Hmmm...

Unfortunately, I spent my blogging time this evening on something else. I'm CJW there. Helping out some conservatives, I suppose...hmmm, dancers and artists, fun, fun, time for some knowledge and words.

Maybe I'll get a post on here after checking some messages and things. Well, there's a few comments under Niceville too.

Later.

A Wonder of the World, Motion...

There are those who feel that all is matter in motion. There is probably something the matter with trying to think that, for what puts motion in matter? That is the crux of the matter. For that matter, it is probably the fact of the matter, as a matter of fact.

Motion, it matters.

"29. Motion-1

One of the great discoveries of modern science is the revelation that everything is in motion. For instance, everything on earth is hurtling through space at thousands of miles an hour. If you stand still or sit down, like it or not you will continue to rotate around the sun and the sun itself will be rotating around a galaxy that in turn is racing away from the other galaxies. Moreover the particles that make up your body whirl around ceaselessly, and they continue doing so even when you’re dead!

30. Motion—2

So how did this motion originate? We know that the earth moves because of gravitational force: the sun pulls the earth and consequently the earth orbits it. Gravity itself is the result of the curvature of space and space curves because of mass. But why does mass cause the curvature of space? Currently there’s no answer to this, and even if a scientific explanation were to emerge, we could then ask why that particular state of affairs obtains. The same is true of motion caused by other physical forces, such as the expansion of the galaxies from the Big Bang, the motion of an electron around the nucleus. In all these cases, we come to a point where we have no further explanation for the way things are, other than to say that’s the way they are."
(The Wonder of the World: A Journey From
Modern Science to the Mind of God
By Roy Abraham Varghese :403-404)

That's not a wonder that shakes the earth like thunder. It all continues silently right there in us and around us. It goes on even as evil things happen and tiny creatures shake their lil' fists at the sky and shout, "Why God, why?!"

Why? Where you there when matter was put in motion? That's the only reason that we are here to ask why. Those who have minds, let them use them.

Niceville...

....once upon a sometime, there was a nice little village in a nice little woods. It was called Niceville. All the people that lived in Niceville were, well, nice. They had nice little homes and nice little gardens. But one thing they didn't have was any powerful weapons because they didn't write anything down and so didn't have much knowledge about anything. They didn't believe that words really meant anything other than nice soothing coos meant to be nice. Their lack of weapons suited them because weapons....they simply are not nice.

On one side of Niceville there was a shining city on a hill which had narrow gates and strong defenses. On the other side of Niceville there was a dark city that had wide gates and sprawling weak defenses. The city on a hill was ruled by an honorable General who ruled by truth, justice and mercy. The dark cities were ruled by warring factions who sometimes made alliances so as to make war against the General. The war between the cities was constant and unlike the people of Niceville these cities made and used many weapons. Sometimes, as war planes flew overhead the people of Niceville would look up at the sky, give a nice little shake of their heads and say, "Now...that is just not nice! If only everyone would be nice and weak, as nice as we are!" Every once in a while some of the boys from Niceville would make it to the city on a hill and become soldiers. But most went into the city with the wider gates.

One day, some boys from Niceville were playing in the woods near the dark cities. Some of the men of the city came from the city and said, "You know, the General from the city on the hill has plans to cut down your nice woods and demolish Niceville! He is your enemy." These men who seemed nice had an edited copy of the General's rules of engagement (It needed to be edited to make it nice they said.) which they gave to the nice boys who accepted it. The men also had some vests for the boys to wear, they seemed nice enough too. The men left and the boys went to the other side of Niceville towards the shining city on a hill where they normally played.

About the same time, two soldiers were driving a tank out of city on the hill. One was a veteran and the other was a new recruit. They saw the boys coming through the woods from Niceville. "What's that in their hands?" the new recruit asked. Hmmm, "Looks like sticks...and they're waving them about as if they can fight." the veteran replied with a tone of resignation. He muttered, "Here we go again, some boys from Niceville have been talking to the other side again. This just isn't my day." The two drove the tank closer to the woods. The recruit noted, "Hey, looks like they have vests on." The veteran said, "Uh oh, they've been rigged with bombs from the dark city."

"So let's just blast them!"

The veteran called the general and then replied, "Nope, he says to blast all around them and try to scare them back to Niceville but to avoid blowing them up." The new recruit said, "What is that one boy doing...Hey, it looks like he's trying to go around our tank to see it from all sides. How odd!" The veteran said, "Okay, blast next to him on the left." The recruit said, "Yup, that did it. Looks like he'll be seeing things from the right side for a while!" Another boy was just sitting there and he seemed to be just banging two sticks together. The veteran said, "Hmmm, oh just leave him be, he's just sitting there." The recruit replied, "But he'll blow up eventually. Let's blast next to him too!"

"Oh, okay." So they did. "Nope...still just sitting there. I don't think he even heard it." said the recruit. But another nice little boy did...and so with a quaver in his voice he said, "Now, that's REALLY just not nice!!" He started running at the tank.... "Back her up." The recruit replied in exasperation, "Oh, just run over him!"

