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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
 Posted - 12/12/2008 : 09:48:42
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Michael Shermer's latest blog leads me to think that we need some kind of regulation limiting Michael Shermer's blogging rights.
Sorry that I have no time to make more of a comment.
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Edited by - Gorgo on 12/12/2008 10:20:07
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 10:18:57 [Permalink]
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Apparently anyone who speaks about something that is not within their field of expertise is committing a logic fallacy.
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I agree with you completely.
Having said that, do you not get the feeling sometimes that he uses his phDness, and his skeptic society pulpit for things like this post where he now just seems to be promoting lies created by the extreme right wing? |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Ricky
SFN Die Hard
USA
4907 Posts |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 10:48:54 [Permalink]
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And can you really blame a man for using his popularity and resources to get a point across? If you agreed with his point, would you even have objected to his using "his skeptic society pulpit"?
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I think that it gives him some responsibility to have some idea of what he's talking about, don't you? |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 12:26:42 [Permalink]
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I've got no objection to anyone speaking outside the area of their expertise. (I, perforce, do all my speaking that way.) But it certainly should be noted when a person has a much lesser knowledge of one subject than he does in others upon which he expounds. The problem is, economic Libertarianism is the Marxism-Leninism of the Right, in that both "philosophies" are generally taken as dogma by their followers.
Neither is a religion, but there is usually a religious-like certainty attached by followers of each, which is quite immune from debate.
The number of pages of regulations from year to year does not indicate the strength of those regulations, any more than the total number of base pairs in an organism's genome indicates its complexity. Shermer is just tossing out bullshit there, and knows it.
Shermer indeed sips of this particularly vile Koolaid. (BTW: When we lived in San Francisco, my first wife and I knew a couple who were followers of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple. They actually did end up drinking the Original Gangsta Koolaid in Guyana.)
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 12/12/2008 12:30:01 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 14:00:58 [Permalink]
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Actually, I like a lot of what Michael Shermer has to say, and this blog is the result of a collaboration to start a TV show called the Skeptologists. I'm looking forward to that happening.
http://skeptologists.com/ |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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dglas
Skeptic Friend
Canada
397 Posts |
 Posted - 12/12/2008 : 14:32:58 [Permalink]
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Shermer has a tendency to be dogmatic? You think?   |
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- dglas (In the hell of 1000 unresolved subplots...)
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The Presupposition of Intrinsic Evil
+ A Self-Justificatory Framework
= The "Heart of Darkness"
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Simon
SFN Regular
USA
1992 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 15:05:54 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by HalfMooner
I've got no objection to anyone speaking outside the area of their expertise. (I, perforce, do all my speaking that way.) But it certainly should be noted when a person has a much lesser knowledge of one subject than he does in others upon which he expounds. The problem is, economic Libertarianism is the Marxism-Leninism of the Right, in that both "philosophies" are generally taken as dogma by their followers.
Neither is a religion, but there is usually a religious-like certainty attached by followers of each, which is quite immune from debate.
The number of pages of regulations from year to year does not indicate the strength of those regulations, any more than the total number of base pairs in an organism's genome indicates its complexity. Shermer is just tossing out bullshit there, and knows it.
Shermer indeed sips of this particularly vile Koolaid. (BTW: When we lived in San Francisco, my first wife and I knew a couple who were followers of Jim Jones and his Peoples Temple. They actually did end up drinking the Original Gangsta Koolaid in Guyana.) |
But... It was not really kool-aid...
Seriously, I think that Schermer screwed the pouch on this post.
You can agree or disagree with his thesis, but way to demonstrate, using the number of employees without bringing it to the growth of the economy or just counting the number of pages of legislation, is really weak. |
Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
Carl Sagan - 1996 |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 17:24:38 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Ricky
Apparently anyone who speaks about something that is not within their field of expertise is committing a logic fallacy. |
The worst part is that Michael Shermer is an adjunct professor of economics, so it's not like he's talking completely out of his butt. Or does Claremont Graduate University just hand out jobs at random? Could I teach art history there? |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 17:51:16 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by Ricky
Apparently anyone who speaks about something that is not within their field of expertise is committing a logic fallacy. |
The worst part is that Michael Shermer is an adjunct professor of economics, so it's not like he's talking completely out of his butt. Or does Claremont Graduate University just hand out jobs at random? Could I teach art history there?
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The Claremont Colleges are considered first rate. He has no excuse... |
Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 18:08:55 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Kil
He has no excuse... |
No, but neither does the person who wrote comment #10. Sure, Shermer's tiny bio on that blog doesn't mention that he's an economics professor, but it only took me three mouse clicks to get to a more detailed bio from the blog post in question. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 18:24:44 [Permalink]
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I don't see a degree, do you?
I understand that Milton Friedman had some kind of economics education though. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 18:54:39 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Simon
But... It was not really kool-aid... |
"Flavor Aid"? I did not know that! Then... then... Jim Jones and Michael Shermer must both be right! |
“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26020 Posts |
Posted - 12/12/2008 : 19:54:14 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gorgo
I don't see a degree, do you? |
Apparently, one doesn't need a degree in order to know a subject well enough to teach it. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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Shermer's Law
