COMensarations
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Something for Markus….
....HERE, because it can’t seem to post on Charlie (Colorado) Martins thread at Pajamas Media
Once again, the ‘moderation’ of threads at Pajamas Media seems to be ‘interesting’.
I’ve tried about six times over the previous 36 hours to post a comment or two on Charlie (Colorado) Martin’s thread about Brit Hume on Buddhism. All to no avail.
In the meantime, I’ve had no such problems posting comments on Ed Driscoll’s thread about WMD definition flexibility. Coincidence? Charlie would like to think so, but after a while that ‘explanation’ seems to wear a tad ‘thin’.
At any rate, Markus on Charlie’s thread asked an interesting question about God and Hell.
Please explain to me why any soul deserves to be damned to hell, rather than simply being extinguished or punished for a finite period of time.—Markus
I tried to answer it. Here is what I tried to tell him.....
Monday, November 16, 2009
An ‘Observation’….
....on rank hypocrisy.
Some time back, I used to comment on Amy Alkon’s web-site, i.e., blog. This commenting went on for some time. Then it suddenly stopped. Why? Because she ‘killed’ me. And for what? Disagreeing with her and other commenters on her web-site.
So Amy has had a book published about ‘rude’ people and how she deals with them.
I only found out about it by visiting the blog operated by Dr. Helen Smith, who mentioned the book.
So I commented on my opinion of how Amy deals with ‘rude’ people, i.e., by ‘killing’ them. You can read the thread I See Rude People, HERE.
At any rate, Amy came back at me with a comment. And I promised her a reply to her comment to be published today.
For some ‘strange reason’, I can’t publish my reply at Dr. Helen’s blog.
So....
....I publish it here....
Monday, October 12, 2009
Is It Just Me?
Or is anyone else....
...getting the impression that since Obama announced that the US was giving up control of the internet....
....it’s hard as hell to go anyplace?
Sunday, September 13, 2009
It’s That Time of Year!
High School is back in session.....
....and that means Speech Meets will be coming up.
I’ve had a LOT of fun being a ‘critic’, i.e., judge, at such competitions. And I’ve learned a lot too.
One of the things I’ve learned is that there are a lot of intelligent and articulate people coming down the pike, in the form of the next generation. More than I had hoped, based on all the reports of behaving badly we keep getting from the ‘media’. Another thing learned is what the schools are teaching. Some of that is not as good as I had hoped. But that’s another topic.
What I’d like to do here is offer the opportunity to everyone who reads this to join a group of people interested in (1) helping the coming generation, (2) learning about history and current events, (3) humor and drama, (4) logical, civil discussion, (5) possiblly politics and (6) fun.
What does it take? Well. There are requirements. Some are specified. Others are implied. Here are a few:
• An ability to write plainly. The critique sheets require you state your judgment of each contestant.
• An unbiased observation. You need to set aside your political and moral judgments and just listen to what is being said and how it is said in order to evaluate a competition as fairly as possible.
• A stop watch or other timer.
• 3x5 cards with numbers to show the contestant how much time they have remaining.
• Understanding the ‘Rules’. Which can be downloaded from CHSAA’s Speech Web-Site.
• Time to spend on Saturdays and some occasional Fridays. The Fridays come in later in the season for the state championships and national qualifications events.
Events are held all over the state by just about every district. Some driving may be required. For example, if you want to judge an event in Colorado Springs ore the state championships, which frequently occur in northern Colorado. [Note: The location of this year’s state championship is yet to be determined.]
If you enjoy good acting you’ll love the interpretive events of humor and drama.
If you like to follow current events, you’ll get a kick out of extemporaneous speech, which comes in two flavors national and international.
If you like the cut and thrust of a head-to-head competition of wills, you’ll be blown away by debate. REM’s famous It’s the End of the World As We Know It was based on watching a Cross-Examination Competition. The speed at which the verses are sung is indicative of how fast some of the debaters in Cross-X present. But don’t be intimidated. There are also Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debate forms as well. But they’re all interesting.
If you want more information, drop me a line by clicking on my name.
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Another Ken Gordonism
Former Colorado State Senator Ken Gordon tries....unsuccesfully....to imitate Monty Python.
There’s a new thread up on Ken Gordon’s web site. And I just HAD to reply to it.
So here goes....
Friday, August 14, 2009
The ‘Progressive’ Form of ‘Debate’
Don’t disagree with them. It makes them ‘crazy’ And they likely will try to ‘kill’ you.
Typical of so-called ‘progressives.
Check out THIS REPORT.....
Disagree with them in an effective manner and they will try to silence you, one way or another. Even to the point of ‘killing’ you. For example, we have....
