Loosely Speaking

By Ciel - About Me - E-mail this page - Add to My Favorites - Add to Blog List - See other blogs in Everything Else

Monday, October 14, 2024

Reframing the Election Basics

This election isn't about liberal vs conservative, it's about sanity vs insanity. It's between a professional vs a dilletante in the art of government. We are facing more years of traumatic instability favoring the few ultrarich vs a return to a steadier, more Middle-class community-centered and supportive normalcy. The choice is between a man operating from irrepressible personal fantasy vs a woman well-grounded in American realities. It isn't about policies, it is about character. Don't be... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, October 5, 2024

"This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore. A people that can no longer distinguish between truth and lies cannot distinguish between right and wrong. And such a people, deprived of the power to think and judge, is, without knowing and willing it, completely subjected to the rule of lies. With such a people, you can do whatever you want." - Hannah Arendt (14 October 1906 – 4 December 1975) German historian and... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, October 2, 2024

The Choices We Have

The choice we're offered in the coming election: Trump offers toxic self-interest, hate, anger, resentment, fear and revenge--and all that mental rambling that Vance calls 'common sense.' He is and has always been mercurial and chaotic. He has never shown any comprehension or loyalty to America or the Constitution or the basics of how the US government is organized. Harris offers energy, optimism, clear purpose and a focus on the needs and interests of the American people. She offers a... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, October 1, 2024

Thoughts, Witnessing Catastrophe

It isn't just the denial of climate-change, it is also having no real concept of what a devastating effect of it actually looks like. Well, we're looking at it now, but unless we know people--extensions of ourselves, really--or have great empathy for strangers, it is still a thing beyond our emotional ken. Here in Colorado Springs we sometimes have floods. We have occasional wildfires. Here on the edge of the Great Plains, storms can bring tornadoes though usually not this close to the... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, June 27, 2024

On the eve of destruction or re-affirmation

I was thinking about the writers of the US Constitution. They didn't have everything right, like not actually recognizing that women and people of color are actually whole human beings, and they were mostly all slave-holders. But they were the most educated men of their time. They were philosophically sophisticated, very broad-minded for their time. They were the intellectual cream of the crop--for their time. Personal honor and integrity was basic to them, so much that they could not believe or... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 24, 2024

The Curse of Cassandra

Bill Nye has been saying that this kind of increased heat through the year is going to be the new 'normal'. It's not as if we were never warned, just that so many stuck fingers in their ears and sang lalalala...! as loud as they could. It's a sad irony also that the generations that could have made the greatest difference will all be dearly departed, and it will be their grandchildren and great grandchildren who have to live with the new 'normal.' There will be increasing water restrictions,... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, June 9, 2024

Choice? What choice?

Time to get past the idea that we have to like the candidate personally or agree with all the policies and focus on who has the chops to make America better vs who is trying to burn it down. President Biden has accomplished a lot to improve some of our national problems, though he has also been very disappointing in some areas a lot of people care a lot about. He is surrounded by forward-thinking people who want to move America forward in these times of change and challenge. Trump is a landslide... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Up, up and away!

It was so nice of them schedule today's launch of the crewed Starliner just after breakfast here. Every time I watch a launch these days, I think back, privileged to have watched America's first manned launch: John Glenn going up to touch space, and return. I was in 4th grade and they wheeled a television on a high cart into the classroom which held at least 3 classes to observe the event. This happened for every launch in those first years: Mercury, and later Gemini shots, and later still,... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 31, 2024

What if...?

What if we sat back and questioned the roots of the things we believe? What if we took the time to trace back where traditions began? Not just where, but when, and especially why? Every solution works to solve a problem, but over time, many solutions become problems themselves, and then new solutions need to be found, or constructed. What are the roots of White Supremacy? They go back to the attitudes of European Supremacy that were fundamental to going out exploring the world and claiming all... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, April 16, 2024

Why Teachers Are Not Paid Their Worth

The reason we don't pay teachers in America as the key shapers of our future society is that we've inherited a culture that disdains both women and children. Children, historically in our Romanic-based society, died so easily so young, we came to see them as not worth investing in much unless they were in line to inherit power. Child-carers were not much valued except to manage the little lives as long as they lived, and to do the dirty work around child-rearing. Governesses were a step up from... Sign in to see full entry.

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