The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by John S. Quarterman:

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Posted on entry "Because one of the people she was learning how to hate was me." ::: August 01, 2007, 06:47 AM:
@99 Why do people watch Fox?

Because Fox most consistently uses the visual immediacy of television to play directly to emotions, not intellect. It isn't what they say that grabs people; it's how they say it. See Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason, for how this works.

It's part of the 40 year and continuing right wing reframing of everything as scary and only Republicans as capable of fighting off those nasty terrorists and those even scarier socialist democrats.

For how to reframe things to build real hope of opportunity, peace, and diversity, try this:

http://scholarsandrogues.wordpress.com/2007/07/31/reframing-the-republican-lie-about-wealth-in-america/
Posted on entry "Because one of the people she was learning how to hate was me." ::: August 01, 2007, 06:02 AM:
@74 It's OK to rant, but not to give up hope. I look back at the half of the 20th century where I *wasn't* around, and I'm amazed that humankind survived at all, yet here we are....

When you weren't around, a lot of people went to a lot of trouble and risk to stop people like McCarthy. If we don't do the same, people like Bush and Cheney and O'Reilly will continue to subvert the government and frighten people out of their wits so they can stay in control. It's all very well to say Bush's popularity is tanking, but he's still in control of the military with time left to invade Iran; he's still got political commissars running every department and agency (you thought maybe Gonzalez was an exception?); he's already got a 5-4 majority on the Supreme Court. This stuff won't go away even when he does.

How about it's OK to rant, but it's not OK to pretend there's not really anything badly wrong and to do nothing?

Sure, there's hope: if we create it.
Posted on entry And their heptalogies are just noise ::: July 21, 2007, 06:43 PM:
Dune, 1965-(has that ended yet?)
Forty plus years and counting.

Sherlock Holmes, 1887-1917 (or is that 1928?)
Thirty or more years.

Allan Quatermaine, 1885-1927(?)
More than forty years.

-jsq
Posted on entry Flamer Bingo ::: July 20, 2007, 05:12 PM:
"Remember too that" (followed by a bald assertion without any accompanying documentation or supporting information)

"I happened to spot a chance pattern" (the same pattern the poster always reads into everything)

"By an absolute measure" (i.e., a measure that supports the poster's case)

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