David McElroy

There is no real search for truth in the modern political system. Maybe seeking truth has never been a priority for any political system. I’m not sure. What I am sure of, though, is that what passes for truth-seeking today is nothing but partisan political theatre.

Republicans in the U.S. House attempted to grill the top executives of the failed Solyndra solar energy firm on Friday, but the chief executive officer and chief financial officer for the company declined to answer any questions, repeatedly invoking their Fifth Amendment right against answering questions that could incriminate them. (I’ve written about the ongoing scandal before, if you’re one of the few who hasn’t run into it already.)

Why were Republicans so eager to go after this egregious example of government stupidity? Was it because they were suddenly concerned about half a billion of U.S. taxpayer money being handed to a company that will never pay it back? No, it was because a Democratic administration was the one who gave them the loan and because the industry being subsidized was one they don’t like.

Keep Reading

A scientific belief that undergirds most of modern physics might have just been proven wrong. If so, what does this tell us about what we’ve thought we understood about physics for the last hundred years?

In 1905, Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity proposed that nothing in the universe could travel faster than light in a vacuum. For reasons far too geeky to explain — some of which are beyond my understanding — this is a fundamental building block of the standard model of modern physics. But scientists at the CERN physics lab in Switzerland have observed a particle traveling faster than the speed of light. Does  this mean we don’t know as much as we think we know?

First, it doesn’t mean that the practical applications of modern physics are all wrong. Laws of science based on Einstein’s theories have given us lasers and CDs and all sorts of amazing modern products that we wouldn’t otherwise have. But it does mean — once again — that we see that scientists can have a firm belief in things they state as fact which turn out to be wrong.

Keep Reading

I’m not a TV critic, because I don’t watch television anymore. But when I was in a place late Thursday afternoon with a television blaring the “Judge Judy” show at me, I became a critic — not just of a television show, but of our society.

I was vaguely aware of who the woman is, but I’d never watched the show. I remember the old “People’s Court” show and I knew she was a bit like that, but more like a stern grandmother than the kindly and wise man Judge Wapner was supposed to be. Still, I wasn’t prepared for her. It was like watching the judicial version of a shock jock.

If you’ve seen the show and you’re disgusted by it, I don’t have to tell you why. The woman is rude. She interrupts. She says things that don’t make sense and then treats confused people like fools. She’s just plain nasty, and she seems to revel in her rudeness. If you’ve seen the show and like it, well, I don’t guess you’re going to get what I’m saying.

The show doesn’t bother me as much as I’m bothered by the fact that people watch this garbage on purpose. Why would anyone be interested in watching people share details of their personal lives — in ways that sometimes embarrass them — and then seeing this hyena tear into one of the parties without apparent reason? Why is that entertaining?

Keep Reading