One Engineer In the Entire Federal Bench

I think that says a lot about engineers. "We have staked the entire future of the American civilization not upon the power of government, but upon the capacity of Americans to govern themselves, control themselves, and sustain themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." James Madison

What really bugs me - and I'm losing a tooth because of it - there is (as best as my research indicates) not one dentist with an engineering degree.

PaulRoybal wrote:

Patent law probably has a higher percentage of people with engineering degrees.

In general a person with an engineering degrees and working in an unrelated area looks like they got the wrong degree. Just my opinion though.

I know one personally -- my college roommate. Whether the engineering degree made him a better dentist, having never worked as an engineer, is debatable.

Ned Simmons

It is clear from the historical record that Madison never said this.

listed Alley book on Madison is terribly well researched and has extensive attributed sources.

I am unclear what your motivation in citing this is, but applying some critical thinking skills before regurgitating neoconservative tripe propaganda would be appreciated.

Try post> >There must be 2000 judges in the federal judiciary now and I

understand only

Commandments of

A lot of the equipment invented by doctors and dentists looks pretty ridiculous so I'm not too surprised.

I'm not suggesting engineers are always more competent in other fields than those trained specifically for their fields. In fact, too much of what passed -- I hope they aren't still doing it -- for an engineering education was "plug 'n chug" which became completely useless in any field with all these software applications.

But it would be useful to restore the cross pollination between fields of the founding fathers in the field of law.

When Jefferson wrote "the feeble engines of despotism" right away you know Jefferson knew the basics of heat engines as well as political systems.

The compressor feeds the turbine which spins the compressor which feeds the turbine . . . Just toss a monkey wrench into any component.

Censorship feeds the ignorance which causes more censorship . . .

Just toss a monkey wrench into any component.

Bret Cahill

"Enlighten the people generally . . ."

-- Jefferson

"A popular government without popular information or the means of acquiring it is only a prologue to a farce, or a tragedy; or perhaps both."

-- Madison

A few practicing dentists on the bench -- preferably competent ones -- might not be such a bad idea either because at least they get jerked back to reality if they start pulling the wrong teeth.

In sharp contrast to engineers and dentists jurists can get lost in the clouds and never get any reality checks other than higher courts which are also lost in the clouds.

As a consequence 99.9% of the First Amendment docket is devoted to nekked nazi KKK flagburner parades.

Of the two cases that touch on economic issues one is an unpublished opinion.

From the above anyone would conclude that

a. Americans aren't interested in money

b. the docket is controlled by the same interests that control the unpopular press.

c. make up any answer.

Bret Cahill

Where is he now?

Whether the

From my experience it is not at all debatable. At least engineers understand the concepts behind stress, stress raisers, second moment of area, etc. You can discuss stress and basic desing of structures without getting a blank stare.

I find it hard to believe that an engineer would - - I suppose I had better leave that blank. However, I did read today in the Wall Street Journal that dentists nowadays can "earn" upwards of $150,000.

I think for all but the most simple "drill, fill, and bill," dentists are walking malpractice suits because of their ignorance of the basics of mechanics.

Sorry about the tooth but it wouldn't be a bad idea to have a few practicing dentists on the bench as well. Like engineers, dentists can't wander too far from reality. If they start pulling the wrong teeth or drilling into the skull, they get feedback in days, if not seconds.

In sharp contrast federal judges have no reality checks other than higher courts which are even more out of touch with reality.

That's how the "important" nekked nazi flagburner issue became so important.

Bret Cahill

AOL is either not posting or not showing my posts.

Bret Cahill

snipped-for-privacy@wmc>

Dear BretCahill:

I stopped using AOL for posting to newsgroups a long time ago. Are you using "Security Edition"? I find 5 posts by you on this thread alone. Do you recall more?

David A. Smith

It is not clear that James Madison did or did not say this, but it is clear the humanists and athiests do not think so.

The quote is a part of my signiture block. It will stay, but since it is not clear that James Madison did say that, then I have modified it. I do like the quote.

