I got a comment the other day that simply said "You're an idiot". After the initial shock wore off (which admittedly wasn't very big nor did it last very long) my thoughts have turned to it on and off a few times over the last few days. What did they mean by this?
The comment was submitted by anonymous on the page about credit consumers beware so I don't have much to go on. Does the fact that they left the comment on that page mean that they had a difference of opinion concerning the coming changes to the credit rules that were set to go into effect shortly after its creation in March of 2010? Did the subsequent 16 months from the time the entry was written until the comment was made make a difference in the intent and meaning of the original article? Was the time of the entry noticed by the commenter? Was the comment even about the article it was left on or was it meant for another article published or just an overall feeling about my blog in general?
The fact that the commenter chose to be anonymous makes me wonder if it was just someone surfing in the night or was it someone that knows me quite well??? The fact remains that He or She (I can't guess from so little information and I know enough not to make any grand jumps in conclusions) thought strongly enough about something I wrote to take the time and energy (which certainly isn't much) to leave me a comment, even one as simple as this.
The comment was spelled correctly and presented properly with the exception of a period at the end of the sentence which any reader of my blog knows that I am certainly not perfect in the area of perfection, so I do not point this out as a point of criticism but as an observation. Anyone that has spent a little time on the net will note that there are many out there willing to leave comments or take part in discussions that have not grasped the better part of the language from spelling to grammar and it shows up pretty quickly, and as I have stated before if the message is strong and valid it will get through those barriers, but judgements are sometimes made based on the care taken.
I have also spent enough time on the web to know that these kind of comments and many more besides are very common and I would be naive to think that I would somehow be bypassed or exempted from them. Quite the contrary, I have been expecting there to be more and much worse, but there is still time.
The trouble is that as a form of criticism this simple phrase does not serve much use. I have nothing to go on. I actually wish I did. Feedback is a very useful tool or at least it can be, and should be. It is very difficult to administer and to accept (especially around job evaluation time). If emotions can be left out of it (hard to do) then change and growth can come from it. In other words it can be a good thing.
The next thing for me to decide is how do I react to this? As all comments come to me to moderate before being added it would be a simple act for me to hit the delete button and move on. Instead of doing that though, as you can see, I decided to write about it and make it the center of an entry. Now that this is done I will probably still delete it but only as it relates to the entry it was submitted on. Anyone who wishes to add these sorts of comments may feel free to do so here on this page, it kind of fits the topic. Too bad whoever left the comment decided to remain anonymous as they aren't able to receive any credit for this but I will gladly attribute this to all who leave such across the entire web.
I had decide long ago when first starting this blog that all comments would be welcome and accepted with the exception of anything vulgar for which I would attempt to censor appropriately if possible and then publish anyway. I have since decided as editor-in-chief that that will still be my policy to the extent that there is a real contribution, that comments offer some validity and are additive in content, they will be included. That does not mean that they all have to agree with me (I am not a talk show host) but they should at least be relevant. I intend to keep the anonymous option available for those that feel more comfortable not leaving trails all over the place in this day and age of security but I will also gladly add your name or identifier to any comments you wish to present.
There are many sites that force you to register with them before they will allow you to leave a comment or rate a video or interact with them in any way. Life is not like that and neither is this site. You may interact here if you like and to any degree you like. I'm not asking anyone to join a mailing list, I'm just asking you to enjoy.
The other thought that ran through my mind is how do I present criticism and could I be doing a better job. I think if I said that the President and Congress are a bunch of idiots that there is enough evidence presented daily for us to have a common ground of reference, but is that enough. Would it be a mere expression of emotion if that was all that was said? Would it be better if it were at least used as a starting point for dialogue and expanded on with specific examples of areas of idiocy and expanded even further with useful suggestions for improvement?
When looking at a movie review do we stop after looking at the number of stars given in the rating or do we look a little further to see if the reviewer has a similar take on things with common taste and interest so that we can relate their scale to our own? There is always a reason for feeling the way we do and trying to express why is sometimes difficult. When I was a child I didn't like peas but I couldn't explain why beyond the fact that "I just don't". Dang it if school teachers didn't expect more from me as I was growing up. And now I expect it of myself and I will be more aware of it thanks to this one commenter.
