TrueTomHarley

Think Santa Claus

Saying your own work is a disaster necessitating repair efforts is not exactly self-praise. 

Finally we get into discussion of the deep questions of life.
One verse I will never apply to JWI is that of the lazy man turning on his bed like a door on its hinge.

Finally we get into discussion of the deep questions of life.
One verse I will never apply to JWI is that of the lazy man turning on his bed like a door on its hinge.

For once, I will help 4Jah. I’ve turned over a new leaf.
Think Frank Sinatra: “When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...”

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and whats true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), the lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”

Back when salesman jokes were in vogue (September 1936 issue) the following was somehow considered a good one:
Worried pencil-selling business partner: We buy these pencils for 3 cents and sell them for 2 cents. We're losing money on every sale! How are we ever going to make a profit? Reassuring pencil-selling business parter: Volume!!* * Alternative: "We'll make it up in volume!"
 

Now I know why I lost my fortune and am reduced to selling pencils to get by. 
When I called Klaus Schwab to complain about his crummy stock tip, he shrugged. “What do you expect from me?” he said. “I think you meant to go to Charles Schwab. Sorry about the pencils.”

“American scholar of religion Holly Folk show[s] ...that, although there have been cases of sexual abuse by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of perpetrators is not higher, and may actually be significantly lower, when compared to the prevalence of sexual abuse in other religions and in our modern societies in general. It is also not true, Folk said, that Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose reporting of cases of sexual abuse to secular authorities when it is mandated by the laws, nor that they sanction those who report. When governmental documents or media repeat unfounded allegations by anti-cultists, or single out Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely alleging that sexual abuse is more prevailing in their congregations than in other groups or in society in general, they are consciously or unconsciously supporting an agenda that attacks the Witnesses for reasons that have little to do with the protection of the victims of abuse.”
https://bitterwinter.org/jehovahs-witnesses-why-are-they-persecuted/?fbclid=IwAR28ZZKjsBCMX3Ht_ufL_LQa5JtgEWCVhYfGKSo8CePLQBjEb5-n_9mUnsE
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2020/02/i-almost-wish-there-would-be-more-public-response.html

Not to worry. Elon Musk tried to recruit me for an alien search space expedition. “I’ve got preaching to do,” I told him. “I can’t blow my time on that nonsense.”

Keep it up, @Arauna. I expect him to drop of a rage heart attack any minute now.

You would not speak so flippantly if you were more knowledgeable about Pig Science, a field in which they know more Pig Latin than you do the real stuff.

“American scholar of religion Holly Folk show[s] ...that, although there have been cases of sexual abuse by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of perpetrators is not higher, and may actually be significantly lower, when compared to the prevalence of sexual abuse in other religions and in our modern societies in general. It is also not true, Folk said, that Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose reporting of cases of sexual abuse to secular authorities when it is mandated by the laws, nor that they sanction those who report. When governmental documents or media repeat unfounded allegations by anti-cultists, or single out Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely alleging that sexual abuse is more prevailing in their congregations than in other groups or in society in general, they are consciously or unconsciously supporting an agenda that attacks the Witnesses for reasons that have little to do with the protection of the victims of abuse.”
https://bitterwinter.org/jehovahs-witnesses-why-are-they-persecuted/?fbclid=IwAR28ZZKjsBCMX3Ht_ufL_LQa5JtgEWCVhYfGKSo8CePLQBjEb5-n_9mUnsE
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2020/02/i-almost-wish-there-would-be-more-public-response.html

Come now. Since the purpose of impeachment is to remove a sitting president and he is going to be gone in less than a week anyhow, I think there just may be some grandstanding going on.
You may have noticed a Republican member of Congress means to file impeachment proceedings of Biden over Ukrainian matters. From now on nobody will do anything at all in those two Houses except try to impeach the other. Great system of human rulership that you advocate.

You’re entire premise is wrong on so many things:
“American scholar of religion Holly Folk ... show[s] that, although there have been cases of sexual abuse by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of perpetrators is not higher, and may actually be significantly lower, when compared to the prevalence of sexual abuse in other religions and in our modern societies in general. It is also not true, Folk said, that Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose reporting of cases of sexual abuse to secular authorities when it is mandated by the laws, nor that they sanction those who report. When governmental documents or media repeat unfounded allegations by anti-cultists, or single out Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely alleging that sexual abuse is more prevailing in their congregations than in other groups or in society in general, they are consciously or unconsciously supporting an agenda that attacks the Witnesses for reasons that have little to do with the protection of the victims of abuse.”
https://bitterwinter.org/jehovahs-witnesses-why-are-they-persecuted/?fbclid=IwAR2zd8KhV4N2QVcCYM4x3LpatStWrA8b2ZPLr3H2Pt4R9KyIoG_Egi95yh0
 

What! Is this something new?
I think I’ll let the provocation slide, thank you very much.
”Mr President, Mommy Alan has launched another taunt missile!” 
“Oh, my God.”
 

One of the most gracious men on Twitter is Richard Dawkins. His kindness to even those with whom he disagrees knows no bounds. I am told that angels sign up for his podcast on etiquette lessons..
There! Happy?
ANOTHER GLORIOUS VICTORY FOR ALAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Come now. Since the purpose of impeachment is to remove a sitting president and he is going to be gone in less than a week anyhow, I think there just may be some grandstanding going on.
You may have noticed a Republican member of Congress means to file impeachment proceedings of Biden over Ukrainian matters. From now on nobody will do anything at all in those two Houses except try to impeach the other. Great system of human rulership that you advocate.

