THE BRAIN FREES

I learned of this blog entry from Kevin M. Folta. Facebook won't let this blogpost from Ageconomist post to their platform. I'm bringing my old blog back to life (last post was 6-ish years ago) just to post it here. Let's see if we can't get this past Facebook's anti-science algorithm. Here's what Kevin had to say about it: "A great article on how the New York Times manipulated the situations around two science communicators to generate outrage-- where no malfeasance exists. Very nice work with important quotations."

Economic Sense

Biotechnology, Food, and Applied Economics

Monday, December 05, 2022

Canceling Science and Monetizing Outrage

http://ageconomist.blogspot.com/2022/12/canceling-science-and-monetizing-outrage.html

Please copy and paste to your browser if the link doesn't work. Like I mentioned, I haven't posted in years - things don't seem to be working like I remember.

-The Brain Frees

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Jesus Constitution

Talkin- debati- arguing with religious people is always an odd little adventure. It has absolutely no effect to present verifiable facts to them. They simply act as if you never did. But you know they know you did, because they change the topic or goal post in direct response to the facts so they still appear to be correct in their (un)reasoning. They aren't.

Here we have a case where Tony, an ~~evangelical Christian~~ agnostic who insists that America ~~was founded on Christianity~~ has more practicing Christians than any other religion, so it is a Christian nation.

After someone explained to Tony, even providing evidence, that America ~~was not founded on Christianity~~ is not a Christian nation, he derped his way through explaining that it still is no matter what forever and ever infinity plus one because reasons and such and everyone else is stupid and unreasonable.

I reiterated the evidence proving Tony wrong. And in a manner too clever to comprehend, he said if America ~~wasn't founded on Christianity~~ isn't a Christian nation, then I should provide evidence.

So, I did.

I admit, most of the information I provided in that lengthy, fact-filled supply of evidences was taken from an article I found on the internet many years ago. I don't remember the source, but I have kept the info in my notes since then. It has come in handy the dozen or so times I have pleasantly spoken with Christians (or, in this case, agnostics) who insist that America ~~was founded on Christianity~~ is a Christian nation.

Afterward, I have included an account of what happens to secular nations when overcome by religion. And it doesn't matter what religion. We're now potentially headed this way in America due to right wing extremists - you may know them as The Republican Party.

You can click on the images if you need to embiggen them on your computer. I don't know how it works on mobile devices. You'll figure it out.

Enjoy...

Trump's Collection of Fascist Oligarchs

President Electoral College Baby Finster’s administration picks so far.

Enjoy…

The Third Presidential Debate 2016

Alright, I tried to watch this the day after it aired so I could pause and do commentary for a blog post. It took two days because I could not eye & earball the whole thing in one sitting.

It's lengthy. Get out your favorite liquor.

Enjoy. I hope.

Getting A Trumpuppance

Just a few words on our national disaster.

Enjoy.

Disrespecting the Veterans

Nope, he's not the one disrespecting veterans

Okay, hopefully this writing will purge all anger from my system about the Kaepernick non-story.

But probably not.

Enjoy...

We Dont Nede Know Ejukayshun

Pink Floyd: The Wall

Sorry, this pseudo-outrage distraction bullshit is pissing me off. My last post wasn't enough to get it out of my system.

Wake the fuck up.

Enjoy...

The Kaepernick Diversion

Seriously. This is what's wrong with Americans. Their ability to be tricked out of paying attention to real problems with shiny irrelevant distractions.

Rambling rant ahead.

Enjoy...

Confederate Feelings: The Dixie Swastika

I’m becoming more intolerant of bullshit.

Both sides of every issue do not have equal merit. Many issues don’t even have two sides. Whether you’re talking about science (vaccines do not cause autism; there is no merit to the argument that it does), politics (trickle-down economics does not work; there is no evidence that it does), or history (Lincoln was not a racist who hated black people and had nothing to do with freeing them; just shut the fuck up), some things are just unmitigated facts without debate.

