Category Archives: Sociology

Guilty!

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“I don’t know what to do,” Kay Ace said. “I just heard our basketball coach is under investigation for sex crimes.” Ms. Ace is a county coordinator for the Vermont Teen Indoor Sports Association. “I think we have to replace him.”

We the People have gone from a presumption of innocence to the presumption of guilt.

Let’s look at three recent cases:

(1) Dean Kingston, 23, met Lorraine Seymour, also 23, at a play and later talked over the Internet and phone. The budding relationship quickly soured. Ms. Seymour complained to police that Mr. Kingston had harassed her. Police confronted Mr. Kingston, who agreed to stop contacting her. The police found evidence that Mr. Kingston continued to email and contact Ms. Seymour. At least one email threatened “im coming to get you and theres nothing you can do.”

What do you think? Is Mr. Kingston a stalker or did Ms. Seymour make up her tale?

(2) Vermont Yankee is a nuclear reactor power plant constructed in Vernon, Vermont, in 1972. The plant has applied for relicensure to continue operations past its planned 40-year shut-down date in 2012.

One cell of its three story cooling tower collapsed and led to a reactor scram in 2007. A recent report of an truck allowed inside the fence without any inspection has the state questioning security. Tritium is currently leaking into the ground from an unknown source at the plant. Vermont Yankee owner Entergy has been called irresponsible. Executives lied in recent testimony about the Tritium leaks. It is not the first time Entergy has been caught in devious doings. The Safe and Green Campaign wants Vermont Yankee shut down.

What do you think? Is Vermont Yankee the next Three Mile Island or should its license be renewed?

(3) Vermont corrections officer Ralph Witter, 40, has been accused of having inappropriate sexual activities with three female inmates. The investigation began a year ago when the first unnamed inmate alleged Mr. Witter had inappropriate contact with her. There was insufficient evidence to prosecute at that time. Two more female unnamed inmates have now reported similar incidents had occurred in the past month.

What do you think? Is Mr. Witter a predator or did the inmates make up their tales?

On the face of it, these all look like slam dunks, don’t they?

(1) Although worried about the evidence, prosecutors charged Mr. Kingston with stalking and disturbing the peace over the phone. Ms. Seymour testified that she had received the emails from Kingston and he was bound over for trial. He spent 92 days in jail awaiting trial.

(2) Although John White, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials who briefed legislators last week, said the Vernon reactor problems haven’t approached any regulatory threshold that would require the plant to be shut down, famed nuclear engineer (and U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vermont) joined Vermont legislators in a call for the plant to shut down.

(3) Although inmates have charged more than half of all corrections officers with a laundry list of offenses, the Corrections Department suspended Mr. Witter a year ago while the state reviewed the case for criminal prosecution; he was eventually reinstated last month when the State had insufficient evidence to prosecute at that time. When the additional two unnamed inmates came forward within a month, Mr. Witter was immediately suspended again. He has also lost his volunteer position with the Vermont Teen Indoor Sports Association.

Despite the results, there are only three facts we do know about these three cases:

You have no idea whether Dean Kingston stalked anyone.
You have no idea whether Vermont Yankee is dangerous.
You have no idea whether Ralph Witter diddled anyone.

And neither do I.

Short of a confession by Mr. Kingston or a retraction by Ms. Seymour, the evidence presented here is insufficient to judge. The technical data about Vermont Yankee is not yet available so unless you, dear reader, are a nuclear engineer, neither you nor any serving legislator has the expertise to interpret it. And, short of a confession by Mr. Witter or a retraction by the unnamed inmates, the evidence presented here is insufficient to judge him.

Despite what we do not know, We the People have presumed guilt.

(1) Lorraine Seymour, convicted of fabricating evidence that put an innocent man in jail for three months, has served a prison sentence of her own. When police forensics determined that Mr. Kingston did not send the frightening emails, Ms. Seymour admitted to writing them herself. She was convicted, taken to the Northwest State Correctional Facility, and has paid Mr. Kingston $10,000 to settle his civil lawsuit.

(2) Vermont Yankee is a boiling water nuclear reactor that generates 620 megawatts of electricity, about three-quarters of the total generating capacity of the state. Senate president Peter Shumlin will hold a vote this week against any license renewal for Vermont Yankee. “I am very skeptical that you’ll ever see new nuclear power plants built in America let alone Vermont,” Mr. Shumlin told Vermont Public Radio. It is unknown if the legislature will order the power plant closed immediately. The final report on safety at Vermont Yankee is not due until next month, weeks after the scheduled vote.

