Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Post #400: Random Observations

"There are no words to describe Tom Degan. I have met him and he is worse in person then in print. He should consider suicide. It may be the only way he could ever be remembered."

-Anonymous posting in the New York Craigslist

Well I never!

I love that quote! I actually sent an e-mail to the person who posted it thanking him. He even answered me. As Artie Shaw once said, "There's no such thing as bad publicity". And what a happy way to begin article number four-hundred on this naughty, left wing blog. Here is a random collection of thoughts and observations that I had either carelessly scribbled in my notebook or posted on other sites. Happy reading, campers!

1. Reassessing Michael Steele

When Barack Obama entered the White House a little over three years ago, the GOP responded by appointing the first African American to chair the Republican National Committee. At the time I remarked that, true to form, they hired the dumbest black guy that was possible to find. My opinion of Michael Steele has changed considerably since then. Since he left the RNC last year, he is no longer bound by their idiotic talking points and he comes across these days as a tad more intelligent. I still disagree with most of his positions, but I must concede that the guy doesn't appear half as nuts as he used to. That's progress - I guess.

2. Democratic Cowardice

The reason the word "liberal" has become a virtual expletive in recent years is because the Democrats - instead of defending liberalism - have turned tail and fled from the term like frightened little puppies. In a pre-Superbowl interview with Bill O'Rielly on Sunday, the president refused to admit he leaned even slightly left-of-center. This being an election year, one can forgive him for playing it safe. But the Dems in general will need to "get with the program" if they know what's good for them. They risk being consigned to historical irrelevance otherwise. A third party is a'brewin'. If the party of Franklin Roosevelt refuses to remember what they're supposed to be about, they risk being left behind.

3. Rick is Moving on Up! (to the big time?)

Having won three key nomination contests yesterday in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri, things are starting to come up roses for Rick Santorum. Certain people are even starting to entertain twisted fantasies of him as the GOP nominee. That would be the answer to my prayers! Of course it ain't gonna happen. My luck has NEVER gotten that good. Oh, but what a nice thought! A campaign as utterly demented as his would produce untold volumes of laughs. Can you imagine the endless possibilities?

4. What About Scott?

My hat is off and my head is bowed to Wisconsin governor Scott Walker. It was his arrogance that inspired the nationwide movement known popularly as "Occupy Wall Street". I've always referred to it as "The Madison Revolution". After all is said and done, it was in that state's capital where the people stood up in disgust against Walker's anti-worker policies. The movement spread worldwide within a matter of months. It won't be going away anytime soon. The sleeping giant of the American Left has awoken and they're pissed! Thank you, Scott.

5. The Idiocy of Deregulation

The Deregulation of the financial marketplace was a jaw-droppingly bad idea. For fifty years Wall Street was strictly regulated and for most of that time we had the best economy in the history of the world. Then in 1981 Ronald Reagan entered our lives. He began the process of dismantling the rules that had been put in place by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his New Dealers back in the thirties. We've been sitting on an economic powder keg ever since. It's about to go KABOOM!!!

6. Changing the Subject

The economy is starting to improve. This means that the remaining contenders for the Republican nomination have got to change the subject. And what a subject it is! Are you ready for this???

THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS WAGING WAR AGAINST THE CATHOLIC CHURCH!!!

I swear to you I'm not making this stuff up. And the sad thing is that a lot of Catholics out there are swallowing the propaganda. I really love my religion but some of its practitioners (like Rick Santorum) embarrass the heck out of me. Keep your eye on this story. This may very well turn out to be the non-issue/issue of the campaign of 2012.

7. MEMO TO THE LEFT:

This is a campaign year, This is an extremely conservative country. President Obama has an election to win. He's going to piss a lot of us off this year by playing his cards as close to the center/right as he possibly can. You must remember that politically it is crucial that he do this in order to defeat Mitt Romney come November. The very last thing we need to do is stay home in a mass hissy fit. We did that in 2010 and what did it get us? Probably the worst congress since before the Civil War. Be patient.

8. J. Edgar:

With the release this year of the film bio starring Leonardo DiCaprio, I've been thinking a lot about the late director of the FBI. It's rare to find someone in American history as mind-numbingly evil as J. Edgar Hoover most certainly was. Why could he not have just come out of the closet? He and his highest ranking agent Clyde Tolson were homosexual lovers for decades. That's a photograph on the left of the two of them having a cozy breakfast together. Don't they make a cute couple? It is an inarguable fact that Hoover held blackmail information on other gay men - and women. The guy was beyond despicable.