Liars say burning fossil fuels have nothing to do with global warming. Insecure fundamentalists say magic created people and the Earth. Charlatans say essential oils cure whateverthefuck. These are not “the other side of the debate.” There is no debate. You can’t “teach the controversy.” There is no controversy. There is the truth and there is bullshit. (Not everything is always black and white, but in cases that are black and white such as these, they are black and white. Got it?)

Here, I debate the meaning of the Southern Flag. Actually, it’s not even the Southern Flag; that’s another stupid thing about it. Depending on its shape, it is a battle flag of a particular army. This is the flag of the Confederate States of America:

What follows is the dumbest, most nonsensical argument you will ever read. I dare you to accept this guy’s “logic.”

Anyway, I am intolerant of bullshit.

Enjoy…

An Open Letter To Ammosexuals

Just a little note to ammosexuals.

Enjoy…

Record Breaking Mass Murder (America's #1!)

The USA just had a record-breaking mass murder in Orlando, Florida.

I'm not going to debate anyone on the issue. I've done it literally dozens of times already (which has been chronicled on this blog) and the ammosexuals always say the same stupid, fucktarded shit that is demonstrably wrong as their defense for why they need guns. Because that's what it only boils down to: they just want them. And no amount of lies will they spare in their justification for their self centered desires.

No debate. I'm just going on a little rant this time.

Enjoy...

Hey Fuck Head

I get into debates sometimes; I don’t even know what we’re debating since we all agree.

The problem is, no one is listening. Everyone is talking. They’re just concerned with winning. Winning what, I cannot fathom.

But that’s what makes America great. I suppose it does in other countries, too.

“I yelled the loudest and didn’t stop until you gave up so I win the no-prize!”

Anyway… biased media points out what the other side is doing wrong while ignoring that their side is doing the same thing. And it turns out I’m a fuck head for pointing that out. I guess I was supposed to be biased and blindly accept the truthiness of the article.

This is a short one.
Enjoy…

Big Money in Being A Pseudoscience Peddler

It seems if you really want to make a lot of money easily these days, target gullible, scientifically illiterate people by scaring them with pseudoscience or straight up anti-science and say the words “natural,” “organic” and/or “healthy” as often as possible.

Alternative medicine.
Homeopathy.
Reiki.
Naturopathy.
Acupuncture.
Chiropractic.
Natural supplements.
Gluten-free (except for 1% of Earthlings)
GMO-free
Chemical-free.
Essential oils.

All bullshit.

Oh, and I love fast food. I just don’t eat it like a cafone. Yeah, I’m about to go after the giant heap of anti-science crap that is better known as “Super Size Me.”

Enjoy…

#ImSoSick of The Corrupt Establishment Bullshit

The establishment wants the status quo. They’re becoming inordinately wealthy off of current policies.

The people want a revolution, which began during the Bush years, came into focus with the Occupy movement, and continues its progressive march through this very moment.

The establishment has picked Hillary as their candidate. The people have picked Bernie as their candidate.

Here are my fact-based, citation-provided thoughts on the two Democratic Party candidates.

Enjoy...

2016 Candidates

Here's a little something I was inspired to make. The top two contenders for each Party.

Enjoy...

Trump: The Speech

I saw this video and wanted to interpret what he meant. The words kept coming and it turned into a speech. Some sentences I made up. Others are direct quotes. Others are a blend of quotes and fabricated. Can you discern? Can you? I can’t. And I wrote it. It’s the best. The finest quality speech. Trump speech. Classy.

Enjoy…

Revisioning Lincoln or: How I Learned to Stop Thinking and Love Wikipedia

This is not a post about guns. It’s about history. And the revisioning thereof.

In early January, Obama finally did something about guns. He signed an executive order to reduce gun violence.

WhiteHouse.gov: FACT SHEET: New Executive Actions to Reduce Gun Violence and Make Our Communities Safer

Naturally, right-wing ammosexuals went bugfuck nuts about Obama being a dictator because of his massive use of executive orders and finally, after seven years of taking their guns away although no guns were ever taken away, finally took their guns away, which resulted in him still not taking their guns away. But hey, fuckin’ Obama, amirite?

