boxingfanmanic

 
joined: 2016-05-14
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Mahjong

Mahjong

Mahjong
1 hour ago

The emperor has no clothes

Several years ago, I watched the news go by, hearing what politicians said and how it was reported. Utterly fallacious statements were made by one particular pol, and the press eagerly jumped on the bandwagon with its full-throated approval, even though history -- and not ancient history even, recent history -- demonstrated quite clearly that these ideas did not work.
Flash forward to the present, and that same press is braying at all of us that "mother" and "father" are now unacceptable old terms. This is a biological impossibility, but that doesn't stop the madness. My hairdresser recently threw one of her daughter's friends out of her house for referring to her, repeatedly, as her daughter's "birthing person." Being adopted, I get even more of a kick out of this idiocy, since my "birthing person" was not my mother. The United States Air Force now advises that no reference should be made to a service member's "mother" or "father," and has even created a video for new recruits to educate them on using fellow service members by their proper pronouns.
As if. Boys are boys. Girls are girls. It's chosen for us, and if we're unsure, it's easy enough to look down one's own body and identify the salient parts. And for the love of God, not one of us, other than a royal, is a "we" -- as in, "we are not amused." The rest of us are just me, or you, or him or her, or my. Not "our," "my." Every time I see an individual referred to as a "they" in a news story it just cracks me up.
Can the time be far distant when each of us decides what color the sky is, and when it will be offensive to refer to it as blue lest we offend another who "identifies" it as red?
It's time we stop the madness. Language exists cooperatively, otherwise it becomes babble. Our newest Supreme Court justice may not know what a woman is, but I do. Been one all of my adult life. The United States was formed in 1776, not 1619 -- and in 1776, it had to fight the greatest existing power at the time just to be able to form THEN. If we can't agree on actual facts, society's utter breakdown is inevitable.
Sorry to be so direct today, and not the slightest bit amusing. Just wanted to encourage everyone who can read this to run over to a safe space where one can conduct truth-telling, and encourage other to join them!!!!!


To our friends in the United Kingdom

Please accept the heartfelt condolences of one of those in that first escaped colony on the passing of your lovely Queen Elizabeth. Very few, if any, of us will be working (at 96!) two days before we are dead. Her lifetime of dedicated service will stand as a shining example for the whole world for generations to come.

Godspeed, Ma'am.


The US, Ukraine & the 4th of July

I was saddened to see no one commemorate the 4th of July in these notes. The parallels with Ukraine are noteworthy -- perhaps Zalensky (spelling uncertain) is Ukraine's Washington, or Jefferson, or Franklin.
What strikes me the most this year is the incredible courage of those who against overwhelming odds fight on day after day for the freedom of a people. We've seen it succeed in this country, and watched in helpless grief at it fail in Syria. I hope Ukraine will be the US, at least as the US was intended.
It takes something special in enough certain people to see a republic flourish, or even to achieve one. Those who begin the journey know with some degree of certainty that they will surely die in the process, and that if their enemies reach them, they will be murdered in their beds, their homes and families destroyed, perhaps achieving nothing. "Our lives, our fortunes, our sacred honor...."
As we remember those who gave all for all of us, let's send our goodwill, our weapons and our greenbacks to help others along the way. Perhaps that is the most fitting remembrance of all.


Congratulations to the Toothless

Congratulations to NATO for belatedly doing the right thing in sending heavy weaponry to Ukraine. One only wonders how many lives might have been saved if they hadn't stood by watching for more than two months.


Putin and his Preferences

Recently, I've been re-reading all of Dostoyevsky. Last week, I saw an article about Putin, which listed D as one of his favorite authors. This struck me as exceedingly odd, given that in the last two books I've read, a main character, described as an intellectual, did "the only logical thing he could do."

That logic was as follows: Since the Russian is such an inferior class of human being, and since no solution could be seen to raise him to the standards of the rest of the world, the only logical choice is suicide.

If only.....