By "The Better Letter," I thought you meant a “better” example. Perhaps, you’re equivocating – viz., that you’re better at it than others.
For example, in laudably contemning mis-, mal-, dis- information, you argue from / appeal to authority (e.g., the Bible, three times) and splenetically reify disinformation. Hyperbolized, no less.
You ask, "How many times did Adam Schiff do MSNBC hits to tell us he'd seen the evidence that would finally do Donald Trump in? Fifty times? More. One hundred times? More. Two hundred times? More. Five hundred times? Probably."
I submit that Rep. Schiff, as a trained attorney (Stanford undergrad; Harvard law; former Assistant United States Attorney; eleven term Congressman) would never use those words. Doubtless he said, with professional conviction, that "there is ample evidence to support a finding of collusion" and/or "of obstruction." But “finally do Donald Trump in”?
Please cite your source(s). Or appropriately revise / redact. Thank you.
Well done, Bob - yet I wonder a bit at the lack of discussion about the reasons why our current media is ruled by purveyors of such misinformation. Why does all media do this?
IMHO, it is because they are fighting for our attention - after all, they believe themselves to be authority figures with important information that they hope will influence our purchasing decisions! If it bleeds, titillates, fascinates, frightens, or repulses, it captures our attention which is all that really matters to media, since that is how they stay in business. After all, the media is a strictly commercial enterprise with a laser focus on profitability.
That is the reason why, as you state, the MSM will keep making these sorts of errors, because "no one will hold them accountable." Emphasis on "no one" and "them" - because someone must take action. Someone other than me, that is.
Yet in a market system, isn't each individual accountable for their own choices? Doesn't the "invisible hand" save us by allowing the chips to fall where they may? This is, I think, where the capitalist markets theory breaks down. There is no "I" in team, and what our species has done is, and has always been, a team effort.
Our species has risen in its ability to shape our world and our survival mostly due to our ability as a team to learn from our mistakes. We developed language to improve our accountability for clear communication with others. We developed religion to improve our accountability for acting morally within our tribal norms. We developed capitalism to improve our accountability for economic relationships. We developed the scientific method to improve our accountability for understanding the natural processes that affect us - including those that cause illness.
We developed government to improve our accountability for behaving in ways that were deemed right and legal by those with power. And then we developed democratic government to improve the accountability of those who govern us.
Yet despite all of these, we have never yet developed a truly effective means for each of us to be fully individually accountable for our own actions. We scream for freedom from the oppressions placed on us by others, but fail to free ourselves from the illusion that our individual fate is not inextricably and completely linked to the fate of our species.
This is not a right/left, conservative/liberal, red/blue question. It is far, far deeper than that. To whom are we individually accountable, if not to one another? And what is the mechanism that will be sufficient to improve our accountability to one another before we annihilate ourselves on the altar of individual freedom?
By "The Better Letter," I thought you meant a “better” example. Perhaps, you’re equivocating – viz., that you’re better at it than others.
For example, in laudably contemning mis-, mal-, dis- information, you argue from / appeal to authority (e.g., the Bible, three times) and splenetically reify disinformation. Hyperbolized, no less.
You ask, "How many times did Adam Schiff do MSNBC hits to tell us he'd seen the evidence that would finally do Donald Trump in? Fifty times? More. One hundred times? More. Two hundred times? More. Five hundred times? Probably."
I submit that Rep. Schiff, as a trained attorney (Stanford undergrad; Harvard law; former Assistant United States Attorney; eleven term Congressman) would never use those words. Doubtless he said, with professional conviction, that "there is ample evidence to support a finding of collusion" and/or "of obstruction." But “finally do Donald Trump in”?
Please cite your source(s). Or appropriately revise / redact. Thank you.
Well done, Bob - yet I wonder a bit at the lack of discussion about the reasons why our current media is ruled by purveyors of such misinformation. Why does all media do this?
IMHO, it is because they are fighting for our attention - after all, they believe themselves to be authority figures with important information that they hope will influence our purchasing decisions! If it bleeds, titillates, fascinates, frightens, or repulses, it captures our attention which is all that really matters to media, since that is how they stay in business. After all, the media is a strictly commercial enterprise with a laser focus on profitability.
That is the reason why, as you state, the MSM will keep making these sorts of errors, because "no one will hold them accountable." Emphasis on "no one" and "them" - because someone must take action. Someone other than me, that is.
Yet in a market system, isn't each individual accountable for their own choices? Doesn't the "invisible hand" save us by allowing the chips to fall where they may? This is, I think, where the capitalist markets theory breaks down. There is no "I" in team, and what our species has done is, and has always been, a team effort.
Our species has risen in its ability to shape our world and our survival mostly due to our ability as a team to learn from our mistakes. We developed language to improve our accountability for clear communication with others. We developed religion to improve our accountability for acting morally within our tribal norms. We developed capitalism to improve our accountability for economic relationships. We developed the scientific method to improve our accountability for understanding the natural processes that affect us - including those that cause illness.
We developed government to improve our accountability for behaving in ways that were deemed right and legal by those with power. And then we developed democratic government to improve the accountability of those who govern us.
Yet despite all of these, we have never yet developed a truly effective means for each of us to be fully individually accountable for our own actions. We scream for freedom from the oppressions placed on us by others, but fail to free ourselves from the illusion that our individual fate is not inextricably and completely linked to the fate of our species.
This is not a right/left, conservative/liberal, red/blue question. It is far, far deeper than that. To whom are we individually accountable, if not to one another? And what is the mechanism that will be sufficient to improve our accountability to one another before we annihilate ourselves on the altar of individual freedom?
No physician would ever expect a threatening letter such as this:
http://elinks.abpeds.org/m/1/85282638/02-b21252-8a50ee60497b4c178f4250359a4706c5/1/826/f50709f2-81a4-478b-8867-567dd1a12b58#