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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 7, 2024 15:06:39 GMT -8
Perhaps a divine hand is behind this. Regardless, I cannot pretend to mourn such a despicable person. The fewer of these bums there are, the better off the rest of us will be. He had no compunction to crush and imprison those who disagreed with his position on the IEIGT. He used his position as a journalist to push his tyrannical agenda. Just imagine if he came into greater power sometime in the future. One less fanatic for civilized society to deal with. Canadian Criminal Crashes
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 7, 2024 18:49:04 GMT -8
What a despicable human being. Do you think he was snorting too much Coke or something?
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 15, 2024 9:31:43 GMT -8
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Post by artraveler on Mar 15, 2024 10:28:03 GMT -8
Flu and KFF
A position I remember we all took early in the panic. The question we now face is why is the CDC moving to tell us what we already know?
I think there are three reasons with the third the most likely.
1. The obvious is over reaction by government with masks and lockdowns that did not work. Remember the 15 days myth. 2. The virus has mutated and will continue to mutate until the world populations are mostly immune 3. There is no longer political value with beating this particular dead horse. The left got all they could from KFF, Biden as president. Democrats are faced with a tough problem with Joe Biden. His apparent cognitive decline is open to the world and even the most radical democrat has to acknowledge it, at least in their mind. And, there is no one to replace him on the ticket. Harris is 40 years younger than Biden and not any brighter. The leading democrat contenders for the crown of thorns are unacceptable to the rest of the country. It is a sad time for the greatest republic in 2000 years.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 15, 2024 11:05:29 GMT -8
I agree with you that the reasons for this are most likely political. We should never underestimate the CDC's bureaucratic culture combined with the present leftist political slant. One reason I think they are stating the obvious is to keep those, like Winnie-the-Pooh with very little brain, impressed with the CDC's grasp on the situation and its public service to us all by letting us know that there is little to fear. The CDC can also claim that this announcement shows they are just following the science and not being alarmist. Dumb people are too often easily impressed.
As I mentioned about ten days back, I recently caught the latest KFF strain and it took me about a day-and-a-half to get over it. That is very different from my first go-round with it in late November/first-half December of 2021.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 15, 2024 13:45:55 GMT -8
Parsing the motivations of liars and hysterics...Oh, Mr. Flu, I don't envy you. Or me. Or us. All of your observations ("all" includes Herr Bock) seem sensible and surely part of the answer. But I would posit that we just don't know. But I would posit (outside of political motivations, which I agree are yuge), we need to understand why there is no reason to be hysterical or why histrionics are not the norm. Something has changed. Maybe it's just H.F. (hysterical fatigue). Even women and girl-men probably have some kind of shelf life for their irrationality. And we must remember (as you all surely do) that the hysterics and blind obedience during the KFF-Mania was a conjunction of two elements (in regards to the end user): fear and virtue-signaling. I saw both types, and obviously one could be motivated by both. But maybe the fear just can't be maintained anymore (because you know they would if they could). And perhaps there is little virtue left in being an idiot. (I mean a "mask wearer"...especially those who wore one while driving inside their car...note that driving outside the car would, of course, be a challenge.) I don't know. I'm just asking some annoying Leah-approved rhetorical questions.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 15, 2024 15:06:40 GMT -8
I try to think of rational reasons for the actions of people, but I agree that there is much we simply cannot know. Sometimes, I don't even think they know why they are doing things.
Bravo! I wonder how Leah is doing?
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 15, 2024 16:17:46 GMT -8
You are just being modest. I think all the time people don't know why they do things. And that's not just a meaningless rhetorical flourish. I mean that most people today have little to no idea that they are the product of a manipulative, invasive, and all-encompassing mass-marketed culture – even as there are plenty of idiots (and atheists...one and the same) who say they are "free thinkers." They remind me of the adage that a "diverse" culture is where everyone looks different but thinks the same. And they don't know why they think what they think. They have no idea that they have been programmed.
I used to scoff at the libtard/atheist critiques of free will. And still do. But clearly if you are wearing a mask while driving your car, you are not the driver of your own life. And that analogy is just the tip of the iceberg in regards to a hundred nutty and goofy things that people do or think and have never given a real thought as to why they do or think in that manner.
