With the nation's unemployment rate over 8% the prospects for the President being re-elected aren't good going from history's record. If its more than 7.2% then don't let the door hit you on the way out Presidents have found the nation's sentiment.
Between Red states (named for Joe McCarthy's favorite color?) and Blue states (named for male chauvinism?) their are the crucial confused, undecided, uncertainty and willing to be convinced states the media refers to as 'swing' states (named for adultery?). If the President could spend enough federal resources and persuade enough Democratic employers to hire even if temporarily the rest of the year (well until November 8th) so that the unemployment rate in those swinging states might drop two point to 6.4 or so maybe he could get enough swingers to vote for his economic program to swing the election his way.
Alaska is not a 'swing state' politically speaking. My prospects for finding some homes or buildings to repaint here before next year's snow are not looking good even with the election year prospects for clever political spending.
3/14/12
Russia Plans Moon Base By 2030/Obama Administration Plans Increasing Federal Debt to $20 Trillion
The United States finally will have some competition in the race to develop the moon. Russia's Space agency has leaked a report detailing plans to send cosmonauts to a moon base there by the year 2030.
The United States administrations are heavily into the decadent sensuality phase of national and cool global uncreative economic policy these years and of course cannot understand how anything like a moon base could be paid for-especially with the need to run the public debt of the United States upward to 20 or 30 trillion dollars.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/russia-moonbase-mars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
The United States administrations are heavily into the decadent sensuality phase of national and cool global uncreative economic policy these years and of course cannot understand how anything like a moon base could be paid for-especially with the need to run the public debt of the United States upward to 20 or 30 trillion dollars.
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/russia-moonbase-mars/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher
Obamacare Cost Doubles/Alaska Gas for Japan-China?/More Politics
A Congressional Budget Office report on Obamacare found that it will actually cost nearly twice as much. Evidently bthere was some chicanery in the Administration's acounting whereby the program would not pay out benefits the first four years while it was still collecting tax revenues and hence the deception on the cost. For ten years when the policy is active it is far costlier than described.
image of friendly politician interviewed by public television in Juneau Alaska
There are additional interesting politics being business as usual-ed through this week. The highway bill to fund public highway construction projects with asphalt for fossil fuel carbon dioxide emmiting vehicles is up for renewal. In theory the billions and billions spent on that should for once be spent on developing newer forms of ground transportation while the roads should no longer be subsidized by the federal government.
Existing roads might be leased for toll road pay by users (to U.S. businesses) and prizes might be given for systems designs of complete new ground transport modalities.
In Alaska U.S. Senator Nick Begitch told a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature that it should prepare for "an Arctic boom" presumably of industrial development, slaughter of wildlife and rampant oil drilling. Does he know something as a Democratic Party insider?
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/begich-calls-alaska-legislature-prepare-arctic-boom
The U.S. Senate voted recently not to allow the invasion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by foreign or domestic drillers.
If the Alaska State legislature had voted to support construction of a gas pipeline from the slope to Cook Inlet the state would have been ready to export natural gas to China who likely would be a regular customer. The state is worried about declining oil revenues to fund the state government Soviet and privileged insiders working for derivative receivers of fossil fuel royalty revenues. Though it would be better to develop new non-fossil fuel methods of producing energy-even japan would buy natural gas from Alaska now after the tsunami if it were available. Those guys just are too trained by oil insiders to think outside the crude.
image of friendly politician interviewed by public television in Juneau Alaska
There are additional interesting politics being business as usual-ed through this week. The highway bill to fund public highway construction projects with asphalt for fossil fuel carbon dioxide emmiting vehicles is up for renewal. In theory the billions and billions spent on that should for once be spent on developing newer forms of ground transportation while the roads should no longer be subsidized by the federal government.
Existing roads might be leased for toll road pay by users (to U.S. businesses) and prizes might be given for systems designs of complete new ground transport modalities.
In Alaska U.S. Senator Nick Begitch told a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature that it should prepare for "an Arctic boom" presumably of industrial development, slaughter of wildlife and rampant oil drilling. Does he know something as a Democratic Party insider?
