Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Glenn Reynolds - the Elvis problem. On a related note I've toyed with the idea of starting a church of bacon and beer.

- The Trump Administration reportedly has a new trade deal with Japan. The deal is said to include a $550 billion investment in the US and a 15% tariff. 

- Where are vacation homes located in the US? Couldn't help but wonder if hunting "camps" are counted as vacation homes?

- Sovereign Wealth Funds: A political slush fund in disguise.

Environmentalism is the New Religion - Ian Plimer

Quotes for Today

 Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

Have a new Quotes for Today up on my Substack. As I've mentioned doing this as a way to thank those who have Subscribed. If you are a Subscriber - you would have received an email. Thanks!

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Secrets are a buffer to intimacy." - Caroline Paul

 "Israel is the only nation on earth that inhabits the same land, bears the same name, speaks the same language, and worships the same God as it did 3,000 years ago." - Charles Krauthammer

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first thing to be bought and sold are the legislators." - P.J. O'Rourke

"Where religion is compulsory, I am an atheist; but where religion is forbidden, I am a believer." - Theodore Dalyrmple

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you. 

"Religion is a culture of faith; science is a culture of doubt." - Richard Feynman

"He knew them as worse than all bad weapons, because their existence justified their targets." - John le Carre

"While the rest of us are chasing victory, the best in the world know they must avoid losing before they can win. It turns out this is a surprisingly effective strategy." - Shane Parrish

"You can no more disconnect from the universe and its inhabitants than a wave can extricate itself from the ocean." - Dan Harris

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Modern religion focuses upon filling churches with people. The true Gospel emphasizes filling people with God." - A.W. Tozer

"Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, or honest." - Maya Angelou

"I got food poisoning today. Don't know when I'm going to use it." - Stephen Wright

"The mind, once stretched by a new idea, never returns to its original dimensions." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"The guiding principle is, as always, to reject bad explanations in favor of good ones." - David Deutsch

"The effective strength of sects is not to be ascertained merely by counting heads." - Thomas Babington Macaulay

"Rome wasn't built in a day. Empires are built with consistent progress over a period of time. You don't have to do it all today. Just move one step closer." - Shane Parrish

"...no one has the right to impose his or her religion on anyone else. Morality was a different matter. Religion is personal and unconditional, but morality is social and conventional." - Louis Menand

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"If you can't tell what you desperately need, its probably sleep." - Kevin Kelley

"Some of the models suggest... there is a 75% chance that the entire north polar ice cap, during some of the summer months, could completely be ice-free within the next five to seven years," - Al Gore 2009

"Two kinds of fools - those who take religion literally, and those who think it has no value." - Naval Ravikant

"The truth has no defense against a fool determined to believe a lie." - Mark Twain

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"For some of us, good books and beautiful writing are the ultimate solace, even more comforting than exquisite food." - Anne Lamott

"My true religion is kindness." - the Dalai Lama

 "A gen cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Seneca

"Overheard in Silicon Valley, 'Resting moral superiority face.'" - Marc Andreessen 

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"In fairness to Jesus, 'One of you will betray me' is a great dinner party conversation opener." - Richy Craven

"Two kinds of fools - those that take religion literally, and those who think it has no value." - Naval Ravikant

"If you deconstruct what people mean when they say they want to be happy, they really mean they don't want to be miserable. - Jordan Peterson

"The act of writing turns out to be its own reward." - Anne Lamott

Quotes for Today

Some quotes that I hope may resonate with you.

"The experience of two centuries [has] shown... gradualism in theory, is perpetuity in practice." - William Lloyd  Garrison

"I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no winning formula to success. Instead, consistent success is normally found in people who constantly push themselves." - Peter Thiel

"Science is not a noun. It is not a person, or a group of persons. It is a process." - Peter Attia

Quotes for Today

 Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"The three big ones in life are wealth, health and happiness. We pursue them in that order, but their importance is reverse." - Naval Ravikant

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself." - Richard Francis Burton

"Why are people calling me Brandon?" - Joe Biden

"Kites rise highest against the wind, not with it." - Winston Churchill

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Hydroponics reveal that Organic Food is about ideology, not sustainability. (HT Newmark's Door)

- Possibly my new religion

- And speaking of religion.

- Cornhole as a Olympic sport? I'd watch that. 

