What Rug Thinks

Words have meaning. I know that comes as a shock to some people, but it is true. Words don't have intrinsic meaning, but they do have meanings we have come to agree upon to enable communication. I have been told on a number of occasions that the dictionary is not the arbiter of definitions. While I do agree with this there seems to be something that a lot of people are forgetting. Dictionaries get updated. I know it's a bit shocking, but dictionaries get updated with definitions for words as they are used in modern languages. Sure, you can use words in new ways that may change the meaning. However, when you start using different definitions for words you can't expect people to understand what you meant to say. Here is an example. If I said, "The nuptials the cops used were titillating." Everyone would have a different understanding than if I said, "The handcuffs the cops used where painful." Even if the second is what I meant by the first statement, I ...

I have been seeing all kinds of post across the internet trying to make fun of the idea of banning guns. Instead of explaining these goofy post, I'll simply show you one. This one comes to us from  Freedom Daily with Brian Kolfage  with the caption. "Common sense, isn't so common these days." Let's take a moment here and think this through logically for just a moment. Currently in many (if not all) states the two masked gunmen in this image are not breaking any laws. Even if that was an elementary school property they are not breaking any laws. Therefore, if the cops show up all they could do is ask to see the registration for the guns and the open carry permits. Assuming both of these upstanding citizens can provide the documentation the cops would have to let them go. The cops cannot do anything until they shoot someone. Even at that point they could not be charged until evidence was provided it was not in self defence. How much common sense does it take ...

I have been to fighting keep religious teachings out of the public school systems for a long time now. One such part of religious teachings is creationism. Many creationist have been trying to get Intelligent Design taught in science classes for years. Even though every time it has been taken to court it has been proven wrong, not to be science, and violating the constitution. A part of my fight is to keep track of creationist posting on the internet. This allows me to know what their arguments are so I can be well prepared. However, when I came across J. Warner Wallace post today over at  christianity.com . I got a little irritated by the second line of this post. Therefore, I thought it would be nice to do a thorough point by point debunking of this quote mined rhetoric. Mr. Wallace starts off showing bias and ignorance right from the start when he quotes Richard Dawkins.  "Much has been written about the evidence for design in biological organisms. In fact, the a...

Way back in April of 2015 at the RSA Conference in San Francisco Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson made some interesting comments. You can read the entire thing here . I'm going to quote a bit of his talk here and then give my view on it. "The Department of Homeland Security has both the cybersecurity mission and a law enforcement/counterterrorism mission for the American people. We have feet in both camps. I therefore believe I have a good perspective on this issue. The current course we are on, toward deeper and deeper encryption in response to the demands of the marketplace, is one that presents real challenges for those in law enforcement and national security." I agree, the people demand stronger encryption and the most talented of the encryption tech community responded in kind. While it may never be perfect, the encryption techniques in use today are the best that have ever been used. However, law enforcement would have a much harder time seeing the da...

What is intelligence? What makes someone intelligent? Are you intelligent? Can someone become intelligent when they weren't before? These are questions I have asked myself over and over. I think I finally have the answers. What is intelligence? This question is as simple as looking at a dictionary. According to the dictionary intelligence is "the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills." Most people tend to think someone that knows a lot of facts is intelligent. According to the definition however, they are wrong because that is knowledge not intelligence. Memorization does not make someone intelligent because there is another component to it. The ability to apply the knowledge you have. This is the ability to string facts together, apply these strings of facts in such a way to accomplish something, or to figure something out. This boils down to the use of logic. Adding logic to knowledge is the basis of intelligence.  What makes someone intelli...

A few days ago the Supreme Court ruled in a 5 to 4 decision same sex marriage is legal. Great, it's about time. Take a minute to rejoice, bask in glow of success. OK, minutes up. No time to slack now. There are many other inequalities to fight against. Here are just a just a few in the order I thought of them. First, law enforcement targeting black people. Not only are black people arrested more often, but they are also treated more aggressively. Second, religious teaching in public schools. Creationism has replaced science in many public schools. This has been the case for years (if not decades) in mainly southern states. Third, Fox news. I don't think I even need to go into this. However, Fox news has been known for years for spouting skewed statistics, hatred for large portions of the country, and on many occasions down right lies. Fourth, abortion accessibility. Since abortion has been deemed legal since the 70's many laws have been put forth to restrict access ...

Since today is fathers day I thought it would be the perfect time to talk about a father's rights. I would like to talk about custody, child support, and a few other things that gets on my nerves. To anyone that might have a problem with what I'm saying keep in mind I'm talking about good fathers that just want to be part of their kids lives. I'm not talking about the deadbeat guys that take off and are never heard from again. Guys like that do not deserve any rights to their children. When there is a custody dispute in most states in the US the law generally favors the mother. While I can understand this to some degree, I don't think it's fair. In the state that I live in, the father basically has to prove the mother is unfit to raise a child before custody is awarded to the father. This is the case even for joint custody if the mother doesn't agree. Basically the only way to get joint custody in this state is to have both parents agree. Does that really ...