Christmas is just “prep time” for Easter.
That is all.
Quora Is. . . a Real Mixed Bag
Unlike Q/A fora that focus on one topic or are strictly information-seeking-and-sharing boards, Quora features just about any question anyone can come up with, which means it’s a site that has just about everything from serious questioners with folks making serious attempts to answer such questions to trolls baiting others and then “flinging monkey poo” at anyone who attempts a serious answer, to those like the dumbass who asked the following question:
“What’s one song that always gives you the feels?”
Anyone who uses the term “the feels” deserves no response other than raucous mocking. It’s a vague, stupid nonsense term that only self-made idiots would even contemplate (if contemplate they could) using. The Urban Dictionary (though that should be in “scare quotes” *heh*) tries to describe the term thusly:
“A word used to describe something that is intensely emotional on a level somewhere between you feeling empty and you on the floor in a ball weeping uncontrollably.”
In other words, it’s a term so broad and vague as to be meaningless, and yet this questioner wants to know,
“”What’s one song that always evokes vague, undefined, essentially meaningless emotions in you ranging from ennui to agony?”
#gagamaggot
OTOH, the stupidity of gargantuan proportions the question represents nevertheless did not prevent my mind from fleeing to a momentary wish that I could somehow know the tune Kipling had running through his head as he composed “The Last Chantey.”
Common Characteristics of Totalitarian States (all shared with socialism, BTW)
While not an exhaustive list, these characteristics are generally considered typical of totalitarian rule:
• Rule by a single party
• Total control of the military (sometimes meaning control of the party by a military junta)
• Total control over means of communication (such as newspapers, propaganda, etc. . .)
• Police intimidation and control of subjects with even the use of terrorism as a control tactic common
• Control of the economy
Given these characteristics, it is easy to see why Mussolini’s Fascism (socialist1) and Hitler’s Nazism (also socialist2) are usually (and rightly, IMO) put forth as examples of totalitarian states, but almost any absolute monarchy and every historical example of communist and socialist states qualify as well.
“Ah!” but some say, “What about European socialist states like Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands, et al?” Yeh, no. Socialist states all exercise either de facto or de jure control of the economy, and none of those do. They depend upon government-muzzled and milked capitalism for the implementation of some socialist policies (bread and circuses), but lack the defining qualities of socialism that Ludwig von Mises correctly identified and applied to both Mussolini’s Fascism and Hitler’s Nazism in his trenchant analysis of both. Those who try to hand wave away the essentially totalitarian nature of socialism are either ignorant or disingenuous.
Socialist states are simply a sub-class of totalitarian states, just as Nazism and Fascism are sub-classes of socialist states. Proponents of socialism do not like these simple facts, and so lie about them at every opportunity.
Do note that I only pointed to a TownHall article offering “proof” that Mussolini’s Fascism was socialist, and the article offers weak proof but refers to Human Action (NOTE: pdf file), by von Mises, where in chapter XXV, et al. von Mises identifies all that’s needed to make the connection solid. *shrugs* The book’s a decent read, anyway, and well worth one’s time, IMO.
No Names (In Order to “Shield” the Guilty)
. . .but either someone(s?) in the turnpike authority of a certain state (again, no names, but the relevant initials are O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A) has a macabre sense of humor, or the turnpike authority needs a literate adult on staff, because signs in construction zones read:
“Don’t hit our workers
Pay $10,000 fine”
I tell ya, I don’t have the $10,000 to spare. I started thinking I should look for a worker to hit so I could avoid the fine. . . *heh*
“Teach Your Children Well. . . “
Lovely Daughter commented today after Mother’s funeral, graveside service, and the funeral dinner at the church (at which neither she not I found anything to eat, though there was some palatable–just!–coffee) regarding my (successful!) efforts when she was a small girl (a talkative three year old? About that) to teach her to say to my mom, “Grandma, please take me to Chik-Fil-A.”
So, in honor of her grandmother, she had her lunch at. . . Chik-Fil-A.
