tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4598733396631414242024-03-18T11:58:16.287-07:00William Quincy Bellejust on a whimWilliam Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.comBlogger1464125truetag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-40064053088932459572023-12-25T11:37:00.000-08:002024-03-02T12:04:01.777-08:00MAGA, Anger, and Critical Thinking
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXj4nQD5qMkRT3OsBf5YvXk7bqC7bPgZsnx6nMSxPWLxhMSnXD6GX5a3Xpn1DLvpcKIo7VOBIXce0gkDLoajhSdNTXq8q57LoUhOO8FqvYyw44XF2BORrjqhq0QvW1f9gNh31obFBNAa5R2Ab1T5zW2WEGAx58DleP6XHJYNwAxTqRKqQplY_0jJAoX8Z/s1021/MAGA,%20anger,%20and%20critical%20thinking.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1021" data-original-width="1021" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilXj4nQD5qMkRT3OsBf5YvXk7bqC7bPgZsnx6nMSxPWLxhMSnXD6GX5a3Xpn1DLvpcKIo7VOBIXce0gkDLoajhSdNTXq8q57LoUhOO8FqvYyw44XF2BORrjqhq0QvW1f9gNh31obFBNAa5R2Ab1T5zW2WEGAx58DleP6XHJYNwAxTqRKqQplY_0jJAoX8Z/w200-h200/MAGA,%20anger,%20and%20critical%20thinking.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
If one thing has struck me over these past years, it's that MAGA is angry. Although, the word angry seems insufficient: livid, furious, raging, foaming at the mouth, I could go on but I'm trying to express that this anger is right off the charts. And because this anger is so out of control, I believe MAGA can no longer think straight. It's not about finding "the truth" in air quotes, it's about winning any and all arguments. I'm right, and everybody else is wrong. Evidence? Schmevidence! I don't have to prove anything because I'm right, and you're just a stupid sheeple!
<br /><br />
I'm suspicious that MAGA knows they're wrong but they've got so much invested in this, to back out now would be not just embarrassing but humiliating. The thought of losing is out of the question. And in saying that, I want to point out that any 3rd party players like Fox News, various conservative, alt-right, and conspiracy theorist commentators, plus foreign entities like the Russian government are having a field day manipulating MAGA and their anger. Yes, that's right, I said manipulating. MAGA is being made a fool of but they are oblivious to it.
<br /><br />
<b>Zelensky and the Yachts</b><br />
A week ago, M, a social media friend who seems to be a full-blown MAGA supporter, tweets that President Zelensky of Ukraine had stolen over a billion dollars in aid money and had recently purchased two yachts. My first impression is that this story couldn't be true but I Google it, curious to see what pops up. Out of all the hits, I only see two legitimate sources, <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/ukraine-volodymyr-zelensky-olena-zelenska-yacht-purchase-1848520" target="_blank">Newsweek</a> (Nov 30/2023) and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhKMDD3J5Tk" target="_blank">France 24</a> (YouTube, Dec 5/2023, 4:43), debunking this rumor. Now, I'm thinking this has to be Russian propaganda. The supposed documentation for the sale has been falsified. The yachts in question have not been sold but are still for sale.
<br /><br />
I present my findings to my friend M and she responds, "The very fact mainstream media has investigated this tells me there's something to the story." Well, yes, there is something to it. It's Russian propaganda. And sure enough, not three days later, another article from a reputable sources describes how this social media blitz was orchestrated by the Russian government to cast doubt in the minds of the American public about support for Ukraine. And sure enough, some Republican politicians took the bait and began objecting to continuation of aid for the war effort. (<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-67766964" target="_blank">How pro-Russian 'yacht' propaganda influenced US debate over Ukraine aid</a>, BBC, Dec 20/2023)
<br /><br />
<div style="margin-left:100px">
<b>Properly analyzing this using common sense</b> (This comes from several military analysts.)<br />
When a country commits a billion dollars to Ukraine, they are not putting a billion dollars in hundred-dollar bills on a palette and flying it over. They are committing to sending a billion dollars of equipment. Since the country already has the equipment, it doesn't cost them anything at that moment, not until they decide to replace it. It's the same if I commit to giving Ukraine my lawn mower. I already own the lawn mower; I'm merely giving them what I have. It doesn't cost me anything until I need to cut my lawn, but if I already have a second lawnmower, I pay nothing.<br /><br />
No country is sending Ukraine money; they're sending equipment. Zelensky couldn't possibly abscond with a billion dollars to buy any yachts because he's never gotten cash only equipment. Knowing this, I see this conspiracy theory about Zelensky buying yachts and immediately know it's not true because it's impossible. However, considering the number of gullible people taken in by this conspiracy, including Republican senators, it's obvious far too many people are lacking common sense or critical thinking.
</div>
<br />
Why did my friend tweet such a story? Why was her first inclination to believe it was one hundred percent verifiably true? M also calls Zelensky a Nazi. Where does that come from? Putin and the Russian government. But why would she believe it? First off, Zelensky is Jewish. Plus he lost his great-grandparents to the Nazis. Calling him a Nazi is illogical which is politely saying, this is just plain crazy.
<br /><br />
M is an example of how Putin is winning the propaganda war. But this is an example of what seems to be a far bigger problem in America and perhaps all countries.
<br /><br />
<b>Critical Thinking</b><br />
I use the definition of Eoghan Ryan from Scribber: <i>Critical thinking is the ability to effectively analyze information and form a judgment, while remaining aware of your own biases and assumptions when encountering information, and applying consistent standards when evaluating sources.</i>
<br /><br />
In my simple terms, it's about having a good bullsh*t detector. The more I know, the less I know. I'm not afraid to ask questions, and I'm not afraid to revise my opinion based on new evidence with a compelling argument. But I'm not going to blindly accept what anybody tells me without double checking what they're saying. Is there something wrong with proof?
<br /><br />
My favourite example is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory" target="_blank">Pizzagate</a>. In 2016, there was a wild conspiracy theory floating around that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were running a child sex ring out of the basement of a pizzeria in a Washington suburb. I just wrote that last sentence and I still shake my head. There is nothing, absolutely nothing in that statement which makes me think it is even remotely possible it could be true. It is pure, unadulterated bullsh*t. And yet, the Right went absolutely apesh*t over this story, even sending death threats to the pizzeria.
<br /><br />
<i>On December 4, 2016, Edgar Maddison Welch, a 28-year-old man from Salisbury, North Carolina, arrived at Comet Ping Pong and fired three shots from an AR-15 style rifle that struck the restaurant's walls, a desk, and a door. Welch later told police that he had planned to "self-investigate" the conspiracy theory. Welch saw himself as the potential hero of the story—a rescuer of children. He surrendered after officers surrounded the restaurant and was arrested without incident; no one was injured.</i>
<br /><br />
I'm sorry, but just how f*cking stupid do you have to be? What in Heaven's name is wrong with people? Where in your wildest dreams would you think any of this is true? Are these people completely incapable of distinguishing between reality and made-up, stupid, B.S. spouted by nutjobs, claiming to have inside dirt on the rich illuminati running the world? I will end with Marjorie Taylor Greene and her Jewish space lasers. (<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucelee/2021/01/30/did-rep-marjorie-taylor-greene-blame-a-space-laser-for-wildfires-heres-the-response/?sh=6f8179b6e44a" target="_blank">Forbes</a>, Jan 30, 2021) While I'm sure many people question Ms. Greene's faculties or lack thereof, I do have to give her credit for the entertainment value of her utterances. John Cleese amusingly pointed out that you have to have a certain degree of smarts to understand you're dumb, and that truly stupid people have no idea they are, in fact, stupid. (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvVPdyYeaQU" target="_blank">YouTube</a>, Apr 11/2014, 0:58)
<br /><br />
<b>Leading vs Pandering</b><br />
I have contended in previous articles that the average voter knows very little about the issues, politics, and how their country and the world works. Their vote is not an informed vote but more of a gut instinct based on whatever the latest sound bite has influenced their opinion. Fox News uses this as their business model. They zero in on the fears and biases of their target audience to capture their attention and gain a loyal viewership.
<br /><br />
Leading is finding out the electorate thinks two plus two equals five and implementing policies so everyone learns that (and benefits from) two plus two equals four. Pandering is finding out the electorate thinks two plus two equals five then repeating the incorrect statement in order to capture the interest of the people so they follow you. Hello, Fox News, t****, and the rest of the rightwing conspiracy theorists.
<br /><br />
<b>Where does this anger come from?</b><br />
Life isn't fair. We are all not equal. The rich fly around in their private jets while the rest of us merely scrap by, trying to pay our rent and put food on the table. People have no idea how the world works, so they make sh*t up. Those illuminati bastards must be taking all the spoils for themselves and leaving the rest of us with the scraps.
<br /><br />
I Googled "MAGA anger" and found a number of explanations.
<br /><br />
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1731124353842995330" target="_blank">Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom</a>, Dec 2/2023, Staff writer at The Atlantic
<br />
<i>I know it's obvious that Trump changes positions on a dime and how it's mystifying that his cult doesn't care, but picking all this apart is a fool's errand. They stick with him because he channels their diffuse anger about their lives at other Americans. But it's worse now.<br /><br />
After 2016, Trump voters thought they'd really made their point, pushed back change in America, and gained respect by electing a POTUS. All that blew up in their faces: They found out they're not a majority, and worse, the disdain of their fellow citizens only intensified.<br /><br />
2020 and J6 compounded their sense of humiliation and grievance. The know Trump is making fools of them, but they will never admit it. And Biden winning was like a national slap in the face. So now they're with him no matter what. They don't care about policy or positions.<br /><br />
And this time, they'll support him as he does even more desperate and hideous things. He could call for open borders and free abortions and most of them wouldn't care. All they care about is that he's promising to go after people they hate even more now than in 2016.<br /><br />
Talking about how he and Biden "differ on Issues X/Y/Z" is pointless and a distraction. It's all part of the "normal political horse race" narrative that is blinding people to the danger ahead.</i>
<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/economy/2022/03/21/republican-conservative-america-angry" target="_blank">Why Conservative Parts of the U.S. Are So Angry</a>, Yes! Magazine, Mar 21/2022<br />
<i>Republican America is poorer, more violent, and less healthy than Democratic America. But Republicans’ blame is misplaced.</i>
<br /><br />
There is a significant swath of White America who is poorer, less educated, and with fewer opportunities and the statistics show a remarkable correlation with the Republican Party. It has been ofttimes said that Republicans vote against their own best interests, and I return to the average voter has no idea what's going on. They don't make an informed vote, they vote on pure gut instinct. And politicians like t**** tap into that frustration to gain power. Unfortunately, while they vote in the hopes of making life better for themselves, they are actually shooting themselves in the foot because <i>their savior</i> doesn't care about saving them and, in fact, doesn't know how to save them.
<br /><br />
<b>Where does all this conspiracy theory bullsh*t come from?</b><br />
From the beginning of time, if man didn't know the right answer, he made stuff up. Nature abhors a vacuum as they say, and the concept of a god fills in all the blanks.
<br /><br />
Karen M. Douglas is <a href="https://www.kent.ac.uk/psychology/people/221/douglas-karen" target="_blank">Professor of Social Psychology</a> at the University of Kent in England. She studies <i>the psychology of conspiracy theories. Her research examines why conspiracy theories appeal to so many people, and the consequences of conspiracy theories for individuals, groups, and society.</i> In an <a href="https://www.apa.org/news/podcasts/speaking-of-psychology/conspiracy-theories" taarget="_blank">interview</a> and a <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0963721417718261" target="_blank">research paper</a>, she points out how people may gravitate toward conspiracies when they are anxious or feel powerless in an attempt to make sense of it all.
<br /><br />
<i>People with lower levels of education tend to be drawn to conspiracy theories. And we don't argue that's because people are not intelligent. It's simply that they haven't been allowed to have, or haven't been given access to the tools to allow them to differentiate between good sources and bad sources or credible sources and non-credible sources. So they're looking for that knowledge and certainty, but not necessarily looking in the right places.</i>
<br /><br />
I point out the above quote to refer back to the idea of a lack of critical thinking. This isn't simply a lack of intelligence but a <i>lack of (intellectual) tools</i>. If you've never been out of your own backyard, it may be impossible to conceive of what exists in the rest of the world.
<br /><br />
While Prof. Douglas doesn't use the term <i>confirmation bias</i>, she certainly infers it in how people once fixated on an idea, seek out other sources of information which confirm that original idea, ignoring anything contradictory.
<br /><br />
<b>Using critical thinking on Alex Jones</b><br />
Alex Jones chats with Tucker Carlson on X. The following link takes you to the 2:50 mark. Watch about 20 seconds.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQKavCdF5yI&t=173s" target="_blank">Alex Jones & Tucker Carlson Team Up To Talk About Naked Joe Biden</a>, The Young Turks, Dec 15/2023, 12:45<br /><br />
I mull over this claim: Joe Biden is wandering around the White House naked and has been doing so for years.<br /><br />
There are apparently 1,800 people working at the White House. Count that off: one thousand, eight hundred people. And during all this time, no one has ever revealed this to the press. Not one single person. I'm reminded of the conspiracy theory that the moon landing was faked. My research reveals that the Apollo Moon Landing <i>employed 400,000 people and required the support of over 20,000 industrial firms and universities.</i> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_program" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>) Now think about this for a sec. In order to fake the moon landing, you have to get all of those people to keep their mouth shut. What are the chances of that happening? I return to Biden walking around naked. Eighteen hundred people all have to agree that mum's the word, and what are the chances of pulling that one off?<br /><br />
Without even delving into this any further, my bullsh*t detector has hit a Spinal Tap eleven out of ten. But let's add that I know that Alex Jones is prone to say outrageous, unproveable claims all for the express purpose of keeping the spotlight on him. In his divorce trial, his defense attorney explained that his client said <i>crazy shit</i> (my words) because his client was an <i>entertainer</i>. I thought that succinctly explained the whole Alex Jones phenomenon. He's not a journalist. He's not a seeker of the truth. He wants to capture our attention, and get and maintain a loyal following so he can cash in either through advertising or endorsements. And from what I understand, life has been pretty profitable for Alex.
<br /><br />
I mention this because I first saw this clip of Alex with Tucker on a conspiracy theorist's YouTube channel. After playing the clip about Biden walking around naked, the YouTuber said, "I didn't know that." You didn't know that? Wait! What? You actually believe this horsesh*t? You trust the word of Alex Jones? Are you insane?
<br /><br />
In researching the fake moon landing idea, one commentator wrote:
<br /><br />
<i>The moon landing was faked. But the director was such a perfectionist, he decided to film on location.</i>
<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Is this a comprehensive analysis? Heck, I suppose I could go on and on. But I think I can sum it all up in a few points:
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>Voters are not informed. They vote with their gut.</li>
<li>As a consequence, there is this dichotomy between reality and perceptions. People react to their perception of reality, not reality itself.</li>
<li>People don't check their information sources. In fact, they begin to rely on one news source while excluding anything else, blindly accepting whatever they're told.</li>
<li>People leave themselves vulnerable to manipulation by politicians and entities who stand to gain from their support.</li>
</ul>
One news source. I'm sure you may have figured out I'm talking about Fox News and those viewers would say that other news sources, like CNN, are just as guilty. Here's the problem. CNN says A. I look further and discover ABC, NBC, CBC in Canada, BBC in Britain, and France24 in France all say A. Fox News says B. Why is Fox the only one saying B? Is a Fox viewer asking me to believe that Fox is right while the rest of the world, yes, <i>the rest of the world</i> is wrong? What are the chances of that being correct, especially since it's now been proven in a court of law that Fox panders (lies) to its audience to make money?
<br /><br />
I'm Canadian. My sister married an American, a great guy, a 25 year marriage. But she confessed her husband went down the Fox News rabbit hole and became a rabid t**** supporter. She told me she kept the peace in her household by never discussing politics. He once said to me that he had learned to keep his political views to himself because he kept getting negative responses from people. I'm sorry I wasn't around to talk him through this. I believe I could have convinced him otherwise. I'm amused that it never dawned on him to question his own political views if he was getting negative feedback. I return to the idea of I'm right and the rest of you sheeple are wrong.
<br /><br />
Returning to my social media friend M. I wonder what her household is like. What does her husband have to put up with? I never talk with M about politics; there are other things in life more pleasant to talk about. I created a second Twitter account about a year and a half ago to tweet only about amusing things I had run across. M created her own Twitter account to follow me. We had some amusing interactions. But then I noticed she was replying to political tweets and her anger was palpable. At times, the craziness of some of her statements scared me. Was this the same woman? Was this the same fun personality? It was like Jekyll and Hyde, and the difference between the two was startling. And as I said, scary!
<br /><br />
Anger clouds our judgment. Like intoxication, it can make us say or do stupid things, things which we may wind up regretting. There's a time to talk but there is also a time to shut up. Unfortunately, anger makes us forget that and we just can't resist getting in that final, decisive one-two punch which is supposed to win the argument but ends up making us new enemies and losing friends.
<br /><br />
I like to say I'm a peace, love, and understanding type of guy. I am open to a clear, logical, and convincing argument supported by documented evidence. But don't come to me with your pizzagate, Jewish space lasers, or cockamamie yacht story. You know damn well you are blindly repeating sh*t you saw on social media and you have no proof that any of this crap is true. I plead with you; I beg you; please look further than the latest conspiracy theory YouTube video before making a pronouncement that you've figured everything out. You look foolish, and I'm embarrassed for you.
<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4qXEDaVm_WNS7dQ_bAjHS57JU40Ze4_zF6vUC2vmMPmDTutulBLghlhX-H0lmIgBYcNAV1vVkFwnrMrzF1g6WbZjxsQSGgfBxT4f-4KFtyow_TWydlEm9Yjkw4PiGMfjXVP_sXkigAz2jACdk5dx6xvWG_LznIT3bUfVPFpaWx7jEyrXbyp-O9ETcLFA/s960/how%20sad%20it%20must%20be.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="938" data-original-width="960" height="391" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib4qXEDaVm_WNS7dQ_bAjHS57JU40Ze4_zF6vUC2vmMPmDTutulBLghlhX-H0lmIgBYcNAV1vVkFwnrMrzF1g6WbZjxsQSGgfBxT4f-4KFtyow_TWydlEm9Yjkw4PiGMfjXVP_sXkigAz2jACdk5dx6xvWG_LznIT3bUfVPFpaWx7jEyrXbyp-O9ETcLFA/w400-h391/how%20sad%20it%20must%20be.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>References</b>
<br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2023/01/politics-pandering-not-leading.html" target="_blank">Politics: pandering not leading</a> - Jan 14/2023
<br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/10/cancel-culture-supposedly.html" target="_blank">Cancel Culture, Supposedly</a> - Oct 20/2021
<br /><br />
2023-12-25<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-11303010866803677342023-12-16T09:04:00.000-08:002023-12-17T09:11:14.830-08:00Harry Roy and His Orchestra: My Girl's Pussy<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/x359GgVRWaE?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/x359GgVRWaE?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div><br />
Published Jun 26/2014 by iKnowBadeaux<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x359GgVRWaE" target="_blank">Harry Roy and His Orchestra My Girls Pussy 1931</a> (3:16)
<br /><br />
There's one pet I like to pet<br />
And every evening we get set<br />
I stroke it every chance I get<br />
It's my girl's pussy<br />
<br />
Seldom plays and never purrs<br />
And I love the thoughts it stirs<br />
But I don't mind because it's hers<br />
My girl's pussy<br />
<br />
Often it goes out at night<br />
Returns at break of dawn<br />
No matter what the weather's like<br />
It's always nice and warm<br />
<br />
It's never dirty, always clean<br />
In giving thrills, never mean<br />
But it's the best I've ever seen<br />
It's my girl's pussy<br />
<br />
There's one pet I like to pet<br />
And every evening we get set<br />
I stroke it every chance I get<br />
It's my girl's pussy<br />
<br />
Seldom plays, never purrs<br />
And I love thoughts it stirs<br />
But I don't mind because it's hers<br />
It's my girl's pussy<br />
<br />
Though often it goes out at night<br />
And returns at break of dawn, break of dawn<br />
No matter what the weather's like<br />
It's always dry and warm<br />
<br />
I bring tid-bits that it loves<br />
We spoon like two turtle-doves<br />
I take care to remove my gloves<br />
When stroking my girl's pussy<br />
<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwYX-kpGbwmzmOhyphenhyphenHzpJXXbHi6Cm6j9D1qotjyJWt2yxs9JKc9WwsbK5JnoeVdBj_wbX1Tq6PNsuDM5jWw8HJgi5buJAWVytYch_gR2qUuZrCKd2NF3tcQcsdCKrawa2kd6pk44B0dm1c2G8N-tJtz2m_dHV33wcWgqzYASoD7ygy_3lCUS8Z6MVRF1k6E/s611/My%20Girl's%20Pussy.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="611" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhwYX-kpGbwmzmOhyphenhyphenHzpJXXbHi6Cm6j9D1qotjyJWt2yxs9JKc9WwsbK5JnoeVdBj_wbX1Tq6PNsuDM5jWw8HJgi5buJAWVytYch_gR2qUuZrCKd2NF3tcQcsdCKrawa2kd6pk44B0dm1c2G8N-tJtz2m_dHV33wcWgqzYASoD7ygy_3lCUS8Z6MVRF1k6E/w200-h118/My%20Girl's%20Pussy.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>References</b>
<br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Girl%27s_Pussy" target="_blank">My Girl's Pussy</a><br />
<i>"My Girl's Pussy" (or simply "Pussy!") is a 1931 vocal jazz song recorded by the British bandleader and clarinetist Harry Roy and His Bat Club Boys.
<br /><br />
The lyrics play on the two meanings of the word pussy (i.e. cat/female genitalia) in a series of double entendres.
<br /><br />
Harry Roy is credited for both the lyrics and the music; he performed the clarinet part and the singing.
<br /><br />
The song was released in August 1931 by Oriole Records (UK), described by the record company as a "fox trot with vocal chorus". It was the A-side of the record, with 'If You Haven't Got Love' on the B-side.
</i>
<br /><br />
Postscript<br />
I posted this on social media saying, <i>In an era when you would think things would be sedate, it's surprising to hear something so risqué. I guess Grandma and Grandpa weren't so stuffy after all.</i> A friend responded with the following meme.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZkH9_xc_XWIEKIs1BY6a2gAgptgik98fC3qullPRLj1xiDM08Dl7Hag42pI6r3fWe1HznxbBGUknQTb3r_ExdKlSmVweR1dpXebRiVhK-q4iodnloXl1PX73H_d6eI9JOKz8jQi5lCvZm-AFnl9pqZEtQgTI56VOnft-byOZWpCDez2J5QuXoRMTvkiu/s827/Grandma%20-%20All%20people%20do%20is%20think%20about%20sex%20these%20days.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="736" data-original-width="827" height="356" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIZkH9_xc_XWIEKIs1BY6a2gAgptgik98fC3qullPRLj1xiDM08Dl7Hag42pI6r3fWe1HznxbBGUknQTb3r_ExdKlSmVweR1dpXebRiVhK-q4iodnloXl1PX73H_d6eI9JOKz8jQi5lCvZm-AFnl9pqZEtQgTI56VOnft-byOZWpCDez2J5QuXoRMTvkiu/w400-h356/Grandma%20-%20All%20people%20do%20is%20think%20about%20sex%20these%20days.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
2023-12-16<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-40591916811936548962023-11-28T21:57:00.000-08:002023-12-01T16:58:29.268-08:00Niall Horan: Heaven<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/4G9LwTTnn_k?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/4G9LwTTnn_k?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published Feb 24/2023 by Niall Horan<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G9LwTTnn_k" target="_blank">Niall Horan - Heaven (Official Video)</a> (3:20)
<br /><br />
Strange light revolves around you<br />
You float across the room<br />
Your touch is made of something<br />
Heaven can't hold a candle to<br />
You're made of something new<br />
<br />
Let's not get complicated<br />
Let's just enjoy the view<br />
It's hard to be a human<br />
So much to put an answer to<br />
But that's just what we do<br />
<br />
God only knows where this could go<br />
And even if our love starts to grow out of control<br />
And you and me go up in flames<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
I'm having revelations<br />
You dance across the floor<br />
Beyond infatuation<br />
How I obsessively adore you<br />
That's what I do<br />
<br />
I believe, I believe, I could die in your kiss<br />
No, it doesn't get, doesn't get better than this<br />
<br />
God only knows where this could go<br />
And even if our love starts to grow out of control<br />
And you and me go up in flames<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
God only knows where this could go<br />
And even if our love starts to grow out of control<br />
And you and me go up in flames<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
I believe, I believe, I could die in your kiss<br />
No, it doesn't get, doesn't get better than, better than this<br />
<br />
God only knows where this could go<br />
And even if our love starts to grow out of control<br />
And you and me go up in flames<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
God only knows where this could go<br />
And even if our love starts to grow out of control<br />
And you and me go up in flames<br />
Heaven won't be the same<br />
<br />
<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSsYVyxUAGXDLlg_rbLZ6I0-pgC7njNcCxSiOCrcCjBGMLuh6o0R8rPKuxeDyeQq0tUi3yX60kxZWDMp4E7NZyCIVSQ9oG3qPHB_yN6l2Xp2LL_iQjTcqDmEDazCb1ulzj88SfddMZheF41KIv8r6kUgEd_Na5kY0R8WWuRlk5kgM9nImmujxZ_lFq7w4/s1668/Niall_Horan%20-Heaven.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1668" data-original-width="1668" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHSsYVyxUAGXDLlg_rbLZ6I0-pgC7njNcCxSiOCrcCjBGMLuh6o0R8rPKuxeDyeQq0tUi3yX60kxZWDMp4E7NZyCIVSQ9oG3qPHB_yN6l2Xp2LL_iQjTcqDmEDazCb1ulzj88SfddMZheF41KIv8r6kUgEd_Na5kY0R8WWuRlk5kgM9nImmujxZ_lFq7w4/s320/Niall_Horan%20-Heaven.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />References</b><br />
<br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven_(Niall_Horan_song)" target="_blank">Heaven (Niall Horan song)</a><br />
<i>"Heaven" is a song by Irish singer Niall Horan, released through Capitol Records as the lead single from his third studio album The Show on 17 February 2023.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Horan" target="_blank">Niall Horan</a><br />
<i>Niall James Horan (b 1993) is an Irish singer-songwriter. He rose to prominence as a member of the boy band One Direction, formed in 2010 on the singing competition The X Factor. The group released five albums and went on to become one of the best-selling boy bands of all time.<br /><br />
Following the band's hiatus in 2016, Horan signed a recording deal as a solo artist with Capitol Records and has since released three albums: Flicker (2017), Heartbreak Weather (2020) and The Show (2023). Flicker debuted at number one in Ireland and the US, and reached the top three in Australia and the UK. The album's first two singles, "This Town" and "Slow Hands", reached the top twenty in several countries. Heartbreak Weather was released in March 2020, and debuted at number one in the UK, Ireland and Mexico, and at number four in the US.<br /><br />
Horan's third studio album, titled The Show, was released in June 2023.[4] It was preceded by the singles "Heaven" and "Meltdown", which were released in February and April 2023, respectively.</i><br /><br />
2023-11-29<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-33062040921628804592023-11-28T07:03:00.000-08:002023-11-28T07:10:10.370-08:00Freedom of Speech: Facebook vs X (Twitter)<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSq1pGXX5gaTHACMSbswocc7Dz4AzvYFN_DCAR-xKkMdFfPcpUvnYCzcQ3i61HGSMMCWIHGmNLmfVkh6b5HN3DVARz5mhzuKe1h_O893QfVy5i9ic_DqIdcccGB0Hqzyssrhav47rP5bTbnaDCsr_LWICfUSBWjrRJszPeKBaKqwWVKqRXaCnptXEvMZM/s620/Facebook%20jail.png" style="clear: left; display: block; float: left; padding-right: 5px; padding: 0em 5px 0em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="350" data-original-width="620" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqSq1pGXX5gaTHACMSbswocc7Dz4AzvYFN_DCAR-xKkMdFfPcpUvnYCzcQ3i61HGSMMCWIHGmNLmfVkh6b5HN3DVARz5mhzuKe1h_O893QfVy5i9ic_DqIdcccGB0Hqzyssrhav47rP5bTbnaDCsr_LWICfUSBWjrRJszPeKBaKqwWVKqRXaCnptXEvMZM/s320/Facebook%20jail.png" style="border: 0px;" width="320" /></a></div>
As of late, I've seen a number of posts on Facebook and Twitter of Nazi rallies in the United States, usually captioned with something like, "This is America?"
