How many nasty ad Hominem attacks on a contributor here does it require to remove that contributors trusted user status? When an attacker uses the word "fuck" does that count for more demerits? If attackers, out of laziness or ignorance, attack more than once, do they all count? If attackers hide behind pseudonyms, are their attacks given more weight? What if other contributors here read a diary, want to reccomend it, but don't because of fear of attacker retribution -- is there a group here for them?
I posted a diary here yesterday and was very pleased and perplexed by the nasty visceral response I got. The post was a repulsive bunch of bologna--unfortunately it was true.
http://www.dailykos.com/...
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in an insulting and disgusting move has ordered flags in the Garden State to be flown at half mast as a period of mourning for the death of Whitney Houston. Has Christie LOST HIS MIND? Houston was famous and yes she was from New Jersey but she did NOTHING to deserve or earn the honor of having flags flown at half mast for her.
The flag being flown at half mast is a singular honor reserved for those who have served our Nation and especially for those who have died in that service. It is also a memoriam during a time of National mourning as seen in the picture when we as a Nation mourned the thousands who were killed when our country was attacked on September 11, 2001. Can ANYONE compare the mourning for 9/11 to the death of a celebrity?
Houston did nothing to earn this honor. Yes she will be missed by her fans as with any other celebrity but her death is not a time for National mourning nor did she do anything in service to our Nation as those who have died in service in our military or a public official who spent his/her life serving our country as a public servant, Governor, or President>
www.theliberalslies.blogspot.com
Associated Press: WYOMING, Mich. — A western Michigan man whose son was killed while serving in the military has burned New Jersey's flag to protest that state's decision to lower it in honour of performer Whitney Houston.
John Burri set the flag alight Saturday on a grill outside his home in Wyoming, near Grand Rapids.
The 60-year-old Burri says lowering flags should be done for men and women who have given their lives in service to the United States. He told The Detroit News and The Grand Rapids Press that New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie's decision takes away the meaning of lowering flags for a public servant such as a President, Senator, etc.
It is an insult to the true intent and meaning of the flag being flown at half mast for this honor to be given to Houston. It is also an insult to those whose service to this Nation earned the honor of having the flag flown at half mast in memoriam at the time of their death or when a Nation remembers their service. Christie has insulted our flag, our Nation and those who have served and died by demeaning this singular honor for a celebrity.
THERE WAS MUCH MORE ON TELEVISION, RADIO, AND THE INTERNET
A Few Quotes That I Like
"The whole Flag thing, folks getting all worked up about it...I mean, I cry sometimes, even now, at baseball games when the National Anthem is sung...the flag thing died when we dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. It changed everything. We are all now citizens of the world -- we've all been cursed by Oppenheimer and Teller and that bunch. Einstein new it. I remember watching Johnny Carson as a kid...I don't remember who said it, maybe John Denver -- whoever it was, said, "It's all one big house man, we all live in the same pad, we gotta love each other."
- Franklin Cincinnatus
"It is a myth, not a mandate, a fable not a logic, and symbol rather than a reason by which men are moved."
- Irwin Edman
"What a man believes upon grossly insufficient evidence is an index into his desires -- desires of which he himself is often unconscious. If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."
- Bertrand Russell
"From the first place of liquid darkness, within the second place of air and light, I set down the following record with its mixture of fact and truths and memories of truths and its direction toward the Third Place, where the starting point is myth."
- Janet Frame
"If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way."
- Bertrand Russell
"Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth -- more than ruin -- more even than death.... Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habit. Thought looks into the pit of hell and is not afraid. Thought is great and swift and free, the light of the world, and the chief glory of man."
- Bertrand Russell
"I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it's in your mind. Who's to say that dreams and nightmares aren't as real as the here and now?”
― John Lennon
“One describes a tale best by telling the tale. You see? The way one describes a story, to oneself or to the world, is by telling the story. It is a balancing act and it is a dream. The more accurate the map, the more it resembles the territory. The most accurate map possible would be the territory, and thus would be perfectly accurate and perfectly useless. The tale is the map that is the territory. You must remember this.”
― Neil Gaiman, American Gods
“Love cannot live where there is no trust.”
― Edith Hamilton, Mythology
“Myths, whether in written or visual form, serve a vital role of asking unanswerable questions and providing unquestionable answers. Most of us, most of the time, have a low tolerance for ambiguity and uncertainty. We want to reduce the cognitive dissonance of not knowing by filling the gaps with answers. Traditionally, religious myths have served that role, but today — the age of science — science fiction is our mythology.”
― Michael Shermer
"We villians are a very select group indeed. In the very desperation of our hate rests our strength.”
― Cyclops
"A person isn't who they are during the last conversation you had with them - they're who they've been throughout your whole relationship."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that deserves our love.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
“only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn't exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship with another person as something alive and will himself sound the depths of his own being.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."
- John Lennon