We have been having a lot of discussion of religion on facebook recently. And thought that perhaps the blog would be a better place to discuss these ideas. As much as we love the public discourse it appears some of the things we say are found to be offensive. So perhaps here would be a better place to write such things. So I have reopened the crazy. And will begin posting at least weekly. If people are bored enough perhaps they will read it. Otherwise I'll just continue to post simply because of the cathartic effect. So coming soon. No... really this time. Ciao.

     We haven't posted here for a long long time, but thought with the recent news stories about Christian bakeries we should let our opinion be known. And of course since no one has probably read this in over a year we think we can print our opinion and nobody will comment. Cool huh! Ok, we've read the part in the Bible where it says that "Lying with mankind as with womankind is an abomination." and "of those that chew the cud or part the hoof you shall not eat of these." But we can't find the part where it says "Thou shalt not bake a cake for those that lie with mankind as womankind." We've done a pretty thorough search, can't find it anywhere. We also seem to remember something about not judging others. "There is only one law giver and judge." and "Who are you to judge your neighbor?" So it seems pretty clear to us. If you are religious, God want's you to leave the judging to him. If you believe that he is all knowing and all seeing then he pretty much should know what's in your heart. So go ahead and bake the cake. If there is any sin being done we doubt it falls on you for putting a couple of plastic guys (or women) holding hands on a cake. Just saying.

On freedom of speech and political correctness.

Recently we have all been victims of a social blitzkrieg. Every news channel is showing the
tale of Phil Robertson and the A&E Duck Dynasty media attack. We are being asked to choose
sides from a possibly homophobic religious rich man, to a freedom of speech hating   
corporation without a heart. In paraphrasing the bible Mr Robertson made it appear as if he
is comparing being gay with partaking of beastiality or perhaps being incredibly
promiscuous.  We suppose being brought up believing that homosexuality is a sin, could lead
one to assume that possibilty. On the other hand A&E is taking a clearly political stand and
putting Mr Robinson on "haitus." We have been perusing the message boards and chat rooms to
get a feel for what people are saying. First of all there seem to be a lot of angry people
out there. Discarding the nutcases.. (Of which there are plenty) we find that the majority
of rants were of a freedom of speech nature, (with a little dash of freedom of religion
thrown in for flavor). On the other side of the coin were people who were offended that
they could be lumped in with the rampant bestiality crowd. (Have you ever seen them, they
hang out at Walmart.) We could also understand why they could be a bit disconcerted. (Read
pissed off.) by this comparison. How do we feel about it. Mr Robertson may say whatever he
wishes and in a free country he has a right to his opinion. A&E, (a private company) has a
right to air whatever views they deem acceptable. It is not a free speech issue as the
religious right would have us belief. While Mr Robertson is entitled to his views, they are
based upon his own religious idea of right and wrong. And therefor not the law of the land.
Our personal feelings about homosexuality notwithstanding, we have no right to dictate to
other people what sort of relationships they have. It's none of our business. And our
opinion on the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality are meaningless.  However, recently
many states attempted to pass laws making it illegal for any one other than one man and one
woman to marry. These laws are based on their belief that it is a sin to commit such an act.
Based upon their religious ideals. These laws are wrong, we are not a theocracy, congress
can pass no laws establishing a religion. Therefore these laws are unconstitutional. Period.
Argument over. Oh we apologize for the quality of the paragraph and sentence structure of the blog, we copied it from notepad and things went haywire. And as we are running against the clock we had no time to correct it. Ciao for now.

Busy, Busy, Busy... and then some.

Well, Thanksgiving is over. Now the hectic run to Christmas begins. We have been very busy here at The Crazy. It's amazing how much stuff you can cram into one day if you stick at it hard enough and long enough.  Haven't had time to discuss philosophy, or read about recent N.A.S.A. achievements. Did read an article by some extremist conservative who was upset that Wal-mart was selling anti capitalist posters. I just have to shake my head at that. Isn't it the height of capitalism to sell an anti capitalist anything?  Some people are just idiots I guess. It amazes me how many people are down on Wal-mart. Saying they don't pay their employees enough. How much should you pay a stock boy? I have friends and relatives working there, and they seem to be making a fair wage. (They don't complain about it anyway.) This is just a quick note to let you know that we will be posting as we can this month. But I have to say we are VERY busy. Haven't had time to take a healthy crap. (Is it ok to discuss bowel movements on a private blog?) Does mentioning  the human bodily function lessen the gravitas of our posts? Anyway got to go. Driving through the (relatively mild) snowstorm for an appointment in Marquette. If we have time we will post about the horrors of Christmas shopping. After all we are going to WALMART. (Take that you conservative and liberal extremists!) Ciao for now.