<br /><br />
I've heard it said that t**** has given permission to so many on the Far Right to come out of the closet and say what they knew was socially unacceptable: sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia. This is my moment, and I'm going to speak my mind, to Hell with your weak social justice bullsh*t. "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" (nod to the character Howard Beale of the 1976 film Network)
<br /><br />
<i>Never have so many knowing so little said so much.</i>
<br /><br />
Unfortunately, people open their mouths and let fly with whatever crosses their mind, regardless of whether it's correct and makes sense. Stupid is as stupid says. I hear complaints about Cancel Culture but ofttimes when I investigate the complainer, I find they never should have said what they said. (see link in References below)
<br /><br />
On Facebook, a friend posted a video of a Nazi rally in Florida. I commented with the following meme:
<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXdZDxn2G9UGy06t6M7fFZs4vqyswmZFK9EfFBoAS6yib6y5KeOiHZiixjoqBBoMc15n92KHhdfu6NPJWM-gWhghE3zpECci0oRpaHMWRIvx6ehD4t33ReGEh6uDUzdaU5adVZVoEaov8fFgK9p8TvaeKZzrPjR-0nhMF-OXKO0dqR64cSzIsD1-e8zG2/s700/Nazi.jpg" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPXdZDxn2G9UGy06t6M7fFZs4vqyswmZFK9EfFBoAS6yib6y5KeOiHZiixjoqBBoMc15n92KHhdfu6NPJWM-gWhghE3zpECci0oRpaHMWRIvx6ehD4t33ReGEh6uDUzdaU5adVZVoEaov8fFgK9p8TvaeKZzrPjR-0nhMF-OXKO0dqR64cSzIsD1-e8zG2/s400/Nazi.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Facebook removed my comment, saying I was promoting a hate group, blocking some of my functions until January 17, 2024, and threatening further action if I again violated their Community Standards. I asked for a review. Shortly thereafter, I got a response that their ruling remained in effect, and my comment would not be allowed.
<br /><br />
First off, I know this was not the doing of a human being. Facebook has crossed the three billion mark in the number of users, and there is no way they have the manpower to be supervising that many accounts. All of this is the result of automated routines scanning accounts for questionable material. Secondly, this is not the first time Facebook has taken exception to one of my postings. They may have image recognition and be able to detect a Nazi flag but do not have the interpretative ability to distinguish between the promotion of Nazism and the criticism of it.
<br /><br />
<b>A curious difference</b><br />
Elon Musk has said that Twitter, now X, would be a bastion of free speech. He's gotten himself into trouble for opening the flood gates as an unsupervised Twitter has turned into a free-for-all to say whatever the heck you want. Right? Wrong? As I've said elsewhere, it's not so much what people say, it's that other people are listening, and I mean listening without any critical thinking. Freedom of speech means you can say that two plus two equals five but the problem is that a significant portion of the population never do the math, heck, they don't even know math, and blindly repeat five, oblivious to the right answer. Now, we end up in this strange situation where if something is repeated often enough, it becomes true. Well, not in the eyes of science as the old saying is: The truth doesn't give a f*ck about your opinion. But a significant portion of the population represents a political force, and that force could drive our bus right off the cliff, themselves included. The answer ain't five!
<br /><br />
My point is that while Facebook censored my meme, I know that Twitter would not. Zuckerberg holds me accountable while Musk lets me speak my mind. Who's right? Which is the correct approach? Collectively, we are trying to hold social media responsible to supervise the content published on their platform because we can't control ourselves. I looked at some of the videos of Nazi rallies and noted people were parading wearing masks to hide their identity. Obviously, they know that what they're doing is not right. Or they're not yet ready to own it and be responsible for it, facing the consequences of their stance. Musk and Twitter or X have been bleeding advertisers who've decided they don't want to be seen in the same company as who they've decided are <i>deplorable</i>. Elon may allow Nazi flags but companies who risk being seen in their company have said no.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Freedom of speech. But with freedom comes responsibility. Before opening/ your mouth, have you verified that what you're going to say is true, factual, and logical? It seems odd that we must require our social media to police us because we have no self-control.
<br /><br />
Do I think censorship is going to work? If everybody was on the same page and agreed that two plus two equals four which, by the way, is true and factual, why would we need social media to supervise us? Unfortunately, I have no idea when we all will end up on the same page. It certainly is not going to happen in my lifetime.
<br /><br />
So, here we are Zuckerberg or Musk, Facebook jail or X freedom. Who's right? If we measure success by ad revenue, Elon may want to reconsider, but I leave his $44 billion experiment to him. It seems that being "right" in the eyes of the world may not be all that easy.
<br /><br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/10/cancel-culture-supposedly.html" target="_blank">Cancel Culutre, Supposedly</a> - Oct 20, 2021<br />
<i>I hear people complaining about being so-called cancelled. Woe is me! Of course, Godwin's Law takes over and now, it's the "Gestapo of Political Correctness" subjugating the masses to make them conform to what those G.D. libtards feel is socially acceptable.
<br /><br />
Fine. Then I go look at the complainant and see what's been suppressed. I find racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, along with lies, misinformation, distortion of the facts, conspiracy theories and outright stupidity, coupled with an attitude of anti-education, anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-government, and anti-authority goddamnit, nobody's gonna tell me what to do! Fifty years ago, a nut would stand on a soapbox at a street corner with a megaphone. The potential audience was limited. Today, that same person can get their message out to millions.
<br /><br />
We’re back to a fundamental question: We all want freedom, but should anyone be free to falsely yell “Fire!” in a crowded theater?</i>
<br /><br />
2023-11-28<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-51623615256097257782023-11-26T17:34:00.000-08:002023-11-26T22:15:49.317-08:00Harry Styles: Late Night Talking<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/LoMTK0HxPsA?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/LoMTK0HxPsA?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published Sep 2/2022 by Harry Styles<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoMTK0HxPsA" target="_blank">Harry Styles - Late Night Talking (Live from One Night Only in New York)</a> (3:47)
<br /><br />
Things haven’t been quite the same,<br />
There’s a haze on the horizon babe, <br />
It’s only been a couple of days and I miss you, <br />
Mmm yeah,<br />
When nothing really goes to plan,<br />
You stub your toe, or break your camera, <br />
I’ll do everything I can to help you through,<br />
<br />
If you’re feeling down,<br />
I just wanna make you happier baby, <br />
Wish I was around, <br />
I just wanna make you happier baby, <br />
<br />
We’ve been doing all this late night talking,<br />
About anything you want until the morning,<br />
Now you’re in my life,<br />
I can’t get you off my mind, <br />
<br />
I’ve never been a fan of change,<br />
But I’d follow you to any place,<br />
If it’s Hollywood or Bishopsgate, I’m coming too, <br />
<br />
If you’re feeling down,<br />
I just want to make you happier baby, <br />
Wish I was around,<br />
I just wanna make you happier baby, <br />
<br />
We’ve been doing all this late night talking,<br />
About anything you want until the morning,<br />
Now you’re in my life,<br />
I can’t get you off my mind,<br />
<br />
Can’t get you off my mind,<br />
Can’t get you off my mind,<br />
I won’t even try,<br />
To get you off my mind,<br />
Get you off my mind,<br />
<br />
We’ve been doing all this late night talking,<br />
About anything you want until the morning,<br />
Now you’re in my life,<br />
I can’t get you off my mind,<br />
<br />
Can’t get you off my mind,<br />
(All this late night talking),<br />
Can’t get you off my mind,<br />
(All this late night talking),<br />
I won’t even try,<br />
(All this late night talking),<br />
Can’t get you off my,<br />
(All this late night talking),<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFbpYkqUdBVJE8yj4kNyX9rlMxh0zqIXJl18j5AwAEs2ZaBsKMqJ6N8WE76lvMvX55k7wT_oq-3dBuQ045U9zP3441D8M4L9YFovxISTOT82ZauFL_9xaswx_ZkI53gf6PUE4I8S4ikiB6U-u4QRDD2QhkT15tklQCV01_fX_FU0yUtZsG3KgTEBrgSX4/s1508/Late%20Night%20Talking%20by%20Harry%20Styles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1508" data-original-width="1503" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvFbpYkqUdBVJE8yj4kNyX9rlMxh0zqIXJl18j5AwAEs2ZaBsKMqJ6N8WE76lvMvX55k7wT_oq-3dBuQ045U9zP3441D8M4L9YFovxISTOT82ZauFL_9xaswx_ZkI53gf6PUE4I8S4ikiB6U-u4QRDD2QhkT15tklQCV01_fX_FU0yUtZsG3KgTEBrgSX4/s320/Late%20Night%20Talking%20by%20Harry%20Styles.jpg" width="319" /></a></div>
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Late_Night_Talking" target="_blank">Late Night Talking</a><br />
<i>"Late Night Talking" is a song by English singer Harry Styles. The song was released to US pop radio as the second single from his third studio album Harry's House on 21 June 2022. A music video for the song was later released on 13 July 2022, in which Styles is shown exploring the world on different beds.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Styles" target="_blank">Harry Styles</a><br />
<i>Harry Edward Styles (born 1 February 1994) is an English singer. His musical career began in 2010 as part of One Direction, a boy band formed on the British music competition series The X Factor after each member of the band had been eliminated from the solo contest. They became one of the best-selling boy groups of all time before going on an indefinite hiatus in 2016.<br /><br />
Styles released his self-titled debut solo album through Columbia Records in 2017. It debuted at number one in the UK and the US and was one of the world's top-ten best-selling albums of the year, while its lead single, "Sign of the Times", topped the UK Singles Chart. Styles' second album, Fine Line (2019), debuted atop the US Billboard 200 with the biggest ever first-week sales by an English male artist, and was the most recent album to be included in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" in 2020. Its fourth single, "Watermelon Sugar", topped the US Billboard Hot 100. Styles' third album, Harry's House (2022), broke several records and was widely acclaimed, receiving the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2023. Its lead single, "As It Was", became the number-one song of 2022 globally according to Billboard.<br /><br />
Styles has received various accolades, including six Brit Awards, three Grammy Awards, an Ivor Novello Award, and three American Music Awards. His film roles include Dunkirk (2017), Don't Worry Darling (2022), and My Policeman (2022). Aside from music and acting, Styles is known for his flamboyant fashion. He is the first man to appear solo on the cover of Vogue. </i><br /><br />
My Comment<br />
I liked the live version more than the official video. I enjoyed watching the band play. And by the way, I found it interesting that female musicians were part of the band just like any other musician, as opposed to an all-female group. The gals can be just as good as the guys. The drummer Sarah Jones lays down a good beat for the song.
<br /><br />
Published Jul 13/2022 by Harry Styles<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VaqA-5aQTM" target="_blank">Harry Styles - Late Night Talking (Official Video)</a> (3:15)
<br /><br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/4VaqA-5aQTM?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/4VaqA-5aQTM?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
2023-11-26<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-45599572661823006282023-11-18T08:57:00.000-08:002023-11-18T08:57:23.987-08:00Less Critical, More Compassionate<div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDmEBfgzWbxuhuWTBBuJ-zO1pWH62zmZ1No6-YuLSOhfgWvBVc5DX3udKvlfyS5fCRzBdGnzwHGEXHQVq8zPk-gCG80o3xKuNdcSlPbtCLnQ3fYU1Yvsh9aq4-vX_aD_R4-18j-9m9H8USSQCxOEBtMGts-pbVf37EKLWfpwdn8oFs_x9qoPXLIYTmJh0/s1021/compassion.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1021" data-original-width="1021" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRDmEBfgzWbxuhuWTBBuJ-zO1pWH62zmZ1No6-YuLSOhfgWvBVc5DX3udKvlfyS5fCRzBdGnzwHGEXHQVq8zPk-gCG80o3xKuNdcSlPbtCLnQ3fYU1Yvsh9aq4-vX_aD_R4-18j-9m9H8USSQCxOEBtMGts-pbVf37EKLWfpwdn8oFs_x9qoPXLIYTmJh0/s320/compassion.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I'm older and questionably wiser, but definitely older.<br /><br />
But I've noted that with age, I've become less critical and more compassionate. I don't rush to judgment. Everybody is trying to figure things out, and they don't necessarily come to the same conclusions as me because of their life experiences, their upbringing, and their education. It's hard to understand that two plus two equals four if you have no understanding of mathematics.<br /><br />
Certainly now, more than ever, the state of the world seems very precarious. As the 1960s hippies said,: <i>Make Love Not War</i>. If we all spent more time between the sheets, there would be far less time for fighting. And I would add that there would be far less desire to fight. Nothing like a good orgasm with a good partner to give you a glow and make you feel that all is right with the world.<br /><br />
<span style="font-family: courier;">
<b>compassion (n):<br /> sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.</b>
</span><br /><br />
As I've said elsewhere on this blog, I've made this observation over the years:<br /><br />
Happy people are kind, generous, and sympathetic, if not empathetic.<br /><br />
Unhappy people are mean, cruel, and always find fault with others never with themselves.<br /><br />
Unfortunately, the world has far too many unhappy people. They could be having a bad day, but I've heard stories which made me conclude some people are having a bad life. I feel sorry for them. I may try to help, but I also realize some people are beyond my help and the best I can do for all of us is to stay away. I'll be compassionate but must carefully assess if I, personally, can do any good and if not, move on for my own protection and sanity.<br /><br />
To again borrow from the 1960s hippies, I like to say that I'm a <i>peace, love, and understanding</i> type of guy. I like to think I'm open and honest, nonjudgmental and accepting.
<br /><br />
Recently, I chatted with a very nice black woman on social media. We had a most interesting conversation. She did, however, recount some not so agreeable times. Apparently, not everyone is nonjudgmental and accepting, and racism exists. While she was dancing at a club, a man said to her out of the blue, "Beautiful n-".
<br /><br />
Wait! What? Where in this man's wildest imagination did he think such an opening line was acceptable and would lead him into the good graces of the woman in question? I was astounded by her story. I find it incredible that a person could be so lacking in social skills, unaware of manners, and apparently incapable of any empathy whatsoever. Who are these people? How many of them are there? And how prevalent is this behavior?<br /><br />
Concerned by the polarization of politics and the awakening of all that is wrong in society, sexism, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia, several years ago, I created the following meme in order to best describe my stance about other people, especially those people some may label as "different".<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV-tA5HivEf60nzZ-gAb8ZsaBs0HPkKkiBHthUtVoJkrVEj4iqgzDb03IgZ5GHH-XiCBngKH_X87pdZYld55YSG-cCZYF-oYeP0e7rZQylhhW29YNwGIPS7MQXth14rfTMbhhHV9SfkTJ3LV5jyycX0xkrlDfIAsNFGOQV4wpWK_ZEYQmRn93_FpoID8l/s1816/Privilege.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1323" data-original-width="1816" height="466" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYV-tA5HivEf60nzZ-gAb8ZsaBs0HPkKkiBHthUtVoJkrVEj4iqgzDb03IgZ5GHH-XiCBngKH_X87pdZYld55YSG-cCZYF-oYeP0e7rZQylhhW29YNwGIPS7MQXth14rfTMbhhHV9SfkTJ3LV5jyycX0xkrlDfIAsNFGOQV4wpWK_ZEYQmRn93_FpoID8l/w640-h466/Privilege.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
I think diversity is a good thing. Our differences make us stronger. Variety is the spice of life. United we stand. However, I know full well that not everyone feels as I do. They do not like anybody who is not identical to them. Too bad. They're missing out.<br /><br />
I'm less critical and more compassionate. But that doesn't mean I agree and am willing to let others dictate the terms for how our society is to be run. If what somebody believes in disenfranchises people or "punches down", they need to rethink their beliefs. If you're critical of other people, if you make fun of others, what does that say about you?<br /><br />
Somebody asking for their rights is not asking to take away my rights. We all deserve a place in the sun.<br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>You can easily judge the character of a man</i></div><i><div style="text-align: center;"><i>by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.</i></div></i><div style="text-align: center;">—Malcolm S. Forbes</div>
<br />
I am not here to be king of the hill. I have no need to <i>win</i> over others. We're all in this together, and it can be personally satisfying to help others. Yes, I climb the ladder because I want to be a success but I can also lend a hand to help others climb the ladder, too.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
As I like to say, will there ever be a <i>final</i> word? I've heard it said that while we have modern advances like the Internet, computers, and AI, the human race has not progressed one iota spiritually in two thousand years. We're just as stupid except now, with broadband, we can be stupid faster and for a wider audience.
<br /><br />
Notice what I said at the beginning of this article.
<br /><br />
<i>I've become less critical and more compassionate. I don't rush to judgment. Everybody is trying to figure things out, and they don't necessarily come to the same conclusions as me because of their life experiences, their upbringing, and their education. It's hard to understand that two plus two equals four if you have no understanding of mathematics.</i>
<br /><br />
I calling you ignorant. I'm not calling you stupid. Believe me, in the heat of an argument, it's a temptation to call you stupid but I'm trying to be compassionate. I do hope, however, that the ignorant don't get hold of the reins of power as they could very well sink the entire ship, them included, because they don't understand.
<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."</i> -Hanlon's Razor
<br /></div><div><br />
Like it or not, we're all in this together. <i>Those</i> people are not going away. Compassion: We're all just trying to find our place in the world.
<br /><br /><br />
<b>References</b>
<br /><br />
Click on the <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/p/site-map.html" target="_blank">site map of my blog</a> for more of my ramblings about everything under the sun.
<br /><br />
2023-11-18<br /><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-34796449393952087182023-11-14T13:29:00.000-08:002023-11-26T17:35:28.945-08:00Brad Paisley: Online<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/UE6iAjEv9dQ?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/UE6iAjEv9dQ?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published Oct 3/2009 by BRADPAISLEY<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE6iAjEv9dQ" target="_blank">Brad Paisley - Online</a> (5:51)
<br /><br />
I work down at the pizza pit<br />
And I drive an old Hyundai<br />
I still live with my mom and dad<br />
I'm 5'3 and overweight<br />
<br />
I'm a Sci-Fi fanatic<br />
Mild asthmatic<br />
Never been to 2nd base<br />
But there's a whole another me<br />
That you need to see<br />
Go check out MySpace<br />
<br />
'Cause online I'm out in Hollywood<br />
I'm 6'5 and I look damn good<br />
I drive a Maserati<br />
I'm a black belt in Karate<br />
And I love a good glass of wine<br />
<br />
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious<br />
I tell 'em I don't want nothing serious<br />
'Cause even on a slow day I can have a three way<br />
Chat with two women at one time<br />
<br />
I'm so much cooler online<br />
So much cooler online<br />
<br />
I get home, I kiss my mom<br />
And she fixes me a snack<br />
I head down to my basement bedroom<br />
And fire up my Mac<br />
<br />
In real life the only time I<br />
Ever even been to L.A.<br />
Was when I got the chance with the marching band<br />
To play tuba in the Rose Parade.<br />
<br />
Online I live in Malibu<br />
I posed for Calvin Klein, I've been in GQ<br />
I'm single and I'm rich<br />
And I got a set of six pack abs that'll blow your mind<br />
<br />
It turns girls on that I'm mysterious<br />
I tell 'em I don't want nothing serious<br />
'Cause even on a slow day I can have a three way<br />
Chat with two women at one time<br />
<br />
I'm so much cooler online<br />
Yeah I'm cooler online<br />
<br />
When you got my kinda stats, it's hard to get a date<br />
Let alone a real girlfriend<br />
But I grow another foot<br />
And I lose a bunch of weight every time I log in<br />
<br />
Online I'm out in Hollywood<br />
I'm 6'5 and I look damn good<br />
Even on a slow day, I can have a three way<br />
Chat with two women at one time<br />
<br />
I'm so much cooler online<br />
Yeah I'm cooler online<br />
I'm so much cooler online<br />
Yeah I'm cooler online<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgV5uxjM4IniflH69DW6KaQuFwk-uafLVq6ACIuplR4d2LkUI_bgkG_JyBPS1maM4ucuu-GjW2iaNBTz9dCEErs7OzP0HJ6_yN8WR3gbxjP6w5R9OSnUBn1lAgUhrP0djmxAlTTiG14nqln9YfSz8xQbAKwQRJgK7NyulcN1XCYkGWS6twwawmi9gOg/s500/brad-paisley-online-Cover-Art.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="443" data-original-width="500" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDgV5uxjM4IniflH69DW6KaQuFwk-uafLVq6ACIuplR4d2LkUI_bgkG_JyBPS1maM4ucuu-GjW2iaNBTz9dCEErs7OzP0HJ6_yN8WR3gbxjP6w5R9OSnUBn1lAgUhrP0djmxAlTTiG14nqln9YfSz8xQbAKwQRJgK7NyulcN1XCYkGWS6twwawmi9gOg/s320/brad-paisley-online-Cover-Art.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_(Brad_Paisley_song)" target="_blank">Online (Brad Paisley song)</a><br />
<i>"Online" is a song by American country music artist Brad Paisley. It was released on July 2, 2007, as the second single from the album 5th Gear. The single is Paisley's ninth overall Number One single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts, as well as his fifth consecutive Number One. In addition, the song's music video won a Video of the Year award for Paisley at the 2007 Country Music Association awards.</i><br /><br />
<i>Music Video<br />The music video is directed by actor Jason Alexander, who also plays the geek in the song's music video; William Shatner and Estelle Harris play his parents. Patrick Warburton has a cameo as a car dealer, Shane West has a cameo as a photographer, and Maureen McCormick is featured as the geek's next door neighbor. The marching band from Brentwood High School in Brentwood, Tennessee (who also perform at the end of the album version) makes an appearance at the end, and country music artists Taylor Swift and Kellie Pickler appear as Paisley's backup dancers. The concert portions of the video were shot at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, Washington, during Brad Paisley's tour, during which Swift and Pickler served as opening acts. The Matrix digital rain can be seen falling on the screen behind the band's performance. </i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brad_Paisley" target="_blank">Brad Paisley</a><br />
<i>Bradley Douglas Paisley (born October 28, 1972) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Starting with his 1999 debut album Who Needs Pictures, he has released eleven studio albums and a Christmas compilation on the Arista Nashville label, with all of his albums certified Gold or higher by the RIAA. He has scored 35 Top 10 singles on the US Billboard Country Airplay chart, 20 of which have reached number one. He set a new record in 2009 for the most consecutive singles (10) reaching the top spot on that chart.<br /><br />
Paisley has sold over 11 million albums and has won three Grammy Awards, 14 Academy of Country Music Awards, 14 Country Music Association Awards, and two American Music Awards. He has also earned country music's crowning achievement, becoming a member of the Grand Ole Opry. Paisley also wrote songs for Pixar's Cars franchise ("Behind the Clouds", "Find Yourself", "Collision of Worlds" with Robbie Williams, "Nobody's Fool", etc.).</i><br /><br />
2023-11-14<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-72371287085305459702023-10-20T14:13:00.000-07:002023-10-20T14:13:08.886-07:00Freedom of Speech, Jordan Peterson, and I believe therefore it's true.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRceK8DuZDvUbrqxIKHtTHXh8jIt_QX3Ycw_a2XqAXw4OtEnTSezk0_E3ZWaDQm6S7YY3dnG_mB2roBQViovGLF5RfDRIN1O5v-54kqcbJ9n53W6tmV64z4rvOzViVWSS4Tes0dUe3oMv9KXeGY5rASci-8ulkbhzQeUbt8VVyGIC_G0YMKlMdKxrnusK/s918/Truth,%20Post-truth.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="691" data-original-width="918" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBRceK8DuZDvUbrqxIKHtTHXh8jIt_QX3Ycw_a2XqAXw4OtEnTSezk0_E3ZWaDQm6S7YY3dnG_mB2roBQViovGLF5RfDRIN1O5v-54kqcbJ9n53W6tmV64z4rvOzViVWSS4Tes0dUe3oMv9KXeGY5rASci-8ulkbhzQeUbt8VVyGIC_G0YMKlMdKxrnusK/w400-h301/Truth,%20Post-truth.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i>Never have so many knowing so little said so much.</i><br /><br />
At first glance, the cartoon by Shovel seems amusing. But the more I look at it, the more I see a strange transformation of the public dialog. Maybe it's always existed, but it seems more pronounced with electronic communications and the proliferation of social media. Years ago, your average nutjob stood at the corner on a soapbox with a megaphone, spouting whatever nonsense he wanted. Now, he's on Facebook or Twitter with a reach of millions, sometimes tens of millions if not more. Studies have revealed that rumors spread faster than the truth. It's almost as if the design of human communications is geared toward the bad, not the good.<br /><br />
How common is common knowledge? Two plus two equals four. The Earth is not flat. I've been struck over the past few years in this era of t****, MAGA, and Qanon conspiracists, that what I thought was common has turned out to be not so common. On top of it, the Dunning-Kruger Effect has proven that those with so-called uncommon knowledge are very much convinced they're right. Referring back to bad winning over good, people seem to be more accepting of rumored information than questioning anything. They make little effort to confirm what they hear as true or not. I make mention of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory" target="_blank">Pizzagate</a>: Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee were running a child sex ring out of basement of a pizzeria in a suburb of Washington DC. I heard this and immediately dismissed it as false, however, one man, from North Carolina, loaded up his car with guns, drove to the pizzeria and shot a lock off a door, looking for the children. At his trial, he admitted he had been duped. Upon hearing all this, I was startled by this man's lack of critical thinking. There is bad in the world. Unfortunately, so many people are running around blaming all sorts of unrelated things. I think of Marjorie Taylor Greene saying that Jewish space lasers caused the wildfires in California. Or the supposed perversion of American children by drag queens. These people are lacking so much real-world knowledge, they lash out with wild, unfounded theories, trying to make sense of the world.<br /><br />
<table><tbody><tr><td>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/440px-Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="660" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5c/Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg/440px-Jordan_Peterson_by_Gage_Skidmore.jpg" width="133" /></a></div>
</td><td>
<b>Jordan Peterson</b><br />
Full disclosure: I don't know Jordan Peterson. I've never read his books, attended his lectures, or looked at his YouTube videos. My acquaintance with this controversial Canadian comes from him popping up in newspaper articles about the umbrage over some public statement he's pronounced about the latest issue. I've been curious as to why he always seems to get himself into hot water but it seems evident to me now that his problem is that he's arrogant. He's so sure he's right, he can't see when he's wrong. That seems to pretty much sum up the attitude of the Right, including conservatives, Qanon conspiracy theorists, and MAGA followers.
