Physicist Sean Carroll An article at American Thinker about conspiracy theories and the moon landing caught my attention when the term vincible ignorance was introduced and defined as the "stubborn resistance to the truth and refusal to accept it, no matter how overwhelming the evidence in its favor is." Coined with the intention of being applied to various positions on Catholic dogma, the terminology has useful application in a more secular context. Invincible ignorance has been defined as an unknown that can never be known. A secular example of invincible ignorance might be the conditions that existed prior to the Big Bang singularity--we "know" the universe had an origin because we've been told evidence for the Big Bang exists, called redshift and cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB). The consensus of physicists (although consensus is not science) is that a very small, highly condensed dot of material rapidly expanded to become this universe. We don't know what existed prior to the Big Bang. We can only guess and speculate. It would be an example of vincible ignorance to know about redshift and CMB evidence and still reject the Big Bang evidence in favor of the steady state (eternal, unchanging universe) hypothesis. While similar to the phrase I began using a while ago, the subtle difference between vincible ignorance and willful ignorance is knowing and rejecting the truth as opposed to simply avoiding it. The distinction appears to be useful, to be sure. For example several years ago, while participating on an internet panel to discuss his … [Read more...]
K9s for Warriors
If you've read my book Always a Next One, you know that I'm a huge supporter of our LOCAL Humane Societies because they help homeless animals find new homes. Typically I do NOT provide any sort of financial support national organizations such as the Humane Society of the United States because they are nothing more than professional fund-raisers, and they are raising money to pay six-figure executive salaries, not for helping animals in need in your local community. I also refuse to donate any money to PETA because the people in that organization can't even tell the difference between a dog, a rat, and a pig. I do make an exception for and donate to the ASPCA, because even though they are a national organization, the ASPCA operate the animal shelters in New York City and rescue abused and homeless animals. The reason I adamantly support our local Humane Societies over national organizations because THEY SAVE LIVES. Wonderful dogs like Ralphie the beagle would not be alive today if an organization like Angels Among Us didn't exist, with a small army of volunteers to provide temporary refuge when shelters are overcrowded. What could get any better than saving the life of a dog about to be euthanized, and finding him or her a perfect forever home? How about saving two lives for the price of one? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up6Vg70RJnQ That's exactly what the program K9s for Warriors does--they rescue dogs from animal shelters, train them to become service animals, and then place them with military veterans suffering from battlefield injuries and post … [Read more...]
Liberal aggression
It's gotten to the point where I don't really like writing about politics because there is plenty of division and hate burning in America without my throwing any gasoline on the fire. If I publish this article and post a link on Facebook, I expect there will be some people perfectly willing to defend horrible behavior, as if the end can be justified by the means. Sigh. When I do post something on my blog with a political slant, you can rest assured that I felt like I have no choice but to write it. As much as I'd rather be working on a novel, a short story, or even watching paint dry than arguing about politics, occasionally I'll see something that makes me stop what I'm doing to press both hands over my ears in order to keep my brains from leaking out. And then I'll have to write another article like this one I'm writing now, because I can't witness evil in action and remain silent. Please watch this short video. It's truly astonishing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=75&v=3Qoc4ZVsS1M I really don't want to get into the pro-life versus pro-choice debate at the moment, because it's much more important to focus on the mindset of our social justice warrior, the "star" in this video. It's quite disturbing to realize this young liberal thinks his behavior won't have adverse consequences. He's stealing private property on camera, in broad daylight. The exchange caught my attention early, when an off camera pro-life person pointed out that stealing their personal property was illegal and the liberal's sarcastic response showed nothing but contempt … [Read more...]
Ralphie’s escape from Death Row
One of our favorite dogs we'd fostered over the years was a tiny beagle named Freckles. She was cute as a button and had an adorable personality. When Freckles got excited she would dance on our tile floor, nails clicking like tiny castanets. Freckles radiated heat better than an electric blanket when she slept on our bed every night. The two biggest challenges of acting as her foster parents were keeping Freckles calm while she recovered from treatment for heart worms, and letting her go when the time came for Freckles to be adopted into her perfect forever home. Years passed in a blur. Our own little island of misfits eventually grew into a permanent six-pack of large dogs that all lived inside our relatively small house, and we were forced to take an extended hiatus from fostering. Eventually a couple of our oldest pack members crossed the rainbow bridge. Without warning, our sweet Husky Sasha suffered a fatal heart attack, and beloved Wyatt the Wonderdog succumbed to lymphoma, and eventually, sadly, we found ourselves with only two remaining pack members. We didn't immediately return to fostering because we'd moved since our days volunteering with the Humane Society of Forsyth County, and we were no longer actively associated with any rescue organizations, Then one day I noticed an email in my inbox with a desperate message in the subject line: "Urgent! Beagle stuck..." That was all I could read without clicking on the link. Stuck where? Beagles are scent hounds, which means they will often detect and track a specific smell for miles. For this reason, … [Read more...]