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

 "True good fortune is what you make for yourself. Good fortune: good character, good intentions, good actions." - Marcus Aurelius

"When I do good, I feel good. When I do bad, I feel bad. That's my religion." - Abraham Lincoln

"The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays." - Soren Kierkegard

"It's not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." - Seneca

"Education isn't something you can finish." - Isaac Asimov

"No matter how smart a person is, no matter how elegant their hypothesis, if it does not agree with experimentation, it is wrong." - Richard Feynman

"Be scared. You can't help that. But don't be afraid." - William Faulkner

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Heh Heh - Is it bad that my mind heard that last line in Forrest's voice? (Via)

- Governments wanting to vaccinate children increasingly looks like a disregard of science and a money grab for Pfizer 

- Who is Starlink really for? For anyone with access to fiber broadband - Starlink is not the solution. But for people with no access to high speed connections it will be a Godsend. Also not mentioned but a huge market - long haul truckers, RV's and yachts all of which could use Internet access in our modern age. (HT Stephen Landry)

- Theology's Invisible Hand. Adam Smith, religion, and economic theory.

- Matt Ridley: Dismantling the Environmental Theory for COVID's Origins 

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Just a reminder that a good percentage of your tax dollars go to pay the interest on the National Debt every year. Our National Debt is going through the roof because of all the wasteful spending out of Washington and this will couple with the inflation that is being caused by the mismanagement of the economy by these self-same folks. The amount we US citizens will have to pay on the interest on the national debt is about to skyrocket and this story is seemingly not getting any attention in the media... Noah Smith - Does America really lose all it's wars?  He pegs our post WWII "record" at 15-2-3 and I don't agree with all his assumptions or conclusions (Iraq was never about oil). What fascinated me was I didn't recognize a number of the wars he listed (and I consider myself a pretty historically literate fellow). Operation Beleaguer (1945-49)? Operation Observant Compass (2011-17)? Are some of these really wars?... If I were to start a new religion I'd call it Bill Belichick's Cult of Personality. I think that would be amusing. Wonder if I could get tax-exempt status?... Psychedelic Apples would be a good name for a Grateful Dead or Phish cover band... There is absolutely no Fortune 500 company that would hire either Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi as CEO yet here they both are running the entire economy. How does that make you feel?...  

Quotes for Today

Some quotes I hope may resonate with you.

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." - Voltaire

"Liberals claim not to want to give a hearing to other views, but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views." - William F. Buckley

"In any situation in life, you always have three choices.; you can change it, you can accept it, or you can leave it." - Naval Ravikant

"Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom on heaven." - Gospel of Matthew

"Enter not the door of any organized religion. [Religion] is only between you and your God, and no third person must come between you." - Swami Vivekananda

"To have an opinion about somebody you've never met before is pretty superficial." - Heather Mills

Simulation Hypocrisy

"Science is a culture of doubt. Religion is a culture of faith." - Richard Feynman

"Atheists are just modern versions of religion fundamentalists: they both take religion too literally." - Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Always amazed that people who seriously believe we are living in a simulation also mainly tend to be atheists. They have no evidence we are living in a simulation but they have faith in the idea nonetheless.

At least the major religions have historical proof that their leaders existed - the Buddha, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. What proof do those who believe in the idea of a simulation have? None. And what's the answer if you ask them who created the simulation?

Yet these folks seriously don't see the irony of having "faith" in something you have no proof of and suggesting that this reality is the product of some invisible programmers in the sky.

Just an observation that amused me.

Religious Affiliations of the Super Heroes

I found this very interesting.

Who knew that Batman was a lapsed Catholic who is now an Episcopalian? It was easy to guess that Catholic Girl was Catholic (how come there's no Catholic Avenger? That would be a cool name for the Pope's alter ego and while I'm rambling - who ever heard of Catholic Girl?). But did you know that Ben Grimm (the Thing from the Fantastic Four) is Jewish? Magneto (the X-Men super villian) is also Jewish.

The funniest one I thought was J. Jonah Jameson who is the employer of Peter Parker. His religious affiliation is listed as "hates Spider-man". I just found that amusing.

Here are some of the major super heros / villians and their religious affiliations:

Superman - Methodist 
Spider-Man - Protestant 
Batman - Episcopalian/Catholic (lapsed)
Lex Luthor - Nietzschian atheist (I would have guessed Lutheran)
The Joker - atheist

Diet of Worms

Today is he anniversary of the start of the Diet of Worms. This was actually a formal deliberative body in Worms, Germany assembled in 1521 to discuss Martin Luther. To most people unfamiliar with history or steeped in religious theology Diet of Worms sounds more like the title of a Stephen King short story.

It is one of the most important dates in the history of Western Civilization but one of the least known. It is important because it is the formal beginning of the schism between the Catholic Church and what was later to be known as Protestantism.