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/begich-calls-alaska-legislature-prepare-arctic-boom
The U.S. Senate voted recently not to allow the invasion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by foreign or domestic drillers.
If the Alaska State legislature had voted to support construction of a gas pipeline from the slope to Cook Inlet the state would have been ready to export natural gas to China who likely would be a regular customer. The state is worried about declining oil revenues to fund the state government Soviet and privileged insiders working for derivative receivers of fossil fuel royalty revenues. Though it would be better to develop new non-fossil fuel methods of producing energy-even japan would buy natural gas from Alaska now after the tsunami if it were available. Those guys just are too trained by oil insiders to think outside the crude.
3/12/12
Mitt Romney a Friend of Jets/Dolphins Owners-Nothing Said About Cardinals, Broncos or Peyton Manning
Mitt Romney has said that he is a friend of the owners of the Jets and Dolphins. The Dolphins may be interested in Peyton Manning however the Jets have signed Mark Sanchez again. This Tuesday not only will there be a Republican primary but that is also the day that Peyton Manning has said he will let the public know who he will play for next season.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57395859-503544/romney-im-friends-with-jets-dolphins-owners/
The Cardinals have already exceeded their salary cap (its 120 million this year) while the Broncos have 41 million dollars of headroom to bargain with. These high finance numbers are peanuts compared to some of the quantities flung around on Wall Street by the quants and by the federal government and its skyrocketing interest obligations. The Miami Dolphins have 16 million in salary cap headroom to try to lure Peyton Manning to play in the footsteps of Don Shula the former coach of the Baltimore Colts and the perfect-season Miami Dolphins.
Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum might be able to look beyond traditional sources of Vice Presidential candidates toward academia for some sort of potential Woodrow Wilson who could learn on the job as Vice President. Academia-maybe Stanford, might have a 5th generation somewhat Hispanic or African-American very skilled at foreign affairs. While Rush Limbaugh might not approve it is still a possibility. The NFL draft is not so far away either.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57395859-503544/romney-im-friends-with-jets-dolphins-owners/
The Cardinals have already exceeded their salary cap (its 120 million this year) while the Broncos have 41 million dollars of headroom to bargain with. These high finance numbers are peanuts compared to some of the quantities flung around on Wall Street by the quants and by the federal government and its skyrocketing interest obligations. The Miami Dolphins have 16 million in salary cap headroom to try to lure Peyton Manning to play in the footsteps of Don Shula the former coach of the Baltimore Colts and the perfect-season Miami Dolphins.
Mitt Romney or Rick Santorum might be able to look beyond traditional sources of Vice Presidential candidates toward academia for some sort of potential Woodrow Wilson who could learn on the job as Vice President. Academia-maybe Stanford, might have a 5th generation somewhat Hispanic or African-American very skilled at foreign affairs. While Rush Limbaugh might not approve it is still a possibility. The NFL draft is not so far away either.
Obama Administration Blocks Voter I.D. Law in Texas
The Obama administration has stepped in to allow undocumented voters in Texas elections. With 20 million illegal aliens in the nation requiring voter I.D. seems a reasonable security precaution. The administration disagrees.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/12/politics/texas-voter-law/index.html
Texas would require that voters show one of seven kinds of I.D. The federal government requires two forms of I.D. to be lawfully employed, yet evidently regards voting as of less importance.
Positive I.D. has the potential for slowing down voting fraud. A state I.D. card only costs about 3 dollars per year over its five year period of validity.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/12/politics/texas-voter-law/index.html
Texas would require that voters show one of seven kinds of I.D. The federal government requires two forms of I.D. to be lawfully employed, yet evidently regards voting as of less importance.
Positive I.D. has the potential for slowing down voting fraud. A state I.D. card only costs about 3 dollars per year over its five year period of validity.
