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, November 4, 2019

The Cult of Trump

What we have here is a cult. It begins at the center and spreads, this wave of delusion and absurdity, demolishing the ability to question, to think straight, to distinguish truth from lies or reality from fantasy... It overwhelms any ability for critical thinking, any logic and common sense in its path. It flips perceptions of reality on their heads, and imagines its own evils as what their chosen foe is and does. It is one of those cults of ecstasy, in which a manic madness obliterates all... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, October 26, 2019

Counting the costs...

I have taken a step back from commenting on Facebook and other social media platforms--even here, sometimes. It isn't that I am not reactive to some of the stuff that gets posted there, or that I don't disagree strongly, or don't see an opening for a really clever comeback. But I have taken another look at who I am when I get clever that way, and I am noticing that what I'd opine has already been offered, often more than once. The thing that is getting to me most, though, is how it changes me to... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Just sayin'

The colonial powers paved the surface and built on shallow foundations, trying to negate and overcome the Earth. They have plowed down a few inches, they have shaved off the forests, they have killed off what they found troublesome and inconvenient. They believed they needed nothing and no one but themselves to prosper, never looking beyond immediate profit, never counting its actual cost. The indigenous nations are the earth, their roots go deep, and--like the Earth itself--will outlast the... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, October 5, 2019

Al Franken speaks

Al Franken last night, at the Paramount Theater in Seattle... Not only heartening to hear a political speaker making sense, but to see the enthusiasm for him and the size of his audience was also very encouraging. I particularly like his suggestion that they should give Trump the nuclear codes--but change them, first. Then after he pushes all the buttons, hurry him down to the bomb shelter and leave him there for a while. There was more, but that was the main point. Not surprisingly, there were... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, September 26, 2019

Yay for money!

Money is a battery for storing the energies produced by human work. It's a transformer, too, changing human work into stuff. When the potter trades pottery for the farmer's grain, it is a device for equalizing any difference in the relative values for the goods generated by the work. In itself, it has no value, only carries the energies of things that do have real value: the affirmation and confirmation of the worker's worth. Money and the energy it holds can be very useful s tuff. Accumulation... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, September 13, 2019

What can we learn from debates?

Not much, I say. We already know what most of them will say, we already understand that their 'talking points' are prepared well ahead of time to deal with any question by turning it back to those points, and that those points are planned strategically to influence the most voters, especially undecided voters. Not much is spontaneous there, and it is through spontaneity that we have a chance of really seeing qualities like character. I already know I will vote for Not Trump even if it's for an... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, September 12, 2019

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant, in this field as in all others. His culture is based on "I am not too sure." -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

In Memorium...

On this day 18 years later, it is time to repeat what rational people have always known: Terrorism does not work. Every goal it accomplishes is counter to its intentions. It makes everything worse for the people it is meant to promote. Terrorism is narcissistic and delusional, thinking itself significant and effective. Terrorism is stupid. Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, September 5, 2019

Consider...

Communities are entities and their inhabitants belong to them, not the other way around. They are composed of everyone in them, they are rich in life and art, in ideas and motions and sounds and smells. Power and wealth create illusions of ownership, but all illusions dissolve in time: lives come and go, all part of the whole, a whole that is lifetimes and generations long. These entities grow and change over time, they evolve as living things do. To bind them to one form, hold them to one idea... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Thinking About Problems and solutions

All problems started as solutions. When considering new solutions, it's useful to start with considering the problem to be solved, specifically, what problem was this intended as the solution for? As a writing coach, I tell writers, before you go breaking the rules, understand what problem the rules are meant to solve. If you can find a better way to solve that problem, go for it! Rules are made to be transcended! "Spider-graph" main problems and secondary and tertiary problems. See the... Sign in to see full entry.

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