tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post4645767434468663837..comments2023-10-17T08:19:58.196-04:00Comments on FreeThinke: FreeThinkehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-64945785093970673292014-08-02T06:45:12.622-04:002014-08-02T06:45:12.622-04:00"Over the past 50 years, that common civic cu...<i>"Over the past 50 years, that common civic culture has unraveled. We have developed a new upper class with advanced educations, often obtained at elite schools, sharing tastes and preferences that set them apart from mainstream America. At the same time, we have developed a new lower class, characterized not by poverty but by withdrawal from America's core cultural institutions."</i><br /><br />Charles Murray is an ace, but I see hideous corruption in taste as well as values in today's upper class as much as anywhere else. Not that the upper class, if by that we mean the Plutocrats, has ever been filled with wisdom and saintly inclinations, but at least they filled the world with splendid architecture and sponsored the magnificent work of fine artists, composers and musicians.<br /><br />As one of my mother's friends wryly observed in the early 1960's, when the subjects of civic responsibility and public policy arose, <i>"Let's face it the people with all the money today are nothing but a bunch of bums."</i><br /><br />Another way of saying, of course that making a lot of money doesn't make you a person of fine quality.<br /><br />I think Murray is really onto something when he notes the gradual disappearance of honest faith in Jesus Christ as possibly a primary cause of cultural decline.<br /><br /><b>Even the hypocritical <i>pretense</i> at having faith, which implies paying shallow but-very-public lip service to the Word, produces better results than open, insolent, increasingly aggressive denial and rejection of the very idea that God and His Son, Christ the Redeemer, could be anything more than outmoded superstition devised by ancient leaders as a means of gaining social control and maintaining power.</b><br /><br />As the saying goes,<i> "The proof of the pudding is in the eating."</i><br /><br />What our "modern," supposedly "advanced" ways have cooked up, as it were, has given society a severe bilious attack followed by chronic indigestion and ulcers.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-88711001578553478652014-08-01T20:48:24.001-04:002014-08-01T20:48:24.001-04:00David Coppefiled said
Dora, for heavens sake get ...<b>David Coppefiled said</b><br /><br />Dora, for heavens sake get back in the kitchen this instant. Aunt Betsey and Mr. Dick will be here any minute fir dinner, and I can already smell the roast starting to burn.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-83523762044713981262014-08-01T20:45:56.642-04:002014-08-01T20:45:56.642-04:00Jersey are you saying Obama has been Valerie Plame...Jersey are you saying Obama has been Valerie Plameboozled?Lisahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02173702830006208833noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-20416430446339876102014-08-01T17:07:08.172-04:002014-08-01T17:07:08.172-04:00Dora Spenlow said
I love the fact that due to hi...<b>Dora Spenlow said</b><br /><br /><br />I love the fact that due to him making this here blog a teaching experience in order to properly support good English utilization, he makes the fact that good grammar really is that big of a deal really clear. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-22625111464437154172014-08-01T13:07:26.347-04:002014-08-01T13:07:26.347-04:00FT,
Use of "THE FACT THAT"would earn you...FT,<br /><i>Use of "THE FACT THAT"would earn you an Automatic F -- no matter how good the rest of you assignment might be.</i><br /><br />Even worse if the use of "the fact of the matter is (that)." I hear that on spewing out of the mouths of pundits and politicians all the time. Makes me crazy!Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-84103658064562333722014-08-01T13:05:58.581-04:002014-08-01T13:05:58.581-04:00FT,
Good grammar rules. And, yes, I teach them al...FT,<br />Good grammar rules. And, yes, I teach them all with great gusto. I've been doing so for over 40 years now.<br /><br />BTW, there are exceptions to that rule about split infinitives, but I've forgotten how those exceptions work.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-71240284735244736942014-08-01T10:25:09.305-04:002014-08-01T10:25:09.305-04:00None other than George Orwell, a great master of t...None other than George Orwell, a great master of the language, despised degenerate linguistic constructions. Prominent among numerous phrases he particularly disliked that had crept into use in his day was <b><i>"the fact that."</i></b><br /><br />My English teacher in high school to whom I shall be forever grateful warned us we would FAIL, if we ever dared <br /><br />A) to split infinitives, <br /><br />B) use "due to" when we meant "because of" <br /><br />C) not learn proper use of the POSSESSIVE, as in <b>"I admired <i>his</i> going to bat for the underdog,</b> which is correct, as opposed to <b>"I admired <i>him</i> going to bat for the underdog</b>, which has grown sadly acceptable through the persistence of vulgar usage magnified by TV and other forms of popular culture.. <br /><br />One of his admonitions, however, stood out beyond any of these others: <br /><br />Use of <b>"THE FACT THAT"would earn you an Automatic F</b> -- no matter how good the rest of you assignment might be.<br /><br />Teachers knew how to teach in those days, and cared about what they were doing, thank God.<br /><br /> Sadly, in our demented quest for "Social Justice," teaching -- along with good decorum, good taste and the use of proper English -- must now be relegated to the dismal category of Lost ArtsFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-72876013701024776362014-08-01T09:24:46.702-04:002014-08-01T09:24:46.702-04:00And then along waddles the Marxist Duck to apologi...And then along waddles the Marxist Duck to apologize for President Oblather's serial fuckups.<br /><br />It's all fine and good when their guy is the one playing with matches and burning the house downCarl Crabtreenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-74790953434636933182014-08-01T08:25:37.400-04:002014-08-01T08:25:37.400-04:00Oh do not blame, I pray thee,
