Blogpost # M. 354 OPEN LETTER TO REDUCTIONISTS

[INTRODUCTION: Salvatore (“Sal”) Hepatica, a 40-year-old bachelor and computer engineer, peered at the mirror in his two-room apartment and smiled. It was the day before Christmas, and Sal had volunteered to play Santa Claus at his nephew’s school. He had spent hours putting on the rented bright red Santa costume, hat, robe, large white beard, and black boots. He chortled at the new appearance of his face; rouged, bearded, overtopped with the stereotopic Santa Bonnet. He had also been required to stuff two pillows into the jacket to mimic Santa’s iconic corpulence. He laughed out loud as he barely recognized himself.

It was early, so Sal decided to pay a surprise visit to his great-aunt Elvira, Epicac, who lived on the route to the holiday event, snickering to himself at the anticipated shock and surprise of the singular appearance of “Santa Claus.” He was nonplussed, however, when he arrived at his aunt’s door, and she immediately said, “Hi, Sal.”

There is merit and fairness in recognizing others for their personal singularity, as contrasted with a possible reductionist perception as stereotypical members of a subjectively perceived categorial group., It is neither empirically accurate nor fair to reductively attribute populist stereotypical characteristics to lawyers, doctors, accountants, and other functionaries, on the facile assumption that they evince certain stereotypical characteristics. John Smith, Esq., is not systemically or intrinsically a lawyer; he is an individual named John Smith, who practices the profession of law.

Indeed, it is unjust reductionist assumptions about other members of human society that have historically catalyzed the virulent and shameful toxicity of racial and ethnic prejudice. Reductionist ideologies of ubiquitous populations of humanity have eternally resulted in misery, tragedy, and shame, Rev.. Martin Luther King sagely advised, “looking to man’s content of character, rather than the color of his skin.” It is an empirical verity that reductive ignorance fuels prejudice of every toxic category.

It is inarguable that the term “immigrant” simply refers to a person from another country intending to reside in our Nation. It does not connote nor encapsulate any conceivable characteristic, positive or negative. Nevertheless, the American Nation has unfortunately been witness to ubiquitous bias regarding Native American, Black, Hispanic, Jewish, and most notably, Mexican and Central American immigrants.

We presume that we have adequately written of our President, the Chief Executive of a Nation, principally populated by immigrants and their progeny, whose repeated public defamation of the entire class of Hispanic immigrants, whom he has never met, is pernicious xenophobia, inhumanely exacerbated by his appointment of a Gestapo-style masked army to arrest, imprison, and banish to foreign torture prisons, immigrants from Mexico and Central America (inclusive of long-term residential families) without a modicum of due process.

Xenophobia, as is the case with other phobias such as claustrophobia, agrophobia, and acrophobia, is appropriately referable to psychiatric attention and should be so pursued, in the interest of the salubrious health of the body politic.

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Blogpost # M. 353 CIRQUE DE POTOMAC

Our thematic circus has come to Foggy Bottom. All are now welcome to enjoy the ubiquitous talent and amusements on accessible display.

The prem in ent performance, taking place under the Big Top, is the Senate Inquiry relative to the policies of Joseph Kennedy, Jr., the unconventional Trump-appointed Secretary of Health and Welfare.

The spectators seated in the big top were witnesses to an acrimonious Senate hearing on the performance record of JFK, Jr., as National Health Secretary, which warrants the analogous rapt attention and excitement of a tourist at a Mexican bullfight. The event saw a bipartisan excoriation of the outre Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy. Senators from both parties remonstrated angrily with the stone-faced, gravely toned, aggressive Trump appointee, regarding his errant and dangerous policy of banning vaccinations and dogmatic firing of CDC professionals, who favor vaccination. Kennedy appeared defensively arrogant and argumentative in his vain attempt to justify his outre, dogmatic rejection of the subject’s consistently effective history of vaccination as a successful prophylaxis against disease. Kennedy appeared nonplussed about the empirical increase in measles (previously considered to have been eliminated) and other diseases, plainly inconsistent with his atavistic policy relative to vaccination.

The circus patron no doubt will contextually recall the million Americans who died unnecessarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the solicitous assistance of President Donald J, Trump, who recommended the ingestion of laundry detergent and the clinical use of a popular horse-wormer as a panacea.