[Editorial note: Vermont Greens are a little behind the times. No nukes unless Obama wants nukes! The Administration has proposed government loan guarantees for two new nuclear reactors to be built in Georgia by the Southern Company.]

(3) Vermont corrections officer Ralph Witter is now under arrest. He is now lodged at the Chittenden Correction Facility in lieu of $100,000 bail.

The words and people quoted in this piece are real. Only the names of everyone but the public figures have been changed to protect the dumbfounded.

What? The World Isn’t Flat?

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I have a phrenology bust.

German physician and research scientist Franz Joseph Gall theorized that the brain is the source of all mental activity. He was the first to measure shape of the skull scientifically to determine how its bumps indicate character.

Enos Barnard, a learned man, inventor, dairy farmer, and my great-grandfather, was widely read and very forward thinking. He insisted that my great-grandmother attend Swarthmore College before they married. He developed a cooling system for cream separation. And he believed as Gall showed that, through careful observation and extensive experimentation, the high spots at specific areas on the skull tied to the locations of faculties in the brain. The popular phrenology busts were topographical maps of the skull used to measure character scientifically.

It is an interesting curiosity; I collect curiosities.

Rooted originally in Ancient Egypt, alchemy is the system of transmuting metals. Alchemists invented distillation, made glass, mortar, paint, and cosmetics, and then decided they could turn base metals into gold. This science — well supported by empirical evidence of materials changed by the alchemists — was universally accepted into the Middle Ages. Believers had faith in alchemy.

Geocentricity was all the rage in the scientific establishment until Pope Urban VIII (the last pope to expand the papal territory by force of arms) jailed Galileo in the 17th Century for debunking the scientific theory that the earth is the center of the Universe and that all other objects move around it. The view — well supported by empirical evidence that the sun, stars, and planets appear to revolve around Earth — was universally accepted in ancient Greece and in ancient China. (Belief in a flat earth was gone by the third century BC, despite claims by the modern Flat Earth Society). Believers had faith in geocentricity.

30 years after Galileo died, German physicist Johann Joachim Becher theorized the existence of Phlogiston. The view — well supported by empirical evidence — showed that a fire died out when the phlogiston saturated the air. This is the earliest known example of anthropogenic effects on the atmosphere. Believers had faith in the existence of the classical elements.

The Bible (and other historical records) show that God made man from dust. Science embraced Spontaneous Generation as well supported by empirical evidence of the elemental nature of the universe. Anaximander wrote that the first humans had been born spontaneously from the soil as adults. Aristotle wrote that some animals grow spontaneously rather than from other animals. Jan Baptist van Helmont wrote a recipe for making a mouse from wheat and soiled cloth. Believers had faith in equivocal generation. Louis Pasteur’s discovery of biogenesis debunked spontaneous generation in 1859.

University of Vermont professor of zoology Henry F. Perkins began teaching eugenics in his heredity course in 1921. His “Vermont Eugenics Survey” of 1925 His view — well supported by his empirical evidence of heredity in human affairs — led directly to the Vermont sterilization law of 1931. The 253 sterilizations performed on poor, rural Vermonters as well as Abenaki Indians, French-Canadians and others deemed unfit to have children in Vermont ranked this small state 25th in the nation. Believers had faith in eugenics. Earlier this month, the Vermont Assembly took testimony on a non-binding resolution to express regret about the eugenics movement.

The science of Astrology has shown through extensive experimentation that the positions of celestial bodies influences, divines, or predicts personality, human activities, and other terrestrial matters. That view — well supported by empirical evidence linking human action to star location — has spawned traditions and applications from the third millennium BC to the present. Believers have faith in astrology. Although the scientific community has demonstrated that astrological predictions have no statistical significance, millions of Americans trust it.

Early climatologists theorized that human settlement caused a permanent increase in rainfall (“Rain follows the Plow”). In the 19th century Americans settled the Great American Desert (now called the High Plains), the Southwestern Desert (now called Arizona), and parts of South Australia (now called South Australia). Modern climatologists theorized that human settlement caused a permanent increase in global temperature they called Global Warming. Believers have faith in man-made Global Warming. Although the scientific community has demonstrated that the predictions of human change driving atmospheric change made by this political science are flawed, millions of Americans still trust it.

Curiosities.

