Loosely Speaking

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

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.

Friday, April 5, 2024

Just sayin'

Honest people don't imagine, don't really believe that other people are not honest with them. They honor truth as they were taught to, believe what they're told until someone they trust tells them someone has lied to them, played them, conned them. Unfortunately, sometimes they've trusted the wrong person, and have been taught to distrust anyone who might expose that person's lies and tricks. The liar becomes more trusted the more others try to unravel the lies and distortions. The very fact... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, March 25, 2024

Enough is enough

I heard recently that people around the world are making fewer babies, that it's a trend which will reduce the global population in a few years, and that seems to me a good thing for the planet. We take up too much room, we eat too much food, we have too much impact on the environment. We have lived like locusts, devouring and depleting resources, and increasing as if there could be no limits. Before technology and medicine evolved to improve and lengthen human lives, we got into the habit of... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, February 7, 2024

So, even without Trump on the Republican primary ballot in Nevada, Niki Haley lost to "None of These Candidates." No one, it seems, even wrote-in Trump. Honestly, I can't say I like the Democratic Party much--just a lot more than the Republican Party. I never much liked Biden, and I don't understand some of the things he might have done as President but did not do. One is making an end to the filibuster as a manipulative technique in Congress to simply block or complicate law-making. Another... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Changing Tides

These are thoughts from a few years ago that were posted on Facebook, and amended today. There is always turbulence with changing tides, but the tide changes all the same. And when this one has finally taken hold, we will have that to be proud of: That our America has finally booted out the Supremacist assumption of all the wealth and resources and power, that we are finally approaching the ideals of the Founders and that Lincoln stated so clearly in his Gettysburg Address. Equality of respect... Sign in to see full entry.

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