You’re entire premise is wrong on so many things:
“American scholar of religion Holly Folk ... show[s] that, although there have been cases of sexual abuse by members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, the number of perpetrators is not higher, and may actually be significantly lower, when compared to the prevalence of sexual abuse in other religions and in our modern societies in general. It is also not true, Folk said, that Jehovah’s Witnesses oppose reporting of cases of sexual abuse to secular authorities when it is mandated by the laws, nor that they sanction those who report. When governmental documents or media repeat unfounded allegations by anti-cultists, or single out Jehovah’s Witnesses falsely alleging that sexual abuse is more prevailing in their congregations than in other groups or in society in general, they are consciously or unconsciously supporting an agenda that attacks the Witnesses for reasons that have little to do with the protection of the victims of abuse.”
https://bitterwinter.org/jehovahs-witnesses-why-are-they-persecuted/?fbclid=IwAR2zd8KhV4N2QVcCYM4x3LpatStWrA8b2ZPLr3H2Pt4R9KyIoG_Egi95yh0
 

Can we agree that this fellow featured at video’s beginning is not pulling with both oars in the water? Lemon juice doesn’t make him as invisible as he anticipated?
Nevertheless, university psychologists Dunning and Kruger seem to think this loopiness has broad applicability, as though anyone might commit such a faux pas. Reading of this idiot in the newspaper “led to Dunning and Kruger to examine this phenomenon more deeply.” This suggests to me that they too might not be entirely pulling with both oars.
There is a sneering quality to this video. Rather than view this fellow as a mental health candidate, these psychologists—or maybe it is just the video-maker—seem to expand his nuttiness to whomever might disagree with them over matters of science. Specifically, it is hurled at me because I do not lap up every bit of evolution they want me to lap up. I do lap up some of it. It wasn’t me who put dinosaurs on the Kentucky ark. But I don’t lap up the works.
In their experiment to “examine this phenomenon” more thoroughly, Dunning and Kruger take the lazy person’s way out and employ graduate students as their guinea pigs. Obviously, it is easier for college professors to do this—always there are graduate students lying about—but are graduate students representative of the overall population? In the matter of low-information people tending to overestimate their knowledge, are they not significantly different than the overall population? Probably the difference is not enough to make the experiment worthless, but it is enough to relegate its conclusions from book-status to pamphlet.
The cure for Dunning Kruger syndrome, as proposed in the video, if not D&K themselves? ‘Taking in more knowledge’ is the antidote. I doubt this goes anywhere near as far as taking in more humility, and graduate students are not known for this quality. Young people in general are not known for it—all the more so those who have entered the competitive heady world of graduate school. Rather than advanced learning being a cure for Dunning Kruger, it is more likely to simply transform an ignorant braggart into an educated one. Which is worse? It is hard to say. On the one hand, it is “I can handle a stupid person, and I can handle a belligerent person, but a stupid AND belligerent person...” That’s a pretty tough combination, my coworker said as we were batting the topic around. So yes, eliminating half the problem—that of being stupid—would seem to be an improvement. On the other hand, equipping braggarts with knowledge doesn’t necessarily change them into more tolerant people—as often, it simply makes them more insufferable. 
Better than the recommendation to take in more learning, which depending on one’s circumstances, may not be feasible, is the recommendation to take in more humility. The world of academia probably provides the least fertile ground for growing that counsel, whereas the world of spirituality is probably the most fertile. You won’t find Philippians 2:3 on the quadrangle—counsel “consider others superior to you.” Rather, it is usually just the opposite. Still, even in the most skewed comparison, everyone has at least one quality in which they are clearly superior. The trick is to find that quality and hone in on it like a laser beam.
The world of the head does not rule as it imagines it does. If not coupled with humility, then even when the heady person is right, he finds that people resent and will not cooperate with him simply as a reaction to how ill-mannered they are. It’s staggering how the high IQ can be coupled with an infantile EQ.
To underestimate the gravity of what you do not know is a human tendency that will afflict all to some degree. No one is immune to the Dunning - Kruger effect. The video acknowledges this, even if it does propose a faulty solution. But the humble person who truly “does not think more of himself than it is necessary to think” has a leg up on the one who consistently does think more of himself than it is necessary to think, even when his increased knowledge reveals to him that the subject is more massive still. That doesn’t necessarily humble him. As often, it puffs him up with self-importance at the thought of what he has been able to figure out.
https://www.tomsheepandgoats.com/2021/01/the-dunning-kruger-effect.html

“self-absorbed blustering wanna-be Darrow donkey” has made amends and has paid up my membership for at least a year. Note the fine alliteration of Darrow donkey at the end.

It took awhile & massive extra writing of which I may use just 2 or 3 paragraphs, but the mess that was Chapter 7 (Education) is falling into place. Plus, it does not appear that Chapter 8 will need much more than a light touch to begin with. 

OMG! What a mess Chapter 7 (Education) is. Good for maybe the first 10 paragraphs, then it veers everywhere, with waaaayyyy too much snark punctuating the solid material. I’m not sure any snark belongs there at all. Major overhaul ahead.

No. One cannot. And yet he is portrayed as a buffoon to this day.