</td></tr></tbody></table>
<b>Yumi Nu, cover model for Sports Illustrated</b><br />
On May 16, 2022, Jordan Peterson declared a Sports Illustrated model "not beautiful" and sparked quite a backlash. (<a href="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/jordan-peterson-sparks-outrage-after-declaring-sports-illustrated-model-not-beautiful/YPIWWXLWIORWPKHOYWACFNU4AE/" target="_blank">source</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/-win-lose-model-yumi-nu-responds-jordan-petersons-not-beautiful-commen-rcna29879" target="_blank">source</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/jordanbpeterson/status/1526279181545390083" target="_blank">Peterson's tweet</a>)<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaSpk8fwXl48JP7YKID1HN82JQn8JNsZ5H8ZnRf1eMkLGdzTJt2e_aR7cfp72WaUOrGOIgDU4QSRtOKB405Zqx6fFuyOOie82LkaFyNUnYS3guQavjNF1-SK9PKNbEi2Wpv9qoeDxUy85N2qEAELB69joCiZyg2OzQlezZB12cOYeSfDxbow1hAA0WgwR/s1737/Jordon%20Peterson.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1737" data-original-width="1013" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyaSpk8fwXl48JP7YKID1HN82JQn8JNsZ5H8ZnRf1eMkLGdzTJt2e_aR7cfp72WaUOrGOIgDU4QSRtOKB405Zqx6fFuyOOie82LkaFyNUnYS3guQavjNF1-SK9PKNbEi2Wpv9qoeDxUy85N2qEAELB69joCiZyg2OzQlezZB12cOYeSfDxbow1hAA0WgwR/w374-h640/Jordon%20Peterson.jpg" width="374" /></a></div><br />
Sample responses:<br /><br />
Man: "Sheesh. Big fan here. I find my girlfriend with a body type like this quite beautiful. Dial it back a bit homie."<br /><br />
Woman: "Why do men feel it's their duty to publicly pronounce their view on the attractiveness of women? Couldn't you just keep it to yourself?"<br /><br />
Over the years, in this blog, I've discussed body image of both women and men. We live in a society very much affected by some sort of idealized body type published in various media. Women are supposed to look like a Victoria Secrets model; anything less is "not beautiful" as Peterson put it. But is that actually true?<br /><br />
Years ago, a fellow blogger Erica Jagger published a series of boudoir shoots of various women. I found each woman attractive in their own right. They weren't models per se, but they were attractive. How startling to read their struggles with self-image and the ensuing lack of confidence. I would have loved to have coffee with each one of them as yes, each one of them was attractive. Old saying: Confidence is the sexiest of all characteristics.<br /><br />
I'm fond of the saying: "Does a goldfish know its living in a fishbowl?" Do any of us fully understand the society we live in where we are bombarded with messages both overt and subliminal, inculcating us with a value system we have no say about and do not necessarily understand?<br /><br />
Peterson, in declaring himself the arbiter of female beauty, is oblivious to how his own tastes have been formulated by the traditions of Victoria Secrets. Like others on the right, he has a laser-like focus on this supposed evil of "wokeness". He's arguing against Sports Illustrated being woke by putting a plus-sized model on the cover, not realizing the magazine was only giving women other than Victoria Secrets models their due. Woke means being fair and inclusive but critics think that's a bad thing. Well, it's a bad thing until people are unfair or not inclusive to these critics. It amuses me how critics hate being criticized.<br /><br />
<b>Elliot Page, transgender man</b><br />
Page came out in December 2020. In June 2022, Peterson had his Twitter account suspended when he tweeted: "Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.” (<a href="https://nypost.com/2022/06/30/twitter-suspends-jordan-peterson-for-elliot-page-sin-tweet/" target="_blank">source</a>) Apparently, Peterson is "infamous for his anti-trans stance. He once claimed on Joe Rogan’s podcast that being transgender is a result of a 'contagion' and similar to 'satanic ritual abuse.'".<br /><br />
On July 12/2022, I wrote <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/07/dave-chappelle-ricky-gervais-j-k.html" target="_blank">Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, J. K. Rowling, and the Third Gender</a>, a 3,125 words, 10-minute read examination of transgender. I discovered that <i>transgender</i> has existed for thousands of years and been readily accepted in other cultures. but which is, according to Wikipedia (referencing Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (2007) by Richard Warms, Richard L. Warms, R. Jon McGee), <i>still somewhat new to mainstream western culture and conceptual thought</i>. And what do we do when confronted with something new, outside our own experience? We don't believe it and we mock it. If you haven't personally experienced it, it can't be true.<br /><br />
Rowling has gotten herself into trouble by declaring there are only two sexes, the sex with which you are born. For her, there is no distinction between the physical and the psychological. In my analysis, I enumerate numerous examples I've encountered which led me to conclude that transgender is very real. Just because I'm not transgender doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Once again, Peterson hasn't done his homework, knowing nothing about history, knowing nothing outside the realm of his own life.<br /><br />
<b>Canada's response to Covid</b><br />
In an opinion piece (National Post, January 10, 2022), Peterson explained the inconveniences he’s had to suffer due to restrictions related to the responses of various governments to Covid. After a visit to Tennessee during which he enjoyed the openness of the Covid-related rules, he wondered why Canada couldn't open itself up like Tennessee or Florida. Fair enough. I compared the death rates from Covid of the two countries (<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/02/covid-what-if-us-was-like-canada.html" target="_blank">my blog</a>) and discovered that the United States and all of its individual states had death rates several times greater than Canada. In fact, I estimated that if the United States had responded to Covid the same way Canada had, over 600,000 Americans would have been alive, but they were dead from Covid. While Florida Governor Ron DeSantis loves to brag about how his state has handled the pandemic, I estimated than over 40,000 Floridians had needlessly died from Covid due to his lack of preventative measures. Peterson, in a fit of self-centeredness, paid no heed to the benefits of Canada's policies but only looked at his own inconvenience. The joke was that if Peterson had got his wish and Canada had opened up and consequently, more Canadians died, he didn't know he could have very well been one of those who died from the disease.<br /><br />
<b>The College of Psychologists of Ontario</b><br />
In November 2022, the College ordered Peterson to undergo a coaching program on professionalism in public statements after the College received a number of complaints about Peterson's online comments about the above issues. (<a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/jordan-peterson-court-case-decision-1.6943845" target="_blank">source</a>) There was a hue and a cry, especially from Peterson about his freedom of speech, but the CBC as of August 2023 reports an Ontario court upheld the ruling against Peterson. Was his freedom of speech infringed? Does he have the right to say what he said?
<br /><br />
<b>Protecting the Brand</b><br />
Back in the early 2000s, the company I worked for decided to put in place a social media policy. I conducted part of the preliminary investigation and discovered the following. A company or an organisation has the right to protect itself, its brand or its reputation. The most obvious case I ran across had Company X firing employee Y after it discovered Y was running a neo-Nazi website. A subsequent court battle saw the firing upheld after it determined that Company X had the right to distance itself from Nazism as it would threaten its sales since the vast majority of the population were against Nazism.<br /><br />
If I take that and apply it to The College of Psychologists, the College has the right to protect its brand or its credibility in the eyes of the public. I suppose Peterson has the right to say what he wants to say but the public also has the right to voice their opinion and criticize Peterson for his, well, unorthodox views. Anybody has the right to say two plus two equals five but everybody else has the right to disagree. And like Company X, the public can decide to shop elsewhere where Nazism is not promoted.
<br /><br />
<b>Freedom of Speech</b><br />
Do any of us have the right to shout "Fire!" in a crowded theater? (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shouting_fire_in_a_crowded_theater" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>) The part of the debate which seems to be always missing is whether or not what somebody says is causing harm. If the two of us are sitting in a bar on a Saturday night, you can say anything you want. Who are you going to harm? It's only the two of us. But what if you're a public figure with an audience of millions of viewers? Your word is influential, and the question of your freedom of speech and even offhanded comments must include whether or not you're doing good or causing harm.
<br /><br />
The president of the United States has to one of, if not the most influential person on the planet. When the president speaks, people listen.<br /><br />
Donald J. t**** took every opportunity to downplay the pandemic, to call it a hoax, to convince people not to take preventative measures, not to wear masks, not social distance, not get vaccinated, not follow vaccine mandates, and not get boosted. I believe t**** should be held criminally negligent for the needless deaths of over 600,000 Americans. Unlike you or me, the president has the ear of all Americans with the power to influence them in their daily lives. What he says counts.<br /><br />
I would add that anybody who's in the public eye, Jordan Peterson, others like Joe Rogan, Fox News and its minions, etc. do not have so-called freedom of speech, they can't say what they think; they can't just give their opinion. They have a responsibility to research their ideas because of the influential power over their audience. t**** asked if disinfectants could be used against Covid. Reports then popped up about people poisoning themselves trying to self-medicate with bleach. Sure, you can easily dismiss these people as stupid but let me repeat: The president of the United States suggested it; it's got to be true!<br /><br />
Peterson like many confuse the issue of the freedom of speech, their freedom, with their responsibility as a public figure. Even an offhanded comment may be taken as the gospel, and some people could follow through with the idea. Joe Rogan, professional comic and podcaster, was a strong proponent of ivermectin as a means to fight Covid. (<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/11/ivermectin-im-not-taking-medical-advice.html" target="_blank">my blog</a>) This was disproven but Joe ignored the science, along with many others including t****. <i>The Washington Poison Center, Seattle, Washington, reported a five-fold increase in calls regarding ivermectin.</i> People look at those in the public eye with trust and will follow their recommendations even if those recommendations are pure, unadulterated bullsh*t.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/12_Rules_for_Life_Front_Cover_(2018_first_edition).jpg/796px-12_Rules_for_Life_Front_Cover_(2018_first_edition).jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="796" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b0/12_Rules_for_Life_Front_Cover_(2018_first_edition).jpg/796px-12_Rules_for_Life_Front_Cover_(2018_first_edition).jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<b>Am I being fair in my criticism of Peterson?</b><br />
Just now, I re-read the following Wikipedia articles: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson" target="_blank">Jordan Peterson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12_Rules_for_Life" target="_blank">12 Rules for Life</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beyond_Order" target="_blank">Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life</a>. I note the following:
<br /><br />
<i>Believing Peterson to be famous for his personality rather than his "bonkers" philosophy, [James Marriott of The Times] said that Peterson "may have mistaken his personality for a philosophical system".</i><br /><br />
I can't help feeling there's something wrong here. The very fact he wrote 12 Rules for Life then 12 More Rules smacks of a certain pretentiousness. He does have his fans but I have no intention of rushing out to buy his books or start watching his YouTube channel.<br /><br />
I see that Peterson has used the term "woke". I'm sorry, once I hear somebody use this term I know they are not objectively looking at the world. They are closed-minded with an ideological slant on life. During a court case between Gov. Ron DeSantis and Disney where DeSantis accused Disney of being woke, the judge asked for a definition of the word, and an attorney for DeSantis said that it referred to being aware of social injustices. I don't understand. Why is being aware of social injustices a bad thing? How did this term become a catch-all for everything The Right supposedly hates? And I have to ask: What's the opposite of woke? Asleep? Unconscious? Dead? I'd rather be woke than any of those things.<br /><br />
I stand by my comments on the above issues. Peterson was wrong. He should not have said what he said. And The College is right to demand he take remedial training.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
I'm fond of the line attributed to Socrates: "I know nothing". I'm also fond of the aphorism: "The more I know the less I know." However, in this era of t**** and MAGA, I've been surprised, shocked, and sometimes appalled at those clearly demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger Effect. They couldn't possibly know the right answer and yet, they are so very convinced they do. They're missing pieces of the puzzle; they're not asking the right questions; and they're ignoring holes in their argumentation. It is far more important to these people to win the debate than to be right. In fact, finding "the truth" in quotation marks is of no importance. Winning isn't everything; it's the only thing.<br /><br />
In my piece on <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/10/cancel-culture-supposedly.html" target="_blank">Cancel Culture</a> (2,600 words, 10-minute read), I discovered that those who scream about the injustice of being so-called cancelled, have opened their mouths and let fly with <i> racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, along with lies, misinformation, distortion of the facts, conspiracy theories and outright stupidity, coupled with an attitude of anti-education, anti-science, anti-expertise, anti-government, and anti-authority goddamnit, nobody's gonna tell me what to do!</i> In other words, they deserved to be slapped silly. It's freedom of speech; it's not freedom to be stupid.<br /><br />
Peterson's stance against transgender shows he knows nothing about history. His take on Covid ignores science and statistics. And his comment about the Sports Illustrated model is just mean. Like so many today on the Right, he's arrogant, so convinced he's right, he can't see when he's wrong. He's supposedly going to take whatever remedial course was prescribed by the College, but I feel certain he's not going to "get it". He feels he has the right to say what he wants to say because of freedom of speech not realising that his opinion is not "The Truth".<br /><br />
I said I don't know Peterson and don't follow him other than the stories which pop up in my news feed. However, my interest right now is how Peterson is representative of everything wrong with today's modern world: "I believe therefore it's true." We all want to understand. We all want a comforting explanation of what's going on in the world, but we must be cautious. In desiring that comforting explanation, we can jump to conclusions rather than making the effort to uncover "The Truth". I ran across a meme which humorously explains it all:
<br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Science doesn't give a f*ck about your opinion.</i></div><br /><br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson" target="_blank">Jordan Peterson</a><br />
<i>Jordan Bernt Peterson (born 12 June 1962) is a Canadian psychologist, author, and media commentator. Often described as conservative, he began to receive widespread attention in the late 2010s for his views on cultural and political issues. Peterson has described himself as a classic British liberal and a traditionalist.</i><br /><br />
During the pandemic, outraged by the B.S. being passed around as scientific fact, I wrote a number of articles on various issues, carefully researching what I claimed as "fact" so as to be able to back up my so-called opinion with scientific evidence.<br /><br />
<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/11/ivermectin-im-not-taking-medical-advice.html" target="_blank">Ivermectin: I'm not taking medical advice from Joe Rogan.</a> - Nov 9/2021<br />
<i>From the outset of the pandemic, the supposed antiviral properties of the antiparasitic drug ivermectin has been bandied about left, right, and center. Even if expert sources of information like the CDC and the FDA said not to use it, people, especially those on the right led by Fox News, kept pushing ivermectin “propaganda”. Has anybody read the science, and if they did, did they understand what they were looking at? The slightest hint of anything positive has turned into possibility and if it doesn’t kill you, what the heck, what harm could it do? Who knows? It may very well do something!</i><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/02/the-problem-isnt-so-much-what-people.html" target="_blank">The problem isn’t so much what people say, it’s that we listen.</a> - Feb 14/2022<br />
<i>I don’t listen to Joe Rogan. I never have listened to him, and I have no intention of doing so. Problem solved.<br /><br />
In fact, I don’t listen and never have listened to t****, Fox News, whether it be Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeannine Piro, Jesse Waters, et al., or any other source on the Right such as Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, formerly Rush Limbaugh, etc. Of course, clips crop up in newscasts, but I never tune into any of these people. Problem solved.<br /><br />
It occurs to me that the problem isn’t so much that any of these people are talking, it’s that we’re, I mean, you’re listening. Why are you listening?</i><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/02/covid-what-if-us-was-like-canada.html" target="_blank">Covid: What if the U.S. was like Canada? </a> - Feb 3/2022<br />
<i>Comparing the death rate of Canada with the U.S. and its individual states as of February 3, 2022. I believe t**** and Ron DeSantis should be held criminally negligent for their handling of the Covid pandemic.</i><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcyCaWCWIAMi1E8?format=jpg&name=medium" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcyCaWCWIAMi1E8?format=jpg&name=medium" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcyDATnX0AE5vZk?format=jpg&name=medium" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="400" src="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FcyDATnX0AE5vZk?format=jpg&name=medium" width="400" /></a></div><br />
2023-10-20<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-38078799631169530862023-09-26T11:13:00.005-07:002023-09-29T00:07:09.227-07:00Marketing My Writing: So far, a bust!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yknUSGaj3YJA-kJrW6yQEsXfFUih7WQd7pReDZZiXKRXUtaDgAQRXFgAX-y0OkWBF-bRvfH4qgTvL8j6gzpB4rhf_5M8JU-kyVOHdqNyvEZ12R4ReEIsRD2Q38_uM969jxK09g0aDjCLauB2jlxl6MhpG5u2CUc08aRRbIJCK8V2exA8WZLUH4lDfw4n/s2000/Marketing%20from%20Freepix.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1333" data-original-width="2000" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7yknUSGaj3YJA-kJrW6yQEsXfFUih7WQd7pReDZZiXKRXUtaDgAQRXFgAX-y0OkWBF-bRvfH4qgTvL8j6gzpB4rhf_5M8JU-kyVOHdqNyvEZ12R4ReEIsRD2Q38_uM969jxK09g0aDjCLauB2jlxl6MhpG5u2CUc08aRRbIJCK8V2exA8WZLUH4lDfw4n/w200-h133/Marketing%20from%20Freepix.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
I'll start with the classic joke: Look at what I've done, and now do the exact opposite, the supposition being that what I'm doing is wrong. I published my first book on September 22, 2016, and so far, any efforts on my part to market my work has been a bust. Research had turned up an article claiming that indie authors earn on average about $500 a year, and I'd say that just about describes my situation. There are supposedly 2.2 million new books published each year in the world so over the past 7 years as of this writing, there have been 15.4 million of them and not one of my works has caught the interest of the public. ARC programs, paid reviews, book tours, advertising campaigns on social media either by myself or by companies with for-pay services, Amazon's own paid ads, none of these marketing methods has led to any substantial number of sales. Considering each one of my books has involved money out of my own pocket for beta reads, copy editing, and proofreading, I'm so far in the red that it's ridiculous. Never mind a profit, I'd be happy at this stage of the game just to break even.<br /><br />
<b>Ecosystems</b><br />
I first noticed this in paying for book tours. In looking at the interactions of the various participants, it became clear to me the purpose of the tour was not my book, it was the tour. People interacted with each other. Comments were about the superficial of the tour, the book cover, the book blurb, what other people said or did, the host or hostess of the tour, etc., but it became clear nobody was buying the book and actually reading it.<br /><br />
Recently, I tried out Instagram and discovered the same phenomenon. I paid for two ad services: each of them posting about my book. Each post got around 15,000 likes which seems like a good thing but I note that I may have gotten only one or two sales. In other words, Instagram is about Instagram, liking a post, not about buying my book. Sidebar: I join Instagram, post about my books, and then my Inbox is flooded with messages from publicity services! In fact, most of my followers seem to be people wanting me to pay them money! Ha!<br /><br />
There's an old saying (with many variations): If you throw enough Jell-O at the wall, eventually something is going to stick. So far, I haven't gotten much to stick.<br /><br />
During the summer of 2023, wondering just what horrible thing I had been doing, I paid $200 for a one-hour session with a marketing consultant. He told me a number of mistakes I had made and convinced me to slap down another $800 for his services. I did precisely what he asked then redid my ad campaigns on Amazon. Results? A bust. No better than what I had done by myself. If I search for expertise in marketing, I can find all sorts of advice. However, I've now come to the conclusion that this advice is like throwing Jell-O. While I'm sure experts in marketing are better than me, I'm not sure that anything I've done so far has been totally wrong. My biggest problem as I see it is that I'm unknown, and nobody wants to take a chance on an unknown.<br /><br />
<b>I wouldn't buy my book.</b><br />
I've looked at how I select a book to read. First off, I don't have much time, and I don't want to waste it. Consequently, my selection process is aiming to guarantee that my choice is a good one. I'll pick a well-known author, one whose opus matches my taste. The book blurb will confirm whether the story will pique my interest. I can't say the cover art is a factor in my choice which contradicts some marketing experts who say the cover is everything.<br /><br />
In other words, I would never choose one of my own books. Maybe, just maybe if I was at the cottage on a rainy day with nothing better to do, I might look at the bookshelf and somewhat randomly choose a book I would otherwise never read. This is the humor of my marketing situation. I wouldn't buy my book but I'm trying to figure out how to get people interested in it. Ha, ha!<br /><br />
<b>Amazon Ad Campaigns</b><br />
Out of all the marketing endeavors, I think this one deserves special mention as it is built into the sales mechanism many of us use when publishing on Amazon.<br /><br />
After playing with this system for years, my conclusion is this: Amazon has a really good system for themselves. Despite my best efforts, I've never been in the black. While I do manage to get the occasional sale, for the most part I am spending far more than I'm earning. My impression is that Amazon has built themselves a guaranteed money maker while I am wildly throwing Jell-O around in a hope springs eternal manner and having nothing stick. There have been periods when I left the system turned off as it was merely sucking up money and giving me pretty much nothing in return. But every once in a while, I'd try out a new idea, a new book blurb, a new tag line, new keyword targeting, etc. but to no avail. As I mentioned above, I hired a marketing consultant who re-wrote all my book blurbs and my taglines but that still didn't work. Damn if I know what the trick is. But I repeat: The biggest thing I've got going against me is that I'm just another name and there are just so many choices out there, why would anybody take risk on a complete unknown?<br /><br />
<b>The Literary Lottery</b><br />
I jokingly use this term to describe being discovered. It's not the marketing campaign per se, not the book blurb, not the cover, not the placement of an ad on social media, it's the point of self-combustion when the book takes on a life of its own, and interest snowballs. It's like wining the (literary) lottery! The public keeps talking about the work, passing around their enthusiasm for it and inciting others to take a look.<br /><br />
By all expert accounts, 50 Shades of Grey was a poorly written book. I've read numerous reviews criticizing E. L. James as a writer but after now having passed 150 million copies of her novels, she must be laughing all the way to the bank. Go figure. As odd as it sounds, quality may not always be the key to success. However, there's no doubt in my mind that Ms. James did indeed win the literary lottery. Even if her work had had critical praise, she still could have remained unknown. The old saying goes: You can work very hard and still lose.<br /><br />
<b>The Numbers Game</b><br />
The other week I was discussing this idea with a friend, and she gave me some example numbers.<br /><br />
An ad is displayed 1,000 times. Maybe 10% of the readers or 100 people look at the ad. Out of that, maybe 10% or 10 people click to view the details. Out of that, maybe 10% or 1 person actually acts on the ad as in purchasing something.<br /><br />
Those numbers, however, express the concept but the actual numbers would be tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions. And the percentages wouldn't be 10% but possibly 1% or even a percentage of a percent. In other words, if the ad is displayed enough times, even a 0.01% success rate could lead to sales.<br /><br />
I'm reminded of an old joke: A man walking down the street comes across a beggar who has a cup of pencils with a sign saying $1 million. The man chuckles and says, "You're not going to sell a lot of pencils at that price." The beggar responds, "I only have to sell one."<br /><br />
<b>Shawn Warner strikes gold</b><br />
This first-time author was sitting in a store, signing books when a passer-by filmed him and posted it on TikTok. It went viral and Warner's book shot up to become the number one seller on Amazon. He's now been interviewed on NBC's Today Show. (<a href="https://www.today.com/popculture/books/viral-tiktok-makes-debut-author-bestseller-shawn-warner-rcna93943" target="_blank">link to article</a>) This is the type of out of the box marketing I've long suspected is what makes winning the literary lottery possible. I've jokingly said I need to go down to the city central square with a box of my books, take off all of my clothes and pass them out with the hope, before the police arrest me for indecent exposure, that the media would get wind of my story and write about it. I may spend the night behind bars but I would get publicity! Ha, ha!<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Since I was putting my name on the book, I wanted to make sure I didn't embarrass myself. I hired professional editorial help to ensure my work was in the best shape possible. I haven't exactly followed the same approach when it's come to marketing, although I have spent time researching the topic. Should I have turned more to experts? The definition of an expert: Somebody who knows just a little bit more than you.<br /><br />
I'm sure marketing people look at me like a sucker. My two Instagram marketers got 15,000 likes each on their ads, so in a way, they did live up to their promises. But those ads gave me no sales and in the end, sales are the only thing that counts.<br /><br />
Am I flailing? The supposedly made-up story of Thomas Edison has a journalist asking him to comment on his failure to invent the light bulb. Edison replies, "I haven't failed. I've merely come up with 999 ways to NOT make a light bulb."<br /><br />
I have concluded that marketing is not an exact science. It's very much hit and miss. But I am also convinced that my biggest stumbling block is that I am but a mere grain of sand on the beach of life. There is quite literally so much going on in the world, why would anybody take the time to look at my stuff? I go through the Amazon ad campaign statistics, studying CTR (Click-through Rate) and CPC (Cost-per-click), tweaking taglines and book blurbs while realizing the customer has a tsunami of information flying by their eyes, and I only have a millisecond to pique their curiosity. Fat chance.<br /><br />
My conclusion is that I continue with two possible roads to success.<br />
<ol style="text-align: left;"><li>
Eventually by sheer number of ads, something catches the public's eye.</li><li>
Something unusual happens like a TikTok video (or me naked), and that catches the public's eye.</li></ol>
<br />
Only time will tell. But I'm reminded of an author who described her approach by saying that she wasn't going to fuss too much about marketing; it would eventually take care of itself, and she was going back to writing her next novel.<br /><br />
Amen. <br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2020/06/i-wrote-book-so-what.html" target="_blank">I wrote a book. So what?</a> - Oct 24/2021<br />
<i>I clicked on the Publish button on September 22, 2016. "All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my closeup." I'm sitting here, five years later, realising, "So, what?"</i><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2010/12/book-review-on-writing-by-stephen-king.html" target="_blank">Book Review: On Writing by Stephen King</a> - Dec 27/2010<br />
