Mass shootings and the Media

Given the recent mass shooting in Newtown, the media are doing exactly what Kahneman says they do: making a rare event seem less rare.  Once you've read his book, "Thinking: Fast and Slow", you become immune to the media's tricks.  People who are not immune are fretting about gun control, about mental health, and about school safety.  This is a total waste of time.
Mass shootings are becoming less rare, decade after decade.  Whatever society is doing to diminish them is working very well.  So, the correct response to the mass shooting is to think: nothing more needs to be done...especially about such a rare event.
On the same day that two dozen children were gunned down, 40 people were murdered, 50 people committed suicide, 70 people were killed by drunk drivers, and 275 people died from mistakes by hospital staff.  If you want to fret about avoidable deaths, fret about deaths that are 20 times more common than mass shootings.  But you won't hear about them from the media, because they are less rare.

Dark Ages = Now

I need to thank the Climate Change community for answering my question about what it was like to live during the Dark Ages.  How could I know the pain Galileo endured when the Establishment would not accept his finding that the Earth revolves around the Sun?  Thanks to those carbon-based lifeforms who regard carbon as a worrisome cause of climate change, I now get it.

Certainty = Evil

When scientists agree, they are either all right or all wrong.
The trouble with the Climate Change community is that they don't know how science works, and they are so certain that they are right that Something Must Be Done (no matter how many trillion dollars it takes).
I, and my science friends, are so aware that scientists may all be wrong. Perhaps there is one lonely person slaving away over a hot computer simulation and gathering evidence that everyone else is wrong. If you're a scientist, you are never 100% sure of what you know. So, maybe, Nothing Should Be Done.
Corollary: Certainty = Evil.
Corollary: Uncertainty = Good.
The timeless battle between Good and Evil is a contest between Certainty and Uncertainty.
The maxim "The only thing that Evil needs to triumph is that good men do nothing" can be translated as "The only thing that people who are certain of their beliefs need to triumph is that people who are uncertain do nothing".

Acceptance, not tolerance

Some people assert that monoculturalism is the only stable form of society; multiculturalism is always a precursor to civil war.  But there is a historical example of stable multiculturalism: Monreale in 1100, a hillside community overlooking Palermo, Sicily.  Today, anyone can visit the cathedral there built simultaneously by Catholic, Jewish, and Islamic artisans for King Roger II.  The mosaics are breathtakingly beautiful – one should visit simply for that reason alone – but what is even more remarkable is the juxtaposition of symbols from various religions.  How can such a beautiful structure have been completed in only 15 years by people of different cultures?  Acceptance.  Not tolerance, which implies a subtle inequality, but full acceptance, which requires that each culture see every other culture as equally worthy.

Who Will Deny the Deniers?

I find it ironic that the Climate Change community calls its opponents 'Deniers' because you cannot believe in Climate Change unless you deny two scientific truths.
First, you must deny that the Earth has more than one stable climate.  The 'Deniers' note that the Earth is stable during Ice Ages, stable during near-absence of polar ice, and stable at many points in between.  And how does the Earth move from one stable climate to another?  By climate change.  The Climate Change community seems desperate to keep the Earth in its present climate, but the Earth has other plans, I'm sure.
Second, you must deny that stable climates exhibit homeostasis.  When nudged from equilibrium, the climate tends to return to equilibrium.  So, just because atmospheric CO2 is rising (let's just stipulate that to advance the discussion), it may well trigger countervailing rises in carbon-absorbing mechanisms (e.g., trees).
# # #