U.S. Options for Afghanistan After the Massacre
The recent tragic massacre of many Afghan civilians by an American Army Staff Sergeant on his 4th combat tour in several years provides an opportunity for the United States to review its options in disposing of the problem nation hell-bent on terrorism at home and abroad.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Officials-Worry-Afghan-Killings-Will-Fuel-Anti-American-Sentiment-142305395.html
We may commiserate with the terror of war-the Afghans experienced slaughtered at three in the morning. Certainly some Americans experienced that in 2001 when Taliban supported terror forces attacked the U.S.A. It is a consequence of Afghanistan’s former political leadership and present failure to adjust to social reality. In protracted conflict war crimes-often crimes of passion or madness, occur. The better way to avoid that sort of thing is to avoid promoting conflict to start with. In the future Afghanistan may experience more of that rather than none. They are not a sovereign power, rather they are an occupied foe that the United States must dispose of in as compassionate and merciful a way as is consistent with Christian principles of charity, mercy and goodness.
The United States in the 1980s built up the Afghan resistance force with arms and advising support in their war against the Soviets then abandoned the country after the Soviets left. Of course in the vacuum of power chaos and civil war developed and the Taliban that had formed during the exile in Pakistan took over with the help of their Saudi and foreign support that remained such as Osama Bin Ladin. The United States should have got involved then as well.
By the time of the World Trade Center attack the Afghanistan civil war was not yet over. The Northern Alliance held a valley in the extreme Northeast of the country. The C.I.A. with Gary Berntsen formed an alliance with those people and began rolling up the Taliban with sometimes with the use of BLU-72 very large conventional bombs (except for the dud that might have killed Osama Bin Ladin at Torah Bora that let him escape to Pakistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Berntsen
Reasonably one might expect a new civil war to resume in Afghanistan after the U.S.A. exits in 2014. This time the U.S.A. should create defensible enclaves in a federalized Afghanistan that would allow the Northern alliance to survive in protracted civil war against the Taliban should the Taliban take over much of the rest of that nation.
The fact that several Afghanistan 'partners' have called for the trial of the Staff Sergeant in Afghan courts demonstrates the incomprehension of the Afghan people of their lack of any right to try members of the occupation force in their nation. The U.S.A. is in Afghanistan under the articles of war upon a foe and would not yield any legal jurisdiction to the occupied power. With such ignorant expectations in Afghanistan it is easy to anticipate that after the U.S. forces leave the country will swiftly resume civil war and if then Taliban emerges to win and then supports new terrorist activities a second U.S. intervention under new management may return to experiment with anti-terrorist interdiction.
One might like the U.S.A. to better understand the way that moral and social structures form in relation to economic structure. That failure is a general social failure common in the era. It is worth recollecting that social sciences developed later than hard sciences and are an ongoing project.
Afghanistan is not an unimportant player in the historical evolution of Eurasia. It is close enough to China's Xinjiang province that is itself at the top of an upward sloping funnel from the broad Chinese lowlands. Numerous ethnic minorities live at the top of the world finding a harsh living amidst deserts and great mountain ranges and passes. It is not impossible that Chinese military forces may travel that way some day to meet with destiny at the battle of Armageddon. Well, even so, for the present future terrorism, resistance to the Chinese authority, ethnic aspirations for independence and Moslem religious conflicts with godless atheists may form along with controversies about developing mining interests are possibilities that accentuate the perennial problems of political instability in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan-a poor nation that aspires to become a Taliban led exporter of terrorists to points all over the globe, has a challenging historical evolution cycle ahead of it. Certainly Americans are unwilling to invest more cash into developing that nation toward peaceful prosperity. It is of course unreasonable to expect Afghanistan to become like the United States-they can't afford it and the United States emits half of the greenhouse gases from cars and is the source of much of the perverse aspects of modern 'liberalism'.