<i>Who on this planet doesn't know the name Stephen King? Born in 1947, this American author has written and published 49 novels including 5 nonfiction which have sold over 350 million copies. Of course, his fame has spread even further as a number of these books have been turned into successful films: Carrie, The Shining, It and Misery to name but a few.</i><br /><br />
2023-09-26<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-1222251741188581562023-01-14T10:32:00.005-08:002023-01-14T10:32:47.655-08:00Politics: pandering not leading<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE52gnJVM5dX3AigcsvSi-02eCq9mvT10JFNpTReUloNZTTlsHCKAjC-uj2Pe-oR6Gh3zBcuopxq9hHMlLGnbdUnF2aZAHB4KGupfvm5j_K0wWZ9QQ4e_edoJYbVhRe5pTGd7zuQrGBF4YrLdC4qoN_UgGqV_oZa14Ce8Al5ajMLb5YtcQFwj64PZaQ/s2842/lectern%2004.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2842" data-original-width="1688" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTE52gnJVM5dX3AigcsvSi-02eCq9mvT10JFNpTReUloNZTTlsHCKAjC-uj2Pe-oR6Gh3zBcuopxq9hHMlLGnbdUnF2aZAHB4KGupfvm5j_K0wWZ9QQ4e_edoJYbVhRe5pTGd7zuQrGBF4YrLdC4qoN_UgGqV_oZa14Ce8Al5ajMLb5YtcQFwj64PZaQ/s320/lectern%2004.jpg" style="border: 0px none;" width="190" /></a></div>
Two plus two equals five.<br /><br />
<i>Pandering</i><br />
The right answer is five. Mainstream media is lying to you! Don't be a sheeple! Do your own research! Don't let the establishment oppress you! You should be free to believe what you want to believe! Your freedom above all else!<br /><br />
<i>Leading</i><br />
The right answer is four. Yes, two plus two equals four. Let me explain the science. Let me show you the math. We're all better off with the right answer. It's beneficial to everyone.<br /><br />
Fox News and Sean Hannity among others have supported the claim of election fraud. On December 21, 2022, during the Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit against Fox News, Sean Hannity said under oath, "I did not believe it for one second." (source: <a href="https://www.snopes.com/news/2022/12/22/hannity-trumps-2020-election-fraud-claim/" target="_blank">Snopes</a>)<br /><br />
Then why did Hannity repeatedly support that claim?<br /><br />
Fox News is a for profit company. By attracting as many people as possible, they can get more ad revenue. And what better way to attract an audience than by giving them what they want. Those people think the answer is five. Rather than lead them to the right answer, Fox News panders to them by supporting the falsehood. There's more money to be made by agreeing with the audience than by trying to educate them. While somebody may argue that it's a free country, and Fox News can do what they want, I could argue they are complicit in the January 6th insurrection. I'm sure Fox would argue otherwise in court but there's no doubt about it, they assisted in hammering home t****'s message that the election was stolen from him. Fox News played a role in convincing people to storm the capitol. Even if Sean Hannity didn't believe it, he repeated it as part of Fox's strategy to build and maintain an audience.<br /><br />
<b>t****'s Strategy</b><br />
If you repeat it often enough, it becomes true. It's come out that at the time of the election, he knew he lost. But at some point, he said to himself, "Why not give it a try? What have I got to lose?" And so, he lied. And he's still lying. In fact, in looking back at his career, he's always been lying so there's nothing new about any of this. What is new is that we all are confronted with somebody who doesn't play by the rules, and we have no idea of how to deal with it.<br /><br />
I've joking portrayed this as we hold a cocktail party. t**** walks into our home, into the middle of the living room, drops his draws, squats down, and takes a dump. We are stunned into inaction. This is so out of the ordinary, so bizarre, we have no idea of what to do. We've never had to face such behavior before; we have no experience in how to deal with the situation. And some of us, immediately begin to rationalize this. We didn't really see that. Donald is just being Donald. What a jokester!<br /><br />
<b>GOP Strategy</b><br />
Countless conservative politicians are piggybacking on <i>The Base</i>. Denying the legitimacy of the 2020 election, downplaying the pandemic, rallying against all that is progressive liberal, etc., politicians are playing Chicken Little in stirring up fear and hate as if this is the end of the United States of America. Like Fox News, they are pandering not leading.<br /><br />
Example: Governor Ron DeSantis has done an about face on vaccines, now calling for investigations into their use.<br /><br />
<b>Stochastic Terrorism</b><br />
This is the public demonization of a person or a group for the unstated purpose of inciting violence against the target by a random stranger. The author of the demonization takes no responsibility for the violence but secretly hopes someone else will carry out their wishes.<br /><br />
t**** and his ilk have used over and over again violent imagery when speaking about their so-called enemies. (see MeidasTouch video below) There is no doubt t**** in the months leading up to the insurrection, and in his speech the morning of January 6th, was knowingly stoking the flames. The people who stormed the capitol were convinced they were part of a unique part of history, overturning a corrupt and evil system in favor of their self-appointed savior. The con man conned the people. The grifter pulls off his greatest grift.<br /><br />
Fox News and other conservative outlet by giving t**** and others a platform are complicit in the dissemination of hate speech. It might be indirect, subliminal, but it's hate nonetheless. Is it any wonder somebody broke into Nancy Pelosi's home? She has been cast by others as evil incarnate. Some may argue that it's political hyperbole but others take it literally.<br /><br />
<b>Americans at war with Americans</b><br />
Think about this for a second. There's a lot of bad in the world: North Korea, Iran, The Taliban, Russia certainly with its war with Ukraine, China not always playing by the rules and eyeing Taiwan, etc. But who are Americans fighting with? Themselves. Yes, Americans are fighting with their fellow citizens. Heck, some Americans, the far far right, have even called for the death of other Americans. (Hello, Marjorie!) I'm sorry, but what?<br /><br />
Everybody seems to be so incensed with the ideological divide in politics that nobody seems to have noticed the lights are still on. Yes, under Obama, the lights were on. Under t****, the lights did remain on. And now, under Biden, the lights are still on. But listen to the ranters and gnashers of teeth, Chicken Little is telling us the world is coming to an end. There's nothing to be done. It's the apocalypse! [eye roll] Oh, please!<br /><br />
<b>Critical Thinking</b><br />
During the 2016 Pizzagate, the conspiracy theory was that the Democrats were running a child sex ring out of a pizzeria in a suburb of Washington DC. A man from North Carolina drove to the Comet Pizzeria and shot the lock off a door searching for imprisoned children in the basement. There was no basement in the building. Over and over again, I keep hearing people spout off the most inane ideas and remain perplexed at how these people can be so stupid. Outrageous, ridiculous, physically impossible, there seems to be no end to wild theories about the global cabal hell-bent on taking over the world. This so-called illuminati has to be pretty incompetent because people have been talking about them for centuries, and they still have not managed to get into power.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
The panderers want power. They don't want "the truth" in quotation marks. They don't care about doing good and making the world a better place for all of us; they only care about power. They misrepresent, misinform, and outright lie in the hopes of getting our support. What scares me is that in the long run, they are going to unintentionally hurt themselves. We are all in the same boat, and whether we realize it or not, we're all going to go down together.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAxcM580Q5mh0iIISupQo0Vx64aGwr86I9odSsHcKjchA5q9HDrXuUKCfmuxCopCutOocUvF93yIl6Xh_1MIOEc1wrBjkkoD-S2mQP5KdeOZE8UVXsekdWvhfGX82FmtGRyn5YXYyWAh8U7YVh3jMI8b-ZYn7P3HNPSzrUeP2FLtLAUqnJQ1RNGA6gLg/s686/Editorial%20cartoon%20by%20Mike%20Luckovich%2003.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="498" data-original-width="686" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAxcM580Q5mh0iIISupQo0Vx64aGwr86I9odSsHcKjchA5q9HDrXuUKCfmuxCopCutOocUvF93yIl6Xh_1MIOEc1wrBjkkoD-S2mQP5KdeOZE8UVXsekdWvhfGX82FmtGRyn5YXYyWAh8U7YVh3jMI8b-ZYn7P3HNPSzrUeP2FLtLAUqnJQ1RNGA6gLg/w640-h464/Editorial%20cartoon%20by%20Mike%20Luckovich%2003.png" width="640" /></a><br />Editorial cartoon by Mike Luckovich (Used without permission. Sorry.)</div><br />
<b>Postscript</b><br />
I'm sure somebody's going to immediately conclude I'm a libtard, I'm a Bradon supporter, I'm another one of those blind liberal sheeple. Let me clarify that I want "the truth". I don't want the Democatic truth or the liberal truth; I want the truth. The Left is not perfect. The Left has issues which need to be addressed. I do no blindly follow an ideology as in a Democratic ideology. I admit to being a progressive liberal, but I find the Democratic Party to be imperfect, in need of an overhaul. If Hunter Biden is guilty of something, charge him. If Joe Biden "deliberately" stole classified documents, charge him. However, I find the Democratic Party a better choice than the Republican Party. They're not perfect but I think we all stand a better chance of improving society with them than with the GOP.<br /><br />
<br /><br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_wolf_attack#Stochastic_terrorism" target="_blank">Stochastic Terrorism</a><br />
<i>Since 2018, the term "stochastic terrorism" has become a popular term used when discussing lone wolf attacks. While the exact definition has morphed over time, it has commonly come to refer to a concept whereby consistently demonizing or dehumanizing a targeted group or individual results in violence that is statistically likely, but cannot be easily accurately predicted.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory" target="_blank">Pizzagate conspiracy theory</a><br />
<i>"Pizzagate" is a conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle.[1][2][3] It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.</i><br /><br />
Published Nov 2/2022 by MeidasTouch<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw9OQ8s5dZ8&t=7s" target="_blank">Violent GOP</a> (1:56)
<br /><br />
<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/Mw9OQ8s5dZ8&t=7s?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/Mw9OQ8s5dZ8&t=7s?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div><br />
<br />
2023-01-14<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-3842225877774841042022-12-21T07:41:00.001-08:002022-12-21T07:41:54.410-08:00It's 3 a.m. and I have to figure it out myself.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ab7omRf77cPoXkWlkz866milUhOoUG-LEEdsQ5B1uzwq2FwdkeNpJER9Jo9tG9b3BMVmdgkZqMbfB0lQQTRnR0840pTz7YSv5Uz1k3sm1gNrVo_qR1yEcgzor2Xj8w2_bZ88NxlFyhRjTPDfXSgrbsmP8N7zjbb6_jKoxdxF5ECcFWKXJ_qXPIX2_Q/s542/clock%203am,%20cropped.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="542" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2Ab7omRf77cPoXkWlkz866milUhOoUG-LEEdsQ5B1uzwq2FwdkeNpJER9Jo9tG9b3BMVmdgkZqMbfB0lQQTRnR0840pTz7YSv5Uz1k3sm1gNrVo_qR1yEcgzor2Xj8w2_bZ88NxlFyhRjTPDfXSgrbsmP8N7zjbb6_jKoxdxF5ECcFWKXJ_qXPIX2_Q/w200-h185/clock%203am,%20cropped.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
The toilet is plugged up. I suppose I could try to find an emergency plumber service. I live in an apartment so I could phone the superintentident and hope to wake him up. However, I am prepared with my own toilet plunger so I can undertake unplugging it myself. Okay, I don't have a plumber's snake but a plunger is a good start which probably handles the majority of stoppages. But what's important here is that by facing my issue as a DIY (Do It Yourself), I get a faster resolution to my problem. I realize not all issues are DIY issues - I may really need a snake - but it's a good place to start and hopefully leads to solving my problem faster.<br /><br />
My toilet problem is really a metaphor for the myriad of distressing situations we all find ourselves in. We may seek expert assistance but that assistance may be unavailable (It's 3 am!). Or maybe it's unsuccessful. (The super came, tried the plunger, failed, and now has to call a professional plumber with a snake.) And this leads me to the final option: accepting the problem, leaving it unresolved, and working around it.<br /><br />
Several years ago, the faucet on my kitchen sink broke. Whenever I turned it on, water would spurt out of the base and actually hit me square in the face. Whoa! Ha, ha, ha! I got out some tools and took the whole thing apart and discovered some O-ring in the cartridge had busted. I had no replacement and nothing I could improvise so I put in a maintenance request but had to wait three days for the super to come around to replace the tap. During that time, I had to use the sink in my bathroom to wash fruits and vegetables and clean up dirty dishes. Meal preparation took place in part in the kitchen and in part in the bathroom. This is how I worked around my problem and continued to live my life. It was inconvenient but doable.<br /><br />
In 2011, my cousin David took a vacation in Mexico and got an ear infection. Over the next six years, numerous visits to an EFT (Ear, Nose, and Throat), the emergency ward (The pain was so bad, he thought he was having a heart attack!), and four operations have left him with permanent nerve damage in his head resulting in on-going pain every single day. He's tried just about every known pain medication known to man, although his latest successful regime is based on Percocet and ice packs. It's difficult to believe but after visiting countless doctors, the conclusion seems to be that he's going to have to live with this. Pain. Every single day. Chronic. This is permanent, and there seems to be (so far) nothing that can be done to remedy the situation. In this case, the saying <i>Hell on Earth</i> is true.<br /><br />
In 2012, I tramautised the upper left quadrant of my body, stopping short of tearing my rotator cuff. I was in pain twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week for six months. After numerous visits to my doctor, a neurologist, two x-rays and two MRIs, a chropractor, multiple physiotherapists, and a kinesiologist, the speculation was that I had slightly herniated the cervical disc at the C6 level which was causing referred pain. I could barely move for about nine months, holding my left hand up toward my shoulder because it somehow reduced my pain.<br /><br />
My cousin and I commiserated. The main focus of our days was pain management. While other people lived their lives, the main focus of our days was when do we take a pain pill, how long did we have to wait for the next one, and what could we do in the meantime to minimize pain. How's the weather? What's for dinner tonight? Did you see the latest comedy show? Considering the gravity of our situation, that is, the on-going pain, neither of us cared.<br /><br />
I'm lucky. It took a year but my body healed. My cousin's condition has become chronic, and he has to live with this. As I said, while he does take drugs, he tries to minimize doing so since it has a limited effect. He is obliged to lie down periodically while holding a coldpack to the side of his head.<br /><br />
However, this event in my life seems to have heralded in a new era of health problems. It's as if I turned 60 and the wheels started falling off the wagon. I ain't dead yet, but the old adage seems to be true about us becoming more and more focused on health later on in life. While I do the usual checks with my family doctor, while I see a physical therapist on a regular basis, I still have to deal with the day to day issues.<br /><br />
In January 2021, I started having a problem with my left hip and groin. Walking up and down the half flight of stairs from my apartment to the main door of my building became painful. Many times, I would step first with my right foot then bring my left along. Lead with the right, follow with the left. Numerous visits to the therapists left everybody perplexed as to this on-going issue. Finally, the head therapist had a flash of insight, did some tests, then explained my sacroilliac joints were out of whack. He had me wear a Serola belt. Unlike a belt around the waist for lumbar support, this went around the hips to offer support for the sacroilliac joints. I wore it twenty-four hours a day and faithfully did a daily regime of isometric exercies designed to work the muscles around the joints. After some weeks, the half flight of stairs became pain-free. I started trying stair climbing, doing two, three, or four stories, then in increments of ten, slowly progressing to make sure my body could support the stress. Finally, after 2.5 months, I managed to stair climb one hundred stories. Obviously, the Serola belt did the trick.<br /><br />
In September 2016, I started having red marks appear on various parts of my body that were very, very itchy. I was convinced I had inadvertently brought some pest from the outside into my apartment. Bed bugs? Lice? Ticks? I had in numerous experts to spray but the results were negative. I finally visited a dermatologist and using skin samples, he tested for parasites. The results were negative. I've heard it said that our skin is the body's largest organ. Was I suffering from some sort of partial organ failure? For the past six years, I have tried every over the counter oinment and cream for itchiness with limited success. Three months ago, a new series of symptoms had my dermatologist diagnose me with folliculitis and started me on a daily regime of a oral antibiotic and an antibiotic cream. According to medical web sites like WebMD and the Mayo Clinic while this condition can clear up in weeks, for some persistent cases it can take months. I'm currently at day 60 and I'm not really seeing results. I keep waking up in the middle of the night in a tremendous fit of itchiness and must get up and slather on a topical analgesic gel to calm things down. My sleeping patterns are disrupted, and I'm exhausted. I did visit my family doctor out of desperation but he felt the best course of action was to continue with the prescribed treatment and discuss everything with the dermatologist in my follow-up visit at the four-month mark. I thank my lucky stars I found the topical analgesic gel or I'm sure I'd be going out of my mind.<br /><br />
<b>My Point</b><br />
Other than to bitch and moan? While I supposedly have a course of action, I must be patient and see it through to the end. And then, if necessary adjust that course of action in consultation with an expert. The problem, however, is how do I deal with anything on a day to day basis. What do I do when it's 3am, and I'm all by myself?<br /><br />
Several years ago, I went to the grocery store but before starting my rounds, I visited a small men's room. I opened the door and was immediately confronted with an obstacle. A man stood at a sink washing his hands. Stretching out behind him were two plastic tubes going to an oxygen tank sitting in a wheeled grocery cart parked against the opposite wall. I suppose I could have stooped down under the tubes but thought it best to wait to avoid catching them and causing a mishap and so reflected on the scene before me. This man was suffering from some respiratory ailment like emphysema but was still mobile and able to do his own grocery shopping. He had an health issue but was managing to retain a degree of freedom.<br /><br />
To be honest, I may be whining about my own circumstances but I like to think I can recognise that all of us have our own issues to deal with, and we may be dealing with said issues with varing degrees of success. We're doing our best with limited skills and sometimes with limited professional help. Yes, sometimes our issue is beyond the skills of the experts but we have to cope anyway.<br /><br />
<i>We have to cope.</i> I think that's the point of this rant. After all is said and done, after every consultation is complete, every test been carried out, and every remedial course of action implemented, all of us are sitting alone at 3am and have to cope. There's no other choice. There's no other option. We're on our own, and we have to figure it out ourselves. I'll be thinkin' o' ya at 3am when I'm up with an itchy attack, in the bathroom applying analgesic gel. Ha!<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBQD2H-aA8pKLsyfbLCmT9nELLBqLlDdyTy0CvWYpTw-2c3RLo4JhySpJd4xPOaM6qbhN8_qVgoi8y2WbG1T_bnjtkZHp87MSgzyKrzLyrBfuEAigakB32P7FSCHwUASmOqnbLH_6_wm0EJbekxUWPjgr31zcKdBPtiUZ3QF5NIsPQHwl0IxlrrERX2A/s320/Be%20kind.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="292" data-original-width="320" height="292" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBQD2H-aA8pKLsyfbLCmT9nELLBqLlDdyTy0CvWYpTw-2c3RLo4JhySpJd4xPOaM6qbhN8_qVgoi8y2WbG1T_bnjtkZHp87MSgzyKrzLyrBfuEAigakB32P7FSCHwUASmOqnbLH_6_wm0EJbekxUWPjgr31zcKdBPtiUZ3QF5NIsPQHwl0IxlrrERX2A/s1600/Be%20kind.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
2022-12-21<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-44599321340336442702022-12-17T08:18:00.002-08:002023-11-22T06:46:57.532-08:00What's my survival rate?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbxaAOGlK1TpPxOnHjuSCqGkMp0eUaGuBrltSABJ-qaeu3bNT5wOYShjP4eZN4dwXf5AIvmgC5eEnvE0oYwEVPAcpwnygXjm9OqCxiwyq4GxRAOU9uAOhPvkfgjmGmRg9j9j4ld3H87pj9BX3pIgbxXwqVeXPf9hnM-29DvLiQ7BK-Dl3raUFPcQzNQA/s1280/survival%20rate.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbxaAOGlK1TpPxOnHjuSCqGkMp0eUaGuBrltSABJ-qaeu3bNT5wOYShjP4eZN4dwXf5AIvmgC5eEnvE0oYwEVPAcpwnygXjm9OqCxiwyq4GxRAOU9uAOhPvkfgjmGmRg9j9j4ld3H87pj9BX3pIgbxXwqVeXPf9hnM-29DvLiQ7BK-Dl3raUFPcQzNQA/s320/survival%20rate.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
I have two acquaintances on social media, D and L. I say acquaintances for although we are technically friends as per how people are linked on social media, I've never met either one in real life and only know them through text messaging.<br /><br />
D is rarely on and I suppose we only exchange messages a few times per year. A month ago, out of the blue, she sends me a message while I'm offline, explaining she's been diagnosed with esophageal cancer, the doctors giving her six months to three years. I write back with my condolences but hear nothing. A few weeks later, I see her name online briefly. I write again but hear nothing. Considering I'm just an acquaintance she rarely talks to, I suppose I shouldn't expect a response. D has other things on her mind.<br /><br />
L and I have in the past had some lengthy conversations but in the past year or so have rarely been in touch. Two weeks ago, she contacts me while I'm online. She's been diagnosed with leukemia and is actually messaging from the hospital where she's undergoing chemo. We exchange texts about her type of leukemia and as I Google it, we discuss the five-year survival rate of 65%.<br /><br />
I've heard it said that the illness and/or death of somebody else makes us reassess our own lives. When is my time going to be up? I can't imagine what either one of these people are going through. I can only guess it must be surreal. You get the news you have a disease, and you're going to die. What do you do? How do you plan for that? Is there a plan? What exactly is death? What happens when I'm gone?<br /><br />
<b>My Turn</b><br />
I turned 70 this past October. My father died at 80. The average life expectancy of a male is around 82. Inevitably, I'm going to die. I just don't know when and I don't know how. When each of my parents died, I was the chosen member of the family to give the memorial speech. I can only describe the deaths as surreal. I always knew my parents wouldn't live forever and that someday, I was going to get the news. When I did finally get the news, I remember thinking that at last, the moment had arrived. I had thought about it, I had sort of planned it out in my head, and now, I had to do it. I kept having to remind myself that this was really happening. This wasn't a drill.<br /><br />
Someday, I'm going to get the news. My doctor is going to give me the results of some test and tell me I've only got so long to live and to arrange my affairs. I know it's going to happen and when it does, it's going to be a moment I'm going to have difficulty grasping. It's going to be surreal.<br /><br />
<b>People disappear</b><br />
In my social media, I go down my list of friends. Some I haven't chatted with in years. Where are they? Busy elsewhere? Have they dropped using such and such social media in favor of other activities in life? Or have they possibly died? I have no way of knowing. Periodically, a person's account goes silent and there's no indication of why. All we can do is conjecture.<br /><br />
Up to now, I've been talking about death. According to <a href="https://namus.nij.ojp.gov/" target="_blank">NamUS (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)</a><br /><br />
<i>Over 600,000 individuals go missing in the United States every year. Fortunately, many missing children and adults are quickly found, alive and well. However, tens of thousands of individuals remain missing for more than one year – what many agencies consider “cold cases”. It is estimated that 4,400 unidentified bodies are recovered each year, with approximately 1,000 of those bodies remaining unidentified after one year.</i><br /><br />
This isn't something I normally think about but the above statistics tell me the world is full of mysteries. There's a lot going on we know nothing about. It's an odd comparison, but I remember watching some nature show following a herd of water buffalo. At one point, the herd is grazing on a savannah. Some lions in hiding rush forward and drag one of the buffalo off into the bush, and a few buffalo briefly look up then go back to grazing. At another point, an elderly, sick buffalo falls behind and is left by the herd. It eventually dies and the scavengers have at it.<br /><br />
Are humans like the herd? Except it's not lions per se, but disease, accidents, and God knows what else. But the rest of us, the rest of the herd, carry on. While I suppose that may seem heartless, what other choice do any of us really have other than carrying on? Humanity as a whole will live on while us as individuals disappear.<br /><br />
<b>Social Media</b><br />
Over the past few years, I've written about fellow bloggers suddenly leaving us.<br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2015/11/bobbie-morgan-1964-2015-good-womans.html" target="_blank">Bobbie Morgan (1964-2015): A Good Woman's Dirty Mind</a> - Nov 21/2015<br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2020/10/audrey-van-petegem-1962-2020.html" target="_blank">Audrey van Petegem (1962-2020)</a> - Oct 14/2020<br /><br />
I noted that family and friends supported their endeavors, keeping web sites up, and tending things like Facebook. I've realized I don't exactly have a contingency plan, and if I keeled over tomorrow, nobody knows my password to Facebook.<br /><br />
The world currently has a population of 8 billion. There are approximately 140 million births and 70 million deaths each year. 70 million is almost 0.9% of 8 billion. Facebook has 2.9 million users. It would stand to reason that 0.9% of Facebook dies each year which equals 25 million users. There would be variations by age group, etc. but the same logic could be applied to any social media platform.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
D and L seem like nice people. I've always had good interactions with them and think of them fondly. I'm sorry for this personal turn of events, and as I said, I can't imagine what they're going through.<br /><br />
Life is finite. The ride doesn't go on forever. Inevitably, we are all going to <i>shuffle off this mortal coil</i>. A silent account could mean any one of a number of things as it's an inescapable fact of life. And someday, my account is going to go silent.<br /><br />
<b>Postscript: 2022-12-18</b><br />
This random tweet popped up in my feed. I was stunned.<br /><br />
Twitter: <a href="https://twitter.com/StokesNeuro/status/1604369158883491841" target="_blank">Mark Stokes @StokesNeuro</a>, 2022-12-18<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ5Od_E5JgwMUanoJ-CwkZ2tq_1mYZmm_aMR1UD95sOHDpOt0T2Js155LGzRBDeR9tdb9K32gxsJsq1pcBs5KKA5_-azLcBZXlo5FZg1n8sLS-VcXftNNxoR0T6LIM9yvOIZ4dKtnkpa4kpSMP4K-RrcoeoRxLE6fttmb9p7zLWKEYNUDTTLI1pta2hw/s1482/Mark%20Stokes%202022-12-18.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="817" data-original-width="1482" height="352" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ5Od_E5JgwMUanoJ-CwkZ2tq_1mYZmm_aMR1UD95sOHDpOt0T2Js155LGzRBDeR9tdb9K32gxsJsq1pcBs5KKA5_-azLcBZXlo5FZg1n8sLS-VcXftNNxoR0T6LIM9yvOIZ4dKtnkpa4kpSMP4K-RrcoeoRxLE6fttmb9p7zLWKEYNUDTTLI1pta2hw/w640-h352/Mark%20Stokes%202022-12-18.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
I read through the comments. It was heartrending. There was an outpouring of emotion, surprise, grief, and best wishes for the next part of his journey.<br /><br />
I followed up. <a href="https://snbc13.com/mark-stokes-cancer-university-of-oxford-cognitive-neuroscience-professor-has-died-obituary/" target="_blank">Mr. Stokes died the next day.</a><br /><br />
<i>Mark Stokes Death – University of Oxford Cognitive Neuroscience Professor Mark Stokes has sadly passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. He died leaving behind his family and loved ones in shock. He was announced dead on Sunday 18th December 2022 on Facebook by Gregory Hilton in a publication that reads “A heartfelt goodbye to Dr. Mark Stokes This is not political and in a brief time Professor Stokes made the world a better place”.</i><br /><br />
<b>Update: 2023-11-18</b><br />
I didn't think to look before but it finally dawned on me to check D's partner. In his profile, he says that D died in February 2023.
<br /><br />
I chat with L from time to time. She's getting treatment and doing well. I don't think she can say she's completely in the clear but things at the moment look promising.
<br /><br />
I recently spoke with J, a colleague from my previous job. In the spring of 2023, he was having difficulty walking and thought he had a back problem. After several consultations and tests, he was diagnosed with ALS. The mean survival rate is two to five years, and it's been six months since his first symptom. He now has to use a wheelchair, having a ramp installed at his house. He's given up driving as he is no longer able to operate the brake pedal and the accelerator with his feet. At night, he uses a machine to help with his breathing. J's a nice guy. He doesn't deserve this but such is the randomness of fate.
