Robert J. Kolker

Also differentials related to race is the 1200 lb gorilla in the room of which None Dare Speak. Bob Kolker

Yup. I used to correspond frequently with Jimmy Wales (before he became the Wiki King) on HPO. He is a very smart man. Bob Kolker

That sort of political and philosophical corruption goes back the Woodrow Wilson administration. Even Lincoln, who was a heavy handed statist referred to government of the people, by the people and for the people which is the English language version of res publica (public thing) aka republic. Just a side note: most people think this crap started with FDR and the New Deal. Not so. It started at least as far back as Wilson and was implicit in the way the United States was reconstructed following the Civil War. The Federal Republic envisioned by the Founders, was replaced with unitary National Government. Everything else follows from that perversion. In very short order National Government becomes Natzional Government. I weep for the Republic. Bob Kolker

If the scope of government is limited sufficiently, political variety is not needed. The variety will be in the (free) market place, where variety belongs. The only place you will find major differences of opinion, with such limited scope government, will be in in matters of war. Do we deploy or not deploy, etc. etc.. In a better world with a proper government the only evidence you will see of government is the police force, the law courts and the army. Everything else will be private. Bob Kolker

Here is a rather witty essay on C.S.Peirce's approach to hypothesis formulation: http://www.visual-memory.co.uk/b_resources/abduction.html Bob Kolker

Look at p3. Better for whom or what? I world in which I cannot have my bar-b-q short ribs is not a better world for me. Bob Kolker

The urge to see my pet theory proved correct is sufficiently selfish. Selfish does not necessarily equate to monetary or financial gain. I record physics and math books for the blind and dyslexic. I do it as a volunteer. My selfish motives are: 1. If I ever need the service I will not come as an empty handed beggar man, if I ask for it. 2. Seeing an audio book with difficult material (equations and diagrams particularly) done right is a major motive for me. The perfection of the product moves me a great deal. Here is a sample task. Do chapter 2 of Sean Carrol's -Space Time and Geometry- purely as a read-aloud. Not so easy, right? One has to be good at the task and that takes focus, concentration, attention to detail and the desire to turn out a grade A product. All of that are manifestations of the Ego. The only people who do the kind of stuff I do and do it well are very selfishly motivated. Bob Kolker

The follow on legislation would set pi = 3 and declare that the Sun revolves around the Earth is a scientific statement. Bob Kolker

In Hebrew the word for "just" is tzedeck when means righteous. In the religious context tzedeck means both righteous and saintly. There is no word for charity in Hebrew. The word is tzadakot which is the noun derived from the adjective tzedeck. It means, basically, to give what is due to the other. To be just to the other in terms of what you give. The word "just" in English is equivalent to "fair". One is admonished to be fair. Bob Kolker

Please read the following: http://www.circinfo.net/conclusion.html This site has medical references showing several benefits to circumcision. Bob Kolker

I would be very cautious about democracy. One wit has characterized democracy as what you get when two wolves and a lamb vote on the evening's dinner menue. Bob Kolker

22 is young. As Young Person you are not quite settled in with intellectual autonomy. It takes time and practice to feel comfortable in the saddle. Most male persons are just coming into there own in the middle of their third decade. (between 21-27). All good things take a while to get used to and to be used properly. Practice makes perfect. Bob Kolker

What is really important is that you (yes you!) do not feel helpless and worthless. The reason it took you so long to get where you are is that you have been systematically misled and mis-taught through both malice (in some cases) and error (in other cases). You can now see. That is both your reward and good fortune. If others can not see, that is either their own doing to themselves or their misfortune. Do not let either their misfortune or error taint what you do and how you do it. If you can see, then rejoice in your sight. Bob Kolker

To Original Poster of post #1 of this thread: Are you a young person? If you consider this an improper question, then by all means, do not answer it. Let me leave you with a thought: In the Land of the Blind, the one-eyed man is a Stranger. Bob Kolker

I like just about anything by Ursula Laguin. In particular -The Dispossessed- and -The Left Hand of Darkness-. Bob Kolker

Raw insentient Nature does not design anything. Design is something done by sentient beings capable of intending something. Attributing design to Nature is the basic error of the Intelligent Design people who are in reality stealth Creationists. In raw Nature stuff happens and nothing is intended. Bob Kolker

Thankee kindly Bob Kolker

How do I change Topic Display Mode to Standard Bob Kolker

I got a big kick out of -District 9-. I loved hearing all those icksints. Bob Kolker

Not a damned thing. And it got the Emperor's attention. After Pearl Harbor, we owned Japan's a**. First we burned them to the ground and then we finished it up with nukes. Bob Kolker

Of course there were ancestors. That is how we got here. See -The Ancestor's Tale- by Richard Dawkins or -The Greatest Show on Earth- by the same author. If you want to visit your ancestors, go the the Great Barrier Reef and see the stromatelites. How did we get here? Genetic mutation. Chromosomal crossover. It is accidental. A glitch. A happenstance. Evolution at work. Our kind happened along, through purely natural processes. Nature clanking and grinding along, without a thought, dumb as a bag full of anvils. The most successful species on this planet (in terms of reproductive success) are (and were) one celled microscopic organism without an iota of intelligence. They outweigh the mammalian species by at least three or four orders of magnitude. Of the multicelled organisms, the most reproductively successful are the insects. Long after our kind is extinct and gone there will be beetles and roaches. If Nature "cared" (it doesn't) the thing it cares about most is how well does a species reproduce itself. In fact, the cosmos is mostly non-alive, at least the baryonic portion that gives off electromagnetic radiation. Of the part that does not shine (so-called dark matter) who knows? Bob Kolker

No. I am indoors, safe and warm. Bob Kolker

Beware of self inflating balloons. They can only be filled with hot air. Such magical entities are in the same class of objects as perpetual motion machines. Any entity that passes as a trade good must have something real backing or tradeable for for it somewhere, somehow. An I.O.U. made up on the spot hardly has this property. Bob Kolker

Are you referring to wave/particle duality? Please specify what you mean by "duality nonsense". Thank you. Bob Kolker

I meant as in born of a human mother. A flesh and blood person. Can the qualifications of office pertain to an entity whose existence is a legal artifact, rather than a natural fact? Bob Kolker