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First, a personal anecdote. Back in the last millennium, I either heard or read something that ended up causing a fundamental shift in my perspective and personal psychology. It had to do with active listening and conversational stances. The short form of this insight was along the lines of "in a conversation, are you actually listening to the other participants, or just waiting for your turn to speak?" IIRC, one method to judge this involved paying attention to the pronouns one used in speaking -- are you using more "I" than "we" constructions, for example. ( STUFF )In light of this, I think this habitual pronoun usage helps explain an element (among many, including the substantial and the style-focused) of my distaste for Senator Clinton. I'd love to hear the observations/opinions on this sort of pronoun usage from my f-list -- especially in light of the "unused" pronouns [singular you, plural you (yinz/y'all), and he/she/it) -- be it discussing typical conversation or the political arena. Tags: mental health, philosophy, reference
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On the drive in this morning, a pair of questions popped up in my head" "Who do most Americans think are smart?" and "How do they feel about those folks?" Here's the criteria for list selection: A. Candidates must be real people. B. Candidates must be known for -- or merely thought of as! -- being an intellectual, artistic, and/or political genius. At the very least, should prompt an "I think [PERSON] was/is very smart!" response when mentioned. Extra-credit if their name is being used as a synonym for (or signifier of) brilliance or greatness of some stripe. C. Candidates must be almost instantly recognizable to a supermajority of Americans. In short, if a comedy sketch can be constructed around them, or they can be caricatured on The Simpsons, or even just mentioned in passing, and most people can summon up a fact or two about them, that counts. D. How (in your opinion) do a supermajority of people feel about the candidate: POSITIVE (+), NEGATIVE(-), SPLIT (x), NEUTRAL (0).
Here's my first ( cut at a list: )Yeah, I'm not so sure about including the Clintons and Obama here, but I think Al Gore has popular traction as a smart guy. As for Nichols and Gygax, they were identified as "top-nerds" and were part of Al Gore's "Vice Presidential Action Rangers" from Futurama], so hey.
Who am I missing? Who should be taken off the list? Tags: mad science, philosophy
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I saw this soldier on Countdown on Wednesday night, and I have been waiting for the transcript to go up so that I could share a small portion of it with you (full transcript of the entire show at the link below; I don't know if video is available). Countdown with Keith Olbermann for July 25http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19976707/OLBERMANN: Last question; in those lawsuits against the VA, the returning veterans were not named. They said they fear retribution. Do you think speaking out puts you at some risk or do you think it has helped?
SHANNON: Well, I have an ethic that I will die before my men in combat. I was shot keeping one of my men from being killed or wounded in combat. For me, the people who have asked me if I was worried about getting any kind of retribution don‘t understand that ethic. I don‘t care. If that‘s what it takes to take care of my service members, those service members that are required to make the military work, than the units starts to fall apart.
OLBERMANN: Staff Sergeant John Daniel Shannon, wounded in Iraq. Thank you, sir, for your time. Thank you for your service on all of our behalves.
SHANNON: Thank you very much for having me. I added a bit of emphasis to Staff Sergeant Shannon's response, but it was in the video, and it is what made me sit up and take notice. Would that other people, especially those in our political corridors of power (congressional and the administration), were more dedicated to Sgt. Shannon's ethic. Shannon is an American Hero. Thank you for your service, sir. Tags: philosophy, reference
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