"Nope, General's orders and besides...with great power comes great responsibility." The recruit just looked at the veteran for a moment.

"Okay, okay, I watched Spiderman last night. Geez man, cut me some slack here!"

The recruit noted, "Look, we're backing up all the way into the city and if we go there...." The veteran said, "Okay, blast next to him now!" When the smoke cleared the veteran said, "Oopsy....that one was a little close."

"Yup."

"Hmmm, hey there's someone behind that boy back there who threw a stick once and then just kept shouting, "That's not nice!"

"Yup, looks like the leader of Niceville or something."

The leader spoke saying, "I cordially invite you, nicely, to go back to the city on the hill." The recruit whispered, "Hey, why is he inviting us to go back to our own city anyway?" The veteran said, "Beats me...but he sure is nice about it. Remember, people from Niceville don't believe something has to actually make sense, as long as it proves how nice they are, in their own eyes."

"False niceness? Let's blast him!"

"No, look, it looks like they're going back to Niceville now."

The recruit replied, "Well, won't they all blow up?" The veteran said, "Oh, that's not the worst of the things that go on in Niceville where people are a little 'too nice' and a little 'too friendly.'"

For the neutral town of Niceville was not so nice, after all. It was a rather dark city itself and part of the dark cities. The people living there did not realize it, so they called themselves nice and their neutral town Niceville.

But there was only one shining city on a hill that was truly nice, it was the General's city.

A little debate...

I'm in a little debate here. There are some identity politics being used in it.

So a parable, of a fellow and his gays.

Once upon a time there was a fellow who could not see the people for all his gays. He was very interested in his gays. He liked to say, "See my gays dance and prance, see them run! Why, just the other day my gays and I ran, ran along in a field of flowers! We were so happy and gay, that day. Now I shall have my gays dance for you, again. Dance my gays, prance!"

I think I shall make up groups of people too. That way, they'll do whatever I say they do.

A Logical Parable...

A parable, about a boy with a philosophy professor of logic for a dad.

Once upon a time there was a boy with a logical dad. He was camping with his friends in a park one day and they came across a fire. He put his hand over it until it hurt and then said, "Ouch, that's hot!" His friends said, "Yeah."

Then they came to another campfire and he put his hand over it again and said the same thing. His friends gave him an odd look and said, "Yeah, didn't you learn the last time?" He replied, "Well, I would not want to be hasty about generalizing. Maybe, there is one fire that is not hot!"

So he did the same thing again at the next fire and burned his hand.

Then they came to a slope that looked rather slippery. A boy slipped down the side of it a little and said, "Wow, it's slippery alright!" But the one boy said, "Maybe some parts of the slope are not so slippery. I would not want to judge the slope, as so slippery."

Then he slipped down the slippery slope and hurt his ankle.

They finally came to their car to get in and go home. But the one boy with the burned hand and hurt ankle looked at the wheels and said, "Those wheels, they look circular!" The other boys just looked at him again, then got in the car. So he got in too. As they drove away he said, "The circular wheels are spinning, what strange madness is this circular reason that we're going forward!"

One truly philosophical boy replied, "Well, it's quite simple really. All fire is hot. A slippery slope is slippery and circles, well, they are quite circular."

The Story of the Herd...

There was the Herd. It calmly grazed as it always had.

A Rancher road over the hill and into their valley one day. He had many cattle prods and some branding irons from driving cattle. He tried to lead the Herd over the hill to where green pastures and clean still waters were. But the Herd was hard to herd! He poked and prodded but the Herd just mooed loudly about it.

Then uneasy, they mooed to each other, "Moo." "Moo, moo?" "Moooo."

When translated this means,"Sniff my butt."

"Does it stink?"

"Nooo."

So the Herd just kept sniffing each others butts and going in circles. But the Rancher saw a big cow, it had calves sucking its teats for milk! So he figured, "Hmmm, if I get the big cow maybe all the calves will follow." So he took out a brand and put it in the fire, its symbol was a cross. He got it white hot. Then, sizzzzle....right on the big cow's butt! "MOOOOO!" Which, when translated means, "OUCH!"

The big cow ran around in circles for a bit after this. The calves ran after it trying to get hooked up with a teat again for more sweet, sweet milk of the teat. But the big cow stayed in the valley it was in. So the Herd did too, just as they always had.

The Rancher thought, "Maybe it will be a holy cow one day." He chuckled, "Sure was a mad cow then, though..."

The Herd had settled back down to chew its cud. But it chewed its own crud, crud that was all in the mud. For the valley it was in was not green, it was a valley in the shadow of death.

"The European disguises himself with morality because he has become a sick, sickly, crippled animal that has good reasons for being "tame," for he is almost an abortion, scarce half made up, weak, awkward...It is not the ferocity of the beast of prey that requires a moral disguise but the herd animal with its profound mediocrity, timidity, and boredom with itself."
--Nietzsche