Here I sit watching my wife get a cast put on her arm (for once it's not me on the table). She broke her wrist a couple of weeks ago while ice skating. I reminded her afterward that even Peggy Fleming has gotten older.
But look at the bright side! I now get to wash her back, help her dress, do the dishes, cook our meals, do the food shopping, drive her around, prop her arm up on pillows, change the water in the flowers she's gotten from friends and family, and do my normal job, which is to pretend to be smart.
I realized I never get flowers when I'm down for the count. She must be more popular. But then she seems to care more about people than I do. So I guess that makes sense. To me people are an intrusion. They intrude on whatever I'm focused on at the moment, a task that is getting more and more difficult.
Yesterday I spent 5 hours in front of my computer, building a spreadsheet record of my 2009 stock trades which I need to send to my accountant in order to get my taxes completed. Well it was excruciating (thank God for spell checkers)! It was like a Chinese torture, whatever that is. After five hours of that kind of concentrated focus, I was exhausted. It felt like I'd run a marathon, so after completing, I went out and ran a mile.
Running recovered my mental capacities, but then my back hurt, so today after the work on Anne's arm, I have to hang on my Teeter machine for 5 or 6 minutes. I think I need flowers.
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Opinion isn't the truth
I notice more and more how apparent people's agendas are when they are representing themselves as being for collaboration, or cooperation, or being in service of a larger cause. I wonder if its just a function of getting older, or if it's also apparent to younger generations also. Can't tell.
It's particularly obvious whenever I watch any of our politicians on TV, or often as I'm watching so called "news" commentators. I for instance, watch CNBC during the week as I trade stocks as a means of generating income. And as I watch the CNBC commentators, it gets obviuos, at least to me, that they have an agenda - always an agenda. And their agenda is clear. Right out there in plain view although they never come right out and say so. Nor do they actually say what their agenda is - they actually own it.
They not only have a point of view, they're are out to justify it, sell it, promote it, defend it, or prove it. They need to be right about it. It's almost as though they are their opinion! They don't have an opinion, they are their opinion! And for many of them, their opinion is THE TRUTH!
The order of business is to find ways to justify their opinion and convince others that their opinion is fact. As one of them said a few days ago, not just any old fact, but the way it's said in D.C. is it's a true fact -as opposed to a made up fact, which in my experience most facts are. But that's just my opinion. Recently I've heard two different senators claim it's a fact that global warming is happening, and it's a fact that it's not. These weren't offered as interpretations. They were said as facts, and facts to which the American people agree.
It's getting fascinating how politicians represent their opinions as those of their constituents. Then there's the oh-so-often-used "and the American people want", as though they actually know what the American people want. I don't think the American people know what the the American people want. I'm not even sure that such a factual statement can be made. Of course that's just my opinion.
Is there anything "the American people want?" Any one thing? Can anyone point out to me, just one little itty bitty thing that all the American people (well OK, let's narrow it down to the people of the United States) want? Where's your evidence?
I don't think so. Sure there are things that some of the American people want, or say, they want at the moment, or until it doesn't work. But that's just some percentage of the so-called American people. Not the whole kitten kaboodle.
I've found myself wondering who these representatives and senators are talking about when they make this kind of sweeping claim? It's clear to me they aren't talking about me. So I wonder, "where are they getting their "facts"? No one ever calls me to ask if "the senator can represent me" when he makes some sort of claim about the American people. And then when I talk to my friends and neighbors, they tell me it's not them the senator is talking about. So who in the hell are these politicians talking about?
It must be you.
It's particularly obvious whenever I watch any of our politicians on TV, or often as I'm watching so called "news" commentators. I for instance, watch CNBC during the week as I trade stocks as a means of generating income. And as I watch the CNBC commentators, it gets obviuos, at least to me, that they have an agenda - always an agenda. And their agenda is clear. Right out there in plain view although they never come right out and say so. Nor do they actually say what their agenda is - they actually own it.
They not only have a point of view, they're are out to justify it, sell it, promote it, defend it, or prove it. They need to be right about it. It's almost as though they are their opinion! They don't have an opinion, they are their opinion! And for many of them, their opinion is THE TRUTH!
The order of business is to find ways to justify their opinion and convince others that their opinion is fact. As one of them said a few days ago, not just any old fact, but the way it's said in D.C. is it's a true fact -as opposed to a made up fact, which in my experience most facts are. But that's just my opinion. Recently I've heard two different senators claim it's a fact that global warming is happening, and it's a fact that it's not. These weren't offered as interpretations. They were said as facts, and facts to which the American people agree.
It's getting fascinating how politicians represent their opinions as those of their constituents. Then there's the oh-so-often-used "and the American people want", as though they actually know what the American people want. I don't think the American people know what the the American people want. I'm not even sure that such a factual statement can be made. Of course that's just my opinion.
Is there anything "the American people want?" Any one thing? Can anyone point out to me, just one little itty bitty thing that all the American people (well OK, let's narrow it down to the people of the United States) want? Where's your evidence?
I don't think so. Sure there are things that some of the American people want, or say, they want at the moment, or until it doesn't work. But that's just some percentage of the so-called American people. Not the whole kitten kaboodle.
I've found myself wondering who these representatives and senators are talking about when they make this kind of sweeping claim? It's clear to me they aren't talking about me. So I wonder, "where are they getting their "facts"? No one ever calls me to ask if "the senator can represent me" when he makes some sort of claim about the American people. And then when I talk to my friends and neighbors, they tell me it's not them the senator is talking about. So who in the hell are these politicians talking about?
It must be you.
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