<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five-year_survival_rate" target="_blank">Five-year survival rate</a><br />
<i>The five-year survival rate is a type of survival rate for estimating the prognosis of a particular disease, normally calculated from the point of diagnosis. Lead time bias from earlier diagnosis can affect interpretation of the five-year survival rate.</i>
<br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_and_the_Internet" target="_blank">Death and the Internet</a><br />
<i>A recent extension to the cultural relationship with death is the increasing number of people who die having created a large amount of digital content, such as social media profiles, that will remain after death. This may result in concern and confusion, because of automated features of dormant accounts (e.g. birthday reminders), uncertainty of the deceased's preferences that profiles be deleted or left as a memorial, and whether information that may violate the deceased's privacy (such as email or browser history) should be made accessible to family.</i>
<br /><br />
The Guardian: <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/apr/11/who-will-deal-with-your-online-presence-when-you-die-how-to-create-a-digital-will" target="_blank">Who will deal with your online presence when you die? How to create a ‘digital will’</a>, 2021-04-10<br />
<i>Making a plan now can prevent identity theft, save records and stop friends getting painful pop-up reminders when you’re gone</i>
<br /><br />
2022-12-17<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-49964114134629640242022-12-15T14:19:00.002-08:002022-12-17T08:25:20.441-08:00What's wrong with politics: Me!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_J__zyWwiiVyzVKzAC-T3oh2iVEY8zjR1pkaL0lmgo_4Th8RieQfrzILBPBqlVNc9PvK5Lj-XUBGnoGk09Qj4u52cqnWsc21Zs05sJ4Vjgw4ixQeNb28O6biVIXbnUbiN4ndPZ5T8Kyi6X3eviaxp7bobT6IghB3-B8a5kK81LewlY-3uLRH57wpucQ/s1599/Election_MG_3455.JPG" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1599" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_J__zyWwiiVyzVKzAC-T3oh2iVEY8zjR1pkaL0lmgo_4Th8RieQfrzILBPBqlVNc9PvK5Lj-XUBGnoGk09Qj4u52cqnWsc21Zs05sJ4Vjgw4ixQeNb28O6biVIXbnUbiN4ndPZ5T8Kyi6X3eviaxp7bobT6IghB3-B8a5kK81LewlY-3uLRH57wpucQ/s320/Election_MG_3455.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
It's my fault. I realize this is an odd thing to say, but I've come to the conclusion I'm what's wrong with politics.<br /><br />
Let me explain. I'm Canadian but what I'm saying is applicable to American politics or any politics anywhere.<br /><br />
In Toronto, my hometown, we recently had an election, and I had to cast three votes, for mayor of the city, and in my ward Willowdale, for city councilor and school trustee.<br /><br />
For mayor, I voted for the incumbent John Tory. He seems to have been doing a good job, so why not? But I'm not being honest with myself. I had no idea what the issues were. I had no idea about the other candidates, their platforms, and what promises they may have made during the campaign. John Tory's record was completely unknown to me so I had no right to say he's been doing a good job or a bad job. I've been living my life and paying absolutely no attention to the state of affairs of the city. If we were in the dumpster, I was unaware of it. I have to be truthful and say I haven't been paying attention and anything I've heard about what's going on has been very isolated, merely what may have percolated up to the top in a random headline in my social media feed. John Tory won.<br /><br />
A week before the election, for some inexplicable reason, I had a flash of conscious and spent some all too brief of time researching the candidates for city councilor. The incumbent, John Filion, decided to retire so the field was wide open. I went to the polling station with the intention of voting for Markus Fehr because of his 10 years of experience as the chief of staff for John Filion. However, over the week, I had seen a number of advertisements for Lily Cheung. As I stood in the privacy booth, looking at the ballot, I paused for a moment, then leaned over and checked the box not for Markus Fehr but for Lily Cheung. I don't have a legitimate reason for doing so. It was very much a spur of the moment whim. In the back of my mind, I somehow thought giving a newcomer a chance may lead to fresh results. Lily Cheung won.<br /><br />
I knew nothing about the school trustee. I used my phone to look up the incumbent, Alexander Brown, and voted for him. As of this writing, I see he didn't win.<br /><br />
In looking at the above and in being honest in analyzing what I did, I can't say this is a good example of democracy. As a voter, I should be informed. I should know about the issues and the candidates. I was not. Yes, I voted, but I voted in a capricious manner, something akin to throwing a dart against the wall.<br /><br />
If I take my example and apply it to society in large, what results am I going to see?<br /><br />
Over the past ten plus years with this blog, I have wrote numerous articles about various issues, especially politics. My conclusion is that the average citizen knows very little about the world, and I'm including myself in that assessment. When those citizens step into a voting booth, there is a very good chance their votes, like my votes above, are carried out on a whim as opposed to an informed, deliberate objective. It's amused me to think about the number of people who voted for t**** in 2016 just to screw the system. They didn't do it because they thought he was the best candidate; they did it just to stir up some sh*t.<br /><br />
<i>Chaos Theory<br />
The branch of mathematics that deals with complex systems whose behavior is highly sensitive to slight changes in conditions, so that small alterations can give rise to strikingly great consequences.</i>
<br /><br />
<b>I don't know what the f*ck I'm talking about</b><br />
The Dunning-Kruger Effect basically says that those with less knowledge about something seemed to be more convinced they know the right answer. No need to further investigate anything; they know what's going on!<br /><br />
Over the years, I've come to realize that I am like Socrates: I know nothing. In other words, the more I know the less I know. As John Cleese amusingly summed up when talking about Dunning-Kruger, one has to have a certain degree of intelligence to understand one's limitations. Truly dumb people have no idea they're dumb.<br /><br />
Over and over and over again during this tumultuous period in American politics marked by the great Drumpf, I have seen the vast rise of the uninformed electorate. I am absolutely flabbergasted by the misinformation being passed around as the truth. Alternative facts? Pure, unmitigated bovine defecation! Nobody takes any time to verify anything and as a consequence, they accept anything said by anyone and repeat it ad infinitum. Or is it ad nauseam? As I like to say:<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Never have so many knowing so little said so much.</div><br />
<b>Example: Brittney Griner</b><br />
A MAGA supporter I know, tweeted the other day that Brittney Griner is a drug addict. At the same time, I found out Griner had been condemned to nine years in prison for smuggling and possession charges over 0.7 grams of cannabis oil, medicinal marijuana prescribed to her in her home state of Arizona.<br /><br />
0.7 grams? This doesn't add up. The story or the interpretation of the story is inconsistent. What's going on?<br /><br />
First off, I have a cousin dealing with a tremendous amount of chronic pain due to nerve damage. He has more experience than anybody I know with various pain treatments, and has spoke to me about using cannabis oil, CBD, etc. He's not a drug addict; he's a man in pain.<br /><br />
With a minimal of searching, I turn up <a href="https://health.ucsd.edu/news/releases/Pages/2022-02-01-later-hit-does-cannabis-ease-pain-speed-recovery-in-injured-athletes.aspx" target="_blank">this article</a> from UC San Diego Health, a legitimate, respectable health service provider.<br /><br />
<i>Increasingly, professional athletes in sports ranging from football to bicycling to long-distance running have turned to using cannabis to reduce pain from post-game injuries and to help speed recovery.</i><br /><br />
I am also aware of cannabis being used to treat pain in cancer patients. In other words, labeling these people <i>drug addicts</i> displays a complete lack of understanding about pain management.<br /><br />
In searching for "Brittney Griner is a drug addict", I ran across <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/newsmax/newsmaxs-benny-johnson-attacks-brittney-griner-drug-addict-america-hating-criminal-who" target="_blank">far-right journalist Benny Johnson of Newsmax as reported by mediamatters</a>, ranting against the Biden administration:<br /><br />
<i>“They wouldn't allow a Black woman, lesbian woman, drug addict, America-hating – woke, to be kept in prison in Russia”.</i><br /><br />
I have doubts this reporting is going to be in any way objective. Johnson continues:<br /><br />
<i>So Biden is sitting there bragging about the worst US foreign policy decision in my lifetime. This is on par, in my lifetime, with abandoning our soldiers in Benghazi to die at the hands of terrorists.</i><br /><br />
Hillary Clinton has been demonized over and over again about Benghazi but here's the point that Johnson, conservatives, and the Right miss out of this story. Republicans along with others voted for defunding security in Benghazi. Yes, you heard me. The people bitching about Hillary are in part responsible for this tragedy. They somehow have conveniently forgotten their part in these deaths.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
People open their mouths and say stuff with no idea they don't know what they're talking about. People are voting but have no idea of what the issues are or the candidates they're voting for. Many or us or all of us have limited knowledge of how the world works. A democracy means the people vote but people should vote intelligently, being informed about what's going on.<br /><br />
While anybody can be adamant about their views, it strikes me that the Right is angry. I mean like off the dial angry. They are so angry they are blinded to anything but their anger. They are so entrenched in their ideology, they can't see anything else. They are incapable to tackling any subject in a calm, logical, well-researched manner. My way or the highway. Over and over again, I ask a conservative to prove their point to me and I will gladly vote with them but they fail to do so. Their anger has made them irrational.<br /><br />
I'm tired. Politics has always been about bullsh*t but I think this has been taken to a whole new level in the era of t****. It's no longer about "the truth" or making the world a better place, it's about getting and maintaining power at all cost. Lie, cheat, steal, do anything and everything about power. Nothing else seems to matter. The people who are screaming at me that I'm a sheeple because I'm a progressive liberal are incapable of looking at themselves in the mirror. They don't care about being right; they only care about winning the argument. Repeat it often enough and two plus two equals five. However, sooner or later, there will be a reckoning.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The truth doesn't give a f*ck about your opinion.</div><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brittney_Griner#2022_arrest_in_Russia" target="_blank">Brittney Griner: Arrest in Russia</a><br />
<i>On February 17, 2022, Griner was arrested on smuggling charges in Russia. She was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport after the Federal Customs Service found she was carrying vaporizer cartridges containing less than a gram of hash oil. In Arizona, she had been prescribed medicinal cannabis, which is illegal in Russia.</i><br /><br />
Published Apr 11/2014 by Robert Grimsby<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvVPdyYeaQU" target="_blank">John Cleese on Stupidity</a> (0:58)<br />
<i>Cleese explains why extremely stupid people do not have the capability to realize how stupid they are.</i><br /><br />
<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/wvVPdyYeaQU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/wvVPdyYeaQU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560"></embed></object></div>
<br />
2022-12-15<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-22000329637064597302022-12-10T10:06:00.002-08:002023-11-26T17:36:04.347-08:00Shawn Desman: Maniac<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/U3X_4TJQVBI?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/U3X_4TJQVBI?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published Dec 7/2022 by ShawnDesmanVEVO<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3X_4TJQVBI" target="_blank">Shawn Desman - Maniac</a> (2:50)
<br /><br />
(She's a maniac<br />
But you love it just like that<br />
Yeah, you love it just like that)<br />
<br />
She's so dangerous<br />
If looks could kill she'd bring you to your knees<br />
She's so venomous<br />
Wraps around you takes just what she needs<br />
And then she leaves<br />
<br />
The way she moves it's like the ocean<br />
So smooth, she got you hoping<br />
She'd open up and swallow you whole<br />
<br />
She's a maniac<br />
But you always come right back<br />
And when she looks like that<br />
You can't forget it<br />
She's a maniac<br />
But you love it just like that<br />
Yeah, you love it just like that<br />
<br />
It's so obvious<br />
The way she got you begging on the floor<br />
That you want more<br />
Yeah, it's obvious<br />
You've never met a girl like her before<br />
And you want more<br />
<br />
The way she moves it's like the ocean<br />
So smooth, she got you hoping<br />
She'd open up and swallow you whole<br />
<br />
She's a maniac<br />
But you always come right back<br />
And when she looks like that<br />
You can't forget it<br />
She's a maniac<br />
But you love it just like that<br />
Yeah, you love it just like that<br />
Cuz she's a maniac<br />
<br />
You just can't resist<br />
You're so into it<br />
You think that it's love<br />
But she's a maniac<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCejOsaiuJgYOSRU5aW9HQZWBZ2nFY_tXQsbOxmmTy3tPlXRSnUG40su3-StkgU5x-HzCw1NAuYtObJzs_m0XEGYitdxbNQnu-H7Lla0bX5mI0mQKtVfgintpzbxOUJOF4OO6Io3y7NDYjRuxOs1cxPW1YM5W5dVAx349uyao0IRfauiWFgY797xHpg/s1280/Shawn%20Desman%20Maniac.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKCejOsaiuJgYOSRU5aW9HQZWBZ2nFY_tXQsbOxmmTy3tPlXRSnUG40su3-StkgU5x-HzCw1NAuYtObJzs_m0XEGYitdxbNQnu-H7Lla0bX5mI0mQKtVfgintpzbxOUJOF4OO6Io3y7NDYjRuxOs1cxPW1YM5W5dVAx349uyao0IRfauiWFgY797xHpg/w640-h360/Shawn%20Desman%20Maniac.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shawn_Desman" target="_blank">Shawn Desman</a><br />
<i>Shawn Bosco Fernandes (born January 12, 1982), better known by his stage name Shawn Desman, is a Canadian singer, songwriter, dancer, and television personality. He was signed to Universal Music Canada. </i><br /><br />
2022-12-10<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-51832741201946950262022-12-01T06:33:00.006-08:002022-12-01T06:38:13.765-08:00I've turned 70<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimEhos0Jo_phobcVG2cKb6XjXYL4Lh5nFGzytT8HHEQxy0EbB9eIa6_plD1pljNFT3mvfgul7T2aE_YQqbYzZev_dmTTIasUF4Z-3x7iCFIzP-Y1ZgtjMBy9uZnkE1uzDaUmy7xXoAu9mNG_sayJWr_Gftx6NFblfBTh5HvP4SCLPfQ2oJuWTp4-Yl7Q/s1000/70%2001.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="750" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimEhos0Jo_phobcVG2cKb6XjXYL4Lh5nFGzytT8HHEQxy0EbB9eIa6_plD1pljNFT3mvfgul7T2aE_YQqbYzZev_dmTTIasUF4Z-3x7iCFIzP-Y1ZgtjMBy9uZnkE1uzDaUmy7xXoAu9mNG_sayJWr_Gftx6NFblfBTh5HvP4SCLPfQ2oJuWTp4-Yl7Q/s320/70%2001.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
70 years. My goodness, do people really live that long? I grew up with some sort of idea that old people were, well, old. Canes, walkers, rocking chairs, slow to move, slow to respond. I know somebody’s going to come out with some quip like, “You’re as old as you feel.” At sixty you can fake it, but I think at seventy, you have crossed the line: you are officially old.<br />
<br />
70 years. 852 months. 25,567 days. At this point, does everyone ask themselves, “Where did the time go?” Do people in general also question what they’ve done, what they’ve accomplished, and what mistakes they’ve made? “If I could be twenty again but knowing what I know now.”<br />
<br />
My father died two days shy of his 80th birthday. How much time do I have left? This ride isn’t going to last forever, and like it or not, my stay is limited. I just don’t know when it’s going to be over.<br />
<br />
So, just what have I accomplished? What do I have to show for anything I’ve done throughout the years? Can I point to something and say, “I did that”?<br />
<br />
When I was a kid, I seemed to have shown promise. That promise never materialised. Much to my chagrin, I’ve turned out to be at best average, probably more mundane, even mediocre. If I am where I am, I see it more as a question of luck rather than of a carefully executed life plan of goal fulfillment. I know somebody reading this may think I’m demonstrating humility or self-deprecation but I’d say it’s more about the curse of being smart enough to realise I’m not really smart. Clever in some ways, but nothing like that promise of me as a child.<br />
<br />
I think about my mistakes. Sometimes, I wince. Yes, I think about my mistakes, and I literally wince. I can’t take it back. I can’t undo it. I can only live with it. And it doesn’t matter if there is some sort of explanation, a rationalisation, or a legitimate excuse for what happened; it was a mistake that I committed. I’ve had moments when I’ve been working at my desk, and I flashed on something and gotten up to pace while wringing my hands. “How could I have been so stupid? How could I have done such a thing?” Some things will haunt me for the rest of my life. I can’t rectify them; I can only try to live with them. I said try. I guess I’m managing but I still have my moments.<br />
<br />
Health is everything. It’s a seemingly trite statement everybody’s heard and doesn’t think much of. That is, until health becomes an issue.<br />
<br />
I hit sixty and started having problems. I realise now that God had granted me sixty years of virtually no health issues at all, and I should be grateful. Now, the wheels are starting to fall off the wagon, so to speak. I’m managing; I’m getting by; but I’ve come to realise how my main focus of the day is health related. Before, it was get up, get dressed, get out the door. Now, it’s get up, do this health-related thing, do that thing, do a series of isometric exercises, stretching, and go to the gym regularly. I can’t stop moving. If I do, I stiffen up; I begin to ache; then I have to work to get loosened back up and get rid of the aches. While before it seemed as if I could go all day without stopping, now I take breaks throughout the day to get up, move around, stretch, etc. I’ve read health experts say that sitting too long is bad for us so is this related to my age or just something we all need to pay attention to?<br />
<br />
Is this what it’s like at seventy, how bad is it going to be at eighty? I’m scaring myself.<br />
<br />
Don’t get the impression I think about this every day, but I do from time to time wonder how the end will come. Recently, a cousin had a stroke which left him numb down the right side of his body with a speech impediment. Supposedly he can recover with therapy, but this has been a life-altering event. His quality of life has dropped considerably. Another had been doing twenty-five dumbbell raises with both arms. One day, feeling good or feeling cocky, he did fifty reps. He pulled a muscle in his shoulder, had a great deal of pain, and ended up off work for two weeks. I explained my own experience over the past decade, having done such a thing more than once, letting my enthusiasm get in the way of good judgment. Instead of going from twenty-five to fifty reps, he should had gone to thirty reps and stayed with that for three, four, or five sessions before trying thirty-five. But not twenty-five to fifty in one go!<br />
<br />
I’ve noted over these past years, I don’t seem to feel any pain while I’m doing something. It’s not until the next day or the day after that the ache or the pain shows up as a sign I’ve hurt myself. I don’t know if endorphins mask pain during a routine, but I try to be hyper-aware of the slightest discomfort or even an odd feeling as my signal to stop doing what I’m doing out of fear of hurting myself. When I was thirty, if I hurt myself, I could recover relatively quickly. Today, it takes longer, sometimes a lot longer so hurting myself can be a disappointing setback.<br />
<br />
As you can see by the above writing, health has become my number one preoccupation in life. Some may say that I’m self-disciplined but it ‘s more about being scared. As I’ve written here, back in 2012, I had a sports accident and traumatised the upper left quadrant of my body. I was in pain twenty-hours a day for almost six months. I could barely move. Every waking moment was about pain management: when do I take a pain pill; how long do I have to wait for the next one; and what can I do in the meantime to minimise any pain I may feel. It was a nightmare; I was trapped in my own body; and it was Hell on Earth. I will do anything to avoid going through that again, so I’ve been frightened into being disciplined.<br />
<br />
<b>I've become my father</b><br />
At family gatherings, I'm now the senior member. I'm the old man. Although, I see myself as my father in other ways.<br /><br />
My mother died when my father was 72. He spent the last eight years of his life, living in the family home all by himself. I'm retired and live by myself. How did my father manage compared to how I manage? How did my father occupy his time compared to how I occupy mine? The rest of the world moves on with their own day-to-day issues, and the affairs of one old man are of little or no consequence. That is, except to him.<br /><br />
My father fiddled with his own interests, his own projects, for himself. He didn't do it necessarily for others; he did it because it brought him some measure of satisfaction, maybe even accomplishment. I now see myself the same way. What I do isn't that meaningful in the grand scheme of things. There are now eight billion people on the planet, and most of them have no idea I exist. Certainly, anything I do has a negligible impact on the world. So why do I do it? For myself. At the end of the day, all of us do whatever we do for ourselves, not with the intention of setting the world on fire.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
So, here I am. 70. I made it. Several years ago, a friend told me she had read that if we make it to 70, statistically, there's a good chance we'll make it to 80. I guess we'll see. I was chatting with somebody about my health issues, and they chuckled and said, "What did you expect? You're 70!" I replied, "I've never been 70 before. I had no idea of what to expect!"<br />
<br />
I've heard it said that we are generally living longer and while decades ago, 70 may have been considered as <i>old</i>, nowadays, 70 can still be considered as an active, "non-old" per se age. "You're as old as you feel." Well, I don't feel old. Heck, I don't know exactly what <i>old</i> feels like. I am aware of certain physical limitations but I do seem to be still moving. Once in a while, I run across somebody younger than me with huge problems to deal with. There but for the grace of God... Should I complain? It reminds me that I'm lucky. Things may not be perfect but they could be worse.<br />
<br />
Back in July, I wrote to a friend who was turning 70, congratulating him and giving him my best wishes, ending with, “See you at 80.”<br />
<br />
2022-10-20<br /><br />
I wrote this on 2022-10-20 and only just now, 2022-12-01, got around to clicking on Publish. I'm slow. What did you expect? I'm 70! Ha, ha!<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-22732191190459447442022-07-26T13:13:00.002-07:002023-11-26T17:36:27.652-08:00Simon & Garfunkel: My Little Town<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/c3GPjfv4UCU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/c3GPjfv4UCU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published 2008 by kimtisha<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3GPjfv4UCU" target="_blank">My Little Town</a> (3:52)<br />
<i>Photos of Florence and Roebling, NJ</i><br /><br />
In my little town<br />
I grew up believing<br />
God keeps his eye on us all<br />
And He used to lean upon me<br />
As I pledged allegiance to the wall<br />
Lord, I recall<br />
My little town<br />
Coming home after school<br />
Flying my bike past the gates<br />
Of the factories<br />
My mom doing the laundry<br />
Hanging our shirts<br />
In the dirty breeze<br />
<br />
And after it rains<br />
There’s a rainbow<br />
And all of the colors are black<br />
It’s not that the colors aren’t there<br />
It’s just imagination they lack<br />
Everything’s the same<br />
Back in my little town<br />
<br />
Nothing but the dead and dying<br />
Back in my little town<br />
Nothing but the dead and dying<br />
Back in my little town<br />
<br />
In my little town<br />
I never meant nothin’<br />
I was just my father’s son<br />
Saving my money<br />
Dreaming of glory<br />
Twitching like a finger<br />
On the trigger of a gun<br />
Leaving nothing but the dead and dying<br />
Back in my little town<br />
<br />
Nothing but the dead and dying<br />
Back in my little town<br />
Nothing but the dead and dying<br />
Back in my little town<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qiFNKd2ufI8KJx0cIochOKn8ZZanlrITv0r9nvu2uKzSPRGyVBoVitISEjElz8o3S-1t3geYhHVppESk2SfWa2F7SBPtNcl2lVvnyC4YZmi_uChf4BNWX-MMgorLG1tlLqZnSSaCuEVc3zQe3oGIfh9vNNp_rElAGjNnBfDO8jYGAQXCA5fOxlJkbA/s600/My%20Little%20Town.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="585" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8qiFNKd2ufI8KJx0cIochOKn8ZZanlrITv0r9nvu2uKzSPRGyVBoVitISEjElz8o3S-1t3geYhHVppESk2SfWa2F7SBPtNcl2lVvnyC4YZmi_uChf4BNWX-MMgorLG1tlLqZnSSaCuEVc3zQe3oGIfh9vNNp_rElAGjNnBfDO8jYGAQXCA5fOxlJkbA/w195-h200/My%20Little%20Town.jpg" width="195" /></a></div>
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Little_Town" target="_blank">My Little Town</a><br />
<i>"My Little Town" is a 1975 song by the American duo Simon & Garfunkel. It was written by Paul Simon, who produced the track along with Art Garfunkel and Phil Ramone. The song was included on the 1975 solo releases from both Simon (Still Crazy After All These Years) and Garfunkel (Breakaway). It would not appear on any of the duo's albums until the 1997 anthology box set Old Friends and the 1999 compilation album The Best of Simon and Garfunkel. It was the first single release credited to the duo since the 1972 release of "America", released in conjunction with Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits. </i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%26_Garfunkel" target="_blank">Simon & Garfunkel</a><br />
<i>Simon & Garfunkel was an American duo consisting of singer-songwriter Paul Simon and singer Art Garfunkel. The duo rose to fame in 1965, largely on the strength of the hit single "The Sound of Silence".</i><br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m1rajldCZbg/Tfvj0HaYrfI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/ppo9NSTd36M/s1600/SimonAndGarfunkel-Bookends.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-m1rajldCZbg/Tfvj0HaYrfI/AAAAAAAAA_Y/ppo9NSTd36M/w200-h200/SimonAndGarfunkel-Bookends.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
web site: <a href="https://www.paulsimon.com" target="_blank">Paul Simon</a><br />
<i>During his distinguished career Paul Simon has been the recipient of many honors and awards including 12 Grammy Awards, three of which (“Bridge Over Troubled Water”, “Still Crazy After All These Years” and “Graceland”) were albums of the year. In 2003 he was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for his work as half of the duo Simon and Garfunkel. He is a member of The Songwriters Hall of Fame, a recipient of their Johnny Mercer Award and is in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Simon and Garfunkel and as a solo artist. His song “Mrs. Robinson” from the motion picture “The Graduate” was named in the top ten of The American Film Institute’s 100 Years 100 Songs.</i><br /><br />
web site: <a href="https://www.paulsimon.com" target="_blank">Art Garfunkel</a><br />
official web site<br><br>
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2014/01/simon-garfunkel-hazy-shade-of-winter.html" target="_blank"> Simon & Garfunkel: A Hazy Shade Of Winter</a><br />
<i>"A Hazy Shade of Winter" is a song written by Paul Simon, recorded and released by Simon & Garfunkel in 1966, and then included on their 1968 album, Bookends. </i><br><br>
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2011/06/simon-garfunkel-fakin-it.html" target="_blank"> Simon & Garfunkel: Fakin' It</a><br />
<i>"Fakin' It" was one of Simon's and Garfunkel's single releases in 1967.</i><br><br>
2022-07-26<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-4098504966527467362022-07-13T08:01:00.002-07:002022-07-13T08:57:58.497-07:00Dave Chappelle, Ricky Gervais, J. K. Rowling, and the Third Gender<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipqGrFb8pUB1yxp9MPe0oib_UrsV2UlnsJ0_2d2sTnLzo4Z7JcngA6fwmxdChr020oh8XmxoSFcx21OmPMTxZnx03GsS7jeetRk5j84Q8W18rcbQRdzzzIRsp8Bcw83GOBZWv0JrDJqrJQaY7p11KQcnQThRKn6uxUU3TC9_Moi_ef0_mRMgjAiIWnPA/s1228/gender%20just%20wash%20your%20hands.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1224" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipqGrFb8pUB1yxp9MPe0oib_UrsV2UlnsJ0_2d2sTnLzo4Z7JcngA6fwmxdChr020oh8XmxoSFcx21OmPMTxZnx03GsS7jeetRk5j84Q8W18rcbQRdzzzIRsp8Bcw83GOBZWv0JrDJqrJQaY7p11KQcnQThRKn6uxUU3TC9_Moi_ef0_mRMgjAiIWnPA/w318-h320/gender%20just%20wash%20your%20hands.png" width="318" /></a></div>
<i>3,125 words, 10-minute read</i><br /><br />
Over the past few years, especially during this era of t****, I have watched dismayed at the rise of opinion. One person's opinion is equal to another person's knowledge. Faith triumphs over facts. Belief is the same as reality. To paraphrase Winston Churchill:<br /><br />
<center><i>Never have so many, knowing so little, said so much.</i></center><br />
I remember a U.S. senator was being interviewed about global warming, and a journalist asked how he was going to vote on an up-coming bill. He said, "I don't believe in climate change. But I'm not a scientist." I don't believe it but I'm stupid? I don't believe it, but I refuse to spend any time correcting my ignorance? Our worldview is the sum total of our life experiences but what if our lack of life experiences leads to a faulty worldview? This is a U.S. senator voting on a critical piece of legislation which impacts our future, and he admits in front of the world he doesn't know what he's talking about.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Ignorance is not just for the uneducated.</div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>J. K. Rowling<br />
She pens a four-thousand-word essay where she takes the stance that biology dictates we are all born male or female; any other variation is invalid. She declares herself a TERF, a trans-exclusionary radical feminist and voices concern about transgender women being allowed into women's restrooms afraid they may molest other women. Needless to say, she got a lot of flak.</li>
<li>Dave Chappelle<br />
In his 2021 comedy special <i>The Closer</i>, he makes a number of jokes about the transgender community. The reaction was mixed with some LGBTQ groups boycotting the film. Like Rowlings, he sees the issue as a question about biology; we are born either male or female. He also declared himself a TERF.</li>
<li>Ricky Gervais<br />
In his latest comedy special he bemoans the current state of affairs, missing the good ol' days when women had wombs instead of cocks.</li>
<li>Jordan Peterson<br />
His stance like the others seems to be about biology. I note he got himself in hot water on Twitter for criticizing the physician who performed the sex reassignment surgery on Elliot Page.</li>
</ul>
What does anyone do when they are confronted with something they've never seen before, with something they know nothing about? They do a double take. They doubt it's very existence. And if they're a comedian, they make fun of it, mocking it as not being real.<br /><br />
It is apparent that not one of the above people have heard of <i>The Third Gender</i>, a concept which has existed for thousands of years and has been accepted in other cultures, but which is, according to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a> (referencing Anthropological Theory: An Introductory History (2007) by Richard Warms, Richard L. Warms, R. Jon McGee), <i>still somewhat new to mainstream western culture and conceptual thought</i>. I return to our initial reaction: We don't believe it exists and ridicule the idea.<br /><br />
How did my views about this develop? Let me recount a number of events in my life from the past fifty years.<br /><br />
I, like the rest of the world, was amazed and enthralled in 1968 by the release of the album <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched-On_Bach" target="_blank">Switched-On Bach</a> by Walter Carlos, proof once again of the genius of Bach but proof that this modern electronic instrument was more than just an experimental fad.<br /><br />
Fast forward to 1979. I walk by a display rack of magazines and see the latest copy of Playboy, announcing an <a href="https://archive.org/details/wendycarlos_202107" target="_blank">interview with Wendy Carlos</a>. I always thought Playboy was a good magazine and would have bought it without the pictorials of naked women. I paged through the mag to read the opening of the interview where they always gave a short bio of the person being interviewed. Holy cow! Wendy is Walter or was Walter. I bought the Playboy and read the entire interview. Had I ever heard of a man transitioning to a woman? I don't remember but because of my love for the original album, I certainly paid attention to this person's story of their life journey.<br /><br />
I was vaguely aware of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Jorgensen" target="_blank">Christine Jorgensen</a> (1926-1989), <i>an American trans woman who was the first person to become widely known in the United States for having sex reassignment surgery</i>.<br /><br />
Throughout the 1980s and the 1990s, I followed the rise of gay culture and the horrors of HIV. There was a world out there I personally knew nothing about but just because I had no personal experience with it, didn't mean this world didn't exist. It was very much real.<br /><br />
I saw the 1992 thriller <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_Game" target="_blank">The Crying Game</a> and was surprised by the reveal of the lead woman being a man. This was completely foreign to me. I had no personal experience with such a situation, and it was surprising to discover such a thing was even possible and existed in the world.<br /><br />
In 1997, I got a call from the wife of a high school buddy I had not seen in twenty years. Would I come visit him? He was dying from AIDS. Bobby completed university, got a career, got married, and had two children, a normal, typical life. But he confessed to me that he had had unprotected sex in a bathhouse with a man, a total stranger. Now, he was paying the ultimate price, and six months later, he was dead. Was he secretly gay? I suddenly remembered that while the rest of us dated in high school, he never did. Was there something I was unaware of all those years? In looking back on high school, there was homophobia. It was part of the culture. Did Bobby keep his true self hidden from the rest of us?<br /><br />
