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, September 4, 2012

Why I will not vote for Romney/Ryan

It is hard to comprehend why anyone lies in their job interview, especially telling lies that are easy to check out, and so be exposed. Romney and Ryan have been caught out in so many blatant lies, large manipulative ones, and small pointless ones, that it has become an issue in itself, exposed and ridiculed for the ludicrous absurdity of it! Do they seriously expect that a strategy of lies will win them the White House? Who are they talking to? Who do they expect to be taken in by all these... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Headline: We're Not Going to Let Our Campaign Be Dictated by Fact-Checkers

Damn right! We don't want to know the truth, we don't want to know who lies to us, who plays fast and loose with the truth! Right? Heavens forbid, we should check facts ourselves, or face the fact that in a campaign season, everyone lies, and we believe who we want to believe. So, disdain the journalist who does his/her job, sneer at the 'fact-checker' who questions your campaign's 'narrative,' its convenient and expedient versions of Truth. It's not as if it's relevant, or anything.... Sign in to see full entry.

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

Change in the weather, changes in the world...

We need some new stuff. It is human nature to cling to things--tools, systems, ideas that have proven in the past to successfully solve problems that needed solving. If a thing works, huzzah! Keep it handy, keep it forever--Now we have it, we never have to rethink or retool again! We love what solves our problems. We sing about it, we obsess about it, we enshrine it and treat it as though it's a gift from Providence! We feel strong and clever, when something we've come up with solves another of... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, August 27, 2012

headlines...

Controversy Over Rape, Abortion Hurts GOP. Huh... nothing compared to how it hurts women. I suppose it's all in your priorities. Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

The Art of Saying No

It came up here, recently--how to say "no" when someone says, "Be my Friend." For that to be easy, only takes considering the context of the request, and whether 'friend' means anything, really, in that context. Facebook has trivialized the very concept of 'friend.' Yet, still, some of us go through paroxysms of guilty self-justification before we decide to decline, refuse, reject. Or we don't say 'no' and allow another near-stranger into the circle of folk who will be keeping tabs on us. And... Sign in to see full entry.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Privacy is passe'

Apparently, being a ceo of a huge thing makes your opinion meaningful, even if you haven't quite reached 30, yet, and made your fortune with more luck than wisdom. Mr. Zuckerberg recently put out that declaration which sounds to me like a sneer at people who still regard privacy as something we should be able to expect in our lives. Minimizing a problem surely is easier than solving it. Someone might answer, "If you aren't doing anything wrong, why should you be afraid of constant scrutiny?" But... Sign in to see full entry.

Friday, May 11, 2012

Further thoughts on women's choices and declining birth-rates

A great focus of our society, since the advent of reliable birth-control in the 1960s, has been a woman's right to choose. Biology and men previously defined women's choices. The Sexual Revolution, and Feminism assaulted the institutionalized gender-roles, and raised questions that finally had powers beyond persuasion, to demand satsifactory answers. Some of those issues are still in hot debate, such as the right to choose abortion to end unwanted pregnancy. Also in debate are the adjoining... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, May 10, 2012

CHIMPANZEE by Disney

We went to see this new docu-drama--I guess that is a legitimate way to describe it. We had a private showing. Not for any reason but that we were the only two in the theater, at the early evening showing. It may be enough, to say it is a Disney product. Independent and impressively talented and dedicated film-makers provided the footage of the wild chimpanzees. Disney organized it and added a lot of anthropomorphic music and narration, but stopped short of a laugh-track. (Does anyone besides me... Sign in to see full entry.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

again, inspired by Setaki's blogs, then running off in my own direction...

To be fair, Africa has given the world a few diseases, too: HIV/AIDS originated among wild chimps in Cameroon ( http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2006/05/060525-aids-chimps.html ). Also, some pretty ugly practices of humans on other humans: Without Africans selling Africans, eager partners with the European and Americans, slave trade could not have flourished. Africa also gave us, Homo sapiens, birth and nurturance. It achieved Ife, Oyo, and Benin and other centers of culture and society... Sign in to see full entry.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Inspired by Setaki

People are people everywhere, and we are all made of the same stuff, have the same tendancies to set ourselves higher than others do, blow our own horns, share what we are excited to know (whether it's true or not), patronize inadvertantly when we think we have learned or invented or discovered something no one else has... It is also the case, I believe, that more and more of us, everywhere in the world, are expanding our awareness and outlook: there is less of both the EuroAmerican's being... Sign in to see full entry.

Headlines (What is this?)