma finita

Once when a board on which I served was electing officers, those in the running for the position of chair were pretty intensely campaigning. Another board member told me that the one thing he did not want was the chairman to be anyone who wanted to be chairman. 

"Those are the ones who are all about ego, never about service," he explained.

It is probably an exaggeration, but one wonders.

In the political picture in America today, it often seems that those who are most interested in serving the people are the ones most reluctant to pursue higher office. They recognize that the system is so broken, that what energy that doesn't go into fundraising for re-election -- and there is damn little left over after that! -- goes into blocking any efforts to accomplish anything. And if there is a smidgen of energy remaining after preventing anything useful from getting done, that energy goes into destroying the personal lives of your opponents and the members of their families.

Don't read the history of Rome. It will only depress you.

Religion

People often believe and argue that one cannot have morals without religion. What those same folks often overlook is that there are plenty of people with religion and no morals.

This is evident in the recent events in Paris, but it is also evident on a daily basis in this country when people discriminate against and abuse others in the name of religion. Parents throw children into the street, schools ignore brutal bullying, pastors lobby against efforts to promote equality in the workplace and in housing. 

I find it challenging to have empathy for people like that, and that makes me realize that just telling someone to be empathetic is not sufficient. Religion is not sufficient or we wouldn't have this problem after thousands of years of religion.

I do not know the correct answer to the problem, but I can recognize when an answer is not working. And religion as we know it has failed miserably.

G.K. Chesterton famously said something like, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found hard and not tried." Okay, that may be. So try it! For God's sake, try it.

PS -- I do not mean that all religious people or spiritual people have failed. It is the fact that so many of them succeed that gives me hope that there is a way, somewhere, somehow. It often looks like those religious/spiritual people who have found it, however, have done so despite their tradition, not because of it.

Inner demons

As happens with me all too often when I see a clever saying like this, I laugh and then ponder the essential ambiguity.

This could be taken -- and I think probably is generally intended to be taken -- as meaning that I have "gone over to the dark side," that I stopped fighting my demons [never forget, we are talking about my demons, a part of me] by surrendering to their agenda. Which may be true from time to time, let's be honest.

But the battle may end because I have found a way, as a good Jungian analyst would have me do, to have the demons work with me. I may find a way to redirect the energy of the demons to do good. Instead of letting them throw things into the fire, I may have discovered that they may be moving things into the light.

It reminds me of an old Calvin and Hobbes t-shirt Damien used to wear, based on this strip:

 

Click on image to enlarge

The obvious meaning is that God [however you understand that term -- divine being, universal spirit, fate, nature] is out to punish Calvin in some way. But it could be understood in the opposite sense -- that God [again, however you choose to understand that] is out to get Calvin in order to love, cherish, delight and enliven him.

So much of my own inner life, the struggle with those inner demons [or inner angels, because like Jacob, I wrestle with angels, too] reflects how I understand what it going on: is it a battle against me or a battle for me?

And don't get me started on what "for me" means. I might never stop rambling.

Obscenity in DC

 "Driving the Money Changers from the Temple"

El Greco

 

“There are two things a person should never be angry at, 

what they can help,

and what they cannot.”

~ Plato 

If I tell you this came to mind when I was reading about the efforts of all those Republican Christians in Congress to take away Social Security benefits from people with disabilities, would you understand?

Jesus seems to have decided he could do something about stuff.

Merry Christmas

I seem to have been a bit serious the last few days. Time for a change of pace!

I see from Michael's post that today many Christians celebrate Christmas. You learn something new every day!

So in honor of the occasion, I offer a few Christmas photos for your enjoyment.

The mills of the gods grind slow and exceedingly small, but they may be grinding flour for bread!

 

I suspect that this is supposed to be mildly alarming -- a not-so-subtle reminder that whatever-it-was-that-we-did that hasn't come back to bite us in the butt will nonetheless someday be biting firmly into that butt with sharp fangs.

But not all karma is bad karma, at least as I understand this religious notion from a tradition that is not my own. So the good karma should be coming back around to kiss me warmly on the lips, too, at some point. And just because at the moment I may be more aware of something nipping ominously at my rear -- and not in a good way, let me add -- good things will also be coming my way someday, somewhere if I have been doing good along the way.

