Posted 10:00 PM by Gerald Klaas
I particularly enjoyed David Goodyear's post tonight in reaction to Allen Hacker and George Kysor's conversation questioning whether the scientific method would be effective in measuring truth. David Goodyear says:

Now though, I know that everything I understand is, in fact, an interpretation. That interpretation is influenced by "theory". When theory fails (it happens more than most scientists care to admit), it must be revised so as to explain the "new" result.

Later, David Goodyear says

Ok, the voices in my head are telling me that any reputation I had before, for knowledge and wisdom, has now been totally demolished. But, that happened with a bunch of mentors also, once I learned the truth.

Actually, David, in my book, your reputation for knowledge and wisdom just increased. I'm fond of telling people about the moment in my Advanced Algebra course where I realized that our number system (and all of mathematics) works because we defined it that way. That is, in Advanced Algebra, we learned how we can define new number systems with new operations, identity elements, groups and rings and have it function analogous to what we're all so familiar with. (The base 10 numbers with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.) People seem to be OK with that observation (maybe it's because they aren't very interested in math). Then I follow with the next observation, which is that *everything* we know is made up. Somewhere, sometime, somebody made it up. It doesn't matter what it is, math, physics, language, it's all made up. We make the rules, we learn to interpret according to the rules that we made up. The next logical step is David's observation, i.e. *everything* we know is an interpretation. What I *know* is only in my head. My interpretations change what I know. So David, the voices in my head tell the voices in your head not to sweat it.

Posted 5:34 PM by Gerald Klaas
The following was sent to me today in an e-mail.

> *As you walk up the steps to the Building which houses the Supreme
> Court you can see near the top of the building a row of the world's law
> givers and each one is facing one in the middle who is facing forward
> with a full frontal view....... It is Moses and the Ten Commandments!
>
> *As you enter the Supreme Court courtroom, the two huge oak doors have
> the Ten Commandments engraved on each lower portion of each door.
>
> *As you sit inside the courtroom, you can see the wall right above where
> the Supreme Court judges sit, a display of the Ten Commandments!
>
> *There are Bible verses etched in stone all over the Federal Buildings
> and Monuments in Washington, D.C.
>
> *James Madison, the fourth president, known as "The Father of Our
> Constitution" made the following statement "We have staked the whole of
> all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for
> self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern
> ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the
> Ten Commandments of God."
>
> *Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said,
> "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great
> nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians, not on
> religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ".
>
> *Every session of Congress begins with a prayer by a paid preacher whose
> salary has been paid by the taxpayer since 1777.
>
> *Fifty-two of the 55 founders of the Constitution were members of the
> established orthodox churches in the colonies. Thomas Jefferson worried
> about that the Courts would overstep their authority and instead of
> interpreting the law would begin making law an oligarchy, the rule of
> few over many.
>
> *The very first Supreme Cour t Justice, John Jay, said, "Americans
> should select and prefer Christians as their rulers."
>
>
> *How then, have we gotten to the point that everything we have done for
> 200 years in this country is now suddenly wrong and unconstitutional?

Posted 1:25 PM by Gerald Klaas
On his first full day in office, the Governator wants to float a $15 billion bond to balance the State books for this year and next year. Depending on the rest of the plan, this could be more of the Davis-esque cedit card spending, or it could be a home equity loan type of debt restructuring. It'll depend on if the legislature is willing to curb spending to where the levels are sustainable. If their track record is any indication, it's the former. It'll be interesting to see what kind of pressure Schwarzenegger can put on them. As we can see in the article, he's already taking a direct appeal to the people

"Write and call your legislators and let them know
that you want action, and you want action now," he
told voters.

Posted 10:39 PM by Gerald Klaas
Dan Walters is an uncommonly reasonable political reporter in an otherwise stereotypical sea of ultra-liberal journalists at the local daily monopoly newspaper, The Sacramento Bee. In today's column, Walters writes an open letter to incoming governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, in which he challenges Arnold to use his mandate to avoid politics as usual.

your lack of debts to economic and cultural interest groups provide you with a unique opportunity to deal with, and perhaps even resolve, some of the state's knottiest issues

I couldn't agree more. There are many things that I disagree with Arnold about, as do most people I talk to, but so far, almost everyone I talk with is willing to give him a fair chance to make some changes. I dare say that we aren't sure what changes to make, and we're willing to accept about anything he wants to try, as long as he is unlike Davis and at least attempts something.