Last year, 2017, ended not with a bang, but a whimper. While how the current year, 2018, will end is still unknown, the world in general and the U.S. in particular, are not on a good trajectory. While some countries are doing reasonably well, most are not. Even in the States, the microcosm of individuals and places doing well, doesn’t change the macrocosm. I am not worried about the planet as a whole. Earth has survived mass extinctions in the past, and life has continued. The life forms, however, changed. It is as though the planet was saying, “Well that . . . → Read More: 2018 Ready or Not
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 Comments are closed  Blog  100 years war, 1960s, 2817, affirm life, asteroid, atomic warfare, children, Civil Rights, England, Europeans, France, John Lennon, New Year's Day, not with a bang but a whimper, Pete Seeger, protest music, radical activist, saber rattling, Star Trek, the Beatles, the Fugs, the States, War in Vietnam, WW II In my spare time, I follow political discussions as best I can, primarily because politics influence all of us in ways both large and small, including the taxes we pay and the way our collective dollars are spent. The past several years have provided a wonderful opportunity for noticing how linguistic framing influences the way we think about the decisions politicians are making about how our money is to be spent. The best way to know what’s really going on in politics is by understanding the rhetorical concept of framing. The word frame applies to discourse in basically the . . . → Read More: Language Matters Comments are closed Blog abortion, Affordable Care Act, children, conservatives, conversation, demonize, DUI, framing, Heritage Foundation, housing, influence, linguistic shorthand, Obamacare, perception, political affiliation, political discourse, politics, pro-choice, pro-life, reality, Reify, right-to-work, Romneycare, self-interest, serial killers, train wreck, union, unions, visual arts, war, war on cancer, war on drugs, war on poverty It has been almost two months since my last blog entry. I have been busy, and a lot has been happening, some of which I thought would make good posts, and some of which interfered with my writing. In that category, if you have been following Debra’s and my SCS posts, you know that Debra needed to have a complete hysterectomy. She is now recovering and still hoping to spend the coming winter in Florida, which she has been thinking of as a “healing garden.” Some of the discussion following the shooting of the children at the Sandy Hook, . . . → Read More: Evidence Procedures, Part 2 Comments are closed Blog argue with reality, automatic weapons, belief systems, beliefs, Byron Katie, children, CO2, congress, debate, defense, defense spending, economic well-being, evidence procedure, fossil fuels, funding, global climate change, global domination, global warming, health care, human activity, industrialized nations, killing, Loving What Is, metamodel, military-industrial, NLP, Norway, reality, religious belief, research, revenue, Sandy Hook, science, scientific, Scotland, shooting, spending, Switzerland, tax code, weapons training, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp Those of us in the States (and perhaps the rest of the English-speaking world) currently have a wonderful opportunity to observe one of the lesser-known NLP Metaprograms at work: The Rules Metaprogram. Most behavior is “rule governed” in one way or another, so where and how rules apply is important in social interactions. The First Rule is perhaps to whom does a rule apply. Here’s one possibility: My rules for me. Your rules for you. Everyone chooses his or her own rules. This won’t work well in a variety of social situations. Imagine driving in a big city . . . → Read More: Rules Comments are closed Blog accident, atheist, children, contraception, culture, democratic, egalitarian, evolution, fabric, God, Japan, logic, marriage, Maude, metaprogram, metaprograms, NLP, nomination, party, pepperoni, president, rights, rules, same-sex, sex, sexuality, societies, spelling, sports, States, traditional marriage, U.K., U.S. pizza, variety, women As I am starting to write this electronic blog, one of the headlines for the day is that one of the principal bookstores in the U.S., Borders, is filing for bankruptcy. Electronic readers—e-readers—are gaining market share. In related stories, Amazon recently announced that Kindle e-book sales have surpassed sales of both hardcover and paperback books. For those of us who have spent a lifetime reading books, the move to “electronic literature” is a bit unsettling. I still have books on my shelves that I read as a college undergraduate. They have moved with me at least eight times and kept . . . → Read More: “What’s a Book, Daddy?” Comments are closed Blog Amazon, amplifiers, Boarders, books, bookstores, CDs, change, children, City Lights, computer-based, distance learning, e-readers, Egypt, grandchildren, illuminated manuscripts, Internet, iTunes, Kindle, learning curve, Middle East, Milton, monks, Nook, Paradise Lost, pioneers, records, San Francisco, Satan, smart phone, technology, tubes, turntable |
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