In Defense of Women, Postcard Activism - Can you help me?

 

 Please

In Defense of Women, Postcard Activism

Can you help?

 

I believe there are too many misinformed individuals out there, and that Democrats need to work harder at gaining and sharing basic solid information and arguments.

It would help enable the choir to become more persuasive in our regular interactions and discussion with people, friends, & family.  After all, if we aren’t changing minds, we are losing.

I believe that the better we can verbalize the issues, the easier it is to engage and stand up for justice.  The better our chances to help evolve people’s thinking on issues that matter.

Important Insights Along the Way

Nearing my 67th birthday, I decided to collect some of the fundamental concepts of Earth and living that I've picked up along the way, and I'd like to share.  Here goes.

• • Appreciating the Human Mindscape ~ Physical Reality divide
  • I am a self-aware introspective element in the Pageant of Evolution
  • We create our Gods from within ourselves
  • We cannot understand an organism, or system for that matter, without understanding its environment
  • Consciousness is the inside reflection of our body, interacting with itself, along with the environment and circumstance it's embedded within
  • An appreciation for Deep Time, billions of years worth, and Earth, the dance of geology & biology unfolding one day at a time, and that it produced me, along with many other wonders
  • There is no Body-Mind Problem, it is in actuality an Ego-God Problem
  • My body has taken better care of me, than I have of it
  • Consciousness is the product of Earth's biology, of interacting, of living, when we die, consciousness ceases, all that awaits us is the deep dark eternal sleep from which none awake, and it is good
  • Yes, it is good, live your blessed moment while you have it to live
  • Our after-life unfolds within the hearts and minds of others, and it is good
  • We need each other to keep ourselves honest.

• 
  

What am I missing, any suggestions?

Who am I you may ask.

An Earth Centrist

Best Wishes, Cc

Introduction to Cc's Pageant of Evolution part two.

They say a true test of how well you've learned about something is how well you can explain it to others and in its essence this months long Pageant of Earth’s Evolution project has been that sort of a self-evaluation for me.  Both to see how well I understand it and to see if I could convey the story in a way that might resonate with regular people.  

Why is that important to me?  Because I believe clearly appreciating Earth and her story is one of human society’s greatest failures - and greatest challenge for enabling any sort of future functional human society, since our avarice has pretty well condemned this globally connected modern society we depend on.  

I keep struggling with; How could intelligent people allow such self-destructive disregard to the need of our life support system, the one that sustains our society?  I mean seriously, never accepting that our long term economy depends on a healthy biosphere (no matter how much we’ve learned about it)?  WTF!  

Proudly proclaiming that endless growth was/is our economic priority and that Greed is Good along with convincing ourselves that Too Much Is Never Enough.  From my perspective it’s always been nothing less than sociopathic self-interest and faith-induced-blindness.  Along with being absolutely self-destructive.  As those who dare to open their eyes and minds can see when surveying the growing carnage covering our planet.  But I digress.

Editor Frederick, Regarding Steele's Scary Campfire Stories. March 6, 2019

Letter to Editor Frederick, 

Regarding Jim Steele’s "What’s Natural?" Scary Campfire Stories.

March 6, 2019 - Pacifica Tribune - sent March 11, 2019

Dear Editor Fredrick,

What’s Natural? Indeed, that is the question.  It took a couple days to steel myself to tackle the Scary Campfire Stories column but I’ve been working on it much of the day and hopefully it’ll be posted soon.  I’m pretty sure my point by point review wouldn’t be of much interest around here, so I’m posting it at my ConfrontingScienceContrarians.blogspot.com - I’d much appreciate it if you could share that with your readers. Instead of details I’d like to share general impressions. 