Think of the "criminals" that the FBI spent decades investigating:

Eleanor Roosevelt, Charlie Chaplin, John Lennon, Lenny Bruce, Frank Sinatra, Eartha Kitt, Dick Gregory, Joan Baez, Marilyn Monroe (MARILYN MONROE???)....

And through it all the silly old pervert would deny the existence of organized crime. I only wish J.Edgar could have lived to see a black family living in the White House. Given his unconcealed racism, that would have driven him nuts! He has been placed where he rightfully belongs - in history's trash can. Good riddance.

9. Bernie Sanders:

I never dreamed that anyone could replace Ted Kennedy as the ultimate liberal icon, but Bernie Sanders is on his way to doing it. Bernie doesn't give a damn about political expediency. Lobbyists won't even bother knocking on his door. What would be the point? His lobby is WEEDA PEEPLE. He speaks for us. He's our champion in the senate. His great cause these days is trying to get a constitutional amendment passed that would outlaw the Supreme Court's atrocious "Citizens United" ruling and the ridiculous notion of "corporate personhood". That he has an up-mountain climb in this regard is beyond doubt. But if there's anyone that can make it happen it's Bernie Sanders. He's as good as they get.

I used to vacation in Vermont with my family and friends when I was a kid. The people up there, most of them, always seemed so sweet and reasonable. It's reflected in the persona of the man they have sent to Washington to represent them.

10. Vice President Hillary Clinton?

A terrible idea. When was the last time a vice-president was dumped from the ticket? 1944 when Franklin D. Roosevelt chose Harry Truman over Henry Wallace. FDR was a very popular president. He could get away with that sort of thing. Also, Joe Biden is a popular, well liked veep. The public loathed Henry Wallace. We really need to think this one through, kids.

A black guy and a woman on the same ticket? And a woman named Clinton at that??? As it stands now, the half-witted "base" of the Republican party will not be coming out in droves for the Moderate/Massachusetts/Mexican/Mormon Mitt. Let's not encourage them, okay?

11. And finally....a little prediction:

The second term of the Obama administration (Please, God) will see the Department of Justice commence with the long-overdue prosecutions of of the people who spent years looting America's treasure. I'm beginning to think that to have done so during the first term would have been politically untenable. After next Inauguration Day Obama will have nothing to lose and - as far as his place in history is concerned - everything to gain. A lot of folks will be paying some serious dues in the years to come.

On that happy note, thanks for reading "The Rant" these past six years, folks. As Jed Clampett might say, "I'm much obliged to you."

Cheers!

Tom Degan
Goshen, NY
tomdegan@frontiernet.net

AUTHOR'S NOTE:

The photograph at the top of this hideous diatribe was taken on New Year's Eve by my nephew Peter Dermigny. Shameless product placement, I know. See the lovely Christmas lights in the background? Ain't they pretty?

PURELY FOR SHITS 'n' GIGGLES:

Ayn Rand? My goodness! The anti-Christ has come and gone. It's hard to understand how someone could take the poor gal seriously. It's amazing the source to which some persons will go to justify greed. Here is a link to a televised interview she gave to Mike Wallace in 1959. It's quite amusing:


Everyone should see this. If people could observe with their own eyes the inspirational light of the modern-day GOP, they would be horrified - or, if they happen to be registered Republicans - mortified.

SUGGESTED READING:

LENNON - The Definitive Life
by Tim Riley

AFTERTHOUGHT:

In memory of James Scott "Poppy" Scesa 1930-2012

Jim was the father of my boyhood chum and partner in non-felonious crime, Paul Scesa. He died on the seventh of February having just reached his eighty-second birthday two days earlier. He was a real gem-of-a-man. A truly kind and gentle human being. Soft spoken and wise, it was indeed a fortunate thing to have lived in the same century as Jim Scesa - and I was lucky enough to have shared two with him.

Not too long before he passed away, Jeanne Farley Warren remarked that the quality of beef at "Jim's Meat Market" was always a cut above the competition. No surprise there. He was a quality guy - and a danged fine gee-tar picker if I do say so myself. Sleep well, Mr. Jim.