Kennedy, the Nation’s Health Secretary, was unable to testify to the number of Americans killed by COVID-19; yet another revelation of his abject ignorance as to the relevant information. The bipartisan panel critically questioned the Secretary about the resignations and dogmatic firings of highly qualified, experienced officials of the CDC due to their support of vaccination policies and the danger of the Secretary’s outrageous and atavistic policies. We were indeed impressed with the candid expressions of irate criticism from the Senators, both Republican and Democrat.

At another of the numerous circus exhibitions, one can observe a complete list of the Trump tariffs, ignorantly (and illegally) imposed by the President with the sophomoric intention to lower prices, but which rationally and predictably raise the cost to sellers of imported goods and ultimately consumer prices.

Another entertaining exhibition is dedicated to honoring the many exotic, masked hoodlums hired by the Presidential Administration, tasked with the responsibility of slandering and eliminating peaceful Hispanic Americans.

In the course of our struggle to arrive at a conceivably rational explanation for Trump’s bizarre appointment of the incapable and argumentative Secretary of Health, we were reminded of his many other untenable appointments, all of which are grotesquely inappropriate and pragmatically dangerous; as described in some detail in earlier writings.

After stopping at the circus midway for a soft drink and cotton candy, one may elect to visit the circus freak show, featuring a Secretary of Homeland Security who has proven her sanity and competence by shooting her young puppy in the face and tossing him into a pit, an alcoholic Secretary of the Armed Forces whose body tattoos evince his ardent support of the Nation’s perverse White, Christian Militias, a security chief who is an intimate friends with the Nation’s sworn enemies, an Attorney General who despite articulated assurances of the absence of enemies list,” and her office dedicated to the reprentation of the Nation, nevertheless, utilizes her Department of Justice to compliantly prosecute political opponents of the President.

We anxiously await the striking of the contextual circus tent and the appropriate removal of the MAGA circus from the Potomac premises.

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Blogpost # M.352 THE “HOAX”

Were there any conceivable possibility that Donald J. Trump, honored for serial mendacity and “snake oil” demagogery, possessed a modicum of suitability to be the Nation’s Chief Executive, it was thoroughly dispelled today.

After the gut-wrenching testimony of a host of former victims of the horrific, juvenile sex ring, the enterprise of Jeffrey Epstein and his malevolent procurer, Ghislaine Maxwell, Donald Trump arrogantly declared the ubiquitous heartrending and accusatory testimony “a hoax.’ This startling response warrants an obvious charge of defensiveness, given that Epstein was Trump’s known confederate. In our view, the reflexive defensive response may tend to beneficially demonstrate to, at least, some of the MAGA viewers the gross, tactical, and delusional malignity of Donald Trump. Notable MAGA cultists, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert, who held hands with democratic Congressman Ro Kahana, indicated ardent support for the victims.

One cannot know if such enthusiastic support of the victims evinced by Margerie Taylor Green and Lauren Bo9ebert was revealatory of a previously unmanifested feeling of moral empathy, or, alternatively, a further display of their mutual neurotic penchant for conspiratorial ideation; nevertheles, it is is our hope that more MAGA adherents will now be enabled to confess that Donald Trump is a devious snake -oil demagogue, a systemic villain and, himself, a despicable hoax. Like Trump’s infamous reference to the hundreds of dead young soldiers, buried at Arlington Military Cemetery, as”losers and suckers,” his knee-jerk defensive response, “Hoax,” may redound to the revelation of his systemically self-interested, immoral, and inhumane persona.

Significantly, the sexual abuse of several hundred sexually abused victims were enticed and ensnared in Epstein’s obscene web by Ghislaine Maxwell when they were of an innocent young age. Epstein’s procurement was international as well as National, and sophisticated methods of banking finance were established on a sub-rosa basis, internationally and domestically. A thorough investigation of his nefarious and despicably wide web of corruption and highly profitable enterprise would, doubtless. ensnare countless enablers as well as reveal the covert list of names of prominent consumers of Epstein’s nefarious service. The latter consideration makes relevant the possibility that Epstein, confined to a prison cell, did not die by suicide; an enticing proposition for conspiracy mavins, many of whom are MAGA cultists.

The public revelation of the myriad of contextual sex offenses against young girls, by a confidant of Donald Trump (apparently, also a loyal customer, as revealed by publicly shown video footage) would impair Trump’s political reputation, as it would other well-known personalities. It is the latter consideration that cogently suggests the empirical suggestion of such a homocidal event, as an empirical alternative to the media-reported “suicide,” and doubtlessly titillates the imagination of the “all-knowing” ideations of MAGA conspiracy wonks.

