Comments on: Ten Pieces of Inspiration #11

By: marta

marta — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:43:00 +0000

Kristine:

“That is misogynist, class-ist and just plain ugly.”

Add a healthy dose of racism and xenophobia and that describes most of deRuiter’s comments in a nutshell.

Whenever you see a huge block of text with random capitalisation, just skip it and move on. Your day will be better for it!

By: Riki

Riki — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:32:18 +0000

I also wanted to say . . . I love tulips! I’m in Canada and we’re just barely starting to see spring here. No flowers yet, but there are a few sprigs of green creeping up in the flower gardens. Soon, very soon.

Buh-bye Winter!

By: Riki

Riki — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 12:30:42 +0000

Unfortunately, Trent seems to be unwilling to remove offensive posts. I requested he remove one of deRuiter’s posts several weeks ago and did not receive a response. In that particular case, deRuiter was spewing hate against Islamic cultures and I found it horribly offensive. It is still up today.

I suppose that’s the cost of our wonderful internet debate — being forced to endure comments from close-minded, hate-filled, paranoid folk who do nothing but try to convince the world that anything that is “other” is bad. As much as it vexes me to do so, I try to ignore it.

By: Shana

Shana — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 10:38:56 +0000

Trent! Hello from Kenya! Thanks so much for the J4J shout-out! I’m glad you like our Tumblr – I’ll have to post more often!

By: Lou

Lou — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 02:15:57 +0000

@ deRuiter –
“Women on welfare churning out more of the underclass”? That is misogynist, class-ist and just plain ugly.
deRuiter – take a chill-pill

I thought the comments section was monitored? Negativity not welcome? Trent – tune in!

By: kristine

kristine — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 01:41:15 +0000

DeRuiter:
It is odd to read about “cranking out inferior children”. yet in the same breadth decide that anyone with a college education (liberal=educated?) will want to decide what baby lives or dies?
I see you have no trepidation deciding what children are worthy of being born. Last time I checked, must liberals were pro-choice, as opposed to the state-mandated enforced infertility you prescribe.

That whole argument is filled with such vitriol, and such inconsistency, judgmentalism and intolerance that I am amazed it made it through.

You actually had 1 or 2 interesting points, but they were buried in the tangent shrill screed. Like Allie, I now will skip over you. Not because you may have something provocative to say ( I like to keep an open mind, and try to understand many points of view), but because the unsavory bitterness and and negativity you spew…well…I just have no need to emit that into my life.

Wow. I actually feel sorry for you. What a miserable thing to be so angry at the world.

By: christine a

christine a — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:51:10 +0000

The Barry Schwartz TED talk has been a long time favorite of mine; thanks for reminding me about it Trent. I wholeheartedly concur with the view that we are “haunted by the missed opportunties of rejected alternatives” after we have selected the salad dressing or career path or whatever! (Michael Foley – The age of absurdity)

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:41:13 +0000

Dear socalgal, Better to be paranoid and defend our country from the Commie central planners, than to have your not quite perfect newborn taken and put down because the central planners (who know what is best for the peasants) feel that he is not perfect so living is not a good choice for him. Better to have 175 different salad dressings in the supermarket, instead of the central planners deciding one company (which votes democrat and contributes democrat) can produce only 10 varieties and all other companies producing salad dressing must go out of business. The EU with its soft socialism is big on central planning. Take a certain now abandonded farm just north of Seville, Spain. For five generations the same family raised cattle there and the family prospered, there were local men working on the ranch. The EU central planners decided (in Brussels) that the location was unsuitable for cattle ranching and that the ranchers must move to another location if they wished to continue to raise cattle. The central planners decided that the area was only suited for sheep raising. The ranch is now abandonded, the local men who once worked there are unemployed. We need lower taxes on the productive class, fewer stupid government regulations and restrictions, fewer people on welfare, norplant for any woman on welfare so she can not churn out more of the underclass. I make my own salad dressing, and raise most of my own vegetables, but I WANT 175 different salad dressings, made by a variety of of companies, preferably small, local companies, not one mega company ownd by the government. Otherwise we will have the salad dressing equivalent of stupid, pointless fiascos like the overpriced, inefficient, unpopular VOLT which is only sold with enormous taxpayer paid subsidies. The Volt costs $40,000 retail and you can get a non subsidized, non Government made car which is similar, efficient, but much better for perhaps $17,000. If you think I’m paranoid, you must have some government job and be just panting with enthusiasm to tell the rest of us what we can choose and how to live our lives. No thank you.

By: Priswell

Priswell — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:36:22 +0000

Sorry, I have to make the observation that tulip bulbs do not show up in the gardening section in the spring, as they are planted in the fall. If they do show up in gardening stores in the spring, they are in a pot, and fully grown and flowering.

By: Allie

Allie — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:02:05 +0000

Excellent, now I know to just disregard everything DeRuiter says outright.

By: Cat

Cat — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:54:35 +0000

Loved the videos. Both interesting and thought provoking, though I don’t think Mr. Schwartz is going to try and take over the world and limit all of our salad dressings. I think he just misses a life of simplicity which he once had.

