The Basics

...as always. It is hard to try to explain understanding something without some type of experience to reinforce the thought process. As you say, many believe that perception equals reality. And, that is just not thinking out of the box...

Excellent column Fletch.

Part of the reason Fletch is posting this is because I asked him for a breakdown of his data sources and how he examines it...because there IS so much data out there and my instinct for figuring out what is reliable and what is not is pretty undeveloped right now.

This one is VERY important to me, Fletch, so THANK YOU!! I am looking forward to Part 2!!

And double thanks for your stomp on postmodernism. I'm really really tired of hearing arguments of deconstruction, that leave us with no direction, no method for solving problems, nothing...hence my starting to call it "nonsolutionism". It isn't actually useful, doesn't benefit mankind in any quantifiable or qualifiable way. It's just mental masturbation.

It has been my experience that liberals (and postmodernists, in particular) can't even FIND the box.

What I find particularly amusing - and a couple of you will appreciate this from prior experience - is that those who embrace postmodernism abandon it at well whenever it is deemed to suit their purposes. While "every perception is equally valid" that only seems to apply to THEIR perceptions. And, as you'll note from above, frequently the ones arguing that their perceptions are reality are the SAME ones quick to reference statistics that would seem to support their viewpoint. It is completely contradictory.

I enjoyed this Fletch. Thank you.