The persons we elect...<i><b>Oh do not blame, I pray thee,<br />The persons we elect.<br />The problem is the way we<br />Fail our thinking to direct.<br /><br />We vote on whim and false reports<br />From propagandists vile<br />We bow before the sharp retorts<br />From bigots filled with bile.<br /><br />We sign our own death warrants<br />When we go to the polls,<br />And give support in torrents<br />To malignant, venal trolls.</b></i><br /><br />~ FreeThinkeFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-4125071370923810492014-08-01T07:10:02.599-04:002014-08-01T07:10:02.599-04:00Among the many non-delights
Found in the blogosphe...<i><b>Among the many non-delights<br />Found in the blogosphere<br />The intellectual termites<br />Are certainly most queer.<br /><br />The time they spend is worthless<br />In seeding comments sections<br />With waspish, witless, mirthless<br />Phrases filled with misdirections!</b></i><br /><br />~ FreeThinke<br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-50961540407674559352014-07-31T20:43:20.837-04:002014-07-31T20:43:20.837-04:00WHATEVER COULD BE HOLDING HIM UP?
-----
The fact ...WHATEVER COULD BE HOLDING HIM UP?<br /><br />-----<br />The fact that the so called scandals such as the IRS and Benghazi are manufactured.<br /><br />The fact that the VA situation has been an issue for decades.<br /><br />The fact that the Taliban trade is a non issue.<br /><br />The fact that the fringe right refuses to own the Iraq fiasco.<br /><br />The fact that Republican style austerity would probably have been <b>Much</b> worse than Obama's admitted anemic economic policies.<br /><br />The fact that you don't mention his obvious failings such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and NSA spying.Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-13374123950986700552014-07-31T20:20:43.900-04:002014-07-31T20:20:43.900-04:00My good friend Nietzsche Girl is reading up on Ern...My good friend Nietzsche Girl is reading up on <a href="http://thersitescampsite.blogspot.com/2014/07/sampling-some-surplus-jouissance.html" rel="nofollow">Ernst Bloch</a>, and I'm trying to get familiar with his work so that I can understand hers.Joe Cameltoehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18189167962738394522noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-10562469203728845912014-07-31T19:57:11.882-04:002014-07-31T19:57:11.882-04:00Charles Murray would call metopia Belmont.
There ...Charles Murray would call metopia <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970204301404577170733817181646" rel="nofollow">Belmont</a>.<br /><br />There is no doubt, that I'm from "Fishtown" even if my ethics are from Belmont. Call me a dying breed.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-29263803757283698772014-07-31T19:50:23.088-04:002014-07-31T19:50:23.088-04:00It's actually a word coined by Rainier Zimmerm...It's actually a word coined by Rainier Zimmermann when describing the Marxist philosophy of Ernst Bloch (although I prefer its' urban defintional variants).<br /><br /><i>Humans do their own (epistemic) experiments and test their own knowledge. Both these motions are mediated by the fact that humans can be visualized in principle as nature's own "organ of knowledge" after all. This is what Bloch calls experimentum mundi and what determines ontologically his ontology of the not-yet-being. In this sense, for Bloch, the humanum is essential for this process, because it is basically transported by humans. (From which an ethical demand can be derived which draws on the natural rights.) Hence, it is the humanum which enforces the novum in supporting its expression in terms of the knowledge achieved. Probably, it will miss the Whole though which is the ultimum, but it approaches it by following the invariant of direction. If the ultimum is utopia, then it cannot be reached anyway, because it is utopian. But on the way towards it we might be able to eventually achieve the actualization of what is shining forth from the future displaying the utopian contents. This actualization can be called metopia)4 rather than utopia. The process of actually achieving metopia, according to Bloch, is performed by means of a differentiation of the concept of possibility: The possible will be progressively objectified by passing through various shifts of possibility such that eventually it turns over into actuality.<br /><br />---<br /><br />4. The negation prefix "U (= Où)" in ancient Greek (utopia) means nothingness as the impossible, while the negation prefix "Mè" refers to non-being as the possible. </i>Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-20736440264543485742014-07-31T17:41:46.952-04:002014-07-31T17:41:46.952-04:00FT,
I am exceedingly charitable and give a signif...FT,<br /><i> I am exceedingly charitable and give a significant portion of income away on a regular basis with no hope of ever receiving a tax break for it.<br /><br />I live beautifully, but frugally. I believe wasting one's resources is a sin.</i><br /><br />All of the above holds true for my conservative friends in various gated communities around here.<br /><br />And I do indeed have some friends who are very prosperous. <br /><br />On the other hand, nearly every single such friend who is liberal rarely -- very rarely -- reaches out to help anyone else.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-2429671747560571242014-07-31T17:37:24.517-04:002014-07-31T17:37:24.517-04:00FT!
