About Those Essays...

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:00pm

First there was the essay accusing "us" of being enablers of racists. Then there was the essay telling "us" we must be either miserable, depressed, or lazy for voicing our un-cited belief in the various ways we will be electorally screwed again come 2020.

Can "we" not speak for everyone here in our essays anymore?

Thank you.

[EDIT: in the interest of being less contentious, I decided to change the original title of this essay from "annoying essays" to "about those essays"]

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Comments

Submitted by edg on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:16pm

We are not amused by this essay.

We reserve the right to call anyone anything at any time. We know (not think or believe or opine) that we won't be screwed in 2020 and anyone that thinks otherwise is a poopy-head. We order you to fall in line with the site's popular opinion and popular kids and stop causing us headaches.

We thank you very much for your quick attention to these matters.

Signed,

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 7:52am

A good rule of thumb

@edg

For "us" all. To not be poopyheads.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Raggedy Ann on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:34pm

Speaking for everyone here,

thanks for the reminder not to speak for everyone here.

—

"The “jumpers” reminded us that one day we will all face only one choice and that is how we will die, not how we will live." Chris Hedges on 9/11

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 7:53am

Speaking for everyone here

@Raggedy Ann

Well said RA.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Azazello on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:39pm

I speak only for myself.

—

We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 8:45am

Except when I'm speaking on behalf

@Azazello

Of my cats, I agree. However, when I am speaking to my cats...

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by edg on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:58am

Talking to cats...

@Anja Geitz

Unless it's something they choose to hear, cats treat us like we're the teacher in a Charlie Brown cartoon.

[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_BU5hR9gXE]

Submitted by Deja on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:16pm

My cat thinks

@Anja Geitz
My cat thinks I'm talking to her when I'm talking to myself. My dog knew the difference. Go figure lol.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:19pm

Oh Deja

@Deja

You would have a cat and a dog like that! Lol.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by edg on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:55am

That's easy for you to say.

@Azazello

Submitted by on the cusp on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 9:40pm

I missed the racist essay.

Did catch the lazy/depressed essay.
Ready for someone to post a "to each his own" essay.

—

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

Submitted by lotlizard on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 1:44am

“Nur jedem das Seine” … To each his own …

@on the cusp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nur_jedem_das_Seine,_BWV_163

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 7:54am

Consider yourself fortunate then

@on the cusp

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Unabashed Liberal on Wed, 07/17/2019 - 10:01pm

Great to 'see' you, Anja! Hope that Pierre

is feeling well, and that the new leash and harness you got her worked out well for both of you. Keep us updated, please.

As for the sentiments that you've expressed,

Hear, hear!

If I may, I'd like to echo Azazello's sentiments - when I express an opinion, I'm definitely speaking only for myself. And, in no way, do I mean to indicate to others that "it's my way, or the highway." No matter how much certitude my comment(s) may exude.

Mollie

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ”
~~Roger Caras

—

Everyone thinks they have the best dog, and none of them are wrong.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 8:16am

Good Morning Mollie

@Unabashed Liberal

Pierre and I are hanging in there. The harness, I'm afraid, didn't work so well. She was terrified to be outside. Not sure if it was the deafness, or the recovery collar that made her feel so anxious, but she couldn't wait to get back in the house, and I just didn't have the heart to force her to stay outdoors.

I had to buy her yet another recovery collar because the sunflower one made her so clumsy, she'd just sit in the bathroom all day long.

Her sores are healing well, but she still itches. She's back on daily doses of Benadryl, and I've taken to giving her sponge baths, as well as giving her special fish oil orally to help with her skin issues.

She will be going back for a vet visit soon, where she will have another flea treatment. I'm also wondering if there is a special bath treatment they, or a groomer, can give her that might make her feel more comfortable?

I'm hoping her allergy issues will subside soon but I fear that we have at least another month to go. Sigh. Fingers crossed for the both of us. Thanks for asking Mollie.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Lily O Lady on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 1:44pm

Colloidal oatmeal could help. Try Google or

@Anja Geitz

DuckDuckGo for suggestions on how to do this. Aveno used to sell colloidal oatmeal, but sadly no longer do.

—

"The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984"

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 2:16pm

Thank you Lily O!

@Lily O Lady

I will do some research!

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 4:21am

What's cooking, anja?

JTC and Joe Shikspak can speak for the board as a whole, but not for its posters. Otherwise, each of us has authority to speak only for himself or herself, no?

