Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Really deep thought for they day...

"If the water table is 100 feet below the surface, it matters not how many 90 foot wells you dig."

The conspiratorial mindset...

Over the weekend past, my brother sent me an email with a link to a youtube video. In his defense he did clarify that he wasn't sure whether he should believe the claims the video, and by extension its author, makes. That video, is embedded within this blog posting. The video is short, about 5 minutes or so and it is important that you watch it in order for the rest of this post is to make ANY sense whatever. It has nothing to do with atheism or religion. If you are anything like me you'll want to take a hot shower and rinse your eyes thoroughly after watching it. Go ahead watch it...I'll wait...



Are you in pain now? Do you have an overwhelming urge to regurgitate your breakfast?

This is the type of non-critical supposition that passes for critical-thinking in our modern age. Putting aside the juvenile spelling errors and the obvious ridiculous claims, this video is case-study cognitive dissonance coupled with confirmation bias. Yet if you follow the video to its source at youtube's site and look at the comments, most show complete agreement with the outlandish and completely air-headed conclusions the author of this video makes. The author has the temerity...nay, audacity to make claims that can be rebuffed with about 90 seconds of research using a search engine.

My point is this: If we don't yell 'BULLSHIT' when we see it or hear it, this stuff has an unholy habit of crowing like a fungus and infecting everything.

Here is the PROPER explanation for the 'reversed flag'. It should be readily apparent to anyone, especially a boy or former boy who has built model airplanes!

I have built countless model airplanes in my life....

Whenever a US flag decal is used, the union, (that’s the blue field of stars) must be pointed in the direction of the travel of the aircraft, such that the flag appears to be advancing in the direction of motion. A little spacial reasoning will demonstrate that on the RIGHT side of the aircraft the flag would need to be reversed to appear advancing. On the LEFT side of the aircraft the flag would appear as we normally see it. Here's two pictures of Air Force One that clearly show this effect:

Right or starboard side, reversed-flag.

Left or port side, standard flag.

It logically follows that the human body is a something that moves. So in practice the SAME rule should apply were the flag to be displayed to the right shoulder as it does to the right side of an aircraft.

Now, the video goes a long way to show that soldiers in the past wore flags on their right shoulder that were NOT reversed. It then offers up a ridiculous explanation for the change. The author clearly has not done any homework. Before 2004 there was no all encompassing Army regulation outlining and mandating the proper wearing of a US flag on the uniform. Generally this was done of the soldiers own volition or under the direction of that soldiers unit. It should follow that there were no 'reversed flag' patches available even if the soldiers KNEW about the arcane rule outlining the proper placement of the 'union' with respect to motion. See this page for a proper treatment of this particular rule.

Further, "Army Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker approved the uniform item Feb. 11, and all Soldiers have until Oct. 1, 2005 to get the insignia sewn on their uniforms." (Taken from this webpage) Once the Army had a requirement and a policy naturally it was decided that it had better display the flag properly.

So rather than then endeavoring to find the reasons for the reversed flag, the author made a leap of stunning proportions to support what was clearly a deeply held conviction in lunatic conspiracy theories. This is part and parcel for these type of people.....and sadly with the 'dumbing down' of America and the absolute dearth of teaching critical-thinking skills their numbers are growing...

Who is the 'celery' really...?

R.