Author: Gnerphk

I am The Gnerphk, writer extraordinaire, opinionated, radical, and extremely humble by nature.

Which Way Is The Klan Voting?

“I’m surprised more people don’t ask, “Which way is the Klan voting?” and then say, “Thanks, I’ll obviously vote the opposite way.” “
Quote from “The Bollard”, ‘Racisms’, April 5th 2016, by Samuel James.

Personally, I refuse to let the KKK tell me how to vote.

Look, on the face of it, the quote seems like plain common sense.  Do I agree with the KKK?  No?  Well, let’s see who they like most and vote against them.

Every complex problem out there has at least one simple, easy-to-understand, common-sense, wrong answer.  This is a perfect example.  Read on and I’ll explain. (more…)

You’re All Wrong!

NOTE:  This article was written as a response to another, originally published in “The Bollard” on April 5th.  It can be read here.

A guy wrote once that, although debate and compromise are valuable things in the right place, there are some positions that are completely, flatly wrong. These, because they’re just so obviously invalid, are no longer worth discussing, and compromise with them is plain dumb. (more…)

Conspiracy Theories and 9/11: You Can’t Handle The Truth

Yes, this is about the 9/11 attacks.  Yes, I firmly believe nineteen hijackers drove four planes into three buildings and a field in Pennsylvania.  No, I don’t think that’s the whole truth.

Half the people reading left after the first sentence; most of the rest left after the second.  Even my saintly mother left after reading the third.  If you’re still here, you’re either very intelligent or very bored.

I can work with that. (more…)

There Is No Such Thing As Racism.

OK; I’ll admit it:  That was a cheap trick to get you to read this — but there’s a good reason.  It’s because there really is no such thing as “racism”, and saying there is makes things worse.

No; I’m not some idiot Polyanna revisionist nutjob.

I may be nuts; that’s up to you to decide — but at least I’m not an idiot.  The following will sound like it’s just a simple trick of words, but stick with me to the end:  I promise it’s worth it. (more…)

The Application of Relativity to Social Issues: A Thought Experiment On Racism In The Criminal Justice System

Between the years 1905 and 1915, Albert Einstein worked continuously on certain abstruse mathematical frameworks within which the great puzzles of the universe could be solved — for it was impossible to solve them without something of the sort.  From his work arose his Special and General Theories of Relativity, which redefined science’s approach to such problems as travel at the speed of light, whether gravity has waves, and what spacetime’s shape is like.

I’m not going to explore the full ramifications here:  first, because we don’t need them for our purposes, and second, because the full ramifications make my brain hurt.

But I would like to present the concept of the Special Theory in simple terms (in order to apply it in ways that the designer never intended, but that’s not at all a bad thing.  Stick with me; it’ll be a ride.) (more…)

…But Back To Gun Control

My last article was, at least nominally, about gun control.

It started optimistically enough; I began by stating that our country is more heavily armed than some war zones and pointing out the most recent mass shooting event.  Somehow, though, in examining the statistics on gun violence, I concluded that the guns are not the real problem.

If you’re curious about that, feel free to go read that article; it’s a trip.  If, on the other hand, you’re concerned directly with controlling the ownership and possession of firearms, read on here. (more…)

Gun Control: What’s The Problem?

The United States is one of the most heavily armed places on Earth, measured per capita.  There are places that have been in civil war for long enough that all noncombatants have fled; they are less heavily armed than we.  And we see the results on the news on a daily basis, it seems; just the other night there was another mass shooting, an apparent ambush at a backyard barbecue.

So gun control appears to be a logical necessity.  Why is there even debate on the subject?

I’ve examined some statistics that may give us an answer, as well as a possible course going forward.  I’ll warn you now, though:  The answers I arrived at are vastly different than the ones I at first expected. (more…)

Why Gas Is Cheap (Hint: It’s Bad News)

Some of my olde– uh… more experienced readers may remember when gasoline first topped one dollar a gallon at the pumps.  If you’re finding it tough to put a date to the event, here’s some hints:  Jimmy Carter was President, there were hostages in Iran (which was about to be at war with Iraq), and America was in the grip of an energy crisis. (more…)

Causes Of Autism: Including An Addendum On Vaccines

Disclaimer:  The author of this article is not a medical professional, and none of what follows is intended to be authoritative information.  The intent of this article is to provide a general approximation of modern medical knowledge on the subject of the causes of autism, simplified for ease of understanding.  Since much of modern medical knowledge on this subject is theory and speculation, nothing that follows can be considered absolute; since much of the following is simplified, this is doubly true.

 

The following is a potentially dangerous subject, one where the majority of my readers may have already formed their opinions before coming here.  It’s a subject that naturally generates strong opinions, and this is entirely understandable:  Childhood autism diagnoses (and misdiagnoses) have risen drastically in the industrialized world over the past few decades, and yet as a general rule it’s difficult in any one case to point to any definitive cause. (more…)

Shit Happens.

It’s a proverb.  It’s axiomatic.  We all know it to be true, somehow, deep in our hearts, that life happens to us rather than the other way around.  There must be a natural law to that effect, that while we plan and work and follow the rules, fate’s getting ready to throw a wrench in the works. (more…)