tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post5647529503728350317..comments2023-10-03T07:01:41.144-05:00Comments on Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans: All of Your Internets are belonging to Me!Always On Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comBlogger84125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-26239599378311295042017-10-04T08:57:15.272-05:002017-10-04T08:57:15.272-05:00};^)>};^)>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-86904415281206191962017-10-04T08:53:39.284-05:002017-10-04T08:53:39.284-05:00POLYSEMY! Wow! A new word for me. Thank you so m...<b>POLYSEMY!</b> Wow! A new word for me. Thank you so much for adding it to my already well-stocked-but-ever-expanding vocabulary. };^)><br /><br />We still have no real idea what motivated this fiend, Paddock. Despite the ENEMDIA'S fervent desire to avoid even the <i>suggestion</i> that Paddock was actng on behalf of Islamists, the question is still open. The asiatic woman <i>[there'snothing else to call her, since her specific ethnicity and point of origin keeps shifting from Indonesia, to Japan, the Philppines, and Australia in the enemedia]</i> has resurfaced as "a person of interest" in the case after having been too quickly dismissed at first as having had ANY involvement whatsoever in the affair, – a tendentious assertion that fies in the face of common sense. After all, she had LIVED with the guy.<br /><br />I shall remain open on the subject till ALL the facts come in –– IF we are ever permtted to learn them, –– a prospect I feel unlikely, because of the stealthy, secretive, insidious, increasingly duplicitous, highly corrupt nature of the political establishment. FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-64142528941795548402017-10-04T04:10:00.714-05:002017-10-04T04:10:00.714-05:00Words have multiple meanings, so we have to guard ...Words have multiple meanings, so we have to guard against conflation. Use context to guide your word choices. It wouldn't cause much confusion if you applied the term "terrorism" to eg. a manipulative's aunts attempts at emotional blackmail, but since you're commenting on a crime, it's appropriate to use the legal definition. It's important too, because the incidents of terrorism are used to set policy (eg. foreign); whereas domestic mass shooting sprees might be used to set other policies (eg. licensing).<br /><br />It is a distinction worth making, and polysemy is not an excuse. Exploit it as a poet, but beware its peril when trying to communicate specific ideas.jeznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-19007351400147710732017-10-03T17:21:46.872-05:002017-10-03T17:21:46.872-05:00AH, but you keep forgetting I am an ardent devotee...<b>AH, but you keep forgetting I am an ardent devotee of what-you-might-want-to-call "OLDSPEAK" –– a beautiful phenomenon I much prefer to call by its rightful name –– <i>i.e.</i> <b>CLASSICAL <i>STANDARD</i> ENGLISH</b>.<br /><br />IF you had read my last post more carefully I don't think you would have responded as you did. <br /><br />I did NOT accuse yhou of being wring. I did NOT reject your use of the word, I merely put it in perspective as a LEGAL definition, then stated a <i>fact </i>freely acknowledged by the Linguistic Community –– namelybthat <b>There is NO generally agreed upon defnition of the word "TERRORISM."</b> <br /><br />I read that in several authoratative online sources. I then gave authentic examples of alternative definitions of the word gleaned from respectable sources. <br /><br />I'll say it again: YOU are perfectly CORRECT, but SO AM I.<br /><br />I'll be DAMNED to HELL before I'd ever accept anything from either the UN - OR - The State Department as THE authentic view of ANYTHING.<br /><br />As for the ENEMEDIA –– an excellent descriptive term I coined more than twenty-five years ago ––, that I wish you would begin to use, as AOW and others have long ago –– I don't care a FIG for their opinion on ANYTHING –– nor should YOU. <br /><br />That vicious crowd of subversive demons deserve NO respect whatsoever from any decent person.<br /><br />I have long felt it my personal responsibility as patriot and my CIVIC DUTY as a citizen to DEFY and mentally THUMB MY NOSE at THEM at every turn.</b>FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-8876351629279918762017-10-03T16:56:02.186-05:002017-10-03T16:56:02.186-05:00I neglected to add:
