Conjunctions

Hat tip to John Aravosis again for alerting me to this astoundingly significant and important report.  What really surprises me is South Africans appearing on number 6 in the right hand column.  While I will most emphatically reject, on a personal level, ranking only 6th,  I did not expect South Africans as a whole to be so popular.  I always thought more sexual hang-ups congregate on South African street corners daily than have ever been inventoried by the Vatican.  Or is it that, once we South Africans break out, we do so with a vengeance?

• In a very accessible article over at Social Europe Journal, Sam Whimster gives an account of the views of Max Weber and Emile Durkheim on capitalism and morality. 
• Also at Social Europe Journal, Andrew Watt  draws attention to “Six Things that didn’t cause the Crisis – But really ought to have”.  He really makes some excellent points.
• A must-read article by Hooman Majid in the Huffington Post explaining why our war-mongering western politicians are approaching Iran the wrong way.  Can’t help getting the impression the West wants war.
• In IT: A modern window into the historical dislike of bosses against expertise, Division by Zer0 analyses the position of the IT geek within the changing labor market.  I think he makes an excellent point, and it is partly the ongoing process of management asserting more control over their IT professionals that have disenchanted me with my career.
• I am a bit late in catching this:  Adam Roberts, whose Gradisil I thoroughly enjoyed,  continues a discussion started by Kim Stanley Robinson on Why hasn't there been a science fiction Booker winner?  Good question.  Roberts is correct that British SF is currently in the midst of a renaissance.  Apart from Roberts himself, authors such as Richard Morgan, Ian McDonald, Ken MacLeod and Geoff Ryman have in recent years produced politically and socially relevant works of astounding quality.  The mainstream snobbery against SF is quite untenable.

Enjoy.

Over at Daily Kos some criticism of the ridiculous climate change denial statements by Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy (kudos to rperks).  I was again struck by this statement, a point of misdirection often repeated by the likes of Blankenship:

“I can't find any logic to the fact that the climate is actually changing any more because of man than it would without man."

This statement is extremely ambiguous. In fact, the only definite and clear assertion in that statement is that it is a fact that the climate is actually changing.  In the rest of the statement Blankenship either rejects some of the causes advanced to explain climate change, or has some methodological problems about how logic relates to verifiable facts. 

However, if climate change deniers like Blankenship actually agree that global warming is a fact, the issue of its causes becomes irrelevant:  Climate is changing, and we have to adapt and change our ways to survive those changes.  Even if there was any real doubt that we are polluting our world into oblivion (and really there is not a shred of doubt), not polluting and exploiting our environment does not seem especially dangerous.

I can find plenty logic to the fact that climate change deniers are actually being more dishonest because of greed than they would have been without their entrenched interests.