Lets start with a summary of the column’s ten paragraphs: introduces topic with the Heaven’s Gate Suicide Cult (no crass politicization happening here); dismisses the seriousness of a 1°Centigrade rise within our global climate engine; misrepresents the facts in order to disparage a respected butterfly expert; quibbles about Polar Bear counts, while ignoring that the Arctic Ice Cap is melting away; ridicules penguin researchers for revolutionizing census gathering abilities and keeping up to date with their available data; heaps scorn on the entire climate science community because some scientist at some low point once said snow was going to disappear from England in the next decades; oh and we're to forget about “atmospheric insulation” because CO₂ is plant food; he tells us there’s far more important problems to address than our planet’s atmospheric insulation regulator going from 280 ppm when the steam engine was invented to over 410 ppm and rising fast today.

Then Steele’s coup de grâce: ”For several decades, bogus catastrophic climate-change claims have come and gone.” -“If we truly care about nature … the real problem is overhunting, invasive species and loss of habitat.”

So this is libertarian entertainment?  Is that it?  It sure isn’t serious education!  What’s natural about this contemptuous disregard for our physical Earth and it’s biosphere?  How on Earth can one hold the notion that raising the temperature of our global biosphere won’t profoundly alter its components?  

f) Considering the Missing Key to Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

... and this one was the climax of my journey.  Doesn't matter much that few seem to get it or care, this one is my gem.  The culmination of my heroic introspective journey.  See, I was a genuine dharma bum, as a young man I threw myself to experiencing life and the road, the wind and my own wits.  Been able to walk in many shoes for a distance, known many beautiful people and have enjoyed many wonderful discussions, seen many ups and downs.  Back in those 70s, 80s our country wasn't so scared and angry.  Being of poor but healthy honest stock people hired me, so I had opportunities to work many diverse jobs and live many experiences over the succeeding decades.    Considering the odds I've had a great ride.  

I'm a bonafide student of the University of Life you could say.  Among my early professors were a parade of enthusiastic research librarians before the days of personal computers.   Next to living, there was keeping up on science news and proactively researching things that interested me and since understanding myself and the entire Earth and her story interested me, it's been a busy life.  I dare say I've been attentive to every day, good and bad.  These days I'd label myself an Earth Centrist and I've accumulated some deep understanding.  Here I was finally able to summarize it in a way that feels complete and that opens whole new vistas for me.  I fancy this my U of L Master's Thesis.    ;- )

(Evening Jan 1, 2019:  Spent many hours today reviewing this 6 post collection and making final changes, then more final adjustments, plus adding some closing observations at the end of this piece.  I do believe this annotated collection is now finished.   

Happy New Year to you and best wishes, cc.)

   __________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s

“Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition.  Specifically,                                        

the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The increasingly shrill and disconnected from physical reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals has me thinking about an essay evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen J. Gould wrote some twenty years ago in an attempt to address the tension between scientific truths and religious truths.

His solution was the notion of “Non-overlapping Magisteria” which delineated two teaching “authorities” (magisterium), the “magisteria of science” and the “magisteria of religion.” It wasn’t his original idea, rather a continuation of a centuries old dialogue between scientists and the Catholic Church that I don’t have the space to get into.

In any event, Gould concluded there should be no conflict because each realm has its’ own domain of “teaching authority.” Since these “magisteria” do not overlap, they cannot contradict each other and should be able to exist in mutual respect.

When it first came out

Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s “Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

   _______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The Missing Key to Stephen Gould’s

“Nonoverlapping Magisteria”

“… missing was a much more fundamental division crying out for recognition.  Specifically,                                        

the magisteria of Physical Reality vs the magisteria of our Human Mindscape. …”

© Peter Miesler, August 21, 2018

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

    

The increasingly shrill and disconnected from physical reality attacks on science by faith-based organizations and individuals has me thinking about an essay evolutionary biologist and historian of science Stephen J. Gould wrote some twenty years ago in an attempt to address the tension between scientific truths and religious truths.

His solution was the notion of “Non-overlapping Magisteria” which delineated two teaching “authorities” (magisterium), the “magisteria of science” and the “magisteria of religion.” It wasn’t his original idea, rather a continuation of a centuries old dialogue between scientists and the Catholic Church that I don’t have the space to get into.

In any event, Gould concluded there should be no conflict because each realm has its’ own domain of “teaching authority.” Since these “magisteria” do not overlap, they cannot contradict each other and should be able to exist in mutual respect.