I was fascinated by the 1999 movie <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Matrix" target="_blank">The Matrix</a>. The Wachowshis brothers had produced an entertaining and profound film experience. Hats off to them.<br /><br />
Today, it's the Wachowskis sisters. Larry transitioned to Lana in 2008, and Andy transitioned to Lily in 2016.<br /><br />
Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, RuPaul rose the fame, presenting quite a different lifestyle and personage from the mainstream. There was more to life than the traditional man, woman, husband, and wife, white picket fence in the suburbs with 2.5 children.<br /><br />
In researching for my blog, I ran across the story of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Susanna" target="_blank">Casa Susanna</a>. In the early 1960s, cross-dressing men and transgender women would gather at this weekend destination and spend time together, all as women. In 2005, a <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Casa-Susanna-Michel-Hurst/dp/1576872416" target="_blank">book of photographs</a> was published which led to a <a href="http://dallasdenny.com/Chrysalis/2014/05/10/the-historical-roots-of-casa-valentina/" target="_blank">stage play</a>. It's curious to look at these mostly black and white photos showing dozens of men dressed as women sitting around, eating, playing cards, reading, behaving as normal human beings, their only exception is that these were men dressed as women.<br /><br />
I also discovered that the American Psychiatric Association (APA), in their book the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), classified homosexuality as a <i>mental disorder</i> until 1973. (Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_the_DSM" target="_blank">Homosexuality in the DSM</a>) Even then, the manual listed in one form or another various terms to describe <i>distress over homosexuality</i>, and it was not until 2013 that any reference to homosexuality was removed. It would seem our views on human sexuality, whether anecdotal or institutional, are deeply ingrained.<br /><br />
From my blog <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2012/09/what-do-i-know-about-sex.html" target="_blank">What the @#$%^* do I know about sex?</a>, Sep 27/2011:<br /><br />
<i>Back in the early 90's, I'm watching one of the talk shows, not quite as elevated as Oprah but not as low as Jerry Springer. A couple is being interviewed but we're given to understand they have a secret. Commercial break. We return to see two women. I look closer. Woman number two is the husband; he's dressed up in drag. The wife explains that her husband has always had a fetish for women's clothes and once a month he dresses up and the 2 of them go out for a drink together as 2 female friends. She goes on to say that her husband is a wonderful man, a great husband, a good lover and an excellent father; he just seems to have this one special quirk and it is the only oddity out of an otherwise exemplary human being.<br /><br />
Now just mull that one over for a minute. We have a gentleman who has a fetish for woman's clothes. How in heaven's name did this couple arrive at a point where the man could bring this up with his wife? Who knows, maybe he told her about his fetish before they were married, and she married him anyways. The point is that their relationship was open and honest enough that they could discuss this. But look at the alternative. What if she had reacted to this discovery with, "Eew. Get away from me your goddamn weird-oh pervert!" Well, there's one relationship which would have come to a screeching halt and there's one guy who would say to himself that he would never, ever again speak frankly with anybody about "his secret".<br /><br />
At some point she must have weighed the pros and cons and felt the balance sheet showed more benefits than liabilities. But picture what would have happened if the man felt so ashamed of his feelings that he never talked about them with his wife; he kept them hidden. Do I see a potential headline? "Respected family and businessman Fred Schwartz, seen here dressed up in drag in a photograph taken in the local bar Tom's Eatery, was arrested this past Saturday."</i><br /><br />
In 2017, on a social media platform, I run into a person identified by a female avatar, Alice. We chat, the usual small talk. But then, things turn serious, and Alice decides to tell me her story. Alice is actually Frank, a 55-year-old man transitioning to a woman. Frank was born male. He grew up male. He went to school, graduated, and found himself a career as a male. He got married and had two children. At the age of fifty, he decides to come out. His wife is accepting but she said she couldn't live as a lesbian, so they get a divorce, remaining good friends and still co-parenting. Frank sends me a real-life photo of himself. I see a man, wearing makeup and a wig in a dress. He looks nothing like a woman; he looks like a man in drag. He looks very much the men dressed as women in the photos of Casa Susanna.<br /><br />
Our conversation came to an end, and we went our separate ways never to see one another again. However, I've thought about this story on many occasions. What trials and tribulations was Frank going to face? What ridicule? Obviously, this was important to him, or he wouldn't risk it all, but I still found it incredible that he gets through fifty years of his life as a man but now feels it is of the utmost importance he finds the real him in a woman.<br /><br />
Moving into the 2010s, the question of transgender became more visible in the media. I was aware of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laverne_Cox" target="_blank">Laverne Cox</a> (b 1972), an actress and transgender advocate who rose to prominence in the Netflix series <i>Orange is the New Black</i>. I noted Wikipedia's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_transgender_people" target="_blank">list of transgender people</a>, bringing attention to the extent of the phenomenon.<br /><br />
<b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAm2WPq4zAjrD3NJ7RgoHoa0DOSedvNN_pArAHnz6avrDAgxUHzhYqSU1acKG4aFEBvzVEIO1H3L_RFD0QiS-WoPpe1uGQgDAx1U7IRtDzDFAAGcGO-auQ6EXVer-GqoYQyLVEquoxG-3ELf6MZgaPqzYk89ewPEZuJ7ju3oOPteCSqRLXjF_qKgGGQw/s1600/Trans_Flag_Lindsay_Design.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1600" height="192" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAm2WPq4zAjrD3NJ7RgoHoa0DOSedvNN_pArAHnz6avrDAgxUHzhYqSU1acKG4aFEBvzVEIO1H3L_RFD0QiS-WoPpe1uGQgDAx1U7IRtDzDFAAGcGO-auQ6EXVer-GqoYQyLVEquoxG-3ELf6MZgaPqzYk89ewPEZuJ7ju3oOPteCSqRLXjF_qKgGGQw/s320/Trans_Flag_Lindsay_Design.png" width="320" /></a></div>
What does all this mean?</b><br />
In light of the above, with the controversaries about transgender over the past few years and not delving into the differences between transgender, transvestite, gay, etc., I did some research and ran across <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_gender" target="_blank">The Third Gender</a>. I like to say that if something happens once or twice, it could be nothing more than a fluke. But when it happens repeatedly, there has to be a phenomenon, something real which I'm unaware of. For years, I knew about the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shemale" target="_blank">shemale</a> niche in porn, males who appeared as women but with male genitalia. It was all titillating but my curiosity about the topic had led me some time ago to the conclusion there was more to this than meets the eye. I had heard of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathoey" target="_blank">ladyboys</a> of Thailand (Kathoey), some, because of discrimination, are forced to work in the sex trade. I could ask why men would be attracted to a ladyboy, but I could also ask why a man would want to become a ladyboy.<br /><br />
I return to an earlier statement: <i>[The Third Gender is] still somewhat new to mainstream western culture and conceptual thought.</i> The Wikipedia article, with references in the footnotes, describes this concept as dating back thousands of years. Human sexuality can be more than just the traditional binary of male and female with various shades of gray, feminine males, masculine females, androgynous, hermaphrodite, etc.<br /><br />
All of us are faced with something we've never seen before; with something we know nothing about. It's disconcerting. It upsets the balance of our world. But is this thing really new, or is it merely new to us? Is the problem that we're confronting something unseen or is the problem that we're confronting our ignorance? I'll be the first to recognise that it's a big world out there, and there's a lot going on I know nothing about. My problem is not falling into the trap of dismissing something if I, personally, know nothing about it. My ignorance doesn't make something invalid.<br /><br />
<b>J. K. Rowling</b><br />
I just finished reading once again the entirety of the <a href="https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/" target="_blank">June 10, 2020 essay</a> which supposedly got Ms. Rowling into trouble. It's heartfelt and brings up important points about the transgender issue. Nevertheless, her belief in the innateness of gender doesn't explain all of the previous examples I've mentioned. She admits to being "triggered" by her own bad experiences, and I question how much this has clouded her judgement. She says she's worried about men being granted access to women's washrooms, forgetting when referencing <i>the leader of the free world’s long history of sexual assault accusations and his proud boast of ‘grabbing them by the pussy’</i>, that any man can walk into the women's washroom right now without having to pretend to be a woman.<br /><br />
I can't help feeling that like water, this issue will find its own level. The pendulum has been on the side of denying transgender, keep it in the closet, ignore it, and it will go away. Activists have pushed the pendulum to the other side and now, everything is about transgender. (I see a parallel with homosexuality in our society.) I'm sure there's a middle ground. There <i>is</i> a third gender.<br /><br />
<b>Dave Chapelle</b><br />
I've watched a number of clips about Chappelle's transgender jokes taken from the comedy special <i>The Closer</i>. (YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tZJBM0pNjCs" target="_blank">here</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=El5JaNs9B6Y" target="_blank">here</a>) In my piece <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/06/the-s-word.html" target="_blank">The S Word</a>, I talk about how the N word can only be used by blacks and go on to conclude that the S word (slut) can really only be used by women. Chapelle is a comedian. He's trying to make jokes. However, Chapelle is not transgender, and his jokes come across as homophobic and cruel. Yes, homophobic. In one piece, he talks about Caitlyn Jenner possibly posing nude in Sports Illustrated. After making comedic faces of surprise and disgust, he states that he's going to say it for everybody, "Yuck!" Every joke has a premise, and the premise here is that somehow Caitlyn's female genitalia are not just inferior but disgusting. Why? The only conclusion is that Chappelle is still thinking of Caitlyn Jenner being Bruce Jenner, and being a heterosexual man, Chappelle is saying yuck to a man. In another piece, he says, "I'm not saying trans women are not women. I'm just saying those pussies they got... You know what I mean?" I'm sorry, that's not funny. It's cruel. I'm sure a transgender woman as a comedian could impart humor in some of these ideas but hearing a man, Dave Chappelle say them, it comes across as mean. So, for me, the real controversy is not Chappelle stating his opinion about transgender issues, it's that he's a professional comedian who's failed at his job. He's not funny. And I find his opinion to be uninformed. It's obvious he has no idea of what The Third Gender is.<br /><br />
<b>Ricky Gervais</b><br />
In his Netflix special, Supernature, Gervais speaks longingly of the old-fashioned woman, the ones with wombs but says he enjoys the new women, the ones with beards and cocks. (YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI6qvQtrTU8" target="_blank">here</a>) He's trying to be funny, but his joke is based on the premise that this issue is something new. It's like he tells a joke about machines in the air that fly like birds. Well, hello! Did somebody just wake up from a hundred-year coma? Gervais is a professional comedian. It's his job to be funny. I'm not going to discuss possible transphobia, woke culture trying to cancel him, etc. I'm merely going to say these jokes aren't funny. He's failed at his job. The reference to the <i>old-fashioned</i> confirms what was said above: This is new to western culture. There <i>is</i> a third gender.<br /><br />
<b>Jordan Peterson</b><br />
I don't really know Mr. Peterson. However, I have run into his public pronouncements through media and have found that for whatever reason, he has not clearly thought through the implications of what he's said. (<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/02/covid-what-if-us-was-like-canada.html" target="_blank">Peterson talks about Canada's response to the pandemic, and I wonder, if he had been in charge, how many Canadians he would have killed.</a>) He criticizes Elliot Page and his transition from Ellen to Elliot. Twitter suspends Peterson's account. (<a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/elliot-pages-abs-in-esquire-have-got-jordan-peterson-in-a-tizzy-again" target="_blank">here</a>) I have no idea what Peterson thinks he's going to achieve with his adamantly opinionated stance, but I repeat what I said above. There <i>is</i> a Third Gender.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Something is going on. There's a phenomenon happening. I've never had doubts about my gender. I'm a male. I've always been one; I will always be one. However, I've seen enough to realize I'm not looking at a few isolated incidences, flukes as it were, but something significant in the human race as a whole. I can no longer look at the world purely from my own life but must conclude there are things going on outside my realm of experience.<br /><br />
I can't help thinking the above mentioned four public figures will sooner or later revise their opinions. It's obvious to me none of them know anything about The Third Gender. I repeat they are each giving their opinion as opposed to saying what they know. Belief trumps knowledge. In my piece <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/10/cancel-culture-supposedly.html" target="_blank">Cancel Culture, Supposedly</a>, I talk about those who complain about woke people trying to cancel them. I then go see why they've incurred the wrath of the crowd and have found on far too many occasions the individual in question deserves their wrath by being sexist, racist, xenophobic, ill-informed, misinformed, or just plain stupid. If what anybody believes ostracizes another group of people, I'd say they desperately need to reassess their beliefs. They complain about being cancelled, not realizing how they themselves are cancelling other people.<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TERF" target="_blank">TERF</a><br />
<i>TERF is an acronym for trans-exclusionary radical feminist. First recorded in 2008, the term originally applied to the minority of feminists espousing sentiments that other feminists considered transphobic, such as the rejection of the assertion that trans women are women, the exclusion of trans women from women's spaces, and opposition to transgender rights legislation. The meaning has since expanded to refer more broadly to people with trans-exclusionary views who may have no involvement with radical feminism.<br /><br />
Those referred to with the word TERF typically reject the term or consider it a slur; some identify themselves as gender critical.[5] Critics of the word TERF say that it has been used in an overly-broad fashion and in an insulting manner, alongside violent rhetoric. In academic discourse, there is no consensus on whether or not TERF constitutes a slur.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Susanna" target="_blank">Casa Susanna</a><br />
<i>Casa Susanna was a popular weekend destination in Jewett, NY for cross-dressing men and transgender women in the early 1960s. The bungalow camp was run by Susanna Valenti and her wife Marie, who also ran a wig store in town.</i><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/garden/07trann.html" target="_blank">A Safe House for the Girl Within</a> By Penelope Green, NY Times, Sept. 7, 2006<br />
<i>There was a pilot and a businessman, an accountant, a librarian and a pharmacologist. There was a newspaper publisher, and a court translator. By day, they were the men in the gray flannel suits, but on the weekends, they were Felicity, Cynthia, Gail, Sandy, Fiona, Virginia and Susanna. It was the dawn of the 1960’s, yet they wore their late 50’s fashions with awkward pride: the white gloves, the demure dresses and low heels, the stiff wigs. Many were married with children, or soon would be. In those pre-Judith Butler, pre-Phil Donahue days, when gender was more tightly tethered to biology, these men’s “gender migrations,” or “gender dysphoria,” as the sociologists began to call cross-dressing, might cost them their marriages, their jobs, their freedom.</i><br /><br />
2022-07-13<br /><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-69239564632284013302022-07-07T08:27:00.008-07:002023-11-20T13:59:29.720-08:00Pro-lifers are morally superior to the rest of us.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbQ-N_4bTIQ72aMd5SVJUHmtqWKmbMV8ddj8LJDeP6e-gjCvxp1scmDDNhIT_3tiCsa5IO4iplxdM5rc2pK_rNGTUVr9pe-IAprYZBmvF-cqjWl6x1SA7AGRunykWa51rWf1dXUf797M8Y2UuKZX77jPXwn4fRPsSPnY_jnxSt39pr7MAi7CFPaLAxQ/s2534/coathanger%20-%20clipped.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1352" data-original-width="2534" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVbQ-N_4bTIQ72aMd5SVJUHmtqWKmbMV8ddj8LJDeP6e-gjCvxp1scmDDNhIT_3tiCsa5IO4iplxdM5rc2pK_rNGTUVr9pe-IAprYZBmvF-cqjWl6x1SA7AGRunykWa51rWf1dXUf797M8Y2UuKZX77jPXwn4fRPsSPnY_jnxSt39pr7MAi7CFPaLAxQ/s320/coathanger%20-%20clipped.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<i>Postscript 2022-07-07</i><br /><br />
<i>1,200 words, 6-minute read</i><Br /><br />
Full disclosure: I'm a <i>libtard</i>, a badge I wear with great pride. To borrow from the 1960s hippies, I'm a peace, love, and understanding type of guy. And if you haven't guessed, I'm pro-choice but let me add a seeming contradiction: I, too, am anti-abortion. This is elective surgery and represents an <i>unwanted</i> pregnancy. If all babies arrived at the right time, if all pregnancies were <i>wanted</i>, nobody would have an abortion.<br /><br />
<b>Morally Superior</b><br />
Abortion is murder. It goes against God's will. I'm not going to argue those points but I'm going to point out the contradiction in all this.<br /><br />
Pro-lifers want to enact a law but don't care if it's followed. They've done their work; it is now up to the rest of us to respect that law. If somebody unintentionally gets pregnant, if somebody tries to get an illegal abortion, it's the fault of the individual, not the pro-lifers.<br /><br />
<b>The rate of abortion could be zero, today.</b><br />
If we collectively instituted a comprehensive program of sex education, if we ensured birth control was readily available to everyone, condoms for all, the pill for women, and I would also include vasectomies for men, pregnancy would only happen when people would want a pregnancy. Nobody gets an abortion if they want to have a baby. People seek abortions only because they <i>don't want</i> a baby.<br /><br />
But pro-lifers do not want sex education. They do not want to distribute birth control. They want abstinence and for them, there is no other way of dealing with sex.<br /><br />
<b>An anti-abortion law makes pro-Lifers feel good about themselves</b><br />
They don't care about reducing the rate of abortion to zero. They don't care who dies having a botched abortion. They don't care about the pain and heartache of those faced with a life-changing situation. I repeat they don't care about reducing the rate of abortion to zero. They just want to feel good about themselves. They want to feel morally superior to the rest of us. They want to go to bed at night, feeling they've done the Lord's work as if they had exclusive access to the Almighty's intent. If the rest of us can't see the goodness in His way, well, too bad for us. We're all going to Hell.<br /><br />
If pro-lifers <i>truly</i> wanted to reduce the rate of abortion to zero, they should be willing to do <i>anything</i> to achieve that goal, sex education, birth control, etc. But they aren't willing. And so, they fail. <i>Making something illegal does not stop that thing.</i> Prostitution, drugs, speeding, texting, heck, even murder! The very fact something is deemed illegal does not mean people will not do it. If people want something, law be damned!<br /><br />
As an aside, I would point out how Portugal decriminalized drugs in 2001, focusing on therapy not prison sentences. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_liberalization#Portugal" target="_blank">Drug liberalization: Portugal</a>) While going against the common, accepted approach of combating drug use with incarceration, the country has seen an improvement in their situation.<br /><br />
<b>Pro-Lifers think they're doing God's will.</b><br />
Guess what? Not everybody believes the same thing. Abortion is murder? Not everybody agrees. According to WHO, the World Health Organization, there are over 70 million abortions in the world each year. (<a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/abortion" target="_blank">WHO, Nov 2021</a>) That's a lot of people who disagree with pro-lifers. Out of all religions, Christianity accounts for only 31% of the world population. (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>) In the United States, 55% of the population identify as pro-choice with 39% as pro-life. (<a href="https://news.gallup.com/poll/244709/pro-choice-pro-life-2018-demographic-tables.aspx" target="_blank">Gallup, 2022</a>)<br /><br />
God's will? I repeat how pro-lifers are so concerned about the fetus but then have nothing to say once the baby is born. Don't understand my point? Two words: school shootings. It is the height of hypocrisy to campaign against abortion and yet do nothing about gun violence.<br /><br />
<b>The Christian Taliban</b><br />
A pro-choicer says have an abortion, or don't have an abortion, it's your choice. A pro-lifer says I'm right, and everybody has to do what I say.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
This whole debate is f*cking stupid. Medical science says that preventative is better than curative. It is easier and less costly. Once you are sick, a lot more is involved in resolving the problem. We are arguing about how to deal with an <i>unwanted</i> pregnancy. Why oh why did we get to this point? Why is anybody getting pregnant when they don't want to get pregnant?<br /><br />
I repeat I'm pro-choice but I'm anti-abortion. Collectively, we have the means today to reduce the rate of abortion to zero. However, pro-lifers have turned this into a moral issue and refuse to do what's necessary to make that happen. Consequently, this supposed victory of overturning Roe vs. Wade is an empty victory. Abortions will continue regardless of the law, but now, due to the illegality of the procedure, those abortions will be done in secret, not under optimal circumstances, and the rate of injury and death will go up. The WHO estimates 45% of the over 70 million abortions a year worldwide are unsafe which I assume means illegal. Despite the morality of religion, despite the laws of the country, women still seek out abortions at the risk of their own lives. But Like Pontius Pilate, pro-lifers wash their hands of responsibility.<br /><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Wh9X8Hu1PVH3PrSWBZawfafmz9-OcLjIMaE71trnh7KmVlQ8fMQgMGRdRd6C_bPC0BDSJoftwWt_xlAag53DkJ0Oa8anokzoZE4V6vh7FHiHtXeFqx2FKtmL7_Vu-ZFVqA6EflojACl8r_SXYtPfL3brlkgGry_UoIpTw3CEhcodASktM0eMCD1lYA/s816/GOP%20vs%20Taliban.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="816" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Wh9X8Hu1PVH3PrSWBZawfafmz9-OcLjIMaE71trnh7KmVlQ8fMQgMGRdRd6C_bPC0BDSJoftwWt_xlAag53DkJ0Oa8anokzoZE4V6vh7FHiHtXeFqx2FKtmL7_Vu-ZFVqA6EflojACl8r_SXYtPfL3brlkgGry_UoIpTw3CEhcodASktM0eMCD1lYA/w502-h640/GOP%20vs%20Taliban.jpg" width="502" /></a></div>
<br />
<b>Postscript 2022-07-07</b><br />
Shortly after I posted this article on Twitter, I got a response which led to the following exchange. According X's Twitter profile, she's "married, anti-abortionist asf, conservative." (FYI: "asf" seems to be textspeak for "as f*ck")<br /><br />
X: LMAO<br />
<br />
Me: I'm sorry you didn't read my article. I'm an anti-abortionist. I want to see the rate of abortion at zero. However, while you and others celebrate the overturning of Roe vs Wade, I note you have failed to stop abortion. You can make abortion illegal but you can't stop it.<br />
<br />
X: I personally cannot stop abortion or make it illegal. I'm leaving it up to the higher ups to do that.<br />
<br />
Me: I suppose we all leave it in the hands of the higher-ups. But should we support somebody who keeps failing to deliver? I want no abortions. None at all. Making something illegal doesn't stop it. This isn't a win.<br />
<br />
X: I want abortion criminalized for the mother and abortionist. I think overturning Roe was a good thing but we still have work to do<br />
<br />
Me: You haven't read my article. Until you address the issue of "unwanted" pregnancy, you will never stop abortion no matter the fines, the jail time, heck, even if you execute the mother and the doctor! Why? Other people don't see abortion the way you do.<br />
<br />
X: Then that's not my problem then<br />
<br />
I'm sure X is a nice person and wants to make the world a better place. But I keep running into this, especially with conservatives. They have a vote, and they're going to use it but detailed questioning reveals that they don't grasp the issues. Their vote is blind obedience to their party. Once they cast their vote, they get back to living their lives, free from any worry about whether or not issues are resolved. And if those issues are not resolved, there's always an explanation. "That's not my problem."<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>The sign of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.</i> -Unknown</div><br /><br />
I have to shake my head. Over and over again, I see the same mistakes being committed. Why? Opinion is now the same as knowledge. Faith is the same as fact. One's belief is equal to another's expertise. But that's not my problem.<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2010/06/abortion-if-we-make-it-illegal-problem.html" target="_blank">Abortion: If we make it illegal, the problem will go away</a> - June 26, 2010 <br />
<i>I watched a news item on television last night which stated that every year 25,000 women die from unsafe abortions in Africa and 1.7 million are injured. Due to the restrictive laws governing abortions in almost all African countries, virtually all of the 5.6 million abortions performed annually in Africa are unsafe. Apparently only about 100,000 of them are performed by trained professionals in a safe environment.</i><br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2010/09/abortion-my-final-word-on-unwanted.html" target="_blank">Abortion: My final word on unwanted pregnancy</a> - Sep 24, 2010 <br />
<i>The never-ending debate.</i><br /><br />
2022-07-07<br /><br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-60516589430776651362022-07-03T06:13:00.000-07:002022-07-03T06:13:43.486-07:00Charlottesville: Jews will not replace us!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUzDWmiy1LhVWp9pJRhSauvy-ZP63GcFB-GlGtbzUudAYCVviz-TMRqQsdVD3ABNBkjhDsfU0EshpOveU1L8YRynxkYG6bz7u0Bnl8cYwbodxfFnpXX8SL-zuHygH3RqILDCDob8FFkLnxrjboG-yogjzv7QtTswP_48zbt4STmrYFiKsXw9uXRnNxg/s2962/Charlottesville.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1741" data-original-width="2962" height="188" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipUzDWmiy1LhVWp9pJRhSauvy-ZP63GcFB-GlGtbzUudAYCVviz-TMRqQsdVD3ABNBkjhDsfU0EshpOveU1L8YRynxkYG6bz7u0Bnl8cYwbodxfFnpXX8SL-zuHygH3RqILDCDob8FFkLnxrjboG-yogjzv7QtTswP_48zbt4STmrYFiKsXw9uXRnNxg/s320/Charlottesville.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Like many on August 11, 2017, I watched the scenes of white supremacists and neo-Nazis, wielding tiki torches while chanting anti-Semitic slogans. An anti-Nazi meme I later saw stated: <i>You don't get to be both a Nazi and a proud American. We literally had a war about this. The whole world was involved.</i><br /><br />
I was perplexed. It was 2017, 72 years after the end of WWII and the horrors of the Holocaust. Why was anybody bringing this up? The issue had been settled: anti-Semitism bad.<br /><br />
However, the more I thought about it, I had seen a growing number of examples over these past few years of where Jews have been made out to be the go-to group for hatred. Conspiracy theorists loved to formulate all sorts of evil plots around the Jews conquering the world and subjugating all other people. George Soros, being rich, was a well-known target for these tall tales.<br /><br />
I knew that the world population had passed 7.6 billion in 2017 and as of this writing, I've heard the number stands at 7.96 billion. What I didn't know was how many Jews there are in the world. Previously, I had seen pie charts showing the various religions in the world and remembered that the Jewish faith always was part of a very small slice of the pie labelled <i>other</i>. What was the exact number? Was it technically possible for the Jews replace them?<br /><br />
<b>Question: How many Jews are there in the world?</b><br /><br />
20 million<br /><br />
I fell off my chair. Wait! What? That can't be right. There has to be more of them than that!<br /><br />
I had started with Wikipedia but then moved on to other sources to double check, triple check, and quadruple check that number. I consulted the work of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Della_Pergola" target="_blank">Sergio Della Pegola</a>, an Italian Israeli statistician, specializing in Jewish demography. (<a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-78706-6_7" target="_blank">World Jewish Population,2020</a>)<br /><br />
<i>As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 14.8 million, 0.2% of the 7.95 billion worldwide population. This number rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish population, including those who say they are partly Jewish or that have Jewish backgrounds from at least one Jewish parent, and rises again to 21 million with the addition of the "enlarged" Jewish population, including those who say they have Jewish backgrounds but no Jewish parents and all non-Jewish household members who live with Jews. Counting all those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under Israel's Law of Return, in addition to Israeli Jews, raised the total to 23.8 million.</i> -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><br /><br />
Israel is the number one country with 6.3 million <i>core</i> population and the United States second with 5.7 million. All other countries are measured in less than half a million, most with tens of thousands. (Core = 100% Jewish, no partial connections)<br /><br />
<b>My Background</b><br />
I grew up in a Protestant family. The family across the street was Jewish. The people up the street were Catholic. Everybody in my neighborhood all seemed to be at the same place in life; all the neighborhood kids were around the same age. We all played together. Adults had cocktail parties together. Every May 24, the entire neighborhood came together to celebrate Victoria Day in Canada in a common park in the center of the neighborhood with Moms dispensing food and Dads lighting off fireworks. My parents went to a bar mitzvah of the Jewish family. I never thought anything of any differences such as religion. It all seemed perfectly normal.<br /><br />
It wasn't until later in life I started running into racism, sexism, antisemitism, etc. These ideas were foreign to me. And perplexing. Just what the heck was the issue? Hate Jews? Why? I couldn't see any justification for such an attitude.<br /><br />
For my entire adult life, Jews have always been around: neighbors, friends, school mates, co-workers, businesspeople, etc. Every major center had a synagogue. For the last 23 years of my career in I.T., I ran the computer department of a small company. One of my best employees was an orthodox Jew who always wore a yarmulka.<br /><br />
It did occur to me that the entertainment industry had its share of Jews. Mel Brooks and Jerry Seinfeld immediately come to mind however, in consulting a list, there are an astounding number of names.<br /><br />
<b>Question: If Jews don't have quantity, do they have visibility?</b><br /><br />
<i>Although Jews constitute only 3% of the U.S. population, 80% of the nation's professional comedians are Jewish.</i> (<a href="https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,948701,00.html" target="_blank">Time Magazine, Oct 2/1978</a>)<br /><br />
Wait! What? Hold on here a sec. Why would so many Jews gravitate to such a field?<br /><br />
<i>New York City Psychologist Samuel Janus, who once did a yearlong stint as a stand-up comic, thinks that he has the answer: Jewish humor is born of depression and alienation from the general culture. For Jewish comedians, he told the recent annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, "comedy is a defense mechanism to ward off the aggression and hostility of others."</i> (<a href="https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,948701,00.html" target="_blank">Time Magazine, Oct 2/1978</a>)<br /><br />
Holy cow!<br /><br />
However, the question of <i>visibility</i> segways into the next question.<br /><br />
<b>Question: Are Jews richer than others?</b><br /><br />
My father was a dentist. I grew up in an upper middle-class family in an upper middle-class neighborhood. In my own life, I lived in an upper middle class tax bracket. If my <i>impression</i> is that I've always run into Jews, is there a correlation with income?<br /><br />
The median income of the United States in 2020 was around $67,000. (<a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2021/demo/p60-273.html" target="_blank">census.gov</a>)<br /><br />
<i>A study in the United States (based on data from 1985 to 1998), conducted by the sociologist Lisa A. Keister and published in the Social Forces journal, found that adherents of Judaism and Episcopalianism accumulated the most wealth, believers in Catholicism and mainline Protestants were in the middle, while conservative Protestants accumulated the least; in general, people who attend religious services accumulated more wealth than those who do not (taking into account variations of education and other factors). Keister suggested that wealth accumulation is shaped by family processes. According to the study, the median net worth of people believing in Judaism is calculated at 150,890 USD, while the median net worth of conservative Protestants (including Baptists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Seventh-day Adventists, Christian Scientists) was US$26,200.</i> -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_and_religion" target="_blank">Wikipedia: Wealth and religion</a><br /><br />
The same article has an interesting explanation for this income gap: <i>A study published in the American Journal of Sociology by Lisa Keister, found that "wealth affects religion indirectly through educational attainment, fertility, and female labor force participation" but also found some evidence of direct effects of religion on wealth attainment. Keister notes that certain religious beliefs ("one should have many children", "women should not work") lower wealth accumulation, both on the micro- and macro-scale.</i><br /><br />
