aninescapablebias

The fundamental ideological bias is ideology itself --the notion that believing the correct principles will lead to the correct conclusions. It's not unlike the basic function of scientific thinking --that knowing the underlying workings of nature will make one better able to understand and predict the specifics of the natural world. Also, easy comfort is found in one's perceived ability to impugn other's ideas by appeal to their specific failures on other issues. If the other guy's value system leads him to conclude that orphans should be loaded into giant hamster-wheel generators or all bridges should be one-way roads like God intended, it's tempting to think his entire value system is discredited by that conclusion. Just as tempting, but even shakier as a useful judgement, is taking one's incomplete strawman idea of what the other guy's value system is or must be, and trying to construct a thoroughly horrid conclusion from it in order to accomplish the above.

The opposite to the fundamental bias of ideology would be that no social or political questions are connected at all, that no underlying principle could possibly lead to better conclusions across multiple issues. I'm not convinced humans can actually think like this. I suspect anyone who might claim to be guided by such pragmatism would be simply unaware of their underlying ideological framework.

onblogging

James Edward Raggi's blog has a particular geek focus that may or may not interest the half-dozen viewers I get, but he's explained well the nature of blogging in general and the position bloggers find themselves in whether they know it or not.

http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2010/03/little-perspective-on-internet-and.html

Think I'll have to do a bit of policing in the comments.

Anything deemed to be spam, advertising, link shilling, or thinly-veiled excuses for the same will be removed.

adarkknight

How to use Joker in the next Batman movie:

The action rises, as Bats and the new villain vie against one another. There's aerial fistfights, underground vehicle chases, oh-so-serious brooding and shouting and looming, relationship troubles, all the usual fare. At some point, and you could probably get away with it more than once, someone's brilliant plan of the moment goes catastrophically wrong, hundreds of people are imperilled, fire and destruction reign. One expects this in an action movie anyway, but both the hero and villain are robbed of whatever goal they are trying to achieve. And in the wreckage, the Joker's card is found, maybe several, maybe hundreds raining down, with a handwritten message: "MISS ME?"

You could probably get away with making the Joker an offscreen bogeyman for at least two films, if pulled off right. Until a successor to Heath Ledger is found.