For every person who goes before me, I fear it less and less.

41 Comments:

At 11:10 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Tom Degan, you wrote...

"We've been sitting on an economic powder keg ever since. It's about to go KABOOM!!!"

Undoubtedly! If you think 2008 was bad, "you ain't seen nothin' yet." It's coming...


"You must remember that politically it is crucial that he [Obama] do this in order to defeat Mitt Romney come November. The very last thing we need to do is stay home in a mass hissy fit."

I disagree, because...honestly...the man's just the latest in a long list of corporatists. I can't understand how you don't see this. But, as far as staying home -- hardly! I'll go to the polls, alright, but I'll vote third-party (or for myself). I refuse to be fooled again, and I refuse to be an enabler to the corporate-state.

 
At 11:14 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

You may be right, J.G. Perhaps I am being delusional. But part of me wants to believe he his saving his best tunes for Act Two of this silly comic opera.

We shall see'

All the best,

Tom

 
At 2:34 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

I am 100% behind JG!
I will not be fooled again!
I will not vote for Obama this NOV!

 
At 3:29 PM, Blogger erites said...

can't help but feel that people who say they won't vote for President Obama b/c they "won't be fooled again" have indeed been fooled-by GOP PR.
no American president in history has kept as many campaign promises as this man. a lot of my liberal friends are outraged that he hasn't closed Guantanamo Bay-well, he signed the Executive Order. Congress refused to fund the closing.

we need to have some realistic expectations here of what the President's actual powers are. and if you want to untie his hands? do the research. check the voting records of any members of Congress from your state that are coming up for re-election this November. be an educated voter.

 
At 3:38 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Just the Falsehoods! wrote...

"I am 100% behind JG!"

No you're not, because you'll vote for someone who's undeniably worse; someone from the Republican Party. To be 100% behind me, you'd have to vote third-party.

 
At 3:38 PM, Anonymous John said...

Great movie quotes:
"I'm with you fellas, I'm voting for your's truly too..."

or

"...Macy & Gimble shaking hands. That wasn't possible either, but it happened."

Anyway, I think I'll be looking for someone else to vote for as well...

 
At 4:01 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

erites, Thanks for the words of sanity. 'Tis a pity that more folks can not see the obvious.

 
At 4:15 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Erites, please believe me, I'm definitely an educated voter, which is exactly why I'm not an Obama apologist.

As I've expressed on this site dozens of times (one of which was prior to his election in 2008), the man's a corporatist and that's why I have no need for him. Granted, so are most Democrats, and undoubtedly all Republicans, but the fact remains that he doesn't have your interests, or my interests, at the forefront of the agenda; his main, and most important, "clients" remain the banking cartel and the multinational corporation syndicate. It was this way from day-one, and remains this way today. This is evident from the people he's surrounded himself with, to the policies he's enacted.

You go ahead, darlin', and knock yourself out with a vote for Obama in November. Rationalize your motives as best you can, and possibly you'll have a clear conscience for the next four years. I can't do that, so I'll vote for what I want; not against what I don't want.

By the way, he'll win the race in November -- by a nose. They've invested too much in him for it to be any other way.

 
At 4:25 PM, Blogger JeannetteLS said...

Did you see "The Last Word" where Lawrence bemoaned--no got angry at the very thing you mentioned--liberals racing from the word "liberal." He showed the segment from "The West Wing" with the live debate. He had written it and it contained HIS defense and trumpeting of "liberalism."

I often refer to myself as a bleeding-from-every pore liberal.

I don't have much confidence that we will get to give President Obama a second chance. I never DID drink the "Obama is a liberal" Kool Aid. He seemed to me to be more centrist.

That said, I agree that he would have nothing to lose and we might see a passionate leader for the second term.

I agree about Steel. He often has some very interesting thoughts from the old-fashioned right. Personally, I mourn the day of politicians that understood the word "compromise" did not mean surrender.

I'll stop. This is too long, but it was a very interesting Rant today, to me. I don't really believe that voting for a third party candidate like Ron Paul would help the future at all. My vote in Connecticut means next to nothing, but I'll vote to give our President another chance.