METOPIA des not appear in any of the standard ...FT!<br /><i>METOPIA des not appear in any of the standard dictionaries, so I'm inclined to regard as one of those trendy new, smart-arse buzzwords that get bandied about for a while and then drop off he radar screen. </i><br /><br />I coined the word as a play on words with myopia.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-43741885336222622482014-07-31T17:25:02.264-04:002014-07-31T17:25:02.264-04:00METOPIC means relating to the forehead
A METOPE i...<b>METOPIC</b> means relating to the forehead<br /><br />A <b>METOPE</b> is the square space between triglyphs on a class Doric frieze. <br /><br />I think a triglyph may be represented like this <b>|||</b><br /><br /><b>METOPIA</b> des not appear in any of the standard dictionaries, so I'm inclined to regard as one of those trendy new, smart-arse buzzwords that get bandied about for a while and then drop off he radar screen. <br /><br />However, from the way it's defined in that Urban Dictionary I, personally, would define it as "Where Everyone Would Like To Be" -- i.e. The Highest Aim of The American Dream -- even though I realize the term was coined derisively.<br /><br />Funny you should attribute that to Jersey who clearly identifies with the Commonest of the Common and the Lowest of the Low like virtually ALL college graduates today who've been steeped in a campus atmosphere dominated by Marxian-Fabian-Utopian-Socialist-Progressive-Liberal-Statist-Collectivist Thinking.<br /><br />In other words, unless I greatly misunderstand you, the two of you sound oddly like the crowd who has swallowed whole the ball of wax offered up by SOCIOLOGISTS. <br /><br />YIKES!!!<br /><br />I live a decidedly upper class lifestyle for which I have no qualms and no shame whatsoever. I AM where MOST would LOVE to be -- if they have good sense, that is ;-). <br /><br />HOWEVER, and AOW knows this full well, I am exceedingly charitable and give a significant portion of income away on a regular basis with no hope of ever receiving a tax break for it.<br /><br />I live beautifully, but frugally. I believe wasting one's resources is a sin.<br /><br />All that aside, it would take all the kings horses and all the king's men to dislodge me from my quasi-palatial, suburban retreat. FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-46428303014297653602014-07-31T16:30:50.868-04:002014-07-31T16:30:50.868-04:00All the bodies thrown under the bus?All the bodies thrown under the bus?Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-1484335988395948352014-07-31T15:26:06.089-04:002014-07-31T15:26:06.089-04:00Hmmmm....I still don't see any comment mention...Hmmmm....I still don't see any comment mentioning the unspoken factor of which I was thinking this morning.<br /><br />Will check back.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-64233591815248018122014-07-31T14:22:12.208-04:002014-07-31T14:22:12.208-04:00It's turds all the way down!It's turds all the way down!Jaque le Merdenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-40696348920892939502014-07-31T11:24:06.707-04:002014-07-31T11:24:06.707-04:00The salaried proletariate will do ANYTHING to main...The <a href="http://thersiteshideout.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-american-tea-party-and-uk.html" rel="nofollow">salaried proletariate</a> will do ANYTHING to maintain it's surplus wage advantage. And voting for one of their own (Obama) lies at the top of their list.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-50789956213942167382014-07-31T10:48:19.290-04:002014-07-31T10:48:19.290-04:00Metopia is suicidal -- sooner or later.Metopia is suicidal -- sooner or later.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-30924150272613537132014-07-31T10:47:13.755-04:002014-07-31T10:47:13.755-04:00Thersites,
Jersey needs to get out of Metopia more...Thersites,<br /><i>Jersey needs to get out of Metopia more. </i><br /><br />No kidding!<br /><br />I do, however, know quite a few conservatives <b>and</b> constitutionalists <i>Inside the DC Beltway and the gated communities of urban bubbles</i>. These people are hopping mad! And they vote.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-3526970738025512992014-07-31T10:43:00.703-04:002014-07-31T10:43:00.703-04:00Jersey, I do have to admit that is pretty funny.
...Jersey, I do have to admit that is pretty funny.<br /><br />That aside, are we simply witnessing a repeat of every other failed administration in our history, both democrat as well as republican? With the singular difference this administration is headed by a bi-racial leader?<br /><br />Just sayin...Les Carpenterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01120280762698472496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-145653764764266444.post-12056479888653037042014-07-31T10:32:19.757-04:002014-07-31T10:32:19.757-04:00Jersey needs to get out of Metopia more.
Inside ...Jersey needs to get out of <a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Metopia" rel="nofollow">Metopia</a> more. <br /><br />Inside the DC Beltway and the gated communities of urban bubbles on both coasts, Obama's still a rock star. <br /><br />But then again, they don't mingle with anyone earning less than six figures. They are the new class of the highly paid, low risk exposured "salaried" proletariate of tenured university educators, government workers and corporate managers.Thersiteshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15751286903359745316noreply@blogger.com