🙂
No Panic, Just *sigh*
I had a few “*sigh*” moments earlier today. Some early AM car “dwama” with my Wonder Woman’s car, ended up taking her to work & coming back to run errands/prep for tomorrow’s “funeral procession” (couple of hundred miles one way. . . and back), and. . . Pixel, our lil rescue kitty who’d gotten out almost a year ago during a week of the lowest temps in a year, was nowhere to be found. She usually responds to her name, and if not that to “cooing” in the manner she “coos” (yeh, like a dove, really). And where did she show up? Nowhere, mon frere. *sigh*
Now, take note that she has a coat that is effective camouflage against MANY backgrounds (think desert digicam but done really, really well. *heh*), so when I finally saw her, I realized I had looked there earlier and seen her w/o realizing it. Behind a chair, under a table, laying on a heating vent. She still doesn’t want to move from there.
*heh* At least she’s not out in the cold again.
Speaking of which–the cold that is–it was a wee tad nippy this AM here at TWC Central. Car reported 16°F in our driveway, but at about 14′ elevation (up the lil hill leading out of our neighborhood), it reported 18°F, prompting my Wonder Woman to say, “Looks like we’re headed the right direction.” Except. By the time we got to the bottoms ~3/4 mile away, the car reported 14°F. . . and moved down from there as we climbed the long hill to the interstate.
But, never fear! By the time we got to the “Greater Wally World Metro Area” where her MTW school is located (pop 295 when the area recently annexed by a wee village in order to have the county’s WallyWorld included in its borders. Closer to 100 for the village proper), the reported temp was all the way up to 18°F again! Downtown “Greater Wally World Metro Area” was on fire, man!
Mid-morning, temps are a toasty 39°F here at TWC Central, now. Nice. Thank heavens for Globull Warmening.
The Proper Use of a “Splainsit Stick”
Any time I see “[Whatever]-splaining” used by someone to dismiss an argument, I know the person using the term is really saying, “I don’t have an argument, and I just don’t want to listen, so I’ll use this nonsense term instead of putting my fingers in my ears and chanting, ‘la-la-la-la. . .’ and maybe the horrible person using facts and reason will just go away and leave me with my chosen, ignorant opinions.”
At that point, I realize that the only proper response is raucous mocking.
And that, dear reader, is how one uses a “Splainsit Stick.”
Well, I’m Just a Wee Tad Sad. . .
. . .but my sadness is selfish, all for me, really. Mother “graduated” this morning ~0845, and I know full well she is happy to be where she has wanted to be.`
94 years young, now.
“Gunsplaining,” “Mansplaining,” and Other Lame Excuses for Ignorance
Any time I see “[Whatever]-splaining” used by someone to dismiss an argument, I know the person using the term is really saying, “I don’t have an argument, and I just don’t want to listen, so I’ll use this nonsense term instead of putting my fingers in my ears and chanting, ‘na-na-na-na. . .’ and maybe the horrible person using facts and reason will just go away and leave me with my chosen, ignorant opinions.”
At that point, I realize that the only proper response is raucous mocking.
Dewey Was a Great Man (No, Not That One. Not That One Either. *heh*)
The Dewey Decimal System is an extremely useful method of categorizing knowledge for cataloging a library, but it is also a very useful system to use when searching out and exploring a topic of knowledge. An understanding of its classifications can yield some few advantages over computer catalogs of libraries for card catalog users, too. And then, just browsing a section, grazing the pages of books from one end of a class to another, can sometimes yield great benefits.
I once spent time “living” any available spare moment in a large state university library as an undergrad (and it wasn’t even the school I was attending *heh*) making such discoveries–especially during one semester when I was taking a course so far off my majors that I had almost NO background, and none of the prerequisite courses (yeh, talked my way ito it because it seemed interesting) in the subject. Result: The professor found my “insights” refreshingly stimulating, much to the disgust of the other seven members of the class who were restricted by having all the prerequisite boundaries instilled in their thinking.
Ah, but of course all classifications of knowledge, especially those which–like the DDS–comprise relatively rigid, detailed classifications, have the basic flaw of placing artificial boundaries between fields of knowledge. But then, it seems to be a basic human trait to connect disparate elements into a whole, even when that “whole” is wholly artificial and even nonsensical. So, the DDS is, in my use at least, most like a box of building blocks divided into compartments by shape, color, size, etc. It can make it useful when searching for just that right building block.
Sometimes, though, one wants to just dump the box out and scramble up the pieces to see what serendipitous connections one might make. That’s the Internet.