The U.S. administration should quit being a pusillanimous power and recognize the facts of life in Afghanistan as if they really are in control of their own destiny their generally. They cannot rely on Kofi Annan to arrive and organize the resistance, as he seems to be trying to do in Syria, into one fighting force unified in order to negotiate with the government. Mohammed Karzai may be expected to become a dictatorial warlord after the United States exits who will become locked in battle with the Taliban while the Northern Alliance gradually shifts back to more defensible grounds outside of Sunni power and distrust.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/US-Officials-Worry-Afghan-Killings-Will-Fuel-Anti-American-Sentiment-142305395.html
We may commiserate with the terror of war-the Afghans experienced slaughtered at three in the morning. Certainly some Americans experienced that in 2001 when Taliban supported terror forces attacked the U.S.A. It is a consequence of Afghanistan’s former political leadership and present failure to adjust to social reality. In protracted conflict war crimes-often crimes of passion or madness, occur. The better way to avoid that sort of thing is to avoid promoting conflict to start with. In the future Afghanistan may experience more of that rather than none. They are not a sovereign power, rather they are an occupied foe that the United States must dispose of in as compassionate and merciful a way as is consistent with Christian principles of charity, mercy and goodness.
The United States in the 1980s built up the Afghan resistance force with arms and advising support in their war against the Soviets then abandoned the country after the Soviets left. Of course in the vacuum of power chaos and civil war developed and the Taliban that had formed during the exile in Pakistan took over with the help of their Saudi and foreign support that remained such as Osama Bin Ladin. The United States should have got involved then as well.
By the time of the World Trade Center attack the Afghanistan civil war was not yet over. The Northern Alliance held a valley in the extreme Northeast of the country. The C.I.A. with Gary Berntsen formed an alliance with those people and began rolling up the Taliban with sometimes with the use of BLU-72 very large conventional bombs (except for the dud that might have killed Osama Bin Ladin at Torah Bora that let him escape to Pakistan.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Berntsen
Reasonably one might expect a new civil war to resume in Afghanistan after the U.S.A. exits in 2014. This time the U.S.A. should create defensible enclaves in a federalized Afghanistan that would allow the Northern alliance to survive in protracted civil war against the Taliban should the Taliban take over much of the rest of that nation.
The fact that several Afghanistan 'partners' have called for the trial of the Staff Sergeant in Afghan courts demonstrates the incomprehension of the Afghan people of their lack of any right to try members of the occupation force in their nation. The U.S.A. is in Afghanistan under the articles of war upon a foe and would not yield any legal jurisdiction to the occupied power. With such ignorant expectations in Afghanistan it is easy to anticipate that after the U.S. forces leave the country will swiftly resume civil war and if then Taliban emerges to win and then supports new terrorist activities a second U.S. intervention under new management may return to experiment with anti-terrorist interdiction.
One might like the U.S.A. to better understand the way that moral and social structures form in relation to economic structure. That failure is a general social failure common in the era. It is worth recollecting that social sciences developed later than hard sciences and are an ongoing project.
Afghanistan is not an unimportant player in the historical evolution of Eurasia. It is close enough to China's Xinjiang province that is itself at the top of an upward sloping funnel from the broad Chinese lowlands. Numerous ethnic minorities live at the top of the world finding a harsh living amidst deserts and great mountain ranges and passes. It is not impossible that Chinese military forces may travel that way some day to meet with destiny at the battle of Armageddon. Well, even so, for the present future terrorism, resistance to the Chinese authority, ethnic aspirations for independence and Moslem religious conflicts with godless atheists may form along with controversies about developing mining interests are possibilities that accentuate the perennial problems of political instability in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan-a poor nation that aspires to become a Taliban led exporter of terrorists to points all over the globe, has a challenging historical evolution cycle ahead of it. Certainly Americans are unwilling to invest more cash into developing that nation toward peaceful prosperity. It is of course unreasonable to expect Afghanistan to become like the United States-they can't afford it and the United States emits half of the greenhouse gases from cars and is the source of much of the perverse aspects of modern 'liberalism'.
The U.S. administration should quit being a pusillanimous power and recognize the facts of life in Afghanistan as if they really are in control of their own destiny their generally. They cannot rely on Kofi Annan to arrive and organize the resistance, as he seems to be trying to do in Syria, into one fighting force unified in order to negotiate with the government. Mohammed Karzai may be expected to become a dictatorial warlord after the United States exits who will become locked in battle with the Taliban while the Northern Alliance gradually shifts back to more defensible grounds outside of Sunni power and distrust.
