This couldn't have come at a better time, because I couldn't think of a damn thing to write about today. So here you go:



“Metaphysics” as a field of study within the academic area of Philosophy is very different from “Metaphysics” as the label of a bookshelf in Border’s Books. This is a Philosophy course. It is not about what Border’s Books calls Metaphysics. The popular (Border’s Books) understanding of Metaphysics is that it is the study of paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception, out-of-body travel, reincarnation, and auras. None of these topics will be seriously discussed in this course! It doesn’t much matter what my opinions are about the matter, but you may want to know. I believe in science. I do not believe in pseudoscience. I believe that no one has extra-sensory perception (even though perception is a very complicated and interesting thing). I do not believe in reincarnation, or in out-of-body travel. In fact I have published articles in anti-paranormal journals, and I’m somewhat famous for my skeptical refutation of the paranormal Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon. (See my web page for details if you’re interested.)How pathetic is it that a Professor has to explicitly state that in order to pass his class, students are, you know, actually required to study the material in the syllabus.
I do not believe that I’m any more narrow-minded than the next person on these topics. But if you are a fan of paranormal phenomenon, you will probably consider me to be very narrow-minded. That’s ok with me -- you have a right to consider me narrowminded if you want to. But the important thing is this: You should not take this course because you expect to study astrology, ESP, and so on. I will not ask my students to study topics that I consider foolish, and I consider astrology, etc., very foolish.
I am stating this SO THAT YOU WILL KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT!!!
So if you signed up for the course because you are interested in the supernatural or paranormal, please drop the course. You will not be able to pass the course by concentrating your attention on the paranormal, and trying to prove its existence to me. Many people have tried. None of them has passed the course. Please don’t add your student record to the gruesome list of people who believed that they could convince Amundson that they possessed ESP.
I have had some bad experiences on this topic. Some very sincere students have gotten angry and even belligerant because I required them to study and write about theories that they disagreed with. I am teaching this course the way the American Philosophical Association affirms is the academically responsible way to teach Metaphysics. Please, if that is not a course that you want to take, do not take this one.
While God is the Father of all people in a general sense because He created them (Acts 17:24-28), only those who have put their faith in Jesus Christ are God's true spiritual children. Unbelievers are the children of Satan (Matt.13:38)Yeah. Essentially telling a classmate that she's a child of Satan. Classy. The woman in question then spanked him for being a presumptuous asshat with no respect for other people's belief systems. His response?
At salvation, all believers not only become full members of Christ's body, the church, but the Holy Spirit is placed within each of them (Romans 8:9) True Christians are saints and as such are prophets because we evangelize to God's people and endure through faith in God and not man.
You mentioned a Prophet, and I only know of one prophet, and if you want me to share my relationship with Jesus Christ with you, I would be more than happy to. There is only one reason I am answering this, it is because I love your soul. I ask for your forgiveness if I have offended you.Because really, what a Muslim really wants after telling you to shut the fuck up about your Christianity is for you to "share your relationship with Jesus Christ." And who the fuck is so ignorant that they believe a woman from a Muslim country, with a Muslim name, thinks that Jesus Christ is the only "Prophet" around? Seriously?
He's an Italian Greyhound who belongs to one of our best friends, who's out of town on business this week.
Jake's kind of dumb.
And he thinks he and I have some special psychic connection, which he attempts to activate by sitting next to my desk and staring at me like some sort of deranged, obsessive serial killer.
It's a little disconcerting after a while.
"I was astonished by what I found," he said. "There, on the Red Planet, were beings in blue bodysuits and the abstract artwork of a Martian civilization. I was looking at the first evidence of life beyond Earth!"Here's the photograph in question, with my own commentary:
In his letter to the National Geographic Society, the lawyer writes that careful evaluation of PIA10214 reveals "a cosmic treasure trove of pictographic evidence of life on Mars, including humanoid beings, animal species, carved statues, and built structures."
According to Basiago, the humanoid beings photographed in PIA10214 have bulbous heads and elongated bodies, like the extraterrestrials described in alien contact accounts. Some have two arms and legs like human beings, while others have multiple appendages and segmented or larval bodies, as if they are human-insect hybrids.
Dr. Grandin is a designer of livestock handling facilities and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University. Facilities she has designed are located in the United States, Canada, Europe, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, and other countries. In North America, almost half of the cattle are handled in a center track restrainer system that she designed for meat plants. Curved chute and race systems she has designed for cattle are used worldwide and her writings on the flight zone and other principles of grazing animal behavior have helped many people to reduce stress on their animals during handling.She's also autistic.