Problem is, well, this…

It’s actually 227 total as of this post, but the point remains the same.

A friend posted a meme about Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation being an executive order. The purpose of the meme is to point out that just because it is an executive order, doesn’t mean it’s a dictatorial power grab. They’re mostly used for good.

That’s when the history hit the fan. Let me just say that I’m noticing a pattern of “education” not always meaning “educated.”

As usual, it devolves into delusional self-righteousness. I’ll let you decide if I’m the delusional one or not.

Enjoy…

Atheist

facebook.com/TheGoodLordAbove

I do not particularly like the term, “atheist.’

Please enjoy my thoughts on the subject…

Glyphosate Is Carcinogenic! (Almost as much as coffee.)

I’m not a genetic engineer.
I’m not a chemist.
I’m not a farmer.
I’m not a statistician.
If you’ve by some chance read any of the bulk of posts on this blog, you’d know I’m also not an economist, a political scientist or a pundit.

I’d like to call myself a science communicator, but I don’t feel comfortable doing that. There are science communicators out there that are waaaaaaaay more science-knowledgey than I. Many of them have degrees and PhDs and whatnot.

I’m just a guy. Sometimes, I’m an asshole - mostly in retaliation. Or frustration (keep repeating the same thing after I’ve already debunked it and see how I get).

But all that aside, there is one important thing I do consider myself to be:

Not ideological.

I also try to not be opinionated; sometimes, I fail.

What does all this mean? It means that even though I’m not any of those professionals, I do understand that they know what they’re talking about and I understand to not maintain an uninformed or biased “feeling-based” ideology. They’re smarter than me. My opinion is irrelevant when dealing with facts. I don’t look for articles that corroborate my opinion and disregard all those to the contrary. I am scientifically literate, so I look to experts for their opinions and peer-reviewed research. I know where to look for credible citations - and where not to look.

This cannot be said for many people. They’re the ones who say, “DO YOUR RESEARCH!” And they’re the ones who haven’t. Confirmation bias is not research.

I like these dialogue posts. You get to see both sides of an argument: the misinformed, ideological, confirmation biased side, and the peer-reviewed, reputable, science-based information side. This one is about the IARC (mis)classification of glyphosate earlier in the year.

Be forewarned: it is quite lengthy. I have to rebut a large amount of woo.

Enjoy…

Bullshit, Incorporated: Science & Medicine

There's a lot of bullshit being slung at the scientific and medicinal communities by fucking idiot celebrities and alternative medicine assholes and eco warrior terrorists and those USRTK fucksticks lately. Yeah, Gary Ruskin, you brainless taint barnacle, I mean you. And I have a few things I want to get off my chest about it.

Image: Facebook: Kavin Senapathy- Writer, Science Defender

Thank you in advance for indulging my oddly placid rant. (Not counting the above intro.)

Enjoy...

Proof in the Pudding

After the rape allegations against Bill Cosby by a couple dozen women became a news item (thanks to Hannibal Buress), Sean Hannity immediately ran to Cosby’s defense.

Here are my brief thoughts on the matter.

Enjoy...

#BlackLivesMatter

If your racist uncle or friend or whomever starts in with the completely-oblivious-to-their-white-privilege #WhiteLivesMatterToo argument, don't fight with them. Just send them over to this post.

Here is a collection of articles I put together after I was smacked with the "The grand jury knows all the information and you don't!" defense to the outcome of the Ferguson grand jury regarding the summary execution of Michael Brown by officer Darren Wilson. Apparently, as he was running away from officer Wilson, unarmed Michael Brown fell on six bullets all by himself when he reached a distance of 150 feet in the opposite direction of the patrol car. It seems officer Wilson's gun felt threatened by Michael Brown and needed to defend itself from a fleeing man.

Really, don't enjoy...

GMO? OMG! STFU.

I was either going to title this post, “Everything You Wanted To Know About The Safety Of GMOs But Didn’t Care To Ask Because You Are Stuck In A Misinformed Ideological Belief As Opposed To Arriving At An Informed Opinion Based On Empirical Scientific Data” or “GMO? OMG! STFU.” I went for the shorter one. Catchier.