One Formula for Bringing the Heat Death of Human Life on Earth
Of all of the chemical formulas that have been created to destroy human life, the most commonly used by that of burning ethane in fossil fuel burning automobiles to produce carbon dioxide and water.
CH3CH2OH + 3O2 ---> 2CO2 + 3H2O
Two average cars emit about 9 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air annually. Global warming deniers must do so in order to stick their heads in the sand and rely on gasoline and automobiles for economic power.
Vested interests are unwilling to adapt to the increasing prospects for the heat death of a world climate suitable for human life on Earth.
CH3CH2OH + 3O2 ---> 2CO2 + 3H2O
Two average cars emit about 9 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air annually. Global warming deniers must do so in order to stick their heads in the sand and rely on gasoline and automobiles for economic power.
Vested interests are unwilling to adapt to the increasing prospects for the heat death of a world climate suitable for human life on Earth.
About the Philosophy of American Meatheads
The post-modern philosophy of atheist meatheads for-themselves is a product of post-Darwinist educational developments and John Deweyianism plus a little B.F. Skinner behavorialism thrown in to the mix that renders virtually any though fundamentally meaningless and phenomenal.
When meaning is reduced to 'just the transmission of the genes' (that requires heterosexual 'marriage' of sperm and egg) and life experience is an abstract drive of deterministic biological requisites the mind and its contents are largely considered superfluous. Meathead theorists of politics believe that liberalism means the complete waveform collapse of rationalism into meaninglessness.
Liberalism of course did not advance by meathead philosophers seeking after nothingness but control by behavioral scientist-politicians. The Prophet Isaiah wrote of liberals in chapter 32 of Isaiah and the founders of numerous societies have sought after liberty. Their work and thought was actualized in the social dialectical realm that one might term 'the real world' even if it is a contingent construction of numerous points of view of personal experience.
The metaphysics of reality for-itself are rather complex. People have thought about it for several millennia, From Zhu Xi in 12th century China to Parmenides, Heraclitus and on to the 18h and 19th century German idealists the investigation of mind and its place in nature was subject to intense intro and extrospective thought. And yes, I cannot reasonably fail to mention Rene Descartes.
The modern foundation of analytic philosophy might be traced to Immanuel Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason and condensed version Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics that was summarized, synthesized and improved later by Arthur Schopenhauer in his 'Fourfold Roots of Reason'. That work is something like a great first half of a movie that one realizes is followed by a second half that is anti-climactic.
Bertrand Russell believed that atheists could live with strong moral principles even with the absence of faith in God. Russell seems something of an idealist innocent in retrospective comparison to post-modern American meatheads. The post-modern meat-heads have collapsed the idea of the possible value of moral principles too in their general stampede toward meaninglessness. What value might any natural laws or social morality present in language or logic flowing from human thought that could possess intrinsic extensional value?
This one natural regards Frederic Nietzsche-a kind of hero of the meathead movement, and his magnum opus 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'. If I had a tablet computer it would be convenient to abstract his book in a sketch with some logic symbolic notations added. A man that believes in the eternal recurrence of the Universe is recursively aware of the recurrence. Viewing a city from a lofty hill he disdains the moral structure of the city-civilization as meaningless. If one can view any society from a scientific detachment it is simple enough to regard the morality as phenomenal. Within the society however the moral order is simple a description of what people actual find acceptable in their social interaction, and they must have some interactive protocols by default.
Nietzsche believed that with the mystical insight of the eternal recurrence morality was superfluous and that the superior man would be completely without morality. Therein one finds the attraction by the post-modern meatheads in the common realm of the meaninglessness of morality.
Nazi Germany is sometimes held to have been a consequence of Aryan racial supremacy, yet in the true Neitzschian hierarchy of the amoral superman the Aryan herd appeal was simple a method to gain popular support by the truly amoral leadership running along in what amounts to a de facto ethic of personal egoism. Not even the Neitzschian eternally recurrent superman could appeal to popular support by saying that "I am far better than you cattle as a completely immoral individual, and I deserve your political support so I can ruthlessly exploit you to fulfill my will to power'.
