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Friday, 20 November 2009

  • something else from "OUT THERE"

    begin with a digression, that's the ticket!!

    remember "X-Files ... the Truth is Out There"?  It always amuses me to change emphases in sentences and phrases, an the X-Files subtitle was no exception.  Another one, a real chuckle-grabber, happens when such a change is applied to a phrase like "long-ass hair".  Slide that hyphen over to the right, and you've got "long ass-hair".  Not hardly the same, and often quite funny in terms of the mental images it inspires.

    That was the digression.  It wouldn't leave me alone, so I made certain to get it out of the way early on.  Back to my primary point.

    The internet is really "out there" in almost every imaginable interpretation of the expression.  "Out There" and sometimes a little nervous-making.  Check this out, to see what I'm referring to.  Is the report legit, or just some guy trying to draw traffic to his blog?

Tuesday, 17 November 2009

  • practical time-wasting

    Something's been banging around in my head for a LONG time, and I thought I'd let a little of it leak out and on to the page.

    Censorship. Political Correctness. "Sensitivity". In most respects, I see them as being so closely interconnected as to almost sharing the same definition. I know this has all been said before. I'm offering no new interpretation or presentation. Just a little more noise about a tired subject.

    In my mind, the most effective way to censor anything to effect a boycott of it, NOT to legislate against it. The whole "political correctness" thing is just censorship, just with more syllables. Though I'm not a smoker (haven't been for about 23 years) I'm appalled by legislation against it. Yes, everyone knows it's unhealthy. There's no argument there, but if you want a glimpse of a real Big Brother in action, it's here. Legislation "for our own good", ostensibly to push the cost of health-care a little lower, to "protect" from the potential harm of a second-hand smoke. Stretch it only a wee bit, and it's legislation by statistics. If you're outdoors and someone is smoking near you, and the smoke they're producing is causing you some distress, what to do? Well, you could simply ask them to extinguish it, you could ask if they'd mind smoking somewhere else, or ... you could move to a position up-wind of the smoker. I amuse myself by imagining us all in the Ice Age with our modern mentality and expectations. Here comes Smilodon (sabre-tooth cat) while we're waiting for that mammoth to get further into our ambush ... "Wait, wait, wait!!! Stop the hunt! We have a sabre-tooth in the neigborhood! We have to hold a meeting immediately to enact a law to keep these creatures off of our hunting grounds!" Yeah. That would work.

    What bugs me the most about the whole (current) anti-smoking campaign is the gradual criminalization of the act of smoking. There's no doubt of its deleterious effect on health. But, what's next? Smoker Re-education Camps? Shock therapy? What about ... a modern-day incarnation of the old Hitler Youth?

Saturday, 14 November 2009

  • Currently
    Ommadawn
    By Mike Oldfield
    see related

    freedom of speech, choice, and the associated fallout

    Y'know, I've been really trying to stay away from politics and culture.  It's been difficult, but I did make the promise to myself.  Success has been hit-and-miss.  This time it's been a BIG miss.

    I'll begin with this:  Everyone (at least everyone I know) gets pretty rankled when someone proposes to make a choice for them or to speak for them.  "Everyone" includes me.  I don't care much for people preaching at me either, most especially when they insist that what they're proposing or doing is for "my own good".  I'll make my own choices, thank you.  You get to make your own choices too. We're responsible.  Aren't we?

    In a much earlier post, I opined that the Age of Majority should be taken more seriously; that it may prove out that treating minors as "full citizens" has been unwise.  Kids/children know what they're told, and understand what they understand through the filter of experience and their interpretation of the outcome of that experience.  Interpretations of the young are derived from an incompletely formed and uninformed understanding of the greater world, how it works, and their relationship to it.  It's okay if you laugh, scream, cry, or whatever at my having said that.  Freedom of Speech, remember?

    There's a link to a story that troubles me.  The State has acted to remove a child from the home of her parents because of the views that she's adopted from them.  It takes place in Canada, whose constitution is very much like ours with its rights and guarantees.  It's not much a stretch for me to envision something like this occurring in the USA, and perhaps it already has.  The subtext (to my perception anyway) is that, without regard for various prophecies, it appears that we're en route to self-annihilation.  The prospect of destroying the Earth is ludicrous, but the possibility of destroying the Earth's capacity to support us is very real indeed.  If we do go farther down that road than we already have, the outcome will present from not only the contents and meaning of the attached story, but also thenature of the response, the counter-response, the counter-counter-response, etc.

    I think I'll take up regular naps, because I may not get another decent night's sleep for a while.

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

  • so what?

    recently, I've begun listening to a radio morning show. WMMR's "Preston and Steve", to be exact. I like 'em well enough. If there's one thing I'd change in their show, it would be to have them stop wondering why there's always some new story about Jon and Kate. Guys, do you mean you really DON'T know why they continue to get the coverage that they do? REALLY????????????? They get the coverage because SOMEONE is making money from it, and they're getting their payday because people are still talking about them, even if it's only to wonder why there's still so much press. So STOP TALKING ABOUT THEM, for cryin' out loud!!!! As far as they're concerned, how much sympathy can they expect if they dig their own hole and then jump in? Oh, wait ... it's all for ENTERTAINMENT, isn't it? Never mind. It's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't give a shit.

Saturday, 31 October 2009

Solarhead

  • Visit Solarhead's Xanga Site
    • Name: Steve
    • Country: United States
    • State: Pennsylvania
    • Metro: West Chester
    • Gender: Male
    • Member Since: 8/17/2005

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