By: Chuck

Chuck — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:30:08 +0000

@socalgal, I would have agreed with you about DeRuiter a few years ago but with the current administration “passing” laws without reading them and forcing the American people to comply with them or face jail/fines when the majority disagree with the law, it’s not impossible to see the government forcing their will on the people in other areas of life.

By: socalgal

socalgal — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:04:28 +0000

@DeRuiter–Paranoid much?

By: Jules

Jules — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:23:42 +0000

Thank you for mentioning the tulips. They are my favorite flower and put a smile on my face. I have always wanted to go to the Pella Tulip Festival, but never made it. Now that I don’t work weekends I will have an opportunity…just need to plan for the gas money as it’s a couple hours or so away from me.

By: Bipper

Bipper — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:11:35 +0000

Trent,
I, too, am a weather junkie. Another site you might find intersting is DataStreme from the American Meteorological Society. It is a program used to apply real-time data to teach meteorology. The maps and data will provide any information you might need. If you combine it with the GOES (Geostationary Orbiting Environmental Satelite) Project from NASA you can use a real-time image of North America and compare it to a weather chart. Hope these are helpful. Clear skies, GH

By: Amy

Amy — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:10:30 +0000

I found Barry schwartz’s speech much more frightening than inspiring, but I am grateful that Trent had the choice to post it. And also grateful that I had the choice to turn it off! God Bless America.

By: deRuiter

deRuiter — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 12:26:10 +0000

Thank you AnnJo#3 and Henry #7 for pointing out so neatly that Leftist / Commie / Socialist Mr. Schwartz wants to shift us further to central planning where HE and his Socilaist hierarchy buddies will decide FOR US that the supermarket should have only 10 salad dressings and the cell phone company offer only 2 phones, FOR OUR OWN GOOD. Save us from the Commie Central planners like Barrack Obama and his death panels who will decide when our elderly had lived long enough and need to stand down for the younger, more productive worker. Very soon the central planners like Mr. Schwartz will also decide FOR YOU that your slightly defective newborn is not suitable for their grand scheme and will have to be put down for the good of society, you will not have the choice to keep your child alive if Mr. Schwartz and his ilk decide you should not have the choice. Trent, and all you college educated Lefties, America became a great country BECAUSE of choice. You have the choice to work, save, be thrifty, prosper. You have the choice to soar with the eagles on your own brain power, a la bill Gates and Jobs. You should also have the ability to fail through drugs and alcohol, WITHOUT THE TAXPYER MONEY BEING REDISTRIBUTED TO PUT YOU ON DISABILITY to live life supported by the productive class when you choose to drink and drug instead of work. A pox on all the “redistribute the wealth” types who want to redistribute my hard earned money to the welfare broodmares who are cranking out inferior children in droves to repeat that birth cycle and swell America’s criminal underclass. Mr. Schwartz wants to decide how many salad dressings in your grocery, they way the Obama central planners took over Government Motors and PUT MANY AMERICAN CAR DEALERS AND THEIR STAFFS OUT OF WORK. They decided which dealerships could remain (did you vote Democrat and contribute Democrat appears to have been the criteria to determine a “keeper” car dealership) and which were forced TO CLOSE. This contributed to the current economic decline. What business of the central planners was it to decide which car dealerships to close? If a dealership made enough money to operate, pay salaries, pay taxes, and support the owner in a style which suited him, WHY DID THE CENTRAL PLANNERS FORCE THESE DEALERS TO CLOSE AND LAY OFF STAFF, LEAVE THE DEALERSHIP BUILDINGS CLOSED AND VACANT? You want to hear about “less choice is better for you”, you talk to chefs in the old East Germany, who talk about the period when there were no non German, non Russian foods to cook. You see the look of far away longing as they say, “There was nothing interesting to cook, we did not have those wonderful long green things the West had to cook.” and you realize the poor sods were longing for zucchinis to cook which were not available (not a choice) in communist East Germany or Russia! Screw the central planners and Mr. Schwartz, Americans need MORE choices, not less. Consider that regardless of his “passion for writing”, Trent would be digging ditches due to his size and strength, or working on computers due to his education, because Trent’s lack editing his writing, refusal to run spell check and poor grammar would disqualify Trent, according to the central planners, from being a writer. Consider that Trent, before you prostrate yourself at the alter of central planning and limited choice.

By: Henry

Henry — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 09:00:32 +0000

I have some questions for Barry Schwartz.

What Federal or Super-Governmental agency will decide which salad dressings are going to be available at my local grocery store?

Will it be illegal to make my own 1,000 Island Dressing if it is not available?

By: valleycat1

valleycat1 — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 23:06:55 +0000

Most of my family members are weather geeks, so WeatherSpark may become an obsession around here.

If you like amazing solo musicians, check out guitarist Tommy Emmanuel.

Thanks for an interesting assortment of links today!

By: DeeBee

DeeBee — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 20:41:54 +0000

The Daniel Pink TED video was excellent. I can apply these principles right now at my job, as both an employee and a (probable) future supervisor.

DeeBee