tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post1741031662343950003..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-11952744635375794932014-05-09T13:15:03.304-04:002014-05-09T13:15:03.304-04:00DUCKY: "Odd isn't it? In my group I'm...<b>DUCKY: <i>"Odd isn't it? In my group I'm considered the moderate ..."</i> <br /><br />LES: <i>"Now THAT is scary! ..."</i></b><br /><br />We've all grown so used to Ducky after so many years of dealing with him, that many of us have developed a genuine fondness for him, even though we despise his politics. Ducky is after all a fellow human being, and the concern he expresses for his family and the less fortunate, I know, is quite genuine. However, I believe he told you the truth, Les, in that short remark.<br /><br />Ducky represents the tip of a colossal iceberg lurking in our waters. It is a constant threat to the very existence of our Ship of State. <br /><br />The existence of this extreme faction is why the country has become so maddeningly divided. <br /><br /><b>There can be NO COMPROMISE with ideologies, philosophies and profoundly alien religious beliefs.</b><br /><br />You speak constantly of being "rational," Les. I'm certainly not opposed to that, HOWEVER, of what use is "rationality" in the presence of a hissing cobra, a charging rhinoceros, a poisonous scorpion, or a howling mob bent on burning your house down or hanging you from the nearest tree?<br /><br />Such deadly forces are hardly susceptible to reasoned argument<br /><br />I often talk of compromising with the Devil as a convenient metaphor when trying to counter arguments that favor cooperation and peaceful co-existence with those who are essentially Marxian in their approach to governance. <br /><br /><b>It's foolhardy to imagine for an instant that such attempts at compromise will produce anything but pain, sorrow and irretrievable loss.</b><br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-74235604239560515852014-05-09T05:50:05.665-04:002014-05-09T05:50:05.665-04:00FT,
Neither Mr. AOW nor I caught a break yesterday...FT,<br />Neither Mr. AOW nor I caught a break yesterday!<br /><br />No "breach of safety" was involved although Mr. AOW was at home alone when the trouble ensued. I arrived home after a long day at work to deal with the matter.<br /><br />Ah, well! It's over now, and we managed to get some sleep last night.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-44829596656549689752014-05-08T23:08:39.148-04:002014-05-08T23:08:39.148-04:00Now THAT is scary! :-)Now THAT is scary! :-)Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-83231704735837321042014-05-08T22:59:50.077-04:002014-05-08T22:59:50.077-04:00Call it a figure of speech Ducky. Even though I am...Call it a figure of speech Ducky. Even though I am not, in certain company I am CONSIDERED to be. <br /><br />-----<br />Odd isn't it. In my group I'm considered the moderate.Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-24532725353647030492014-05-08T21:06:42.279-04:002014-05-08T21:06:42.279-04:00I'm so sorry you had a bad day, AOW. Your Mr. ...I'm so sorry you had a bad day, AOW. Your Mr. deserves every break he can get -- and so do you. I take it you both survived the ordeal -- whatever it was -- and are now safe at home at least? Hope I'm right.<br /><br />Can't say I'm looking forward to reading your link, but will investigate soon. Right now, I'm broiling chicken believe it or not. Was up at 4:30 AM, and got so tired by 11:00 AM I had to take a nap. <b>FATAL!</b><br /><br />Imagine eating dinner after 9:00 PM. Preposterous, but that's what I'm doing. (:-oFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-49360268254142246082014-05-08T19:54:57.382-04:002014-05-08T19:54:57.382-04:00FT,
Mr. AOW had a VERY ROUGH day today, and we are...FT,<br />Mr. AOW had a <b>VERY ROUGH</b> day today, and we are both exhausted. I'll spare all reading this thread the airing of today's details in a public forum.<br /><br />However, before I shut down the computer and retire for the night, I want you to see this as evidence of the devolution of higher institutions of learning: <a href="http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2014/04/the-war-on-standards-comes-to-college-debate.php" rel="nofollow">The War On Standards Comes to College Debate</a>. <br /><br /><b>SURREAL!</b><br /><br />Just think what the blogosphere will be like in a few more years!Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-98743754538902752014-05-08T17:04:58.363-04:002014-05-08T17:04:58.363-04:00No man can serve two masters: for either he will h...<i>No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.