Archive for August 20, 2019

About Blogging and Social Media

Posted: August 20, 2019 by julietteochieng in Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali

by baldilocks

I prefer blogging to Social Media because, with blogging, ideas can be more easily expanded upon and have its foundations described. A downside, however, is that those who need to read these types of pieces won’t do so.

Something else about Social Media: if you put up a status, on, say, Facebook, it is always prone to the commenter who hasn’t read your previous statuses — or your blog — and who refuses to do so. He has made up his mind about whatever it is you are saying and about who you are.

And then there are your regular friends, those who regularly comment on your statuses and vice versa. Most of them are great—even the liberals. But, sometimes, you find out that your friends are harboring all manner of misconceptions about things you thought you had in common.

Example: when you find out that a friend who calls herself a conservative, thinks that when someone posts an opposing opinion on her page, that she is being forced into another opinion. And when you try to explain why this is not so, you get the post-modern version of how to define a word/concept.

This is a good, smart lady and I like her. But her thinking has been so post-modernly molded, that she thinks that anything which makes her intellectually uncomfortable is “force” and cannot see the lack of logic in it.

Call it the Safe Space mindset, where a person is free from the violence of your horrible opinions.

I have only blocked two people from my Facebook page; both were out-and-out straight-jacket lunatics. I’ve never blocked anyone on Twitter, which is, in my opinion, primarily a place to share links, brawl and to toy with trolls. But, occasionally, I’ll put something substantial there.

At my old blog, I blocked a few trolls after many warnings and after tiring of changing their comments to something more entertaining.

On Facebook, I’ve trying to keep my page from being an echo chamber. It surprises many people when I argue with them; they assume I’m angry or that they are about to be blocked. One the contrary, argument is what keeps your thinking from becoming sluggish, from gazing at your navel for too long.

Additionally, if I argue with someone, it means that I respect their intellect.

I’d like to see more people become open to at least reading other points of view and having their minds changed. Yes, I know it won’t be many.

Have I had my mind changed recently? You bet I have. I thought that conservatives were better critical thinkers than liberals. It turns out that we are just as prone to error as liberals are. The culprits: pride and the refusal to be humbled by God.

You cannot improve your thinking process without at least reading what your ideological opponent says; exercise for your brain.
.
And this analogy can be taken further: everyday events continually show just who has been going to the intellectual gym — the library is one example — and who has been sitting on their duffs.

Excuse me while I go exercise.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

About Blogging and Social Media

Posted: August 20, 2019 by julietteochieng in blogger for hire, blogs
Tags: , , , ,

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali

by baldilocks

I prefer blogging to Social Media because, with blogging, ideas can be more easily expanded upon and have its foundations described. A downside, however, is that those who need to read these types of pieces won’t do so.

Something else about Social Media: if you put up a status, on, say, Facebook, it is always prone to the commenter who hasn’t read your previous statuses — or your blog — and who refuses to do so. He has made up his mind about whatever it is you are saying and about who you are.

And then there are your regular friends, those who regularly comment on your statuses and vice versa. Most of them are great—even the liberals. But, sometimes, you find out that your friends are harboring all manner of misconceptions about things you thought you had in common.

Example: when you find out that a friend who calls herself a conservative, thinks that when someone posts an opposing opinion on her page, that she is being forced into another opinion. And when you try to explain why this is not so, you get the post-modern version of how to define a word/concept.

This is a good, smart lady and I like her. But her thinking has been so post-modernly molded, that she thinks that anything which makes her intellectually uncomfortable is “force” and cannot see the lack of logic in it.

Call it the Safe Space mindset, where a person is free from the violence of your horrible opinions.

I have only blocked two people from my Facebook page; both were out-and-out straight-jacket lunatics. I’ve never blocked anyone on Twitter, which is, in my opinion, primarily a place to share links, brawl and to toy with trolls. But, occasionally, I’ll put something substantial there.

At my old blog, I blocked a few trolls after many warnings and after tiring of changing their comments to something more entertaining.

On Facebook, I’ve trying to keep my page from being an echo chamber. It surprises many people when I argue with them; they assume I’m angry or that they are about to be blocked. One the contrary, argument is what keeps your thinking from becoming sluggish, from gazing at your navel for too long.

Additionally, if I argue with someone, it means that I respect their intellect.

I’d like to see more people become open to at least reading other points of view and having their minds changed. Yes, I know it won’t be many.

Have I had my mind changed recently? You bet I have. I thought that conservatives were better critical thinkers than liberals. It turns out that we are just as prone to error as liberals are. The culprits: pride and the refusal to be humbled by God.

You cannot improve your thinking process without at least reading what your ideological opponent says; exercise for your brain.
.
And this analogy can be taken further: everyday events continually show just who has been going to the intellectual gym — the library is one example — and who has been sitting on their duffs.

Excuse me while I go exercise.

Juliette Akinyi Ochieng has been blogging since 2003 as baldilocks. Her older blog is here.  She published her first novel, Tale of the Tigers: Love is Not a Game in 2012.

Follow Juliette on Facebook, Twitter, MeWe, Patreon and Social Quodverum.

Hit Da Tech Guy Blog’s Tip Jar !

Or hit Juliette’s!

Trump, Election 2020 and The Optimism of a Latin Mass.

Posted: August 20, 2019 by datechguy in catholic, Church doctrine, culture, elections, media, News/opinion, politics

A few days ago I attended the 1st Mass of Canon Edward Turner of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest who was ordained in Rome on July 4th as a Catholic priest.

The Mass was a solemn high mass of the 1962 rite held at St John the Guardian of our lady Parish at St. John the Evangelist Church in Clinton Ma.  I had been invited by his mother who I know from Eucharist Adoration at my parish and attended with my wife.  It’s one of the most visually incredible churches in the area and was the perfect setting for the type of mass we were attending for the 1st time.