I'm not sure I do even that well.

Racist enablers, huh? Guess I'd better look for that thread.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 8:20am

Not too much

@HenryAWallace

It's been too hot to do much cooking. Think I'll probably make something light and summery for Tuesday's Foodie Feature. That is what you were asking, wasn't it?

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 9:25am

It's a multi-layered question that takes the cake!

@Anja Geitz

Or the torte, if you prefer.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 10:18am

Did someone say cake?

@HenryAWallace

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by thanatokephaloides on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 1:09pm

ancient Egyptian wheat

@Anja Geitz

All this talk about cake reminds me of the day when an archaeologist discovered a large quantity of wheat in a tomb, and decided to make some of it into bread. The bread was found to be quite tasty.

Which just goes to show that one can have archaic and eat it, too!

—

"US govt/military = bad. Russian govt/military = bad. Any politician wanting power = bad. Anyone wielding power = bad." --Shahryar

"All power corrupts absolutely!" -- thanatokephaloides

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 2:30pm

Very punny :)

@thanatokephaloides

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by mimi on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 2:28am

I apologize for any essays that may have harmed

JtC, Joe or this site as a whole. I offer to erase it, if you want me to. Otherwise it stays and is nothing more but a sign of my personal feelings at a certain time in space about certain discussions on this board. I speak for myself only, that should be a given. If I have expressed myself otherwise then without being aware of it.

—

https://www.euronews.com/live

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 4:32am

I just remembered something:

I had been taught not to identify my statements as my opinion because that was supposedly implied. After all, if I say something is wrong or right, who else's opinion would that be, other than my own? Same for "Personally,...."

I took that to heart. After all, who wants redundancies cluttering communications?

As an adult, however, I heard someone say, "You know, your remarks would seem so much nicer if only you said, "In my opinion..." And, I found myself agreeing.

"That movie is not worth viewing" vs. "I didn't find that movie worth the time I spent watching it." Consider that difference in comment after comment.

I decided I'd rather my comments be inherently redundant.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 9:12am

Well, I'm all for being "nicer"

@HenryAWallace

But I've been guilty of stating my beliefs without the redundancy of qualifying it. Or, for that matter, without the benefit of a citation.

I guess in the future, I will be compelled to be redundant as well.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 9:23am

We'll be redundant together, with each other. (-;

@Anja Geitz

Submitted by Nastarana on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:36am

"I believe that I speak for more than myself when I say"...

@HenryAWallace so & so is an idiot or such and such politician is being bribed..can be a useful formulation. Or, a bit more informal is "I am not the only one who thinks.." e.g. Hillary is hateful or Trump is clueless about women voters. In today's cultural climate, when you can't even express a preference for one color over another without injuring someone's dear little feelingses, it is no doubt, I think, best to make it clear that you are expressing your own opinion. I do think it is quite acceptable to point out to others that "That is your opinion and I am afraid I have to disagree."

There are times when a good, loud tantrum is called for, but those are rare and one must be prepared to deal with the consequences. I would argue that in most situations there is much value in being the one person who can't be provoked into displays of rage.

—

Mary Bennett

Submitted by HenryAWallace on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 4:11pm

In that case, you can go !#$%%$ yourself!!!

@Nastarana

I would argue that in most situations there is much value in being the one person who can't be provoked into displays of rage.

JUST KIDDING!

Submitted by Dawn's Meta on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 6:54am

Speaking of which, where is JtC's squirrel????

I thought it was good as were the comments.

Anja, you inspired me to work up a Curtido recipe. I used red cabbage, carrots, a splash of red pepper, and cucumber with obligatory oregano and sea salt. added lime juice, which we like. It's going well. We liked it after three days. It may not make it long.

I found this blog which has simple to understand information and good tips on simple homemade fermentation. It's fun and so good for us/me (speaking for myself).
Fermenting veggies at home

Was this and Open Thread, or did I drag in an Off Topic comment??? ;-).

—

A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they know they shall never sit. Allegedly Greek, but more possibly fairly modern quote.

Consider helping by donating using the button in the upper left hand corner. Thank you.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 8:32am

I suspect JtC probably found the title to this "essay"

@Dawn's Meta

To be as annoying as I was annoyed when I wrote it. In hindsight, I probably should've given it a less contentious title.

The squirrel, eh? Seems about right given the emotions around here lately. Sigh.