So to me, this sign is not a threat but a promise: the good you and I have tried to spread into our world will help make that world better for us, too, at some point. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But it will happen.

Just think about Florida, for example. It happened. Good happened to the same-sex couples seeking the right to marry and bad happened to Pam Bondi. Isn't it funny how karma can accomplish two things at the same time in a single action? 

Go karma! Go karma! Go karma!

Bang, bang!

Even though, for instance, California requires 400 hours’ training just to become a professional manicurist, most states do not demand nearly such effort to become armed security guards, according to a CNN-Center for Investigative Reporting analysis released in December. 

15 states require no firearms training at all; 
46 ignore mental-health status; 
9 do not check the FBI’s criminal-background database; 
and 27 states fail to ascertain whether an applicant is banned by federal law from even carrying a gun. 

After an ugly incident in Arizona in which a juvenile gun offender was hired as a guard, the state added a box on its form for applicants to “self-report” the federal ban--but still refuses to use the FBI database.

Source: CNN

On the other hand, you really do need some training to trim nails and apply nail polish properly. Whereas we are constantly being informed by the NRA (brought to you by your gun industry) that every child in America needs to be handed a  gun before leaving the delivery room at the hospital.

And yes, I know that Barney was a trained professional. Which apparently is the problem -- so many people out there with guns and badges apparently aren't.

Unskilled Workers Report for New Jobs

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Sixty-four unskilled workers will report to new jobs in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday as part of a federal jobs program that provides employment for people unable to find productive work elsewhere.

The new hires, who have no talents or abilities that would make them employable in most workplaces, will be earning a first-year salary of $174,000.

For that sum, the new employees will be expected to work a hundred and thirty-seven days a year, leaving them with two hundred and twenty-eight days of vacation.

Some critics have blasted the federal jobs program as too expensive, noting that the workers were chosen last November in a bloated and wasteful selection process that cost the nation nearly four billion dollars.

But Davis Logsdon, a University of Minnesota economics professor who specializes in labor issues, said that the program is necessary to provide work “for people who honestly cannot find employment anywhere else.”

“Expensive as this program is, it is much better to have these people in jobs than out on the street,” he said.

Further proof of the American ability to, you know, logic

Marcus Bachmann's beard, Michele, famously promised us gas for two dollars if she became president. Now that the price has dropped to that level, she is claiming credit and snubbing her nose at those who laughed at her.

If you think about it, however, Ms. Marcus never  became president. And as far as I can tell, the price of gasoline began to drop about the time she announced her retirement from Congress.

So if we can thank her for anything, I guess we can all be grateful that she made that decision.

Not surprisingly, her fans -- as evident from the second photo -- are equally unable to add two and two together and come up with a rational number.

Let's get realistic ...

Because you are going to hear this again this year

Even Pope Francis has commented that this economic theory has proved itself false to the detriment of the good of the public as a whole and to the benefit of a tiny fraction of people who already have more than they can ever use. But I think we can safely assume that it will be run past the voters again in 2015 and that they will run at it like Charlie Brown, thinking this year things will be different.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

I note that this famous definition of insanity is based on an understanding of the scientific method, and that the American public is notoriously weak in the area of understanding or believing science.

A bit of encouragement as you start the New Year

A##hats

If same-sex marriage is allowed across the state, Duval Clerk of Courts Ronnie Fussell, Clay Clerk Tara Green and Baker Clerk Stacie Harvey will have no choice but to issue marriage licenses to gay couples. But to avoid performing ceremonies for them, these clerks have decided to end all courthouse weddings. All said multiple factors contributed to the decision to end courthouse weddings, with gay marriage being just one of them. And they said the new policies will take effect no matter what the courts decide about gay marriage. Fussell says the decision came after a series of discussion with members of his staff who currently officiate wedding ceremonies.

None of them, including Fussell, felt comfortable doing gay weddings so they decided to end the practice all together. “It was decided as a team, as an office, this would be what we do so that there wouldn’t be any discrimination,” Fussell said. “The easiest way is to not do them at all.” Equality Florida co-founder and chief executive Nadine Smith was shocked to hear that certain counties would stop allowing courthouse wedding because of the possibility gay couples would want to use the service. “I think it would be outrageous for clerks to change the rules simply because gay couples are getting married,” she said.

-------------------
Now I understand how Pam Bondi got to be Attorney General.