tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post3636966559548400784..comments2023-06-15T09:13:45.467-04:00Comments on Liberty's Torch: The Journey Of A LifetimeFrancis W. Porrettohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-25945200611427588142015-02-25T21:54:26.454-05:002015-02-25T21:54:26.454-05:00Ok, I'm taking time from my "busy" (...Ok, I'm taking time from my "busy" (falls off throne in hysteria...) schedule to read Polymath; and then be honest in my critique. Sheesh. The things I do for those who think like me. No offense intended. stormfriendAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-25401647002723260352015-02-24T03:51:44.517-05:002015-02-24T03:51:44.517-05:00Before this goes too much further, let me say, I&#...Before this goes too much further, let me say, I'm a pussy.<br /><br />I didn't watch that movie any further than after the guy got blown up in his car - 50 minutes.<br /><br />I like Disney movies. But Nicolas Cage is pretty engaging.<br /><br />I don't own a gun. What can I say? I'm they guy you are yelling at who knows we're going to hell in a hand basket but doesn't do "enough" about it.<br /><br />My best - only - friends are liberals. (see above, reference to "pussy") Heck, my wife watches MSNBC 4 hours a day. And I can't tell you the scorn that's been heaped on me when I tried to discuss "Atlas Shrugged."<br /><br />No excuses. I know it's as bad as you say it is. I hope I don't get swept under the first wave of violence and chaos. I probably will. I certainly haven't protected myself against the second.<br /><br />But there's an inertia, you know? I kinda hope - really hope - that the inertia will swing us back to the center.<br /><br />Not that this will "fix" anything, but that will avoid the cultural clash that surely needs to happen sooner or later.<br /><br />(See "pussy," above) Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-71338624269462885932015-02-24T02:42:39.788-05:002015-02-24T02:42:39.788-05:00This i gonna sound out of left field, but to quote...This i gonna sound out of left field, but to quote Nicolas Cage's character from 'Lords of War,' : "In my experience, some of the most successful relationships are based on lies and deceit. Since that's where they're gonna end up anyway, it's a logical place to start."<br /><br />It's all too easy to learn this lesson, once you've gotten past 3 years old with your hand in the cookie jar, 5 years old and realizing your parent's disappointment, and 12 years old and making a fool of yourself in front of a girl. (or boy, or whatever)<br /><br />You begin to imagine an alternate scenario, over and over. It doesn't have to be true, it just has to WORK, or be plausible in your mind, somehow. And all of a sudden - but not sudden, it might take years - you are no longer everything you've ever "been." Your thoughts and imagination become doubts even as you're taught what's real and historically true.<br /><br />And you become what you THINK. After all, isn't that the message? Everyone is worthwhile. Every yearning is an honest expression of the god within you?<br /><br />Your accomplishments have been thwarted by events beyond your control. Yes, you're a good person, aren't we all? What are you NOW?<br /><br />. . . and the guy gets a weapon, or whatever.<br /><br />If you get to 50 or 60, you probably were careful enough in your delusions to not get swept up in "that stuff." Or, maybe you were lucky.<br /><br />What the George Carlins and others of the world denigrate as Catholic or "right-wing assholedom" is the other possibilty: Maybe if you go to a school where you keep hearing the 10 commandments, humility, a belief in a higher power and a recognition that you are NOT perfect, you will at least entertain the idea that you are NOT the master of the universe and that every thought you have is not only sacred in your own mind for being yours, but possibly wrong.<br /><br />I agree that at every moment in your life you are everything you've ever been. I worry that that, "HERE I AM NOW!" moment is sometimes animated by the lies and deceits we tell ourselves to get past those awkward moments we invented to ameliorate the pain of our wrong choices.<br /><br />That is, I really don't trust "this moment" to be free of that wrong one.<br /><br />I think, in a world of 6 billion people, that will be true of a whole heck of a bunch of people. So, if you're the Pope, or Obama, or some bureaucrat in the EU, you're gonna start thinking, "Hmmm, how can I help these poor kids make the right choices."<br /><br />That's where we are now. AFTER the fact, we're trying to fix the problem, instead of trusting in biology, family, and local culture to do the job.<br /><br />(Capitalism - the way we market it - isn't innocent. "Think ahead!" "Be proactive!" Whatever. But that was was kinda your pointin the first place.)Tim Turnernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-38856202137732403662015-02-23T17:03:22.999-05:002015-02-23T17:03:22.999-05:00RevJen: I always try to pre-outline a new book, bu...RevJen: I always <i>try</i> to pre-outline a new book, but my outlines have a lot in common with battle plans: they never survive "contact with the enemy." The enemy, in this case, is my cast of characters, who always prove stronger than my intentions for the plot.<br /><br />My most recent surprise in this regard was <a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HIL3Q8C/" rel="nofollow"><b><i>Freedom's Fury.</i></b></a> I was certain I knew how that story was going to run. Yet by the fifth chapter the characters had ripped it completely out of my hands. I've had to swear to innumerable readers that Althea's love affair with Claire was <i>her</i> idea, not mine, but none of them believe me: They all claim I'm much too careful a planner and craftsman to let such a thing happen!<br />Francis W. Porrettohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05862584203772592282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6557458849091969678.post-45676295046286164612015-02-23T10:43:09.183-05:002015-02-23T10:43:09.183-05:00Fran, When you write a novel is it pretty well out...Fran, When you write a novel is it pretty well outlined in your mind when you start, or does it evolve as you write it, or some of both?<br />_revjen45Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com