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Ethical Philosophy…In PracticeEthical Philosophy…In PracticeEthical Philosophy…In PracticeEthical Philosophy…In Practice http://www.meetup.com/Ethical-Philosophy-Discussion-Group-of-East-Portland/

Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Thinking Clearly in a World of Nonsense Topic for Examination on March 6, 2016

February 2016 Two Great Advances in Human Progress

1. Gravitational Waves Confirmed Real

2. Antonin Scalia Confirmed Dead

Summary

Two great steps in human progress were announced in February of 2016. They were paradoxically, the confirmation of one great mind and the death of another.

Einstein was right about everything. His “greatest blunder” was in believing that he was wrong. Scalia was wrong about everything and his blunder was in believing he was right. Einstein was a step away from medievalism; Scalia was a step towards it.

Why we should understand them follows…

or should we?

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Gravity Waves Confirmed

Einstein’s last prediction confirmed, it’s a slam dunk for Big Al. Four 2 ½ mile long perpendicular vacuum tubes1 costing $ 1.2 heard a “chirp.” That “chirp” was caused by two black holes, each 30 times the size of our sun, circling each other at 250 times per second (half the speed of light) 1.3 billion years ago. When they finally smashed together, the collision emitted 50 times more energy than all the stars in the universe combined, for a short time. It was the energy equivalent of a billion trillion stars. The shock wave in the vacuum of space (absolute nothingness we now call spacetime) rippled out at the speed of light. The Earth surfed that wave on 9/14/2015. In other words, time for us speeded up, slowed down, then speeded up again. Did you notice?

That chirp (the size of 1/10,000 the radius of a proton) con-firmed the last thing predicted by

GENERAL Relativity.

So what does that mean to us?

We live in gravity but can’t do anything about it,

other than cell phones, GPS, electron microscopes, nuclear energy and the internet, what has it done for us lately?

if we don’t know about it, why should we learn?

For the cost of that LIGO we could send every kid in America to college,

or fix the water supply in Flint, Michigan

or provide every Wall Street bankster with another portfolio.

Whatever our evangelical Congress thinks is more important.

1 Advanced LIGO - Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory

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Antonin Scalia is Dead

“Ding Dong the witch is dead.”2

Scalia’s greatest gift was an ability to baffle people with bull shit. If you watch interviews with him, then compare his opinions; that much is clear. He had a party allegiance and political agenda3; and all his words simply rationalized them. He was a product of the class that put him in office and he served it well. As a Federalist Society originalist, he claimed to follow the intent of the framers4 of

the Constitution at the time they drafted it. 5 In fact, he did that only when it got the results he wanted. For personal psychological reasons, he valued TRADITION. You know, how things were under- stood and done in the 18th Century, 17th, 16th, 10th, the Bronze Age?

To his credit, he knew that he was a medieval man in the 21th Century, so (unlike his mentor Robert Bork) he tried to hide it.

Here are some examples..

Same-Sex Marriage – He loudly claimed that he didn’t care one way or another about gay marriage, but he had already written that it would destroy society as we know it. His only concern (he claimed) was the right of the people (state legislatures) to decide matters (about sex) not given to Congress by the Constitution. Of course he knew state legislatures represent only a tiny segment (traditional, well-off) of society and that

they never carve out “rights” (to protect minorities other than themselves) for any group (except themselves)…and especially not sexual minorities they can’t relate to. Elections - In Bush v. Gore he stopped the vote count in Florida, (thus violating legal tradition, state law and the U.S. Constitution) knowing that it would put Bush in office. He confessed that it was unjustified with the caveat that it was not a precedent for any other cases. He didn’t sign the decision, no one did, no one wanted to take responsibility.

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHQLQ1Rc_Js 3 He was a member of the very conservative Catholic order of Opus Dei. It is often criticized for the total domination of its

members, being elitist, aligned with Hitler and practicing harsh treatment especially mortification of the flesh. 4 The framers were all rich, educated white men and many were slave owners. 5 Nevermind the “dead hand” principle which holds that earlier generations have no right to dictate how current people live.