Once upon a time all the evidence showed each was a universal truth. Believers had faith. That’s a problem when laymen come to science to find universal truth. Science gives us a way to compare what we think (our hypotheses) to what we know (the results of our experiments). A real scientist develops a theory from what he thinks and what he sees. That theory will change as new data comes to light. True scientists understand this need for change but it is hard for laymen to give up their hopes.

My great-grandfather may have given up the busted religion of phrenology but he kept the bust.

Biologist Ludwik Fleck warned us that witnesses see what they expect to see, notwithstanding facts that contradict them nor what impartial observers measure. As Thomas Cardinal Wolsey wrote, “Be very, very careful what you put into that head, because you will never, ever get it out.”

Now that’s still true.

A (Baker’s) Dozen Reasons to be Left

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As Paul Dirac almost said, In science one tries to tell people, in such a way as to be understood by everyone, something that no one ever knew before. But in political science, it’s the exact opposite.

“So-called ‘Liberals’ want to shove their one true enlightenment down your throat and mine,” Rufus told me.

I can’t speak for the Left so I asked my friend Fanny Guay to feed me the dozen or so most important concepts in her ideological world. I’ve known Ms. Guay for nearly 50 years. I can say that not because I’m far enough away to drop the age word safely but because she is proud of her experiential learning. She was a second generation member of Helen and Scott Nearing’s back-to-the-land movement in Vermont. The Nearings bought an old farm house and built a simple, self-sufficient lifestyle here, far from big government and rampant consumerism. Their descendants are now the power brokers and consumers of Montpelier.

“I will, as long as I can be earnest in my comments,” she said.

Sure. And I’ll be frank in my response. So here we go. Ms. Guay will supply the definitions. I’ll translate back into English as we go.

Today’s liberalism developed in large part from the progressive thinking, she wrote. We hold that the state must supply needy individuals with their most basic needs if they are unable to fend for themselves. We created the policies of government intervention in the economy, the creation of social welfare, the safeguarding of science, and protection of human rights. We teach that in the schools, implement it in the courts and in war, and guide and finance it through taxation. Some of our ideas were first incorporated in the New Deal.

Translation: American Liberals rejected the Divine Right of Kings in favor of the Divine Right of the State.

1. Mores, the law, and even the constitution are “alive.”

Translation: There are no absolute facts, only what our common agreement proclaims as truth. In other words, the end justifies the means.

2. People are inherently good but when they go astray, we can change them back by reasoning with them.

Translation: Laura Silsby, Mahmoud Imadinnerjacket, and even Glenn Beck, listen to reason and will change whenever the reasoning is liberal.

3. People are inherently good but when they go astray and reason doesn’t work, we can change them back with legislation.

Translation: If you fall from the path of true belief, we will tax you until you return. If that doesn’t work, we will regulate you back. If that doesn’t work, we will jail you.

4. The best way to help the poor is to tax those who can afford it. It counters all understanding that anyone could think otherwise.

Translation: We need to give away our financial future and our means of productivity. We will take fish from the fishermen to give to those who do not fish instead of teaching those who do not fish how to fish for themselves.

5. We need to pay more taxes to afford to lift our neighbors up by their bootstraps.

Translation. YOU don’t pay enough taxes to fund all the things I want to spend money on.

6. We value holistic education and assure that every child in school is treated well and passes every grade with his or her peers.

Translation: Today’s “educators” promote empathy over science because feelings are more important than the data that shows American schoolchildren are falling behind in every international measure.

7. Because we give everyone’s opinion equal weight, we are the most culturally advanced.

Translation: Our fellow travelers are always right because we can change our ways to accommodate their point of view; anyone who disagrees with us is at best misguided and at worst a threat to our way of life.

8. I do not believe we have enemies. We have people who do not trust us. We just need to learn everyone’s point of view to find why they do not trust us.

Translation: We could be wrong and, since they hate us they must have a reason. Perhaps we should change our ways to accommodate their point of view.

9. We must stop trying to bully the world to force everyone else to adopt our way of life.

Translation: The fact that we developed public education, built the world economy, support the world with our farms, perfected “labor saving” tools, and put a man on the moon is a bad thing and we must apologize for all of it. The Apologetic President, Mr Obama apologized to the Special Olympics, apologized to the Muslims, apologized to the Cambridge police officer, apologized to the UN, apologized to Europe, apologized to “Sin City,” all to make up for those transgressions. He apologizes in a major speech about once a month.

10. I do not trust our doctors and scientists to get important health issues like vaccinations right.

Translation: I completely trust all the doctors and scientists who match our common perception but not the ones who contradict my deeply rooted beliefs.