The Double Slit Experiment and we need an aspirin.

Ok, we're about to get all scientific on your asses. Let's discuss the double slit experiment. You know the one we mean. Where scientists fire a laser or bright light at a flat surface with two slits cut into it. The resulting pattern on the sensor placed behind the flat slitted surface (try saying that fast five times) registers the light and shows either an interference pattern (light and dark bands) or a solid light pattern, depending on how the result is measured. Apparently when we are watching, the light behaves as waves causing interference (resulting in light and dark bands) however when we are measuring it with a particle detector the light shows a solid pattern and appears as if it went through one of the slots (italics mine) What does this mean. We can think of only three things. One that our observation of the experiment causes a change to the outcome simply by viewing it. Two, that light itself changes when it knows it's being observed or measured. Or Three, the particles interfere with themselves and pass through both slits simultaneously. So what can we learn from all of this? Sadly not a lot. It appears as if our simply observing or measuring the location of the photons (or electrons in some experiments) alters their reality. If unobserved they act in a wave pattern, if observed they act in a particle pattern. This experiment is further confused by the fact that detectors placed at the slits will not change the nature of the observed light pattern and will act as if the particle passed through both slits simultaneously. So even though the detectors say the light passed through say the left slit. The resulting pattern will show that it in fact passed through both. Which should be a physical impossibility. What does it all mean? Are multiple dimensions at work here? Are we observing quantum proof that the universe is subjective to how we view it? If such is the case, can we alter reality at will? That would be interesting wouldn't it? Of course could you imagine the chaos resulting from billions of individuals each altering reality to suit their own needs? Scary though isn't it? Excuse us, we need an aspirin and a nap. Here is a photographic representation of the double slit experiment. Make of it what you will. Ciao for now.

What is time?

     The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines time as  " the measured or measurable period during which an action, process, or condition exists or continues" or "the thing that is measured as seconds, minutes, hours, days, years, etc."  Both these definitions are true. Neither one is very helpful (or satisfying) when discussing time. Our definition of time could be stated as "the inexorable pull of nature toward the destruction of self" which sounds pretty negative (if not suicidal) to say the least. But it is true that each moment we live is one less moment we will continue to exist, (at least in a physical state, we can make no assumptions about what happens after the destruction of our psyche.) Is the fact that time is fleeting our reason for focus in life? If we keep our awareness of the passing of time sharply in our mind do we at least in some small way slow it's passing. Or does the juggernaut of time simply carry us along in a mad rush to the end of our existence? We at The Crazy have felt time crawling slowly (being made to watch reality television can be a particularly painful time slowing event) or whiz by (it seems when we are enjoying ourselves in any way time seems to fly by at hypersonic speed). Sadly we may never know. One thing is certain. Time cannot be altered at will. The arrow of time moves in only one direction. Or so all past history seems to show. And though we are all time travelers none of us will ever be able to travel to the past (except in our minds of course) and relive those events.  Just a quick note on time. Ciao for now.

The Arrow of time.

     It seems time is passing quickly here at The Crazy.  We have been running around trying to get things done, but apparently it's a big circle we live in. On the other hand we recently had some friends over for a football game. And every one of us mentioned how time seemed to be going slowly. We wondered... was time actually going slower? Were we all caught in a whirlpool of the flow of time? Is that what we are, the flotsam and jetsam of time? Struggling in a vain effort to reach the far shore, when no shore actually exists?

     Why is it that sometimes time seems to slowly crawl from then to now, and other times it spurts forward in leaps and jumps? If we look back on our lives in the context of time, are the moments you remember most in your life the slow moments or the fast jerks of the rough waters of time? We are going to be doing some research on the meaning of time in our lives. If anyone has any memories or stories about how time has affected you, please be sure to post them in the commentary. We are going to look at time. From a social, artistic, and scientific point of view through the next few posts. We hope you find it interesting, we know we will. Ciao for now.