Words to live by...
"How beautiful it is to do nothing, and to rest afterward."
[Spanish Proverb]
(The right to looseness has been officially given)
"Everyone carries a part of society on his shoulders," wrote Ludwig von Mises, "no one is relieved of his share of responsibility by others. And no one can find a safe way for himself if society is sweeping towards destruction. Therefore everyone, in his own interest, must thrust himself vigorously into the intellectual battle."
Apparently, the crossword puzzle that disappeared from the blog, came back.
...if all participants think alike anyway?
Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they aren't out to get you.
I ask the question in the title because I hear some people on the Left complain that the Right sees massive conspiracies all around them. Of course, they ignore the conspiracies they see or have seen in the past. Like the "vast right-wing conspiracy" Hillary complained about at the beginning of the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I also understand that the majority, if not the vast majority, of the 9-11 Truthers are on the Left.
What the left often derides is the feeling by the Right that the mainstream media is against them. The Left often points out that the owners of that media are rich white men and are, therefore, more likely to be conservative than liberal. This ignores Ted Turner, George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, and others. All rich, all white, and mostly old, males.
The question I pose has to do with the press. If the press is, as is suggested by polling, made up of mostly Democrat journalists (which implies that the editors are also mostly Democrat) then the atmosphere in the work environment is likely to be liberal. If all those you work with, or socialize with, are liberal the odds are that you will see liberalism as "mainstream", the norm of society. Not all Democrats are liberal, of course, just as not all Republicans are conservative. But people tend to fall in line with the thinking of those around them... the "herd instinct", if you will.
When I was young, liberalism was the counter-culture. Liberals were the ones who challenged authority and distrusted government; conservatives were the ones who trusted government and obeyed authority. That seems to have been turned upside down of late, a complete (almost) role reversal.
To get back to that question... let me phrase it another way: Do you need to conspire if all involved are on the same page anyway?
Footnote:
The U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a couple of cases (DOMA and California's Proposition 8) on same-sex marriage currently. Lots of noise in the media of all kinds regarding this. I wrote a post back in 2008 which addressed the issue of same-sex marriage. If you are interested in my ideas for addressing this issue, I recommend you read this... [link].
It's Friday and that means I am off playing golf. Yesterday, I took the car in for some maintenance in preparation for our annual trip out to San Diego.
That trip, like most of the others, will have stops in Biloxi and Las Vegas. These are free stays at hotel/casinos. The "casino" part is why I italicized the "free." Just to be honest about it. There will be a stop in Biloxi on the way back, too. I am merely the chauffeur on these trips. Faye plans them, develops the budget, and allocates the money. Oh, she asks me what I want but I don't believe she is actually interested in what I say in response. After 26 years, I have learned how to defer...
On Wednesday, I skipped golf. It was going to be around 35oF at tee off and I no longer want to tolerate that. Instead, I dropped by (when it was warmer) our local Toyota dealership (owned by the same guy who has the GM/Cadillac/Buick/Chevrolet dealership and the Kia dealership and the Ford dealership) to look at and test drive a Corolla.
You see, my Lucerne is a great car and spoils me rotten but gets crummy mileage in town. And that is where most of my driving is done. I know, in my heart, that all I need is a compact, highly economical, little buzz-box to get me around here in Paradise since we have Faye's Lucerne for the long trips and, so, I look at the various small, economical, cars available. I research them, price them, even test drive them. Then I get back in my Lucerne and decide I am not ready to give up comfort and power for economy and practicality. Call me stupid... I no longer care.
Anyway, the car needed (so they told me) to have the power steering system flushed. Before I agreed to that, I looked into it. It didn't seem an absolute necessity. It isn't a routine maintenance recommendation by GM/Buick, it could be a pointless exercise, and (I suspect) it may only need bleeding the system. There's this hum I would hear as I turned the wheel to its limits. The service department claims the fluid is contaminated. They could be right. But, since they have been the only ones to check that fluid, they were likely to be the source of that contamination.