My dad had voted against Kennedy the first time out. Right after Kennedy's assassination, he said, "It's Gawdamned shame. He made a lot of mistakes, but near as I can tell, he was a smart man who learned from every one. We never got the chance to see what he could REALLY do. I think he would have been great in a second term."

That's what I want to see. Whether President Obama can and will let loose and exercise his power for our sakes. Fingers and toes crossed. And ready to VOTE.

 
At 5:12 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

NO!!! JG'S GOT IT RIGHT THIS TIME.

Obama himself said that if he didn't get the "mess" that 3 years of the Dems controlling the House and Senate made, turned around he didn't deserve another 4 years. Just holding him to his word, that's all.

Just like JG, I am not going to vote for Obama in NOV. I might even vote for JG instead. He seems like a pretty bright guy! Heck JG, tell me which 3rd party I should vote for, in fact that's something I asked for last week from you. Never did get an answer.

I am 100% behind JG.
I will not be fooled again.
I will not vote for Obama in NOV.
No more Hope and Change lies for me!

I urge all who read this blog to read the wisdom JG has posted on his blog
nocorprule.blogspot.com/

After reading it I'm sure you will agree with my friend JG, that voting for Obama is a wasted vote, You'll just be getting Romney light if Obama win. And if Romney wins you will just be getting Obama not as lighter.

 
At 5:28 PM, Blogger Beth said...

So what did your Number One Fan have to say in response to your email? Gosh, I wish I'd get fan mail like that.

 
At 5:34 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

To tell you the truth, Beth, he was surprisingly civil! I was a tad taken aback by that.

All the best,

Tom

 
At 5:55 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Just the Falsehoods!, you mentioned many...well, what else, falsehoods. The biggest being...

"After reading it I'm sure you will agree with my friend JG"

Believe me, you're not a friend -- at least not of mine. Or, was that your atrocious attempt at mimicking Mitt Romney?

 
At 5:26 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom, you are being a tad too optimistic about Obama's second term. I suspect the president will have many SuperPac promises to keep so I find it highly unlikely that anything will happen to the players that took down the American economy. They are more than likely the biggest donors to his SuperPac's. No, I suspect the week after the election, the talk will reverse back to shrinking the deficit by slashing and cutting to shreads granny's entitlements.

To paraphrase Chris Hayes: "It's a billionaires country now, we just get to vote in it."

 
At 5:32 AM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Let's put it this way, if Obama does what you say he's going to do (and I concede that you may be correct in your assumption) there will be a third party uprising so fierce, it will destroy the Democratic party forever.

 
At 7:30 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Tom, I believe both parties (or, more appropriately, both wings of the "Corporatist Party") will become nonexistent. It's inevitable. Both have ceased to serve the electorate. People are catching on to who the true beneficiaries are, and a massive backlash will occur. Count on it. The Occupy movement is only the beginning.

 
At 7:47 AM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

JG,
To say totality I'm crushed would be an understatement! I really thought we were friends. We disagreed on almost everything then we find common ground and reject my offer of peace and friendship. I am joining you in not voting for Obama in NOV. No more Hope and Change for me and you.

Oh, the inhumanity of it all.

But be sure of one thing,now not my friend JG, I agree with you and await with abated breath for you to
announce who I should vote for in NOV. You have proven time and time again how super smart you are and how misguided I have been to have not be able to do neat stuff like this ;) in my messages. But you taught me.

"As soon as A observes something which seems to him wrong, from which X is suffering, A talks it over with B, and A and B then propose to get a law passed to remedy the evil and help X. Their law always proposes to determine what C shall do for X, or, in better case, what A, B, and C shall do for X."
William Graham Sumner

I thought you JG, was now interested in checking in on C because,
he is the Forgotten Man. I thought we could agreed to find out what the Forgotten man thinks about the formula of DR. Sumner. But noooo, you want to not be friends. This is worse than being rejected as someones friend on Face Book.

 
At 8:49 AM, Blogger Brick1101 said...

Thank you for the Ayn Rand link. It is a long involved story..I devoured Atlas Shrugged back in the 1990's. Not so much for her warped view on life, but in the soap opera on how the Taggart Transcontinental Railroad fell apart. I was employed on the factory floor of GM/Delphi for 30 years. I could see so many parallels between Dagney Taggart's world and mine..running a barely functioning machine daily amid chaos I would daydream I was Dagney trying to keep the railroad going! As I first read the book I was amazed I had stumbled on Dagney's coping technique after returning from the "Valley". That was when she stopped fighting and just agreed/worked with Jim and the looters. I reached that point early in my tenure to where I just did my job as instructed regardless of the quality outcome. That may have not done much for product quality, but it made my life so much easier...Robert Dewars book, "The Savage Factory" is perhaps the best description of the auto industry that employed me...