I don't know. I never hear from any of the old gang. But like I said, what a learning experience doing StubbornThings. I was dumb and naive. It was ultimately just the same old shit: People were burnishing their egos.
Not everyone, of course. But, good god, here's a place right here where you can speak your mind more or less unfiltered. But because it's not an avenue for someone to "be" somebody, it's crickets chirping.
I'm not bitter. I purposely gave up any kind of "social" media many years back and for very good reasons...reasons the rest of the world is just barely catching on to.
Still, it's disheartening to find out how shallow most people are...present company excluded, of course.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 15, 2024 17:54:53 GMT -8
I have had a soft spot for eccentrics since I was a boy. I always liked, or at least admired, people who did not feel the need to follow the crowd. Having often enough been called something of an eccentric myself, I guess this is only natural.
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Brad Nelson
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 15, 2024 19:07:51 GMT -8
This subject crosses existential and philosophical boundaries that most people don't even know exist.
Man is a social animal. Blah blah blah. But must he be a mindless social animal always bending to convention and the supposed moral authority of others? Will nothing anchor him from falling into quick membership with the mob?
Pragmatists (and cowards) don't care. Their cynicism will well convince them that morals and philosophical treatises on "the meaning of life" are for losers. That stuff gets in the way of making a buck or gaining power and influence.
So first off, the meaning of life – or what it is to live a noble life – cannot be defined by the standards of moral or social sociopaths. Nor can it be measured against mere "market forces" because "market forces" is just a prettified name for the mob. It may be a less harmful mob than the pitchfork kind. But the real danger is in instilling the mob-mentality absent restraining or ennobling aspects. "Because I can make a buck" is a ghastly organizing principle.
Oh, and let's not lionize the iconoclast, those who are supposedly chucking all the rules. Our society is now chock-full of such fakers and frauds who are all "doing their own thing" and looking exactly like everyone else in doing it. This is basically the Transgender movement writ large. It's about a lot of things. But one central aspect is what we might best call Performance Posturing. It's not enough to be a person (which is the exact philosophical point of this post...what is a person and what should he do?). They must transcend being human. Human isn't good enough.
Facebook and all the "social" media is just one big faux vomitorium of posturing. Everyone's trying to show how grand their lives are. Everyone wants to be "special." Everyone's ego is the prime aspect of most interactions.
Not follow the crowd? Yes, by howdy. Wouldn't that be grand? Read the classics. Dress nicely. Use language honestly. Adhere to the morals of the Bible. (how does it go?)….
Love is over-rated as used today. But we could refashion that sentiment as just a call toward prudence, reasonableness, and courtesy. That would solve most of our problems.
But nearly everything in our culture works to amplify the Seven Deadly Sins. You mentioned PornHub in a recent post. This stuff is likely a billion dollar business and it is pulling people into a whirlpool of sin. Etc. Etc. Name one influence pulling us in a good direction and that is widespread. I can think only of Dennis Prager.
Not following the crowd in present circumstances does not mark one as an iconoclast but as a sane person. That's how farked up the mainstream has become. And it will be my contention to my dying day that one cannot live a good human life and just "go with the flow" of this present culture.
Sure, it doesn't hurt to have a bit of an eccentric impulse to spur one on, to keep from automatically sucking up to every fad or fashion. We need some eccentricity. We need some skepticism. We need just a plain knee-jerk immune-response resistance to fools and foolishness.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 15, 2024 19:56:01 GMT -8
Thomas Hardy wrote a book, which has a wonderful title, which fits this discussion perfectly. Far From the Madding Crowd. I enjoyed the book, and 1967 film with Julie Cristie. I found the title had little to do with the story, but it really is a hook for attracting one's attention. In itself, it is also a strong philosophical statement. One doesn't have to read the book to gain something from the sentiment.