</i><br /><br />~ Matthew 6:24 (KJV)<br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-927681013971024212014-05-08T16:45:13.638-04:002014-05-08T16:45:13.638-04:00Call it a figure of speech Ducky. Even though I am...Call it a figure of speech Ducky. Even though I am not, in certain company I am CONSIDERED to be. <br /><br />Labels are BS anyway, at least for the most part. Unless you fit into one of the extremes, then of course applying a label is easy.<br /><br />As to risk in the literal sense, there is none.Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-32442226380297887802014-05-08T16:07:18.492-04:002014-05-08T16:07:18.492-04:00RN, why do you think being called leftist is a ris...RN, why do you think being called leftist is a risk?Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-86107980966937681542014-05-08T10:09:36.789-04:002014-05-08T10:09:36.789-04:00At the risk of being called a leftist, Marxist, or...At the risk of being called a leftist, Marxist, or any number of other things, it does seem the more conservatve are pursuing a similar agenda these days and are not adverse to indoctrination in so long as it supports and serves their objectives.<br /><br />Two of the best teaches I ever had, one a consevative Christian the other a liberal give me great advice, "always set your sights higher than the dollar", and "knowledge is a powerful weapon, learn all you can from as many sources as possible but always think for yourself."<br /><br />How it seems education and politics have changed in the last 45 years.Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-40605825890827845112014-05-08T09:35:19.452-04:002014-05-08T09:35:19.452-04:00What you have said, AOW, gives evidence that what-...What you have said, AOW, gives evidence that what-should-be-the-true purpose of "education" has been SUBVERTED by undue political influence.<br /><br />Of course, leftists think this is just "hunky dorey" and "peachy keen," I'm sure.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-66609338432279479562014-05-08T09:32:12.222-04:002014-05-08T09:32:12.222-04:00This forces us to ask the question: Do we go to co...This forces us to ask the question: Do we go to college primarily to receive and education or to have our worldview adjusted by professors with a point of view determined to bully us into submission? <br /><br />If a college administration SUPPORTS such tactics on the part of professors using "academic freedom" as an excuse, do we not have a duty to ourselves as students our children as parents to WITHDRAW from that school, and do as much as we possibly can to make PUBLIC STATEMENTS about the situation?<br /><br />But of course, this PERVERTS the PURPOSE of attending a university in he first place.<br /><br />if the subject is supposed to be VIVALDI, it ought not to be twisted into a polemic on the social injustices of Vivaldi's time, and how they've been perpetuated in our own society today, blah blah, blah.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-16707093416731269242014-05-08T08:24:20.597-04:002014-05-08T08:24:20.597-04:00FT,
The country was already very far gone by 1970,...FT,<br /><i>The country was already very far gone by 1970, and this professor was definitely a hardcore leftist...</i><br /><br />That trend is now the norm and has more strength. To whom can targeted students now appeal? To the dean? Not usually.<br /><br />The case was very different back when I was in college (1968-1972). An academically strong student could fight the targeting by individual professors. I know several students who successfully did so. Back then.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-63573761189143639712014-05-08T08:20:31.581-04:002014-05-08T08:20:31.581-04:00FT,
I personally know former students who have bee...FT,<br />I personally know former students who have been targeted by Leftist professors this semester -- threatened with failure if they don't agree with the professor and express their opinions in the classes (even if an "open discussion" is going on).<br /><br />I say the same about former students in the past few years, too.<br /><br />To my knowledge, they have all knuckled under -- on the specific instructions of their parents.<br /><br />These same parents talk about taking a stand, but won't do so themselves.<br /><br />Frankly, I'm disgusted and have lost respect for these wimps, who continue to whine about what's going on. As I whining to me makes one damn bit of difference!<br /><br />No wonder that our society and our culture has undergone a sea change. <b>NO GUTS TO STAND UP AGAINST THE WAVES OF TOTALITARIANISM!</b> <br /><br />The next generation will get what their parents deserve instead of that the next generation deserves <i>per se</i>.<br /><br />Thus endeth AOW's rant for today.