Editor’s Note: All Links are Audio at You Tube. Sometimes we all get a bit bogged down. I spent the morning trying to explain myself and my perspective on how screwed up Western Capitalist thinking is and it makes me a little tired. So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to share Van Morrison with you as a way to balance my aggravation over the…
Summer Camps and Business Plans: Finance over Frolick
Sadly, for me anyway, my stupid brain keeps repeating a high school cheer heard by me at least 30 years ago, probably more, that, at the very least, plagues me to this day by popping up front and center into my 2% conscious thinking, bubbling up from the 98%-unconscious mind, and at the worst perhaps enjoys a rather prominent place in the machinery of my…
Patriot’s Pen: VFW Asks “Is There Pride in Serving in the Armed Forces?”
I thought about writing an essay in response to this question posed by the VFW in their “Patriot’s Pen” contest. I thought about sending in my Daughters of the American Revolution essay from when I was in 6th grade. What does one write in praise of war in 6th grade? I’m sure my only goal was to please the teacher. What lunacy. No cat; No cradle….
From Sandlot to Moneyball: Mythologizing the Suits
Life Lessons. We pretend organized sports offers our children fields of learning; lessons about how to live in our culture. We can rattle them off easily enough: sportsmanship, teamwork, competition, fair play, following rules. But our metaphors (and highlight shows) work somewhat against these “quotidian” lessons. I mean, sports offers aspiration and inspiration to so many of us. Try these: Being a Star, or Hero;…
Farking Mentality: Degredation Is in the Eye of the Beholder
Yesterday our post “Nike: Just Watch! Girls Sidelined with Algebra Allergy” was “Farked.” Wow. What is Fark? From the “About” page: The first thing you should know is that Fark.com isn’t a Weblog. Fark.com, the Web site, is a news aggregator and an edited social networking news site. Every day Fark receives 2,000 or so news submissions from its readership, from which we hand-pick the funny…
Jackie Cissell and the Reverends for Corporate School Choice
An Indianapolis, Indiana, resident, Jacqueline Joyner Cissell, better known as Jackie, has been on a quest for school choice since at least February 1998, when she and think tank Project 21’s Roderick Conrad appeared on Christian radio’s “Family News and Focus” and “discussed the snubbing of former Congressman Floyd Flake and school vouchers.” Although no transcript or recording of the show is available, it is…
Nike: Just Watch! Girls Sidelined with Algebra Allergy
I was sitting on the bleachers at my daughter’s volleyball practice last night. I spent the first part of practice trying to pay attention to the drills and skills they were attempting to master. I wasn’t entirely successful. I am one of those people who reads all the time—I don’t mean just books, magazines, or newspapers. I mean anything. If I am alone at the…
Framing for Power: Becoming What We Oppose
Okay, I’ve been trying to suss out Lakoff and frames and metaphors of tribal response and so on. Today, after the dogs and I parted ways with the kids (they to school, us to find chipmunks and good pooping spots – for the dogs!), I shoved in my ear buds and listened to some of Lakoff’s “Don’t Think of an Elephant.” Did you just think…
Framing the Family: No Moms Allowed
I’ll be honest, I feel somewhat in denial. Perhaps it’s a stage in a kind of intellectual grief. If, as I wrote yesterday, our politics is a “play of frames”–a “turning on” of certain metaphoric templates that, once activated, produce a limited, specific and predictable understanding of the world’s operations–then we are indeed lost. For the frames are managed by power and wealth. And for…
Framing Rules: God is Father, Father knows Best, Markets know Best…Market is God
Rank speculation from The Errant follows. Going with the flow to discover my unconscious frames. Do you know why GWB and BHO enacted financial policies design to funnel tax dollars into the vaults of “failed” banks? To block the prospect of democracy breaking out in the USA. In a democracy, especially a “direct democracy” where there is no mediation or intervention by fallacy of “representation”,…