tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post8294456503981101306..comments2023-10-03T07:01:41.144-05:00Comments on Always On Watch: Semper Vigilans: About Revisionist HistoryAlways On Watchhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comBlogger41125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-14193574074092898012017-01-11T09:17:37.177-06:002017-01-11T09:17:37.177-06:00I fan verbing.I fan verbing.jeznoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-77634468355978329602017-01-11T05:19:07.540-06:002017-01-11T05:19:07.540-06:00definition of plonker<a href="http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-definition-of/plonker" rel="nofollow">definition of <i>plonker</i></a>Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-7826169966661935792017-01-11T05:15:07.026-06:002017-01-11T05:15:07.026-06:00Addendum: I couldn't check last night. Comput...Addendum: I couldn't check last night. Computer and all devices turned off so that I could go to be early. I find that I <b>must</b> go to sleep early because I have to interrupt my sleep to take medication. **sigh**Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-34725378545731349552017-01-11T05:11:51.499-06:002017-01-11T05:11:51.499-06:00Ed,
It IS a verb! I just checked. Not yet in Mer...Ed,<br />It <b>IS</b> a verb! I just checked. Not yet in <i>Merriam Webster Online</i>, though.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-75505467292397201602017-01-10T21:21:24.420-06:002017-01-10T21:21:24.420-06:00Facebook is now a verb, akin to google, as in &quo...Facebook is now a verb, akin to google, as in "I googled it".Ed Bonderenkahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03724552853113809036noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-24479063714835035512017-01-10T19:59:12.410-06:002017-01-10T19:59:12.410-06:00FT, Unfortunately today you can - Instagram-myspac...FT, Unfortunately today you can - Instagram-myspace-pinterest-spotify-snapchat-google+-tinder-slashdot-reddit-ning-stumbleUpon-fitbit-flixter-flitr-tweet-yammer- and uplike-all on your phablet. And that's not the half of it.Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05287399775879832602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-52564085105186805562017-01-10T18:33:02.124-06:002017-01-10T18:33:02.124-06:00FT: Progressives are the calvinists of political i...FT: Progressives are the calvinists of political ideology (my apologies to Calvinists)<br /><br />Plonkish: Acting like a plonker.Silverfiddlehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13541652236676260219noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-67005574362211694982017-01-10T18:28:42.193-06:002017-01-10T18:28:42.193-06:00FT,
"Facebook a message" is a social med...FT,<br />"Facebook a message" is a social media colloquialism. I don't worry much about those because they're "trade terms," akin to those in automative repair, carpentry, etc. Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-63726393541692333372017-01-10T18:22:25.128-06:002017-01-10T18:22:25.128-06:00If you can "FACEBOOK" a message, does th...If you can "FACEBOOK" a message, does that mean we now can ROD a fish, OVEN a turkey, CAR ourselves to town, FLOWER a garden in spring, or BOAT an ocean? FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-24539669367326782732017-01-10T14:58:39.793-06:002017-01-10T14:58:39.793-06:00Good read:
A Complete Timeline of Race Relations ...Good read:<br /><br /><a href="http://en.cijnews.com/?p=159380&utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=socialnetwork" rel="nofollow">A Complete Timeline of Race Relations Under Obama</a>.<br /><br />Concluding paragraph:<br /><br /><i><b>At every opportunity to quash racial division, Obama’s rhetoric instead amplified it. For eight years he continuously peddled the notion that America is a deeply racist, unjust vessel of oppression. While he would at times admit that some progress had been made in race relations, he consistently returned to his rhetoric about a country plagued by “systemic racism.” And so, race relations in America changed to reflect the vision Obama promulgated for 8 years. The media beloved racial unifier, Barack Obama presided over the deterioration of race relations in America. If you like your race relations, you’ll get to keep your race relations.</b></i>Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-12501852293377830102017-01-10T09:26:56.250-06:002017-01-10T09:26:56.250-06:00Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás t...<b>Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruiz de Santayana y Borrás</b> to be exact. <br /><br />§;-DFreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-23385003168604932192017-01-09T18:47:45.219-06:002017-01-09T18:47:45.219-06:00"He who who refuses to learn from the past is..."He who who refuses to learn from the past is condemned to repeat it."<br />---George SantayanaDucky's herehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14608115001116619877noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-67015254770080158802017-01-09T16:43:05.198-06:002017-01-09T16:43:05.198-06:00FT, I'll go with that if they're all restr...FT, I'll go with that if they're all restricted to the middle east. Close the mosques..Kidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05287399775879832602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-74035468443753296192017-01-09T11:10:45.652-06:002017-01-09T11:10:45.652-06:00Ah we don't want to do THAT, Kid. For one thin...Ah we don't want to do THAT, Kid. For one thing the "fallout" would be toxic and much too dangerous for the rest of us, <br /><br />Also, remember that Hitler –– and others before him –– made serious efforts in that direction with tragic, absolutely deplorable results.<br /><br />Exterminating our enemies doesn't work. It can't be, and efforts in that direction usually backfire making admittedly bad situations much worse.<br /><br />HOWEVER, I do support the idea of BENIGN NEGLECT –– i.e. if an enemy is busily destroying himself, I think it's downright idiotic to try to do anything to stop him.