Analytic philosophy developing from Kant through philosophers of logic and language did carefully research the relationships between words and objects and essentially anything that might be said about anything. They did not make words meaningless or purely phenomenal even if they did remove both empiricism and Platonic realism as inevitable parameters of lexicons and word ontology. Self-standing inter-referent lexical sets with meanings deriving from their own parameters, definitions and relations to internal and external referents were elaborated at the high point of 20th century linguistic philosophy by W.V.O. Quine.
One does not reach a meathead dead end with analytic and linguistic philosophy, and even metaphysical speculations are a kind of implicit aspect of cosmological thought today as one contrasts super-string theory, quantum mechanics, and the holographic principle. One might regard the many possible criteria of a transcendent God as the operator of monism yielding an occasional or perhaps infinite number of universes, or consider the phenomenal universe as a solid state physics phenomena generated epistemologically within a purely idealist context in modern terms upgraded from the Three Dialogues of Bishop Berkley.
When meaning is reduced to 'just the transmission of the genes' (that requires heterosexual 'marriage' of sperm and egg) and life experience is an abstract drive of deterministic biological requisites the mind and its contents are largely considered superfluous. Meathead theorists of politics believe that liberalism means the complete waveform collapse of rationalism into meaninglessness.
Liberalism of course did not advance by meathead philosophers seeking after nothingness but control by behavioral scientist-politicians. The Prophet Isaiah wrote of liberals in chapter 32 of Isaiah and the founders of numerous societies have sought after liberty. Their work and thought was actualized in the social dialectical realm that one might term 'the real world' even if it is a contingent construction of numerous points of view of personal experience.
The metaphysics of reality for-itself are rather complex. People have thought about it for several millennia, From Zhu Xi in 12th century China to Parmenides, Heraclitus and on to the 18h and 19th century German idealists the investigation of mind and its place in nature was subject to intense intro and extrospective thought. And yes, I cannot reasonably fail to mention Rene Descartes.
The modern foundation of analytic philosophy might be traced to Immanuel Kant and his Critique of Pure Reason and condensed version Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics that was summarized, synthesized and improved later by Arthur Schopenhauer in his 'Fourfold Roots of Reason'. That work is something like a great first half of a movie that one realizes is followed by a second half that is anti-climactic.
Bertrand Russell believed that atheists could live with strong moral principles even with the absence of faith in God. Russell seems something of an idealist innocent in retrospective comparison to post-modern American meatheads. The post-modern meat-heads have collapsed the idea of the possible value of moral principles too in their general stampede toward meaninglessness. What value might any natural laws or social morality present in language or logic flowing from human thought that could possess intrinsic extensional value?
This one natural regards Frederic Nietzsche-a kind of hero of the meathead movement, and his magnum opus 'Thus Spake Zarathustra'. If I had a tablet computer it would be convenient to abstract his book in a sketch with some logic symbolic notations added. A man that believes in the eternal recurrence of the Universe is recursively aware of the recurrence. Viewing a city from a lofty hill he disdains the moral structure of the city-civilization as meaningless. If one can view any society from a scientific detachment it is simple enough to regard the morality as phenomenal. Within the society however the moral order is simple a description of what people actual find acceptable in their social interaction, and they must have some interactive protocols by default.
Nietzsche believed that with the mystical insight of the eternal recurrence morality was superfluous and that the superior man would be completely without morality. Therein one finds the attraction by the post-modern meatheads in the common realm of the meaninglessness of morality.
Nazi Germany is sometimes held to have been a consequence of Aryan racial supremacy, yet in the true Neitzschian hierarchy of the amoral superman the Aryan herd appeal was simple a method to gain popular support by the truly amoral leadership running along in what amounts to a de facto ethic of personal egoism. Not even the Neitzschian eternally recurrent superman could appeal to popular support by saying that "I am far better than you cattle as a completely immoral individual, and I deserve your political support so I can ruthlessly exploit you to fulfill my will to power'.
Analytic philosophy developing from Kant through philosophers of logic and language did carefully research the relationships between words and objects and essentially anything that might be said about anything. They did not make words meaningless or purely phenomenal even if they did remove both empiricism and Platonic realism as inevitable parameters of lexicons and word ontology. Self-standing inter-referent lexical sets with meanings deriving from their own parameters, definitions and relations to internal and external referents were elaborated at the high point of 20th century linguistic philosophy by W.V.O. Quine.