The last consideration to be taken, and this is one that is actually pleasing in a strange sort of way, is that this blogger has a reader.
Actually I know that there are others out there that read my site and I am grateful and hope you enjoy. I know that there are some who stumble on an entry and sometimes exit just as quickly when they realize it isn't what they were looking for but some will stay a little while and read and perhaps some will even explore. To one and all I say welcome, thank you, and enjoy. I know I have.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
12 August 2011
19 July 2011
Really, a gang of six?
It is time to comment on the state of the nations budgetary affairs. They are pathetic and only getting worse by the minute. Take the Gang of Six for example. A lousy name which means they have already been placed in the discredit category so no matter what the plan is they came up with, it has already been written off by those who wish to eliminate them as a possible contender for solutions.
And that is all right by me. The gang of six plan is really weak. It does not go far enough. Not nearly enough. To talk of cutting 4 Trillion dollars sounds austere but over a 10 year period it is really just more political ramblings designed to give them bragging rights back home, never meaning to be taken seriously. Even if it was honestly considered by anyone, you would notice that it is very vague in application merely pushing political hot topic buttons but doing very little in the way of reforming a very broken system that is on the verge of an implosion.
No one in Washington D.C. is taking the role of a true leader. No one dares stick their neck out and speak the truth and then take action based on truth. Everyone knows that the first person to present any kind of definable plan is the first one to get slaughtered because know the others have a target with which to aim their slings and arrows. Failure by consensuses is a far safer path for the average politician. And sadly we don’t even have average politicians anymore. They are all sub par.
Congress has never been known to ‘win the day’ on their own. They need someone to take charge, providing direction and purpose while providing the salesmanship necessary to placate the American public into non-confrontational acceptance of their new deal. Presidents have traditionally carried that burden or assumed that role. Don’t look for that this time around. This is one lesson that Obama didn’t quite learn from the Clintons and he is paying the price.
I don’t think he will pay the price nearly to the degree he deserves. There are still far too many people that are blindly in love with whatever they think he is. I hope they don’t wake up too late to realize the party is over and they have wasted the whole evening waiting for a prince charming who will never arrive.
As for the debt problem, reality says to me that we have it every bit as bad as Greece, and some of the others, we are just living in denial big time. The deadline will come and go and very little will be noticed by most. The real damage is yet to come as a last minute knee jerk reaction deal will be made that will allow the politicians to take a photo op, slap each other on the back and proclaim victory for our side (which ever that might be). Then the slide down hill will continue until the next masqueraded crisis rears its ugly head causing us all to take anxiety pills will our leaders forestall the inevitable. And all the while we are in our day of reckoning now and most don’t even recognize it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
And that is all right by me. The gang of six plan is really weak. It does not go far enough. Not nearly enough. To talk of cutting 4 Trillion dollars sounds austere but over a 10 year period it is really just more political ramblings designed to give them bragging rights back home, never meaning to be taken seriously. Even if it was honestly considered by anyone, you would notice that it is very vague in application merely pushing political hot topic buttons but doing very little in the way of reforming a very broken system that is on the verge of an implosion.
No one in Washington D.C. is taking the role of a true leader. No one dares stick their neck out and speak the truth and then take action based on truth. Everyone knows that the first person to present any kind of definable plan is the first one to get slaughtered because know the others have a target with which to aim their slings and arrows. Failure by consensuses is a far safer path for the average politician. And sadly we don’t even have average politicians anymore. They are all sub par.
Congress has never been known to ‘win the day’ on their own. They need someone to take charge, providing direction and purpose while providing the salesmanship necessary to placate the American public into non-confrontational acceptance of their new deal. Presidents have traditionally carried that burden or assumed that role. Don’t look for that this time around. This is one lesson that Obama didn’t quite learn from the Clintons and he is paying the price.
