It is approximately 8:51 PM where this user lives (Denver). [refresh] Userboxes As you can see, this user likes Wikipedia Userboxes. This user is an empiricist who believes knowledge is subject to continued revision and falsification. This user is a naturalist who believes only natural laws and forces operate in the universe. This user is a skeptic. This user misses Pluto. May its planethood rest in peace. This user wants to MAKE AMERICA SMART AGAIN. This user believes that the press is not the enemy. This user believes there ain't no such thing as a free lunch. This user realizes that people from the Middle Ages already thought that the Earth was spherical, but disagreed about Earth's size. en-us-user64 Like 64% of native English speakers, this user speaks American English. This user honors Noah Webster for saving the English language from the Saxon hordes. This user honors H. L. Mencken for expounding the endless diversity of American English. This user respects copyright and other intellectual property rights. A, B, and C This user prefers the serial comma. "...," For quotation marks, this user would rather use "American punctuation." .  The This user believes sentence spacing is a style choice, not a law. man- kind Regarding gender, this user prefers the vernacular, not what is politically correct. to too two This user thinks that too many people have no idea how to use words that they should have learned in grade two. by The passive voice may be used by this user. a lot alot This user recognizes that linguistic change is a natural and desirable aspect of human language. Majority Usage = Correct Grammar This user recognizes that if most people make the same grammatical "mistake", it ceases to be a mistake and becomes proper grammar, for grammar has no immutable or moral "right" or "wrong" and "correct grammar" is determined by majority usage. y'all This user thinks y'all serves a useful purpose as a second-person plural pronoun, and would like to see y'all use it more often. This user knows that all groups, however crazy they may be, have just as much a right to free speech as anybody else and WILL NOT TOLERATE "hate speech" laws or attempts to prevent people from expressing their views. This user supports drug policy reform; knowing that prohibition is immoral, counterproductive, illiberal and doesn't work. Eu This user supports euthanasia under certain circumstances. Su ~~~~ OneSkyWalker signs his posts and thinks you should too! tools This user reverts vandalism manually, without the help of any tools such as Twinkle. <ref> This user recognizes the importance of citing sources. WP:RS This user believes in using Reliable Sources. <sum>:1 This user believes that every edit should have a summary. This user employs a more formal style of writing in articles than in talk pages. This user finds Wikipe-tan just a little bit creepy and disturbing. This user's BS came from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Regarding my handle OneSkyWalker, think of hang gliding, not Star Wars.

When engaged in discussion and debate, I try to keep in mind the aphorism attributed to Bertrand Russell, who is reputed to have said: “The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.” What BR actually wrote was: “The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.” Probably cribbed from W. B. Yeats who a decade earlier had written: “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.” Which suggests to me that 99% of all creativity is just inadvertent plagiarism. 😃

On the other hand, unreasonable passion can occasionally be helpful. As George Bernard Shaw wrote, “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

When browsing the World Wide Web, I am constantly reminded that never in human history has so much weight been given to uninformed opinion. 😃 This trend started centuries ago with published books, then newspapers, then radio, then newsreels, then television, and now social media. Each of these has had more impact than the last because each increased the speed of transmission and the emotional impact of messages.

I believe that all people are cousins. I believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, but acknowledge the possibility that he was a dupe in a successful plot to assassinate JFK. I believe that Osama Bin Laden funded flying lessons for the Saudi clowns who brought down the twin towers. I believe it to be remarkable that ancient hogwash such as astrology and homeopathy occupies so much mindshare today. I believe conspiracy theories and theorists (see “Shadowland”: A New Project From The Atlantic on the Power and Danger of Conspiracy) to be an existential threat to democracy in the United States of America because the conspiracy constituency has way too much influence in politics today, particularly Republican politics.