To Create, and to Mislead…

The Big Picture
by Glynn Wilson

The imagination is a beautiful thing.

The imagination is a dangerous thing.

Contradictory statements?

Maybe. But both are absolutely true.

The problem comes in figuring out when the imagination is good, and when it is bad.

After making this statement on Facebook just the other day, I decided to look further into the issue.

“The longer I live the more I wonder how so many humans can allow themselves to be so mislead by a few uneducated pundits,” I wrote.

Then I started to Google.

Fairly quickly, I tapped into a line of research I knew existed on “the awesome power of the human brain to create its own reality.”

Someone who blogs under the moniker “a layman’s journey from religion to reason,” had this to say on the positive side of the imagination.

“Isn’t this imagined reality the muse that an artist taps into when she envisions a sculpture that doesn’t yet exist, or a song that no one’s yet sung? Could we maintain our astounding human ability to find patterns and connections among disparate pieces and leap to a higher understanding, if we couldn’t ‘see’ a whole that isn’t actually visible? Would anyone have flashes of inventive genius, or reach unexpected insights while dreaming, if the mind didn’t run unbidden on its own course at times?”

Of course. Yes. The imagination is good for creating fiction.

Not so good for factual journalism, except for the use of language and imagery to help communicate a story to tap into the primary method of human communication and understanding — a spoken or written narrative.

But what of people who consider themselves to be “open-minded” believers in the supernatural “who are so often close-minded toward the brain’s wonders?”

Science and skeptical thinking show it again and again.

“The mind has amazing faculties to delude itself.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Riley Caught on Tape Threatening the Press and Political Opponents

Bob Riley, the Republican Governor of Alabama who fantasized about Senator John McCain picking him for vice president and now has delusions of running for president, was caught in a recording making direct threats to anyone who might expose anymore of his corruption. He also makes a threat against anyone who “gets too close” to his family.

Some of the highlights:

Bob Riley is a political thug, according to the committee to impeach Riley, and has been a threat to Alabama since he took office 7 years ago.

Why doesn’t he want anyone to get close to his families?

-Son In Law Bob Campbell Law Firm Bradley Arant, before Riley took office, billed the State of Alabama just under $7,000. Since Riley has been in office they have billed the State of Alabama more than $4 million.

-His Son In Law Bob Campbell represents both the Indians and the Task Force to shut down gambling and has already spent $1 million of our tax dollars.

-His son Rob also got a $25 Million NO BID contract from Alabama to represent the state in a lawsuit vs. ExxonMobile, which was found guilty by a jury of ripping off the taxpayers by millions of dollars in oil and gas royalties for wells in the Gulf of Mexico.