In the interestof our Democratic Republic, we would celebrate the justified removal of the inappropriate, autocraticly unprincipled Donald J. Trump from the American Presidency, However, we cannot help but look askance at the nature of a public that is ultimately moved to outrage by charges of sexual and homicidal nature regardless of responsible contempt at Trump’s multifarious constitutional abuse, heartless denial of institutional relief to the needy, domestic and international, autocratic attack upon our Republican Democracy, ubiquitous immorality, inclusive of multiple criminal felonies, his Gestapo-style prosecution of peaceful and productive Hispanics, his purloining of top-secret documents, criminal interference with the National vote, authorian motivatred attacks on American Universities and the National Media, violation of the “Emolument Clause by magnifi self-inrichment, elimination of the Nation’s Health Research Services, serial mendacity and complete lack of moral compass, all, in aggravation of a woeful state of empiricaslly demonstrated incapacity.

To quote a popular aphorism: “Any port in a storm.”

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Blogpost # M.351 TREADING WATER

In the immediately preceding writing, we expressed our optimistic belief that, analogous to Sir Isaac Newton’s declaration that “For every action, there is an equal corresponding action,” the existing dystopia of the Trump Administration would be met by an equal return force (of citizens) restoring the traditional character of our Democratic Republic. We noted the current advent of instances evincing such dynamic reaction that have already manifested themselves.

In this writing, we are concerned with a more enduring, universal problem related to the future of Mankind’s developmental progress, or his atavistic regression, a subject of universal concern, historically predating the dystopian Trump Presidency and certain to persist long afterward.

In recent years, we have learned from conversations with academics who teach at universities and from startling essays of expert educators appearing in “The Atlantic” and “The American Scholar,” that the intellectual quality of today’s college students have degraded; that the desire for higher education for the sake of personal enlightenment and the development of a mature perception has waned in favor of securing a college degree as requisite to the acquisition of a good job. It has been revealed that the capability and inclination to read books and write essays are limited; that the salutary quality of intellectual curiosity is anachronistic. We regard this all-pervasive tragedy as shocking and extremely worrisome.

It has been the principal theme of this blogspace that enlightenment, particularly through the study of the humanities, leads to a mature understanding of oneself and the ambient World and makes for a fulfilled life experience. Under all of our 1,300 writings, the respective themes, expressly or impliedly, are founded in the desire to encourage personal growth and the attainment of a sense of fulfillment through reading and learning, on a personal and institutional basis. The aspiration for true success is attained by the result of the individual’s development of understanding and a mature perspective.

The subject is also one relating to the success and endurance of the Nation, as a correlating benefit. The existential importance of a sophisticated and knowledgeable population was again demonstrated by our World War 2 enemy, Germany. This small to medium-sized country came close to conquering the World, by reason of its educated and easily mobilized population. In our view, Germany’s power was in its human resources, far more than its natural resources and horrific armaments. It seems to be proven by history that the most cogent and effective National resource is its people.

In the search for personal growth and, more universally, National character, the enlightened citizen has not only provided for himself the opportunity for a fulfilling life, but, additionally, in the National context, an existentially vital citizen. The populist, unfulfilling preference for video games, rather than reading good literature, smartphones, in place of natural and satisfying personal interaction, has empirically and destructively, led to a generally dumbed-down, solitary, and insecure population of little utility to themselves and minimal utility to the Nation; they do not swim forward, their propensity and singular persona is handicapped and limited to the minimal dynamics of treading water in place. Relevantly, Thomas Jefferson presciently admonished that for a democracy to be successful, it requires an educated and well-informed population.

Conceivably, the Nation might convene a comprehensive program of study and recommendations of knowledgeable educators and psychologists to ascertain a utilitarian route to a more enlightened and knowledge-seeking student population. For starters, the holiday gifting of good literature to children rather than video games might be a cogent starting place,

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Blogpost # M. 350 SIR ISAAC AND THE PENDULUM (redux)

American citizens, presently thrashing about in a tsunami of despondency caused by the currently foundering state of our Democratic Republic, can beneficially rely on the classic philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton, for his timely service as a doctrinal lifeguard. While we have expressed the essence of the present theme in past writing, nevertheless, we find ourselves unable to resist its needed reprise and, once more, express our expectation regarding the positive recuperation from the Nation’s present and metastasizing undemocratic trend, etiologically founded in an unprecedented and dystopic Trump-MAGA malignancy.

