Indian Science Congress: Ancient Demon Kings Had Planes

Surely, in this age of multicultural respect, we should all take these claims just as seriously as any others.

Nageswara Rao, a vice chancellor at Andhra University in South India, said that Ravana, a demon god with 10 heads, had 24 kinds of aircraft of varying sizes and capacities — and that India was making test-tube babies thousands of years ago.

Dinosaurs were created by the Hindu god Brahma, said Ashu Khosla, a scientist with expertise in paleontology at Panjab University in the North Indian city of Chandigarh....

Sadly, some haters have been making noise about this, much to the surprise of the organizers.

The organizers of the conference were taken aback. "This is the 106th edition of the Science Congress," said the group's general secretary Premendu P. Mathur in an interview with NPR. "Since 1914, we've had so many meaningful conversations with children on science. We've hosted Nobel laureates from around the world..."

About 15,000 scientists from India and around the world attend the conference every year, said Ashok Saxena, a zoologist and a former president of the congress, in an interview with NPR. They are a part of the 50,000-strong Indian Science Congress....

Among the famous attendees this year were three Nobel laureates: Hungarian-born Israeli biochemist Avram Hershko, who won the prize for chemistry in 2004; British-born physicist Duncan M. Haldane, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2016; and German-born American Nobel laureate for medicine in 2013, Thomas Christian Südho[.]

Why can't we all be devoted to the norms of inclusivity and acceptance?

Religious Tests

Out in Texas, Republican donors are getting nervous.

Republicans in one of the most populous counties in Texas will decide this week if they should remove a party vice chairman who is Muslim following allegations he has denied that suggest he prefers Islamic over U.S. law and opposes the GOP's pro-Israel stance.... Some have even speculated that the ouster of Shafi could drain fundraising efforts and jeopardize the party's 2020 campaign.... William Busby, a former precinct chairman and leader for the Tarrant County Republican Party [said], "Corporate donors, the big donors, don't want to be associated with a party that's going in the direction of excluding people based upon their religious beliefs."

So that's both parties, then.

Some Analysis of the Green New Deal

I apologize for linking to Twitchy, whose tone and format I neither enjoy, but it's a good single link to a series of posts.

UPDATE: "Growing number" of Dem 2020 hopefuls signing on to Green New Deal.

France to Ban "Unsanctioned Protests"

Guess who makes the decision on whether or not your protest is sanctioned?

All this started over an attempt to impose climate-change policies including new taxes.

Update on Angela Davis Story

The issue, she claims, was her criticism of Israel or, as she puts it, 'the indivisibility of justice.' The facts seem to support this:

In a statement expressing dismay at the controversy, Mayor Randall Woodfin of Birmingham said the decision had come amid “protests from our local Jewish community and some of its allies.”

The institute did say in its statement announcing the revocation that it had begun hearing from “concerned individuals and organizations” in late December, around the time the magazine Southern Jewish Life published a piece about the award by its editor, Larry Brook.

If true, it wasn't the communism or the violence and murder after all.

Russian Tactics Suppress Voter Turnout, May Have Swayed Close Election

Russian tactics, mind you. Democratic operatives.

Originally they used these in the Senate race against Roy Moore, who was admittedly a lousy guy and deserved to lose. That success brought them more funding, apparently, because they pushed this campaign through the 2018 midterms, suppressing Republican turnout and targeting close districts.

I suppose this will be a huge story, right?

Nothing Says "Right Wing Extremist" Like A Nose Ring

A video making the rounds purports to be of a young German lady who was stopped by the police and questioned about her political opinions 'for wearing braids.'



I'm not sure of the truth of the facts, but it's something to watch out for as the elite begins to worry more and more about 'the right.' Ironically for all that he's painted as a fascist/Nazi/Hitler, President Trump is a bulwark against this kind of thing happening in America. It was President Obama's crew who engaged in targeting exercises like the IRS scandal, or Operation Choke Point. No similar things are likely to happen under Trump, whose relations with DOJ are spectacularly bad.

Tulsi Gabbard vs. Anti-Catholic Bigots

For reasons best known to her, Rep. Gabbard -- a veteran of honorable service -- decided to support Syria's tyrant, Bashar al-Assad. I was sorry about that, as it was a significant error in judgment. It's nice to see her getting this one right.

In the process, she's taking on two more powerful Democratic legislators, Sens. Kamala Harris and Mazie Hirono, as well as Diane Feinstein by name. I hope it will prove a useful corrective.

Universal Goods

California's new governor promises "Sanctuary to all that shall seek it." New York City promises "comprehensive health care for all."

