BS: The high horses we ride

Subject: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Raptor
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 08:35 PM

Reading the cat today I noticed that we as humans are funny!
We get all upset at people like Howard Stern for having the nerve to have a low-brow scence of humor and we want to ban him from our radios but we arn't doing enough about people like George Bush who's bad ideas are getting thousands of people killed!

We get all upset at people who chose to smoke but we don't demand tougher polution laws governing our air from smoke spewing factories or the suv's everybody seems to drive!

We complain about alot about the government but refuse to reserch with an open mind extensively who to vote for, or sometimes we don't vote at all!

We pretend to care about the environment but still drive more than we should, We don't compost enough, we complain about litterbugs but we don't spare much time picking up garbage from parks or along hiways.
We fight over religion but most of us don't follow one much more than attending a church once a week.

Raptor (just as guilty as anyone else)

Anyone got any more?

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Cruiser
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 08:51 PM

All humans are compilations of contradictions.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Peace
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 09:01 PM

I think peace is the greatest thing people could be blessed with, and I get bitchy with people I like: Carol C, GUEST, el ted (whose 100th post I swiped because he kept saying "boring"). Does this stuff qualify? I have the ability to be a real asshole at times. It's a gift.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 06:53 AM

For me, it usually boils down to the Arrogance of Ignorance. I'm fond of this phrase, and hope I don't practice it too often..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 07:05 AM

I don't think most of those contradictions actually apply. I get the impression quite a lot of people are trying to do something to get rid of Bush, there's a lot of opposition to polluting factories and gaz guzzling cars, most people don't in fact fight over religion (the ones t5hat do make a lot of noise, true enough) and so forth

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: 42
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 07:34 AM

I spent a disproportionate amount of time trying to figure out how Raptor was able to read a cat.

Braille? Touch therapy?...before I realized it was a serious post.

Then I went and patted my cats for a minute or two and discovered there's very little in life that can't be solved (for a minute or two) by patting a cat. (I don't even like cats as a rule)

The rest all comes back to the golden rule - in whatever belief system you find yourself comfortable. Now if only the other 6 billion people in the world would come to that realization...

j

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Mr Red
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 09:11 AM

Ellenpoly - I like the phrase
The "Arrogance of Ignorance" - or as I usually put it - "Kowledge knows when it knows - intelligence knows when it doesn't".

The problem with high horses is that the higher they go the harder it gets to change them mid-stream........... and you should never.............

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Megan L
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 10:22 AM

my mum always taught me 'never get on a high horse unless you are prepared for a long fall'

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Don Firth
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 01:07 PM

"Arrogance of Ignorance." Good phrase. As is "Kowledge knows when it knows - intelligence knows when it doesn't."

It reminds me of a phrase that I heard in a television interview within the past few days. I can't recall at the moment who used it, but I think it was Bob Woodward. He said that what bothered him most about George W. Bush and those around him was their complete "absence of doubt" that what they're doing is the right thing.

George W. Bush says he is a man of faith. But all too often, people of faith forget, or were never aware, that the opposite of faith is not doubt. The opposite of faith is certainty.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,Shlio
Date: 25 Apr 04 - 05:18 PM

One of the best things about most humans is their ability to believe contradictory ideas and to apply modifiers to absolutes (eg. Except when I really want to...except if it's me)
I - guilty myself - find it highly amusing.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: dianavan
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 02:19 AM

I thought all humans had fallen off their high horses. Part of human nature. If we hadn't fallen, we'd still be Gods.

I remember reading that in days of old, the hero in Greek tragedy always limped to show that he was a fallen God. Also remember something about an era when men's fashion required a heel that provided a bit of a limp. Buskers, too, wore buck skin boots and reddened the heel to look as if they had fallen and made contact with the earth with their heel. This all goes back to a Greek mythological hero, but I can't remember his name. Isn't this hubris?

It seems there is a long history of falling off your high horse. We're all mortal.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 02:24 AM

What do you mean we would still be gods? I thought we still were.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: George Papavgeris
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 02:59 AM

I rail at bad drivers on the road - yet I can be as bad as they are, sometimes.
I grizzle about leaving dirty plates in the sink instead of putting them in the dishwasher - but you should see my little study!
I spout out about my ideals , especially after a couple of whiskeys - but I vote tactically.
I moan at my wife to eat healthily - and eat crap myself.
I admonish my daughter for not exercising sufficiently - and I spend hours crouched before the computer (it's my job, is my excuse).
But for these things, and a few hundred more, I would be perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,Risky Business
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 08:22 AM

Song Connection: Dan Bern - The Fascist in Me

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Once Famous
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 08:30 AM

So Don Firth, what is wrong with being certain about something? I am quite certain in my faith. Isn't it better we have leaders who are certain in there's? Personally, I think your comments were a bit self serving and on a very tall horse.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 09:55 AM

Cat-Scan.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Sweetfia
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:01 AM

...I fell off mine at the weekend...into a pond.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: s6k
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 11:24 AM

LOL !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Don Firth
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 03:10 PM

By definition, Marty, by definition. Faith means "firm belief in something for which there is not proof" (Merriam-Webster). To be certain of something for which there is no proof implies gullibility. If you were certain (i.e., had actual proof) you wouldn't need faith.