<br /><br />Let the fools and fiends weed THEMSELVES out of existence. That would be fine with me. ];^)>FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-90033623446784313772017-01-09T11:03:38.691-06:002017-01-09T11:03:38.691-06:00Oh, I know that. I was using "trailers" ...Oh, I know that. I was using "trailers" –– a clumsy, hastily contrived metaphor, I admit –– for anyone who allows himself or herself to be satisfied with very little substance in his or her personal life.<br /><br />We used to call them "PHILISTINES –– a colorful term I'd like to see revived. Of course, I'm one of those odd ducks who refuses to regard any legitimate English word as "archaic." <br /><br />Anyway, at the rate we're going, if we are not very careful, English, itself, will soon be as extinct as LATIN, I do realize the language has undergone many evolutionary changes. Old English, Middle English (the language of Geoffrey Chaucer) and Elizabethan English (the language of Shakespeare, Milton, Marlowe and other lesser lights) must be "studied" now almost as one studies a foreign language, BUT to a reasonably literate person such as myself, I CAN read Chaucer in its original form with a good deal of comprehension, and I've been happily conversant with Shakespeare since childhood. It's a matter of conditioning.<br /><br />That's more than I can say for the "ignoranticized" gibberish that passes for communication among younger people today. Much if which I find incomprehensible.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-55255788748727774872017-01-09T10:47:45.718-06:002017-01-09T10:47:45.718-06:00};^)>
HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW ERA!};^)><br /><br />HAPPY NEW YEAR! HAPPY NEW <i>ERA!</i>FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-5122880197276827242017-01-09T10:44:25.605-06:002017-01-09T10:44:25.605-06:00There could be nothing wrong or undesirable about ...There could be nothing wrong or undesirable about using a phrase like ETERNALLY VIGILANT. It is not stuffy, pretentious or exhibitionistic. It is merely GOOD STANDARD ENGLISH, and as such I admire ad applaud it,<br /><br />Something entered our culture decades ago that seems to want to DISCOURAGE people from writing and speaking PROPERLY –– as though there were something inherently snobbish, condescending or manifestly unkind about it. This has been dubbed The Dumbing Down of America, and I have a firm belief that this deplorable phenomenon is the result of a PLOT conceived ad executed by CULTURAL MARXISTS.<br /><br />How could it be otherwise? Nothing happens strictly by accident, except weather events and natural disasters.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-3868902236495253442017-01-09T10:34:49.407-06:002017-01-09T10:34:49.407-06:00I've looked up PLONKISH, and discovered that, ...I've looked up <b>PLONKISH</b>, and discovered that, apparently, it is not a legitimate part of our English vocabulary. I'm not sure what you could have meant by using it, and wish you'd explain.<br /><br /><b>DETERMINISM</b><br /><br />1. a doctrine or theory that acts of the will, occurrences in nature, or social or psychological phenomena are caused or determined by preceding events, or natural laws<br /><br />2. a belief in predestination<br /><br />Though baptized in the Presbyterian Church I have always resisted and finally <i>rejected</i> Calvin's idea that we are subject to PREDESTINATION, because it implies –– rather wickedly in my view –– that we have NO CONTROL over what happens to us in this life, which in turn seems to imply that we cannot be RESPONSIBLE for our actions. How absurd is that?<br /><br />IF we ARE held responsible for things over which we presumably have no control, that would imply that GOD is a MONSTER –– a notion I feel it foolish, wicked and inherently counterproductive to allow myself to entertain.<br /><br />It also implies that FREE WILL does not exist.<br /><br />That should strikes any logical mind as patently absurd, because without the admittedly inconvenient immensely complicating factor of VOLITION we would be nothing but MINDLESS AUTOMATA. <br /><br />All that aside, the first definition of DETERMINISM makes a great deal of sense to me, because how could it NOT be true that to a large extent the course of our lives really IS determined by Past Events? Each of us cold be said to be the end product of an endless CHAIN REACTION –– we are in many ways shaped by infinite variations of the Domino Effect. How could it be otherwise? NONE of us is born a <i>tabula rasa</i>. BUT I do believe NURTURE has almost as much to do wth the way we turn our as NATURE.<br /><br />HOWEVER, by using the power of FREE WILL combined with INTELLIGENCE motivated by honest CURIOSITY we ARE able to accomplish much in greasing the "chain" that otherwise would bind us to undesirable past ocurrences forever.<br /><br />FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-70403280568935112422017-01-09T10:15:17.144-06:002017-01-09T10:15:17.144-06:00"aren't you glad you are not ONE of them?..."aren't you glad you are not ONE of them?"<br /><br />THANKS and yes; it must be tantamount to Hell on Earth!JonBerghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01718776762194333398noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-58192040409368889252017-01-09T09:44:08.443-06:002017-01-09T09:44:08.443-06:00YUP, Jon! Leftists are ADDICTED to MISERY and ALLE...YUP, Jon! Leftists are <b>ADDICTED to MISERY</b> and <b>ALLERGIC to JOY</b>. <br /><br />They celebrate DEPRESSION, DISEASE and DYSFUNCTION, and seem to live primarily to express perpetual DISSATISFACTION, DISAPPROVAL, DISMAY, SUSPICION, CONTEMPT and RESENTMENT.<br /><br />We should, however, feel SORRY for them instead if letting THEIR diseased outlook on life take US down, for they are more to be pitied than despised.<br /><br />And aren't you glad you are not ONE of them? ;-)FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-54243471737586560172017-01-09T07:41:36.307-06:002017-01-09T07:41:36.307-06:00FT,
BTW, those people you mentioned in Question 3 ...FT,<br />BTW, those people you mentioned in Question 3 are not limited to those living in trailers. Not by a long shot!<br /><br />People are holed up in their megamansions and doing much the same!Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-44515281285109728102017-01-09T07:40:19.432-06:002017-01-09T07:40:19.432-06:00I'll add this....
