Welcome to the SCS/NLP Web Log (Blog). If you have a technical orientation, you may wish to read more about the Geeklog software in the docs directory. It may not be obvious, but "docs directory" in the previous sentence is actually a link. Roll your mouse over it, and you'll see how Geeklog displays links.

Below are a list of usernames that have access to a specific portion of the site. While Admin has access to everything, Moderator has access only to the areas related to stories, links, and events.

Accounts:

• Admin is joel@scs-matters.com
• Moderator is debra@scs-matters.com

The purpose of this Blog is to provide a convenient means of having ongoing discussions about SCS, Energy Medicine, NLP, and related matters of interest.

Please join the SCS Blog using your real name. We will do our best to answer your questions and respond to your comments. Given the public access to this Blog, we reserve the right to delete comments and expressions inappropriate for or unrelated to the blog purposes.

Comments are appended to the "story" they follow, so, if you are a registered user, clicking on the "Comments" link below would allow you to add a comment to the "Welcome" story.

Registered users may add a new story or topic by clicking on the appropriate link on the left margin.

If you have a question about entering something new, add your comment to this story.

Today’s Headlines:

• FBI Crime Down [How much crime did the FBI have before it went down? ]
  
• Don’t Fear the Vista from Your Windows [Don’t think of elephants….]

But … on to today’s subject:

One of the best-known comedy routines of all time is “Who’s on First,” by Abbott and Costello. In rounding the bases of a baseball team, Abbott and Costello go from Who to What to I Don’t Know. Abbott says that Who is on first, What is on second, and I don’t know is on third. He then asks, “Who’s on first.” Costello replies, “I don’t know.” Abbott says, “He’s on third. We’re not talking about him now.” It’s a Dizzy Dean of a trip.

One of the things about language is that it presupposes a predictable logic, and violations of that logic typically result in either humor or confusion. Abbott and Costello caused their linguistic mayhem by Abbott’s use of pronouns as names, while Costello used them as pronouns. Less artful examples of linguistic confusion abound. An article about how to get a better night’s sleep, for example, says, “Exercising five or six hours before bed time can also help.” I don’t know about you, but if I exercised for five or six hours, I’d probably collapse, whether into sleep or otherwise.

Sometimes all it would take to enhance the logic of a sentence would be the addition of a word or a mark of punctuation. It would make a difference, for example if the headline had been “FBI Reports Crime Down.” It would also make a difference if we were told, “Exercise five or six hours before you intend to go to bed.” Sometimes it would help to change a word or phrase: “Enjoy the Vista from Your Windows” would have avoided the unintended focus on fear.

In some cases, it’s hard to tell whether a lack of clarity was deliberate. One commercial says, “This summer only at Bob Evans.” Does “only” apply to this summer, or does it apply to Bob Evans: “This summer only”? “Only at Bob Evans”? Does it apply to both? In this case, the ambiguity probably doesn’t make a difference. In other cases, where a modifier is placed in a sentence can make a big difference:

• Only I will kiss her.
• I will only kiss her.
• I will kiss only her.
• I will kiss her only.

It’s OK if the predictable logic of a sentence takes an unexpected turn—as long as the end result makes sense. When asked how he became a war hero, John F. Kennedy replied, “It was involuntary; they sank my boat.” The reporter who asked the question was undoubtedly hoping for an extended tale of heroic deeds, and JFK’s response shifted the focus away from the heroic deeds he had performed to the accident of circumstance that made them necessary. (A Japanese destroyer had smashed Kennedy’s PT boat, which sank in flames. Kennedy rescued his crew.)

What a difference a label makes. One of the terms we’ve been hearing a lot lately is “flip-flop.” As the election draws closer, we’re sure to have an increase in “flip-flop frenzy.” The question is how can we tell the difference between a legitimate and appropriate change of mind and a flip-flop? Most of us remember John Kerry’s comment that he voted for the war before he voted against it. Was it a flip-flop or a genuine change of mind and/or heart?

The principal problem leading to flip-flop finger-pointing may be the desire of politicians and their “surrogates” to speak in sound bites when what we really need are well-reasoned explanations for changes in policy or direction. Circumstances change, and holding views that no longer apply is more likely to bring disappointment than success. Had Kerry avoided the pithy for/against comment and instead focused on how circumstances had changed, he might have avoided the flip-flopper label.

In the current electioneering, we’ve already seen politicians giving each other the flip-flop finger with some regularity. It takes more time, of course, to explain a change of mind or heart than it does to issue a sound bite, and it also takes more time to evaluate such a change than it does to label it a flip-flop. Of course, that kind of discourse is not well-suited to the fast-paced information environment we are currently in. To understand the reasons for changes of mind would require that we understand the issues, such as NAFTA, FISA, or the logical consequences of increased exploration for oil.

