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...
It is a TV Trope with a whole lot more examples of it, than you might at first think.
Humans Are Bastards
“If there’s one thing you can say about mankind
It’s that there’s nothing kind about man”— Tom Waits, “Misery is the River of the World”
“Lady, people aren’t chocolates. You know what they are mostly? Bastards. Bastard-coated bastards with bastard filling.”
— Scrubs (the one thing both Cox and Kelso agree on)
You Suck taken to the extreme.
When compared to other civilizations, or another species, Humans are a bunch of bastards. They are all greedy, heartless, violent, cruel, selfish, egotistical, thoughtless, and in extreme cases, evil, as opposed to the other species, which will be better if not far superior: they are all peaceful, live in harmony with nature, are naturally good, floss after every meal, etc. Ironically the species in question almost always looks and acts just like humans anyway.
That some among us naturally gravitate toward such a realization, is a psychological weakness. It is a disease. They reach conclusions about things because this has such an appeal for them, which is a problem because when you’re thinking honestly, you come to the conclusions supported by the facts, not the conclusions you want to reach; but that the appeal is there at all, is a second problem.
Our worst laws and policy decisions come from this.
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Our best laws and policy;balance of power,three branches of
- kermitt | 11/21/2009 @ 12:55gov’t,bill of rights,limited enumerated powers,all come from recognition of an expected evil streak in people.We have a rule
book,the constitution,to control the bastards.
It is merely a question of time until the views held by intellectuals become the governing force in politics–
Friedrick von Hayek, 1940
Much that passes as idealism is disguised hatred or disguised love of power–
- xlibrl | 11/22/2009 @ 06:04Bertrand Russell
I think liberals are bastards.
- Daphne | 11/23/2009 @ 06:23Commenter kermitt makes reference to the constrained vision of humanity that was put into effect by the framers of the Constitution and other founding documents. The antithesis of this is the unconstrained vision which says humanity can be improved, and therefore perfected, with the right persons and rules wielding the authority. Dr. Thomas Sowell took the ingenious approach of contrasting these by telling the story of the American revolution and the French revolution, the two being more or less simultaneous, and pointing out how each revolution adhered to the opposite view. Ours worked out pretty well, for the reasons kermitt pointed out. Theirs did not.
What we have going on right now is something like the French revolution. The slogan of the Obama fans might as well be “Barack Obama will lead us to perfection and He will do it easily, for He is already there.” It isn’t working. Obama is as flawed as any other mortal. Corruption is rampant. And the honest mistakes are happening just as frequently as ever before. The economy sucks. Government is not transparent. Nobody is looking at the United States and saying “I appreciate them so much better now that Obama’s running things over there.” It is a failure in any way a failure could possibly be defined.
But we’ll fall for it again. Many among us are permanently enamored of this idea that a single choice can be made, and from that point forward improvement is steady and constant, until one day perfection will be achieved — with no additional hard choices ever having been made. Just like some people want to achieve permanent financial solvency by means of one, and only one, get-rich-quick scheme. I guess you could call it the “Be Wise Only Once” fantasy. Not sure what drives that…
But this is why Star Trek was so popular for so long. The entire show, both old & new, was built around the unconstrained vision of humanity. It has an appeal for lots and lots of people.
- mkfreeberg | 11/23/2009 @ 07:22