My husband's son-in-law - I guess he's mine too now, a son-in-law-in-law - but I prefer to refer to him as simply "a friend", writes a weekly column in our local newspaper. On occasion, when short of a theme he'll include a collection of ideas from what he calls his "sticky-notes". I don't use those little yellow sticky bits of paper myself, but use Wordpad to save stuff which I think might one day come in useful, or which attracts my eye for whatever reason. As I'm short of a theme I'm going off into sticky note mode myself today. (There are plenty of themes on which I could easily vent my ire, but in deference to my own blood pressure and that of any passing readers, I shall desist). I've teased out a few items saved among my Wordpad-based "sticky-notes". Some have been sitting there for months, some for years, and have lost links to source, for which I apologise; some are more recent.
From The American President script by Aaron Sorkin
America isn't easy. America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime opposing at the top of yours.
A comment on the concept of "generation" with which I wholeheartedly agreed:
The whole concept of "generation", in anything other than the strictest biological sense, is an intellectual fraud. There are no such things as "generations". There are only cohorts of humans who have passed through the world at a certain time and perhaps experienced certain phenomena in common. All of this talk of "Greatest Generation", "Boomers", "GenX", etc., is an exercise in the use of sweeping generalizations to obscure the myriad individual biographies of humans. Yeah, let's ignore the complexity of human society and human history! Yeah, let's arbitrarily lump people together in ill-defined groups based solely on their birth year! Trying to determine a person's characteristics based on when they were born isn't social science--it's numerology. I've had people argue to me that the use of such terms as Gen X, Millennial, and so on are convenient ways of discussing people. That's exactly what's wrong with them. Talking about other humans should be hard. It should require effort, should require clear-headed thought. Any worthwhile, complex subject does. --- Yosef52
Nine years ago, Martin Luther King III spoke at a commemoration of his father’s birth and said:
When will the war end? We all have to be concerned about terrorism, but you will never end terrorism by terrorizing others.
Draft of a post published in June 2008, titled "Lightworker?"
(Splutter!!)
The link within that post to a relevant article may be defunct - here's a current one: Is Obama an enlightened being? / Spiritual wise ones say: This sure ain't no ordinary politician. You buying it? By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist.
Still spluttering..... lightworker could, more accurately be read as sleightworker from a 2013 perspective (as in sleight of hand and tongue). These ideas on our now second-term President fit, prequel-wise, into issues discussed in a recent post Obama x 3.
Still spluttering..... lightworker could, more accurately be read as sleightworker from a 2013 perspective (as in sleight of hand and tongue). These ideas on our now second-term President fit, prequel-wise, into issues discussed in a recent post Obama x 3.From Judith Parker Harris's "The United States of Anger" (2009):
1) How many times have you had to swallow a difference of opinion only to feel it knot up in the pit of your stomach?
2) Have you ever had intense pain in your neck and shoulders just before or right after an argument?
3) Do you recall holding in frustration, anger, and resentment all day only to find yourself losing it later on with a family member or close friend? Stress causes 54% of Americans to fight with people close to them.
There isn't much that unites us these days except that a lot of us are really angry. We've got liberal vs. conservative, choice vs. life, young vs. old, rich vs. poor, male s. female, My God vs. your God. Why so angry? Maybe it is because everyone's feeling out of control about everything. Try substituting consciousness for control. Listen to what is coming out of your mouth and then decide who's running this show?
Bertrand Russell, British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic.:
Advocates of capitalism are very apt to appeal to the sacred principles of liberty, which are embodied in one maxim:
The fortunate must not be restrained in the exercise of tyranny over the unfortunate.
Line of dialogue I particularly admired, from last week's episode of Mad Men: Left-winger Abe to his advertising executive girlfriend, Peggy:
Abe: Your activities are offensive to my every waking moment. I’m sorry. But you’ll always be the enemy.
From Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
In the Beginning
It was a nice day.
!hola! Too hot & humid here in the deep south for outside endeavors today, Twilight! "Air you can wear", as our local weatherman says. How's that self-tutorial Spanish coming along? "Tornado" is spelled the same in English or Spanish!
ReplyDeleteA sticky note you might find interesting is an article in Vanity Fair, "The Shadowy Residents of One Hyde Park"...it's about London being the money center of the world and its dark side. I tend to think of the U.S. as claiming that title, but VF states otherwise and has some remarkable finds. The City of London Corporation with its own lord mayor of London and its own constitution that predates London is alarming, yet very interesting, as it exposes nefarious British banking.
http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2013/04/mysterious-residents-one-hyde-park-london
mike ~ Hey! Nice to "see" you again.
