I am not a huge fan of hard science. It has its goods, but it also has its bads, and has become, within the last couple centuries, a religion of its own, where people swear by it. The scientific method has become a paradigm which discounts things which cannot be quantifiable, for example, thoughts, feelings and opinions. It has made people seek to present their opinions as if they were fact (just so they can appear to others to be considered “legitimate”), rather than allowing them to remain merely opinion, and allowing their readers to read them as such. And this is problematic, when people try to play a game for which they are not fit, or more likely, which is not fit for what they are trying to do. Empiricism defeats metaphysics, and this taken out to its extreme is problematic for a complex organism like a human, who can question, but more importantly, doubt.
But, that said, allow me to present a small obituary of a great scientist, one of the few that have existed in my lifetime. The man’s name was Albert Hoffman. An article about his death from the AP can be found by following this link. He was a Swiss scientist who died at 102. He worked for European pharmaceutical giant Sandoz. And by the way, he was also the inventor of LSD. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m not making this up: Here is the link. Jerry Falwell has gone on to see if he was right about the existence of God. Let’s hope, if God does exist, that he is a forgiving one, for the sake of Mr. Falwell’s immortal soul. If he truly is vengeful, as Mr. Falwell seems to claim, Falwell will not be in Heaven for too long, long enough I suspect for God to remember that Jerry Falwell is a hypocrite, or that Falwell claimed that September 11th 2001 was God’s answer to homosexuality. I would imagine that God looks more harshly on hypocrisy than he does homosexuality. Good Luck, Mr. Falwell, and I sincerely mean that.
I had intended to vow to not do another show until Pinochet died. Well, he’s dead. I don’t have much more of a eulogy for him than to say this: The nicest thing anyone could say about this fellow is that he was a devoted father and he lived a long life. But now, he’s worm food. Good riddance.
W Doc
Ladies and Gentlemen, you have probably already heard the horrible news. But I’ll repeat it here in tribute to quite possibly the greatest commedian that ever lived. Richard Pryor died Saturday, Dec. 10, 2005 at the age of 65 from a heart attack.
Pryor was known for being a commedian who dealt with race issues candidly and was well known for use of foul language in his acts. As such he broke ground and opened doors for social and political humorists like Chris Rock and Eddie Izzard. Read the rest of this entry »
