Facts, Feelings, Thoughts, Opinions

While visiting Joe Huffman's blog, I lifted this excerpt because I felt it deserved more comment.

"While I think there is a fair amount of lying going on they don’t think of it as lying. They just don’t understand facts are independent of their feelings. If they feel something then, in their view of reality, it is true. I’ve had people flat out tell me this. I would point out that what someone was saying was in direct contradiction to verifiable facts. And I would get a response of something to the effect, “Well, it’s true to them and that is what matters.” -- Joe Huffman
There is also a very telling anecdote about liberal “research” in this same article:

In 2006 I was at a cocktail party in Arlington, VA, talking to a liberal journalist about his soon-to-be-released book on Iraq when John Lott joined us. John listened for a moment and then said to the author, 

“I’m curious. You say you just finished a book on the Iraq war. I always find it so hard to finish a book. I get so deep into the research I have a hard time stopping to write. I’m guessing you had a hard time leaving Iraq. There is so much to investigate and understand.”  

The author said, “I didn’t go to Iraq.”  

John paused with this quizzical look on his face before asking, “Oh, how did you do your research?”  

The author said, “I didn’t have to do much. I mean, I already know what I think.”

Feelings versus facts. It’s a type of mental disorder.—Joe]

The article quoted above can be found at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankminiter/2014/09/25/how-bloombergs-million-dollar-desire-for-gun-control-is-backfiring/

What is so revealing in that last statement by the unnamed liberal author is how he thinks about research.  To him, research isn't about gathering facts and using logic to come to a realistic and logical conclusion on a matter.  To him, research is only necessary to confirm what he already thinks, or more specifically, his opinion.  And because he feels he is a member of the anointed visionary class, he owes it to the unwashed masses (which really means anyone who doesn't already think the way he does), to share his enlightened opinion.

Too much about living in 21st century America allows for this kind of lack of rational thought.  Many decades ago when there were no "social safety nets," failure to think logically and act accordingly could get you killed or end up suffering very bad consequences.

Now the modern world is populated by too many people  (dare I say about half of the population) who have raised the right to an opinion to some kind of sacrosanct status.

Oh, but wait!  That's not entirely true when I really think about it.  On closer examination, only opinions that are politically fashionable to the left that are respected, or damn near worshipped.  I use the phrase politically fashionable because there isn't a damn thing correct about "political correctness."  Political Correctness, in all it's verbal forms, is Orwellian newspeak for the highly intolerant soft tyranny of the statists.

Very soon, the unsustainable economic situation in this country is going to collapse, and when it does, modern liberal thinkers will be forced, dragged kicking and screaming, to the reality that all of their wishful but totally incorrect feelings, thoughts, and opinions on how to create a utopian society is all just crap.

That degree in political science, women's studies, international relations, art history, public administration, urban and regional planning, environmental studies or applied sociology, is going to be about as useful to you as a degree in typewriter repair.  It is not going to help you know how to grow or preserve food, to hunt and field dress an animal, take care of domestic animals, make fire without a lighter or matches, find or purify water, or build a shelter.

The last thing to note about the liberal author's final statement above is the subtle arrogance. An arrogance that even he doesn't seem to recognize.  "I mean, I already know what I think,” pretty much tells you that he doesn't think that any more thought needs to be given to the subject.  For a leftist who has made up his mind, facts are inconvenient and sometimes downright confusing.  I guess you could also attribute his statement to over-confidence.

 

 

The low-or-no-information voter never wants to be bothered with questions of epistemology.  The next time a leftist is defending a socialist idea or attacking a tried-and-true conservative one, just ask the question: "What if you're totally wrong?"

 

Remember the pseudo-genius evil character from Princess Bride?  You'll probably hear the answer: "Inconceivable!"



More on The Dehydrator

I previously posted about building a dehydrator/incubator here.  Turns out I didn't need to use it as an incubator because one of the hens went broody, and so now we have two new baby chicks.

Even yesterday, I placed a thermometer inside the box with just the acrylic cover on it, and the sun got the inside temperature up to over 120° F, even with the cool wind blowing around.  But until yesterday, I hadn't yet made the screen frames to make the box useful as a dehydrator.   That's what this post is all about.

Step one was to take several old scrap boards of 3/4" thickness and cut them into the pieces for the frames.  Precision cuts were not that important, so I simply used my left forefinger at the leading edge of the footplate on my DeWalt circular saw. (I hate when people don't use the proper names for tools, but that's the subject for another post.)  Now, I'm a firm believer in safety, and I like to wear gloves to prevent splinters.  Make sure that something like what you see in the first picture doesn't happen to you.

Anyway, trying to be efficient, I cut and assembled the first prototype frame and put it in the box to check my measurements and comfort in insertion and removal, and then I cut all the rest of the wood for the number of frames that I would assemble.  All of the long pieces are 20" and all the short pieces are 14".  More on that later.

 I had bought the 1/4" square hole screen at the same time that I bought the panel of foamboard.  I'm a little proud of myself for having calculated in my head to within a single square foot of how much screen I would need.  A 48" x 60" roll of screen (4' x 5') was just enough to make the 9 frames that comfortably fit in the box. I used angled tin snips to easily cut through the screen.  Then I realized that I wanted to fold over the short edges of the screens where they would be exposed to handling, thus preventing scratches.  This is most easily done before stapling the screen to the long members of the frames.

The gloves are really important for comfort here. Using one of the cut boards as a "brake" to start the fold, you crease the screen along the edge of the board as you see in the picture.  Once you've done this down the entire edge, then you can complete the fold without the board.

I used a standard manual staple gun to fasten the screens onto the long boards, trying to get each staple to straddle two strands of wire.  The staples were more than 1/2" deep, so I needed to tap them a little with a hammer to make them tight. This would be important when fastening the long boards over the short boards. You want the screen finish to be nice and taught.  In order to make sure of that, I didn't just drill my pilot holes straight down through the corners of the boards, but rather I drilled the holes at a slight angle, so that when the  screws drew tight, they would also pull the screen a little tighter.

It may look like I'm drilling straight down in the picture, but I'm not.  I used weather proof deck screws to fasten all the corners together.   The opening of the box is 24" x 16" x 16" deep.  So, I wanted the frames to use the most space but still be easy to move in and out of the box.  So the frames needed to be  20" x 14".  That gives me two inches of gap on each end of the short ends of the box and an inch on each side of the long sides of the box.  By overlapping the long boards on top of the short boards, a gap of about 1½" is created between each screen, which should allow sufficient air circulation between layers of food being dehydrated.  You can see the horizontal gaps well with the frames stacked out of the box.

This work on the frames took about four hours, and that's because I was figuring it out and making decisions as I went along.  Such is the nature of prototyping and pattern making.  I will also admit that I have yet to discover what the effect will be with 9 fully loaded screens of food inside the box.  I'm sure that the temperature will not get as high as it would with the empty box, what with the absorption of heat by the food itself.  I may have to put spacers between the frames and decrease the number.  It could also be that the temperature will simply rise much slower but still get up to a rather high level.  I will have to monitor it carefully and I'm sure that I can adjust the temperature by how much of an air gap under the clear acrylic sheet on top.  I'm chomping at the bit for Sunday, so I can slice up some apples and start the test drive. Can't do it today because it's Shabbat.  But I will try to remember to come back to this and let you know about the results.

Moxie did not appear too impressed seeing the finished products in the box.  She is too interested playing the grand protector of the chicken realm.

She proved herself quite well yesterday as Twyla reports over at Green Acres.