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Sunday, December 13, 2009

Prattle, Twaddle or Drivel?

"When we fail to inspire hope, we fail the future, which, one way are [sic] the other, we are bound to live into."
Read the whole thing, and let me know.

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13 comments:

  1. A fine Sunday sermon from the Church of Self-Esteem.

    'One individual Progressive can seem a puny thing next to a multinational corporation, a government, a galaxy, or a truth. But then, the individual consciousness' ability to self-deceive is one of progressivism’s grandest achievements. We shouldn’t sell it short.'

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  2. We are the movie...? Pure twaddle.

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  3. In the first paragraph, the author implies that he is disappointed that Obama has not yet gone where no man has gone before...and that such hoped-for changes would have been "unique in human history." Further, he says:

    In my own case, the hoped for changes are, after all, utopian, a word that comes from the Greek for “no place.”

    This true-believer phenomenon is not, however, unique in human history and has repeated itself disgustingly throughout every totalitarian regime that has ever existed on this planet.

    The next step is to somehow contort reality (the square peg) into phantasy (the round hole) and make sure that the only hole left in the Universe is the eternal black hole of obedience and submission to a false prophet.

    This guy needs to get a real life. Obama needs to get a real job.

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  4. Pour, linguistically lost soul. He had lost me long before his mention of metabolism.

    If you like rambling and suspicious syntax, then hop on over to see my post: "No, No - Not Another Year of the Creeping Crumbling of the US" Long titles and long posts - I'm making a resolution to be more like Legalinsurrection - but how???

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  5. Sorry, I was so in a haze after reading the unreadable I forgot to vote for Prattle, Twaddle or Drivel. Can I vote for none of the above? Can I say politely unwise and unfocused? Prattle, Twaddle and Drivel have substance - albeit negative. This is senseless airy stuff. I think there is an undiagnosed condition here somewhere but then, I do not want to berate another blogger excessively.

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  6. Oh, my- hope can easily devolve into a sentimental “everything’s gonna be alright” passivity or naivety. Popular melodrama sells a lot of this. I'm so glad it's only "melodrama", not something important like, say, the future of the republic!!

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  7. Prattle is usually preceded by 'inane'. The nice thing about prattle is that it doesn't pretend to be serious and high-minded; the prattler just usually burbles along having gossippy fun. So that line is not prattle. Twaddle, is, I think, a bluff by someone speaking something of which he's basically ignorant. Drivel is what you get when serious people talk plain and simple nonsense while trying to sound deep and interesting. The quote meets this third standard and so, IMO, is drivel.

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  8. Drivel.

    Even the person who prattles or twaddles doesn't think he's being profound.

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  9. Professor: love the questions you have from time to time - one of the reasons I return. Question: are you grading us and, after a certain number of questions have been answered, do we get some kind of degree?

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  10. Dear Mr. Jacobson,

    That was mean. I had to wash my mouth out with gin after the first paragraph.

    Regards,
    Roy

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  11. What did I think? I think I stopped reading after getting to the Fire Dog Lake part.One doesn't have to closely inspect every molecule of phlegm to know one doesn't want to ingest it.

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  12. I must respectfully disagree with Joseph--it is twaddle.

    If I recall, in the old days drivel meant "drool," as in saliva. The piece takes itself too seriously for prattle. As for whether we are the future bound to live into, Yoda would disagree; one can always committ suicide.

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  13. Warheit,

    This is certainly an area where honest people can disagree and I see your point.

    That being said, I stand by my answer. I have no problem equating that essay with drool.

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