It is, of course, a lot easier to latch onto sound bites, which is why media journalists love them, politicians use them, and the public repeats them. As Walt Kelly’s Pogo observed in an exquisite sound bite, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”

In an effort to discover what he wants to know, Costello asks, “When you pay off the first baseman, who gets the money?” Abbot replies, “Every dollar of it.”

For a complete transcript, of the “Who’s on First” routine, see Who's on First?. You might be surprised to discover how much it sounds like current political discourse.

Just a little something to think about while you are contemplating the real meaning of Independence Day….

joel@scs-matters.com
www.scs-matters.com

Today’s Headlines:

• Two-armed Suspect on the Loose [As opposed to a one-armed bandit?]
  
• Midwest Floods Devastate May Raise Food Prices [Midwest flood devastation?]

But … on to today’s subject:

Yes, this is another blog about the way politicians (and their kissing cousins, “political operatives”) use language. Even though they may not always avoid the inappropriate use of negative commands, (such as, “Don’t vote for my opponent!”), they tend to be pretty crafty at using presuppositions.

Today’s Headlines:

• Cindy’s Cookie Copied
  
• Science proves bikinis turn men into boobs

But … on to today’s subject:

If John McCain had remembered what people thought when Richard Nixon said, “I am not a crook,” he probably would have avoided saying, “I am not George Bush.” The strange way the brain interprets negative language has been well known for years, and yet negative constructions—in places with undesirable consequences—abound. Among the common examples of what are considered negative commands are the following:

Today’s Headlines:

• Clinton, Osama meet to discuss unity
  
• Teen points gun as school bus driver

But … on to today’s subject:

In some ways, the headlines I select for “Today’s Headlines” are examples of Metamodel violations. In other ways, they are just bad grammar or typographical errors, but—for those not familiar with the vocabulary of NLP—let’s start with a brief overview of the Metamodel.

Today’s Headlines:

• Cardinal Condemns Clinton Mocking Priest
  
• The Dems except the deal

But … on to today’s subject:

Have you ever wondered how much of what you say and do is designed to persuade someone to do something or to influence what he or she thinks or believes? Have you ever wondered how much of what others say and do is designed to persuade you to do something? Whether we are consciously aware of it or not, most communication—both verbal and nonverbal—is intended to persuade, either overtly or covertly.

Today’s Headlines:

• Car-pedestrian accident shuts down Ottawa County
  
• Michigan bloating deaths at all-time high

But … on to today’s subject:

As many of you already know, I am a veteran of the war in Vietnam. I was not an enthusiastic participant in the war, and my feeling at the time was that the U.S. was wrong to engage in what was essentially a civil war. I did not believe in what was called the “Domino Theory,” which basically said that if Vietnam “fell” to the Communists, the rest of Southeast Asia would fall as well. I did not believe that if we failed to fight “them” in Vietnam, we’d be fighting "them" in Hawaii.

Today’s Headlines:

• Sorry I called you, ”Sweetie.”
  
• Gas prices are driving scooters

But … on to today’s subject:

Stephen Hawking reportedly asked the question, if time began with The Big Bang, what was before The Big Bang? My principal concern here isn’t with the Big Bang so much as it is with “before.” One of the challenges of time is that we have no way to think about it other than using metaphors. For many in Western cultures, we think of the past as being behind us, while the future lies ahead (or in front of us).

Today’s Headlines:

• [Pentagon] to send up to 7,000 more troops to Afghanistan to make up for NATO pitfalls
  
• More School Choices for Stud

But … on to today’s subject:

The comments on one of my articles in the May TimeWarp Technologies™ Newsletter, “Mother, May I,” were split, probably indicating where the writers are in relation to the Conduct Metaprogram of NLP (Rule Followers/Breakers). This blog entry expands on the concept of rule-governed behavior.

Today’s Headlines:

• Governor Makes Jobs Swing In Middle East
  
• Suspected Armed Robbery Suspect Loose In Portage

But … on to today’s subject:

For the past several months I have been complaining about what I have called, “The Annoying Woman” TV ads. In SW Michigan, a furniture store led the way with a spokesperson who was able to hold her body at all sorts of weird angles while she smiled with her mouth but not her eyes and told the viewers that it was “a whole new store every day.” One of the nation’s largest cable providers followed, with a similar angular pitch. And then it was an auto dealership. The woman in the commercials for the auto dealership was shown at such a strange angle, I wondered whether it was actually possible for her to stand like that or whether the angle of delivery had been produced by “video magic.”