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Race In America - When he joined the majority to suspend the Voting Rights Act until Congress could review it, he knew that the present conserve-ative Congress would never get around to it. He also knew that many conservative states had already prepared laws to restrict voting by minorities; awaiting his OK, which he gave and they did. In dissenting in the Loving v. Virginia case, he knew that upholding

Virginia’s miscegenation laws would support good ole traditional American racism. Gun Control - In striking down the Washington D.C. gun law (a very narrow ruling that applied only to Federal Districts), he knew it would be promoted by the gun lobby as a broad revocation of all gun control laws, which it is. Sodomy Laws – In Lawrence v. Texas, he denied the right of individuals to even perform homosexual acts. He held that state legislatures have the power to define (criminalize/outlaw) private acts between consenting adults...but not to interfere with business relationships or the private lives of the wealthy6. Free Speech – To Scalia, the founding fathers took the term “free speech” to mean money to buy media propaganda. Concerns of the Common Man – He didn’t give a flip about the interests or opinions

of ordinary people. He exempted himself from the standard practice of judges recusing themselves in cases7 against personal friends, such as Dick Cheney. Immediately before ruling for Cheney, they went on the now famous “duck hunting” trip. What could be a more secretive venue than together, all alone, in a

rowboat, in the middle of a lake surrounded by secret service guards? Judicial Temperament - He was seldom in the majority but always outspoken in dissent. His denouncements of decisions / judges who disagreed were hysterical, even borderline delusional. Although attention getting and loved by conservatives, this behavior probably kept him from becoming the chief justice. In the very reserved and respectful traditions of the Supreme Court, talk about…

not having a judicial temperament!

6 He didn’t mention “business” in that decision, but he consistently held to minimize government interference in business. He surely knew that the wealthy conduct their private lives without interference from laws concerning sexuality. 7 In the Energy Commission, Cheney and top energy companies discussed something, we don’t know what. Cheney had been chairman of the board of Halliburton.

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He could be funny, charming, intimidating and Sicilian; but always held (and stated clearly) that anyone who disagreed with him was just plan “wrong.”

But, after Stephen Colbert gave the traditional satire of government at the Annual Correspondents Dinner, none of the Bush Administration would even make eye contact. Scalia however, graciously complimented Colbert on his satire of the Bushies. He had 9 children, one of which is a priest reportedly revising the Bible to remove

Jesus’ liberal slant. That son/priest conducted his funeral and told some fairly uncomplimentary stories about him. But being prestigious and now dead, they were taken as adorable idiosyncrasies. He was found dead in a hotel room in far West Texas, with a pillow over his face. Under Texas law, a Justice of the Peace (without any medical training) can declare a death to be from natural causes, without even seeing the body. That is exactly what happened. His family refused to allow an autopsy. This reporter believes that he died of black bile and evil humors caused by a spell casted upon him by a witch. With that, he would probably have agreed. Now the Republican leadership promises to reject all court nominees made by Obama. This leaves the court with a 4 to 4 balance. Any ties will be sent back to lower courts to decide.

I give the research on gravity an A and Antonin Scalia an F.

It’s easy to fall back on the familiar. It’s disquieting to move forward into new ways.

What do you think?

SebastianSebastianSebastianSebastian ZebadiZebadiZebadiZebadiah ah ah ah Twit, Twit, Twit, Twit, March 5, 2016

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Later Reflections

Why Conservatives Love Him – He has been praised as ”one of the most

influential justices of the twentieth century” who “changed the way Americans debate the Constitution.” “He was bound by history, rules, and tradition to resist temptation.” “We are all originalist now.” In my opinion, his admirers were less interested in his legal profundity than his results. His results were the sup-pression of minorities, privilege for the wealthy, unimpeded corporate profits, traditional religion, chauvinism, nationalism and obedience by the common man. But

was man made to serve the law or was the law made to serve man?

Whatever he said…was also said about the divine right of kings.

Why Am I So Hard On Nino – In interviews of Scalia I have watched, the

interviewers would often ask your decision in this case seems to violate your originalist principles. Whereupon Scalia would say no it doesn’t because of X, Y and Z blah, blah, blah. (X, Y and Z being various court decisions, statues, principles or fact situations completely

unknown to the interview and the audience.) Then the interviewer would move on to another topic.

The fact is that although X, Y and Z may have supported his opinion, there was also A, B and C which didn’t. He chose those cases, precedents, fact situations, etc., that supported his position and as for the others, “he simply ignored them.” Granted all judges do that, it’s their job. But Scalia seemed to always come down on the side of the wealthy and powerful, corporations, state legislatures, large institutions etc. He most often held against the common man and especially the common woman. The Lilly Ledbetter v. Goodyear decision was so egregious, anti-employee and pro-corporation that Congress passed a special statute overriding his decision. Similarly, when striking down state safety zones around abortion clinic laws (because he said they were not necessary,) he extended them around himself. Salon.com wrote that his “maddening inconsis-tencies were part of what made him such a compelling figure.”

