DUCKPOND

I am generally not a good conversationalist. I have either nothing to say , or too much to say.
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Sometimes a little knowledge might help. Citizens in a democracy, are not necessarily the proposers, but collectively they are the disposers, and if they abrogate that role the decision making can be left to special interests, who do not necessarily have the general interest in mind.
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I was framing a response to what Gary at Public Opinion has written and linked to about Israel-Palestine and the change in the American response, not least in published reporting from the region.
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Chris Hedges, as Dylan Thomas before him, rages at the dying of the light – or at least the dimming of the light as he sees it. The printing press, I believe was the greatest thing before sliced bread, and then television came into our collective lives and history.

He writes (via Truthdig and Alternet):
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I write a blog, but principally for my own amusement. You may not be surprised that I have been tossed from listing among select blogrolls, which was pleasing in a way – too much pressure – especially with discerning readers such as yourself. I don’t want to be seen in the company where I would lower the standards.
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I am not really sure why I write this blog, although as I mentioned almost four years ago when I started it represented an opportunity to write, which otherwise would not be possible. When writing is not practiced the ability to express thoughts and feelings is lost. Practice is a matter of confidence and as well a constant reminder of what can go wrong. Sometimes these mistakes are caught, and sometimes they are not. The challenging thing about blogging is that somebody may actually read what is written, which seems to happen sometimes.
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There are not any complicated rules for comments here for the very good reason that there are very few, but very much appreciated, comments. By the way, the rules that apply to comments apply equally to posts. I was passing by Tom Peters blog, and Cathy there advanced a rule that I thought was really appropriate, the living room rule. I know it is a virtual world, but sometimes we are communicating with other people. Sometimes this works, and that is the miracle of language. Sometimes it doesn’t and that is the problem of language.
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The previous video of this track is no longer available, for unknown reasons. No problem, let’s just repost another version of the same song and see how long it lasts.

There are no doubt other predictions made for 2008, which are probably more interesting than mine.
1. On ABC Unleased, Mark Pesce is prepared to make predictions while the roulette wheel is still in play. This year he anticipates that cost effective solar power generation will come online, that the first artificial organism will be created and that:
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This year we are due to see the end of the Bush regime and the election of a new president, probably a Democrat, and probably either Obama or Clinton. Bush, and the judgment of history will escalate, or if you prefer surge, in its condemnation of him, Cheney and the Bush Administration, will probably end in a befitting whimper. G Bush is so lame he probably thinks this song is about him (via Modulator) :
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“I am all astonishment”, to quote someone from a novel that journalists base their generalizations on such a careful assessment of the evidence. Robert McCrum, writing in The Guardian is the latest in a long refrain of prejudice against blogs and blog writers. He observes:
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The other Duckpond at Blogger has a new look, and even worse puns, but otherwise the posts are mostly the same. I use blogger to source some of the elements, in particular photos, you see sometimes here, and visa versa. So in a sense it is symbiotic cross blogging.

I am open to positive and constructive suggestions if you have any, and even better if you advise how to realize the suggestion. I am not intending to delete either blog, but maybe continue to experiment. Luckily I can enter into this rash activity as creative destruction.

Most of the things I thought I had lost could easily be recovered, and now I have a better arrangement for the counters I thought I had lost. In regard to counters it was very simple – save them as bookmarks. And I did not save them – the rashness part – but checking history enabled me to open them again and then save them.