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...
Cheer Up
Let me be the first to comment on the self-inflicted damage we do when we put our faith in irrational optimism. From early on, I’ve had an appreciation that the rosey outlook offered by optimism is not only lacking in value; it tends to do damage. I’ve seen it. In fact, pessimists have a leg-up in achieving superior results. I’ve seen that too.
But pessimism works only so long as it’s confined to the situation-at-hand, and curtailed from poisoning the vision for the future. And in apply to the situation-at-hand, it’s only a help so long as it provides a superior fastening to the plane of reality.
An election is near, and we have a lot of pessimism. It is engineered — engineered, I say — to do anything, anything, anything but provide a superior fastening to the plane of reality. More like a de-coupling.
George F. Will sets us straight. Read up.
Nancy Pelosi vows that if Democrats capture Congress they will “jump-start our economy.” A “jump-start” is administered to a stalled vehicle. But since the Bush tax cuts went into effect in 2003, the economy’s growth rate (3.5 percent) has been better than the average for the 1980s (3.1) and 1990s (3.3). Today’s unemployment rate (4.6 percent) is lower than the average for the 1990s (5.8) — lower, in fact, than the average for the last 40 years (6.0). Some stall.
:
The Jack No. 2 well, in deep water 170 miles southwest of New Orleans, recently discovered a field with perhaps 15 billion barrels of oil — a 50 percent increase in proven U.S. reserves. This news triggered a gusher of journalistic gloom: More oil means more woe — a reprieve for that enemy of humanity, the internal combustion engine, and more global warming, more air pollution, more highway fatalities, more suburban sprawl.The recent 20 percent decline of the cost of a barrel of oil, from a nominal record of $78.40 (which, adjusted for inflation, was well below the 1980 peak of $92 in 2006 dollars), has produced an 81-cent decline in the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in 70 days. For consumers, that is akin to a tax cut of more than $81 billion.
If you don’t have a good understanding of the difference between a fact and opinion — not quite as simple a matter as it sounds — you use the honor system when you depend on your “news” sources to tell you what’s up, as opposed to who to vote for. And if those “news” sources don’t understand this critical difference, then they use your vote as a barometer of how well they’re doing their jobs.
And nobody in this country, on either side of the aisle, wants things to work that way. Er, let me rephrase that. Nobody with a reputation worth defending will admit to that.
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Soviet-era PRAVDA is alive and well here in the U.S. represented by the likes of the Soros, the DNC, Soros, the MSM, and Soros. This propaganda machine is in overdrive, overwhelming the masses with saccharine distractions from the truth (reality).
- John D Infidel | 10/19/2006 @ 16:28