WooHoo! More idiots running the gub'ment.

That sounds a bit too close to a No True Scotsman to me. Just because they didn't implement it well doesn't mean the USSR wasn;t communist, for example.But certainly it would be accurate to say that no communist state to date has really lived up to the idea of "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need."

I don't think that's what nwr is saying at all.I think he/she is saying that "the scientific method" is sometimes used as an explanation without elaboration. Those three words, "the scientific method," become a replacement for an actual explanation.For instance, if you ask me "what holds the planets in their orbit?" and I reply "gravity," I haven't really answered your question. You have no greater understanding of why the planets maintain their orbits than if I had said "magic" instead.Functionally, "answers" like this are more like "passwords." A teacher asks us a question, and we respond with a word or phrase in response. If we have guessed the correct password, we are told we are correct. Unfortunately, this carries on long after we finish school, and we substitute regurgitated "passwords" for actual explanations.