Featured Posts
  • Joe Arpaio – Vile and Rotten

    Joe Arpaio - Vile and Rotten

    Why is this guy still in business? Sheriff Joe Arpaio's volunteer investigation into documents pertaining to President Barack Obama's place of birth and citizenship now includes the services of a taxpayer-funded ...

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  • Romney The Liar

    Romney The Liar

    The lies roll off the man's lips like music off Yo-Yo Ma's cello. Both are virtuosos - one a cellist, the other a liar. A partial list. Bush had nothing to do ...

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  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Happy Friday. The best from Political Humor‘s collection of the week’s late night political humor. "Barack Obama supports same-sex marriage. Mitt Romney doesn't even support same-sex car pools." –David Letterman "The head of ...

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  • Another Unexceptional Republican Claims Obama Is Not An American

    Another Unexceptional Republican Claims Obama Is Not An American

    Republican Rep. Mike Coffman at a Saturday afternoon fundraiser in Colorado. I don't know whether Barack Obama was born in the United States of America. I don't know that. But I ...

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  • Idiot Quote of the Day: The “Gayer” Obama

    Idiot Quote of the Day: The Gayer Obama

    Rand Paul: Call me cynical, but I didn’t think his [Obama's] views on marriage could get any gayer. We won't call Rand cynical. Ignorant, bigoted asshole is more fitting. An adult using ...

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  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    Happy Friday. The best from Political Humor‘s collection of the week’s late night political humor. "President Obama came out with approval of same-sex marriage. He said that over the years, he has ...

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  • What The Hell Is The Problem With Gay Republicans?

    What The Hell Is The Problem With Gay Republicans?

    I've never understood Log Cabin Republicans - gay conservatives who give their support to a homophobic political party that derides their sexuality and refuses to grant them equal rights under ...

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  • Obama – Same-Sex Marriage and Doing The Right Thing

    Obama - Same-Sex Marriage and Doing The Right Thing

    Finally. “I have to tell you that over the course of several years as I have talked to friends and family and neighbors when I think about members of my own ...

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  • Another Day, Another Vote – Indiana, NC and Wisconsin

    Another Day, Another Vote - Indiana, NC and Wisconsin

    Election roundup: Indiana. As polls forecast, the Tea Party's efforts to cleanse the GOP of any impure conservatives has Dick Lugar out and teabagger Richard Mourdock in. Mourdock is the new Republican ...

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  • ‘Romney – The Man Who Saved The Auto Industry’ and Other Fairy Tales

    'Romney - The Man Who Saved The Auto Industry' and Other Fairy Tales

    There are lies...and then there are lies. My own view, by the way, was that the auto companies needed to go through bankruptcy before government help. And frankly, that’s finally what ...

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  • A Madman and Fox News

    A Madman and Fox News

    From the papers captured last year at Osama bin Laden's Pakistani hideout comes this. Like any public figures, bin Laden and his advisers were mindful of the media. Adam Gadahn, one ...

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  • Late Night Political Humor

    Late Night Political Humor

    The best from Political Humor‘s collection of the week’s late night political humor. Happy Friday. "Today Mitt Romney visited a firehouse here in New York City. Of course, he was disappointed ...

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  • New GOP Logo

    New GOP Logo

    ___ Follow MarioPiperniDotCom on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. .

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  • Can Obama Be Swift-Boated?

    Can Obama Be Swift-Boated?

    It happened to Kerry. Can it happen to Obama? Nope says Margaret Carlson. Obama’s belief system -- in that hopey-changey business and the post-partisanship thing -- has been altered by reality. ...

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  • Quote of the Day: The Gay Republican

    Quote of the Day: The Gay Republican

    Sullivan: What do Republicans call a gay man with neoconservative passion, a committed relationship and personal courage? A faggot. Exactly right, but then could one expect anything different from a political party that ...

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  • Christian Pastor: Fixing Gay Is Like Squashing a Cockroach

    Christian Pastor: Fixing Gay Is Like Squashing a Cockroach

    And they claim that atheists are immoral? The ugly side of religion shows its face once again. The words below were spoken at a Sunday sermon by Sean Harris, a pastor ...