I have to assume that being richer means more important types of work, positions with more power, more authority, and hence, more visibility.<br /><br />
<b>Question: Why are Jews seemingly always picked on?</b><br /><br />
<i>To understand why anti-Semitic rhetoric is so common among modern conspiracy theorists, we need to go back over 2,000 years. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Lipstadt" target="_blank">Deborah Lipstadt</a>, an Emory University historian and leading expert on anti-Semitism, traces the structure of anti-Semitic ideas back to the very origins of Christianity — specifically, the New Testament description of Jesus’s death.<br /><br />
The early Church taught that “the Jews” conspired to kill Jesus — even though Jesus and his apostles were all Jewish and the Romans who actually executed him in the story were not. This, according to Lipstadt, was in part a strategic choice: Christianity had become a competing religion to Judaism, and its leadership wanted to marginalize the older, more deeply rooted tradition. What better way to do that than to blame Jews for killing the literal savior, casting remaining Jews as Christ-denying heirs to a dark conspiracy?</i><br />
(<a href="https://www.vox.com/22256258/marjorie-taylor-greene-jewish-space-laser-anti-semitism-conspiracy-theories" target="_blank">Marjorie Taylor Greene’s space laser and the age-old problem of blaming the Jews</a>, Vox, Jan 30/2022)<br /><br />
As I said above, I've always lived with Jews around. I do not understand hatred for them. But I also have to note that I have always been less religious than others. In fact, I would never say I'm Protestant, even though I was supposedly raised as one, and today, I declare myself to be agnostic. Does my lack of religion mean I may have been less influenced by Christianity and potential anti-Semitism?<br /><br />
It's curious to see that Pew Research reports that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/05/13/jews-in-u-s-are-far-less-religious-than-christians-and-americans-overall-at-least-by-traditional-measures/" target="_blank">Jews in U.S. are far less religious than Christians and Americans overall</a>:<br /><br />
<i>12% of U.S. Jewish adults say they attend religious services weekly or more often, compared with 27% of the general public and 38% of U.S. Christians. And 21% of Jewish adults say religion is very important in their lives, compared with 41% of U.S. adults overall and 57% of Christians.</i><br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
I can summarize my findings as follows:<br />
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>There are approximately 20 million Jews out of a world population of nearly 8 billion, representing 0.025% of the global population.</li>
<li>While Jews are throughout the world, the two major countries for Jewish populations are Israel (6.3 million) followed by the United States (5.7 million).</li>
<li>In the United States, Jews are wealthier than average.</li>
<li>Because of their higher income, Jews tend to be in professional positions, implying more visibility in society, and potentially with more influence.</li>
<li>Anti-Semitism seems to have its origins in Christianity.</li>
</ul>
I'm impressed. I stand back and look at the big picture, studying the statistics, and conclude there is something about the Jewish faith which makes them work harder and achieve more. While numerically, they can't replace everybody, they may <i>seem</i> to be everywhere. Certainly, their involvement in the entertainment industry is astounding.<br /><br />
I'm also angry. Over the past ten years in writing this blog, researching articles, trying to determine "the truth", I have constantly run into people voicing opinions which have no basis in reality. Two plus two does not equal five. The Earth is not flat. These people do no research on their own but merely parrot things said by others. It's not about the truth; it's about confirmation bias. And the Dunning-Kruger Effect is on full display. I'm not a genius. I don't know everything. But somehow my critical thinking, my bullsh*t detector ofttimes leads me to question statements made by people, whether in person or in social media. Is such and such really true? Where's the evidence? It's pretty much given that the Right, conservatives, Republicans, and Christian Evangelicals will say things but be unable to prove them. I'm willing to discuss any topic but please, for the love of God, quit telling me I'm a <i>sheeple</i> and that I should <i>look it up</i>, because when I do, I find out you're full of sh*t! I am outraged by the sheer tsunami of unprovable conspiracy theories blindly repeated by people displaying a level of stupidity which defies belief.<br /><br />
I read several articles about Peter Cytanovic, the 20-year-old man in the picture above. He got himself into a lot of P.R. trouble over this picture making him the face of white supremacy. He claims to have denounced the movement but still spouts white nationalistic ideas. If you're white and think your race needs defending, you need to reassess your worldview. We in North American have always lived in a white-dominated culture. Don't tell me you're hard done by. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_racism" target="_blank"><i>Reverse racism</i></a>, my ass!<br /><br />
Charlottesville: Jews will not replace you? Fuck off!<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN87maPjlCLMXSeAKW5az9aeEJrrpSlN7qrgWFo-_16FHT_Ri8hPmHd7Mjsxar5iBp_2UVJYFCy1rnsi4Gvgo3eYAOMQR3y6dkbbOQWieMdBwOVO6nn21ddhOdvUZYegl-5r9lcLX2bWI0HHjCeCzv9AGZ0HBRu5MAHSTIzyryYoxlPJo-DtsYzaklPA/s700/You%20don't%20get%20to%20be%20both%20a%20nazi%20and%20a%20proud%20American.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN87maPjlCLMXSeAKW5az9aeEJrrpSlN7qrgWFo-_16FHT_Ri8hPmHd7Mjsxar5iBp_2UVJYFCy1rnsi4Gvgo3eYAOMQR3y6dkbbOQWieMdBwOVO6nn21ddhOdvUZYegl-5r9lcLX2bWI0HHjCeCzv9AGZ0HBRu5MAHSTIzyryYoxlPJo-DtsYzaklPA/w400-h400/You%20don't%20get%20to%20be%20both%20a%20nazi%20and%20a%20proud%20American.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally" target="_blank">Unite the Right rally</a><br />
<i>The Unite the Right rally was a white supremacist rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017. Far-right groups participated, including self-identified members of the alt-right, neo-Confederates, neo-fascists, white nationalists, neo-Nazis, Klansmen, and various right-wing militias. Some groups chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present anti-Islamic and anti-Semitic groups. The organizers' stated goals included the unification of the American white nationalist movement and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlottesville_car_attack" target="_blank">Charlottesville car attack</a><br />
<i>The Charlottesville car attack was a white supremacist terrorist attack perpetrated on August 12, 2017, when James Alex Fields, Jr. deliberately drove his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, murdering one person and injuring 35. 20-year-old Fields had previously espoused neo-Nazi and white supremacist beliefs, and drove from Ohio to attend the rally. He was convicted in a state court for the first-degree murder of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, eight counts of malicious wounding, and hit and run, and was sentenced to life in prison plus an additional 419 years in July 2019. He also pled guilty to 29 of 30 federal hate crime charges to avoid the death penalty, which resulted in another life sentence handed down in June 2019. </i><br /><br />
UnHerd: <a href="https://unherd.com/2022/04/should-we-forgive-extremists/" target="_blank">Should we forgive extremists?</a> - April 20/2022<br />
<i>On August 11, 2017, [Peter] Cytanovic [,a 20-year-old student at the University of Nevada in Reno] travelled to Charlottesville, Virginia, to attend the Unite the Right rally, a gathering of white nationalists including Klu Klux Klan members, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists. As night fell, the angry crowd marched and chanted racist and anti-Semitic slogans. Cytanovic was in the thick of it, holding a tiki-torch aloft as he screamed at counter-protesters. A photographer captured the moment. Soon, his picture was everywhere. “I was the face of white terror,” he tells me.</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population_by_country" target="_blank">Jewish population by country</a><br />
<i>As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 14.8 million, 0.2% of the 7.95 billion worldwide population. This number rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish population, including those who say they are partly Jewish or that have Jewish backgrounds from at least one Jewish parent, and rises again to 21 million with the addition of the "enlarged" Jewish population, including those who say they have Jewish backgrounds but no Jewish parents and all non-Jewish household members who live with Jews. Counting all those who are eligible for Israeli citizenship under Israel's Law of Return, in addition to Israeli Jews, raised the total to 23.8 million.</i><br /><br />
2022-07-03<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-14825536365992112202022-06-27T08:50:00.003-07:002023-11-26T17:36:55.369-08:00Movie Review: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPEDrIE_7l30iUieAywK_XtyiCd9d1vtyGSSYXOXQwTBX0jOG_AztzXiTyF7TSRAzlZARuFs7YCV98G_3x8f8dIk-WlM8rhcQ7K27z5rzdjDay8DdLltMKQTYyM9b8OgMpGWbS1we5Swldt57-nnEx8fTc5wbEF_0GNBW_8sC6jWkb_k7JXAWdbMq2g/s2000/movie%20poster%20Goog%20Luck%20to%20YOu,%20Leo%20Grande.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="1334" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyPEDrIE_7l30iUieAywK_XtyiCd9d1vtyGSSYXOXQwTBX0jOG_AztzXiTyF7TSRAzlZARuFs7YCV98G_3x8f8dIk-WlM8rhcQ7K27z5rzdjDay8DdLltMKQTYyM9b8OgMpGWbS1we5Swldt57-nnEx8fTc5wbEF_0GNBW_8sC6jWkb_k7JXAWdbMq2g/s320/movie%20poster%20Goog%20Luck%20to%20YOu,%20Leo%20Grande.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
This is a small film, a really small film. When I compare it to the latest top box office, I have to wonder why anybody would bother. When I look at the plot, I realize this is targeting a niche market. However, now that I've seen it, I can attest to a profound story with stellar performances. It has a message for all of us. To paraphrase Henry David Thoreau: <i>[Most people] live lives of quiet desperation.</i><br /><br />
Nancy, played by Emma Thompson, is retired, recently widowed, and unhappy. She knows she's missed out on something in life and tries to correct this by hiring a male sex worker. She reveals she's never had an orgasm in her life. She describes the perfunctory sex with her husband as penetration in the darkness with him subsequently rolling over and going to sleep. Her husband said oral sex, man on woman or woman on man, was <i>demeaning to him</i> and as a consequence, Nancy has never had a truly intimate moment with a partner.<br /><br />
Leo, played by Daryl McCormack, is something more than a sex worker; he's a therapist. He's kind. He's patient. He remains focused on Nancy, listening to her rants, easing her anxiousness, and going slowly to grant her permission to feel the pleasure she's been denied her whole life. The movie walks the line between the titillation and discomfort of the topic of sex, and the seriousness of the fundamental right of human beings to enjoy their own bodies. Sex is an integral part of the human experience. It can fulfill us and complete us. Nancy confesses that after one of their bouts of sex, she felt <i>powerful</i>.<br /><br />
I come back to a life of quiet desperation. If you don't do it now, when will you do it? How many people go through life unfulfilled and never, literally and figuratively, have an orgasm? Our society frowns upon sex. Prostitution is for the most part illegal. Collectively, we have succeeded in making our lives sometimes uncomfortable and dissatisfying. It's a subplot of the movie that sex work can be a good thing for both the practitioner and the client.<br /><br />
The film is not a love story. In the end, Nancy and Leo go their separate ways, back to their lives, better for their meeting. I give Emma Thompson credit. She's a brave woman. At the end of the film, this 63-year-old actress stands before a mirror stark naked, portraying a woman now aware of herself and her body. She's not a model. She's not perfect. She's just an average person with all the imperfections any of us have in life. But she's an average person who's made the first step in casting off her <i>desperation</i>. It's never too late to change.<br /><br />
<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/TJcbZoJFLTU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/TJcbZoJFLTU?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published on May 16/2020 by SearchlightPictures<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJcbZoJFLTU" target="_blank">Trailer: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande</a> (1:43)<br />
<i>In GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE, two-time Academy Award winner Emma Thompson (Love, Actually) embodies the candor and apprehension of retired teacher Nancy Stokes, and newcomer Daryl McCormack (Peaky Blinders) personifies the charisma and compassion of sex worker Leo Grande. As Nancy embarks on a post-marital sexual awakening and Leo draws on his skills and charm, together they find a surprising human connection.</i><br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Recommended. While some may feel the plot targets an older audience, I feel the message is universal. Go for the brass ring. Don't wait, do it now. Good luck to us all.<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Luck_to_You,_Leo_Grande" target="_blank">Good Luck to You, Leo Grande</a>
<i>Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is a 2022 British sex comedy-drama film directed by Sophie Hyde and written by Katy Brand. The film stars Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack. [The film] had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2022, and was released on 17 June 2022, theatrically in the United Kingdom by Lionsgate, and digitally in the United States by Searchlight Pictures as a Hulu original film.</i><br /><br />
Rotten Tomatoes: <a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/good_luck_to_you_leo_grande" target="_blank">Good Luck to You, Leo Grande</a>: <b>95%</b> (as of 2022-06-27)<br />
<i>Sexual awakening stories aren't in short supply, but Good Luck to You, Leo Grande proves you can still tell one with a refreshing -- and very funny -- spin.</i><br /><br />
<b>Box Office</b><br />
As of today, June 27, 2022, Box Office Mojo in its <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/world/" target="_blank">world ranking for 2022</a> shows
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Top Gun: $1,006,423,000</li>
<li>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: $947,014,432</li>
<li>The Batman: $770,345,583</li>
<li>Jurassic World Dominion: $746,664,000</li>
</ol>
This film does not appear on this list which shows 200 films in total.
<br /><br />
As of today, June 27, 2022, Box Office Mojo in its <a href="https://www.boxofficemojo.com/year/2022/?area=GB&grossesOption=calendarGrosses&releaseScale=wide&sort=rank&sortDir=asc" target="_blank">British ranking for 2022</a> shows
<ol style="text-align: left;">
<li>Top Gun: $70,123,823</li>
<li>The Batman: $51,513,761</li>
<li>Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness: $51,183,196</li>
<li>Sing 2: $44,113,113</li>
</ol>
Out of a list of 200, this film appears as #74 with a gross of $291,665.
<br /><br />
Poynter: <a href="https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2012/new-york-times-corrects-misquote-of-thoreaus-quiet-desperation-line/" target="_blank">New York Times corrects misquote of Thoreau’s ‘quiet desperation’ line</a><br />
<i>While Henry David Thoreau is often credited with variations of the aphorism “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and die with their song still inside them,” that is not what he wrote in “Walden.” He merely said, “The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation.”</i><br /><br />
2022-06-27<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-85937748643269313632022-06-17T07:11:00.001-07:002022-06-17T07:13:36.283-07:00Fact-checking, shmact-checking: Why are people blindly repeating sh*t?
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZThBBDcIz6GMKFYLwV9KYUHBsqDdBMH1Upi1gLOhqArCFlpTc8Sv-faH4B9DLQyx0HTSDLQ3epcFpumyAh4cPmMJrhFI6CEgazwfeU1xrepQdXQBGF3AfS1UsQx6NlmNzIZVgm-e4nqeOPBsp-yOOx0UWtQo6logpyu3KDAmF1FRIIR-LJO365_J-Bw/s1850/Salvador%20Ramos%2002.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1850" data-original-width="1158" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZThBBDcIz6GMKFYLwV9KYUHBsqDdBMH1Upi1gLOhqArCFlpTc8Sv-faH4B9DLQyx0HTSDLQ3epcFpumyAh4cPmMJrhFI6CEgazwfeU1xrepQdXQBGF3AfS1UsQx6NlmNzIZVgm-e4nqeOPBsp-yOOx0UWtQo6logpyu3KDAmF1FRIIR-LJO365_J-Bw/w250-h400/Salvador%20Ramos%2002.jpg" width="250" /></a></div>
Recently, I've had a number of my social media posts "liked" by various people. Out of curiosity, I went to see their stuff and discovered a myriad of crazy sh*t from the right end of the political spectrum. And I mean crazy! What the f*ck is the matter with people?<br /><br />
Shortly after the Uvalde school shooting, I saw this meme reposted repeatedly and immediately wondered if this could be in any way true. Within the space of sixty seconds, I found all sorts of legitimate sources debunking this claim. In fact, it turns out the picture is of a trans person who is now complaining they're being targeted by haters when they had nothing to do with the shooting at all.<br /><br />
<i>Partly based on a rumor started by an anonymous user on the /pol/ imageboard on 4chan, Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) made unsubstantiated claims, on Twitter the day after the shooting, that the perpetrator was a "transsexual leftist illegal alien"; the tweet was taken down within two hours. The claims were further spread by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other far-right House Republicans and conservative media figures and social media users, despite authorities identifying him as an American citizen.</i> -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robb_Elementary_School_shooting#Reactions_from_politicians" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><br /><br />
<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-news/trans-womans-photo-used-spread-baseless-online-theory-texas-shooter-rcna30511" target="_blank">Trans woman's photo used to spread baseless online theory about Texas shooter</a>, NBC News, Mar 25/2022<br />
<i>The theory, which began on the forum website 4chan, was spread by right-wing Facebook pages and even Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona.</i><br /><br />
I see several important issues in all this.<br /><br />
<b>1. Nobody fact checks</b><br />
People blindly forward stuff without ever verifying if what they're forwarding is, in fact, right. Why? The answer seems to be confirmation bias.<br /><br />
<i>Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one's prior beliefs or values. People display this bias when they select information that supports their views, ignoring contrary information, or when they interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing attitudes. The effect is strongest for desired outcomes, for emotionally charged issues, and for deeply entrenched beliefs. Confirmation bias cannot be eliminated, but it can be managed, for example, by education and training in critical thinking skills.</i> -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><br /><br />
Do I look at this purely from a political angle and blame the Right more than the Left? A further reading of the Wikipedia article shows that this issue exists everywhere. <i>Flawed decisions due to confirmation bias have been found in political, organizational, financial, and scientific contexts.</i><br /><br />
But the confirmation bias on the Right strikes me as quite out of control. Why? Over and over again, journalists have pointed out how the political polarization is no longer a difference of opinion about conservative and democratic ideas, it is now about hate. The Right actually hates the Left. There seems to be some underlying psychological phenomenon here. The Right wants to return to the world of the 1950's Leave It To Beaver. Whites dominated; blacks were segregated, gays were in the closet, and immigrants knew their place and were pretty much unseen. An unskilled white man with no more but even less than a high school diploma could get a factory job, working on the assembly line and making enough to buy a home and support a family of four. That world is long gone with pundits pointing to Republican policies sometimes being at fault for how the world has drastically changed.<br /><br />
What's both amusing and frightening is how things like Fox News are allowed to contribute to reinforcing this mindset. A billion-dollar media empire <i>panders</i> to the worst impulses of Americans in order to get their ratings up to make a profit. They are counting on their viewers to never bother to fact check what they report.<br /><br />
<b>2. Somebody deliberately did this.</b><br />
They didn't post the picture because they thought it was true, they did it to stir up emotions. But who did it and why? I look at the above sources which point to 4chan, an <i>anonymous</i> chat system. I read analysis by the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/61607042" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2022/05/uvalde-shooter-misinformation.html" target="_blank">Slate</a>, and <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uvalde-school-shooting-government-and-politics-shootings-texas-conspiracy-theories-8d9ac3b61420c6542b11d0da3f0b3a16" target="_blank">AP News</a>, and we return to the broader problem of racism and intolerance toward transgender people and immigrants.<br /><br />
<i>“It’s a tactic that serves two purposes: It avoids real conversations about the issue (of gun violence), and it gives people who don’t want to face reality a patsy, it gives them someone to blame.”</i> -disinformation expert Jaime Longoria, director of research at the Disinfo Defense League, a non-profit that works to fight racist misinformation. (AP News)<br /><br />
Racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, some people's anger covers up the real source of the problem.<br /><br />
<i>You can't handle the truth!</i> -A Few Good Men<br /><br />
Now, I know some people like to stir up sh*t just for the sake of stirring up sh*t. Post something outrageous, and then stand back and watch the fireworks. It can be hilarious how incensed people get over sh*t when you know those people don't know sh*t but are just ready, willing, and able to go ballistic over the slightest perceived slight to their way of life.<br /><br />
But is there even something more nefarious going on? Is this part of a deliberate plot by foreign powers to divide the population and weaken the country?<br /><br />
However, whether it's an individual stirring the pot or a foreign power, the real problem is that people listen to this. They seem to eat up conspiracies, dismissing anything mainstream. The problem isn't that somebody says B.S., it's that people listen.<br /><br />
<b>3. People are stupid</b><br />
Full disclosure: I think people like Rep. Paul Gosar and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are stupid. I don't mean I don't like them; I mean they're actually stupid. Over and over again, these people and many in the Republican Party and the Right have displayed a lack of facts. They are ignorant of science, politics, economics, and common knowledge. They seem to be totally prejudiced against anything which is part of the so-called mainstream, including education and any resulting expertise, favoring conspiracy theories which are unproveable and illegitimate. If I ever think of them as crazy, I have to remember that they're elected. Yes, people actually voted them into office. If I ever thought t**** was a problem, I remember that 73 million American voted for him, and I realize the problem in the United States is far greater than I imagined.<br /><br />
Think about this. People believe an anonymous source with no credentials whatsoever over, for example, the respected, Pulitzer-prize winning New York Times. During the pandemic, conspiracy theorists were spouting all sorts of nonsense about Covid. Now, let me get this straight. You want me to believe unsubstantiated claims from anonymous sources as opposed to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a career epidemiologist of forty years who's advised seven presidents. When I want medical advice, I go to my family doctor. I assume you get your medical advice from the wall of a toilet stall in a public washroom. Or social media.<br /><br />
<b>Sheeple</b><br />
The Right loves to call the Left <i>sheeple</i>, a derogatory term meaning <i>people compared to sheep in being docile, foolish, or easily led</i>. But look at the above. The Right jumped on a tidbit of information which came from an anonymous source. No fact-checking, no on-the-ground interviewing of participants, no legitimate investigation of the story, just the blind forwarding of confirmation bias. The Right blindly follow anonymous sources as opposed to <i>legitimate</i> sources, and <i>I'm</i> the sheeple?<br /><br />
<b>Projection</b><br />
In psychology, the term <i>projection</i> describes the phenomenon where a person denies negative things in themselves and <i>projects</i> or accuses others of such things. The Right keeps warning of election fraud and yet, they are guilty of such a thing through gerrymandering, voter suppression, and restrictive I.D. laws which disenfranchise minorities, never mind a number of conservatives having been caught double voting in the election of November 2020.<br /><br />
<b>Critical Thinking</b><br />
I looked at the above meme and immediately doubted its accuracy. Why?<br /><br />
<i>Critical thinking is the analysis of available facts, evidence, observations, and arguments to form a judgement. The subject is complex; several different definitions exist, which generally include the rational, skeptical, and unbiased analysis or evaluation of factual evidence. Critical thinking is self-directed, self-disciplined, self-monitored, and self-corrective thinking. It presupposes assent to rigorous standards of excellence and mindful command of their use. It entails effective communication and problem-solving abilities as well as a commitment to overcome native egocentrism and sociocentrism.</i> -<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_thinking" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a><br /><br />
I make no claims to being a genius or something. However, I look at stuff and question it while I see others, family, friends, acquaintances on social media, blindly accepting sh*t with no questions whatsoever. Isn't it obvious that sh*t is bullsh*t? Isn't it, at least, worth questioning?<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Full disclosure: I'm a <i>libtard</i>, and I wear that like a badge of honor. Old saying: <i>Liberals like education because it makes you better. Conservatives hate education because it make you liberal.</i><br /><br />
I want to be perfectly clear: Being a <i>libtard</i> does <i>not</i> mean I give Democrats or anything liberal a <i>free pass</i>. Any politician, any business, any individual must be held accountable. Nobody should be freely allowed to do whatever they want without being responsible to the greater good, responsible to others, and to the country and to the world. For some completely stupid reason, when a conservative hears that somebody is liberal, they think that person immediately votes Democrat without reservations, without a critical eye. I'm liberal but I'm not stupid! Or crazy!<br /><br />
I look at the above, and I can't do it. I can't blindly forward sh*t without finding out if what I'm forwarding is true or not. I don't want to contribute to disinformation. The world is confusing enough already, and it doesn't need me contributing to the bullsh*t being passed around as the so-called "truth".<br /><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jNzNZxXsC5Mi_N5odVZm7_a8QF1ge8cXxYjIXD_EnPLlRGs9F32bbhsa1j4klgLUpt-HppoJqaaqrEC4vlvjf2sM_YHZljX1A0ShGNKxiKlUvVQpXBujrdd5hdM-ORXaq2_kJlBPz-eF5j-hqUu_QUH-H52M86HgBu66msRXL1e84xPg5pmUx9tuow/s680/4chan_logo.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="251" data-original-width="680" height="118" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3jNzNZxXsC5Mi_N5odVZm7_a8QF1ge8cXxYjIXD_EnPLlRGs9F32bbhsa1j4klgLUpt-HppoJqaaqrEC4vlvjf2sM_YHZljX1A0ShGNKxiKlUvVQpXBujrdd5hdM-ORXaq2_kJlBPz-eF5j-hqUu_QUH-H52M86HgBu66msRXL1e84xPg5pmUx9tuow/s320/4chan_logo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>References</b><br /><br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2022/02/the-problem-isnt-so-much-what-people.html" target="_blank">The problem isn’t so much what people say, it’s that we listen.</a> - Feb 14/2022<br />
<i>I don’t listen to Joe Rogan. I never have listened to him, and I have no intention of doing so. Problem solved. In fact, I don’t listen and never have listened to t****, Fox News, whether it be Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeannine Piro, Jesse Waters, et al., or any other source on the Right such as Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, formerly Rush Limbaugh, etc. Of course, clips crop up in newscasts, but I never tune into any of these people. Problem solved. It occurs to me that the problem isn’t so much that any of these people are talking, it’s that we’re, I mean, you’re listening. Why are you listening?</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4chan" target="_blank">4chan</a><br />
<i>4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, music, literature, history, fitness, politics, and sports, among others. Registration is not available and users typically post anonymously. As of 2022, 4chan receives more than 22 million unique monthly visitors, of which approximately half are from the United States.</i><br /><br />
<b>Would somebody explain to me how Paul Gosar and Majorie Greene hold public office? Has the Republican Party sunk this low?</b><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Gosar" target="_blank">Paul Gosar</a><br />
<i>Paul Anthony Gosar (b 1958) is an American far-right politician and former dentist who has served as the U.S. representative for Arizona's 4th congressional district since 2013. A Republican, he was elected in 2010 to represent the neighboring 1st congressional district until redistricting. Gosar's support of conspiracy theories, as well as alleged ties to the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, and Holocaust deniers have sparked controversy.<br /><br />
Gosar opposes the Affordable Care Act, abortion, gun control, and immigration. He has been a strong ally of former president Donald Trump, and voted to overturn the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential election.<br /><br />
On November 17, 2021, Gosar was censured by the House of Representatives and stripped of committee assignments for posting an edited video clip to social media depicting violence against Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and President Joe Biden. It was the first House censure since 2010 and the 24th in American history.<br /><br />
Personal life<br />
In 2018, six (David, Gaston, Grace, Jennifer, Joan, and Tim) of Gosar's nine siblings participated in ads supporting their brother's political adversary, David Brill, MD. In the ads, they all state their desire to defend their family's name lest the world think the entire Gosar family shares Paul's ideology. David Gosar said, "He's absolutely not working for his district." Tim said, "He's not listening to you and he doesn't have your best interests at heart." Grace said, "Paul Gosar, the congressman, isn't doing anything to help rural America." Jennifer said, "If he actually cared about people in rural Arizona, I bet he'd be fighting for Social Security, for better access to healthcare; I bet he'd be researching what is the most insightful water policy to help the environment of Arizona to sustain itself and be successful."
</i><br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marjorie_Taylor_Greene" target="_blank">Marjorie Taylor Greene</a><br />
<i>Marjorie Taylor Greene (b 1974), also known by her initials MTG, is an American politician, businesswoman, and far-right conspiracy theorist who has served as the U.S. representative for Georgia's 14th congressional district since 2021. A member of the Republican Party and a strong supporter of former president Donald Trump, she was elected to Congress in 2020 following the retirement of Republican incumbent Tom Graves.<br /><br />
Greene has promoted far-right, white supremacist, and antisemitic conspiracy theories including the white genocide conspiracy theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate, as well as other disproven conspiracy theories such as false flag mass shootings, the Clinton body count, and multiple relating to 9/11. Before running for Congress, she advocated for executing prominent Democratic politicians. As a congresswoman, she equated the Democratic Party with Nazis and compared COVID-19 safety measures to the persecution of Jews during the Holocaust. She apologized for the latter comparison. In January 2022, Greene's personal Twitter account was permanently suspended for posting COVID-19 vaccine misinformation. During the Russo-Ukrainian War, Greene has promoted Russian propaganda and praised Vladimir Putin.<br /><br />
A supporter of Trump's efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, Greene has repeatedly and falsely claimed that Trump won the election in a landslide victory that was stolen from him. She called for Georgia's election results to be decertified and was among a group of Republican legislators who unsuccessfully challenged votes for Biden during the Electoral College vote count, even though federal agencies and courts overseeing the election found no evidence of electoral fraud. Greene filed articles of impeachment against Biden the day after his inauguration, alleging abuse of power.<br /><br />
The House of Representatives voted to remove Greene from all committee roles on February 4, 2021, in response to her incendiary statements and endorsements of political violence. Eleven Republicans joined the unanimous Democrats in the vote. Greene is running for reelection in 2022. </i><br /><br />
<b>This is insane. Gosar and Greene are representative of a large segement of the electorate and how out of touch they are with reality.</b><br /><br />
2022-06-17<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-27824892204178927292022-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:002022-06-07T07:39:22.104-07:00The S Word<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6dZxDY_X9oJiMUk-B68KPPWMgihvtm-Ku75Y6sJmy3xTTKqVPE2MZVVQ_bwi-B-qCN9e38GzVc77LPSoRSkeLsE88G_jCs_WCqULLbae92UdCAQxovaxxww8qSl9BtQbz0fjwX_2DdB2vGnVBGWCvsCbUXgBlGomKO8ojzXXNYOfH95m0I_AkWRJoQ/s320/The%20S%20Word%20-%20square%201024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="320" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6dZxDY_X9oJiMUk-B68KPPWMgihvtm-Ku75Y6sJmy3xTTKqVPE2MZVVQ_bwi-B-qCN9e38GzVc77LPSoRSkeLsE88G_jCs_WCqULLbae92UdCAQxovaxxww8qSl9BtQbz0fjwX_2DdB2vGnVBGWCvsCbUXgBlGomKO8ojzXXNYOfH95m0I_AkWRJoQ/s1600/The%20S%20Word%20-%20square%201024.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
It’s an unwritten rule that white people can’t say the N word. The comedian Chris Rock has some hilarious bits talking about this idea, and the gist of it is that only blacks can use the N word. By extension, only Jews can make fun of Jews; only Indians can make fun of Indians, etc.
