Rick Moran riffs off of this NY Times piece to speculate about the dangers of scientific progress. First, let's talk about the Times' article and then we'll get to Rick's comments.

It's really quite simple. A couple of guys think that CERN's nearly completed Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland might cause the destruction of the Earth when it is activated. They think our options are either being sucked into a black-hole or fused into one big lump of strange matter, Ice-nine style. Their solution is to sue the Department of Energy and Fermilab (both of which are alleged to contribute to the project) for failure to file an environmental impact statement. That should be enough, they think, to derail the collider. They included CERN as a defendant, but it's doubtful the federal courts have jurisdiction over a European physics lab.

Fear about supercolliders is nothing new. In fact, one of these guys tried this particular strategy before:

This is not the first time around for Mr. Wagner. He filed similar suits in 1999 and 2000 to prevent the Brookhaven National Laboratory from operating the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. That suit was dismissed in 2001. The collider, which smashes together gold ions in the hopes of creating what is called a “quark-gluon plasma,” has been operating without incident since 2000.

Which is not to say that there won't be an incident. It's just that I'm much more likely to believe, y'know, actual scientists who tell me that the risk is low or nonexistent than I am a lawyer and a self-described "researcher on time theory" (the example of global warming "consensus" notwithstanding).

My own reading on the subject leads me to conclude that these fellows have some things in common with the folks who fear Gray Goo and genemod organisms and artificial intelligence. The complaint is always "We Just Don't KNOW!" They want us to bury our heads in the sand since the mere act of scientific inquiry may result in the destruction of humanity. The problem is that they always end up labeling as "propaganda" scientific evidence that so-called existential risks are small or nonexistent (as the plaintiff told the Times reporter in this case). That indicates to me that they aren't going to be satisfied regardless of what science uncovers which therefore makes them particularly unqualified to judge the risks involved.

That brings me to Rick's post, where he gives far too much leeway to crack-pot naysayers for my taste:

The fact that scientists are not laughing at the idea of destroying the earth as a result of an experiment shows the wisdom of taxpayers like Wagner questioning everything – even though his expertise and knowledge may fall short of those he is criticizing. I would hope the same holds true for some bio-medical research that has the potential to loose upon the planet something that could destroy life as well as those working in the artificial intelligence field who some have theorized could end up being quite unfriendly to their creators.

He's giving Wagner (the plaintiff in this case) too much credit. Wagner isn't "questioning everything." Even as a philosophical exercise, "questioning everything" hasn't been all that successful a strategy; contemporary philosophy has been stuck in a rut ever since Descartes, trust me. What we really need to be doing is seeking answers, something that Wagner is doggedly opposed to. He's already made up his mind.

We shouldn't be glorifying neo-luddism, Rick.

Bonus: For those who are interested in this kind of thing, the complaint in this case is here (PDF). If you guessed that this fellow was representing himself, you guessed right and you know what they say about lawyers who represent themselves. This is the type of stuff they hand out to 1L research and writing classes to spot the problems.

On the other hand, if this thing is going to destroy the world, do you think we could get that done before the last week in July? I'd just as soon not take the bar exam if I don't have to.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 06:02 PM | Comments (94)
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The family of Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin was informed today by the United States Army that the remains of their son have been recovered and identified through DNA testing.

BATAVIA, Ohio (AP) - The father of Matt Maupin, a soldier listed as missing-captured in Iraq since 2004 said today that the military had informed him that his son's remains were found in Iraq. Keith Maupin said at a news conference in suburban Cincinnati that an Army general told him DNA testing had identified the remains of his son, Sgt. Keith Matthew Maupin, or "Matt" as he was commonly known.

Sgt. Maupin was captured almost four years ago in an ambush west of Baghdad. He was a graduate of Glen Este High School, near Cincinnati, and was a student at the University of Cincinnati when he joined the Army Reserves.

Words fail. They just do. I wish I could find some, something. Instead I just grieve with his family, and pray for their healing from such a difficult ordeal, and their painful loss.

Requiescat in pacem Sgt. Maupin.

Thanks for the tip Kevlarchick

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 05:00 PM | Comments (59)
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Given his comments on the state of the Democratic Party it sure seems like he isn't interested in staying there anymore:

Well, I say that the Democratic Party changed. The Democratic Party today was not the party it was in 2000. It's not the Bill Clinton-Al Gore party, which was strong internationalists, strong on defense, pro-trade, pro-reform in our domestic government. It's been effectively taken over by a small group on the left of the party that is protectionist, isolationist and basically will --and very, very hyperpartisan. So it pains me. I'm a Democrat who came to the party in the era of President John F. Kennedy. It's a strange turn of the road when I find among the candidates running this year that the one, in my opinion, closest to the Kennedy legacy, the John F. Kennedy legacy, is John S. McCain.

source

So where does he go? Well he could just hold on to his Senate seat, but if he really wants to angry up the Kos Kiddies he takes a run at VP.

I know most of the people here wouldn't be crazy about such a ticket, but I am an incrementalist. I believe that as long as the country's politics are headed in the direction I like I can live with small gains consistently made. I think that at least in the areas that I believe are most important at the moment, Iraq / Afghanistan and the Supreme Court, a McCain / Lieberman ticket would be pretty solid. I am also realistic enough to know that the Republican Convention would never nominate a McCain / Lieberman ticket.