One does not reach a meathead dead end with analytic and linguistic philosophy, and even metaphysical speculations are a kind of implicit aspect of cosmological thought today as one contrasts super-string theory, quantum mechanics, and the holographic principle. One might regard the many possible criteria of a transcendent God as the operator of monism yielding an occasional or perhaps infinite number of universes, or consider the phenomenal universe as a solid state physics phenomena generated epistemologically within a purely idealist context in modern terms upgraded from the Three Dialogues of Bishop Berkley.
Isaiah's Use of the Word 'Liberal'
The King James version was translated from the Greek Septuagint about 400 years ago, and the Septuagint was translated from Hebrew by 132 B.C. Isaiah was a prophet of the 8th century, yet some additional writing in the book was probably added as late as the 6th century.
The English translators of the Greek used the word 'liberal' intentionally. It best represented the word in Greek translated by Jewish writers of the Septuagint from their own language.
The word is used in Chapter 32, and I will quote verses 1 through 8 as well as a passage from the New Testament book John 8: 36-45 in order to show the consistency between what Isaiah wrote and what Jesus said close to a millenium later.
Isaiah 32
"1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand."
John 8:32-38
"36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
37I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
38I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
45And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not."
The English translators of the Greek used the word 'liberal' intentionally. It best represented the word in Greek translated by Jewish writers of the Septuagint from their own language.
The word is used in Chapter 32, and I will quote verses 1 through 8 as well as a passage from the New Testament book John 8: 36-45 in order to show the consistency between what Isaiah wrote and what Jesus said close to a millenium later.
Isaiah 32
"1Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
2And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
3And the eyes of them that see shall not be dim, and the ears of them that hear shall hearken.
4The heart also of the rash shall understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers shall be ready to speak plainly.
5The vile person shall be no more called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful.
6For the vile person will speak villany, and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LORD, to make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.
7The instruments also of the churl are evil: he deviseth wicked devices to destroy the poor with lying words, even when the needy speaketh right.
8But the liberal deviseth liberal things; and by liberal things shall he stand."
John 8:32-38
"36If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
37I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you.
38I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.
39They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham.
40But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham.
41Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.
42Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.
43Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.
44Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
45And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not."
3/10/12
Faith That Rush Limbaugh's Language Evolution Will Become More Conservative
I saw a rather funny political cartoon in a newspaper that had President Obama pushing a wheel barrow of contraceptives up to Ms. Fluke from one side, and on the other stood Rush Limbaugh calling her a slut for taking them. Ms.Fluke stood in the middle looking confused.
Limbaugh often accurately summarizes the broadcast media positions on the left-the recent interpretations of the February employment statistics are a good example with Reuters, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post painting it quite differently than the Gallup Poll the day before looking at non-seasonally adjusted numbers of the unemployed actually rising to 9.1% while the administration just says it stayed the same at 8.3% out of work.
Where Rush Limbaugh does the Republican Party substantial harm is in his environmental opinions that some therefore associate with all Republicans as a pervasive opinion.
Limbaugh did use inappropriate language though, and some conservatives would probably like to roll back language use to something before Lenny Bruce hit the stage and commercial television changed beyond the standards of 'I Love Lucy'.
Limbaugh often accurately summarizes the broadcast media positions on the left-the recent interpretations of the February employment statistics are a good example with Reuters, CNN, MSNBC, and the Washington Post painting it quite differently than the Gallup Poll the day before looking at non-seasonally adjusted numbers of the unemployed actually rising to 9.1% while the administration just says it stayed the same at 8.3% out of work.
Where Rush Limbaugh does the Republican Party substantial harm is in his environmental opinions that some therefore associate with all Republicans as a pervasive opinion.
Limbaugh did use inappropriate language though, and some conservatives would probably like to roll back language use to something before Lenny Bruce hit the stage and commercial television changed beyond the standards of 'I Love Lucy'.
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