Brooks & Dunn - Play Something Country (Live from CMA Fest 2025) ft. Lainey Wilson

Washington D.C.- One Of America's Largest Retirement Communities

Repost

Aug 7, 2023

Soon to be headquarters for some of our nation's largest billonaires
What could go wrong?

Health Care: America vs. The World

Repost

PBS NewsHour (04/21/2021)

Hat's off to PBS for another well researched report. They reported both the good and bad.

What's Your Dream?

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On April 4th, 1968 at 7:05 p.m. central time,
Dr. King's life was cut short by an assassin's bullet

#DreamStillLives

Cursive Handwriting: Extinct As The Dodo Bird

Repost From 2013

As unbelievable as it sounds, many schools are no longer teaching kids to write in cursive. OK, so maybe it's not that unbelievable for a lot of younger folks, but it sure was shocking for me to learn of this.

Handwriting becoming a lost art as fewer schools teach cursive
By Diane D'Amico, Staff Writer | Press Of Atlantic City

"New Jersey Department of Education language arts standards used to require that students be able to write legibly in manuscript or cursive by the end of third grade. But the state has since adopted the national Common Core Standards, which do not include cursive at all and put more direct emphasis on technology... Now third grade students are expected to use keyboarding skills to produce and publish writing."

Cursive handwriting being erased from public schools
By T. Rees Shapiro | The Washington Post

"For many students, cursive is becoming as foreign as ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. In college lecture halls, more students take notes on laptops and tablet computers than with pens and notepads."

The New Script for Teaching Handwriting Is No Script at All
By Valerie Buerlein | The Wall Street Journal

"... children will no longer be able to read the Declaration of Independence...

It is becoming increasingly rare to even have to sign your name. By 2016, nearly half of all home loans could be closed electronically, meaning that thousands of people will buy homes without having to physically sign their names, according to a recent survey by Xerox Mortgage Services."
"ABC5 KSTP (Minnesota)"


~ ~ ~Let me start off my commentary with a little bit of my family history. My dad who was born in 1900 grew up on a farm about 4 miles to the West of Lehighton, Pennsylvania. He attended a one room school house with about 15 other kids that were of all ages. They either rode horses or walked to school. Conditions at the school required they help gather firewood to heat the school. Sweep out the school or even help with repairs. The older kids were required to tutor the younger kids in the grades below them while the teacher worked with older kids then they. 9th grade was considered the equivalent to today's H.S. graduation. So by the time he was about 14 or 15 he was done with his education and ready to go to work on the farm.

Keep in mind my dad finished his education way back in 1915. Yet when I went to school in the 50's and 60's he was able to help me with fractions, square root and some very basic algebra. And yes he knew how to write in longhand (cursive writing). Isn't it amazing with only 9 years education, despite the numerous chores that kids don't have to do at today's schools, he was still able to learn what kids are not being taught in many of today's schools.

How was it possible that my dad's one teacher back in the early 1900's could teach all 9 grade levels of reading, writing, arithmetic, science and history. This while seeing to it that the wood necessary to heat the room was supplied and the stove was stoked. The room and outhouse was cleaned and maintained. That the horses waiting outside were watered and fed during the day. You mean to tell me with the millions of dollar$ that we spend every year for a whole host of administrative experts, teacher assistants, day care, custodians, cafeteria workers, transportation and who knows what the hell else, we can't find the time to teach something so basic as handwriting?

You've got to be kidding!

I Think I Am, Therefore I Am.. Not Necessarily

Repost


Philosopher John Searle addresses consciousness as a biological phenomenon

Chasing Our Own TailsThe statement "I think, therefore I am" could be said to be awareness of oneself. Awareness is nothing more then a product of consciousness. Since without consciousness (in a unconscious state) there can be no such self awareness it can be said we don't exist unto ourselves under these conditions. However a person outside of our self is still consciously aware of our being while we are lay in a state of unconscious. So this doesn't mean that we don't exist, right? But where do we exist? In their consciousness not in our own under these conditions. So now we've become dependant on someone other then ourselves or what we call 'collective consciousness" for our continued existence.

Let's Take This All The Way To The TopIn the beginning there could exist no self awareness nor consciousness within the creator since both are products of biological conditions (humans). In order to bring about conscious awareness the creator (God) would have to first create humans. However in order to do that the creator would have to first develop a plan. A plan which of course would require self awareness that it/she/he existed in the first place. All which at first seems could only come about after the creation of humans, not before. Seems we're in a paradoxical catch-22 situation, no?

What Came 1st Can't Be Lesser Then What Came AfterScripture tells us the eye cannot see it's own self. Therefore it follows conscious awareness only exist as a reflection. That makes this "I think, therefore I am" nothing more then a reflection of something far larger going that cannot not possibly be understood by the human mind. If the only tool we have is our mind and it is operating within itself, it cannot possibly hope to understand what's truly going on through intellectual musings within it's own limited perimeters.. Back to that old catch 22 again, eh?

It is said everything that exist lay within all things that don't. The latter being far greater. Some lean on faith for what they cannot understand. Some simply block out anything they don't understand or care to think about. Still others make up things and declare them truths for what they can't comprehend. Each are much like the unconscious person I mentioned above.

There is yet another way to approach this (since no one can understand through one's human faculties). For the sake of definition I will call it 'taking a stance'. If one simply takes a stance (position) that the universe (and all the people in it both good and evil) is what it is and accepts that, one becomes more attune (one with it). Some religious philosophers called it surrendering to 'God's Will'. I'd rather think of it as leaving one's ego behind. Another way of saying it is 'going with the flow'.

All Our Troubles Begin With the 'Ego'
You Can't Beat The System

The human 'ego' tries to beguile us into thinking we are lazy, surrendering or uncaring when we resist our inclinations to 'change the world'. Whenever human reasoning gives into the temptation to change the world, what results is conflict with others. Things like wars and social bickering with those who's minds will never adapt to our own views no matter how much we argue. Simply put our world and the universe is what it is. Accept the world for what it is or die trying to make it what we think it should be. Either way the world will be much the same way it was when we came into it as it will be when we leave it.

The short and long of it is, enjoy the ride while it last. Whoever or whatever the creator is/was or what ever evolves is larger then we who are only temporary reflections of that. To do otherwise would be like a shadow (reflection in a mirror) trying to outwit that which is standing before it.