"We have staked the entire future of the American civilization not upon the power of government, but upon the capacity of Americans to govern themselves, control themselves, and sustain themselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." Someone

Dear PaulRoybal:

It is NOT clear either what your motivation is, or what "affiliations" those that actually researched Madison's writings have. It is QUITE clear that Madison did NOT write the quote you provided.

URL:

there are two others on this site, that ARE attributable to Madison

the source of the quote appears to be David Barton

URL:

"Strongly guarded as is the separation between Religion and Government in the Constitution of the United States, the danger of encroachment by Ecclesiastical Bodies, may be illustrated by precedents already furnished in their short history" (James Madison, "Father of the Constitution," as found in Madison's essay known as "Detached Memoranda," William and Mary Quarterly, 3:555).

The past is far more interesting than your average carpet, so simply walking on it is what we should not do.

David A. Smith

My dentist is an engineer that worked as an engineer (EE) for several years before going to dental school. It may be coincidence, but he is apparently a good dentist. He has helped several people I know that were having tooth problems that their old dentists couldn't solve.

I can't even remember where I parked my bicycle this morning.

Ask me something easy like the derivation of the Euler turbo equation.

I may start using google if there are no conflicts of interest. ;-)

Bret Cahill

Use Mozilla Thunderbird. It's pretty hot.

Dear BretCahill:

Anything but that. People that are posting (currently) on the new google groups have line wrapping problems, and problems with attributions (not automatic as I understand it). There are alternatives.

David A. Smith

A direct application of logic won't work here. Fundies will deny evolution, Newton's law of gravity, conservation of momentum, etc., no matter how persuasive the evidence or authorities. Their brains are so paralyzed with fear they cannot think so it is a waste of time. When they are merely being hypocritical it's kind of a relief The proper

18th century term for the phenomenon is "despotism" not religion.

Self described "liberal" groups who like to pretend they are fighting the religious right are really playing patty cake, scraping the scum off the pond instead of doing the obvious and draining it. At least some of these "liberals" -- all corp. boss funded and controlled interests -- know full well they are perpetuating a scam. In fact every time you expose it they start hissing like a

2 card monte couple after you ask, "how many people are working here?"

The really funny part is when they claim they "can't figure out" how they make a lot of money "never figuring anything out."

Wouldn't it be nice to get a high paying tech job "never figuring anything out?" That would be straight out of _Alice In Wonderland_ or _Catch-22_. Maybe have a contest to determine who can not figure the most out. I can not figure out 20 things before breakfast.

The well kept secret -- and the U. S. despotism has plenty -- the obvious solution to the problem is to reduce the fear, to apply Jefferson's theory that despotism is very similar to a heat engine; it is easy to disable once you know how it works.

_Spirit of Laws_ reads like a Chilton's manual for politics. What am I saying? It's much easier. And you don't even get your hands dirty. The despotism doesn't want you to know how mechanical, how easy it is because then everyone will start pulling strings.

First lesson in mechanics 101: Pushing a rope doesn't work. Arguing with fundies about creationism doesn't work. Try pulling ECONOMIC strings instead.

The whole 14 figure a year scam depends entirely on no one reading what the framers highly recommended: "the celebrated Montesquieu."

A math friend chuckles at my efforts and says I'm up against a "robust system" but that just causes me to laugh.

It's like shooting rats in a barrel. That there are a lot of rats just makes it more fun.

Bret Cahill

"It's hard to get a man to understand a thing when his salary depends on his not understanding it."

-- Upton Sinclair

"The increase in equality is, therefore, a providential fact. It has all the chief characteristics of such a fact. It is universal and enduring. All men and all events contribute to its progress."

-- DeTocqueville

"Whenever the fundamental principles of a democratic republic are corrupted . . ."

-- Montesquieu

"N:dlzc D:aol T:com \(dlzc\)" N:dlzc1 D:cox T: snipped-for-privacy@nospam.com >

All conservatism is based on censorship of economic information. -- Bret Cahill

Why not apply that reasoning to public school prayer and just ASSUME all the kids were forced to kneel down a pray to Jesus?

After all, if you don't know you can always imagine any facts you want.

Bret Cahill

All conservatism is based on censorship of economic information. -- Bret Cahill