11. We are the world stewards. For example, we know that we have to fix Global Climate Change in our lifetime or our planet will be ruined.

Translation: Once upon a time, we called it Global Warming. Since the political scientists (the very same scientists who determined that Carbon Dioxide threatens human health and welfare and are always right) changed the name, no right-thinking Far Greenie calls it “Global Warming” anymore.

12. Our government moves fast, eliminates waste, and wipes out fraud.

Right. Translation: With our guys in charge, government will never again be so slow, wasteful, and criminal as it was with the other guys in charge. [Editorial note: There has never been a candidate who didn’t promise to root out sloth, waste, and chicanery nor a politician who didn’t see them rise on his watch.]

13. All knowledge should be free.

Translation: We must give away our country’s hard-earned intellectual property.

Ronald Reagan said, “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.” That and the fact that they haven’t yet been mugged by the reality that, sooner or later, Other People’s Money runs out.

Writing — It’s Not for Sissies

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Last week, I began what will become a four-or-more-part series on writing. As I wrote, I didn’t realize that my pedantic need for encyclopediana would pop up here. A friend’s comments brought me up short immediately after I posted, “My job as a writer is to get it right.”

My friend expressed surprise at “a bunch of white guys defending Sosa’s skin bleaching.”

Unfortunately, that piece was about writing. Equally unfortunately I broke two rules, one of which is my own.

About a century ago in Internet time meaning in about 1997, Inklings Magazine commissioned me to codify the rules of editorial writing. The result was a pretty good article (if I do say so myself), Dick Harper’s 10-1/2 Hot Tips for Small-town Op-ed Writers .

Tips doesn’t explicitly say “Write so well that your readers understand you.” Tips does explicitly say:

2. Keep to exactly one (1), uno, single point.
Multiple arguments in an op-ed confuse the reader, the editor, and, probably the writer.

Regular readers know my strong points do not necessarily include staying on task. In Writing — It’s Not Just Cosmetic Anymore I blew the stay-on-task rule because I introduced three points in that piece: (1) writing well, (2) “problematic” portraits of people of color in literature and, indirectly, (3) Sammy Sosa’s relative blackness.

Some readers noticed the diversion into writing while black or white. Other readers thought my mention of Sammy Sosa’s name meant I had taken Mr. Sosa’s side. Or, perhaps, Mr. Pitts’. Not enough readers recognized that I wanted only to talk about writing well.

Means I must not have done that. I’ll try to do better next time.

I have edited the original piece in this series to remove some of the ambiguity. Next I shall look at wilful disregard on both the writer’s and reader’s part as well as at “writing while black.”

Guest Post: George says Scary Indeed!

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I purchase about $300 a month from Sam’s club, and prolly another $300 from WalMart. I buy everything from cat food to prescription drugs to fresh veggies, ammo and cheap Texas wine. The only thing I don’t buy from WalMart is gasoline because their clerk has big tits, and she hits on me.

Here’s my point:
Coupla days ago a company called Unilever™, the maker of Slim-Fast, kicked off a global recall of its products because of the possibility of a low-level food poison bacteria. (you can read about it by Googling Unilever’s website, keyword recall.) Gives people the runs.

Anyway, sandwiched in the middle of all my Sam’s Club purchases is the occasional purchase of one or two 15-can boxes of Slim-Fast Low Carb Diet chocolate drink. It is a superior product: tastes great and has only 2 impact carbohydrates per can in a ratio with 20 grams of milk protein. I have drunk it for several years and enjoyed its benefits.

Guess what? Today I got a call from Sam’s Club advising me to return the unused Slim-Fast for full refund regardless of whether I had a receipt or not. I was surprised. No, I was shocked…that such a trivial, menial record pf my small purchase existed.

But the fact is obvious that everything we’ve ever bought — prolly anywhere in the world — is on record. Not only every gun, but every box of ammo as well. Prolly every monthly issue of gun magazines and every accessory item made for the guns.

If you pay your TitsOnline.com membership fee with a credit card or check, somebody has written it down in digital form. It’s out there. If you pay your Scientology pledge with electronic money, somebody has a record of it for posterity…or worse.

Someone somewhere even knows how much Jack Daniels I buy–and if I bought Depends™ undergarments they would know that too. Everything is on record somewhere and can be easily retrieved upon demand/request.

So, I’m taking the Slim-Fast back to Sam’s and get my money–in cash if possible.

When the SHTF all electronic money will be gone. Come to think of it, so will greenbacks.

— George Poleczech