Hydrogeologist. Statistician. Writer. Cat lover. But mostly, Retired.
Since I watched my first science-fiction movie in the 1950s, I knew I was going to grow up to be a scientist. I loved biology in high school but knew I didn’t have the mindset of a biologist. A few years later, in fact, I became a vegetarian. I started in college as a chemistry major and might still be there (trying to pass physical chemistry, that is) had I not on a dare took Geology 101. (I was working for the college at the time so tuition was free.) One semester of Rocks for Jocks and I was hooked; I was going to be a geologist. …
America’s Revolution.
The Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and America’s confusion over gun rights can’t be understood without first understanding their history. The Bill of Rights was an afterthought, added reluctantly to placate political adversaries. But, the backstory of the Second Amendment started a century earlier.
Colonial Society in the 1700s
A hundred years after the first permanent settlements were established in what would become the United States, the country was evolving from subsistence to greatness. The population grew from 275,000 in 1700 to 2,500,000 in 1776. The largest cities were: Philadelphia (10,000 in 1720 and 40,000 in 1776); Boston (7,000 in 1700 and 15,000 in 1776); and New York (5,000 in 1700 and 25,000 in 1776). The population of black slaves in the American colonies expanded rapidly, from 75,000 in 1725, to 236,000 in 1750, to 682,000 in 1790. …
America’s Confusion
America is embroiled in a contentious nationwide debate, no, it’s more like a brawl. It’s over the rights of Americans to own guns versus the rights of Americans to be protected from gun owners. Much of the shouting revolves around the Second Amendment of the Constitution, which may or may not address the rights of individuals. This is the first of a series of articles that try to tell the story of how we have arrived at our current impasse.
American gun ownership goes back to the early 1600s when the first European settlers needed weapons for hunting and protection as much as they needed tools for farming, fishing, and logging. The next 400 years saw conflicts with indigenous peoples, foreign oppression, riots, wars, gun legislation, and court decisions. Over the last fifty years, partisan lobbying, fueled by biased media, has changed the discussion from an academic debate into a frenzied, public screaming match. …
We are not as United as we think we are.
40% of the original 2,766 characters
If he were alive today, James Madison would have had to send ten tweets to publish the Bill of Rights. Here’s how he could have done it in just four tweets.
Amendment I. The Federal government may not obstruct a person’s ability to:
- Express and publish opinions
- Protest in a group
- Ask the government to fix problems
- Practice any religion.
Amendments II and III. The Federal government may not interfere with any State militia’s weaponry or provisioning.
Amendments IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII. The Federal government may not hamper the fair treatment of accused criminals by:
- Banning unreasonable searches of an individual or their property, or seizures without just compensation. …
Does it really matter?
There is no topic that generates quite as much hysteria as gun rights. Not even the quality of soccer clubs. Opinions cut across age, race, religion, and even political ideology. If you were raised with firearms in your home, gun ownership is a God-given human right as important as freedom of thought, speech, assembly, and religion. If you weren’t raised with firearms in your home, gun ownership is something that needs to be regulated in order to protect society, just like automobiles, dangerous chemicals, tobacco, and playground equipment.
What People Think About Guns
If you ask people what they believe the Second Amendment of the Constitution means, or should mean, they’ll tell you bluntly with total certainty. Cut through the high-tension rhetoric and you’ll find rationales that expose much about our society. …
Our national religion isn’t Christianity, it’s weaponry.
Growing up in the 1950s, we played with toy pistols and rifles made all the more realistic by caps. And why not? The TV shows we all watched were westerns — Lone Ranger, Rifleman, Gunsmoke, Have Gun Will Travel, and many more. Then there were all those war movies meant to resurrect World War II patriotism during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
My father served in WWII, So did my nine uncles. One died in the war. One was an avid hunter both before and after the war. None of the other seven ever touched a gun again. By the time I got to high school, I had lost any interest I might have bad in guns. …
We see them. We know they’re there. We can’t avoid them.
A new breed of serial killer has emerged in America. They are the people who, through their actions and inactions, spread the Covid-19 virus.
They don’t wash their hands or sanitize objects they touch. They don’t wear suitable masks, appropriately, all the time. They don’t isolate themselves or get tested. They ignore any symptoms they might have. They congregate closely with others.
They can’t seem to help themselves. They just want life to be good … for themselves. They don’t believe they are doing anything wrong. They don’t see the consequences of their actions. They don’t believe society has the right to restrict their actions. But their pursuit of happiness comes at the expense of others. …
Nine patterns of three types of relationships that aren’t spurious.
When analysts see a large correlation coefficient, they begin speculating about possible reasons. They’ll naturally gravitate toward their initial hypothesis (or preconceived notion) which set them to investigate the data relationship in the first place. Because hypotheses are commonly about causation, they often begin with this least likely type of relationship using the most simplistic of relationship pattern, a direct one-event-causes-another.
A topology of data relationships is important because it helps people to understand that not all relationships reflect a cause. They may just be the result of an influence or an association or even mere coincidence. Furthermore, you can’t always tell what type and pattern of relationship a data set represents. There are at least 27 possibilities not even counting spurious relationships. That’s where numbercrunching ends and statistical-thinking shifts into high-gear. …
It’s about individual feelings of vulnerability and inclusion. It will never disappear.
Everyone knows that you can’t talk politics in the U.S. without an argument. Republican vs, Democrat. Progressive vs. conservative. Urban vs. rural. Small state vs. big state. Tradition vs. new-and-better. You’re either opinionated or apathetic.
In reality, there’s probably no issue we can’t come up with a compromise solution for that everyone will hate equally. The Founding Fathers managed to pull it off. What’s changed? IMO, it’s not the problems that are intractable, it’s our attitudes towards our adversaries, our fellow citizens.
We were told in the 1950s that it was impolite to discuss politics or religion. …
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