A little something I've been noodling on

[TKennedy]

He is not a CEO in the traditional sense. He had no shareholders or board of directors. He was a monarch/dictator with no one to answer to but himself. I cant think of a worse qualification for president.

[aquaduct]

Nov 7, 2019 17:02:02 GMT -5 TKennedy said:

You guys ever served on the board of directors of any organization that you didn’t know much about and whose operations did not easily dovetail into your prior life experience and education?

I have and it took me at least a couple of years to figure out what the hell was going on and become a real contributor to the job.

At the very least a candidate for higher office should undergo a six month to one year course in government, American history and economics and pass a basic exam before being turned loose. Even a citizenship test would be better than nothing.

But candidates don't have to. Government of the people, by the people, yada, yada.

And the board positions aren't anything like government positions. Boards have rules that need to be obeyed under penalty of law, whether the board members really fully understand what's going on or not. Violate your fiduciary responsibilities and you go to jail. Period.

We're at the point where government doesn't have a single rule of every day operation that can't be violated at will. Want to spend more money? Raise the debt ceiling. Don't want to create a budget? Continuing resolution. Can't pass a law? Executive order. Hell, in 2007 they decided they could violate the laws of physics so they went out and got themselves a Supreme Court ruling that said they could and that was good enough.

No, no comparison at all.

[Cornflake]

The corporate analogy is admittedly imperfect. But the Constitution gives some of the powers of a board of directors to Congress. We're seeing them exercised right now. And his shareholders are the voters.

[aquaduct]

Nov 7, 2019 19:24:33 GMT -5 Cornflake said:

The corporate analogy is admittedly imperfect. But the Constitution gives some of the powers of a board of directors to Congress. We're seeing them exercised right now. And his shareholders are the voters.

The Executive acts by and large on the orders of the Legislative. I'd argue that what we're seeing now is the President fighting back against the Legislative and their unelected lackeys in the Administrative State. The impeachment show is the Administrative State kicking back against the multiple threats to their pretty cozy gig that Trump has very smartly unleashed.

[Cornflake]

I think I understand your position, Peter. Wish you well.

[aquaduct]

You too my friend.

[epaul]

There are LENSES and there are lenses.

The LENS we use that allows us to see a gear instead of bunch of wiggly lines, an object rather than the dance of atoms, the LENS that allows us to make things that work is a common biological LENS we share; share not only with each other but also with monkeys and dogs and field mice. That LENS is a hard wired survival mechanism passed critter to critter down the evolutionary highway.

The lens(es) that filters our perception of Trump or God or the Green Bay Packers is a lens of another sort entirely, not biological but psychological, not inherent but acquired, not integral but attached.

I could go on but I hear the ice cracking.

[epaul]

BTW, Jeff, come the annual Soundhole Strings Awards this Feb., I will be nominating your opening post for the "Best Integration of Graphics into a Post" award. I will also be nominating you for the "Best Submission of Original Art" award.

That was an impressive post. Still is.

[Marshall]

I think it's more of a 3 dimensional thing. The chaos is complex collection of 3 dimensional scribbles/shapes/objects. And what you see (your lens) depends on where you stand in relation to the chaos. Things line up differently depending on where you stand in relation to it. I'm trying to find a picture of a sculpture I've seen, where from the side it looks like a pile of junk, but from one precise angle the objects line up and make the face of a man. I don't know what that kind of sculpture is called, so I can't find an example. But that's what I think is happening. What you see depends on where you stand.

[Marshall]

Here you go



They're called optical illusion sculptures

[Marshall]

[epaul]

There is a fundamental difference in the means by which we perceive an issue and the means by which we perceive an object (discounting the superficial trickery of fog or art).

A statue of a cow may mean different things to each who views it (especially if forced to discuss it in art class), but all will see the same object, an object that looks like a cow (or water buffalo or whatever large bovine is present in your land of origin).

You may wake up believing or not believing in a god, but you will not wake up and see a large squirrel picking up the kids at the street corner, you will see a school bus. It will always appear as a school bus, it will never appear as a large squirrel (portions of Indiana excepted).

We all see the same tree, mountain, charging grizzly bear, or apple. The indecipherable mumble jumble of philosophy 101 aside, we all experience the same reality. If we walk into a wall, we stop. If we fall into a lake, we get wet. We all share a common LENS. And we share this common LENS with the rest of the animal kingdom. That's where our LENS came from (well, with those in our phylum, at least). Our dog sees the same ball we see. And he fetches (or ignores) that ball when we throw it.

As it (the topic) can not be avoided, we all see the same Trump. We may view him differently, but we all see the same Trump, and it's the same Trump the White House mouse sees while it's out gathering pastry crumbs in the Oval Office.

We animals all have the same LENS. The same reality. We can fiddle around with filters and whiskey, but the Wall itself, our Wall, is there and we don't walk through it.

[drlj]

I thought this had to do with a new song. It does not look one bit musical to me.