@egm-2
Active 7 hours, 24 minutes ago-
skipper commented on the post, Real 6 years, 6 months ago
A new dimension in reality beyond electronics! Thanks. SKipper
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skipper wrote a new post, Real 6 years, 6 months ago
Mariner was sitting in his living room chair the other day taking a break from working outside in Iowa’s mid ninety temperatures and its supercharged humidity. He absentmindedly was looking about the room and no […]
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skipper wrote a new post, UBI 6 years, 6 months ago
No sooner had mariner posted the last post about a new stratum, within minutes his wife handed him an article in the latest New Yorker magazine about universal base income (UBI)[1]. UBI is a concept where […]
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skipper commented on the post, A New Stratum 6 years, 6 months ago
Mariner understands your concern. What if meritocracy were defined as the right to be cared for? What is outdated about the US experiment in meritocracy is that everyone can’t be free or enabled at the same time. The European stratum in the eighteenth century was very much like today – elitist, economically unfair, and had strident religious…[Read more]
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skipper wrote a new post, A New Stratum 6 years, 6 months ago
The planet Earth has many layers of rock that have accumulated over eons of time. Each new layer sits atop an older layer. One layer is called a stratum. We who live on the surface are not aware of the many strata […]
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This is very interesting. I question the word meritocracy as it has overtones of elitism to me (because I would not rise very high in the ranks of a meritocracy!) I prefer equality of opportunity to a system that stratifies by ability. How does a meritocracy protect those with less merit but still have human needs? The bright and able will always manage somehow. Or have I totally missed the point!
The key sentence in your essay is “Importantly, what will happen to me!” That is my concern!
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Mariner understands your concern. What if meritocracy were defined as the right to be cared for? What is outdated about the US experiment in meritocracy is that everyone can’t be free or enabled at the same time. The European stratum in the eighteenth century was very much like today – elitist, economically unfair, and had strident religious qualifications. The US sought to escape the old stratum by freeing every citizen to be and do whatever is best for each citizen. As the post referenced in the spinning top analogy, it is time to rewind and toss again.
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skipper wrote a new post, Unplugged as Metaphor 6 years, 6 months ago
There was discussion about mariner’s self-imposed ‘isolation.’ It was perceived that mariner had separated himself from society by blocking channels of communication and information. It was suggested that, while […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Unplugged 6 years, 6 months ago
Mariner continues his elimination of television viewing. Except for tennis tournaments and a few PBS shows, the television sits dark. This attitude spreads to other means of communication. Noting that Verizon’s f […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Immigration and the Church 6 years, 6 months ago
In the days when Jesus was around, Israel was a theocracy. A theocracy is a nation run largely under the control of religion. The same was true in western culture when the Holy Roman Catholic Church dominated […]
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skipper wrote a new post, A Top Down Look 6 years, 6 months ago
Regular readers know that for several weeks mariner has been in spiritual sequestration. He deliberately retreated from any news source and ceased reading and searching for the latest tragedy, nonsense, and […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Privacy is the Right to Choose 6 years, 6 months ago
Privacy and choice are
two sides of the same coin
Can’t have one without
the other
Think about it
Ancient Mariner
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skipper wrote a new post, Share First, Bicker Later 6 years, 7 months ago
Will Rogers is mentioned from time to time in past posts. He is a member of mariner’s “Heroes of Human Life Hall of Fame.” In today’s post, mariner draws from Will’s life an example of genuine compassion and true […]
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skipper wrote a new post, On Being a Shut-in – 2 6 years, 7 months ago
Mariner thanks readers who responded with replies and emails. All were supportive. One reader suggested ‘shut-out’ would be a better term because the fact is there is no room for mariner in the state of the […]
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skipper wrote a new post, On Being a Shut-in 6 years, 7 months ago
Each of us knows at least one person who is a shut-in. There are different reasons for being a shut-in. If one is infirm, disabled, or functionally incompetent, obviously one has no choice but to live in the […]
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I am so sorry that Trump has beaten us into the ground, aided and abetted by his base, and the Republican Party that goes along with his repugnant personality and policies in order to get whatever it is they want. Power, I guess. It is a long, strange time in this country. It is no wonder Mariner wants to secede. We used to take cookies to the shut ins at Christmas time, because we thought the cookies would help to make their day a little brighter. I would bring cookies to Mariner’s door, but alas, he is on a carb restricted diet. Maybe that is part of the problem!
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Very, very sad. Almost like our friend Robert Barnes who has chosen to “live”in a nursing home where he has access to cable TV and the internet rather than actually work with a real doctor to regain the ability to get out of a chair or bed and be able to go home. I understand your malaise and feeling of hopelessness. I guess I’m almost with you in staying aloof from politics and preferring to work on language dictionaries and aged records than take part in protests or hand out flyers. I still vote, write scathing comments on Facebook, and sign petitions and occasionally write to Congress people, but that’s about it. But I still can see glimmers of hope and I’ll hang on to these faint hopes until Trump has been re-elected, then I’m pulling the covers over my head.
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Maybe instead of thinking of yourself as a “shut-in” you should use the term “shut-off”. You have shut-off the outside world in order to save your sanity and to better find your inner peace. The chaos and confusion will take care of itself just as you should maybe take the time now to take care of yourself. Focus inward to find the answers, the peace, love and joy that are in your life and get to know “thyself”.
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skipper wrote a new post, Just the Facts, Ma’am 6 years, 7 months ago
‘Fake News,’ conspiracy theory facts, salesman facts, politician facts, personal experience facts, in fact, any facts are not sacrosanct. They are subject to interpretation, pejorative evaluation, dism […]
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skipper wrote a new post, The World is Flat – a Growing Truth 6 years, 7 months ago
The news and other public activities struggle with fake news promoted always with an ulterior motive. It makes it difficult for the average citizen because fact checking, or at least cross referencing, is a new […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Environment as a Change Agent 6 years, 7 months ago
65 million years ago during the early Paleocene, the first primate-like creature evolved from the family Plesiadaptis. It was a small tree-climbing mammal that looked more like an insect-eating tree shrew. It was […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Corporatism – the Overlooked Enemy 6 years, 8 months ago
PBS news covered a story today about the National Football League setting rules for how football players must behave, the issue being whether the players can kneel in protest of racial and law enforcement abuse […]
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skipper wrote a new post, Economic Strangulation 6 years, 8 months ago
It was Jean-Paul Sartre who wrote, “When the rich wage war it’s the poor who die.” This quote comes to mind as mariner reads no less than four sources writing simultaneously about the effect of oligarchical and […]
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skipper wrote a new post, God’s Christmas Garden Redux 6 years, 8 months ago
Such a noise! Mariner is accused of intended obfuscation. Apparently, today’s readers do not need a theistic justification for the powerful mandates of the universe. Nevertheless, mariner used the logic model of t […]
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skipper wrote a new post, God’s Christmas Garden 6 years, 8 months ago
There is a strain of theology that suggests the phenomenon we call history is evidence of a God who is not necessarily a god of intercession but who has set certain conditions in place that cause reaction and […]
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A new dimension in reality beyond electronics! Thanks. SKipper
I enjoy that I can walk to my bank and recognize the people that work there, and they recognize me. That’s kind of unique in this city, at my age, and I remind myself not to take it for granted.