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The Limits of Tolerance
Salon, a lightweight "magazine" in which writers bravely face the applause of the echo chamber, features a vitriolic attack on Shi'a Islam.Ha ha. Of course not. It is to laugh. That would be islamophobia and right-thinking people avoid that, um, religiously. No, it is a vicious attack on the one group the author knows will not fight back. How many instances of hate speech and logical and factual errors can you spot?
Sometimes the Mask Slips, a Little
Because the same arguments used to back X can also work for Y, why not be upfront about it?Getting a Load On
Chastek gives us this tidbit:Considered mechanically, loading and reloading [a semi-automatic rifle] are the same. The slide moves back in response to a force. In fact, we might just as well consider the slide as pushing the hand as the hand pushing the slide. It’s all one big machine, if machines are all you’re trying to explain.
Scientism in three steps: a.) give an account of, say, loading that applies to both loading and reloading – say, a mathematical law. (b.) call the account a description of “the mechanism” (c.) proceed to be baffled and snicker at any appeal to “vital forces” or “free will”. The mechanism suffices to explain anything! Who needs to put some ghost inside of it!
