Friday, December 30, 2011

RESEARCH AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

I read a lot.

I usually start my day reading things like The Huffington Post, Media Matters, a couple of liberal blogs, Hot Air, CNS News, The Drudge Report, The American Thinker and then I watch some stuff on the Blaze.

Some of the stuff I remember, some of it I don't.

I also don't always remember which place I got what information, because I read so many article in so many places.

Nevertheless, I AM able to gather the principles presented in those resources and arrange them in my mind for personal analysis and interpretation.

Steven Wright (my favorite stand-up comedian) says, "Stealing an idea from one person is called plagiarism. Stealing ideas from a bunch of people is called research."

I do a lot of research.

Then I write MY conclusions on my blog.

Some of my commenters get upset with me because I don't "document" everything I write, as though failure to document somehow affects it veracity.

Of course, that is utter nonsense.

If Harry Reid said something, he said it whether or not I note the source where I first read about it.

So, I don't document everything I write about.

If you are a liberal and you don't like that...get over it.

This is my blog where I write about what interests me...period.

I don't even care whether or not you believe what I write.

I don't write anything I haven't first documented in my own mind, and that's the only mind that matters to me.

There are some special places I go to read blogs that I really love.

Geeeeez! is one of those places.  So is Important Stuff--Or Not.

The are a lot of others, so if I left you out (which I obviously did, since I only mentioned two), please forgive me.

If it is listed on my side bar, I read it almost daily.

I particularly like LR's 25 Immutable Truths About Liberals and his Talking Points.

The thing about research is that its interpretation depends on whether you approach it from a liberal or a conservative point of view.

The same set of facts might well lead to quite different conclusions from a liberal than they do from a conservative.

I'm a conservative.

THERE ARE FOUR PRINCIPLES THAT DEFINE TRUE CONSERVATISM:

1. Respect for The Constitution
2. Respect for Life
3. The Smallest Possible Government
4. Individual Responsibility

This blog is about my philosophy of government, which is a very conservative philosophy.

You are not required to agree with me (although you would be better off if you did).

I am biased toward conservatism, and make no apologies for that.

Freedom means not being controlled by the government, that being the very reason we declared our independence from Great Britain.

Government's job is not to provide things for people, but to provide the opportunity for people to pursue the things they want via the vehicles of freedom and responsibility.

So there you have it.

The next time you decide to castigate me for not "documenting" what I write, remember this: I am not your student and you are not my professor. This is not a term paper, nor is it a research paper.

This is my blog.

These are my ideas, quirky though they may or may not be.

You neither have to read it or comment on it, though you are welcome to do either or both.

Just keep it clean and relevant to the topic at hand...or else the dreaded "delete" button will be exercised.

25 comments:

Xavier Onassis said...

You're entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts.

If you state something as a fact, and it's not a fact, you can expect to be called out on it.

Anonymous said...

Joe, how can you tolerate these people?

How can you take these card-carrying people seriously?

I’ll stop here for now, I feel my blood pressure rising.

Joe said...

XO: I am entitled to whatever I want on my blog.

You can call all you want, but it won't matter one iota.

You are tolerated because you have refrained from foul language and you provide fodder for the conservatives who comment here.

You also help me verify my opinion of liberals in general.

If I state something as a fact, you can be sure it is a fact or I would not state it.

Joe said...

MMU: I don't take them seriously.

I tolerate them to prove my point(s) about them.

(See the above comment.)

sue hanes said...

Joe - I read your Blog and check it several times a day because I know that fundamentally you are the same kind of person that I am.

However we are on different sides of the Poliical Fence.

I make incoherent comments on your blog because I am not smart enough to make good ones. But I love blogging and want to be a part of it.

I think you run a good, consistant blog Joe - I just don't happen to agree with the stuff that you write.

But Joe - I am glad that your blog exists and it is an important part of the Blogosphere.

Xavier Onassis said...

Joe - If I used my blog to spread lies and misinformation (that's what it is called when you present something as a fact when it's really not a fact) I would fully expect to be held up to ridicule and exposed.

Welcome to the Internet.