Of course I would prefer it if McCain chose Dick Cheney but that's never happening so...

Oh and since Ace thinks it would be a good idea for me to link whore who am I to disagree? My blogs are KURU Lounge and Independent Sources

As Bartle and James would say thank you for your support.

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:38 PM | Comments (88)
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I was doing some googling to see if I could find some info on Obama and the Million Man March he reportedly marched in and helped organize, and I found this interview of Obama in the Chicago Reader from December 1995, after he (yes!) attended the march. What stands out to me is his unapologetic love affair with collectivism. I guess thatÂ’s not surprising for a Democrat, but stillÂ…..wow!
Here are some highlights:

more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 04:07 PM | Comments (89)
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If so, I think weÂ’ve found our man!

A pastor whose disappearance from a small town in upstate New York triggered a search by police and the FBI was found earlier today (Friday) — inside an Ohio strip club.

Police said that when the Rev. Craig S. Rhodenizer, 46, was confronted by an officer, he began crying and said he couldn't remember anything about the 36 hours he was missing.

But dancers at the club remembered Rhodenizer. They told investigators that Rhodenizer spent two hours drinking, soliciting dances and making threatening comments. He also said he wanted to take the dancers back to his motel, according to the police report. In his car was a bottle of Bacardi rum.

Okay, the rum is a problem but if we can get him to take up Valu-Right Vodka and get him out on a hobo hunt or two, I think heÂ’s perfect for us.

Posted by: DrewM at 03:09 PM | Comments (67)
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So cool. more...

Posted by: Ace at 01:31 PM | Comments (73)
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By the way, if you're a blogger, you really should give a link to your site when you put up a post.

Either put it at the end or stuff it into the headline with the a href command.

Posted by: Ace at 12:13 PM | Comments (149)
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For the past three days ABC News has been pushing this story at the top of their business section and on the front page. Apparently, "right-wing ideology" is going to cause the U.S. government to "fail to ward off a major depression." So says Professor of Finance Robert Parks, who thinks there is a 60 percent chance that we are headed for a "Bush depression."

The Fed, under Chairman Ben Bernanke, has taken several orthodox and unorthodox monetary actions to prevent the credit freeze-up from spreading and damaging further the basic economy.

[...]

Mr. Parks, however, doubts the cuts will do much to boost the economy. Rather, he sees a further steep fall in housing prices, continued major deficits in the federal budget and in the international trade balance, a tumbling dollar, and a weak stock market leading to a genuine depression with 30 to 35 percent unemployment, greater poverty, more loss of homes, plunging bond and stock prices, even some starvation.

This is just a happy continuation of the Democrats' election strategy. They desperately want to convince people that Bush is Hoover and that we very much need a savior like FDR. If Park's reference to "right-wing ideology" wasn't too much of a giveaway, his proposed solutions to the impending economic disaster should make this clear.

Parks would like the federal government to step up outlays to fix rickety bridges, repair pot-holed roads, improve schools, and more to provide more jobs, more income, and thus more spending to cure any economic downturn.

This is a Keynesian pipe-dream. What Parks is missing is that measures like the RFC and the WPA worked when unemployment rates were already higher than 16% in the case of the RFC and almost 25% in the case of the WPA. The financial industry had already collapsed and world-wide trade had slumped to a third of its previous high. There were plenty of unemployed and desperate people who were willing to build roads and bridges and libraries. In other words, FDR's policies contributed to pulling the U.S. out of a depression, not to preventing one in the first place. It is the sloppiest kind of thinking to assume that what worked to end a depression will also work to avoid it.

Parks and ABC News leave untouched the question of how the government is going to pay for these projects, which is especially telling since the Democrats have made such a ruckus about federal deficits and the national debt. Perhaps it bears mentioning that during the Great Depression, the top tax rate was 63% (later raised to 91% at the end of WWII). It wouldn't surprise me if the Democrats want to resurrect that FDR policy along with the rest.

In the end, we should all be deeply suspicious of a Keynesian finance professor who thinks about economics in terms of political ideologies and who seems devoted to reliving the FDR years. I estimate that there is a 60 percent chance that he's just trying to get his name in the headlines.

Thanks to genghis for the tip.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 11:26 AM | Comments (125)
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You can read it. I can't bear.

I see now where I went wrong. This blog has always been, since day one, What White Men Fear (vagina, brown people).

If only I'd realized that the the positive sells better.

Posted by: Ace at 08:03 AM | Comments (89)
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Correction: I just added the question mark because I'm not sure the authority here -- biography.com -- is sufficient. Thanks to genghis for suggesting I check the original source.

More: Genghis says the site to by the below blogs linked is "wormy" and lights up security measures. Looking even shakier than it did before.

It's not so much the march, but marching under the flag of degenerate lunatic Louis Farrakhan.

For a different kind of politician, set to heal our racial wounds, Obama sure does seem to carry a lot of old school racewarrior baggage.

Was this seen as a more-or-less mainstream event in the black community itself? Well, maybe, maybe not, but not among the black political leadership, which almost entirely sat the event out.

Only two members of Congress attended, as did a couple of mayors (including Marion Barry), Rev. Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton. President Clinton gave a speech endorsing the goals of the march, but condemning its organizer.

Posted by: Ace at 07:47 AM | Comments (69)
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