It was a very long mass, done entirely in Latin chant with a full Gregorian choir singing responses.  Only the homily and some remarks by Bishop McManus near the end were in English and when the two hours plus of the mass were complete it took another full hour for all who wished to gain the plenary indulgence granted by decree from Rome to receive the personal blessing of Canon Turner at the alter rail.

Now given the title of this post you might ask:  DaTechGuy, what does a very long Latin mass have to do with Election 2020, Donald Trump or even optimism?  Well the answer comes from something my wife said to me while there.

The church was not only packed but it was packed with large families this post and I don’t mean cousins etc, I mean moms and dads with five six and seven young kids.  The people sitting in front of us had seven and my wife noted not only the number of such kids but her amazement at how well behaved they all were during a two hour service in a language that I presume most of them don’t know well.

Then I remembered the story about the Hippie dippy parish in Portland Oregon that’s so upset that their new black pastor is God forbid is doing the sacrifice of the mass (the regular mass not the Latin mass btw) as it is rather than as they want it.  What I most remembered about the story was thumbnail of the protesters in this video

Not a kid or even a young person in sight! That’s the image of the dying liberal orders not only in the church but everywhere. How many prominent liberals can you think of with even TWO kids?

Now you might see a lot of big liberal in the news and talked about on social media but they never have a large brood with them do they?

In contrast how many of you are hearing about this mass and the people at it for the 1st time from me?

Now think of election 2020 and President Donald Trump, think of the states he won, think of the successes he is having, think of the extra money in your pocket, look at all the “help wanted” signs everywhere and ponder how hard the MSM tried to suppress that news and their current attempts to create a recession out of the whole cloth.

Don’t you think people working now who weren’t working before will notice?

Or consider all those who reluctantly voted for Trump, how many of those people seeing what he did on Life, on the courts on taxes can’t wait to vote for him the 2nd time around.

Also consider all those the left is trying to intimidate. What do you think will happen once they are in a voting booth with nobody to see them?

And don’t forget the left can’t just hold what they have, they have to expand what they got last time, sure they’ll be stealing more votes since they know they need them but Trump isn’t an establishment republican, he’s a street fighter and he’ll be ready for it.

And you expect me to be worried?

OK in fairness once Trump is out of office I expect to see some hard times, but hard times are not the end times. Think of the last century. We had the 1st world war, world war 2, the cold war, epidemics that killed tens of thousands and yet Evangelicals are worried about the end times based on the last few years, Seriously?

Are there reasons to be worried about the future, of course. The Devil and the left always fight hardest when they’re in trouble and I’d not be surprised to see some horrible violent things come out of the left post Trump or even during a Trump 2nd term.

But I remember that mass and know one thing, in 20 years all those kids at that Mass and many like them will have grown up and perhaps started to have kids of their own vastly outnumbering their counterparts on the left while a lot of those liberal baby boomers will not.

Perhaps i’ll still be here to see it perhaps not but to our evangelical friends who are so worried about the future I would remind them that, as Mark Steyn says the future belongs to those who show up.

That’s why I’m certain that future will be glorious.

If You’re surprised by this then you’ve not been paying attention.

Posted: August 20, 2019 by datechguy in opinion/news, politics, Uncategorized
Tags: , , , ,

If you are surprised by this story:

Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) have remained silent after the Palestinian Authority banned LGBT activity in the West Bank. These members of “The Squad” have supported legislation praising the Boycott-Divestment-Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel and voted against legislation condemning it. PJ Media reached out to them for comment on the move, and they have remained silent.

Early Monday morning, The Jerusalem Post reported that the PA and Palestine Police had outlawed LGBT activity in the West Bank and threatened to arrest members of the LGBT group Al-Qaws for Sexual & Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society. Al-Qaws was planning a gathering for members in Nablus at the end of the month. The group only has offices in Israel — in East Jerusalem and in Haifa.

Luay Zreikat, a spokesman for Palestine Police, said LGBT activities are “harmful to the higher values and ideals of Palestinian society.” He added that Al-Qaws’s activities are completely “unrelated to religions and Palestinian traditions and customs, especially in the city of Nablus.”

Then it’s obvious that you never read this post:

Regardless of what you see on TV news and talk shows the reality is over the next 20 years the percentage of LGBT voters in the US Population will likely remain static.

During that same time period the number of Muslim Americans, both by immigration and birth is going to increase dramatically.

Right now the left has the Gays and the Transgenders and the Hollywood elites & media in which they are over represented and they figure that’s the best things to have, but in America Islam is a thing of the future.  In 20 years the children of Muslims now being raised on the tenets of Sharia law in America will be old enough to vote and Democrats going to make sure they get those votes when the time come, not now but 10-20 years from now.

And if that means more LGBT Americans have to live in fear during those two decades, well it’s small price to pay for power.

It’s not personal , it’s simply a ghastly math driven business.

While quite a few Catholic pols have no problem throwing their faith aside knowing that it will not her their electoral prospects Omar and Talib are smart enough to know that Islam isn’t so forgiving on that subject.  They will keep their mouths shut because to do otherwise will hurt their chances for re-election and furthermore the Democrats will not push them to do otherwise because they don’t want to give the GOP any openings that could threaten their current House majority.

I predict that within my lifetime with the Democrat party in desperate need of the unassimilated Muslim vote to win elections the party will take the LGBTQ movement and toss it aside like so much trash and the little Robespierre’s of said movement that have spent the last two decades targeting Christians for banishment from society will be shocked and surprised when they find themselves treated in a like or worse way by the party that once used them.

Alas as any Marxist can tell you, nothing is more disposable than a useful idiot whose usefulness has ended.