WHETHER YOU THINK SO OR NOT.I neglected to add:<br /><br /><b>WHETHER YOU THINK SO OR NOT.</b>FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-54939607007090914072017-10-03T16:02:07.504-05:002017-10-03T16:02:07.504-05:00Ducky, please provide specifics that would lead a ...Ducky, please provide specifics that would lead a reasonable person to form that conclusion. For example, did Powell (like your hero Senator Byrd) belong to the KKK or a British equivalent?Mustanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06388694472897425202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-65961701800497275942017-10-03T15:38:15.837-05:002017-10-03T15:38:15.837-05:00Thanks, Mustang. I am not well versed in the detai...Thanks, Mustang. I am not well versed in the details of history, but I believe I do .have a good sense of Big Picture and a good understandng the basic developments and trends that led us to our present situation from the early 1600's to the present. You may have noticed I've written manytimes over a perod of nearly twenty years complaining bitterly about the I-think suicidal policies the Left has managed to foist on us through the courts and the legislature, so I imagine we think alike on most of these social, economic, and defense issues. <br /><br />Thanks again for your answer, Mustang. Once I learned that Powell's Big Moment came long after Churchill had left office, I realized it was foolish to have asked the question. <br /><br />In my view the SICK-sties, which I always deliberately spell tha way, were an unmitigated disaster for the USA and the entire Western World. Rotten taste and rotten leadership produces rotten results. ;-)FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-33656810235993035432017-10-03T14:54:21.885-05:002017-10-03T14:54:21.885-05:00I have to say I got a BIG chuckle out of Ducky'...I have to say I got a BIG chuckle out of Ducky's calling ME a "Yenta."<br /><br />HOO BOY! I guess it must have been DECADES since the ill-tempered Featherbrain last looked in a MIRROR. <br /><br />I ain't no Yenta. I'm the latter-day reincaranation of Jonathan Swift. YO HO HO! <br /><br />]:>(|)<:[FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-42646617174502753482017-10-03T14:41:45.529-05:002017-10-03T14:41:45.529-05:00You gave us the LEGAL definition of Terrorism, Si...You gave us the LEGAL definition of Terrorism, SilverFiddle –– as defined by the UN and the State Department. So you are not wrong, YES, but neither am I. I looked it up in as may online dictionaries as I could find in a qick search, and found <b>there is no ONE generally agreed upon definition of the term.</b><br /><br />Allow me, please, to cite a few examples:<br /><br /><b>TERRORISM</b><br /><br /><b>Merriam Webster:</b><br />The systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion<br /><br /><b>Collins English Dictionary:</b><br />Systematic use of violence and intimidation to achieve some goal<br /><br />The act of terrorizing<br /><br />The state of being terrorized<br /><br /><b>Dictionary.com</b><br />The use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.<br /><br />The state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or being terrorized<br /><br />https://www2.powerthesaurus.org/terrorism/synonyms/3 lists 373 synonyms for terrorism. <br /><br />A few examples selected at random:<br /><br />violence<br />destructiveness<br />savagery<br />fierceness<br />coercion<br />inhumanity<br />anarchism<br />disorder<br />frenzy<br />intimidation<br />assault<br />massacre<br />atrocity<br />oppression<br />ferocity<br />nihilism<br />murder<br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-7770945127812010762017-10-03T13:38:51.291-05:002017-10-03T13:38:51.291-05:00No, Gertie, there's a BIG difference between l... No, Gertie, there's a BIG difference between loggorhea and eloquent oomplex, well-phrased, well-thought-out, tightly-reasoned argumentation. <br /><br />I suggest you take a good stiff refresher course in Classical English Usage from an instructor over the age of sixty-two. I'm sure it would do wonders for you.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-48679742444580185922017-10-03T13:35:41.199-05:002017-10-03T13:35:41.199-05:00And "armor piercing" ammunition.....isn&...And "armor piercing" ammunition.....isn't. The recent [Obama Administration attempt to have rounds such as the SS109/M855 Ball rendered illegal, was nothing more that incrementalism.....just like every other form of gun control. The M855 utterly pales in "armor piercing" capability compared to the majority of "standard" hunting rifle calibers.<br /><br />It's false narratives at it's finest.Constitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-3345194075977817992017-10-03T13:22:10.801-05:002017-10-03T13:22:10.801-05:00How would limiting armor piercing ammo have preven...How would limiting armor piercing ammo have prevented this mass slaughter?<br /><br />The bill in question does include updates to noise suppressor laws, but "silencing" a weapon is something out of sci fi (or perhaps spec ops).Silverfiddlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-54300536192790968602017-10-03T12:39:29.617-05:002017-10-03T12:39:29.617-05:00No Ducky....lt's start with the bill you named...No Ducky....lt's start with the bill you named...first:<br /><br /><i>FEB 28 2017, <br /><br />Trump Signs Bill Revoking Obama-Era Gun Checks for People With Mental Illnesses <br /><br />Your NRA at work.</i><br /><br />Quit deflecting with mentions of the NRA. Irrelevant.<br /><br /><i>Right now there is a move to extend carry laws across state borders......