In any event, I figured better safe than sorry when embarking on a 6000+ mile trip.
Sigh...
On Tuesday, I was notified that an update for my AVG Free was available... and recommended. So I opted to do it. It was, I believe, the Summer edition for the 2013 version. After the usual churning and bustling of the gerbils who provide the power to run the computer, the update was almost completed... all I had to do was restart the computer.
And so I did.
All seemed well. Until an hour or so later when I noticed a reminder that I needed to do a restart to complete the update process. Knowing I had already done that, I went ahead and did it again because I am nothing if not obedient. And then, an hour or so after that reboot, I got the very same prompt. So I closed the dialogue box with the little "x" in the upper right corner. Only to get the prompt again in another hour or so.
By then, it was bedtime and I simply shut it down for the night, deciding I would deal with it in the morning.
It was no surprise, therefore, when I booted up the computer and ran into the same prompt. I mouthed the usual magic words (which should not be repeated in a family friendly environment) to no avail. I then went looking for the cure for the problem at the AVG Free web site. I found a procedure that was supposed to fix it. It involved manipulating a couple of files (deleting one and renaming the other). Simple enough, it seemed at the time.
In Win7 (which I am running), it was a matter of deleting the file "C:\programdata\AVG2013\cfg\updatecomps.cfg" and replacing it by renaming updatecomps.cfg.prepare (found in the same folder).
Just one little problem... The SYSTEM (I was told in a dialogue box) hadn't given me permission to mess with these files. After uninstalling and re-installing AVG2013, I ran into the same problem. I then uninstalled AVG Free once again, deleted both of those aforementioned files, and then re-installed AVG Free once again. This time everything seems to have worked.
I usually highly recommend AVG Free. I still will but my support of it is a bit weaker today. This should not have happened.
I woke up this morning and realized that I hadn't prepared a post for today. My bad. Since the brain isn't yet firing on all cylinders yet, I'll just ramble a bit.
I just learned last evening that one of our weekly dinner companions is no longer with us. He passed away on Monday from a stroke. I'll miss him. He was a seasonal resident, a snowbird, from Rhode Island. A doctor before he retired and so we all called him "Doc." He wasn't young, 83, so it should not have come as a great surprise. But, somehow, it was. Strokes hit with no real warning after all.
I know a little about strokes, they were the curse of the males on my father's side, striking them down in their mid-sixties with a "these are all the years you get" finality. But we understand more about their cause and treatment these days so my father and one of his brothers beat the curse and lived into their 80's when their hearts finally failed.
Doc and Ann (his widow) had lingered in Rhode Island this year, arriving later than usual. Doc had wanted to have back surgery done there. When they finally arrived, Doc was using a walker. Quite understandable after surgery. But, in spite of his age, I expected him to recover eventually and put away that walker. I did not expect this.
So long, Doc, I'll miss you.
Since I know next to nothing about basketball except that it's played by ten tall people in really baggy shorts and involves a large, inflated, ball, hoops and nets I will use golf as a metaphor... for life.
Why is it a metaphor for life? It has hazards, it has traps, it has fair ways, it has risks/rewards and it is unpredictable... despite what that gypsy with the crystal ball says. And I happen to love the game.
It is also frustrating and, after all, isn't that the essence of life?
No matter how good you feel when you wake up, things can always get worse... and often do. I never wake up feeling good. I wake up feeling tired. That's one of the ironic things about life. You spend 6-8 hours asleep (most nights anyway) and wake up feeling groggy and tired. Pretty much worse than you felt before you went to sleep. I would have said "before you went to bed" but, sometimes when you go to bed, sleep is not involved (at least not immediately) and you are full of energy and joy.
So you get up, drag yourself out to the kitchen, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and try to put a positive spin on things. It helps if you do not glance into a mirror on the way... trust me.
And that is much the way I approach golf. With hope and optimism. And, by the end of a round (and often much sooner), just as by the end of another day, my optimism and hope have been crushed by my inability to cope with small setbacks and events that are beyond my control.
