A Response

I wrote a response to this comment on my last post, but it got so long, I thought it would make better sense to make a separate post out of it.  SG suggested I read the comments on this post at Pharyngula, so I did.

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Smoke/Fire

Apparently, maybe not always, but sometimes, when there is smoke there is a significant probability that there is fire also.

This seems to be the case in Arizona where the well known but smokey Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, seems to have run a department in an area of the country known for its significant Hispanic population, not to mention close to the border of Mexico, that

unfairly [targeted] Latinos for detentions and arrests and [retaliated] against those who complain.

I’m Embarrassed To Say I’m A Lawyer

Troy Davis was executed last night. All indications are that there is significant room for doubt as to his guilt. He was convicted solely on the basis of nine separate eyewitness testimonies, seven of which have retracted their testimony. Of the other two, one has remained completely silent since the trial, and the other is an odds-on favorite for the actual killer. This is what we knew, prior to injecting him with a life-taking chemical. If this is what we had known prior to his conviction, he would not have been convicted in a legal system that relies on a “reasonable doubt” standard. If there is no reasonable doubt in what we now know, then the words “reasonable” and “doubt” don’t mean what I learned in law school.

Glenn Beck Is One Perfect Asshole.

I used to have a business card that said, on one side “25% of my friends have hemorrhoids” while on the back it said “the other 75% are perfect assholes”. It was a humorous novelty card, not one I handed out to prospective clients. I was reminded of that card when I read this story. My initial inclination was to simply provide a link to the story, without comment. Anyone with even a modicum of intelligence would, or should, have the same reaction. The man is a transparent, opportunistic asshole!

A Really Dumb Hobby

I’m a big fan of hobbies. Everyone should have one. Modern life allows us a lot of free time, and we humans need to be able to fill it with satisfying projects. We don’t have to spend from sun-up to sun-down plowing the fields, then sleeping until the next sun-up, too exhausted to find an avocation to keep our minds busy. Idle hands, idle minds; so a good hobby is a good thing. I have a few myself.