Lately I have had mixed feelings on this subject. The judicious and sympathetic philosopher in me wants to say that, at least in principle, the source of one’s moral beliefs do not by necessity deny one the ability to decide fairly on constitutional matters, but when you have a mob of 5 roman catholics in charge of one of the most powerful governmental bodies in the world, the psychologist in me wants to move to Canada!!

So tell me Dave, is it all scripted? Do you have a list of questions given to you in advance? Will you sign my autograph?

ZH

Gaaaahhh

A guy can dream huh?

Inform me, ya’ll. I live a very sheltered life these days.

I greatly admire Ron Reagan, but his brother Mike is a regular right-wing nut job. They run his op-ed pieces in our newspaper, and sometimes he even gets too extreme for the conservatives!

Any competent legal expert knows the correct way to make judgements, the problem is the willingness of some extremeists (and others who want power for power’s sake) to lie to get the position they want. Remember Miers’s answers to the legal questionnaire? With this administrations willingness to use deceit and attack any who expose what they are doing, the bigger problem is that we do not know what we are getting until they are already on the bench.

Zac Hunter (and others contemplating place like Canada as an “escape”): Running away to leave the most powerful country in the world in the hands of right-wing extremists is highly irresponsible. We need to get more reasonable people to move here, not away. Sponsor some Canadian friends, or something. If anyone is going to move out, it should be the religious right types. They could move to… Um. Actually I can’t think of anywhere that would actually welcome these guys. Can you?

Oh dear. That brings the ‘get off our country’ nonsense that created the ‘Atheists in Foxholes’ controversy to mind.

I have seriously considered deserting the US, like a rat leaving a sinking ship. What rational being wouldn’t?

My country needs me, though. Someone’s got to put up their dukes & fight for it.

“There are those who best serve the state by opposing it.” – Unknown.
“It is the patriot’s duty to defend his country against it’s government.” – Paine

BTW: for perspective, in re: Einstein:
http://www.positiveatheism.org/writ/ebtomcat.htm -
“Einstein did once comment that “God does not play dice [with the universe].” This quotation is commonly mentioned to show that Einstein believed in the Christian God. Used this way, it is out of context; it refers to Einstein’s refusal to accept the uncertainties indicated by quantum theory. Furthermore, Einstein’s religious background was Jewish rather than Christian.”
You did qualify this somewhat. Just saying.

Thanks for the clarification. I am familiar with the meaning behind Einstein’s words as well as his background. Unfortunately, I do not always communicate what I mean as clearly as I should.

What I meant was to show the insidiousness of non-logical, non-fact-based reasoning since even as good a scientist as Einstein used it to defend his position at least once. However, this also shows the power of scientific method in that even a person as highly respected as Einstein was overruled when it became apparent that reality was different from his understanding. Compare this with what happens when an equally well-known religious figure makes a statement which is contrary to known facts. His statement is somehow believed to be evidence that the facts themselves are incorrect.