Of all the bloggers on line, I have never met a group like UCF. This is a group of primarily ex-Navy technical people (and a lawyer, a scientist and others) who have a uniquely vulgar and aggressive culture and act almost like a military unit on a mission. Are they?
This group calls themselves UCF which they say stands for Union of Collaborating Founders, but after a bit of investigation I suspect (purely speculatively) that the name might be a Navy acronym for something similar to Uniformed (Currently or Formerly) Counter-Intelligence Force.
Why do I suspect these bloggers might be paid by my tax dollars? A gut feeling based on a few clues make the speculation appear at least plausible.
First this is a fairly stable group of primarily ex-Navy technical personal including a lawyer (Eric), scientist (John)[1] and other technical people in an apparently well defined command structure with leader Nathan and apparently second in command Janiece Murphy.[2] Some of these widely geographically dispersed members have also met in person.
Secondly and most interestingly the group has engaged in at least one on-line counter-intelligence exercise (International Hijack Day).[3]
Third the group has their own aggressive and vulgar culture, as if they all attended the same course of instruction on how to be vulgar and aggressive on-line. While it may not seem unexpected for Navy enlisted personnel to be vulgar, it is a bit disturbing for a highly intelligent and clearly cultured lawyer to suddenly release a torrent of profanity for apparently no other reason than to show he is capable of being vulgar.
Fourth, and the reason I have any interest in this group at all is that they appear to be on a mission to “debunk” anyone who questions the management of safety concerns related to Europe’s Large Hadron Collider experiment.
I think this group’s focus is counter productive and a waste of tax payer money (if tax payers are funding this group) for a group to attempt to discredit honest scientists and concerned citizens who are trying to blow a safety whistle and bring some accountability to a global safety issue.
Ex-Navy Warrent Officer Jim Wright provides an example of aggression and threats this group is apparently capable of. Jim writes: “I’ll warn you once, and once only: You’re going to want to be real careful with that kind of bullshit, Wagner. I am a highly decorated combat veteran, who served honorably, who served in Iraq and elsewhere… and a number of folks that served with me, and that I got home alive, read my site every day, many come here to laugh at you - some, Walter, live in Hawaii. Don’t ever try that type of insinuation again.“[4]
Mr. Wright also states “I’m exceedingly familiar with the history of computer science and engineering and the associated names in the field, and hold a couple of advanced degrees in that field myself“.[4] Jim Wright did not state if these are accredited advanced engineering degrees or if he accomplished this while serving in the Navy, but he did recently retract statements against Walter Wagner only after threat of a libel suit.[5] (Contractors are responsible for their own legal defense).
Mr. Wright further states “I agree that there are legitimate concerns about safety. Those concerns have been addressed by actual qualified scientists. Neither Wagner nor Tankersley are qualified in any way to challenge those issues. Neither are scientists, neither are physicists…” Unfortunately Mr Wright fails to realize that legitimate safety concerns were addressed precicely because of Walter Wagner’s concern and brilliant discovery of fundamental flaws with CERN’s safety arguments.
But the comment that finally provoked me to respond with this article was from Janiece Murphy who yesterday called me Walter Wagner’s “butt monkey“.[6] (For the record, I strongly support Walter Wagner, I think he is a brilliant and selfless scientist and we are all indebted to him for discovering flaws with safety arguments that CERN was not even aware of, but I have never met Walter Wagner in person, I’m happily married and I have no interest in being anyone’s “butt monkey”, not that there is anything wrong with that as comedian Jerry Seinfeld famously said.)
JTankers
Administrator LHC Facts
Assistant Coordinator for Global Risk Reduction (a Special Interest Group of American Mensa)
[1] John the Scientist, UCF member, http://refugeesfromthecity.blogspot.com/2008/10/delusional.html
[2] Janiece Murphy, UCF 2nd in Command http://hotchicksdigsmartmen.blogspot.com/2008/06/im-geek-your-geek-everywhere-geek-geek.html
[3] Nathan, UCF Leader, International Hijack™ Day, Polybloggimous “Ideas get in but they don’t get out” (2008) http://polybloggimous.com/2008/01/announcing-international-hijack-day.html
[4] Jim Wright, Response (2008) http://refugeesfromthecity.blogspot.com/2008/10/response.html
[5] Jim Wright, Walter L. Wagner is Pitifully Insane, 2008 http://stonekettlestation.blogspot.com/2008/10/walter-l-wagner-pitifully-insane.html
[6] Janiece Murphy, Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men (December 29, 2008), http://hotchicksdigsmartmen.blogspot.com/2008/12/suing-scientific-method.html
Tags: Janiece Murphy, Jim Wright, Tankersley, UCF, Wagner
This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 30th, 2008 at 9:25 pm and is filed under Libel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.