Most Commented Opinionated Blogs (1,909)

Respect is a substance that can sometimes be in very short supply on the web and I often wonder if those rude people are like that in the real world as well.

Or are they like some of the guys I know? I cannot understand how a devoted family man, husband and father, can be the softest guy in the world until he shifts in behind the steering wheel of a car. Then he transforms into an absolute road hog, the aggression running out his ears; cursing, swearing, showing finger signs, and driving like a maniac; even when his family is with him in the car.

Then, when I see the behavior of some of the people here, I wonder if it is the same scenario when on-line. Are we dealing with normally very nice people who become cyber pigs when they go on line, or is there a sub-species called human pigs who behave like that all the time?

What can be so difficult about ignoring what we don’t like, as we do in the real world? We don’t walk up to a stranger and tell him: “Hey knucklehead, I don’t like your shirt, it is a vile color, and it only serves to reveal your poor taste in clothing”, do we? Nope, we just think that and walk on.

And now I wonder if the Internet does not give some people a misplaced feeling of power, knowing that their victims cannot strike at them. Or are they cowards in real life and finding the cyber world a safe haven to say and do the things that they are too scared of in real life?

It is amazing how far a little respect can go and how quickly the lack thereof can spoil things. I think if people behaved in real life as some do on the WWW, there would have been more assault cases than what our courts can handle and more mouth injuries than what the hospitals can cope with.


Relax, it is weekend!

PS
Rumor has it that a guard dog, employed at a cupcake factory, was found asleep by the owner this morning. The warehouse owner was not available for comment as she was counting boxes.

In another unconfirmed story, 24 mules were seen in the vicinity, carrying 2 boxes each. It is not known if the two incidents are related.

The latest news is that a well dressed female Malaysian national was last seen running in the streets looking for 'that darn cat and his mules'. We now suspect that the two incidents are related.

It’s becoming apparent that love is just an illusion. Love is a feeling and not a tangible substance, love is just signals in the brain, the brain sends out these signals to our loins and these signals make our hearts beat faster and our smiles bigger.

So where do these signals come from, is it seeing someone’s smile, seeing their eyes or perhaps their words?

What or who is behind these signals in our brains?, The concept of love hasn’t been around as long as we think, cavemen didn’t fall in love, they just took a mate for procreation, animal instinct maybe, but animals don’t fall in love, plants don’t fall in love.

Perhaps in the past we were visited by some advanced aliens who planted the seeds of love in us, perhaps they saw our Neanderthal ways a bit too primitive, whoever did this to us will always be a mystery……….Love is just an illusion.

You will argue that love is real and of course you will say that, you have been programmed to think that.

My brain tells me I am in love, but I know it’s not real, it’s just an illusion.

Your thoughts?

For me, Switzerland is the only place I can think of. Opportunity, economic, social and health services considered.

So many people were wondering what makes America great and I think this information will give a good answer.

Having said that, I am sure there's more personal thoughts or ideas that wouldn't necessarily be reflected on this article.

Feel free to share what makes you think our one and only US Of A is great (or not). I know that it is the most sought country in the world or we'd have no illegal immigration problems.

"The United States is a highly developed country, and its economy accounts for approximately a quarter of global GDP and is the world's largest by GDP at market exchange rates. By value, the United States is the world's largest importer and second-largest exporter of goods. Although its population is only 4.2% of the world's total, it holds over 30% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share held by any country. Making up more than a third of global military spending, the United States is the foremost military power in the world and a leading political, cultural, and scientific force."

From Wiki.

If you value freedom, you'd better like America.

I was almost converted when I read the chronicles of the prodigal son. He must have loved it to read his own eulogy and was probably getting dressed to attend his own funeral when a sorceress resurrected him. A perfect example of how the result can justify the method.

And when I speculate about the (self-imposed??) exile in Babylon I get no wiser. It is hard to discern who is following the script and who is playing by ear. I detect a smokescreen here and cannot help to wonder if the accomplice is part of the setup or if she is just being played as well.

