1. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #264037 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 2:52 pm

In the summer of 1867, the Klan became the "Invisible Empire of the South" at a convention in Nashville, Tennessee attended by delegates from former Confederate states. The group was presided over General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who is believed to have been the first Grand Wizard -- the title for the head of the organization. Lesser officers were given such names as Grand Dragon, Grand Titan, and Grand Cyclops.

2. Why Evolution is True

Comment #264034 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 2:38 pm

Comment #264013 by rod-the-farmer

I thought pretty much everyone agreed that evolution is true. Only the cause of evolution was in dispute.

3. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #264032 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 2:28 pm

In fact the KKK has both grand dragons and a grand wizard, grand dragons (and grand titans) being in rank beneath the leader, or grand wizard. Quite a few of their practices - such as cold-blooded murder - are outside of mainstream christian belief ;-)

4. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263930 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 11:05 am

TWP -

But on a serious note there is something about using "you people" to address a group of individuals that bothers me.

5. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263923 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 10:48 am

There we go again with "you people".

6. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263911 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 10:29 am

And to borrow a phrase from our mutual acquaintance...BASIC is so 1980s ;)

7. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263904 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 9:49 am

Is this what you meant?

Because they (geniuses) deal in the realm of reality and fact. They (geniuses) think with their heads and not with their intuition. (Whereas with "average" Americans)It all boils down to namby pamby "feelings".

Edit: changed "people" to "average" Americans

8. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263887 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 9:05 am

Please, somebody prove me wrong about what I said about her, I really want to know where I have gone wrong with the facts.

9. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263875 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 7:27 am

Comment #263873 by hungarianelephant

In discussing the denial of his admission to the Illinois bar, Mr. Martin said the psychiatric exam listing him as having a "moderately severe personality defect" was spitefully written by an evaluator he had clashed with.

10. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263871 by Caudimordax on October 13, 2008 at 7:14 am

The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

He is a law school graduate, but his admission to the Illinois bar was blocked in the 1970s after a psychiatric finding of "moderately severe character defect manifested by well-documented ideation with a paranoid flavor and a grandiose character."

11. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263815 by Caudimordax on October 12, 2008 at 6:56 pm

Unfortunately I occasionaly have to read a DP post to figure out what everyone is talking about - and I must say, this really made me lose it:

Thanks you. You people think this is easy but its not. Its about time I get some credit.

12. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263493 by Caudimordax on October 11, 2008 at 1:56 pm

McCain's citizenship questioned:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23415028/

Edit - R2S - vacuum cleaner - spewed coffee

13. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263415 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 9:03 pm

MG - No, no, no! I'm not saying you should ignore anyone! Just read what the article has to say about the flawed conclusions drawn from the studies that were done. (and use the updated link)

I, too, am very dubious about various conspiracy theories out there. But sometimes interested parties DO try to influence things - just as you suggested that the Atkins franchise had an interest in their view being accepted. Corn subsidies in the US are worth billions.

I totally, abjectly apologize to everyone for getting us off on this track and I can't believe I'm still awake.

14. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263408 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:39 pm

Righton - Good point - You're absolutely right - just saying that (I know this gets into the whole minority view of global warming yada yada yada) sometimes the minority view isn't wrong just because it's the minority. The whole point Gary Taubes is making in his article - and in his book - is that when it comes to the low fat hypothesis, science has abandoned objective research and embraced dogma.

BTW Everybody - I just tried to access that article on the "Science" website and it seems that they now want you to subscribe. Here's another link:

http://www.nasw.org/awards/2001/01Taubesarticle1.htm

15. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263404 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:24 pm

Any papers on mouse studies with high fat diets that you know of?

16. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263402 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:20 pm

MG -

Since this seems to be a minority view, not held by the majority of scientists and health professionals in the relevant fields.

17. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263399 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:13 pm

eating a very high fat meal everytime you eat. Do you think that could have adverse health problems.

18. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263397 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:06 pm

MG- I really shouldn't have gone down this path.

Actually the Atkins "franchise" is pretty much out of business - and a low carb diet doesn't actually require any special foods, just real meat, real dairy, and real vegetables. "Low fat" diet foods mostly contain a chemistry set's worth of chemicals and corn products.

As far as special interests, it was the corn growers who jumped all over the "killer fat" thing in the sixties and went to Washington to get the FDA to promote margarine as a "healthy" substitute for butter. Trans fat, anyone?

Seriously, read the article from "Science," then make up your mind one way or the other.

(Also take note of how excited people get over this issue - almost like religion!)

19. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263394 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:57 pm

Like I said, I do not think we should have a general principle, but rather, we should look at the specifics and determine what makes the most sense in each case.

20. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263391 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:47 pm

This thread has taken on leviathanic proportions.

21. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263388 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:38 pm

Righton -

I would still say that excessively high fat diets likely cause adverse health effects over time.

22. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263385 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:27 pm

Was it fat or cholesterol? I vaguely remember something like that. It is not a hard science.

23. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263382 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:19 pm

Bonzai - I'm not familiar with statistical notation - but there have been studies - like the Harvard Nurses Study - 90,000 participants - that set out to prove high fat diets caused breast cancer, and ended up proving the opposite.

Edit: Shouldn't have said "proving the opposite," rather "suggesting" the opposite.

24. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263380 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:13 pm

Hell, I'm gonna go for it - here's the opening paragraph of the Science article:

Mainstream nutritional science has demonized dietary fat, yet 50 years and hundreds of millions of dollars of research have failed to prove that eating a low-fat diet will help you live longer. Indeed, the history of the national conviction that dietary fat is deadly, and its evolution from hypothesis to dogma, is one in which politicians, bureaucrats, the media, and the public have played as large a role as the scientists and the science. It's a story of what can happen when the demands of public health policy--and the demands of the public for simple advice--run up against the confusing ambiguity of real science.

25. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263376 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 7:05 pm

there is a significant correlation between high fat diet and heart attacks.

26. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263372 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 6:50 pm

But the whole question of "healthy life style" has yet to be decided. Don't get me started, but the "low-fat" thing is as close as there is to religion in science - many studies were done showing NO correlation between fat consumption and heart disease, and the people doing the studies concluded that the studies were flawed because they didn't produce the results they expected. That's bad science.

I fully expect to be labelled as a flaky whacko for this, but I will cite papers, etc., etc. But too tired tonight.

Edit: So since there's some controversy about "healthy diet," who gets to decide who gets covered under "your fault" insurance?

27. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263371 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 6:42 pm

Cerebate - not answering your serious question, but I remember some time ago discussions about whether insurance companies would start blaming people for their health problems - we called it "Your Fault" insurance (play on "no-fault" car insurance).

28. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263365 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 6:09 pm

Actually, I hadn't thought about it before, but since I have a tax-payer funded fire deparment, I'm going to start SMOKING IN BED ALL THE TIME!!! Gosh, I've been wanting to do that for years! Thank you socialist government!!

Edit: I forgot - I quit smoking years ago because not smoking made me feel better.

29. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263229 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 12:09 pm

Have you guys considered the possibility that you are all participating in a Turing test?

30. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263213 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:59 am

Imsmall - Don't worry, evotruth straightened me out on the misunderstanding.

Edit: It's an "all about me" problem.

31. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263210 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:58 am

Infuriated - I wasn't suggesting that future math teachers are being taught by dummies, just that math teachers aren't being taught by certified math teachers. In medical school (I imagine) most of the classes would be taught by medical doctors, not by people with doctorates in education. Maybe it doesn't matter - my husband seems to have gotten a pretty decent education here in Connecticut.

32. Citizen Enforcers Take Aim

Comment #263198 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:47 am

mdowe - the public didn't technically get to vote on the rescue plan - but apparently they did swamp their representatives with angry phone calls and emails.

33. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263188 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:32 am

Bonzai - I should have been more specific. I was talking about the university where he was in the math teaching program, so those students were taking things like real analysis and abstract algebra.

34. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263180 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:19 am

I find it very strange that to teach high school math you need certification, but to teach people to BE high school math teachers requires no teaching certification!

35. Citizen Enforcers Take Aim

Comment #263175 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 11:07 am

mdowe - It is insane, but it makes the point about what a powerful motivation revenge is - more powerful than compassion, apparently.

36. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263168 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:48 am

girls ARE NOT as good as men at math

37. The camp that 'cures' homosexuality

Comment #263164 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:43 am

people were selling stocks "like a bunch of atheists"!

38. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263161 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:40 am

SPS - I really appreciated Thomas Friedman calling attention to Palin's remarks about paying taxes not being considered "patriotic" where she comes from. Truly shameful.

39. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263160 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:35 am

"and W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. assistant director."

Wow, I read that letter this morning but I didn't pick up on that!

40. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263157 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:32 am

Mismos00 - it was an interesting article (the one you suggested) and it really should be here.

41. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263155 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:27 am

Mismos00 - I feel your pain. I've submitted a few article suggestions only to see the same article turn up here a week later and submitted by someone else. Is there a secret handshake or something?

42. Broken symmetry: Answering the solace of quantum

Comment #263154 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:24 am

"The Second Creation: Makers of the Revolution in 20th Century Physics" by Robert Crease and Charles Mann is a very readable book that makes the broken symmetry idea accessible - it's probably pretty out of date, though. I read it at least 20 years ago.

43. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263144 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 10:05 am

Thank you evotruth - hackles lowered ;-)

44. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263135 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 9:53 am

"Also: (boring)First post!"

Thanks. What's your point? Perhaps I didn't make my point as clearly as I meant to, but it was that anti-intellectualism pervades even schools where students are being taught to be teachers.

"We're living in a culture that is telling girls you can't do math; that's telling everybody that only Asians and nerds do math,"

45. Math Skills Suffer in U.S., Study Finds

Comment #263122 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 9:20 am

My husband quit high tech and went back to school to become a math teacher. Some of his classmates who were there to get certified to teach elementary school made no secret of the fact that they thought math was useless! Here again we see mediocrity enshrined as a "democratic" virtue.

46. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263118 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 9:03 am

an assumption that if you put together a lot of jellyfish, what you got was a tiger, rather than a very big jellyfish.

47. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263114 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:55 am

A "sensible" explantion of how the financial markets got to where they are:

http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2008/10/01/confusion/

A sample:

Seller: Right. So, I think the Q-grades are dumped and leveraged upwards across 25 underplummeries? Our unicorn gives it a kick, and presto: you've got 300 percent annual growth.

Buyer: Now, you just said "unicorn." There is such a thing?

Seller: Uhhh. Kind of? Honestly, I don't know. Don't care!

Buyer: Well, you also said "300 percent." So, I'm sold!

48. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263111 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:47 am

R2S - sent you a PM that you don't need to read since it's pretty much the same as my post. Now I LOVE your bumper sticker. (I too drive a small car) I'm in Trumbull.

Edit: the video was funny, too.

49. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263092 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:29 am

R2S - I think I'm missing something. Could you explain your "Car size plus x = K" bumper sticker? I'm dying to know. I'll be looking for it on the Merritt Parkway!

Edit: sorry for the non-sequitur folks - it was on R2S's web page with the grammar rules for atheists.

50. Palin: average isn't good enough

Comment #263090 by Caudimordax on October 10, 2008 at 8:24 am

Steve - Democrats favor regulation - Sarah Palin favors "strong oversight" instead ;-)