How many would much rather ...I'll add this....<br /><br />How many would much rather live a virtual life than a real life?<br /><br />The Smart Phones are wonderful tools (Love my iPhone!), but they are being abused -- much like the abuse of substances.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-90705729757300723872017-01-09T07:28:29.479-06:002017-01-09T07:28:29.479-06:00Yes, of course, AOW but are than that its means we...Yes, of course, AOW but are than that its means we have a moral obligation to make every effort to pursue TRUTH <i>honestly</i> no matter wha it might cost or where it might lead us, and to develop a deeper, broader understanding of things far been the grasp of our itty bitty selves.<br /><br /><b>CONSIDER THESE QUESTIONS, and then ASK MORE:<br /><br /><i>1. How many are content to listen mindlessly to the latest "Schlock Pop Idol" while blithely ignoring the Music of the Spheres? <br /><br />2. How may remain blissfully content to eat hot dogs while they eschew the delights of <i>haute cuisine</i> without ever having tried it?<br /><br />3. How many imagine themselves perfectly content to watch TV in their trailers while swilling down six packs of Bud and munching on Dips 'n Chips, while they wouldn't even dream of reading a good book, attending a classical music concert, going to see a play in an actual theater, attending a lecture at their local library, taking a course to improve their minds, or even trying a new recipe?<br /><br />4. How many have ever voluntarily learned anything they hadn't already known since they were in elementary school, unless harsh circumstances forced them to?<br /><br />5. How many prefer to tear each other to shreds with idle gossip and conjecture instead of making an effort to SHARE ideas and true KNOWLEDGE and thus LEARN from each other? <br /><br />6. How many are perfectly happy to remain smug and harshly judgmental without developing the least bit of CURIOSITY about why others think differently?<br /><br />7. How many will spend there entire lives being ready, willing and eager to criticize, condemn and ostracize others who don't mirror the narrow norms of their own measly existence?<br /><br />8. How many in the blogosphere ever imagine they might have something to learn from exploring a point of view that does not merely reflect their own without overt hostility?</i></b> <br /><br />Most follow the paths of least resistance, which is why we have the dismal society we must live with at present.FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-56139118681886302302017-01-09T06:59:20.186-06:002017-01-09T06:59:20.186-06:00"He who who refuses to learn from the past is...<b><i>"He who who refuses to learn from the past is condemned to repeat it."</i></b><br /><br />I can't remember who said that first, but it's true, nevertheless. Ignorant people (unfortunately the vast majority) tend to relate everything to themselves, their needs and desires, They not only don't see The Big Picture. Most are completely unaware that a Big Picture even exists.<br /><br />This means, of course, they vote and promote ONLY those politicians and popular phenomena that promise to gratify their desires of the moment. <br /><br />And that is why The LEFT has been able to make such inroads on our once thriving society. The LEFT works very hard to EX|LIT the worse in human nature to gain DICTATORIAL POWER.<br /><br />I think your interest in the mysteries and great beauty of Outer Space and Heavenly Bodies would save you from taking the Worm's Eye View that holds most people in bondage. FreeThinkehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16682678301019952436noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4320479736034351430.post-19860794578970504022017-01-09T05:39:20.152-06:002017-01-09T05:39:20.152-06:00FT,
We have control over nothing but ourselves –– ...FT,<br /><i>We have control over nothing but ourselves –– as individuals.</i><br /><br />And that includes voting responsibly, then keeping a close eye on those we have elected.<br /><br />That also includes parenting responsibly, that parenting being proactive with regard to what's happening in our education system.Always On Watchhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08192688822955022541noreply@blogger.com