Newton’s universally accepted and proven theory, popularly referred to as “The Theory of Action and Reaction,” declares that for any action an object exerts upon another, there is an opposite and equal reaction.” It is the theme of this writing that such a universally immutable dynamic is analogously applicable in ubiquitous contexts, including those related to the Nation’s extant political dystopia.

Traditional American citizens have winced in pain contemporaneously with each of the myriad assaults on their Constitutional and inherently private rights and the pernicious, Trump-Maga forced march to autocracy; and its unjust immorality of rule by political influence, rather than by the Nation’s Constitution and laws.

It ominously appears that the current Presidential team has erected a huge crane, from which depends and impactfully swings, a heavy and pernicious wrecking ball, smashing citizen rights and indiscriminately destroying the Democratic Republic, to rebuild an edifice in the vile nature of an autocracy, where Executive power is unlimited to the detriment of liberty and citizen rights. The wrecking ball has attacked the democratic vote to install rule by political or financial influence, denigrated of the fundamental existence of free speech, the Nation’s media, education, notably, higher education, eliminated the utilitarian federal civil service, inclusive of the agencies which dedicatedly resesarch and fight illness, curtailed programs of capitalistic compassion such as Social Security and Medicaire, health and safety regulations and assistance to the needy, domestic and international, interfered with the democratic vote, installed tax policies that favor the very wealthy to the detriment of the middle and lower economic classes, destroyed the legal and constitutional limitations on Presidential rule, such as posse comitatus, in the use of a masked Gestsapo-like army to wreak mortal havoc on Hispanic residents, illegally send National Guard troops to politically selected States, purportedly to fight crime, promoted fossil fuels (“drill, baby drill”) favoring sociopathic polluting industry over human and planetary health (“Global Warming”), committed outrageous violations of the constiutional “Emolument Clause,” illegally and immorally enriched himself and family, and perhaps most societally retrogressive and societally metaphysical, derogation of factual truth in favor of subjectively utilitarian “Alternate Facts.”

The awaited return to National health resulting from the immutable dynamics of the Newtonian return of the pendulum’s wreaking ball (i.e,” action and. reaction”) is now happily discernible. Republican (MAGA) town hall meetings are replete with irate complaints by voters to Congressional Representatives, Federal District Courts are restraining the runaway illegality of ICE, Democratic Governors are resisting the Presidential Orders that illegally send National Guard troops to selected cities. litigation has been ubiquitously commenced to block Trump’s outrageous exercise of egoistic-monarchical lust, huge public demonstrations are taking place in opposition to attempts to transmogrify our Democratic Republic into an authoritarian state, consumers are protesting Trump’s snake oil promises of lower prices, citizens are resisting attempts at book censorship, universities are appropriately beginning to resist Trump’s attempts to control their curricula, heralth experts are disputing the Administration’s perversion of propohylactic vaccinne and other salutory medical procedures and an active program of voter protection is observable.

The direction of the wrecking ball is now moving in reverse and in full swing. It is empirically predictable that the Newtonian reverse swing, with the further impetus of Ginsberg-Marshallgate, will beneficially redirect the present trend to autocracy and restore the Nation to its traditionally defining democracy and its concomitant societal liberty and moral humanism

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Blogpost #M.349 EXPLORING INNER SPACE

A considerable amount of the Nation’s treasure, scientific knowledge, and human imagination has been dedicated to the popular assumption of and search for intelligent life in Outer Space. However, our innate sense of fiscal responsibility and systemic inclination to employ simple solutions, when possible, obliges us to proffer a satisfactory alternative, far less costly and ubiquitously demanding.

Over many decades of relevant experience, we have empirically acquired the ability to identify a remarkably large number of human-like alien immigrants from outer space, openly residing and doing business on Planet Earth. The fact of their discernible identification and presence would seem to render unnecessary the great expense and hazard attributable to space travel.

Most residential aliens have unwittingly permitted themselves to be identifiable by their observable maladaptive and anamalous behavior, and in anecdotal cases, their bizarre personal characteristics. An empirical assessment of these Earth-dwelling alien beings, interestingly, would significantly modify the copious diversity of their imaginative depictions by best-selling science fiction authors such as Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and H.G. Wells.

Our resident outer-space aliens have generally managed to conceal their exotic identities through learned processes of mimicking or replicating earthly human behavior. Nevertheless, an experienced, inner-space explorer might advise the novice to maintain a close and concentrated observation of any relevant suspect, to enable the predictable discernment of identifiable elements such as the articulation of nuanced or irrelevant declarations and on occasion, bizarre actions. One would presume that effective replication of Earthling behavior was necessarily onerous for immigrants from far-distant planets, making the perfection of their imposture extremely taxing, especially in the case of recent, inexperienced arrivals.