This is a good quote for summing up the anti-GMO movement. The anti-vaccine movement. The global warming deniers. The anti-gluten people (the 99% of Earthlings who don’t have Celiac disease). The evolution deniers. The alternative medicine people. Homeopathy. Chiropractic. Acupuncture. Etc.

The following is a collection of GMO debates I’ve had with one liberal independent & very anti-GMO friend. I like these debate posts because you get both sides of the argument: the conspiracy and the truth. (Liberals are just as anti-science as Republicans when it interferes with their ideological beliefs.)

You will see a plethora of links supporting each side of the debate. One side has researched, peer-reviewed, reproducible scientific studies that refute the anecdotal cherry-picked ideology presented by the other side. I’ll let you figure out which is which.

If you don’t want to read a fairly lengthy post, here it is in a genetically modified nutshell:

“This study I found on “HealthyMercolaNaturalNoGMOsNoChemicalsMonsantoIsEvilBabeFoodOrganicFreedomBuyThis AlternativeFromUs dot com" shows how evil GMOs are.”
“This peer-reviewed scientific study takes apart that anecdotal study point-by-point, exposing the logical fallacies and cherry-picked statistics it used. And here is the complete scientific study presenting comprehensive analysis of the topic.”
“Yeah, well, there are no studies that show GMOs are safe.”
“Except for these couple thousand?”
“Yeah, well, ha ha ha! You just keep thinking that, shill!”
“I’d rather rely on the science than my ideological wishes."
"Well, to change the subject, it's about the one corporation that owns all the food in the world."
"Here's a list of several hundred food corporations only from the USA. Which is the one that owns all the food in the world? …Hello?”

I’m no scientist, but I tend to rely more on easily accessible scientific evidence as opposed to a sales pitch behind a pay wall.

This post could have gone on forever, but I think I've tackled all the anti-GMO talking points. Several are repeated because fact retention seems to be elusive to the "anti" crowd. I tried to cut out the repetitions as best I could when they weren't entwined within other talking points.

This post is extensive, so brace yourself.

Enjoy...

Responsible Gun Owners

Here’s a list of stories about “responsible” gun owners. It supports the notion that we “don’t” need any more gun regulations.

I wanted to post this when it reached 25 examples, deciding that 25 would be enough to make my point. Sadly, I failed to only reach that goal, as the responsible gun owners kept being so very responsible.

Enjoy?...

Twitter Fight! 2: Firearms Boogaloo

Yep. Here’s the next post about guns in this series.

Previous to this, I did one other Twitter fight, and I said then as I’m saying now – I don’t like ‘em.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know I can be a bit… wordy. It comes with trying to be thorough. People I argue against seem to love Twitter. “You liar,” “Fail,” “Idiot,” and, “Try again,” is their general level of expression. The denial of facts is still a norm, though.

Anyway, this one is about Georgia’s new “Guns Everywhere” law.

Election years. Gotta love ‘em.

Oh, there are a few other related battles here, too. They go quickly. Like I said, it’s Twitter. I don’t have the freedom to detail my arguments, so it ends up mostly being sarcastic quips instead.

Enjoy…

Semi-Automatic Abortion Control

Wow! Is it time for the next installment in this series on guns already?

Yes.

I get a bit dickish in this discussion, but I’m getting fucking sick of these numb-nuts just parroting the same bullshit over and over for their own self-serving, uninformed bias.

And that whole, “And Obama is the dummiest poopy-head dummy ever in the world ever, too!” was really goddamned childish. But again, when you know fuck-all about the real world, you just parrot bullshit.

Enjoy...

Gun Fornicators

The Second Amendment starts with, “A well regulated militia.”

The Second Amendment does not start with, “Anyone who feels like it.”

That was just a little reminder.

The way these people think about guns and protect guns at all costs and above all else, including human life, I can’t believe they don’t put a condom on the barrel and shove ‘em up their asses and squirt in pleasure.

Sorry about that image. Here’s the next in a series of posts on guns.