When it first came out

(Sd5) Correcting Jim Steele’s poop on Peter Miesler, aka citizenschallenge.

Since I have Jim Steele’s attention (among others) it’s time to respond to his 2015 LandscapesAndCycles’s blog article: “Clarifying Peter Miesler’s (aka CitizenChallenged) Dishonest Internet Sniping: Emperor Penguins” before moving on to my recent FCFP column.

My investigation into Jim Steele and his LandscapesAndCycles nonsense was/is also intended for students of the climate science disinformation campaign, as a dissection of arguments and strategies.  Along with a close up look at their amoral bare-knuckles approach to winning arguments, while dispensing with truth and honesty as their free speech right. 

Thus the concept of malicious abuse of our free speech rights - along with an example of what I call direct constructive intellectual confrontation.  Sure “engagement” is better, but sometimes one must confront before serious engagement is possible.  

Jim Steele’s blog post:

Clarifying Peter Miesler’s (aka CitizenChallenged) 

Dishonest Internet Sniping: Emperor Penguins

landscapesandcyclesnet/clarifying-citizenchallenged-emperor-penguin-lies

has the highlighted background - Complete as he wrote it, I added only some red highlights, I have not done any courtesy spell corrections, thus allowing Jim to shine through.

Jim Steele's introduction: Miesler is not a scientist nor does he understand biology. He is simply obsessed withe discrediting any skeptical interpretation. 

______________

I never claimed to be a scientist.

Jim Steele is not a scientist either. 

On building stairs, integrity and malicious slander.

Recently over at Center For Inquiry's forum which I frequent regularly, I was confronted with another joker repeating Poptech's conjured description of me as a guilt-riddled strung-out druggie and lost soul.  Poptech's slander is his way of responding to my fact checking, critiquing and challenging his claims.  Others of his persuasion have been quick to embrace the bull-pucky.

It seems that every few weeks some new joker finds Poptech's article and gleefully grabs his ammunition and blasts aways at me in the middle of some other discussion.  That they are dealing with figments of their own imagination matters not one wit to them - it's character assassination they're interested in.

What else is there for someone who consistently misrepresents serious climate science?  They sure don't have solid evidence on their side.  Nor do they have the requisite intellectual curiosity to learn about the things they don't understand.  When something confuses them, assume the worst, with ignorant certitude.

Distraction is their game.  Marginalize the messenger and marginalize the message.  Spend all your time wrestling with ad hominems and there's no time to talk about our real world situation.  Go straight for the jugular of your opponent with anything you can conjure.  

There's a certain level of sick humor in reading how these minds can spin facts into tailor-made fictions - but of course, in the end all they want is to destroy any opponent in order to stifle fundamental climate science education - no commitment to honesty, or integrity, or respect for others.  Tragically absolutism and paranoia driven resentment seems all their hearts are capable of.

Admitting to and learning from mistakes is treated like blasphemy by the Republican contrarian crowd.  Nothing funny about that either.

It's irrational, irritating, stupefying and it certainly demands some sort of comeback.  But, I’m not into Poptech’s, or LandscapesandCycles' Jim Steele's or NC20 Burton’s style of childish messenger bashing. 

Still, since they want to get down and personal, I can respond with something personal.  

Consider it another character reference . . . . . . . 

It started as a note to a friend . . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey D, I never did tell you the end of the story regarding those stairs.  As you might remember last autumn I had me a hernia.  It took months longer to get repaired than it should have, towards the end of that run I was actually invalided, bed to recliner, no lifting.  Innards all funky.  Not fun.  Feeling every bit of my sixty years and reconciling myself to the end of my sweet vigorous years.  Among other dark thoughts was the realization that my carpentry days were totally behind me now.  Which they are, but to ponder that I’d never be able to climb walls again, or help set beams and rafters, or one of my favorites building stairs - that's a different thing from choosing not to do it.  A proud physical old man wrestles with those realities as the 'diminishing' advances with the years.