It requires training and concentration to eliminate the normal “filters” that people develop over their lives and see what is there, rather than what “should be” or ” we want to be” there.
Interview five witnesses to an event and you will get five versions of what happened because the human mind has a bad habit of “filling in the background”. That’s why there are so many bad “eye-witness identifications”. Physical evidence is real, human memories are often dreams.
After the abysmal record of supporting so-called “progressives” who turn out to be regressives, you would thing people might understand that a record is better than a promise. For some reason, people continue to project their hopes and dreams onto politicians, only to be disappointed. I don’t care what they say or how well they say it – what have they actually done?
As they say in the financial brochures “past performance does not guarantee future results”. but it’s a damn sight better than promises.
]]>Michael, give it up: Obama screwed up big-time here. He bills himself as the candidate of change, as the candidate who believes America is tough enough to talk directly to its enemies, etc. etc. But he is afraid to face down… the telecoms? I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.
FWIW, I’ve noticed that some people say Obama must be the source of the cave-in, and a lot of others who say it must have been done at least with his assent as the alleged leader of the Democratic Party. I am prepared to believe at least the second conjecture. And I am not very happy about it.
]]>Perhaps it has to do with the fact that you and I (and a minority of others) have experienced *the real world* out there, and seen the worst possible side of human nature in many situations. We have both had to deal with many forms of corruption, and most people would never believe us if we told them just how much corruption in all it’s forms there really is. We have been trained to look at things from all angles, and to assume there is more than the superficial surface which is all most people see. We were trained to look for the threads binding things together, the patterns in everything humans do. It all comes down to patterns in the end. So, it’s no surprise to us. The rest have such insular lives. I used to envy them sometimes, I’m sure you did occasionally also. 🙂 Now, I no longer envy the insulated, ignorant (in it’s literal sense) multitudes. Now I just want to grab them all by the scruff od the neck and scream WAKE UP YOU MORONS!
But I can’t, so I just continue to watch the inevitable unfolding and spend a lot of time sighing sadly and being grateful that I was lucky enough to have had some great times to remember. I suspect I am going to need those memories, because great times may well be a thing of the past.
Someone once said to me that I have a very sad and negative perspective. I simply said “No. I have a sadly honest and true perspective.” I survive, they rarely do. The sharks leave me alone, they know. 🙂
I know who my friends are, and who I can trust. I have friends I’ve known for most of my life and have been with me and stuck by me through some very hard times. I count myself lucky.
If you expect the best, you will be disappointed most of the time, and simply relieved when something good happens. If you expect the worst, you won’t be disappointed often and you may, occasionally, be very pleasantly surprised!
I like my occasional pleasant surprises! 😉 😀
]]>I mentioned when the two “Democrats” won special elections in the South recently, that they weren’t anything more than conservative Republicans with a “D” after their name, but no one listened. The House of Representatives is in the control of conservative [blue dog] Democrats and they are going to act just like Republicans.
]]>I don’t understand why anyone would be remotely surprised.
]]>“It does, however, grant retroactive immunity, and I will work in the Senate to remove this provision so that we can seek full accountability for past offenses. But this compromise guarantees a thorough review by the Inspectors General of our national security agencies to determine what took place in the past, and ensures that there will be accountability going forward.”
However he has not yet failed to remove the retroactive immunity provision.
]]>It would be disruptive, but the Constitution is sort of important.
People need to learn not to project their hopes and dreams onto politicians.
]]>Accordingly, I have removed my banner endorsement of Obama from my blog. Whether or not I end up voting for him, I cannot condone a candidate’s explicit abnegation of the Fourth Amendment.
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