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-74001273507032167752014-05-08T07:44:04.939-04:002014-05-08T07:44:04.939-04:00I honestly don't know, AOW. The country was al...I honestly don't know, AOW. The country was already very far gone by 1970, and this professor was definitely a hardcore leftist, even though his specialty was early Baroque music. The trend to view EVERYTHING through a political lens was already well in place, but stark-raving MADNESS we hear about on campuses today had not yet taken hold.<br /><br />I guess it would depend in the professor -- as it usually does anyway. <br /><br />The incident described took place at NYU -- the Belly of the Leftist Beast in Law, Sociology and Journalism. My field was far less politicized, although "Ethno-Musicology" had reared its ugly head by then, and was starting to be regarded as a legitimate field of study, and not just a curiosity.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-55773618859702375842014-05-08T07:07:01.541-04:002014-05-08T07:07:01.541-04:00FT,
If you were to utter those words in a classroo...FT,<br />If you were to utter those words in a classroom today, do you think that the professor would still give you an <i>A</i>?Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-87315578870587277832014-05-08T06:54:47.683-04:002014-05-08T06:54:47.683-04:00I don't take "courses" -- especially...I don't take "courses" -- especially not on matters I regard as entertainment --, and I don't read "critics." I form my own opinions from direct experience. I think, I feel, -- or fail to feel --, and then I try to articulate.<br /><br /><i>"As the twig is bent, so grows the tree."</i><br /><br />I am most grateful I to have been <i>educated</i>, and never subjected to agenda-driven instruction amounting to indoctrination.<br /><br />Only once - in graduate school -- did I have a professor who tried to inform us the music we were examining was "The Product of Privilege." The way he said it made "privilege" sound like a dirty word. He was one of those typical poorly dressed, poorly groomed, heavily-bearded products of the Sick-sties who looked as though he'd be more at home in a coffee house, strumming a guitar whining anti-Establishent protest songs than in a classroom.<br /><br />I was thirty at the time -- a bit older than most of the others --, and was able to see -- and smell -- the Marxian cant and rhetoric that had polluted his mind, so I stood up, and said, <i>"We should all thank God for "Privilege" and the system of Patronage stemming from the Church and the Aristocracy. Without it we'd have had a sadly diminished artistic and intellectual heritage. In fact Europe would have nothing to attract tourists, and we'd have nothing much to study today, and no reason for being here right now, and you, dear Professor, would have to find something else to do in order to make a living. Did you never think of it from that perspective?"</i><br /><br />I said this with a whimsical air in a jocular tone, and a gleam in my eye, but he knew I was serious.<br /><br />Well, you could have heard a pin drop, and then the class broke into applause.<br /><br />Believe it or not, I got an A from the guy, which may say more for his quality of character and integrity than mine. <br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-8182568746356472822014-05-07T22:02:53.446-04:002014-05-07T22:02:53.446-04:00Sorry, FT, any course on camp would include The Fo...Sorry, FT, any course on camp would include <i>The Fountainhead</i>.<br /><br />Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-77790023323581488682014-05-07T21:57:27.721-04:002014-05-07T21:57:27.721-04:00Does anyone find Joan Fontaine at age 40 a credibl...Does anyone find Joan Fontaine at age 40 a credible love interest for the young Belafonte? Her character is something of a mystery. Who was she, really? What had she done all those years before meeting Harry? She hints broadly of a checkered past -- "I always get involved with the wrong man"-- but she is very thinly drawn in the movie. Perhaps we'd learn more from the book?FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-48097570413505148612014-05-07T21:50:52.760-04:002014-05-07T21:50:52.760-04:00Ducky, as serious student of the arts and somethin...Ducky, as serious student of the arts and something of an artist, yourself, surely you know that creative individuals tend to be fiercely egocentric, idealistic, individualistic, zealous in the extreme about their work, arrogant, and dismissive of prevailing norms and quotidian trivialities. They make lousy husbands too, I've been told.