Rush Limbaugh: Serious Condition

Rush Limbaugh in Serious Condition at Honolulu Hospital – KHON2.com
KHON2 has learned that conservative radio host, Rush Limbaugh was taken from the Kahala Hotel in an ambulance just after 2:40 p.m. Wednesday.

Sources say the 58 year old was suffering chest pains before the ambulance arrived.

EMS confirms a male was taken from the hotel in serious condition.

He is a guest at the Kahala Hotel and Resort.

The Hawaii republican party says Limbaugh was in Kona on the Big Island two days ago.

No other information was available on his condition.

We’ll have more information as it becomes available.

Deepak Chopra Does Not Have a Dictionary

…or perhaps he just thinks he knows the meaning of the word “skeptic“:

Deepak Chopra, SFGate.com, Nov. 30, 2009

“The perils of skepticism”

If you’ve ever used Google Alert, you know the jolts it can deliver. Whenever anyone in the blogosphere decides to blow a poison dart your way, Google is happy to deliver the news, along with the more positive mentions, of course. Most of my stinging darts come from skeptics. Over the years I’ve found that ill-tempered guardians of scientific truth can’t abide speculative thinking. And as the renowned Richard Dawkins has proved, they are also very annoyed by a nuisance named God.

Statistically, cynical mistrust is correlated with premature sudden death from cardio vascular disease. Since the skeptics who write venomous blogs trust in nothing, I imagine that God will outlive them. In the interests of better health, these people should read scripture, or at least a poem, twice a day. Doctor’s orders.

I’ve debated skeptics, including Richard Dawkins (I spoke with Dawkins for over 90 minutes on camera in Oxford. He extracted 30 seconds from the dialogue and dubbed me the enemy of science.) and am amazed that they mistake self-righteousness for happiness. A sort of bitter satisfaction is what they reap. No skeptic, to my knowledge, ever made a major scientific discovery or advanced the welfare of others. Typically they sit by the side of the road with a sign that reads “You’re Wrong” so that every passerby, whether an Einstein, Gandhi, Newton, or Darwin, can gain the benefit of their illuminated skepticism. For make no mistake, the skeptics of the past were as eager to shoot down new theories as they are to worship the old ones once science has validated them.

It never occurs to skeptics that a sense of wonder is paramount, even for scientists. Especially for scientists. Einstein insisted, in fact, that no great discovery can be made without a sense of awe before the mysteries of the universe. Skeptics know in advance — or think they know — what right thought is. Right thought is materialistic, statistical, data-driven, and always, always, conformist. Wrong thought is imaginative, provisional, often fantastic, and no respecter of fixed beliefs.

So whenever I find myself labeled the emperor of woo-woo, I pull out the poison dart and offer thanks that wrong thinking has gotten us so far. Thirty years ago no right-thinking physician accepted the mind-body connection as a valid, powerful mode of treatment. Today, no right-thinking physician (or very few) would trace physical illness to sickness of the soul, or accept that the body is a creation of consciousness, or tell a patient to change the expression of his genes. But soon these forms of wrong thinking will lose their stigma, despite the best efforts of those professional stigmatizers, the skeptics.

OK, maybe he’s just a self-righteous douche.

Swedish Pirate Trial Now Officially a Circus

As discussed previously, the trial of the founders of popular torrent site The Pirate Bay was already a circus to begin with – both inside and outside the courtroom. Nonetheless, the Pirates were convicted on April 17th, but the absurdity continued when the Swedish press reported that the judge in the case was a member of industry groups with a direct interest in the case – a likely conflict of interest.

Today the case has officially become a three-ring circus. According to a Swedish newspaper, the judge who was assigned to investigate the conflict of interest has now been removed – due to her membership in the same industry organizations.

Which begs the question: is every judge in Sweden a member of these groups? And if not, why do the ones who are keep getting this case?

On a lighter note, the Pirates have come up with a beautifully petty and vindictive way to handle their fine of 30 million kroner fine: micropayments. They’ve asked their supporters to send payments of a single krona each (about 13 cents US) to the law firm representing the the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). Since each transfer after the first 1000 will cost the law firm 2 krona to process, it’s like fining the plaintiffs in reverse. Evil genius in action.

Meanwhile back in court, the removal of the latest judge has kicked the review over to three other judges, hopefully none of whom have any outside interest in intellectual property issues. Court of Appeals president Fredrik Wersäll expects that decision may come “in a maximum of a few weeks”.