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Post by artraveler on Mar 16, 2024 7:18:36 GMT -8
House Cleaning at RNC amgreatness.com/This is coming years late but I guess it is better than mittens sister Former Trump White House adviser, who is set to become the RNC’s new chief operating officer, Sean Cairncross, reportedly sent an email that said a full evaluation of RNC staffing was being done “to ensure the building is aligned with his vision of how to win in November.”
Ok, make it happen! My level of trust is based on success, no more well, we did our best but the other side doesn't play fair.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 16, 2024 7:27:35 GMT -8
I just read the synopsis of that.
Wow. What a collection of trailer-trash. What a melodrama from the sound of it. A madding crowd indeed. When they say humans are evolved from apes, stories such as this are positive evidence for it. What a collection of humanity, although Gabriel sounds like the one and only good fellow in the entire book.
And then you have (what to my mind) is the prototypical idiot woman who is spoiled and treats everyone poorly. She doesn't know her own mind and contributes to making a wreck of other people's lives. Again...true to life, I fear. Yes, I can see why this would be an interesting story.
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Post by artraveler on Mar 16, 2024 7:36:29 GMT -8
I have tried to live a life out of the limelight. I was a loner in high school, military, and civilian life. I've kept my own counsel and taken my success and failures as they come. I've tried to deal justly with all I've been involvled with and dealt justice when I could. On occasion that meant admistering deadly force. I've no regrets.
My general world view is more existential in philosophy, but on the Jewish side with Martin Barber and Franz Rosenswig with a large dose of Stoic.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 16, 2024 7:42:37 GMT -8
Large or small, a dose of Stoic is required to ward off the pansies.
I don't think it's easy or even possible to analyze life and then live it according to a set blueprint. Too much random stuff happens. And we have too many innate and likely unchangeable character traits to make it viable to just blueprint your life any way you imagine.
Still, at the end of the day, it's likely that it is our reaction to what happens to us that decides if we are happy or not, consider ourselves victims or not, or are pansies about the whole enterprise or not. Way too many pansies these days.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 16, 2024 10:19:46 GMT -8
Over forty years ago, a business colleague who was old enough to be my father, in a fit of pique said "You are the most self-contained person I have ever known." I continued to listen to his rant, and after it was over, continued working.
I told Mdm. Flu, who I had known for about a year, of the incident and her comment was the same that came to my mind when my colleague uttered his criticism, to wit, "was that supposed to be an insult?" She and I both agreed that being self-sufficient was a good thing.
She notes that even today, I do not mind being on my own. I have no problem seeing people, in fact I am pleased to see them at times, but I don't mind not being around them.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 16, 2024 10:28:15 GMT -8
I thought it a good book and excellent movie. It has been decades since I have seen both, so I wonder if my views will have changed?
Everyone in the story is harming everyone else, except Gabriel who is harmed, but does not sink to the level of others.
I was particularly impressed with the movie as a teenager. The cast was excellent. Julie Christie as the callow girl. Alan Bates as Gabriel, Peter Finch as Mr. Boldwood, but especially Terrance Stamp as Troy. I think I may have to watch it again if I can find it for free.
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Post by kungfuzu on Mar 16, 2024 10:48:45 GMT -8
Humans do not have a lot of control over things. The control we have is the control of our choices. What choice do we make when confronted with danger? What choice do we make when confronted with good fortune? What choice do we make when confronted with misfortune? These are what we completely control.
I am not a great believer in unchangeable character traits. Unless one is a mental case, one can see one's weaknesses and strengths. One's good and one's bad characteristics. Whether or not one wishes to change such traits is another matter. Difficult does not equal unchangeable. For example, I am too fat. It is difficult to change this, but if it becomes important enough, I can change the state of things.
We are all a work in progress and changing even when we may not notice it. I believe conscious, guided and controlled change is better than mindless uncontrolled change.
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 16, 2024 15:45:56 GMT -8
There's a 2015 movie, Mr. Flu. But I did find the 1967 one on YouTube for free. I've got it queued up and bookmarked. Perhaps after the Bruins game. Gotta keep my priorities straight.
It looks to be a good quality print and I like that it has the full theatrical "overture" at the start of it. Play it, Earl...
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Post by Brad Nelson on Mar 16, 2024 16:30:07 GMT -8
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