ReplyDeleteI don't envy your weather down there - don't even like ours at this time of year - my northern blood rebels.
Thanks for the link. That's a BP-raising article for any socialist-leaning reader. ;-)
One Hyde Park is an obscenity - sickening. I'm disgusted that the UK would tolerate something like that, let alone encourage it.
London used to seem like a magnet for sheikhs and suchlike in the past, so I'm not too surprised; but the filthy-rich Russian connection has to be a more modern import - and more surprising to me.
It stinks - and it's global and would take a global uprising to make any difference. Not sure how that could possibly happen as things are.
Anyway, I'll sharpen the old Defarge knitting needles in readiness and wait impatiently for news of barricades.
;-O
mike ~ Forgot to say - Spanish-learning has stalled, for now.
ReplyDeleteEnthusiasm drained away after a few doses of alphabet and days of week. and CD voices sounding vaguely patronising and irritating.
It'll return though, sometime, and begin anew with Spanish for Dummies :-)
I think he would be very flattered to know you call him friend.
ReplyDeleteI do enjoy this conversation after referring to my dad's wife:
"Your dad's wife? Isn't that your stepmother?"
"No, that was my dad's second wife?"
"Really? Has your dad been married a lot?"
"My dad has been married for more than 45 years, just not consecutively."
Kaleymorris ~ I hope so. :-)
ReplyDeleteLOL!! Good line!
I've never been a mother step- or otherwise, and it's too darn late to start now, especially to 4 fully fledged adults who are likely a whole lot wiser than I am, and the majority parents themselves. ;-)
“There are no such things as ‘generations’.” That is true, absolutely, and its only sense is biological one...
ReplyDeleteOn the other side, there is an astrological sense in “generations”, but it is not as simplistic and mechanically meaningful as the so-called generations as usually people believed ‘em to be alike...
There are astrological cycles indeed especially dealing with slow planets, that influence generations and Ages...
Chomp~ Yes, true enough re the astrology. But there's not a clear-cut demarcation between generations even astrologically - in my opinion anyway.
ReplyDeleteThe outer planets' positions in signs, and in relation to one another, are significant when in aspect to personal planets in individuals' natal charts - so not all will be affected, or affected in the same way.
The position of outer planets are also thought to provide a kind of astrological atmosphere for mundane matters too, which indirectly can affect the way those born within certain time spans grow with certain experiences in common, then mature at the same period of time some decades on.
It's a really interesting topic, but in no way as clear-cut as some would like to make it. :-)
Call it generational, younger vs older, whatever, but generational differences make a difference from food selections, communication, socializing, fashion design, recreational activities, to politics and beyond. Don't discount the concept of generational issues. Here's an interesting report, "Grand Old Party for a Brand New Generation", issued by the College Republican National Committee on how the GOP did NOT properly account for the younger generation (it's lengthy, but much can be gleaned from the first page or two):
ReplyDeletehttp://www.scribd.com/doc/145471237/Grand-Old-Party-for-a-Brand-New-Generation
"Ultimately, the CRNC report argues that the GOP is suffering from a bad brand. Now, you might argue that if the GOP is a box of cereal, people don’t hate it because the box is ugly but because the cereal tastes lousy. But until the party decides to throw the flakes out and start from scratch, reports calling for new box designs aren’t going to do much good."
mike ~ Hi again!
ReplyDeleteFrom a marketing point of view, trying to "sell" products, ideologies, candidates, music - different approaches will be used, based heavily on age groups. Agreed. But I stand by my view that really there are no clear demarcation lines. Some young people are "old" before they reach 35, and would fit in more accurately with previous age groups than with their own - others remain still young in attitude well after the 3 score years and 10. Which is kind of what the commenter in the sticky note quote was hinting at, I think.
Being stereotyped by age is a pain in the butt!
Anything concerning generations is going to be pure generalisation, and more stereotyping - which we could, as a species, well do without.
I've seen two articles in the past few days based on :"it's all THAT generation's fault..... (whinge whinge)". Sad! That's the kind of thing emphasis on "generationism" spawns, and almost always negative.
More divisions - opportunities for the powers that be to continue to utilise the splits and conquer (as though they haven't done so already!).
Thanks for the link - I skimmed the early pages. It does fits the marketing ploy pattern.
:-)