In “That Ol’ Black Magic,” in reference to the Ol’ Black Magic of love, Robbie Williams says he’s loving the spin he’s in. Love isn’t of course, the only “Black Magic,” that puts people in a spin. In the U.S., we’ve grown increasingly aware of the “spin” used by major corporations and politicians to influence politics and consumer behavior. “Spin” is basically a biased interpretation. While some form of “spin” has undoubtedly been with us throughout human history, the “father” of modern political spin is usually thought to be canaries in cages down in coal mines so that, when the . . . → Read More: The Spin I’m In
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 Comments are closed  Blog  Agent Orange, bats, bees, birds, bomb, bombs, butterflies, canaries, canary, clear the airway, coal, coal mining, Coca Cola, Coke, corporations, deforestation, Edward Bern's, global climate change, GMO, Good Samaritan, health, insecticides, ISIL, ISIS, Islamic State, Lincoln, long-term problems, Mandy Patinkin, Miami, Mideast, military and civilian first-aid, Monsanto, natural gas, neonicotinoids, North Vietnamese, oil, Ol' Black Magic, politicians, public relations, Robbie Williams, sea-level rise, short-term thinking, Spin, Stephen Colbert, stone age, stop the bleeding, The Late Show, trees, Vietnam War, walking dead, well-being I am old enough that I had most of the childhood illnesses for which vaccines are now available. I had both kinds of measles, chicken pox, mumps, and (I believe) whooping cough. I did have a number of vaccinations as a child, including small pox, tetanus, and probably some others. In my early 20s, I was among those who took the first version of the vaccine for polio developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. When I was in the Army, all new recruits were vaccinated against everything for which vaccines were available, including plague, probably in anticipation of our being sent . . . → Read More: The Vaccine Wars Comments are closed Blog advertising, anti-vaxxers, army, bats, bees, birds, candidates for office, Catholic Church, CDC, Centers for Disease Control, chicken pox, disease management, doctors, Ebola, Galileo, GMO, guns, herbicides, ICIMED, immunization, infant mortality, ingredients, International College of Integrative Medicine, Joseph Mercola, measles, military, mumps, negative advertising, pesticides, political process, politics, Pope, quack, quack watch, smallpox, States, tanks, U.S., US, vaccinations, vaccines, vaxxers, Vietnam, whooping cough “Evolution” refers to change occurring over time, typically in a positive direction. As Darwin envisioned it, species changed (gradually) over time to enhance their ability to survive. These days the word is commonly used for any change that seems to be for the better. Not everyone, of course, agrees on what’s “better.” When President Obama says that his views of gay marriage are evolving, he means that he is becoming more tolerant and accepting. Not everyone, including members of the Westboro Baptist Church, however, would agree that’s a change for the better. One of my favorite writers, Steven Pinker, . . . → Read More: Evolution Comments are closed Blog abortion, Angels, Beowulf, Better Angels of our Nature, change, Christ, Christians, Copernicus, crops, Epic of Gilgamesh, equal protection under the law, evolution, fracking, Galileo, gay marriage, Gaza, gerrymandering, global climate change, GMO, gospel, gospels, herbicides, Homer, ideas, Iliad, insecticides, Islam, Islamists, John, justice, King David, King Solomon, Luke, manuscripts, Mark, Mathew, Mideast, Muslims, Obama, Odyssey, Onan, oral tradition, peace, plantations, reality, same-sex marriage, scribes, slave, slavery, Steven Pinker, Ukraine, vested interests Those of you who have been regular readers of this blog know that we’ve recently been through a winter of discontent and spent some time south of the border. Now that spring has arrived in Michigan I thought it was time to give my blog a facelift with new header images, a new title, and new overarching theme: Embracing Reality. The theme is a result of my having been influenced by a saying from Byron Katie’s book, Loving What Is, in which she says that When you argue with reality, you lose—but only 100 percent of the time. If you’ve . . . → Read More: New Directions Comments are closed Blog Agent Orange, agribusiness, anti-vaxxers, autism, Byron Katie, Catholic, childhood diseases, church, Copernicus, corn, crops, evidence, Galileo, geocentric, GMO, GMOs, golden rice, heliocentric, herbicides, hypnosis, medical, NLP, pesticides, plague, politics, reality, RoundUp, Sherry Tenpenny, small pox, soybeans, spring, torture, vaccinations, Vietnam, Vitamin A I owe the title of this blog entry to William Shakespeare, who put those words in the mouth of King Richard III. Richard’s words were a metaphor for difficult times under the previous king rather than commentary on a polar vortex of the sort we’ve been experiencing in much of the U.S. this winter. For many in the States, this has been the coldest winter with the most ice and snow that we’ve had for several years. Meanwhile, Melbourne, Australia, has been so hot that those playing tennis in the Australian Open have been wilting in the heat, . . . → Read More: The Winter of Our Discontent Comments are closed Blog agriculture, alternative, argue, auditory acuity, bees, Byron Katie, CAM, cancer, change, cold, complementary, crime, discontent, environment, find, genetically modified, global climate, GMO, Hamlet, hearing, Hell, herbicides, I-94, ice, ICIM, integrative, International College of Integrative Medicine, Jackson, Jenny Rymer, Lakeshore Acupuncture, Leah Ke, medicine, MI, Milton, ND, Paradise Lost, persist, pesticides, Polonius, poverty, reality, resist, Richard III, risk, Satan, seek, seeking and finding, Shakespeare, snow, St. Joseph, war on Does it really serve a purpose to suppress the truth? I’m not concerned about the “little stuff,” such as who flirted with whom at the office party or how the rear fender of the family car was damaged. My concern is with the “big stuff,” things that influence everyone. You may recall, for example, that in the sixteenth century, Galileo found himself in hot water with the Catholic Church for supporting Copernicus’ theory that the earth was round and was orbiting around the sun. The Catholic Church attempted to suppress the truth, but one of the things about important truths . . . → Read More: Knowing the Truth Comments are closed Blog animal cruelty, antibiotics, ask your doctor, best interests, bread, Catholic Church, class-action suits, Connecticut, Copernicus, enemy, ExxonMobile, food prices, Galileo, genetically modified organisms, GMO, gun control, gun deaths, gun research, knowledge, news broadcasts, Newton, oil spill, pesticides, pharmaceutical, priests, reality, religious institutions, Sandy Hook, scientific evidence, sexual molestation, Slate, States, terrorism, truth, TV ads, war In some ways this blog entry ties back to my previous posts on Choice Points: “Forks in the Road” and Evidence Procedures. One of the things I have been noticing about recent political debates is how often people, and perhaps especially politicians, seem to be absolutely sure of so many things. Bell Curve In statistical terms, when we measure most populations on most scales (such as height, weight, IQ, education, age at death, etc.) the result is the familiar bell shape of Pareto’s Law. It make sense: Some people are really tall, some are really short, and . . . → Read More: Yes, No, or It Depends? Comments are closed Blog absolutist, advanced civilization, age of the earth, antibiotics, bacteria, bell curve, bimodal distribution, burning issues, certainty, choice, choice points, climate change, complexities, double down, evidence, evidence procedures, extremes, failure, forks in the road, gambling, genetically modified organisms, GMO, ideas, insecticides, investment, modern life, new, NLP, opinions, Pareto, Pareto's Law, pesticides, possibilities, question, Richard Bandler, solutions, statistics, success |
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