Ramblings

Note: I’m camped right on the bank of the Colombia River in Washington State — Lewis and Clark went right by my location at the end of their epic journey. Perspective…

While on the road from inland I listened to Woody Allen’s autobiography, Apropos of Nothing, and found it mildly amusing and informative, until he got on the subject of Mia Farrow and the child abuse allegations; the book then degenerated into ‘Woody’s side.’ But the reason I bring this up at all is a throwaway line and I don’t recall the context, aside from the timeline aspect. Woody says something about what he was doing the day ‘Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK.’

I realized the irony when he soon started in about how so many of the actors he’s worked with have turned against him, even though (for the 100th time) ‘I was cleared of any wrongdoing,’ words to that effect. See, what he’s saying is that there is a conspiracy against him. Meanwhile, bring up JFK or 911 or Sandy Hook and so on and on and he’ll tell you those are conspiracy theories. 

There are no actual conspiracies unless they are aimed at him. Here is this brilliant motherfucker and he’s got so little self-reflection in him that he can’t… or won’t… use critical thinking when it comes to HTWRW.  

When not driving I’m reading a book (a real, physical book) called Werner Herzog, A Guide for the Perplexed, a long (nearly endless, actually) conversation between Herzog and some guy. Herzog is talking about books he’s read and he says, and I swear I had to go back and reread the passage slowly word by word to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating,

 ‘You want to read a great detective story,’ Herzog informs us, ‘pick up the Warren Commission Report. It reads like a suspense thriller.’ 

Herzog is supposed to be the ultimate free spirit of filmmaking.

Youtube. Fucking Herzog is being interviewed by that insufferable asshole Lawrence Krauss, right? Krauss starts off saying he and Herzog ‘feel comfortable not wearing masks since we’re both fully vaccinated.’ Herzog is nodding. Krause says something about ‘social distancing’, indicating that the two are at least six feet apart. Herzog is nodding.

Did I mention that Herzog is supposed to be the ultimate free spirit of filmmaking.

While I’m on the subject of aggravation, mine, see if you can identify with my frustration with the Discovery Institute gang. You don’t have to agree with me on the particulars here, but see if you get where I’m coming from: The Discovery Institute is this group of scientists who have destroyed Neo-Darwinism, right? Debunked it. Poof. Gone. Fuhgetaboutit. 

(What they have proved false is the ‘Random mutation/natural selection’ mechanism regarding speciation. They have no problem with either change over time or even descent with modification. It’s Darwin’s mechanism of evolution that they have disproven. Which, as far as they are concerned, leaves us with Intelligent Design as the logical replacement. Okay, maybe. More or less.)

One of the Institute’s more prolific writers is Stephen Meyer. I’ve read and reread all his books, each one taking a slightly different tack in destroying Darwin and the whole naturalism/reductionism/materialism paradigm. And the likes of Richard Dawkins (another annoying prick). Meyer’s last book is called The Return of the God Hypothesis. 

Notwithstanding that the title is not a good sign, it’s quite a brilliant piece of work. And notwithstanding that if you were to ask Meyer (or any of his Discovery Institute crew) who killed JFK, he/they would finger L. H. Oswald, no question. 9/11? Osama did it. And so on.

How do I know? I just do.

But what pisses me off is their utter love for and devotion to the Big fucking Bang. Although Meyer is a molecular biologist (and philosopher of science), in The Return of the God Hypothesis he goes on and on about the implications of the Big Bang, i.e., how it proves there is a transcendent being, separate and above the natural cosmos, who caused creation. A logical necessity. And he’s right, or would be right, except for one little problem: There was no Big Bang. (He might be, and is, still right without the Big Bang, but that’s another subject.)

But why would that aggravate me, given that 99% of Ph.d’s in any science believe in the Big Bang? Because of the Meyer and Co.’s stated devotion to ‘following the evidence wherever it leads.’ 

See, if you do that, if you indeed follow the evidence wherever it leads, you will fairly quickly understand that most of physics (and all of cosmology) is a load of crap. No Big Bang, no dark matter, no dark energy, no fusion reactions inside stars (hence no black holes) and so on and on. 

Even given the highly unlikely possibility that Meyer and Co. have never crossed paths with Electric Universe or Halton Arp or Professor Pierre Marie Robitaille… even given this, it would not matter. Since the Big Bang (and so on) in their minds points logically to their belief in a transcendent cause (the Christian God, god help us), they ain’t goin’ anywhere else, belief-wise.

The other thing is this: Meyer and Co. are on the fringe, meaning of the mainstream, so the last thing they are going to do is believe in the paradigm of some other fringers.

See the hypocrisy here? It’s deep.

Plus, the actual truth (no Big Bang) gives their detractors more ammunition: ‘Meyer doesn’t even believe in the Big Bang!’

See the hypocrisy here? It’s deep.

So… much as I owe these guys (for clueing me to important truths re evolution), they really aggravate me. And distress me. 

On the other hand, comparing me with, say, Stephen Meyer, I suppose my way of looking at HTWRW makes me one of the few that understand the broadest of ranges of what’s true and what is not, even if the depth of my knowledge is not as profound as, say, Meyer.

Addendum: Meyer knows way more than I do about biology but has his head up his ass about cosmology, while the Electric Universe crew plus, probably, Prof. Robitaille and Arp (while alive) took Darwin for granted, so their heads are/were up their asses in this area. 

Plus, everyone mentioned above no doubt believed airliners crashed on 9/11, and on and on. 

I’m trying my best to see the bright side, even when said bright side implies that the human species is f-ing hopeless. See what I mean? Or is this not clear?

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Managed to lose another drone, I think my fourth, counting the Montana lake disaster (I knew where it was so technically I didn’t lose it), when I lost my first one. Yesterday my second DJI Mini flew up fine… then didn’t come down (as far as I know, although I suspect it’s at the bottom of the Colombia River). My iPhone 7 informed me that I had ‘No Connection’ so the auto Return to Home feature was no help. Wait… counting the one Mike F gave me, I think this was my fifth loss. Jesus. 

I ordered another, $460.

Breakdown last week, $700.

Top off gas (from 1/4 full), $300.

That last one is the most distressing, since it is likely the recur…

Bruno is another $100 or so a month, the little bastard. (He delights in annoying me… like how he ate my Road Atlas a few days ago. Chewed up every state short of Vermont, alphabetically speaking, while I’m listening to Woody’s whining. Another fifty or so bucks.)

I hardly ever bring this up but… if you’re getting anything out of this blog please think about hitting the little Donate button in the sidebar, at the bottom. Recall that I picked $3.25 because that was the approximate price of a gallon of gas when I debarked, going on nine years ago. I know times are tough for you too, so I understand if you demur. 

And to those who already are chipping in, thanks again! I really notice every contribution; each one shows up in my Inbox and the names register. I mentally thank you every month. (If you feel like it, just do it again, hit that button.)