The capably experienced innerspace explorer can, nevertheless, identify an extraterritorialist by certain nuanced, signature traits, relating to the systemic inability to fully comprehend, internalize the conceptual dynamics of the social compact, existentially foundational to Earthly Homo Sapien society. The latter incapacity is inclusive of such basic elements as law-abiding, unselfish moral behavior, social cooperation, interpersonal understanding, and mutual empathy. Human society has eternally aspired to communal order; the motivation of personal gratification is deemed principally subservient to societal welfare and function. The alien’s incapacity to internalize and subscribe to such fundamentals is a notable revelation of its identity as a non-earthly, alien being.

As a fortuitously illustrative demonstration, the bizarre result of the recent American Presidential election brings together, a singular Presidential Cabinet of Ministers, constituting a discernable assemblage of such thematic aliens, tactically selected by the person occupying the sdtatus of stellar Outer Space alien, Donald J. Trump; the latter, an exotic, other-wordly appearing creature, with a large round head of orange hair, expressionless rolling eyes, and perpetually moving lips; a specimen stereotipically identifiable as an alien. There are fears among many that this alien from a far distant planet intends to bring mortal harm to Planet Earth by his derogation of programs dedicated to ameliorate dangerous global warming and, by contrast supports the use of fossil fuels (“drill, baby, drill”) and who, tactically, selected a perverse menagerie of fellow, inarguably identifiab outer-space denizens for his loyal Cabinet.

We assume that even a novice alien hunter would have scant trouble identifying the bizarre, unworldly menagerie of Trump’s all-alien Cabinet. As an example, Pete Hegseth, the selected Secretary of Defense, is identifiable as a circus-style, body-tattooed alcoholic, with minimal experience in the area of military affairs and a contrasting exceptional acumen for the abuse of women and ingestion of liquor. Hegseth, observably, is an outer space alien as revealed by his apparent inability to adjust to traditionally normalized life on Earth; such eerie traits appear to serve as a cogent indication that his atavistic mindset remains on a faraway planet..

The slant-eyed, gravel-toned, demonic, JFK, Jr, the selected Secretary of Health, and Human Service, has shown himself to be a “spaced out,” ardent enemy of human habitation on Planet Earth by his propagandistic opposition to disease-preventing vaccination and his outre medical recommendations. It is relatively early in this resident space alien’s term; nevertheless, this dangerous being has already been credited with the successful reprise of measles, whooping cough, and potentially, Ebola.

Kristi Noem, appointed by Outer Space alien, Donald Trump, proved her unEarthly, savage inability to, as assigned, secure the Nation’s homeland by her persona-revealing acts of tying her pet dog to the roof of her car for a long automotive trip and shooting in the face and killing another pet 14-month-old puppy, for being a slow learner. This is inarguably foreign to the normal range of behavior of a member of the Earthly species of Homo sapiens.

In the considerate effort to be brief, we would identify the balance of Trump alien appointees, similarly evincing un-Earthly tendencies and personal traits, voz., a head of security who is intimately informative to the Nation’s planetary enemies, as the vicious alien appointee, whose martial efforts are designed to eliminate an entire (Hispanic) category of the human race, a Trump selected alien whose official assignment is properly dedicated to fighting crime, but in fascistic contrast, prosecutes the political opponents of her orange-haired, alien boss.

The foregoing, convenient reference to the Trump Cabinet, is merely a convenient representation of the wide assortment of unearthly aliens residing on Terra Firma. Such unculturated, non-socialized visitors from Outer Space can serve to instruct a dual lesson: (1) The search for out of space intelligent life is empirically unnecessary, and (2) It is wise to keep Outer Space and non-humanistic Homo Sapiens out of government.

-p.

Blogpost # M. 348 MALIGN IGNORANCE

Today saw yet another of the Nation’s sad plethora of school tragedies. In this occurrence, two young children were murdered and 19 were seriously injured, as reported by the national media. The horrific event was another painfully exasperating tribute to the confluence of pathological lust for profits by the gun industry and their lethal, propagandic program of misleading the Nation, sadly, inclusive of citizens and the misled government, of the purported existence of a constitutional right to bear arms. We have been puzzled and greatly disturbed by the ubiquitous acceptance of this false and tragically lethal chestnut.