</i><br /><br />Yep. It's called the Right to Keep and <b>Bear</b> Arms. Should other Constitutional Rights be checked at the State border? No?Constitutional Insurgenthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03251746798758539951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-61858663150499798882017-10-03T11:39:32.831-05:002017-10-03T11:39:32.831-05:00I agree with Ducky; we should keep guns away from ...I agree with Ducky; we should keep guns away from liberals.Mustanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06388694472897425202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-49943365331209388282017-10-03T11:31:59.603-05:002017-10-03T11:31:59.603-05:00When have I ever failed to answer, FreeThinke? Don...When have I ever failed to answer, FreeThinke? Don't be such a yenta.<br /><br />Silverfiddle, in this case we don't know how he obtained the rifles.<br /><br />Whether anything could be done about this particular slaughter is not yet known.<br /><br />However, what it seems that at times like this it is the only time we have people's attention but even then the noise is too high to have an honest conversation.<br /><br />Let's start with the bill I named.<br />Why does anyone need a freakin' suppressor or AP ammo? Yeah, AOW,do tell.<br />I'd start by saying that sensible gun control means that the conversation and the legislature isn't controlled by the NRA.<br /><br />Right now there is a move to extend carry laws across state borders and I don't hear the libertarian sandbox complaining about violation of states rights.<br /><br />I know that we will continue to be an armed camp with guns available to everyone from a freaking gang banger to a wife beater as long as gun loons have total control of the topic.<br /><br /><br />Ducky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-19755493032649449882017-10-03T10:31:01.505-05:002017-10-03T10:31:01.505-05:00We would not have large numbers of mentally ill ho...We would not have large numbers of mentally ill homeless people were it not for Jimmy Carter ordering these people released from mental hospitals. Oh yeah ... the liberals are good. Now there are all these (thousands) of voters who will vote democrat for a bottle of cheap wine and a pack of cigarettes ... Mustanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06388694472897425202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-67511058559546555872017-10-03T10:11:03.232-05:002017-10-03T10:11:03.232-05:00@ FT
Churchill stepped down as PM in 1945, replace...@ FT<br />Churchill stepped down as PM in 1945, replaced by Clement Atlee (1945-1951), a liberal slug who was the longest serving labor leader ... which then leads us to wonder why a labor leader would engineer the Windrush Generation. My only conclusion is that liberalism is an incurable disease and we can see numerous examples here in the USA where democratic presidents have decided matters in favor of foreign-born people and at the expense of native-born Americans. I personally do not understand this, and I suspect this is the point of Silverfiddle’s post. There is something seriously wrong when western leaders implement policies that are harmful to their own people. In the case of Windrush, the UK continues to experience social turmoil 70 years later. Mustanghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06388694472897425202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-78412360733981438172017-10-03T09:26:31.084-05:002017-10-03T09:26:31.084-05:00"We are a mean, dangerous, self-centered, hea...<i>"We are a mean, dangerous, self-centered, heavily-drugged society unmoored from any concept of shared morality or societal norms."</i><br /><br />It's arguable, and we agree that large swathes of our nation do not fit much of this description, but our society is suffering, we are highly medicated, and there is much untreated mental illness.<br /><br />Silverfiddlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-31013691395712561052017-10-03T09:24:09.544-05:002017-10-03T09:24:09.544-05:00FreeThinke,
How can you, of all people, a man who...<br />FreeThinke,<br /><br />How can you, of all people, a man who chooses his words carefully and scolds others for careless use of the language, display such flamboyant ignorance concerning the definition of the word "terrorism?"<br /><br />Straining at a gnat? Really? Words like murder, espionage, and terrorism have specific definitions with strict criteria, and for good reason. <br /><br />An act of violence, no matter how horrific or deadly, is not terrorism if it is not tied to some agenda and designed to coerce people or governments.<br /><br />If we start mindlessly slinging the word around, what then do we call real acts of terror designed to sap the west's foundations and force us to change out way of life, our foundational beliefs and our outlook?<br /><br />Here is a good definition of terrorism:<br /><br /><i>There is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism. Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property <b>to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population</b>, or any segment thereof, in <b>furtherance of political or social objectives</b>” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).</i><br /><a href="https://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005" rel="nofollow">FBI</a><br /><br />Definitional abuse is already rampant. Please don't help it along. Silverfiddlenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-25850688656919733452017-10-03T09:00:07.483-05:002017-10-03T09:00:07.483-05:00Prolix!Prolix!Gertrude Blogsnootnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-17317193957479419392017-10-03T08:41:06.523-05:002017-10-03T08:41:06.523-05:00I can well nderstand why Whitman's name was br...I can well nderstand why Whitman's name was brought up. The superficial asects of his and Paddock's crimes ARE remarkably similar, though the underying causes –– whatever they may prove to be –– could vary considerably.<br /><br />As I said about SPECK in relation to all this, PSYCHOPATHOLOGY was obviously at the root of ALL these crimes.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-70049873853373960972017-10-03T08:37:29.380-05:002017-10-03T08:37:29.380-05:00WIKI on Charles WhitmanL
Charles Joseph Whitman (...WIKI on Charles WhitmanL<br /><br /><b>Charles Joseph Whitman</b> (June 24, 1941 – August 1, 1966) was an American mass murderer who became infamous as the "Texas Tower Sniper". On August 1, 1966, he murdered his mother and wife in their homes, then went to the University of Texas at Austin where he shot and killed three people inside the university's tower. He then went to the tower's 28th-floor observation deck, where he fired at random for some 96 minutes, killing an additional eleven people and wounding thirty-one before being shot and killed by police. Sixteen people were killed in total; a 17th victim died in 2001 from injuries sustained in the attack. ...FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-9617460644115965072017-10-03T08:31:12.684-05:002017-10-03T08:31:12.684-05:00We shall have to agree to dsagree on this. Either...We shall have to agree to dsagree on this. Either you see why I brought it up, or you don't.<br /><br /><b>Psychopathology</b> certainly played a large part in ALL these seemingly senseless crimes.<br /><br />I'm reminded of the old trick question: <b><i>"Which weighs more a pound of feathers or a pound of iron?"</i></b> ;-)<br /><br />Most will answer "IRON!" but they'd be wrong. It's nit the nature of the substance that's in question, but only the WEIGHT.<br /><br />A pound is a pound is a pound ––PERIOD! –– unless you want to go off on a tangent about the difference between troy and avoirdupois weight and all that.<br /><br />In the same sense Murder is Murder is Murder, whether it be perpetrated in ONE victim or a THOUSAND. FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-38989192738993179542017-10-03T08:15:27.010-05:002017-10-03T08:15:27.010-05:00Silver Fiddle said two things above to which I tak...Silver Fiddle said two things above to which I take exception:<br /><br />1. <b><i>"We are a mean, dangerous, self-centered, heavily-drugged society unmoored from any concept of shared morality or societal norms."</i></b><br /><br />That may be true of certain segments of our society, but hardly true of the majority. Most of us are decent, hardworking, well-meaning, basically honest people just struggling to make ends meet while trying to raise their children. I see this in nearly every transaction I make with tradespeople and among my friends. We certainly saw it on the macro-level with the generous outpouring of love, good will and material aid in response to the recent hurricane disasters. It is the ENEMEDIA who wishes to promote the discouraging, depressing picture you outlined so eloquently.<br /><br />1. <b><i>"Also, despite the horrible carnage, if it is someone going off on a murdering rampage with no ideology or agenda behind it, it is not terrorism."</i></b><br /><br />First, we have no idea yet why Paddock did what he did. Second, I see that as quibbling over semantics –– <i>straining out gnats while swallowing camels</i> –– again. In the face of an horrific event that has killed 59 (at last count), wounded about 530, and adversely affected the lives of many thousands some permanently –– why should it matter what TERM LOGY we use in describing the event?<br /><br />If this Stephen Paddock did NOT commit an act of TERROR, what in heaven's name SHOULD we call it? It certa]nly TERRORIZED a significant segment of the population.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-25718517125638925932017-10-03T08:07:35.523-05:002017-10-03T08:07:35.523-05:00FT,
Just because RICHARD SPECK did not use a GUN
...FT,<br /><i>Just because RICHARD SPECK did not use a GUN</i><br /><br />That is <b>not</b> the reason that I find the crimes so unrelated.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.com