I don’t think he will pay the price nearly to the degree he deserves. There are still far too many people that are blindly in love with whatever they think he is. I hope they don’t wake up too late to realize the party is over and they have wasted the whole evening waiting for a prince charming who will never arrive.
As for the debt problem, reality says to me that we have it every bit as bad as Greece, and some of the others, we are just living in denial big time. The deadline will come and go and very little will be noticed by most. The real damage is yet to come as a last minute knee jerk reaction deal will be made that will allow the politicians to take a photo op, slap each other on the back and proclaim victory for our side (which ever that might be). Then the slide down hill will continue until the next masqueraded crisis rears its ugly head causing us all to take anxiety pills will our leaders forestall the inevitable. And all the while we are in our day of reckoning now and most don’t even recognize it.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
13 July 2011
I'm Back
Hello everyone. I'm afraid I've been a little busy lately, and more than a little distracted, but I have returned to share thoughts and insights but probably just to rant and vent.
In fact I have been so upset and angered by this countries lack of discipline, integrity, and sensibility while being driven by an overwhelming self-centered selfishness and an overpowering level of stupidity that my emotions got caught up in it all and I couldn't quite bring myself to compose from a reasonable centered me so I gave it up for awhile.
Anyone that has been watching the news for awhile will have noticed the insanity that has laid claim to the world around us and often makes it tempting to retreat into hibernation or at the very least begin practicing the life of a hermit.
But alas I am too far entrenched in day to day living to commit that form of social suicide. And neither should you if you are experiencing the same level of frustration of that external world that tries so hard to dominate our lives. It is at this point that we must stand and say "nuts to you" and move on with what we do, and that is to live the good life and fight the good fight. To accept anything less is to deny our true inheritance.
So what was the trigger that brings me back around. A little news article on the radio this morning that reported President Obama praising someone other than himself, a republican no less that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell. You have got to know that you are way off base when no less than Obama and Harry Reid are calling your ideas a 'serious proposal'.
So what is this 'serious proposal'? How about letting the President raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support. That's right, the Senate minority leader is suggesting that Congress forgo its duties and responsibilities and hand the President the last keys to national destruction. I don't know why they would bother since all three branches seem to be working in a concerted effort to accomplish the same willful degradation of the remnants of a once upon a time fine upstanding and well respected country.
If you understand the debt crisis at all, or even just a little you are shaking in your boots right now along with the rest of us, but it is not the core of the problem. It is not even center stage of our drama or worse yet in the eyes of the people that matter most, the citizens of this nation. It is also just one symptom of a long list of symptoms plaguing our country right now and its future is hanging in the balance.
Someone from the White House said "never let a good crisis go to waste" but the scary truth that walks hand in hand with that is 'if you don't have a crisis now, make one'. I don't know how much of what is happening is fabrication and deliberate manipulation but I have seen enough to make me think that there is a definite plan being played out and there are some who think they will gain power by allowing events to unfold the way they have. Over the past several years (and decades and beyond) these types of events have led those in power to excuse themselves in taking action that has undermined our freedoms and our liberties. And for all intense and purposes it is happening again. Just as we now joke at the cliche of 'do it for the children' (although I still hear that one used time and again) we are not laughing at the effects it has had on our lives. Last time we were all too willing to do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our homeland security. This time we will do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our economic security. And all the while we have willingly done 'whatever it takes', we have done so without really realizing what was taken. The physical and economic security that was once in our hands as been placed in the hands of another, and now we have neither.
Where is that country that was so highly praised for freedom and liberty and was hailed as a land of opportunity and righteousness? Where is that people that stood proudly for one nation under God and valued it so highly that many would willingly give their lives in defending it? Where are the voices of reason in the tumultuous din of stupidity?
It is not all gone...yet. It is not all forgotten...yet. Fear not to add your voice to reason. If it sounds like stupid and feels like stupid, please don't be afraid to say so. When stupid looks itself in the mirror, truth is revealed and reason can stand. It is time to let laughter and ridicule drive stupidity back into the long forgotten shadows from whence it came.