The tactically intentional perversion and induced understanding of the Second Amendment’s language, purportedly, to grant the legal franchise to the “People” to bear arms, has been successfully employed in a distorted, propagandic interpretation, analogously hateful, and perhaps more lethally effective than the radio efforts of Japan’s “Tokyo Rose” during the Second World War. To exacerbate our outrage and frustration, we still impatiently await; an exposition of the truly intended legal intent of the relevant constitutional provision, which, to no degree, grants a franchise to the American citizen to own a gun.

What we find especially endlessly unnerving and frustrating is that, a mere cursory reading or, reasonable familiarity with the Nation’s early formative history would easily be convincing of the context and situational application of the relevant grant endorsed by the subject Amendment. Our irrepressible anger and systemic angst are fueled by the rational presumption that, despite any publically tactical statements of purported constitutional legality, all parties, including the profit-seeking and irresponsible gun industry, know it; such information being readily accessible..

It requires but a cursory reading of early American history, contemporaneous with the inclusion of the thematic, “Gun Rights” Second Amendment, to conclude that it does not, in fact, grant American citizens the right to own and operate firearms.

The specific intent of the Second Amendment, instead, related to the early formation of the Nation, relating to the historical,-roiling debate between the “Federalists” who favored a central government and the opposing believers in the singular sovereignty of the individual States (“States Rights”).

The historically established, definitional right of sovereignty essentially consisted of the authority to raise and maintain an army. The Nation’s early dispute over Federal versus separate State sovereignty was empirically resolved, as provided in the Constitution’s Second Amendment, which articulates the parties’ compromise; providing for a central government albeit with the right of the individual States (“the People”) to raise and maintain independent standing militias which had the right to “bear arms.” The “People,” The written words, singularly referred to the subject grant to the individual States of the right to arm their federally authorized militia; it is inaccurate and irrational to contend that the kindly, peaceful and benevolent Founders intended to franchise the entire American citizenry with the right to be gun-slingers.

The Nation does not need gun control; it desperately needs the forbidding of these ghastly instruments whose sole utility is grievous human injury and death.. We are inconsolably distressed at the accessibility of the accurate history and the false and sociopathic propaganda of gun proponents. We may be more frustrated at our fellow gun opponents, especially the so-called “pundits” in failing to employ the remedial. historical solution.

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Blogpost # M. 346 WORD ATROPHY

In view of the fact that words are the overt expression of relevant thought, it may be of interest to consider certain unorthodox selections from our lexicon that have varied or changed in recent employment, or have become virtually extinct. Such phenomena, conceivably, are indicators of the ongoing empirical of change in their societal context. We have randomly selected some illustrative words, perceived as representative of such contextual changes. Our generalized (metaphysical) presumption is that such changes may be related to the Initially,insalubrious trend to digitally impersonal means of communication. “

SINCERE:

Initially, we cannot resist the temptation to refer to our favorite word, notably, more honored in its conceptual merit than its ubiquity, viz., “sincere.” The beneficial word is derived from the two Latin words “sine,” meaning without, and “cere,” meaning wax. The authentically skilled Roman cabinet makers constructed their furniture so skillfully that its constituent parts fit, or “dovetailed,” permanently. The pretenders required an adhesive glue (“wax”) to hold their less skillfully constructed furniture intact. “Sincere” came to mean, in our lexicon, “legitimate” or “honest, an adjective not quite universally applicable in these materialistically-oriented days. We would welcome any increase in the ubiquitous practice represented by this societally salubrious word.

NICE, DECENT:

These two admirable adjectives seem to have entered the lexicographic state of extinction, except for their bizarrely disagreeable use as a relevant sarcastic comment regarding an unkind action. The two adjectives, in fact, metaphysically describe fundamentally positive intentions, judgmental kindness, and perhaps empathy, and societally acceptable actions or thoughts. In our view, these words symbolize the systemic essence of good character, but are seldom spoken for fear of appearing unsophisticated or jejune; in fact, the dynamics of the underlying qualities are essential to societal success and interactive acceptability.