Please enjoy my little rant…

Yes, Guns Again

Yeah. Time for another series on guns. Four mass shootings in six days is inspirational. And almost one school shooting per week (74) since Newtown.

This one’s pretty self-explanatory. A father is pissed that no politician has done anything about gun violence in America (except relax gun laws) and my (our) Libertarian friend tries to explain how guns are never responsible for anyone dying. I guess because of the free market and property rights or something.

You know, thinking about it, gun violence would probably drop to an almost insignificant level if we just went back to the gold standard. That’s it, I’m converting to Libertarianism right now.

Enjoy...

Memeghazi

We've all (well, the thinkers, anyway) known from almost the beginning that the Benghazi tragedy was not some sort of conspiracy by the White House. I've even blogged about it A YEAR AND A HALF AGO. Obama won his re-election, so they dropped it. But now that Hillary is most likely going to run in 2016, the GOP is resurrecting their favorite previously debunked tin foil hat conspiracy. After all, they can't pin their Solyndra, IRS, Fast & Furious, birth certificate, Muslim, Kenya, gay alien or NSA pseudo-scandals on her. Or, can they? I wouldn't put it past their desperate idiocy.

Now, after 25,000 documents, 50 briefings and 13 hearings - which uncovered the truth behind what happened and proved it was not a White House cover up or conspiracy, I was going to write a blog about this resurrected GOP dumbfuckery, but seeing as how everyone on the internet has been doing such a great job reporting on it, I figured I'd just collect all the memes and articles in one spot for you to peruse at your leisure. A 'one-stop Benghazi conspiracy debunking shop,' if you will.

But before we get to it, I'd like to explain the difference between the Benghazi event and a real conspiracy:

Benghazi was an actual intelligence failure. It ended in tragedy, but it wasn't a crime or a conspiracy or a lie or a cover-up. However, the Bush administration had the "intelligence" to prevent 9/11/01 but willingly ignored it. Afterward, they intentionally lied and conspired to invade and occupy a sovereign nation for no reason connected to the event, resulting in the needless deaths of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians. Then again conspired to cover up those lies, which is a crime.

Okay. Enjoy...

Facebook Case Files VIII

The fun never ends.

Enjoy...

Implausible Deniability

This dialogue in a nutshell:

Me: Corporate tax cuts don’t create jobs.
Him: You’re a hysterical ranting liberal.
Me: That wasn’t a rant. You just personally attacked me. And I’m not a liberal.
Him: No, I didn’t attack you. Your hysterical liberal rants cloud your abiblity to reason and you spelled ‘liberal’ wrong.
Me: That makes no sense. And I didn’t spell ‘liberal’ wrong. But you spelled ‘ability’ wrong.
Him: Your rant is just a projection of your own insecurities.

Seriously. This is that fun. Only, way more.

You will experience what it’s like to debate someone who not only denies that I said what I said, but also denies that he said what he said. And invents other things that nobody said. There seems to be a growing pattern of this occurrence as of late.

A truly drug-free hallucinogenic drug trip of a conversation.

Libertarians. Sheesh.

Also, this is the first of several where I’m called a Liberal. Right-wing people seem to think plain old facts have a liberal bias.

Enjoy…

Shifting the Blame

You ever notice when right-wingers get caught doing something, it’s never their fault? Or when they blame bad events on their ideological dislikes? Or when they complain about people doing stuff they don’t like, but it’s ok for them to do? Or cut subsidies to the poor while taking advantage of those same subsidies?

The Party of Personal Responsibility is never personally responsible. Hypocritical? Yes.

And seriously, there are some incredibly stupid motherfuckers out there.

Governing our lives.

Think about that and stop voting for them.

Enjoy…

Famiglia

Most of my family are proud members of the Grand Old Party. These are parts of some emails from them. It may be a cousin (or two), it may not – I’ll never tell.

Here are my responses. However, after I wrote them, I didn’t have the heart to send them. Just because I can be a dick, doesn't mean I have to be.

Instead, I’m sharing them with you.

Keep in mind, they are not the entire emails. Just the political parts. And they’re about 1% of the email.