It is amazing how the Bush years of reducing the taxes on the wealthy and deregulation (Just what Rand preached) very nearly did the world in..

Keep up the good work....

 
At 11:06 AM, Anonymous Tony S. said...

Yes, yes, re-electing Obama is important, but the huge overwelming goal for 2012 is to clean out our Koch Brothers-infested Congress. One annoying thing about Obama is that he runs for himself, makes no attempt to lift up his fellow party members. But even if Obama gets re-elected and we still have an even more Koch-infested Congress, the country is in bad sad shape.

 
At 11:37 AM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Just the Falsehoods!, you remarked...

"I agree with you and await with abated breath for you to announce who I should vote for in NOV."

I answered you long ago, in a comment (on this blog) published on Christmas day.

You need to wake up and dry out. That alcohol is pickling your brain.

 
At 12:12 PM, Anonymous Just the Facts! said...

Join with me in following JG's decision to not vote for Obama in Nov of this year.

Leadership when and where it counts!

 
At 3:31 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Tom,

Congrats on #400! I have been a reader of yours for a long time - I used to search for your comments on Alternet before you started your blog which I have faithfully read since your first post. I enjoy your upbeat manner of dealing with everyone - even someone who tells you to kill yourself. Very refreshing these days. I have even ventured a few comments on your blog - something I normally avoid.

In my opinion, our leaders only think of Weeda People when it is election time - they pretend to care about their "land based" constituents for just a moment instead of their financial constituents. I have concluded that Weeda People are tax generating cogs in a corporate machine that no longer cares if we are healthy or educated as long as we keep re-electing their puppets and being good little consumers.

Keep writing, Tom. You speak for me and thousands of others who just want representation that cares about the future of this country and not the next election. I think JG and JTF may even be able to agree on that point.

To quote Frank Zappa: "Politics is the entertainment branch of industry." Thanks, Tom, for reminding us of that everyday.

Peace to all.

Jo in
Phoenix AZ

PS - Was Atlas Shrugged supposed to be a serious commentary? I thought it was a Harlequin Romance novel - silly me!

 
At 3:34 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Well, Jo, if that little note of yours doesn't just make my day nothing will!

Thank you so much for that. I'm having a bit of a down day and your note cheered me up - A WHOLE LOT!

Love and Peace,

Tom Degan

 
At 5:29 PM, Anonymous Tom V said...

Tom,

Congratulations on your six years of blogging and your 400th post. As I have said before I don't always agree with you but I would be lying if I said that I did not respect and enjoy what you had to say.

Keep at it,

Tom V

 
At 7:20 PM, Blogger Tom Degan said...

Thanks, Tom.

"Reasoned discourse". You're all the proof we need that it lives.

Thank you, friend.

All the best,

Tom

 
At 12:02 PM, Blogger Just the Facts! said...

Tom,

I too want to congratulate you on your 400th post!
Also want to thank you allowing me to post my thoughts and then allowing me to defend myself against those who attack me personally as a way of responding to my beliefs.
As often as I disagree with you on many issues (Music being one of the exceptions, on which we agree!) I truly find your posts forcing me to defend my positions. Which is what I am trying to do with my infernal questions.

Anyway, this is about you and this is a tip of my right wing conservative hat for your using our Constitutions Freedom of Speech clause it its fullest!
Thank YOU!

 
At 5:35 PM, Blogger Michael Stivic said...

Tom Degan,

Happy 400th!

Its people like you and Jefferson's Guardian who keep the spirit of Mario Savio of the Free Speech Movement alive!

Remember what our brother Mario said:

"There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious—makes you so sick at heart—that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all."

 
At 1:00 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, I can whole-heartedly agree on your opinion of Rand. Start with Darwin, throw in a little Nietzsche and Sarte, and you have Ayn Rand. Typical atheistic "I want to destroy any warrant for morality and then call for my new morality" mumbo jumbo. Boils down to I want to be immoral so I'll redefine morality to suit me. How any thinking individual could buy her simplistic garbage is beyond me.