Ducky's here said...

You're right on one thing, Joe, Steve Wright rocks.

Used to always hit his shows when he was starting out at the late lamented
Ding Ho Comedy Club when I was living on Concord Ave. in Somerville.

The place is a legend.

Trekkie4Ever said...

Joe, this is your blog and you can post whatever you want if the liberals here don't like it, too bad.

Happy New Year!

Lone Ranger said...

Doesn't matter whether it's XO, Stalin, Mao or any other left-winger, all their brains are wired alike. Opposing voices should be silenced. Only the "truth" should be allowed to be heard. And, of course, THEY will determine what the truth is.

Joe said...

XO: "(that's what it is called when you present something as a fact when it's really not a fact).

Well why don't you stop doing it, then?

Xavier Onassis said...

Joe - Provide one example where I have.

Tonto's Boyfriend - Truth is objective, not subjective. But I doubt you know the difference.

Lone Ranger said...

As a journalist, who writes for an international audience and could trigger an international incident if I'm wrong, I know the difference. And what is it that Ducky said about ad hominem attacks?

I'm rubber, you're glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks to you. What are you, 12?

By the way, my Tonto is a beautiful blond lawyer who lives in California. I'd post her picture, but that would violate her privacy.

Joe said...

XO: "Provide one example where I have."

No. Not because I can't, because I won't.

Joe said...

Leticia: Thanks! My point to this absurd string of liberal commenters is that they don't get to tell me what I can and cannot blog, what I must do with my blog, or control me on my blog.

It's working!

Joe said...

XO: "Provide one example where I have."

No. Not because I can't, because I won't.

A Blue Girl said...

I sympathize with the Libertarians who want Ron Paul as their presidential nominee. As I sympathize with those people who wanted an Marxist like Barack Obama for their President.
I also sympathize with those who are in mental institutions, and in homeless shelters. You see I have sympathy for all those who are deprived of God given brains.

Ducky's here said...

Joe, what do you read to gather the opposition opinion?

What "liberal" sites do you read?

Ducky's here said...

abluegiriami --- a lot of you fringe right wingers throw around the term "Marxist" as if you understand it. What are some of the critical points in your definition of Marxism?

Hegelian dialectic?

Labor theory of value?

Strict materialism?

Joe said...

Ducky: "What "liberal" sites do you read?"

They are listed at the lower right of my side bar...along with appropriate warnings.

Xavier Onassis said...

Ducky - On his list of Liberal Blogs he reads, mine earned a rating of "Danger Level HIGH".

ROFLMAO!

Yeah, I'm a danfgerous man with dangerous ideas!

Actually I suspect the rating is more due to the fact that I try to work an "F bomb" into at least every paragraph if not every sentence.

It tends to keep the riff raff out.

sue hanes said...

Joe - Happy New Year!

The Very Best to You and Bonnie in
2012.


Sue

I Ain't Got No Blog said...

It seems as if whoever criticizes Obama's policies is a "racist"
One has to look no further then here, at what I found this morning.

http://newquestionman.wordpress.com/

Every time anyone says anything negative about this man they are accused of being a racist!
Is this what American has come to?
Is this what has happened to our free speech and our right to criticize and disagree with the way our government is run?
My God, what has this man do to this one time great nation in such a short period and what will he do if he has 4 more years to do it in?

It's frightening.

Teresa said...

Joe, Xavier and his ilk only think your facts aren't really facts because much of what he knows just ain't so. They buy into what the culture says what are "facts" and what isn't true without actually doing the research to find out what is and isn't true. Keep on doing the research and spreading the truth Joe.

Joe said...

Teresa: Yeah. The only "facts" they have are from extreme left-leaning "sources" which support their agenda.

If a conservative surce proclaims that the Atlantic Ocean is larger than the Gulf of Mexico, they will proclaim it to be a lie by the right-wing nut cases.

They are intrinsically hopeless. They can't help themselves. They have a disease called liberalism...a bona fide mental disorder.

tammy said...

"If you are a liberal and you don't like that...get over it."

Guess they can't get over it.