Ffolkes,
I’m paying no attention whatsoever to the depression lurking in my mind. It wants me to go back to bed, but I’m not giving in to it. I tell you this because it may affect the quality of today’s comments, so please bear that in mind….’course, it could also cause extreme genius to break out. I can never tell ahead of time which might occur…..

This concept is what the founders of this country believed and fought for in 1776, and is one we must ever be vigilant in protecting, for it is continually being threatened by those who believe that morality can be legislated. All too often we give in to the Mrs. Grundy’s in society, and allow downright silly laws that tell us how we should behave to be enacted. The War on Drugs is a perfect example of this idea, though its inception was earlier when society decided that drinking alcohol was evil, and should be controlled. A small but determined part of society has learned how to make so much noise by campaigning against what they disapprove of that the rest of us pass their stupid law just to get them to shut up.

This idea, that we can force everyone in society to obey the will of the few, just because it is “for their own good”, goes against everything the Constitution stands for. We broke away from English rule because the English were forcing economic sanctions against us, as well as attempting to limit our religious freedoms, “for the good of all”.  We decided to form our own government because we didn’t want to live in a culture that allowed repression of one segment of the populace at the behest of another.

   Now, thanks to the fear-mongers and religious zealots, we are facing the same problem today. The concept of legislating morality is not merely repressive and ignorant, it is also impossible to achieve in the real world. You cannot force people to go against everything they believe just to follow a law that benefits only a small portion of the populace. The net result is that a large criminal class is created, because free men are not going to cease being free just to obey a law. Free men obey laws because the choose to, not because someone else chooses for them. You can insult, denigrate, humiliate, or even kill a free man, but you can’t make him be anything he chooses not to be…..

I have to say it…..Stephen Hawking is the Man! And this quote is especially poignant, because if anyone should know this, then he should. Here is a man whose body is ravaged by a condition that takes his strength of limb, and twists his physique in outlandish ways. In order to move he must use a specially designed wheelchair; in order to communicate he requires the assistance of computers. But his mind is quite possibly the most intelligent, the most far-sighted mind that Mankind has ever produced. Scientists who have tested him say that his IQ is completely off the scale, and there is no test that we can devise to really measure what his mind is capable of.

Despite his physical handicaps, he has assumed the position as the most well-respected Astrophysicist/Scientist in the world, and his revelations have pushed our knowledge of the Universe into new and exciting territories. His latest project is to develop a Unified Field Theory, a concept that would tie together all the disparate pieces of the various sciences, and bring them into harmony with one another, using the mathematics that describes the physical world as we perceive it. If he is successful, there is nothing that our species will not be able to accomplish. Unlimited electromagnetic power, anti-gravity, faster-than-light travel, even telekinetic translation of position (beam me up, Scotty!), all will be distinctly possible once the underlying laws by which the operate have been brought to light. It is a grand enough concept that it actually gives me hope that the Stupids won’t win, and Reason will eventually win the war between ignorance and science…….

—
Sometimes I sits and thinks,
and sometimes
I just sits.

gigoid

Kowabunga!