<p></p>
<p>I would put forward that the S word (slut) deserves the same treatment. There is a lot of hate in the word, and its casual use can easily be misconstrued as derogatory. We live in a culture that sex shames. Why? I’ve heard it said that this is based on religious upbringing. Religion teaches us that it is through suffering that we can gain access to Heaven, consequently, anything pleasurable, especially sex, must be considered bad. This is where sex-shaming comes from.</p>
<p>Going back to the story of the Garden of Eden, Eve convinced Adam to taste the forbidden fruit and thus, both were cast out of paradise. Eve, and women in general, are to be blamed for the woes of man. Since pleasure is considered verboten, that is, sex is bad; it follows that women are bad, especially about sex. Hence, we have slut-shaming. It’s curious to note that the S word here refers to anything sexual. I’m reminded of an old joke.</p>
<p>Question: <i>What’s the definition of a nymphomaniac?</i></p>
<p>Answer: <i>Someone who wants sex more than me.</i></p>
<p>In other words, this is all subjective and varies from person to person.</p>
<p>The other day, I read this in a gentleman’s profile:</p>
<p><i>I refuse to call you a "bitch", "whore", "slut" or any other bullshit label that heaps social shame on you for needing what absolutely EVERYONE else needs. If you wanna call YOURSELF "slut" then do it because you're PROUD of taking what you need and deserve.</i></p>
<p>Like the N word, the S word is the privilege of a woman. I, as a man, should never use the term; I don’t have the <i>right</i> to use the term.</p>
<p>Sex is not bad; it’s good. I consider sex to be a gift from God. It’s an integral part of being human, and it’s a wonderful part of being alive. Unfortunately, due probably to religion, we misinterpret sex and end up ashamed, unable to cope with our natural desires and the unnatural ideal of a sexless existence. Note that I said <i>natural desires</i>. We are all sexual creatures. We mustn’t be embarrassed by this; we must embrace it.</p>
<p><b>An Amusing Contradiction</b><br />
I’ve seen this in my life. A man wants good sex; he fantasizes about it. He hopes to have a partner who is a good lover. And yet, that same man will contribute to the sex-shaming and the slut-shaming of our society. I have actually heard men refer to women using the S word, inferring that they are somehow less worthy as women. It’s curious in some Christian circles how virginity is prized. The joke for me is that I don’t want a virgin; I want a mature, experienced lover. Inexperience in the bedroom is not fun.</p>
<p><b>Final Word</b><br />
We all have the right to our sexuality, regardless of race, color, creed, or gender. Women can be just a sexual as men, and there is nothing inherently wrong with that. It is, however, wrong to disseminate the traditional sex-shaming and slut-shaming which exists in society. The S word is meant to be derogatory but there is nothing derogatory about being sexual. If a woman decides to reclaim her sexuality by using the S word, that is her choice but I, as a man, will not use the word. We all need to make the world a better place, and we should all be free to enjoy our inherent right to be sexual. We’re all in this together.</p>
<p><br /></p>
<p><b>References</b></p>
<p>Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slut" target="_blank">Slut</a><br /><i>Slut is generally a term for a person, especially a woman or girl, who is considered to have loose sexual morals or who is sexually promiscuous. It is usually used as an insult, sexual slur or offensive term of disparagement (slut-shaming). It originally meant "a dirty, slovenly woman", and is rarely used to refer to men, generally requiring clarification by use of the terms male slut or man whore.</i></p>
<p><i>The first recorded use of the word was a 1386 reference to a man, in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, in which he is referring to the man's untidy appearance.</i></p>
<p><i>Slut-shaming is a related term, referring to the act of drawing attention to a person's promiscuous behavior for the purpose of shaming them socially. From the late 20th century, there have been attempts to reclaim the word, exemplified by various SlutWalk parades, and some individuals embrace the title as a source of pride.</i></p>
<p>Consult the <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/p/site-map.html" target="_blank">site map</a> and search for the word "slut" for other articles on this topic.</p>
<p>my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2013/12/slut-shaming-women-who-have-sex.html" target="_blank">Slut Shaming Women Who Have Sex</a> - Dec 3/2013</p>
<p>my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2010/07/sex-im-man-and-youre.html" target="_blank">Sex: I'm a man and you're a...</a> - July 13/2010</p>
<p>my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2013/08/slanegirl-sex-double-standards-and-sluts.html" target="_blank">#Slanegirl: sex, (double) standards, and sluts </a> - Aug 22/2013<br />This story is a perfect example of the problem in our society. A photo of a couple having sex is posted to social media and goes viral. The fallout is that the guy is either treated as a hero or gets off scot-free. The girl, however, is vilified to no end. Why? In our society, it would seem that men can be sexual, they have the <i>right</i> to be sexual, while women must be pure as the driven snow!</p>
2022-06-07<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-48561241397160448502022-06-06T07:33:00.002-07:002022-06-13T06:19:03.020-07:002022: Where I am and where I’m going<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7LMTxkXflV0/WIz75aQK96I/AAAAAAAAK-Q/60uLRqfTrNs5C3ohRTX2hqEzL8Os8ZUmgCLcB/s1600/Future.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7LMTxkXflV0/WIz75aQK96I/AAAAAAAAK-Q/60uLRqfTrNs5C3ohRTX2hqEzL8Os8ZUmgCLcB/s320/Future.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
A few years back, I wrote "<a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2019/04/2019-where-i-am-and-where-im-going.html" target="_blank">2019: Where I am and where I’m going</a>". Maybe, it's time for an update.<br /><br />
<b>Summary</b><br />
I'm 69 years old. I turn 70 this coming fall. I've been retired three years this past February. I will be divorced for twelve years this coming September. This past February, I have not had a drink in thirty-four years.<br /><br />
Is this the time in one's life when you get reflective on your life? What are your accomplishments, and, of course, what are your failures? To be honest, there are things I've done in my life that still make me wince. God, how could I have been so dumb? I don't know what other people do, but I sometimes focus more on what I've done wrong than on what I may have done right.<br /><br />
<b>70, Health, and Death</b><br />
My father died of a heart attack two days shy of his eightieth birthday. How much time do I have left? I have to recognise and accept that someday, this ride will be over. I will have to leave, and the rest of the world will carry on without me.<br /><br />
Is that depressing? Or is it merely realistic? I find it amusing to say to younger people that by the time they reach my age, I'll be dead. I suppose someone may think I'm being morbid, but I really do find that funny.<br /><br />
Although, there are differences between my lifestyle and that of my father. I eat better and exercise more than him. He had a quadruple bypass at the age of 74. Obviously, the makings of cardiac issues were already in place. While I hope my lifestyle will see me live healthier and hopefully longer, there may be parallels. I suffer from erectile dysfunction. Your first thought is about sex, but this condition is also known as <i>the canary in the pants</i>. The blood vessels which feed the penis are some of the smallest in the body and may be susceptible to blockage long before other signs of cardiac problems manifest themselves. Studies have shown a correlation between ED and heart issues. Is my number in the queue?<br /><br />
<b>I'm lucky</b><br />
In the past three years since my retirement, I've handed out hundreds of dollars (probably between one and two thousand) to various homeless people in the streets. There but for the grace of God go I. I'm sure family, friends, even you, the reader, may find my behaviour odd but I'm reminded that when I hand someone a twenty-dollar bill, it means just about nothing to me. I'm not saying I'm rich but I'm okay enough to see that twenty dollars as being an insignificant amount of money. Giving it away has virtually no impact on my life but I know it represents something important to the homeless person.<br /><br />
Old saying: You can work hard and still fail. Yes, I worked hard. Yes, I made good choices. But I also recognise I had opportunities others may not have had. You could say the homeless deserve what they have but I would counter argue that no one chooses to be poor. With age, I'm finding I'm less critical and more compassionate.<br /><br />
<b>Writing</b><br />
In 2010, I started this blog. Since then, I've written hundreds of articles and hundreds of thousands of words. For a few years, 2011-2013, I did unpaid work for an online newspaper, writing about everything, politics, science, sociology, sex, divorce, etc. In 2013, I participated in NaNoWriMo. In 2016, I self-published a first novel. Since then, I've published five small collections of short stories and a second novel. I've had my stories published online in a variety of webzines. I'm currently editing a third novel and hope to have it published in the fall of 2022. If anything over the past decade, I've discovered I like to shoot my mouth off. Now, if I could only figure out how to get paid for that.<br /><br />
<b>This Blog</b><br />
I got bored with writing this blog. I pretty much stopped around 2016 and the break was so dramatic, I went through the site map and added indicators, showing articles as being older than 2016 so people could see what's recent.<br /><br />
Why did I get bored? I was repeating myself. In the past week, interested in a certain controversial topic, I went back to read my own articles from a decade ago. Those articles still stand. Same sh*t, different day. We're all arguing about the same issues, and nothing has been done to rectify the situation. I'm wasting my breath. I could take an old article, change the date, and republish it as an analysis of the issue in question.<br /><br />
In the fall of 2021, I finally got worked up enough over the misinformation being passed around about the pandemic that I did sit down and pen a number of articles analysing various issues relating to Covid. My conclusion is that the average person knows little or nothing about what's going on in the world and does absolutely nothing to educate themselves. People can be f*cking stupid and wear their stupidity as a badge of honour.<br /><br />
Don't get me started on politics. The world has gone completely mad. As I said, I could take all my political articles about the 2012 election and merely change the dates to get them to cover the current situation.<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
I've been asked what I'm doing now that I'm retired. I tell people that I spend my days <i>fiddling</i> without going into specifics about what <i>fiddling</i> entails. Do I even know what it entails?<br /><br />
Twenty years ago, my wife and I would occasionally have dinner with neighbours who were both retired. At the time, my wife and I had career jobs; our lives were busy, like really busy. These two neighbours would talk about having full days and finding it difficult sometimes to find the time to do everything. They were retired. My wife and I would walk home after our visits and wonder between us what these two people were rambling on about. Retired? Not enough time?<br /><br />
Now, I am retired, and many times, my days are full. Full of what? A colleague from my former company, also retired, invited me for lunch a few weeks ago. It was a pleasant couple of hours, talking about the supposed good ol' days. But what was I doing now? I remained vague but did mention having done a little writing and had published a book. "Mom liked it." He laughed.<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?</i><br />
-Mary Oliver (b 1935), American poet
</div><br />
Nobody knows about my fiddling with writing. Not family, not friends. Nobody knows about this blog; nobody knows about my books. Does it matter? It's a question of amusing myself and whether it leads to anything remains to be seen but also, probably doesn't matter. The point is to amuse myself.<br /><br />
There's an old joke about nobody has written on their tombstone "I wish I had spent more time working." Am I going to have written, "I wish I had spent more time fiddling"?<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br />
<br />
Forbes: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2013/01/30/canary-in-the-trousers-why-erectile-dysfunction-can-signal-heart-disease" target="_blank">'Canary In The Trousers': Why Erectile Dysfunction Can Signal Heart Disease</a> - Jan 30/2013<br />
<br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2020/06/i-wrote-book-so-what.html" target="_blank">I wrote a book. So what?</a> - Jan 30/2018<br />
<br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2019/04/2019-where-i-am-and-where-im-going.html" target="_blank">2019: Where I am and where I’m going</a> - Apr 3/2018<br />
<br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2018/01/2018-where-i-am-and-where-im-going.html" target="_blank">2018: Where I am and where I’m going</a> - Jan 30/2018<br />
<br />
my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2017/01/2017-where-i-am-and-where-im-going.html" target="_blank">2017: Where I am and where I’m going</a> - Jan 28/2017<br />
<br />
2022-06-06<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-71136074467773507962022-05-27T22:12:00.001-07:002024-03-12T15:45:38.222-07:00Florian Seraul: Change The Course Of The Futur<br />
<div align="center"><object height="315" width="560"><param name="movie" value="//www.youtube.com/v/8wMetWIoIVc?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /><embed allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/v/8wMetWIoIVc?version=3&hl=en_US&vq=hd1080" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="560" /></object></div><br />
Published on Dec 28/2023 by Florian Seraul - Topic<br />
YouTube: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wMetWIoIVc" target="_blank">Change The Course Of The Futur</a> (2:53)<br />
<i>from the album Future Piano</i><br />
<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9Lz-_U9qoZJrOw0ikQU9Vt7bcjGLypIxOUNhxj0arSvbguxh7URi_c5SDTrNrp3BKxPRR1KOmol1IFJflWOUTBolVdfipFTHPCkwpwm6wxraNHWXd8o5P6vpCx--_9h1fFmdwiD_uv-kbyhtuRwyKN4qKqjsXMMnjEWoxdNFeMh_CIAYG0cJ3oiuJQ/s640/Florian%20Seraul%20-%20Change%20The%20Course%20Of%20The%20Futur.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS9Lz-_U9qoZJrOw0ikQU9Vt7bcjGLypIxOUNhxj0arSvbguxh7URi_c5SDTrNrp3BKxPRR1KOmol1IFJflWOUTBolVdfipFTHPCkwpwm6wxraNHWXd8o5P6vpCx--_9h1fFmdwiD_uv-kbyhtuRwyKN4qKqjsXMMnjEWoxdNFeMh_CIAYG0cJ3oiuJQ/w200-h200/Florian%20Seraul%20-%20Change%20The%20Course%20Of%20The%20Futur.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><br /><b>References</b><br />
<br />
web site: <a href="http://tiny-music.com/" target="_blank">Tiny Music (Florian Seraul)</a><br />
<i>Florian Seraul composes emotionally charged, evocative music that transports his audience. He skilfully blends textures with well-crafted melodies to build organic, visual tracks that create the perfect sonic accompaniment. With a roster of high-profile clients, including Google, Dior and Tesla, Florian and his deliberate, textural music are in high demand. In 2019, he recorded with an 18-piece orchestra for PremiumBeat at London’s prestigious Air Studios. Shining through Florian’s work is his indie sensibility, with influences such as the films of Sofia Coppola, Spike Jonze and Michel Gondry evident in his cinematic style. Florian primarily creates contemporary scores and electro-pop music. In 2019 Florian won the PMA Music Award for Best Ambient Minimalist track.</i><br />
<br />
YouTube channel: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Ie-4P0qi3WCjOgCKfhSpg" target="_blank">Florian Seraul</a><br />
<br />
Soundcloud: <a href="https://soundcloud.com/florianseraul" target="_blank">Florian Seraul</a><br />
<br />
Facebook: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TinyMusicStudio/" target="_blank">Tiny Music Studio - Music by Florian Seraul</a><br />
<i>Tiny Music crafts memorable, aspirational, intricate melodies and soundscapes that connect images to emotions and experiences. By shaping together boutique tunes that invoke visual serenity tinted with a distinctive Montreal underground indie edge, Tiny Music creates the perfect sonic discourse to flow with your moving images.</i><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyD6gpzZ16MEKPQhRlCOhhgWm4cOPbaw2uCyb3-kEbgHV8JilPKGy7m1p_GBHnf_2W56MaZygaywfoZGG-YArSYzOSwcgT2naCjfGDo4H5CpksEPb5mCJ6S-wl6qGdnZTpUuSwc1_SOJGbTXkpkZW3at8oaMiprGzTqznhwOaa1WYE7qDxUczZeCVjUw/s2500/Florian%20Seraul%2001.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1667" data-original-width="2500" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyD6gpzZ16MEKPQhRlCOhhgWm4cOPbaw2uCyb3-kEbgHV8JilPKGy7m1p_GBHnf_2W56MaZygaywfoZGG-YArSYzOSwcgT2naCjfGDo4H5CpksEPb5mCJ6S-wl6qGdnZTpUuSwc1_SOJGbTXkpkZW3at8oaMiprGzTqznhwOaa1WYE7qDxUczZeCVjUw/w640-h426/Florian%20Seraul%2001.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
2022-05-28<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-459873339663141424.post-47359999126680733892022-02-14T18:40:00.003-08:002023-10-20T12:45:00.369-07:00The problem isn’t so much what people say, it’s that we listen.
<table border="0"><tbody><tr><td style="vertical-align: top;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEid49F1eRUsFRgpaxfOei4L9nR5qD5LwIRbNre1YCHuQ3cDo4SIG35xmTWkxLSg_D61fFwUc2yQx1aFjVR66DC2b_JqxA8zX3qd_1vI-nujmnbGX0n67YzddNZCI34Dk8t5w6H5mMMVdah0b1uGz6ErbFmUG6NjhbkuXMhO29SG9O0LIwFVwn-5UClN8Q=s1019" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img style="border:0px" border="0" data-original-height="868" data-original-width="1019" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEid49F1eRUsFRgpaxfOei4L9nR5qD5LwIRbNre1YCHuQ3cDo4SIG35xmTWkxLSg_D61fFwUc2yQx1aFjVR66DC2b_JqxA8zX3qd_1vI-nujmnbGX0n67YzddNZCI34Dk8t5w6H5mMMVdah0b1uGz6ErbFmUG6NjhbkuXMhO29SG9O0LIwFVwn-5UClN8Q=s320" width="320" /></a></div> </td>
<td style="vertical-align: middle;">I don’t listen to Joe Rogan. I never have listened to him, and I have no intention of doing so. Problem solved.<br /><br />
In fact, I don’t listen and never have listened to t****, Fox News, whether it be Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham, Jeannine Piro, Jesse Waters, et al., or any other source on the Right such as Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro, Candace Owens, formerly Rush Limbaugh, etc. Of course, clips crop up in newscasts, but I never tune into any of these people. Problem solved.<br /><br />
It occurs to me that the problem isn’t so much that any of these people are talking, it’s that we’re, I mean, you’re listening. Why are you listening?</td></tr></tbody></table><br />
<div style="margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; text-align: center;"><i>
“I talk shit for a living — that’s why this is so baffling to me. If you’re taking vaccine advice from me,<br />
is that really my fault? What dumb shit were you about to do when my stupid idea sounded better?<br />
‘You know that dude who made people eat animal dicks on TV? How does he feel about medicine?’<br /> If you want my advice, don’t take my advice.”</i> -Joe Rogan, <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/joe-rogan-stand-up-austin-controversy-1235089660/" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Feb 8/2022</div><br />
When I want medical advice, I go to a medical doctor, not a comedian. Why in heaven's name is anybody listening to Rogan's health recommendations? Dr. Anthony Fauci is a career epidemiologist of forty years who's advised seven presidents. I'm sorry, there is absolutely no comparison in the level of medical expertise. Why are we even talking about this? This is the height of absurdity! Heck, this may be one of Rogan's best comedic bits!<br /><br />
Joe Rogan, Fox News (Fox Entertainment?), and anybody else in this field are in business are trying to make a profit. In order to make a profit, they need an audience. So what can they do to get and hold our interest? During his divorce proceedings, the lawyer for the far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones referred to his client as a "performance artist". (<a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/not-fake-news-infowars-alex-jones-performance-artist-n747491" target="_blank">NBC News</a>, Apr 17/2017). <i>Jones has turned his venture into a lucrative business model, earning more than $20 million in revenues annually in recent years, according to court documents.</i> (<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/14/alex-jones-5-most-disturbing-ridiculous-conspiracy-theories.html" target="_blank">CNBC</a>, Sep 14, 2018) That's a pretty good paycheck for screaming about the government <i>putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay</i>.<br /><br />
<b>The Power of Influencers</b><br />
In a 2021 report, The Pew Research Center states <i>48% of U.S. adults say they get news from social media “often” or “sometimes”</i>. (<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2021/09/20/news-consumption-across-social-media-in-2021/" target="_blank">source</a>) A 2020 report from the same company states that people who mainly get their news from social media are less likely to get their facts straight and more likely to hear unproven claims. (<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/2020/07/30/americans-who-mainly-get-their-news-on-social-media-are-less-engaged-less-knowledgeable/" target="_blank">source</a>)<br /><br />
I think it safe to say we all naïvely plugged into the Internet to unleash our opinion on the world unaware of how the landscape would change. The current world population stands at around 7.9 billion, 50% of whom are on some form of social media. (<a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/272014/global-social-networks-ranked-by-number-of-users/" target="_blank">source: Statista</a>) Facebook is the number one player with 2.9 billion users and YouTube second with 2.3 billion. It used to be that any one person stood on a soapbox at the corner preaching to passers-by with a megaphone. Now, an individual can garner an audience of millions.<br /><br />
We have now seen the dangers of such unfettered access to people. With no checks and balances, with no requirement for truthfulness, anybody can say anything they want, regardless of how crazy that might be. Two plus two equals five. The earth is flat. It is the wild, wild west of the Dunning-Kruger Effect. Never have so many knowing so little said so much.<br /><br />
But I return to my original premise: The problem isn’t so much what people say; it’s that we listen. Is it a lack of education or real life experiences? Is it an inability to critically think? Or is it just plain stupidity? There is a significant portion of the population who don't know that two plus two doesn't equal five and will never take the time to check the math but merely accept the so-called expertise of somebody else. On top of it, this segment of the population has a distrust for the government and anything mainstream, including the news, education, and expertise, so even if a legitimate source gives them the right answer, they discount it. These people are ripe for the picking, an easy target for the slick talk of the next snake oil salesman.<br /><br />
Joe Rogan got himself into hot water back in the spring of 2021 for giving unorthodox and if not crazy medical advice and tried to explain himself out of the backlash.<br /><br />
<i>“I am not a doctor. I am a fucking moron. I am a cage-fighting commentator … I am not a respected source of information even for me. But I at least try to be honest about what I am saying.”</i> -Joe Rogan, as reported by <a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/digital/joe-rogan-walks-back-covid-19-comments-i-am-not-an-anti-vaxx-person-4176049/" target="_blank">The Hollywood Reporter</a>, Apr 29, 2021<br /><br />
Joe was already telling people to not pay attention to him but we didn't listen. On top of it, he supposedly explained away any problem by saying he was trying to be honest. Please note than being wrong or being honest and wrong still means you're wrong.<br /><br />
After repeatedly hearing about ivermectin as a supposed Covid treatment touted by Rogan and others, I sat down to look at the issue in November 2021. (my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/11/ivermectin-im-not-taking-medical-advice.html" target="_blank">Ivermectin: I'm not taking medical advice from Joe Rogan.</a> - Nov 9/2021)<br /><br />
First off, Joe Rogan hadn't done his homework. I found the original studies done back in 2015 to try to combat the Zika virus outbreak in Africa and the April 2020 Australian study trying to combat the coronavirus. In both cases, the scientists said that if they put enough ivermectin in a petri dish, they could kill the virus but noted the amount of ivermectin was greater than the recommended dosage for humans. Please note: Ivermectin is an anti-parasitic, used to combat parasites; it had never been touted as an anti-viral. These studies never did any human trials, concluding somebody would have to do such a thing.<br /><br />
Subsequent trials found no causal relationship between ivermectin and the coronavirus but the rumor had been born and continues to this day, propagated by Rogan and others.<br /><br />
<i>“I can increase the concentration of sodium chloride (table salt) by 50% to my tissue culture cells and show inhibition of most viruses. But I don't go asking people to eat as much salty food as possible to combat virus infections, much less SARS-CoV-2. Hoping ivermectin works based on "in vitro efficacy studies" is "magical thinking."</i><br />
-Dr. Benhur Lee, Professor of Microbiology at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2021/08/18/ivermectin-studies-analyzed/" target="_blank">interview in Salon about ivermectin</a>, August 2021<br /><br />
Desperate times call for desperate measures, and desperate people do desperate things. Rogan is a comedian by profession; he has no training in the medical field at all. While his interviews may have a folksy, man in the street feel which makes him popular (11 million listeners per episode!), he's ill-equipped to question his guests or challenge their claims. The same holds true for Fox News or even Alex Jones. I return to my question: Why are people listening?<br /><br />
In the fall of 2021, Aaron Rodgers, quarterback for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL), got himself into trouble by revealing he wasn't vaccinated and was taking medical advice from Joe Rogan, including the use of ivermectin. (my blog: <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/2021/11/aaron-rodgers-im-disappointed-but-im.html" target="_blank">Aaron Rodgers: I’m disappointed but I’m not surprised.</a> - Nov 18/2021)<br /><br />
<i>Rodgers told McAfee he is taking ivermectin on the advice of his new friend, podcaster Joe Rogan (the CDC does not consider ivermectin effective in treating or preventing COVID-19), and that the “woke mob” will be disappointed to hear that after 48 hours, he feels great. I am sincerely glad he feels great, but also: So what? I once felt great just 48 hours after eating at Applebee’s. What does that have to do with anything? This is a classic and frankly simple example of using anecdotal evidence to prove a point that can be proved with only statistics; it is the height of intellectual dishonesty, even if Rodgers is gullible enough to believe it himself.</i><br />
-Michael Rosenberg, <a href="https://www.si.com/nfl/2021/11/05/the-problem-is-aaron-rodgers-thinks-he-has-all-the-answers" target="_blank">Sports Illustrated</a>, Nov 5, 2021<br /><br />
The blind leading the blind leading blind. I repeat: Joe Rogan is a comedian by profession with no medical expertise. Dr. Anthony Fauci is a career epidemiologist of 40 years who's advised seven presidents. Why is this even an issue?<br /><br />
<b>Final Word</b><br />
Why do people listen? Can they not discern a legitimate source of information from the fakes? Do they just distrust anything they perceive as connected to the "mainstream"? Once again, are they just plain stupid?<br /><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8l6azrrpKqJ-x0hf2QCDT-3MlKKWO70SQh2MuF0EN6C0QJaftpO-3SPcn8077bzbbF95PkLvSBbCN-u0MfYa-xBFUF1gOwYVYnooASlmqLgEI_qGFo-FoYjTyyArhLzGsdaWwrmbhyYJguWbFYDmmi6APyprQVCgaXDhMFI0RvTDeC9S6Ttn6Kie-Yw=s1038" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="487" data-original-width="1038" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj8l6azrrpKqJ-x0hf2QCDT-3MlKKWO70SQh2MuF0EN6C0QJaftpO-3SPcn8077bzbbF95PkLvSBbCN-u0MfYa-xBFUF1gOwYVYnooASlmqLgEI_qGFo-FoYjTyyArhLzGsdaWwrmbhyYJguWbFYDmmi6APyprQVCgaXDhMFI0RvTDeC9S6Ttn6Kie-Yw=w640-h301" width="640" /></a></div><br />
We are all bombarded with information from all directions, family, friends, acquaintances at the coffee shop, TV, radio, and social media but we have to filter out the good from the bad, the real from the fake, and the legitimate from the rumor. I repeat my definition of the scientific method:<br /><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><i>Independent scientists doing independent research can independently arrive at the same results.</i></div><br />
But do I think science knows everything? Do I think Dr. Fauci is infallible and never makes mistakes? On Twitter, I posted my pro-mask, pro-vaccine stance, citing America’s Dr. Fauci. I received this reply: <i>Why would you listen to fauci lmao. Has lied over and over since the onset.</i><br /><br />
The anonymous poster says that Fauci has lied. On Monday, the science says X. On Tuesday, Dr. Fauci talks to the public about X. On Wednesday, new data comes in, and science says Y. On Thursday, Dr. Fauci talks to the public about Y. Did Fauci lie? Science changes as new information becomes available. That’s science, not lying.<br /><br />
People are desperate for answers. I get it. We are all in an unprecedented situation, even the experts and the authorities. But the situation changes and the messaging changes. This certainly isn't the time to give up and turn to Rogan or Fox News. That's akin to shooting yourself in the foot.<br /><br />
In the final analysis, I'm going to trust Joe Rogan as a comedic professional to tickle my funny bone. However, in all other health-related matters, I'm going to trust a medical professional.<br /><br />
<br />
<b>References</b><br /><br />
You can find my other rants about the pandemic on <a href="https://www.williamquincybelle.com/p/site-map.html#health" target="_blank">the site map under the section Health</a>.<br /><br />
<i>putting chemicals in the water that turn the friggin’ frogs gay</i><br />
* Every conspiracy theory starts with a shred of truth. Believe it or not, in the mid-1990s, the United States Air Force studied the possibility of creating an aphrodisiac-like chemical which would cause immediate homosexual behavior in enemy soldiers. (Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gay_bomb" target="_blank">Gay bomb</a>)<br /><br />
Wikipedia: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Joe_Rogan_Experience#Impact" target="_blank">The Joe Rogan Experience</a><br />
<i>The Joe Rogan Experience is a podcast hosted by American comedian and UFC color commentator Joe Rogan. It launched on December 24, 2009, by Rogan and comedian Brian Redban, who was its co-host and producer until 2013 when he was replaced by Jamie Vernon. By 2015, it was one of the world's most popular podcasts, regularly receiving millions of views per episode, also including a wide array of guests. Since December 2020, the podcast has been exclusively available on Spotify, with highlights uploaded onto YouTube. </i><br /><br />
McGill University: <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/covid-19-health-and-nutrition-pseudoscience/science-vs-joe-rogan" target="_blank">Science vs Joe Rogan</a><br />
The McGill Office for Science and Society (Separating sense from nonsense) analyses Rogan's popularity and the extent of his influence and concludes: <i>A colossal reach like Rogan’s requires maturity, especially in the middle of an infodemic. But in clinging to the teenage desire to hear things that’ll blow your mind, the podcaster with a golden megaphone broadcasts lies, fantasies, and bad medical advice.</i><br /><br />
2022-02-14<br />
<br />
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody>
<tr><td><a href="http://wqebelle.blogspot.com/p/site-map.html"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOGod8JUHpI/AAAAAAAAAmI/wTOnNBirErU/s1600/icon-SiteMap.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" />Site Map</a> - William Quincy Belle</td><td><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvmITXHV9I/AAAAAAAAAnw/wvFrcz7TPMs/s1600/icon-Blank.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: right; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" /></td><td><a href="http://twitter.com/wqbelle" target="_blank">Follow me on Twitter <img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_aKdpllywR0k/TOvjllt5gxI/AAAAAAAAAns/8GFdNjTyiKU/s1600/icon-Twitter.jpg" style="border: 0px none; clear: left; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 0em;" /></a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
William Quincy Bellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14337095766556949027noreply@blogger.com0