Loosely Speaking

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

Sunday, June 11, 2017

The struggle continues...

This week, a NY Court of Appeals denied habeus corpus relief to a pair of chimpanzees that have been kept for years in facilities for medical research, deprived of anything like a natural chimpanzee life of social companionship and a more natural environment. Suits of this nature are currently being brought on behalf of chimps, elephants, and whales and dolphins. Some, in other countries (Spain and Argentina, for two examples) are winning new rights and freedoms for creatures who have had no... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Mating up

How do men and women ever get together? I've been thinking about it for years, maybe since my Dad read aloud to us after dinner from the writings of James Thurber who had a great deal to say in the 1930s, 40s, and 50s, about the War Between the Sexes. Every culture has its undercurrents of social assumptions and expectations that show up in the literature, the art, the media of the times. The fact is, men and women are different. I'm sure this comes as no surprise, or that the differences are... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, June 7, 2017

I am so not surprised this is happening

I read this article... http://www.businessinsider.com/baby-boomers-caused-millennials-destructive-spending-habits-2017-6 Wow... Millennials are arrogantly having better taste than to eat at Applebees, have the cheek to choose to support small-owner businesses over big corporate chains, and are destructively not buying into the economics that sank their parents' savings and home equities because the bankers could not be trusted to do their job honestly and with fundamental integrity. Well, this... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, June 5, 2017

Lions and tigers and leopards, oh my!

With the demise of the Ringling Brothers Circus, their elephants have been 'retired' to a breeding compound they call a refuge, saying it is good for the elephants. Now, 15 big cats are scheduled to go to Germany to another circus along with their owner/trainer, and he must get clearance from the US Fish and Wildlife Service. He probably will get it. Here is a useful article about it:... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, June 1, 2017

Trump does the totally expected

So it comes down to us, again... Just because Trump will not hold his own and his pals' businesses accountable for global warming, it doesn't mean we can't individually, voluntarily cut back on our driving, turn out lights, recycle, be generally more responsible for our ecological impact on the planet. It doesn't mean cities can't invest in or improve their light rail systems, promote re-usable bags, reward shifts towards sustainable power... The selfish won't see this, won't change what they do... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Here is a reading challenge...

This takes a while to read, but if you are mystified by how this segment of America thinks and behaves, if you have any interest in how to reach in and effect any change, in what can and can't work to bring light into this dark place, then this is a most useful article from someone who came out of that environment. Nothing can be mended or changed if the basic truths of it are not understood, not appreciated for what they are.... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Inspired by Pat's post today about the days of pot and flowers...

I also remember those times as both sweet and naive, but also deeply closeted for many still afraid to be known as gay or seen as rebellious against the dominant white culture. That was how naive we were, to simply be oblivious, thinking that war and brutality were the primary enemy. But the children we were then grew into the adults we are now, knowing that those times were illusory but still they held a dream, maybe a promise that someday we could arrive in the Star Trek Universe if only we... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

A sad reflection on pathological power

Thinking about Trump and Nixon, and about that special hubris common to narcissistic and criminal minds... The thing is, criminals think they are smarter than everyone else. They think they can outsmart the rest of the world. They think they can get away with anything. They are utterly blind to their own flaws and lacks. Their paranoia keeps them on edge and untrusting of anyone who suggests they are on a self-destructive path. In fact, they are desperately afraid, in their heart of hearts, of... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 5, 2017

"Let all the snakes that lurk in the mud hatch out..."

"Let all the snakes that lurk in the mud hatch out..." That was a line in the BBC production of I, CLAUDIUS, based on the Robert Graves novels of the life of that crippled, stammering, under-appreciated Roman who was suddenly and unwillingly elevated to be Emperor in the chaos after Caligula's assassination. This is novelized history, based on Suetonius, the Roman historian of the later Roman Empire, but also takes some dramatic liberties, so I can't say this is actually ho w it all was. But... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Speaking of thinking...

The extreme polarization of beliefs and opinions can work havoc in families, among coworkers, communities... That makes this interesting to consider, and worth the read. http://theoatmeal.com/comics/believe Sign in to see full entry.

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