Cogitations

Operating web sites, even a personal website such as this, provides detailed insights into one aspect of the extent and the pervasiveness of evil on planet earth. In this instance, the evil is the apparent constant assaults by would-be intruders of various sorts on every one of the millions of web sites running all over planet earth. Even this personal web site is subject to a constant barrage of website attackers, trying incessantly to break into it. One has to wonder what exactly all these web site assailants believe they’ll accomplish by breaking into internet servers, especially trying to break into a website such as this. Such speculative questions are relevant because this web site isn’t a bank, a government, or a retailer, with personal customer or citizen information stored in its supporting database.

As Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has taken up the 1968 song America, by Simon & Garfunkel, as the slogan for his Presidential campaign • • •

That high taxation, heavy government regulation, administrative bureaucrats doling out "free stuff" paid for by a pixie dust magical wealthy "other", forced civilian disarmament, notion of the United States, is not the America I was thinking of when I first heard the song  America by Simon & Garfunkel when I was still a child in 1968.

Hearing the lyrics, "to hitchhike from Saginaw", while living not too far from Saginaw, and thinking about the lyric • • •

"... to Look for America"

The Grinding Gears of Life

More often than one might expect, as life's gears grind against each other, the age old adage, “the best laid plans …” applies quite directly to trying to live life as a human being on our planet earth, and more importantly to trying to make progress with work on one’s primary life aspirations. It often seems as though one’s very life plans must include provisions for the seemingly inevitable intrusions that nearly invariably arise to lead one’s plans astray. One can only hope as well that such distractions and diversions don’t also lead one's aspirations asunder. There comes a threshold however, beyond which it becomes clear that life, and one’s associated time left to live this wonderful human life that we each have, are limited resources that must be marshaled expediently, before one’s passing decades expire.

It is extremely difficult to resist the urge to gripe now and again. It seems as though there is a lot to gripe about these days. However, might griping have its own positive aspects?

It's fascinating to observe divergence into meta discussion within discussion and conversation, to observe and be aware of the phenomenon, especially when other people seem unaware of what is happening. Whether during online forum discussions, or within the context of face to face discussions, sometimes discussions that diverge into meta-discussions are quite entertaining in and of themselves. Often when a discussion diverges into a meta-discussion, it provides an opportunity, a meta-opportunity really, to observe the ability of the person or people in the discussion to keep track of the primary discussion topic(s) in addition to the subsidiary and divergent discussion topics at hand.