Author: Papa Giorgio

`Niezsche, the Death of God and the Emerging Church` ~ by Bill Honsberger

Published by Papa Giorgio

This is basically a history of philosophy ending with the pseudo-hermeneutics of the Emerging Church movement.

Find Bill here: http://www.havenministry.com

This is via TrueFreeThinker (TFT)… whom I recommend with one reservation [and I hate that I have to do this]: TFT has a deeply flawed view of the New World Order type conspiracies. I was where TFT was about 22-years ago, so I sympathize. But other than that, TFT has GREAT resources available for the skeptic as well as the believer.

John Yoo, Professor of Law Berkeley, Explains How Jerry Brown Won the Prop 8 Case

Published by Papa Giorgio

Via National Review (see this also):

…So what is the result?  It seems to me that the gay couple still wins, but that Judge Vaughn Walker’s opinion is also wiped away. The gay couple wins because the government never shows up to defend the statute; the plaintiffs win, in essence, a default judgment. But without an opinion, there is no precedent to apply on Proposition 8 throughout the state of California. That leaves the winner, oddly, as Jerry Brown. As governor, Brown could order state and local officers not to enforce Proposition 8 based on the judgment in Perry or even on the reasoning of Windsor. In fact, it appears Brown may have already done so.

So Brown comes out the big winner. He can delay or even nullify an initiative enacted by the people of California simply by refusing to defend it in court — despite the fact that the whole point of an initiative is to pull an end-run around recalcitrant state officials. And if a court strikes down the initiative, Jerry Brown gets to decide whether and how to enforce it in this case. Brown has effectively defied the will of a majority of the people of California.

So, in the future, when this Democratically controlled state has its hands tied by the voters, like Prop 13 did for property taxes in the late 70’s, all the state has to do is have someone bring it to court and then not defend it. Sick.

Electric Cars Worse, Or As Bad on the Environment!

Published by Papa Giorgio

Via HotAir:

…An environmental activist who once pushed for EVs and now works as a visiting scholar at UC Berkeley now calls electric vehicles “unclean at any speed” in a recent article for the engineering journal IEEE Spectrum (via Weasel Zippers and UPI):

The idea of electrifying automobiles to get around their environmental shortcomings isn’t new. Twenty years ago, I myself built a hybrid electric car that could be plugged in or run on natural gas. It wasn’t very fast, and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t safe. But I was convinced that cars like mine would help reduce both pollution and fossil-fuel dependence.

I was wrong.

I’ve come to this conclusion after many years of studying environmental issues more deeply and taking note of some important questions we need to ask ourselves as concerned citizens. Mine is an unpopular stance, to be sure. The suggestive power of electric cars is a persuasive force—so persuasive that answering the seemingly simple question “Are electric cars indeed green?” quickly gets complicated.

Ozzie Zehner, who worked on the experimental EV-1 at GM before it got shelved, says some of the complications are due to the economics of science and scientific research.  Most of the funding comes from interested parties, which tends to produce research that supports their positions…

…read more…

Government Guarantee Limits Creativity and Information ~ George Gilder

Published by Papa Giorgio

Dennis Prager interviews George Gilder about his new book, “Knowledge and Power: The Information Theory of Capitalism and How it is Revolutionizing our World.” I found this small bit on Dodd-Frank interesting as it leads to government interference creating a business atmosphere that nets zero information — or — creativity, entrepreneurial investment, or new growth in small business.