Alarming News: I like Morgan Freeberg. A lot.
American Digest: And I like this from "The Blog That Nobody Reads", because it is -- mostly -- about me. What can I say? I'm on an ego trip today. It won't last.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: We were following a trackback and thinking "hmmm... this is a bloody excellent post!", and then we realized that it was just part III of, well, three...Damn. I wish I'd written those.
Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler: ...I just remembered that I found a new blog a short while ago, House of Eratosthenes, that I really like. I like his common sense approach and his curiosity when it comes to why people believe what they believe rather than just what they believe.
Brutally Honest: Morgan Freeberg is brilliant.
Dr. Melissa Clouthier: Morgan Freeberg at House of Eratosthenes (pftthats a mouthful) honors big boned women in skimpy clothing. The picture there is priceless--keep scrolling down.
Exile in Portales: Via Gerard: Morgan Freeberg, a guy with a lot to say. And he speaks The Truth...and it's fascinating stuff. Worth a read, or three. Or six.
Just Muttering: Two nice pieces at House of Eratosthenes, one about a perhaps unintended effect of the Enron mess, and one on the Gore-y environ-movie.
Mein Blogovault: Make "the Blog that No One Reads" one of your daily reads.
The Virginian: I know this post will offend some people, but the author makes some good points.
Poetic Justice: Cletus! Ah gots a laiv one fer yew...
Every now and then I’ll get a compliment on blogging that is something to the effect of “I’ve been trying to find the words to express something and I haven’t been able to find them, but you managed to find them and string ’em together for me.”
Well, I have that reaction to some things, too. Scott Payne, writing in the Washington Examiner, speaks for my optimistic side in predicting that we are nearing “The End of the Popularity Contest” in national politics.
This is one of two good things about the presidency of Barack Obama. They’re both lessons for young people: One, you can achieve power and authority by speaking as if you are worthy of it; and two, “fun” people tend to make wretched decisions. The second of those two lessons requires repetition before people will really get it, but we have over nine hundred more days for it to be repeated. My belief is that it’s going to get learned, but good.
…[T]here is this pervasive notion within the Washington bubble, a notion that is particularly strong in the White House, is that the opposition to the administration’s agenda is merely a matter of confusion and that all it will take to flip voters is to have the President explain the measures and reassure Americans that he has everything well in hand. That notion is rapidly coming to and end…
It’s not so much that Americans don’t understand the President’s legislative victories, as it is that those victories are, almost by design, destined to disappoint a majority of voters.
:
No amount of glad handing and photo oping will overcome real and sincere divisions of opinion on public policy. And that is the road block against which the Obama administration is starting to bump up — with a vengeance.
This has been going on for over a year by now: Barack Obama’s popularity rating is drastically different from His approval rating. In poll after poll after poll, respondents assert that they really “like Him as a person” but “disapprove of His policies” and think we as a nation are “heading in the wrong direction.”
Recent blogroll addition Stephen Browne, writing about something else altogether, has nailed it I believe. And the fault doesn’t go to Obama, it goes to the people who voted for Him and are so slow to catch on to what’s happening:
So how does a reasonably intelligent person guard against the temptations of self-deception? The insidious desire to bend our perception of reality to what is comfortable, rather than what is needed to cope with an often uncomfortable reality?
A number of things have been recommended by the wise: studying logic and in particular the informal fallacies, studying rhetoric to learn to recognize the tropes of persuasion, and studying history — which is, after all, the record of other people’s experience.
What I came up with was a series of questions, to try and keep myself intellectually honest:
1. How often have you changed or abandoned a deeply held belief because of either (a) personal experience or (b) a persuasive argument backed by compelling evidence?
2. How often have you, after examining the evidence reached a conclusion that was uncomfortable, unsettling, or profoundly disturbing to you, i.e., reached a conclusion you did not like and wished weren’t true?
3. How often have you admitted honest confusion about an issue that was important to you and decided to defer judgment — or simply live with the uncertainty?
4. How often have you realized while listening to someone speak for a position you agreed with, that it was nonetheless being supported by a weak or invalid argument?
5. How often have you listened to two sides of an issue and concluded that you agreed with someone you disliked and disagreed with someone you liked?
If you answered “never” to all or most of them, you might ask yourself whether you are thinking at all. You almost certainly won’t, though.
Now, my ego is about as bloated and tender as anybody else’s, and perhaps if my life’s circumstances allowed me to I could’ve answered “never” to all five of these questions. As it happens, my answer is “Where the hell do you want me to start listing them Mr. Browne?” for all of them…but this is not a testament to my wisdom or my saintly Spock-like handling of logic. I just don’t have the luxury of straying too far from reality. If I believe in a whole bunch of bullshit, I can’t fix stuff, and then I have no skills I can bring to market. If you’re any kind of a farmer, you’re in the same boat. Or an architect or a construction worker or a surgeon.
But most people aren’t kept on this kind of a leash. Most people can believe in silly false things, and never meet up with any consequences for having wrong opinions. If they want to be able to answer in the affirmative about Mr. Browne’s questions, they must rely on their own internal discipline in order to do so, and most people do not have this discipline. I would not so quickly count myself among the ones who do, either, let’s be clear on that. I like to think I’m perfect in every conceivable way just like anybody else does. But I know I’m mortal and flawed.
I think I like Questions #4 and #5 the best. Combine those together, really, and you can dispense with the other three and administer a single test: A person for whom you have positive feelings, on a personal level, and want to please — articulates a position with which you happen to agree, but arrives there by means of a logical process you know is flawed. Does the flaw make an impression on you or does it not?
This is the sin that was committed by young Obama voters two years ago. Holy Man made an impression on them as warm, friendly, personable, and He said a lot of stuff that seemed to be agreeable. They lowered their guard. Now the rest of us have to pay the consequences for it.
Don’t blame me. I voted for the non-lawyers.
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