Loosely Speaking

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

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.

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Back Porch Adventures

Pixiecat has lately had a new entertainment, a mix of frustration and territorial challenge. In September, before all the leaves fell, I hung a bird-feeder over the porch. It hung from an iron hook, the same one the wisteria had claimed to climb above the railing. The weight of the loaded feeder tipped the whole thing over, and as a result there's seed all over the porch. Can you guess what is also now all over the porch several times a day? Mice. Mice cavorting and nibbling and stashing seeds... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, October 29, 2023

Coincidence and Inspiration

A few days ago, I published this on Wordpress: Global Warming and Snowball Earth – LOOSELY SPEAKING… Yesterday, I discovered a new documentary, recently added to the Netflix lineup, called LIFE ON EARTH, and to my great amusement and gratification, it is a far more detailed survey of the origins and progressions of life on our planet, and it covers the same bits I mentioned in my own essay. It also has me nibbling around some thoughts for a more spiritual background for the Whole Thing. If that... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, October 18, 2023

Binging Crime Shows

I finally got it, why I watch crime shows. People love stories, not just for amusement, but to show us the way through the dark forest, the way through the terrible haunted swamp, the way to deal with monsters. Crime shows are stories about how the monsters are caught and stopped, how the monsters are made to pay for their evil, how they finally lose in the end, every time, and the world is made safe again. A child's world is full of monsters: Some of them are real. If, in childhood, the... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, September 18, 2023

Suddenly, the bar at the top has changed... I'm not sure why, but I don't much like having to suddenly find my way around a new system. I suppose there is some benefit to someone in this change. Anyone else have any comments about it? Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, August 13, 2023

It's a mystery!

While I crochet, I generally binge-watch, often mystery series. Right now I'm going through the several seasons of VERA, set in Northumbria, England, in modern times. The title character, played by Brenda Blethyn, is likeable in her middle-aged curmudgeonly way. It's got me thinking about the shows I have enjoyed, some not so much, and wondering what might be your favorite detectives and detective series, and what particularly draws you to these. One thing I particularly like about the British... Sign in to see full entry.

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