In spite of it being a nasty mid-March day, I was glad to find we’re getting rain instead of snow, so hopefully the temps will remain above freezing, just so we don’t find snow on the ground in the morning. Now that we’re on the downward slide of March, I’m already beginning to see small patches of green appearing on the ground.
Most of my morning was spent with follow-up phone calls and emails, and the remainder spent out searching for an apartment-size gas range. I was just a bit annoyed when stopping at Zilge’s Appliance Center and finding they didn’t have the stove available which their website said was in stock, and the one there, was over two hundred dollars more. Of course the salesperson offered to order one which could take up to two weeks to get here, which I passed on. I then checked other appliance stores until I found the last remaining one at Menard’s which happened to be their floor model. I went ahead and purchased it, because it was around the same price as what Zilge’s would’ve been, if they had in stock the one I wanted. It absolutely amazes me when knowing how many times I’ve found something smaller, costing more.
One of my dear friends forwarded me an article from the front page of the Globe Gazette, and only because she knows I try to keep up on what’s happening in our State government. Believe me, I personally wasn’t a happy camper when reading about what looks like a power grab by our Governor with her so-called consolidation of departments, along with placing what looks like, every facet of our State’s management, under her, or her minions control. What I thought the most laughable, was her saying she’d get better upper-level administrators by boosting their salaries, but you can be darned sure, she’ll be first looking at their political affiliations, which I consider terribly wrong. It’s beginning to look like a religious order where they only elevate those of the same denomination. Well, there is a strong comparison to be drawn from it.
After I had all my afternoon tasks completed, I discovered I had well over two hours of free time, so I went online and checked the news, and by the way, I’m glad there are those of you who do read news coming out of the most trustworthy feeds, and I was reminded today about another I check often, and named, dw.com, which is a highly rated German newspaper in English.
There was an interview which caught my eye, so I went ahead and watched it, which was a reporter interviewing Anne Applebaum who’s a reporter/journalist that’s been held in high regard for several decades. I was passingly familiar with her over the years, but not until today, did I realize the number of books she’s published. That woman has definitely got a good understanding of how our world has been evolving. The thrust of today’s interview, was her take on what’ll likely happen with Russia after the war they started, is finally over.
After doing a few searches on her, I discovered she recently released a book which I’ll be ordering called, “Twilight of Democracy – The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.”, and by the reviews she’s received, I’m sure it’ll be a good read.
When I was visiting with someone today, I couldn’t for the life of me, remember a certain terminology for people who continue to insist they’re right, when all the facts prove them wrong, and after remembering it, I went searching for the various facets of Denialism, which I happened to find, so I’m now going to share the bulk of them with you.
First of all, the tactics of Denialism is made up of one or many of the following which are, conspiracy theories, cherry picking, false experts, moving goal posts and logical fallacies comprised of false analogies, appealing to consequences, attacking a straw man, and creating a red herring, all of which offers them a foothold in defense of their groundless facts. Of course their lines of defense are to avoid confronting those who have the facts, delegitimize what being offered them, or downright limiting those who’re attempting to educate them to the truth.
Oh my goodness! Now that I’ve actually placed to print the many facets of Denialism, a number of people I personally know have come rushing to mind, and the first one being a woman whom I was attempting to educate her to a truth, suddenly placing her hands over her ears while saying, “If I don’t want to hear what someone is saying, I’m able to close my ears to it.” After that statement came out of her mouth, I was convinced she was fully immersed in denial.
I happened to be confronted by a male dotard several years ago who absolutely would not stop spewing his conspiracy theories, and every time I tried to reason with him, he’d throw me a red herring or name some obscure false expert whom I’d never heard of, but later found that person being one of those “experts” a person would find on one of those call-in late-night radio programs. Truth be told, he was so angry at the time, I finally had to soft-peddle myself out of that conversation, and start backing away in the direction of my vehicle. Yes, we have some real wackos living in North Iowa, but keep in mind, I’ve only mentioned two of the many we have living in Iowa and across our Nation.
After reading that Globe Gazette article today, I’m now convinced Iowa’s no longer the cross-cut of our Nation, and nevermore shall we hear people insisting that, how Iowa goes, so goes our Nation. Wouldn’t you rather see Iowa become neither a blue nor red State, but rather a purple State? Purple happens to be one of my favorite colors.
Tonight’s One-liner is: The surest way to remain poor, is to be an honest person.