Leaving apart the problem of building any kind of community with a constantly shifting population who shares neither common values nor history nor even a common tongue, did I sleep through the part where economic scarcity was finally overcome?

Short Selling, Explained

BB: With Gov't Shut Down, Citizens Must Interfere in Own Lives

One of the primary functions of the government is to ignorantly muck around in the business of others, but the shutdown has hampered that. Thus citizens have been forced to try to fill that void themselves. “Today I just suddenly decided large sodas weren’t allowed,” said Morgan. “It was an annoying, pointless obstacle the whole day—it was like the government was still around.”

“I arbitrarily decided I couldn’t use plastic bags in school lunches,” said Arlene Williams, mother of three. “It was really irritating to deal with. It really made me feel like there was still some bureaucrat out there not caring about me.”

I've imposed Prohibition on myself for the month of January, rather than waiting for Lent like usual. So far I haven't started a criminal organization to smuggle booze, but I suppose there's still time.

Broadcasting In the Clear

For a fairly long time now, those of us concerned about criticisms of 'toxic' masculinity have wondered if it wasn't really just a criticism of masculinity. The APA has finally dropped the mask.

APA has issued its first-ever guidelines for practice with men and boys. They draw on more than 40 years of research showing that traditional masculinity is psychologically harmful and that socializing boys to suppress their emotions causes damage[.]

More and more I think that psychology/psychiatry is chiefly just bad philosophy -- but dressed up as medicine, so people act as if it were a technologically secure basis for decision-making. Freud did more damage to our society perhaps even than Marx, though we rarely talk about how badly he's damaged us by convincing us that people are largely unconscious machines in need of programming and shaping rather than convincing and persuading. That convinced our governing elites that the people were a dangerous mob in need of systems of control, and our fellow citizens that the half who disagreed with them were monsters persuaded only by the Id.

You can't unring a bell, and bad philosophy can poison a culture as thoroughly as Romans salting the earth of Carthage.

Saudi Arabia More Gender Equal than the USA

And women are the ones who are better off, new study claims.

I'm feeling a little skeptical.

Conservatives Against... Conservatives

The Bulwark is the title of a new online magazine designed to oppose Trump. From the right, allegedly, but 'opposing Trump' is what it's all about.

Going Both Ways

Angela Davis -- heroine of the Civil Rights Movement, Black Panther, once honored by the Rolling Stones while facing murder charges, also a member of the Communist Party USA -- has been denied a high honor by the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

She was originally approved, and then the offer was withdrawn after public comment. They didn't explain exactly what it was that caused them to change their mind. I'd be interested to know.

Hymn of the Northmen

Ok, it's advertising, so I apologize for that, but- wow!  It's perhaps the best 'commercial' I've ever watched, and the advertising is of things I'd very much like (though can't afford, alas)- things made with the wisdom of tradition and the care of the fine craftsman.  I actually got led to this through a video on timber framing (and I think my dream vacation just changed because of it).  It happens rarely, but sometimes the algorithms get one or two right.

Shutdown

Belated good luck and prosperity

A neighbor brought this cabbage-slaw-blackeyed-pea dish to a next-door New Year's Eve Party, to fulfill the traditional requirement for greens and peas.  I tried to reproduce it last night from a general description, and it was as good as I remembered, though I see now I left out the green onions.   It doesn't sound like it would be that great, does it?--but it was a big hit at the party.  Just be sure to salt the peas appropriately and don't overcook them.

9/8

Johnny Cash and Bruce Springsteen both covered this 1996 Sting song, but unaccountably changed its interesting 9/8 time signature to a standard 4/4.  The beat is odd, one-two-THREE-four/one-two-three-FOUR-five with some other variations like ONE-two-three/ONE-two-THREE-four-FIVE-six, and the tune is syncopated on top of that.  The lyrics, in contrast, are a simple old-fashioned cowboy morality play, along the lines of "Long Black Veil."

Now You're Talking

Schumper: Trump threatened to keep government shut down for 'years.'

The jobs numbers are amazing. What better time for former government employees to find work in the productive part of the economy instead? Congress might have to eventually compromise, but even if we could keep it going for six or eight months, a lot of people would be forced by the long furlough to go find a job in the private sector. But we've got two years to play with, minimum.

OK, there are problems with that -- especially an inability to pay people like soldiers and Border Patrol agents. The biggest problem is that we've classified as 'essential' or 'entitlement' all the things that are really dispensable, while things that are actually essential -- protecting the country from invasion, say -- are classified as dispensable. All the same, think about it. Maybe a long, long shutdown is just what we need to get some priorities straight.