The Holocrons of Darth Grampus

As a youngling I often heard that, to avoid controversy and strife, don't talk about politics and religion. Naturally, Darth Grampus said a whole lot about both. When I started though, social media was becoming a thing. I could pick "friends" by common interest, so most of my "friends" shared my views closely enough that we didn't tend to argue much. So I often engaged in lengthy debates with others about things I cared about. That's where I learned about annoying things like trolling and a funny acronym: FRAT... or F*ck reading all that.  I could get wordy, even as a youngling. Some things never change.  Speaking of politics and religion though, I'm seeing a bunch of posts asking if states within the US should ban Sharia Law. Though the exact percentage (or reliable estimate) isn't available, Pew Research guesses the percentage of Muslims in the US who want Sharia Law is near 0 . Taking that into account, one wonders why the hell it's even ...

In my early retirement, Darth Grampus spends a lot of time listening, reading and trying to learn. Sometimes I engage in conversation with people about this or that hoping to have my own perspective expanded and, when possible, to expand the perspectives of others.  But today is a bit of a... I dunno... some circus combination of "Ripley's Believe it or Not," lies, damn lies, propaganda and half-truths. We are inundated at all times, and everywhere we look, with different takes on similar events, highly suggestive and powerful arguments, framing and reframing, religious and social pressures surrounding particular ideas and narratives, and all of us, Darth Grampus included, is susceptible to being fooled. Big Numbers and Impossibilities I saw a video the other day of a young man talking about a megalithic structure built into a mountain where he claimed that 400,000 tons of rock and dirt was removed over the purported 18 year construction period of the structure. He made a...