Dare to be Stupid

Humans are so smart that they can sometimes make themselves stupid.

It's not hard to see how this works. The human brain makes models. Sometimes the model becomes more compelling than the facts from which the model was made. Consequently, the human then clings to the model rather than pitch it in favor of new facts. This is what makes science so interesting: it self corrects. The wonder of science isn't how well it works; it's that it works at all.

That said, here comes Executive Order 13489.

13489 restores the Reagan EO 12667 of 1989, overriding Bush's EO 13233 of 2001. Essentially, it reduces the ability of previous presidents to claim executive privilege once out of office. It only applies to documents generated by the president while in office.

Now, if you do a search on "Executive Order 13489", very quickly it degenerates into Obama banning the release of his records without his permission. The EO does talk about executive privilege but presidents have been using executive privilege for the last century. In point of fact, Section 4-A says, "Any determination under section 3 of this order that executive privilege shall not be invoked by the incumbent President shall not prejudice the Archivist's determination with respect to the former President's claim of privilege.", specifically prohibiting executive privilege by a former president.

The blogosphere often conflatees this fallacy with a misdefinition of "natural born citizen", saying that an NBC must have two parents who were also US citizens. This one is even harder to swallow since it would mean the first five presidents of the USA would, in fact, been illegal since their parents were not US citizens. It's a lie, like most of these. Natural born citizens are people born in this country regardless of parentage. The birthers are idiots. But that's not the question here.

Here's a good example. The natural born citizen part has this link to FindLaw suggesting that the link will explain how a natural born citizen needs two US parents. First bullet item there says US citizenship comes from being born in the US. Therefore, the writer of this material not only didn't understand the concept being spouted but linked to a site that refuted his thesis.

The model derailed understanding of the facts.
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Wall of Idiots
Lies about Medicare

Links of Interest
Water flowing uphill: Fountain
Methane seeping from Arctic sea-bed
Norovirus and Tobacco: Creating vaccines from plants
Resolving the arrow of time
Sculpting with high explosives
Mercury fountain
Cometary glycine
Museum of Utopias
Museum of Sex
Complex Consciousness
Language vs. Thought
Origin of Human Malaria
V: Elephant with Prosthetic Leg
The nature of water
The Flying Car: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and here

DIY
V: Water Rockets