 
At 2:20 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Harley A., considering your chosen "philosophical leaning", I can understand your disagreement with existentialists Nietzsche and Sarte, but to include Charles Darwin with your perceived group of atheistic modern thinkers is not only haphazard but also misguided.

 
At 8:40 AM, Anonymous boltok said...

"The very last thing we need to do is stay home in a mass hissy fit. We did that in 2010 and what did it get us? Probably the worst congress since before the Civil War. Be patient."

If I was told to take acid, be as liberal and insane and possible, I still couldn't write stuff like this.

All you lefties voted last time around. It is the only reason people like Reid are in office.

You are right that left wing lunatics are still a minority in this country. If you all go out and vote this year, you're side is still going to get crushed. The sane in this country have had it with debt to infinity, imminent $4-$5 gas, federal government going through kids lunch boxes, industrialized public sector unions, sub standard education at the hands of some of these unions, stagflation, (before it turns into staginflation). Did Krugman ever write about inflation???

If the prior congress was so good, why could they not have produced a single budget?

I suggest you not vote. That way you can wake up the day after elections and have some emotional solace. You can tell yourself that liberals got crushed because of a lack of enthusiasm instead of the real reason: all your policies are shit.

T-265

 
At 9:39 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

JG -

I beg to differ. You don't think Rand was a Darwinian evolutionist?

 
At 11:05 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

And, actually, logically I agree very much with Nietzsche. I consider him a very honest atheist. I believe his thoughts are logically consistent with his premises. And, by extension, I believe much of Rand's thought logically follows. Not right, but logical.

And, I do understand she was not explicitly committed to evolution one way or the other, though I believe Darwinian thought did inform her beliefs.

 
At 2:22 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Harley A., apparently I didn't make myself clear. I wasn't defending Rand -- in any form or fashion. I was defending Darwin.

 
At 5:25 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well, no big fan of Darwin's either, but you probably already knew that. I don't think you need to defend Darwin - his ideas are pretty ingrained in the modern group-think by now. He's in no danger of being rooted out any time soon.

 
At 6:15 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

There's a reason for this; it has gone beyond theoretical and into the realm of scientific fact. Even mainstream Christianity understands and accepts it.

It shouldn't be any more controversial than the fact that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

 
At 11:47 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Not true. One is observable and verifiable. The other is theoretical. I'm not saying true or false but your analogy does not hold. In fact, there is no unified theory - there are many many versions that do not agree.

Also, "mainstream Christianity" is not of interest to me.

 
At 1:06 PM, Blogger Darlene said...

Bernie Sanders for president. Yes!!!

 
At 2:55 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Harley, I wasn't attempting to show the two to be analogous; only comparing how the two were incorrectly viewed from the eyes of early church teachings -- and apparently still are in some circles of Christian sects.

I can't disagree that "one is observable and verifiable". That's obvious. But evolution has also been tested and observed. Again, repeating my original claim, neither provable "theory" should be discounted or controversial. They're essentially just "facts of life" -- like the sun coming up in the morning! ;-)

Your straight-forward statement that mainstream Christianity is not of interest to you, is acknowledged and accepted. Neither is it to me, and nor is any form of monotheistic religion that's practiced on this planet today.

 
At 7:32 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

"nor is any form of monotheistic religion that's practiced on this planet today."
But on the planet Zcarper, I'm ok with their monotheistic religion. And I really am into the worship of RA in Egypt.

What an idiot.

 
At 10:29 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hesitate to continue because we can't really effectively debate over this medium. Anyway, examples of genetic adaptation have been observed (and effectively used in animal husbandry and breeding) for hundreds of years. That is what is demonstrated in the article you linked. Macro-evolution has NEVER been demonstrated other than through cute Nat Geo animated TV programs based on imagination. When people say "evolution" they mean macro-evolution (one species to another). When they seek to "prove" it, they reference inter-special genetic adaptation - with which no one disagrees.

 
At 12:45 PM, Blogger Jefferson's Guardian said...

Harley A., I agree, it's too broad and complex a subject to explore here. Nevertheless, I take issue with your statement that speciation has not been successfully conducted in the laboratory. Yes it has.

I'll leave it at that, and let you explore details on your own.

 

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