I would have placed my own on the tombstone... had I not known for a fact that the prodigal son had access to an internet-connected device on Friday, August 23 which casts serious doubts over a lot of things in and around the confessions of both the sorceress as well as the accomplice. But then, was she (the accomplice) in the loop? Knowing the extent of his imagination, nothing is impossible. I think we all remember some previous attempts at gaining attention and sympathy.

About the Internet appearance on the 23rd, it is a pity that I did not bother to retain a copy of the now destroyed blog. But I believe enough people read it. A few even commented on the immorality of the contents. Of course it was him, or otherwise, he has a very good copycat on his tail and I don’t believe that.

So now all we need to do is to wait for the prodigal son to return so we can feast on the fatted calf.

But then all this is just speculation, conjecture and/or opinion.


This blog is a script I'm writing for TV and is, in its entirety, is a figment of my imagination. Any resemblance to any place or person, dead or alive, is either by fluke or absolutely deliberate. If you see yourself here, give me a tinkle so we can arrange for an audition. Stick around - I'll make you famous.

Would you hold it against me?


Any native (and good non-native) English speakers will know that sentence can be read in two different ways, with different meanings.


Words are powerful, but that power can be both productive or destructive depending on the meaning of the author, or more importantly, how they are read by the reader.

This is especially true on a medium such as CS where the written word is the main means of communication.

Posts are sometimes misconstrued for a number of reasons. It could be simply misread; defensiveness; ego; current mood; agenda, etc., or any combination of the above.

Sometimes it is a good thing that the post is misinterpreted. I read one post last week and I went 'Whoooo,.. that is a dig! '
But the person to whom it was directed, read it completely differently and not as a negative against them .

But often, it is simply an innocent statement taken up incorrectly, and maybe not even related to the person who misinterprets it, and suddenly world war three ensues.


CS is a microcosm of the real world.
It is just as well nobody here has access to weapons of mass destruction

What we write in our blogs reveals our souls and it exposes us to the bone in the process. What we say and how we say it is the most obvious telltales of our personalities, but what we don’t say, can give away just as much. People read between the lines because every blogger has a distinctive undertone in all his or her blogs, be that goodwill, humor, loneliness, skepticism, scorn, bitterness, malice, or whatever. That undertone seldom deviates from the person.

Comment posters are not exempted from this. In fact, they are even more vulnerable to it, because comments are more spontaneous in nature than blogs. They come out at the spur of the moment whereas we plan our blogs and have plenty of time to sanitize them before posting it.

Reading comments is interesting and tells us a lot about the author, but when you look a bit deeper, a more interesting pattern unfolds. Try to see who ignores whom, who comments on whose blogs, and note the nature of those comments to the different bloggers, and you can easily see who sleeps with whom.

In real life, we avoid the people we don’t like. Why can’t we do it here? Of course, we may disagree with another person’s view on a topic and we are free to state such disagreement, but why do we have to criticize the person? Is he or she not entitled to certain a view same as we are? Do we have to take it to a personal level?

It is not enough to state our disagreement and scoot off. We have to add a bit of acid to it. Perhaps we all have a bit of a troll in us, only closer to the surface with some than with others.


Enjoy this day and let’s try to show a little more respect to each other.

I had been busy recently, consequently I did not partake in too many blogs. However, I do enjoy peeking in once a while to see if my favourites are still here. I also enjoy reading some of the profiles.

Quite often I see comments, blog writings and even profiles flaunting how successful, beautiful and even intelligent some members claim to be. That could be true, however it is a real pity that all these wonderful people should be stuck somewhere in something, looking for affirmation on a free chat/dating site and that from people they most probably will never meet.

The challenge in life is to value our successes, intellect and beauty as blessings, without constantly creating a subjective base of what is good or not good enough. To all the people on this site who manage to remain humble, allowing space for different opinions from people with different backgrounds (as typical expected on this free site), a sincere thank you...

The definition of friends differs vastly on-line when compared to real life. On-line friendship appears to be a pseudo relationship that will last for only as long as it is beneficial to both parties and what may appear to be your best friend today, may become a sworn enemy overnight.