Like I said – Family.

Enjoy…

Gun Overdose

In this episode, we find out Philip Seymour Hoffman overdosing on heroin somehow proves that gun regulation doesn’t work.

Also, I’m getting really tired of people trying to convince me they didn’t say what they said.

For fuck’s sake.

Enjoy…

Obamacare Opt-Out

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, aka, “Obamacare” is not a health insurance plan. It’s a fucking law. The “Patient Protection” part does things like end lifetime caps, so the insurance company can’t cut off your care while you’re in the middle of a cancer treatment program. It got rid of pre-existing conditions, so an insurance company can’t refuse to cover you if you’re shopping for insurance but you have diabetes. The “Affordable Care” part created a marketplace for health insurance corporations to compete for your patronage, naturally lowering costs. New taxes on individuals making over $200,000 (families & corporations making over $250,000) will also help to cover the cost of insuring more people. Plus other taxes. http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-taxes.php And 85% of Americans won’t see a tax increase at all. Also, the health insurance you purchased through the ACA has a tax that goes to help fund the ACA. My platinum plan that I purchased through the federal exchange (because Georgia Republicans hate people and refused to implement a state exchange), which includes that tax, is still only $300 per month – and that’s without any subsidies. Not remotely possible to afford as a self-employed individual before the ACA. I’m happy to help others afford health care. It may not be mentioned it in the Constitution, but neither were cars or cell phones. And a million other things. If you don’t view health care (& welfare) as a human right, then you’re just a selfish prick.

More ranting after the jump, then on to the fun part.

Enjoy…

Fucking Liberals

Yeah. You heard me.

Fucking liberals forced me to fucking defend George W. Bush. I will never forgive them.

But facts are facts.

For my 200^th post, I thought I’d take a break from bashing Republicans. Most people think I’m a Liberal because I’m always pointing out that Republicans are either wrong, liars or straight-up scumbags. No. I just point out facts. Or, at least, I try to. I can’t help it if Republicans are wildly more wrong about facts (intentional or otherwise) than Liberals.

There was a satirical article about the things that hypocritical FOX-watchers think. It was good. I had one issue – there was a photo of President Bush kissing King Abdullah. You know the one. Photoshopped. I pointed out this fact in the comments section. Someone said I was wrong. Words happened. Lots of insanely stupid, circular logic, evidence-denying words. All in the name of being correct.

Oh, and I was blamed several times of doing what they were doing, which is called ‘projection.’ Left or Right, blind obedience makes you stupid.

Side note: I’ve decided not to call Republicans “Conservative” anymore because none of their policies are conservative, so I would be lying if I called them Conservative. When they call themselves “Conservative,” they are lying.

Enjoy…

The Gynotician

I fucking lost it on this guy.

If he was someone I knew, maybe I would have been more, shall we say, calm. But it was a friend of a friend, so fuck him.

I’ve fucking had it with this damn hypocritical, fact-denying, self-righteous, uneducated, misogynistic stupidity.

Enjoy…

Chris Christie Was Here

I’ll never understand parents that bestow their children with first names similar to their surnames.

I wonder why people feel the need to make up stories about all the Obama “scandals,” when he hasn’t done anything wrong, but feel the need to go out of their way to give NJ Governor Chris Christie “the benefit of the doubt” when he’s obviously guilty as fuck.

Ha Ha! No, I don’t. They’re called Republicans.

This discussion is pretty damn entertaining. And holy shit does it fly off on wild, non-Chris Christie tangents. I tried to keep it on track, but I also kept proving them wrong, so they had to keep changing the subject.

Enjoy…

Agreeing to Disagree

The Sochi Winter Olympics starts today.

Here’s a post from the London 2012 Summer Olympics. (Yes, I have a lot of conversations on backlog.) It's relatively short. I thought this would be an appropriate time to post it.

A friend makes a point. A friend of his says it’s not valid just because he doesn’t want it to be. I state facts to support my friend’s point. His friend says the facts shouldn’t matter because, well, they just shouldn’t.

Hot-cha!

Enjoy...

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