Politics Always Amazes

As the Democrats tussle with the President over whether his aides will testify under oath, it is mind-boggling to me that the Republicans can keep a straight face while using phrases like "honorable public servants" when claiming there is no need for the aides to be sworn in for testimony. The other good one is "partisan witch hunt." This from the party that tried to impeach the last president for lying about a slimy affair he had. The only way they can possibly avoid being embarrassed by such hypocrisy is if they are totally Machiavellian in their approach--whatever it takes is alright, as long as they remain in power.

Inevitability of Evolution

Sometime recently I realized that evolution is intrinsic in the fabric of life as we know it. Any system that includes self-reproducing entities that can mutate from generation to generation, and also has limited resources necessary for the survival of the various kinds of entities, will spontaneously give rise to an evolutionary process. The scarceness of resources means that if a kind of entity has a member that reproduces in such a way that its offspring reproduce faster or use resources more efficiently or are better able to maintain control over the resources than the original kind of entity are, then the newly mutated kind of entity will grow in population, using up more of the limited resources, eventually leaving no resources for the earlier entity, and so will displace it.

Clearly the mechanics of evolution--mutation rates, genetic structure, anatomy and/or physiology of the entities--are unimportant to the existence of evolution. The only necessary elements are reproduction with occasional mutation and limited resources. Obviously, this does not address the issue of whether some being created everything or when, it simply demonstrates that in our current world, evolution is inevitable because of systematic structure of the biosphere. I will leave arguments in favor of and opposed to evolution as the source of advanced life forms on Earth as an exercise for the reader. ;^)

Hello

Ruminant Natural Philosophy is my new blog about the thoughts that wander through my head on topics from metaphysics to politics, with excursions to educaton and various sciences, especially psychology and child development, and possible outbreaks of fiction and/or humor. 'Ruminant' because I'll be ruminating. 'Philosophy' because I think it is crucial to decide what is important versus what is not. 'Natural' because "natural philosophy" was the name for what we now call science up until a few hundred years ago.

If you feel like commenting, go ahead. If you don't feel like commenting, go ahead. As a reader of Laozi, I am a big fan of non-action, so I am happy to let the rest of the universe do what it is doing while I do what I do.