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, September 17, 2015

Hillary: What I like and what I don't like

What I like about Hillary: She knows her way around the Establishment of American politics, and she is herself established around the world. What I don't like about Hillary: She is part of the Washington Establishment, plays by the same old rules; She also is one of a self-entitling segment of a generation who makes their own rules, and exempts themselves from the rules everyone else has to play by, thinking that being so much smarter than everyone else, she can talk/lie her way out of any... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, September 12, 2015

It's now.

Personally, I don't care how much of the evident, data-supported global climate changes are caused by human activity. Change is upon us, and we need to be planning how we will live when the world we got used to is not the one we have now. If we don't or won't, then we are done. We will need to know how to grow some of our own food. We will need to put in place ways to deal with extremes of heat, cold, and storm. We will have to make accommodation--literally, places for people to live--when... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Forget it.

Forget it. Really. Whatever awful thing happened, forget it. Forget the Alamo, forget the Maine. If it was over and done a hundred years ago, if all the participants are long dead and dust, let it go and move forward. You can't until you do. Over and done... Sure, there are many terrible things out of the past that are not over and done, battles still being fought though maybe under other masks and rationales. Slavery, for instance. Gender equality in the Free World. But the Maine? No. There was... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

The New American Revolution

When the world went into a frenzy of updating old repressive regimes, I began to consider why that happens there, but is not likely to happen here in America. I concluded that it's because repressive regimes stifle free expression of true thoughts and feelings: the angers, fears, resentments and ideas are locked down until they build to an explosion of passions that change the world. In a world with freedom of expression, these pressures build to blow off now and then, but never to the point of... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, July 29, 2015

A lion dies, a goat lives...

I stopped at Facebook on my way here this morning, and saw several articles there, as is usually the case, that both saddened and encouraged me. By now, maybe you've already heard of the American dentist who, with the assistance of a local 'guide,' lured the lion out of the national park in Zimbabwe and killed, beheaded and skinned one of the parks most loved and most people-friendly inhabitants, Cecil.... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, July 27, 2015

"Repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth."

I'm not sure who to attribute the quote to, but it is repeated in word and deed so often that the lie must be self-evident: "Calling a sheep's tail a leg doesn't make it one." The Nazi propaganda machine played the lie for all they could get from it: "It is easier to convince people with a big lie than a little lie." We are lied to constantly, on all sides all the time. As consumers and constituents, our beliefs and attitudes, and thereby, our actions are fueled by big and little lies, by lies... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, July 25, 2015

There is no such thing as 12pm.

It's convention to use am and pm for every single time on the clock, but 12 is different. It is not ante-meridian, nor is it post-meridian: it is meridian. It is the point from which all other times are measured. It is noon or it is midnight. I get arguments on this. But it creates confusion, and people don't get picked up at the airport at the right time. What does 12 pm mean to you? To a lot of people, pm means 'night' so 12pm is midnight. But others, pm means 'afternoon' which is closer to... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Who is responsible here?

A few weeks ago, it was brought to the world's attention that an American corporation, the New York Blood Center, had spent some considerable time in Liberia doing blood research with a group of chimpanzees there. When the work was completed, NYBC departed, and after some time has declined to support the chimps in their retirement any further. Outrage, naturally, ensued. A few days ago, NYBC published this rebuttal of all the accusations: an explanation of their position and the history of... Sign in to see full entry.

Sunday, July 19, 2015

Food for thought: eating with the mind

My daughter is taking up a course of study in a relatively newly-named field: anthrozoology. It is about the relationships between human beings and other life, particularly animals, on this shared planet. It is about public policy and human habits of thinking about animals, things we do badly and meanly, things we do with a sense of stewardship. She attended an international anthrozoology symposium last week, and since then has been bringing some of the topics and questions raised to her Hollin... Sign in to see full entry.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Pigging out on pigs

My daughter who has taken the next step in her animal-welfare career with the starting-up of Hollin Hall Farm Sanctuary, has asked some questions over on Facebook, regarding the ethics of eating meat. She decided to stop eating beef when she was a teenager, and now is considering going full-on vegetarian. Here is how I answer her questions: I see the moral/ethical consideration as one of need: in modern First World society, we eat far more meat than we need to. In hunter/gatherer societies, meat... Sign in to see full entry.

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