History is replete with examples where stupidity runs rampant, but it only last for awhile. For those of us looking for the better way, having lived it and knowing what it is, there is still a light of hope that all is not lost. There is still a chance for the return of sanity. And although I am predicting that there is the potential for some serious hard times ahead, both economically, politically and socially, there is still an opportunity for much good to come from all this. That is what I continue to look for, hope for and pray for. I hope that you will be doing the same.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
In fact I have been so upset and angered by this countries lack of discipline, integrity, and sensibility while being driven by an overwhelming self-centered selfishness and an overpowering level of stupidity that my emotions got caught up in it all and I couldn't quite bring myself to compose from a reasonable centered me so I gave it up for awhile.
Anyone that has been watching the news for awhile will have noticed the insanity that has laid claim to the world around us and often makes it tempting to retreat into hibernation or at the very least begin practicing the life of a hermit.
But alas I am too far entrenched in day to day living to commit that form of social suicide. And neither should you if you are experiencing the same level of frustration of that external world that tries so hard to dominate our lives. It is at this point that we must stand and say "nuts to you" and move on with what we do, and that is to live the good life and fight the good fight. To accept anything less is to deny our true inheritance.
So what was the trigger that brings me back around. A little news article on the radio this morning that reported President Obama praising someone other than himself, a republican no less that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell. You have got to know that you are way off base when no less than Obama and Harry Reid are calling your ideas a 'serious proposal'.
So what is this 'serious proposal'? How about letting the President raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support. That's right, the Senate minority leader is suggesting that Congress forgo its duties and responsibilities and hand the President the last keys to national destruction. I don't know why they would bother since all three branches seem to be working in a concerted effort to accomplish the same willful degradation of the remnants of a once upon a time fine upstanding and well respected country.
If you understand the debt crisis at all, or even just a little you are shaking in your boots right now along with the rest of us, but it is not the core of the problem. It is not even center stage of our drama or worse yet in the eyes of the people that matter most, the citizens of this nation. It is also just one symptom of a long list of symptoms plaguing our country right now and its future is hanging in the balance.
Someone from the White House said "never let a good crisis go to waste" but the scary truth that walks hand in hand with that is 'if you don't have a crisis now, make one'. I don't know how much of what is happening is fabrication and deliberate manipulation but I have seen enough to make me think that there is a definite plan being played out and there are some who think they will gain power by allowing events to unfold the way they have. Over the past several years (and decades and beyond) these types of events have led those in power to excuse themselves in taking action that has undermined our freedoms and our liberties. And for all intense and purposes it is happening again. Just as we now joke at the cliche of 'do it for the children' (although I still hear that one used time and again) we are not laughing at the effects it has had on our lives. Last time we were all too willing to do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our homeland security. This time we will do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our economic security. And all the while we have willingly done 'whatever it takes', we have done so without really realizing what was taken. The physical and economic security that was once in our hands as been placed in the hands of another, and now we have neither.
Where is that country that was so highly praised for freedom and liberty and was hailed as a land of opportunity and righteousness? Where is that people that stood proudly for one nation under God and valued it so highly that many would willingly give their lives in defending it? Where are the voices of reason in the tumultuous din of stupidity?
It is not all gone...yet. It is not all forgotten...yet. Fear not to add your voice to reason. If it sounds like stupid and feels like stupid, please don't be afraid to say so. When stupid looks itself in the mirror, truth is revealed and reason can stand. It is time to let laughter and ridicule drive stupidity back into the long forgotten shadows from whence it came.
History is replete with examples where stupidity runs rampant, but it only last for awhile. For those of us looking for the better way, having lived it and knowing what it is, there is still a light of hope that all is not lost. There is still a chance for the return of sanity. And although I am predicting that there is the potential for some serious hard times ahead, both economically, politically and socially, there is still an opportunity for much good to come from all this. That is what I continue to look for, hope for and pray for. I hope that you will be doing the same.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)