Christine Taylor, a 34-year-old New Jersey shopper, vowed never to step foot in another Whole Foods again.
I’ve even seen it in this town, where neighbors said they were all for Susan’s run for the state legislature, but they couldn’t contribute any money to her campaign for fear of the retribution from their fellow ‘liberals’.
UPDATE: This business reminds me of ‘shunning’. That old scorning and distancing of someone by those hard-core fundamentalists. Sooooo.....
......does this make ‘progressives’ latter-day ‘puritans’?
When do the witch burnings begin?
Thursday, August 13, 2009
In Reply to ‘Anonymous’ on Ken Gordon’s Site
Something to do with lousy education.
There was a rather cogent comment over on Ken Gordon’s web-site on a thread discussing HR 3200....in an indirect manner.
I thought my reply too lengthy to take up his band-with and also that it should be seen by more than just the people on that thread.
So here ya go.....
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
The Pueblo Chieftain’s Juan Espinosa on Health Care Reform ‘Debate’
A Fisking....
A Pueblo Chieftain article caught our attention the other morning. And I decided it was time to throw in my two-bits on what was said in it.
The article, titled “Health care debate deserves more than one-sided rhetoric” and it relates to HR 3200, a.k.a., America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.
It is by Juan Espinosa. He’s the “night city editor” of the Pueblo Chieftain. And, as with all too many people in such an organization, he’s ‘liberal’ to the point of obvious bias. Maybe even to the point of being ‘progressive’. But that’s beside the points I’m about to make here.
But before I begin here, let me comment that this matter is being complicated in a manner that Juan is NOT addressing. Like so many others, he is getting confused by mutually conflicting issues. And I’ll discuss those as “The Bottom Line” after fisking Juan’s article.
So, now, let us begin.....
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
Pipelining Discussions
An opinion on how to squelch discussion.
So there I was in a discussion about homeopathy on a web-site operating under the title of Snort Yourself Some Zinc.
It was an interesting discussion.....
....up to the point I was apparently cut off from seeing, let alone participating in the discussion any more.
How do I know this?
Well....
....because for the last several hours or so, I can no longer get there from my computer.
However, I CAN get there via my cell-phone’s web-capability.
Very interesting.
I hope that Derek Lowe can ‘correct’ the situation. But even if he doesn’t, I think we all understand the rationale for the banning.
As I mentioned, I was able to get to the site via my cell-phone. So I left behind a trail to this web-site. Let’s see if anyone follows it to continue the discussion in a more open and free environment.
UPDATE Blockage ‘corrected’ [012112T Jul 09]: Looks like Derek followed the ‘trail’ I left via my cell-phone and has ‘corrected’ the problem of my being blocked from his site discussion on homeopathy.
Good on him! More at that site later.....
However, I notice that the text-message input I provided via the cell-phone is ‘disappeared’. I can’t imagine WHY {nudge-nudge, wink-wink}.....
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Of Hell, Satan and Politics
Another discussion up on PJM gone awry.
It seems that someone else on a discussion of politics and Judaism doesn’t grasp a christian perspective on all of this. Therefore, in order to carry on a discrete side-line discussion from THERE, I offer this opportunity.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Another PJM Discussion….
....gone awry.
Here is another discussion that went somewhat astray when someone by the handle of neoneo dropped in to start spewing some interesting dis-information.
He was challenged and gave the wrong answer.
Anyone who wants to discuss the nature of his malfunction is welcome to add a comment here.
Thursday, September 04, 2008
In Reply to Reality’Chick’
What was too long....
....for PJM on about politicians lives, is republished here....
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Talking Prophecy — 080810
A gauntlet has been cast down.
Over at Megan McArdel’s site at the Atlantic, there’s been considerable discussion about ‘prophecy’, vis-a-vis Obama and his possibly being Anti-Christ.
The discussion has digressed to a point that it needs a different venue. I’m happy to provide such.....
Monday, August 04, 2008
Reply to Jules141
An extended reply to a commenter over at Roger Rules.
Over at the Pajama Media site of Roger Kimball, there’s been a discussion on whether or not Britain can survive its self-inflicted multiculturalism.
On comment made by Jules141 required a lengthy off-topic response. So instead of taking up Roger’s bandwidth, I decided to post the reply here....
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Problems in the Blogosphere
The proverbial Crushing of Dissent continues.
There’s an item up at ‘Armed and Dangerous’ that caught my attention. You can read it here.
I replied to it. But the blog operator deemed it ‘inappropriate’ and deleted it.
When I protested, he deleted those protests as well.
In my opinion, this is nothing more than the usual, “We’ll let the people see what we want them to see.”
Well....
...here is my initial response to this character.....