<br /><br />The countess up there claimed the Fountainhead was really about Frank Lloyd Wright's having made a successful career out of thumbing his nose at the Bourgeoisie, despite loud opposition from the Philistines of his time.<br /><br />Everything said about the nature of The Artist above applies very well to Frank Lloyd Wright, who was in reality a far less attractive figure than Howard Roark.<br /><br />So what's your beef?<br /><br />Only you could see The Fountainhead as a satire of the author's novel of the same name.<br /><br />Though I respect her point of view and many of her ideas, I have never liked Rand's writing. She couldn't write dialogue to save her soul. Her prose is turgid, her characters appear stilted and never really come to life. It's much too obvious they are merely allegorical symbols designed to serve a didactic, polemical scheme.<br /><br />Rand's writing has frequently been called "tendentious." I'm afraid I have to agree. That does not mean it is not worth reading, however. It just ends to be heavy sledding, that's all.<br /><br />The movie, however, has great impact and wears well. I try never to miss seeing it when it's on.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-23246938222401902972014-05-07T21:30:59.356-04:002014-05-07T21:30:59.356-04:00The farther we move from adherence to CHRISTIAN pr...The farther we move from adherence to CHRISTIAN principles and precepts, the closer we move towards The Abyss -- the flaming pits.<br /><br />Abandon the Golden Rule, and we've abandoned Civilization.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-81334314891143892652014-05-07T21:27:09.179-04:002014-05-07T21:27:09.179-04:00Rapoport & Axelrod, eh?
I ought to have have ...Rapoport & Axelrod, eh?<br /><br />I ought to have have known!<br /><br />It could never have come from Terwilliger & Wakefield, Lanchester & Laughton, Redfield & Bancroft, Bailey, Banks & Biddle, Henry Ford, Andrew Carnegie, J.P Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, Batton, Barton, Durston & Owen or Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner, Smith & Bean, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, <i>et al.</i> <br /><br />That was Old World.<br /><br />Look who's in charge today:<br /><br />GOLDMAN SACHS!<br /><br />Oink! Oink! Oink!FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-90514124766941905852014-05-07T16:12:56.536-04:002014-05-07T16:12:56.536-04:00What assurances, other the Roark's were given ...What assurances, other the Roark's were given that he was a great architect? He seemed a little full of himself.<br /><br />Why is compromise with the client a fault?<br /><br />When has American architecture not been open to new trends? <br /><br />What jury exonerates you from blowing up a construction site because your design was modified?<br /><br />Which was Patricia Neal's better rape scene, <i>The Fountainhead</i> or <i>Hud</i>?<br /><br />Admit it, you all laughed when Raymond Massey shot himself. What a hoot.<br /><br />The film however is a brilliant satire.Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-63933017196715886052014-05-07T16:11:20.575-04:002014-05-07T16:11:20.575-04:00Then why is tit-for-tat the "hands-down"...Then why is tit-for-tat the "hands-down" <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tit_for_tat" rel="nofollow">most successful</a> gaming strategy?<br /><br />Agreed, it's not nice. But it IS effective.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30053020884358389922014-05-07T12:14:55.267-04:002014-05-07T12:14:55.267-04:00A litte bit of unbridled hatred may set a good exa...A litte bit of unbridled hatred may set a good example of how not to think, and what not to do, but when it gets excessive it befouls the board, and must be excised. <br /><br />I hope more people watch the movie. It's stylishly presented, intriguing and decidedly spellbinding once you allow it to draw you in.<br /><br />Thank you for giving it that chance, Waylon. I have remembered that I did read the book -- the Readers Digest Condensed version -- but I was just 14. It was just a good yarn to me at that age. Most didn't look for polemical significance back then anyway. We read for pleasure and to appreciate interesting plots, convincing character development, good dialogue, and stylish prose.<br /><br />Railing on endlessly about racism had not yet come to dominate public life, and that meant we were much MORE inclined to be sympathetic to Negroes and other minorities trapped in a culture alien and inhospitable to them.<br /><br />Militancy in outsiders tends to antagonize. It rarely engenders sympathy, and tends to asphyxiate nascent feelings of empathy.<br /><br />Giving tit for tat has never been very helpful to human progress.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.com