99 Percent – Doug's Views

November 12, 2011April 18, 2020

Michael Shermer’s Skepticism Missing In Giving Praise Of David Brooks

Michael Shermer is founder of The Skeptics Society, and Editor in Chief of its magazine “Skeptic”. He is a BIG NAME in the freethought community and is well known for debunking pseudoscientific and supernatural claims. Shermer has been an advocate of Scientific skepticism – questioning the veracity of claims using the scientific method – except it seems for his own political views. Recently Shermer wrote a series of tweets praising an OpEd by David Brooks that complained about the Occupy movement. He (and Brooks) totally missed the point.

The first tweet shocked me because I really didn’t know that much about Shermer’s political views:

October 16, 2011April 18, 2020

Occupy Columbus A Big Success

screencap from report about protest in Columbus Ohio

Saturday was the big global protest day as part of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and in Columbus hundreds showed up at the steps of the Ohio State House to join in the event. The top news station in town WBNS 10tv had a surprising objective report allowing for a good bit of face and sign time as well as mentioning the other locations of protest in the almost 4 minute report at the top of the 11 PM newscast.

October 13, 2011April 18, 2020

Sign From Cheap Labor Conservative Doesn’t Add Up

A friend shared the image below and it caused me to question the authenticity. The text in the image claims it was written by a college senior who will graduate this year with no debt, has no electronics like an iPad or smartphone, and only works 30 hours a week on barely above minimum wage. Maths is not a good subject for the cheap labor conservatives and their arrogance is one of the reasons the “occupy wall street” movement started.

One of the side stories of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement are the story signs. People hold up signs with their personal stories about how they have been negatively impacted by the corporatism pervasive in our government. Some cheap labor conservatives co-opted that expression and use images of story signs to forward their wrong ideas about “Occupy Wall Street” and the people protesting.