“WHATEVER” :

The current (mis)use of this word is personally infuriating. Its intended context connotes the granting of unlimited choice by a generous member of society to an inquisitive request of another. It is a warm expression of generosity and friendship. Notwithstanding the intended use of this expression of friendship and generosity, the word has universally been employed as a harsh, reactive expression of impatient dismissal. This travesty of syntax may, conceivably. be another consequence of the extant impersonality of a digitalized, insensitive. society’

“AWESOME,””ABSOLUTELY”

These two consummate adjectives as often thoughtlessly employed, achieve the level of verbal overkill.” Majestic words, such as”awesome,” are expressions reflecting a daunting, impressive, inspiring reaction to a stimulus, external or conceptual. such as Niagara Falls, the Grand Canyon, Mount Vesuvius, The Mona Lisa, The Northern Lights, and a Lunar Eclipse. The appropriate use of the word “absolutely” is reserved for momentous decisions or confident expression of scientific or dogmatic beliefs. Its contemporary use as a reply to an inquiry as to the quality of pizza, or, perhaps, whether a trip to the park would be agreeable, are tawdry examples of word overkill and empirically inappropriate.

“SO”:

This simple word is properly utilized as a consequential link between causation and relevant effect. By illustration: “it was cold, outdoors, so we wore overcoats; he never showed up, “so” we proceeded without him; he was not feeling well, “so” he went to the doctor; the jury found him not guilty, “so” he was freed..

We are mystified as to the ubiquitous use of this relationally conclusive word as the first word in a response to a question, most commonly occurring in the news media. It seems to have replaced the former hesitating and meaningless word, “well,” preceding a speaker’s response to questions.

“COOL”:

The word “cool”, bizarrely and ubiquitously employed to express enthusiastic assent, would appear to be the temporal offspring of the similarly inarticulate, but apparently outdated, “groovy”. It is, like the word “hot,” used to describe a physically appealing person, misused and atrophied; as opposed to its utility as an instructional demarcation on water faucets..It is also an emotional, albeit entirely non-specific, approbation of a suggested action, a general signification of mutual agreement, or, perhaps, a declared assurance of personal equanimity and personal composure.

The above list of misapplied vocabulary, while illustrative, is by no means complete. The few selected examples have been chosen to illustrate such thematic impediment (of the ersatz use of vocabulary)_to meaningful, intended communication.

Should the present thematic impediment require an assurance of material importance, one might consider the contemporary dearth of natural. communicative conversation, the virtual extinction of written personal correspondence, together with the ubiquitous preference for facile and populist diversions, like electronic games and cheap television entertainment, instead of thoughtful conversation, written personal correspondence, and contemplative reading. When the modern individual (rarely) does choose to communicate interactively, the apt use of accurate and meaningful language becomes vitally essential.

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Blogpost # M.345 ADVENTURES IN THE LAND OF R.E.M.

We would like to be allowed a brief, but emotionally needed “time out” from the angst-ridden scenerio portraying the political and social events of the day. We would o relate a (fictional) dream experience following the televised broadcast of any Trump proclaimation or perhaps, a media report on the masked, Gestapo-style round-up of innocent Hispanic Americans. Some say that weird nightmares can result from the ingestion of incompatible and exotic foods; however, we stand firm on our theory that bizarre R.E.M. experiences are notzably caused by outrage, or just plain disgust, engendered by the visceral pain initiated by the words of a MAGA speaker or alternatively, a traumatic experience watching Fox News.

In our technicolor nightmare, we are presented with a huge MAGA Labor Day gala, hosted by the President and his mannequin-like First Lady in the new, glitzy gold ballroom, installed at great expense at the hubristic Chief Executive’s behest.

It is essential to the appropriate rendition of the dignified grandeur of this event to take note of the exalted nature of the invitees, whose celebrity, sufficiently and accurately depicted, serves to affirm the greatness and celebrity of its Presidential host. An illustrative, albeit partial list of such dignitaries, seriatim, is as follows:

Dr. Percival P. Pookh, the first research scientist to innovativedly put cotton in aspirin bottles; Stanislaus Casaba, the celebrated author of the best selling, “Growing Earwax, for Fun and Profit;” Armond G. Volvarian, the great-grandson of Ignatz Volvarian, the celebrated aficionado and composer of classical music for the nose flute; Dr. Swanson Perdue, the agrarian biologist whose creative researches and work in the area of avian genes led to the significant advent of boneless chicken wings; Steve Gridiron, the first coach to innovatively employ two footballs simultaneously in each game; Wilma Wirebrush, Nurse Practitioner, famous for her cosmetic repair of Japan’s celebrated, movie star, “Godzilla;” Professor I.P. Daily, esteemed author of “Yellow River; Robert Kennedy Jr. the discoverer of the secret government microscopic tracking devices in government-sponsored programs of vaccination, and Jonathan Z. Smoot, the valorious lifeguard eternally on duty at the Trump White House Car Pool.