A leader who is "certain in his faith" can act irrationally and be downright dangerous. See current events.

And in what way are my comments self-serving?

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Art Thieme
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 06:16 PM

Right on, Don Firth. My personal experiences sustain and back up what you have said about 98% of the time.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Mr Red
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 06:21 PM

Er, call me a devil's advocate but isn't faith what Bush is fighting? Ditto the conviction that they are right in their conviction?

Time to pull the old cestnut out of the fire - Fighting fire with fire.

Thinks - is that a Bush fire?

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,Fred Miller
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 08:08 PM

Dianavan--I think that's just Oedipus, which means club-foot. I didn't know about the other examples related to it though.

A good high-horse is an expedient choice rather than a moral one. One of mine is turn-signals. How hard is it?

Sometimes you can't do what you want without people assuming a high-horse. I'm a vegetarian with no big rationale. But I do wonder about people who get ugly about hunting but buy meat at a store. What on earth is wrong with hunting?

I have some high-horses I like to race against others. Like when people blame media, especially in relation to kids. Last week a group of parents was going on about how some people let their kids watch shows that they won't, and I had to admit I let my kids watch every single one they mentioned. I didn't get into a high-horse race about it, but please let me now?
   I just don't want to fight a losing battle with what my kids will see. If I think something is stupid, I want them to see why and how. I want them to see it's just stuff some people wrote or made up and to think how it could be better. Besides--Rugrats and Recess and all those shows are pretty darn good. If they seem "disrespectful" to adults it's because that's what comedy is, as Aristotle--who really liked Oedipus--pointed out.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Bobert
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 08:21 PM

Fir some folks 'round this joint they just don't make horses high enough.

Unfortunately, fir others the ones that plug into the wall in front of the K-Mart are much a challenge.

Now I'll admit to a righteous rant or two 'round this joint but "the best sermons are lived, not preached" (Roy English) who also observed that "an ignorant man is Hell bet on proving his limitations".

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 26 Apr 04 - 10:15 PM

I remember reading that in days of old, the hero in Greek tragedy always limped to show that he was a fallen God. Also remember something about an era when men's fashion required a heel that provided a bit of a limp. Buskers, too, wore buck skin boots and reddened the heel to look as if they had fallen and made contact with the earth with their heel. This all goes back to a Greek mythological hero, but I can't remember his name.

Dianavan, are you thinking of Achilles?

Found on the 'net:
"When Achilles was born, his mother, Thetis, tried to make him immortal by dipping him in the river Styx. As she immersed him, she held him by one heel and forgot to dip him a second time so the heel she held could get wet too. Therefore, the place where she held him remained untouched by the magic water of the Styx and that part stayed mortal or vulnerable."

Cheers,

YY

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: s6k
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 03:41 AM

then he got shot in the heel with an arrow and snuffed it

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 10:04 AM

McGrath, I think some of the original observations hold up pretty well. I noticed the other day that about 3 of every 5 vehicles in local parking lots is a gas guzzling monster, classified as a "truck" to get around emissions standards. I don't think so many people really need these things, it's just a consumer fad.

People may not actually "fight" about religion--they do--but even when they don't they seem to value fine points and divisions more than larger points and universals. But what do I know about it, I've been in jail more hours than in church.

The fun of a high horse is what one says, regardless of whatever one does. Follow-ups of lottery winners show they aren't happier and often say they wish they'd never heard of the lottery. Of course, they could give the money away, but that's different.

I love survey and poll facts and truths that come up on my computer, apparently from the Institute For Taking Things At Face Value. I read that most Americans say they don't "believe" in "God" but, Howard Stern aside, maybe some of these people just get tired of using dirty words to call attention to what they think--like Phillip Roth forbidding his lit students to say "symbol" and things like that, or Rosanne Barr deciding not to use feminist lingo anymore and just be a "bitch". It's also interesting what people don't say.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Joe_F
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 04:55 PM

Last year I had one glaring fault: I was conceited.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Deckman
Date: 27 Apr 04 - 05:12 PM

This looks like a marvelous thread. I've got to go build a deck, but I'll be back in a couple of hours and I hope to post some wonderful comments ... unless I used them all up last night! CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Raptor
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:17 PM

Bob?

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:23 PM

Bob may have fallen of a high saw-horse.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:26 PM

off ... I meant off ... hmmm ... very humbling for a copy editor.

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:30 PM

I ride a rocking high horse...
I'm special!

Subject: RE: BS: The high horses we ride
From: GUEST,lurker
Date: 28 Apr 04 - 04:42 PM

I'm flogging my dead horse