Christmas Eve and Earthrise

View 803 Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Christmas Eve

Earthrise

Forty Five Years Ago: http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-releases-new-earthrise-simulation-video/#.UrnzkbT9m4I

Jerry:
It’s not clear to me why you quote from Matthew 7:1-6 about judgment while writing about Charlie Sheen and Duck Dynasty at the bottom of your post at
https://www.jerrypournelle.com/chaosmanor/bureaucracy-and-the-laws-of-physics-health-care-mandates-delayed-duck-dynasty/
People frequently quote these verses at other people when they wish to shut down a discussion, leaving unexamined the moral implications of human behaviors. They are saying that people should not make any judgments at all about the behavior of others, that all behaviors are acceptable, perhaps even to be celebrated, as we manifest that ultimate virtue known as tolerance.
I have always thought that making judgments is among the highest callings of mankind, perhaps second only to getting wisdom (both being subordinate to loving the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself.)
There are myriad discussions of these verses on the web. One I came across recently is at
http://myburg.blogspot.com/2013/11/should-church-be-non-judgmental.html
where the author concludes:

"But ongoing and healthy judgment means that the church — by regular application of the Word and the ministry of the Holy Spirit — sees truth ever more clearly, exposing the lies we believe, walking in the light rather than darkness, and pursuing goodness rather than evil. 

"The term "non-judgmental" is really not very useful.  It may lead to the conclusion that sin is no big deal."

"Catholic Answers Magazine" says at
http://www.catholic.com/magazine/articles/judge-not

"Jesus then explains how to judge rightly: "First take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye." Much to the point of this article, there can be no doubt that those final words­"take the speck out of your brother’s eye"­are, indeed, permission to judge so long as it is done rightly.

"Other Bible passages which seem on the surface to indicate a condemnation of judging others’ behavior may be treated similarly in their full context. The idea of rightly judging the behavior of others can be found throughout the New Testament."

Responsible citizens must constantly make judgments about the behavior of celebrities, teachers, media personalities, and even our neighbors in order to protect our children and grandchildren from the evils others seek to teach them.
Best regards,
–Harry M.

I have no power to designate nor to forgive except as it applies to me, and I am instructed that my own forgiveness is contingent on my forgiveness of those who have offended against me. Recently the head of the Church of England issued a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing. I know of nothing that Turing has done that harmed me, and much that he did which benefitted me.

My views on gay marriage are derived from my views of the Constitution and limited government, but for more than fifty years I have supported laws that would require domestic partnership contracts to convey the rights and duties of marriage. When I was growing up we all learned to despise and behave despicably toward ‘queers’, but I was never taught that by the teachers I most admired, nor do I believe I am commanded to do so now. I would not have agreed with the law under which Turing was prosecuted, nor the punishment decreed for him.  I suspect that all of us including Phil Robertson could agree at least that much, and probably a great deal more.

About repealing the laws of physics

Regarding the letter you posted about a meeting of automotive engineers with a team from the Obama administration, where the Obama minions wanted to change the laws of physics… Funny. Delicious. Marvelous. And for those of us with government sector experience and some knowledge of the hard sciences, quite believable! Sadly, not true, or at least wrongly attributed.

http://www.factcheck.org/2009/06/obamas-auto-team-the-laws-of-physics/

–Gary P.

We dealt with this yesterday: as I noted, the real story is not that the incident didn’t happen as indicated, but that anyone would believe that well educated senior members of government might have said such things, and needed to turn to some debunking web site or another to confirm that it had not happened. When I was a lad I would never have supposed this anything but a tall tale generated to make a political point. Alas, I encountered Gus Speth, President Carter’s chosen leader of the Presidential Environmental Council, at a Boston AAAS meeting during the Carter Administration, and my faith in such matters was shaken, as I said in my Galaxy Column at the time. Speth was concerned about storage of nuclear waste – that it not be dispersed across the land by the return of the Glaciers. It was not his expectation of Glaciation that concerned me: nearly everyone in the large room of this meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science expected Fimbulwinter. As I said to him at the time, “Mr. Presidential Advisor, if my house is under a hundred feet of ice, do you expect me to worry much about much else?”

A rational discussion of the issue would have involved the pattern of decay of radioactive waste – after about 600 years what is left is actinides, and the whole mess is no more dangerous than the ores that the fuel pellets came from – but he wasn’t aware of that. He just knew because Gothman had told him so that no nukes is good nukes, and all nukes are bad nukes, and all radiation is bad except some is worse. What else did he need to know? The notion that we might need the energy to prevent the glaciations did not interest him.

It’s a pity that we have to believe it possible that it could have happened.

re laws of physics Message

the guy making the snide comments re your quoting the David Cole story was way off base. the Snopes story ends with this– supports the story in large part, I think.

We asked Dr. Cole directly about this anecdote, and his response was that it had been garbled: He said that although he did once encounter, in a meeting with members of Congress, the suggestion that a "law of physics" should be legislatively amended, that meeting took place several years ago and did not involve representatives of the Obama administration (with whom Dr. Cole has never met):

I have not met personally with the Obama Auto Task Force. The comments related to the "laws of physics" came from a discussion I had a number of years ago with several congressmen who said that we should pass a new 2nd law of thermodynamics.

All the Congressmen I have known would be joking if they said that, and in fact a couple of them have said it with regard to getting anything done. I seldom consult Snopes.

My thanks:

Apollo 8 Earthrise

Jerry,

I first saw it on Chuck Wood’s LPOD wiki

http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/nasa-releases-new-earthrise-simulation-video/>

Apollo 8 pictures, transcripts, Earth data, and LRO data synched up.

Quite the recreation

And we remain in Hiatus, 887 days since wheel stop on Atlantis.

Regards, Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE

Freedom is not free. Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free.