As security Cabinet Member Kristi Noem stationed at a strategic location, vigilantly sat with loaded revolvers to deter any pet dog terrorists from infiltrating the event and Pete Hedgseth, dressed only in a scant bathing suit, thus proudly revealing his body tattoos supporting the White Christian Militia movement, as he entertained the crowd strumming a ukelele and singing bawdy drinking songs.

In a humongous display on the right side of the Golden Ballroom was a food counter containing 6,000 McDonald’s Hamburgers and French Fries, manned by a legion of “burger flippers” with canisters of Heinz Tomato Ketchup at the ready, and 400 boxes of paper napkins. However, amid such largesse, the invitees, especially the members of the Presidential Cabinet, were gravely disappointed to learn that the large oil tanker, tasked to deliver the liquor, never arrived, having unfortunately been involved in a fiery accident with a van carrying illegal mariachi players.

As “luck would have it, less than 20 minutes after the inspirational invocation delivered by the Right Reverend, Dr. Dexter Houdini, and, as the hungry assembled were stampeding to the food station, a crack developed in the, newly plastered, decorative ceiling and 47 boxes containing Officioal CIA files tumbled to the Ballroom Floor necessitating a total evacuation, for security purposes, and the egigent termination of the program.

That was “Great!” exclaimed the witless, albeit hungry, Donald Trump, as he generously dumped a blob of ketchup on a greasy hamburger.

-p.

Blogpost # M. 344 MIDAS REDUX

Most readers will recall the Greek myth of King Midas. The avaricious King prayed that he be granted the ability to turn everything he touched to his coveted gold, but thereafter discovered to his dismay that his food and tragically, his beloved daughter would also be so transmogrified

Our Nation, radically created by its Founders to eschew the historical injustice of European Monarchies and the institution of privileged classes, was envisioned and created to be a Democratic Republic, “By and for the People.” Royal and class privilege, together with contextually traditional and stereotypical trappings, were rendered anachronistic and out of context in the new conception of governance. The successful implementation of such a doctrinal policy of societal morality, for almost three centuries, albeit with some temporal hiccups, resulted in the maintenance and duration of a successful and resourceful Nation, and consequently admired as an avatar of equality and social justice.

As we perceive history, the architectural style and public character of the building, housing America’s National Executive Offices (“The White House”), in sync with the enlightened philosophy of the Founders, was purposefully designed to be relatively modest. Such intention was philosophically and demonstratively in notable contrast with the palatial magnificence of the historic European monarchs. The architectural conceit was to symbolize the radically just and equitable character of the newly created Nation

As witnessed in the televised news media, Donald J. Trump, in his singular occupation of the White House, has demonstrated his apparent inappropriate affinity for the grand decorative style of Napoleon, King Philip V, or Catherine the Great, which was in aesthetic and doctrinal contrast with Washington or Jefferson; in his evident, crass, and Midas-like preoccupation with gold as well as sundry other (ego-bolstering). imperial symbols, like large, costly military parades and flattering portraiture.

Trump’s monomaniacal lust for recognized greatness, albeit, fatally hampered by his demonstrated incapability, ignorance, and bizarre delusions of grandeur, vainly seeks assuagement by the empirical accumulation of gold and other success symbols. In our view, his mission is inexorably doomed to abject failure. Trump’s solitary and reductive enclosure in his signature, psychoneurotic bubble disables him from any reflective consideration, save ego protection and perceived glorification.

Consistent with his reductive self-interest, he reportedly is spending several million dollars of taxpayer money on having the historically venerated Oval Office festooned with gold leaf and, additionally, constructing an unprecedented golden ballroom. This Midas-like preoccupation is diagnosably identifiable as an inappropriately desperate and hapless attempt to achieve the public’s impression of greatness. This neurotic display is shamefully concomitant with his denial of funds for needy American children and those who are inhabitants of other countries, for food and medicine, his fiscal corruption, denigration of the Nation’s institutions of learning, elimination of the Nation’s vital health research agencies, his ubiquitous derogation of the U.S. Constitution, and the rule of law, his serial mendacity. and dcem,onstrated absence of a modicum olf societal moral compass,

Our contextual, orange-haired Midas, uniquely, is the singular American President, so reductively egocentric as to be entirely oblivious of character and traditional ethnos of the American Nation, as a consequence of his monomaniacal preoccupation with his personally reductive issues.

His golden route to success and favorable recognition is predictably as doomed as his analogical blockhead, the legendary King Midas.

-p.