I have written before about the punitive prosecutions launched in Washington, DC against 234 people who were arrested during the anti-Trump demonstrations at his inauguration last year and charged with ‘felony rioting’. After a trial, a jury cleared six protestors of all charges. Then prosecutors were forced to drop charges against six others after the judge found that they had behaved unethically.
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Some readers may recall my post making fun of the press release of a new book by a theologian Edward Feser where he claims to provide five proofs for the existence of his god. My point was that people had been trying for eons to logically prove the existence of any god without success, and there was no reason to think that Feser would be any more successful. Trying to prove the existence of an entity without the use of any evidence is futile.
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Jim Jordan is an extreme right wing Republican (redundant, I know) congressman from Ohio who has shown himself to be a true and loyal Trumper. He has now been accused by multiple people that when he was an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State University, he ignored rampant sexual abuse and harassment that included, but was not limited to, the wrestling team’s doctor who routinely molested the wrestlers, requiring them undress and fondling their genitals even if they came for something like a sprained thumb.
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I have been really enjoying this musical comedy series, described as Monty Python meets The Princess Bride, that originally aired on the ABC TV network but is now available on Netflix. There were only two seasons of eight and ten episodes that aired in 2015 and 2016. It is set in the 13th century and the plot involves a heroic knight Sir Galavant, his squire Sid, and a princess Isabella who seek to liberate Isabella’s kingdom of Valencia after it was captured by the king from another kingdom. That king Richard is inept and childish and it is his assistant Gareth who really gets things done.
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There was a news item yesterday about the death on a former TV news talk show personality Ed Schultz that said he died at the age of 64 of natural causes. One rarely hears that term used to describe people’s deaths any more. Usually they specify the proximate cause of death (cancer, heart failure, and so on). In the old days, dying from natural causes was the description given for someone who lived to a ripe old age, gradually became more and more infirm as their body started to fail in various ways due to the aging process, and then died more or less peacefully. But what does it mean these days to die of natural causes? After all, Schultz was not particularly old. I became curious as to what the term ‘natural causes’ has come to mean because after all, there has to be some cause.
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As a follow-up to my post on how the alt-right hate groups are targeting young skeptics for recruitment, I want to point out how prominent atheists like Sam Harris are enabling this disturbing trend, something that Harvard secular chaplain Greg Epstein has already observed. This is because people like Harris say things that are rife with ambiguity. I and many others have noted before the disingenuous way that Sam Harris argues that enables him to be on both sides of an issue, something that I have labeled the Sam Harris two-step, though he is not the only one to use it. Charles Murray is also a master at it. They both seem to say outrageous things then, when challenged, point to other statements that seem contradict it.
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A man in a suit and tie was caught on a security camera kicking a homeless person in the head in a completely unprovoked attack. You can see him with a briefcase and hat making a point of coming back just to kick the person.
Tenderloin Station is seeking your help to identify this aggravated assault suspect. Anyone who knows who this man is should call (415)575-4444 and reference SFPD case 180387174. Warning: Graphic Video pic.twitter.com/R30PSEXvCk
— SFPD Tenderloin (@SFPDTenderloin) June 7, 2018
As a result of my post on the flat-Earth believers, I was struck by their claim that when you look into the distance, you do not see the Earth’s curvature. This raised in my mind the question of, if you look out over a flat expanse, say a desert or an ocean or from a plane, how far can you see? It may seem as if we can see really far, especially since we can see distant stars, but many factors introduce a great deal of variability.
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As promised in my review of Seymour Hersh’s excellent memoir Reporter, here is an excerpt that describes how he found out about Paul Meadlo, one of the people in the platoon that committed the My Lai massacre. Hersh had seen a small news item about a young journalist named Ron Ridenhour who had heard about the massacre and sent reports to the army top brass about what he had heard and been frustrated by the lack of action and feared a cover-up. After talking with Ridenhour, Hersh got the name of Michael Terry, a soldier in that same platoon, and went to see him.
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Take a look at the video below taken during the soccer World Cup in Moscow. What impressed me is how calmly she continues with her report, without missing a beat. It shows to me that she has experienced this kind of thing many times before.
A DW reporter was sexually harassed while covering the #WorldCup. @JULIETHCGT was kissed, groped by a man while reporting from Moscow.
The incident can be seen here (00:13).
Sexual harassment is not okay. It needs to stop. In football, and elsewhere.pic.twitter.com/O0S1a1F4Es
— DW Sports (@dw_sports) June 20, 2018
This reporter also at the World Cup expertly avoided the kiss and used the occasion to angrily lecture the man on proper behavior, saying “Never do this to a woman, ok? Respect!”