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The Constitution always seemed to confirm his conservative Catholic beliefs. He supported religious exemptions for Christians, but not for Native American religions. When asked how other legal experts could disagree with him, he would answer “because they’re wrong.” To all questions about Bush v. Gore he would explain “Get over it.!”

What Is So Wonderful About Tradition? – Granted, if something has worked

well for a long time, it should be examined for its survival qualities, just like biological evolution. No matter how bizarre it may look, somehow it has worked so far. But what else has worked so far? Plague, starvation, revolution, war, disease, genocide; these too are time honored traditions. The framers of the Constitution were not gods, they were non-noble Englishmen. They did not have to worry about birth control pills, minorities not crushed by violence, uppity women, modern cosmology and broadly held education. What they did have to deal with were predatory monarchs, profitable human slavery, greedy English aristocrats, French and Spanish ambitions and making a living on the edge of a wilder-ness. If they failed to contemplate minority (racial, sexual, ethnic, religious, etc.) rights and Jesus’ position on birth control (of which there was none), so what? Traditionalists argue of course (and rightly so) that those issues should be addressed by the states or constitutional amendments. But alas, most people are too weak minded to care for their own wellbeing. Should we let society break apart because people rather watch the Kardashians than vote their own interests in state elections? Yes, we will ultimately have to. But maybe not yet.

Scalia’s Humor - I once heard him on a TV panel of jurist’s joke (he probably wasn’t joking)

that even if an innocent person is executed, he was probably guilty of something.

Upon hearing of his death Salone.com wrote

“good riddance.”

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“As you know, I am big on tradition. It is tempting to make an exception…but a rule is a rule. (I am also big on rules.)” (Note how much he looks like Peter Griffin of The Family Guy.)

The Difference Between General and Special Relativity – Firstly, the

names are misleading but we’ll use them for convenience. Special relativity came first, in 1905; then Al published his General Theory in 1916.

Special Relativity explains certain situations, while General Relativity explains other situations. (see details below) His goal was to reconcile new evidence (from a 1881 experiment) with long held beliefs. In successfully doing that, he had to assume (or discovered that he had assumed) some pretty

weird features about the universe. Those weird features have long since been confirmed by experimentation. Go figure!

Said Again But In More Detail

Special Relativity would more accurately be called the Relativity of Relative Motion and General called the Relativity of Accelerating Motion (or Gravity.) The difference is that Special Relativity does explain Gravity while General relativity does.

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Said Still Again But In More Detail

Special Relativity addresses objects/observers that are 1. at rest or 2. in uniform motion (not accelerating in space).

General Relativity addresses objects/observers that are

1. at rest in a gravitational field8 or 2. accelerating (speed that is changing).

The point is that Special Relativity resolves a conflict between new information and assumptions of traditional physics. Specifically,

I. The Michelson/Morely experiment revealed that light always appears to move at the same speed to observes in the same reference frame and that nothing moves faster than the speed of light, including gravity.

II. But, gravity was always assumed be instantaneous. By solving the problem, Einstein’s theory implied some pretty weird features of the universe. For example…

1. The speed of light is the maximum speed possible and 2. gravity moves at that speed, not instantaneously as assumed. 3. Space and time are each part of one thing, spacetime. 4. When an object in motion approaches the speed of light, it becomes shorter

and for it, time slows down9 (The more energy that is expended in motion though space, the less is

available for motion through time, and vice versa. 5. E=mc2 (energy and mass are the equivalent and are transmutable)

8 While sitting still on earth, we are sitting still in gravity field. 9 To another observes, that will appear to be the case. The moving person himself will not notice anything different.

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General Relativity implies that 1. The universe is expanding. 2. Gravity (distorted spacetime) moves in waves. 3. Intense gravity (mass bending spacetime) slows the passage of time. 4. Intense gravity (mass bending spacetime) bends light. 5. Intense gravity (mass bending spacetime) drags spacetime behind it. 6. Black holes exist

All of these things have been confirmed to be true by experimentation and/or practical applications, like GPS.

Bottom-line, if you use a cell phone then you are agreeing with this entire world view because it’s a seamless whole. You believe that space and time are related, that time runs differently in different situations, that energy and mass are interchangeable, that the universe is billions of years old and expanding, that we all came out of the furnace of star explosions and live on an insignificant and doomed ball of dirt.

Did you know that you believed all that?

So don’t email me that the world is 6,000 years old.

Watch Brian Green at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QA8y-xGlRI

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Still more stuff