The farcical relationship between two on-line friends displays a zero tolerance to the imperfections of the other parties. It will only survive for as long as you tickle the ears of your on-line friends. Friendship in real life is much more robust and resilient against differences in opinion or views while minor squabbles are laid to rest so much easier.

On-line friendship is volatile and turbulent; it needs something to feed on. We strive to say what pleases our on-line friends, in fact we try so hard to sound politically correct to our friends that don’t say what we really mean; all in an effort to preserve the friendship, but it real life we’re not scared of such issues and such frail friendships are not even worth mentioning.

Friendship on-line is an illusion. In real life, you won’t even count cyber friends as acquaintances; simply because you don’t know them. Yet, we call strangers our friends while we don’t know anything about them. For all we know, our best friends on-line may be perverts, p*dophile, ex-convicts, scammers or any of the likes.

It is true that birds of feather flock together; we communicate with those with more or less the same outlook, but can we really call them friends? I'm not so sure if they satisfy the general criteria of being friends.


I hope you enjoy this day.

Does your profile reflect the way you see yourself or the way other people see you? If you think that it is the same thing then you have another think coming. You are only who you think you are if most other people more or less agree with that view.

When you look in a mirror you only see what you want to see. Other people do not see what you see when you look in the mirror. And they do not notice the same things about you. Some will find certain characteristics more important than others. The things that you deem as important may be completely overlooked by them.

You may stand proud because of your honesty, but it is not written on your forehead. The fact that you never lie or cheat may go unnoticed to some. Your high morals may be taken for granted and they will be quick to notice your flaws while others may stare themselves blind into your virtues and not notice your shortcomings.

Some 20 years ago I asked a number of friends and family members to assess me and to write down my strong and weak points in order of importance. Both genders were represented and their ages varied from sixteen to seventy. I was about forty five at the time. I made a similar list.

It was an eye-opener. It revealed strong points (important to them) that I did not rate as worth mentioning and weaknesses that I was not aware of. Some of the points on my list appeared nowhere while some only showed up with the younger bunch and other traits were noticed only by the older people. The most similarities were among people of more or less my own age group.

So what was the purpose of the exercise? Well, it did give me a few things to work on.

You may believe that what other people think of you is not important, but if they see you vastly different than what you see yourself then you are mispresenting yourself.

So, I ask again. Who is represented in your profile? Is it the you that you see in the mirror or the you that other people see?

Not that it is important, I just wondered.

See, the weekend has arrived. Enjoy it!

PS
I cannot find the word 'mispresenting' in any dictionary. I nevertheless used it in my blog because I cannot think of a better word. If anybody can suggest the proper word, I'd be very grateful.

When I was a child – and even as a young man – I have always wished to be American. As I grew older I came to realize that it was not all milk and honey in the US of A.

I guess that is the price of prosperity. Everybody want to take it away from you. They are surrounded by enemies; communist fanatics, Islamic extremists, drug cartels… and enemies deep inside. Yet, it would appear that the Americans are their own worst enemy.

Never mind the politics, the racial friction, their foreign policies, the terrorist attacks, the wars, the illegal immigrants and the organized crime. We have more than our share of that here; I’m used to it.

I’d think twice before going there. I’d be too scared to do anything in fear of being sued. Just about everybody and every business are being sued for every conceivable little misstep. Attorneys are actively canvassing for clients on whose behalf to sue; they even sue one another for malpractice. I can understand why medical doctors simply walk away if they happen to stumble across somebody who needs their help; even if they can save their lives. They’re likely to be sued for anything else that may go wrong even though they saved the person’s life.

It won’t surprise me to hear about parents suing teachers for incompetence because their children failed a test or examination. And if it already happened it will surprise me even less. And I think it is outrageous that a burglar can sue the owner of a house for injuries sustained while breaking the law.

No, I’m not trying to crush the American dream; things are no better here though we have the opposite. It is very hard to successfully sue a professional. You won’t find a medical doctor to testify in court against another medical doctor. And the same goes for the legal profession – or any other profession for that matter. They cover for one another. Apparently a successful court suit gives the profession a bad name. And you can forget about suing a big business. You will ruin yourself financially in the process.


But have a great day regardless. It is Friday!