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  • GM Alive, bin Laden Dead

    GM Alive, bin Laden Dead

    It's been fun watching conservatives and Romney twist themselves into pretzels trying to undo Mitt's past words on GM and bin Laden. Romney, April 2007: It’s not worth moving heaven and earth ...

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  • Republicans Are The Problem

    Republicans Are The Problem

      In an op-ed piece in the Washington Post, a couple of scholars from liberal and conservative think tanks, discuss the state of American politics. We have been studying Washington politics and ...

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  • Marco Rubio – Just Another Weasel

    Marco Rubio - Just Another Weasel

    Romney's VP-in-waiting, Marco Rubio, is perfecting the conservative sleaze play. He has proposed his version of the Dream Act in which people who entered the country illegally as children will be ...

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  • Obama’s Move Forward

    Obama's Move Forward

    Beyond the rhetoric, the political BS, the lies - that is, the concerted effort by the right-wing noise machine to distort and misinform at every opportunity - is the very ...

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Serious People

.

This stuff might be a little heavy for a Friday but here it is anyway.  Paul Krugman

When I was young and naïve, I believed that important people took positions based on careful consideration of the options. Now I know better. Much of what Serious People believe rests on prejudices, not analysis. And these prejudices are subject to fads and fashions.

Krugman stated his belief in reference to those who believe in fiscal austerity at a time of economic depression.  I’m not quite sure that sentiment on Serious People could be applied generally.  Politicians aside (who I don’t recognize as Serious People although they should be), I’d like to think that Serious People do think things out and while they may disagree on issues with other Serious People, their conclusions are based on a sound basis of facts.

(pause as I reread what I just wrote…)

OK. On a bit more reflection, I’m not sure I agree with me.  Either that or the list of Serious People is a really small one probably limited, for the most part, to those in the scientific community.  For everyone else, prejudices do form some basis for our beliefs.  And if that is true, then the difference between THE REALLY Serious People and the NOT REALLY Serious People is the degree to which they allow their prejudices (in place of hard facts) to taint and alter their beliefs.

As I said, this might be a little too heavy for a holiday weekend.  Happy Friday.

___
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Comments

  1. Kathryn says:

    Wow, Mario, I love the way you think. More importantly, thank you for keeping us grounded, especially on this holiday weekend.

  2. PerryE says:

    Mario even the Serious Scientists have corporations backing them up especially the Pharmaceuticals, so even those serious people have to defend their jobs and do as they are told. Its THE IMPERIALISM (monopoly stage of capitalism) OF CORPORATE AMERICA!

    And those same corporations have the senators by the you know what!

    Its sick!

    HAPPY FRIDAY TO ALL. BRAZIL LOST TO THE NETHERLANDS YEAH!

  3. @Perry. While my cynicism generally runs deep, I have the utmost admiration for the scientific method and process as a means to weed out the charlatans in that discipline. There is no way around the peer review process which is what makes the climate change debate a phony one at best. To be a GW denier is to admit that one does not understand the scientific process.

  4. PerryE says:

    @mario I am just saying that the scientists are crooked also and the corporations they work for are crooked also. I believe in GW.

    But you cannot take science and scientists for their last word because they are hired by corporations that are out to get the old green dollar, so they bend the rules, and hide side effects from medicine, etc. etc. Corporate America is vicious and GREEDY!

  5. Yes, there are crooked corporations. That goes without saying. And I have no doubt there are unscrupulous scientists. But what I’m implying is that while one can “bend the rules”, science cannot be bent.

  6. PerryE says:

    Science cannot be bent, but scientists can misrepresent their findings and bend the rules. Why? Because they all work for someone else and they also have to feed their kids and family. Therefore, findings can be misleading and not accurate.

    But Mario scientific findings are like the clouds, they change all the time with new developments. It can be specific for right now but not necessarily true in one year or a lifetime. So the specificity goes out the door.

  7. Greg says:

    Once you answer the question “why is there a pyramid with the
    all seeing eye above it on back of our one dollar bills” you
    can kind of figure out why things are what they are.
    Even though the above statement may seem off subject in fact its
    in most cases the reason for corporate rule along with a bunch
    of other nifty stuff which controls our daily lives.
    Meet the new Boss, same as the old Boss —- thats because its
    the same “one” boss.
    Enough of all this sillyness–for its fourth of July weekend which
    means Cotton Candy and mis-using fireworks.