Thoughts from the Mountain Top

Building on an earlier post about how our education system has failed us, this was today's encounter: Someone I am acquainted with through playing Facebook games posted one of those right-wing anti-Hillary Clinton memes.  My general policy is I don't bother with stuff people post on their own page.  However, this person and a bunch of her friends had ganged up on another mutual friend who had pointed out that it was a lie. I went over to Snopes.  Something I try to do before I share anything (and check it elsewhere if I don't get an answer there.  If I have doubts, I don't share.)  There it pointed out that there was a shred of truth to the original post, but as usual that grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion.  Trying to support the mutual acquaintance I posted the Snopes link and pointed out how the grain of truth had been twisted and blown out of proportion. It doesn't matter.  I had facts and it didn't matter.  These peop...

Living in New Hampshire, we are inundated with politics.  The "first in the nation primary" state has advantages and disadvantages.  I took my son and daughter to see President Obama speak at a town hall where he took questions from the audience back in 2008 and my son shook the hand of the man who is now his Commander in Chief.  One of my daughters had the privilege to attend a future leaders of America summit in Washington where she met (then Senator) Hillary Clinton.  Fast forward two years later and she met Mrs. Clinton again during her 2008 Presidential Campaign and she actually remembered meeting my daughter and specific things about her. That's the up side to it.  There are plenty of down-sides.  One of them is the plethora of political signs that pop up for about two years straight. I don't mind the signs and I don't really object to them.  I just see them as wasteful with no real purpose.  There's so many of them!  Sometimes it s...

I don't watch much newsmedia any longer.  It's all to biased and noisy.  Most of my information I get from reading a variety of sources and then I form my own opinion.  One person I do occasionally watch is Rachel Maddow.  I like her because whatever she reports on, she will cite the sources in the show notes or on her own blog. That's something that seems to be missing from discussions of late; the ability to cite a source.  Somewhere, somehow when people were in school they didn't learn how to debate.  The idea is you make your point or share your opinion and back it up with sources that helped you arrive at that opinion, or that list the facts that you are asserting. I first noticed it several years back when a woman in discussion with friends of mine would say "look it up" when we asked for her sources.  We'd try to explain to her - no, you give us your source.  Her answer would be "well you want to know, so you go look it up."  I honestl...

After much wringing of hands and false starts, I have decided to embark on a daily blog.  Most of what I discuss will be based on current events or items of interest.  There might be a few more personal posts in between. You'll get to know a lot about me through the posts, so I'm not going to delve into my life history here. I've had many people over the past few years say I have a story to tell and I should do it.  I have also had people say things I have brought up have made an impact on their lives.  I hope to do the same here, only to a wider audience. Maybe? Eventually? In any case, welcome to the Mountain Top.