third world county

(Yeh, I wrote two linkfest posts in advance and sceduled them for publication ahead of time… scheduling them wrong. So, yesterday’s was today’s and today’s was yesterday’s… sorta. 🙂 Glad I caught it so late, eh?)

I constantly run across folks who have no earthly clue how to argue. First, there are those to whom “argue” means loud, highly-emotive rants, with absolutely no rational content. Then there are those who think of argument as something that is to be “won” by any means, including lies, deception, manipulation, misdirection, etc. Then there are those who seem to think that snarky sniping with a quick exit (“I’m not listening to you!”/”Talk to the hand” etc.) constitutes an argument. Among the worst techniques of fake argument? Reacting with whines and tears that facts and reason just aren’t fair! Piffle. Pathetic piffle.

None of those kinds of arguments make the least positive impression on me. In fact, all those kinds of irrational fakeries demonstrate to me is that those who engage in them are insecure, often stupid and always lying–to themselves, if no one else.

Sad.

An argument ought to consist of facts linked with rational commentary. It must be responsive to counter argument, not making stupid non causa comments, for example. It can be gentle and kind or (when gentle and kind do not work or are responded to with lies, misdirection, etc.) it can ramp up all the way to shouting down an idiot–all the while using facts and reason, just perhaps more loudly than is generally–and wrongly–considered “polite”.

You see, politeness when dealing with self-deceptive idiots only goes so far. Sometimes one really does need to whack the metaphorical mule upside the head with a 2X4 to get its attention (and other times, the 2X4 seems to need to be loaded with a nucear payload *sigh*). And politeness that allows lies to continue unconfronted is nothing but cowardice cloaked in a deceptive layer of social acceptability: sugar-coated cyanide, if you will. For if one refuses to speak the truth for fear of bruising an idiot’s (or liar’s or lying idiot’s) po’ widdle feewngs and appearing in the eyes of “polite” society to be brutish (for speaking truth too plainly), then all one is doing is contributing to the lie.

And that, my friends, is called … politics in its best sense. *sigh*

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Another of those twelve cuppa joe days, so here’s another repost of my Javascript Cookies™ recipe from May, 2005. Enjoy!

Continue reading “Once More, with Feeling: Javascript Cookies™”

Alan Woody has sent me another “must read” that I can heartily recommend. Click here for more of this:

…here’s the imagery I want to paint for you. Think of us as a sailboat, politics as a sailboat. ‘Cause it’s not a motorboat ‘cause there’s not enough power. You’re always subject to the wind and the sea, and underneath us in the ocean is the equivalent of the Gulf Stream, this enormous river of water which is so huge that it actually warms all of Europe. And the Gulf Stream is a center right Gulf Stream and so it’s natural pattern is to move the country towards the right.

But up on the surface where our sailboat is, all of the wind comes from the left. So all the news media gets up every morning and says, “How can I shove the sailboat to the left?” And unless you are really disciplined as Ronald Reagan was, you can’t remember that all you have to do is tack. You can sail into the wind as long as you tack, but also if you drop a sea anchor down to that huge river, the river will pull you to the right.

There’s a meta-lesson here, as well: listen to and learn from folks who are smarter than you are. Read the material at the link and I think you’ll agree that the speaker is certainly smarter than I am… and probably smarter than you are, too. 🙂 As politicians *spit* go, he seems one of the very best of that bad breed.

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(Yeh, well, I know the quote variously attributed to Louis XV or his mistress, Madame de Pompadour, and in various other forms to many historical persons through the ages is more properly, “Après moi le deluge,” but I meant it as I typed it in the post title. *heh*)

The busiest weekend in some time here at twc is over, but things left hanging fire because of preparations are now demanding my attention, so please supply my day’s reading matter by linking in your best stuff. I did have plenty of blogfodder supplied by events of the past few days, but no time to really develop them here, yet.

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I’m more fortunate than most in that I have two Blogmothers who each, in their different ways have “mothered” me in blogging. Carol, Diane: Happy Blogmothers Day! Couldn’t have (well, more like “wouldn’t have”) done this without you.

Note: all mistakes, off-the-wall-weirdness, totally insane rants at twc, etc., are in no way the fault of my blogmoms. They did their best and that’s all you can ask. 😉

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Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, The Random Yak, A Blog For All, 123beta, Right Truth, Adam’s Blog, Shadowscope, The Amboy Times, Phastidio.net, Cao’s Blog, Jo’s Cafe, Pursuing Holiness, The HILL Chronicles, Stageleft, stikNstein… has no mercy, The World According to Carl, Walls of the City, The Right Nation, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, and Wake Up America, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

I guess this is the third posole-type variation I’ve posted over the past coupla years. See how it sits with you.

Ingredients:

~8oz of Ancho chile sauce, or red enchilada sauce made with Anaheim peppers, instead.
~1lb. pork loin, in about 1″ cubes
4-6 cups canned white hominy, drained
1 head of cabbage, chopped or shredded (chopped is better, IMO, but it’s your supper :-))
a couple of teaspoons of cayenne pepper (or do without and set a bottle of cayenne-based hot sauce by the places of folks who like it)
3-4 lemons or limes, juiced
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-4 medium tomatoes, diced (use your favorite “sauce” tomatoes)
water to suit your pot
salt to taste (I prefer juuuust a little on the pork as it is browning)

Procedure:

Brown the pork with the onion and garlic.
Add all the other ingredients except the hominy and cover with water. Simmer for about 30 minutes.
Add the hominy and water as needed and simmer another 30 minutes or more.

Yum.

Kinda sorry I only had a cheapo low-rez camera with me this a.m. What you cannot easily discern is that the lower price is for the premium blend of gas… Just one more data point putting the lie to the “blood for oil” Iraq adventure meme. If the goal were to pump oil and bring down prices, then oil would be at an all-time low, because if the American forces were to simply and solely concentrate on securing the Iraqi oil fields and delivery system and leave the tribal and religious squabbles to those who have practiced them so well for millennia, we’d be drowning in excess oil at low prices.

But even that would do little to correct the problem the disparity between lower-priced premium gas and higher-priced “regular” gas pictured above. THAT disparity (as well as the supply problem driving much of the recent gar price increases) is pretty much solely the responsibility of enviroweenies, politicians who listen to enviroweenies (and their Mass Media Podpeople flacks) and all their ilk who have been primarily instrumental in preventing the construction of new refinery facilities for the past 30+ years…

Blame it on the greens (who, if cosmic justice were as swift as it is sure, wouldn’t be green but red and black and blue all over… I can wait. The universe’s Creator will teach them a few lessons, eventually, as He lets them inhabit a hell of their own making.)

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Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Random Yak, Stuck On Stupid, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Cao’s Blog, The Bullwinkle Blog, The Florida Masochist, Jo’s Cafe, Conservative Cat, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Rightlinx, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, Blue Star Chronicles, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Gone Hollywood, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

So, this weekend features, Mothers Day, my son’s college graduation and BLOGmothers Day (and you thought I’d forgotten!). While I’m busy with the graduation shindig, Mothers Day (and because of bubba’s graduation, my own mother will be here this weekend–and since she’s a tad on the frail side and in her eighties, now, this is a rare treat) AND honoring at least one blogmother (*s*), feel free to populate my weekend reading list (for when I can steal time away from the festivities) with your posts tracked back to this one all weekend long.

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The day’s not here, yet, and it’s already “gone”… *sigh* Please create my reading list for Wednesday and Thursday evenings by populating this linkfest, OK? 🙂

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