1. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #241783 by tocqueville on September 3, 2008 at 4:15 am

"More cake for thought", the president and especially the vice president except for the case of Cheney (which we could classify as a mutation) are nothing more that the reflection of the circumstances as they presently exist and no matter who is in office, the real heavy lifting is performed by the real professionals i.e. people in the state department, department of defense, department of justice, NASA etc, who are always there, regardless of who is the president. You can see them as a type of Dan Dennet's crane that explains how things still get accomplished in spite of mediocre people who might be the president or vice president at the time. There seems to be a false idea that the president or vice president is a sort of a skyhook that can perform overnight miraculous transformations of society's ills and problems. It's somewhat delusional.

2. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #241765 by tocqueville on September 3, 2008 at 3:35 am

Professor Dawkins, "food for thought" maybe it's simply a question of the selfish gene. There is no impending reason for adaptation right now, i.e. clarity, reason, etc so a person like Sarah Palin satisfies the status quo, non-confrontational, mediocre, smiling, bubbly, happy just like everybody else. Remember, in 2001 Bush barely got elected but after september 11 he had over 90 % of approval rating, because the natural circumstances required an adaptation in the minds of people for survival. Now that things are calm, all the original negatives of Bush are showing themselves. Yet there is no real overwhelming imperative to choose someone of reason and clarity, which requires people to think. It's easier just to select from a field of mediocre, non confrontational, status quo candidates who mirror the general population. Maybe the only time we will see a president elected in the US who is clear, reasonable, skeptical etc is when its absolutely necessary for our own survival. Then and only then people will make that adaptation.

3. God Talk on 'The View'

Comment #71763 by tocqueville on September 19, 2007 at 3:36 pm

If you think this is good, check out Miss South Carolina- she thinks like Spinoza compared to this pack of idiots

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WALIARHHLII

PS I'm in the process of burning my passport and applying to a more advanced country like Papua New Guinea

4. Another view

Comment #66183 by tocqueville on August 29, 2007 at 7:40 am

The barefoot doctor seems to believe we should follow the shoe or is it the sandal, or maybe the gorde? After having exhausted all the three go and see a proper doctor...

5. Why Richard Dawkins is right on alternative medicine - but not when it comes to religion

Comment #62581 by tocqueville on August 10, 2007 at 7:18 am

I guess what really interests me about Dominic Ralph Campden Lawson born december 17, 1956 who by the way I have never heard of until today: Westminster, Christ church, nobless, wealth, obvious intelligence and he still can't exit his precondition world to think clearly, with reason and wisdom. Then I think how next to impossible it is for those people from bugtussel america with maybe a highschool diploma whose father is a weilder and mother a shrimper to think outside of their "petit monde", but who have an excuse because they truly are ignorant. What is Mr. Lawson's excuse? He obviously seems to live in his "petit monde" oblivious to the rest of the real world around him. We have a long ways to go if this is an indication of how the best and the brightest think.

6. Why Richard Dawkins is right on alternative medicine - but not when it comes to religion

Comment #62529 by tocqueville on August 10, 2007 at 3:33 am

It's evident that Dominic Lawson should wake up and "smell the tea". A simple search of wikipedia gives an insight to where Dominic Lawson has lost his contact with the real world going on outside his daily life.

...Splitter!

7. God Hates the World

Comment #53028 by tocqueville on June 29, 2007 at 3:24 am

30 years ago this activity would have been regulated to the fringes of America located in the politically unimportant backwaters gathered under a tent. Today these people with these ideas are no longer an amusing fringe element. They exist practically in every city and town in America and they take the form of recognized and accepted evangelical and fundamentalist nondenominatonal religions maybe not as extreme or bizarre as Westboro Baptist Church but just as quirky in their own way. Here is the concern as I see and why Richard Dawkins is correct in his posting of the video. 30 years ago it didn't matter, these types of believers constituted no political power. It is absolutely not the case today so the problem in a democracy like America where one person one vote has the same effect. That is to say Chritopher Hitchens vote has the same consequences as the lead singer of this group. Which proves in reality the theoretical possibility of the tyranny of the masses. You do the math and look at the beliefs of the elected members of Congress.