Thank you for the link to the veggies. Your cabbage sounds very tasty. I grew up on sweet and sour red cabbage. The secret to my Mother's red cabbage was using goose fat, and putting the brown sugar in at the very end of the braising process. In the absence of goose fat, a good quality butter will do nicely.

It's been too hot here to do much cooking, so I'll probably do something light and refreshing for Tuesday's Foodie Feature. Hope to see you then!

Bon Apetit!

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Fishtroller 02 on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 9:10am

I found the evidence!

I'm sure WE all were wanting to have closure on this AOC/Obama thing.

https://www.ammoland.com/2019/03/puppet-masters-behind-aoc-alexandria-oc...

You're welcome.

—

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 9:23am

Thank you for that citation

@Fishtroller 02

Anything coming from a website titled "Ammoland" was sure to be good. And it was. A "serious" expose that unintentionally mimicked the parody of itself.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by Fishtroller 02 on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 10:15am

I was hoping to bring a smile somewhere!

@Anja Geitz

—

"Without the right to offend, freedom of speech does not exist." Taslima Nasrin

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 10:25am

Right back 'atcha

@Fishtroller 02

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:12am

Is that what I said?

we must be either miserable, depressed, or lazy for voicing our un-cited belief in the various ways we will be electorally screwed again come 2020.

I could barely recognize "my words".
I can't help but find some amusement for so much moral outrage by asking for a better quality of CT.
Imagine if I had asked people to take a bath daily. Or not eat over the keyboard.

You know, on DKos it was I that was regularly accused of being doom and gloom.
Yet I always managed to have multiple sources for my diaries.

So no, I have no regrets for simply asking some people for nothing more than what I expect from myself.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 10:48am

Sometimes, it's not what you say

@gjohnsit

It's how you say it. I could bring citations to that effect illustrating what I mean, but they'd be from your own essay, and I think at this point, with JtC's words about factionalism spoiling the vision he had for this site ringing in my ear, it would be in bad taste.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by gjohnsit on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:17am

True

@Anja Geitz

It's how you say it.

Maybe some people here have simply missed the countless essays of what I described.
If so, I want to apologize to them.

But if you are aware of these dozens of essays, that are exactly as I described, then we will have to agree to disagree.

Submitted by wokkamile on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:41am

Speaking only for

@gjohnsit myself (and my many hominid friends hiding deep in the forest, annoyed that they still haven't been officially recognized), you have nothing to apologize for. Your posts here are consistently worthy, substantive and thought provoking.

Gloom and doom? We live in interesting times. You just seem to be holding up a mirror to what's going on. The Truth can be harsh, but it's better to know the score than live in a childlike fantasy world where the only bad things happening are the cat getting stuck up a tree.

I come away usually better informed from reading your entries. This is in sharp contrast to the half-dozen or so regular Doom and Gloomers here, with a ne plus ultra leftie profile (when it's not faux ultra leftie) who remind us daily that's it's useless to try to change things, that everything is corrupt beyond repair, that it's time to throw in the towel and call it a day.

I hope you carry on here and continue the good work. Meanwhile I will try to be a better poster, but this will take time, as I'm long set in my old ways.

Submitted by Anja Geitz on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 11:53am

There is an essay up right now

@wokkamile

Written by JtC discussing factionalism here. In the spirit of not driving him to his grave, perhaps we can take a break from name calling?

Thank you.

—

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier

Submitted by wokkamile on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:16pm

Goodness.

@Anja Geitz Must be still more careful of what words I use here.

I understand "name calling" usually in the context of someone being called out by name. Not what I wrote. Afaik, the rules here prevent such specific calling out of fellow posters in personal attack ways. Nothing I wrote was an ad hom.

More in the nature of attacking an attitude, and a response to the charges noted above by others against gjohnsit. Well-intended comments in his defense.

But by all means enlighten me if I've unintentionally crossed some line here. I don't claim to be perfect.

Submitted by pro left on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 12:05pm

Yes agree to disagree

@gjohnsit at certain point it seems to be the best option. It has served me well in 35yrs of marriage to the same woman ( no that's not a complaint )and I suspect it would work on most of the arguments taking place here as well. Just my opinion though.

Submitted by Wally on Thu, 07/18/2019 - 5:00pm

Like Sisyphus rolling that rock up that hill

@gjohnsit

Please just keep writing your excellent essays! Even if they don't convince everybody of this or that, or if your requests for dialogue are scoffed at or scolded, your efforts towards doing a job well may well be more valuable and ultimately more meaningful than results.