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EdwardTheReformed
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Gender: Male
Interests: Work, food, sleep, music, worship, shiny things, things that go, things that go bang.
Expertise: Living the life I've been given.
Occupation: Other
Industry: Other
Message: message meEmail: email me
Member Since:
6/8/2005
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| The textual output of some people is simply mind boggling. I ran across a 'review' of a single chapter of a current popular Christian title which is nearly 9,000 words long. Granted this includes citations but I imagine the source-response ratio is at least 1-3 if not worse. It simply boggles my mind that people can be so wordy.
Personally my eyes begin to glaze over after I hit 1,000 words, especially if there is no end in sight. Some people can get away with two and three thousand word entries without losing my attention but this is because they have a coherent narrative and a single arc running throughout the piece. Such writers are, however, in the minority.
This is why my word count here has never climbed much past 500. I don't care to write much more than that and I'm certain you do not care to read that much. If I cannot distill a single thought down to one printed page then the thought is not well enough developed. So please, for everyone's sake, don't let your word count grow unchecked. If necessary split something into single thematic collections and post them successively. Whatever you do please don't just ramble on for the length of a college research paper and wonder why you lose the attention of your audience.
(222 words)
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| I'm sure there are appropriate uses of this word somewhere, but everytime I hear public figures using the word 'sensible' they mean it as a synonum for 'suffocating', 'onerous' or just downright evil.
'Sensible' gun control means widespread banning and universal disarmament.
'Sensible' safety standards means children's toys made out of pink foam.
'Sensible' public health policy means no tobacco, alcohol, fat, sugar, salt or taste.
The use of the word 'sensible' that has set me off today is a call for 'sensible' speed limits on the German autobahn. "Speed limits are very sensible for many reasons and completely normal
in most EU countries and the United States. Only in Germany is it,
oddly enough, a source of controversy," Why can't these whiny little tyrants keep their sensibilities to themselves. If such things were truly 'sensible' and 'normal' then the Germans themselves would be racing to do that thing. The fact that someone's 'sensible' policies meet with stiff opposition might be occasion to examine whether or now what one believes is actually true.
Taken from another angle: where is it written that one person must do what is 'sensible' in the eyes of another? There is no shortage of senseless people in this world doing completely inane, senseless things and you don't see me campaigning to make them stop. Sure, I shake my head and spout off an opinion if anyone is around to hear it but you don't see me shouting these people down.
This should not be taken as a word against sensibility, far from it. This world could do with a touch of sense (which is not nearly common enough) overall but that is not what I'm on about here. What chafes me is the abuse that language takes at the hands of politicians, policy makers and spokespeople of all types. What they name 'sensible' never is, what they call 'reasonable' is hardly that and their appeals for 'common sense' amount to either flippant dismissiveness or an actual contempt for people who deserve the titles 'normal', 'reasonable' and 'sane'.
A rant on the abuse of the word 'normal' will be forthcoming once someone within earshot abuses it sufficiently.
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| So was the flatness of the earth, geocentricity, newtonian physics et al.
There are few people posessing more faith than the futurists and others riding along with the science revolution. In the broad scheme of things few people have been more wrong, more consistently than scientists. It is built into the whole concept to some degree and for that it is understandable what I do not get is the extreme devotion afforded to a god who can only observe and synthesize but has no power to effect or change. 'Science' can only advise, not rule, and his advise has been historically poor.
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| Ash wednesday is here at last and it is time to throw off something for the next forty days. So, until Monday April 9th I will no longer be curled up in my warm bed, whacking the snooze button because I am giving up sleep for lent.
Actually, I'm just giving up sleeping in, but in reality it's kind of the same thing.
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| I understand that this notification is completely worthless because all three of my regular readers know that I don't post anything with regularity but I was looking for a convenient excuse to tell you all about the coming weekend.
I'll be out of the 'office' until tuesday because I get a chance to 'unwind' with a few dozen college students (who may or may not bee too hyper for me to handle). I am praying that I am able to get enough sleep and will be able to unwind a little bit in the frigid north woods.
Onmy return I might try to formulate a theology of broomball, polar bear swims and snowball fights.
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