blogging – The Burning Platform

The Online Meanderings of an American Nobody & the Genuine Wisdom of an Imaginary Character

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils. One is to disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician with the same delight.

– C. S. Lewis (1942), “The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil”, p.8, HarperCollins UK, 2009

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While having breakfast with a friend the other day, they commented on an article they had recently read online. The article was about the discouragement of free speech at Ivy League colleges, and Harvard in particular. I told them I saw the headline but never read the actual findings. In any event, I said I wasn’t surprised… but what did surprise me was that the article showed up on their particular newsfeed; and, for them, I would have expected the online algorithmic process to have distilled the findings into another headline such as: “Harvard Leads Ivy League in Prohibiting Hate Speech”.

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I’ll Be Back When There’s More To Say In Other Ways

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

First of all, let me say this: I’m not going anywhere. I plan to be here corresponding with the contacts through my blog while reading and commenting on websites like Zero Hedge and the Burning Platform. And I MIGHT be posting articles as I can this summer, but definitely not as long or detailed as most of my previous writings. I am actually only three posts away from 200 original articles written since September of 2016 and I hope to complete that milestone as soon as possible.

But, to explain my situation, I’ll repeat what I’ve written before…

I’m somewhat comfortable from an asset standpoint, but having gone Galt in 2011 with no pension and being too young to draw social security, I am often cash poor personally – especially getting pups through college debt free, taking risks, occasional business setbacks, and unexpected brush fires.

Although I am fortunate to have lived a great life with few regrets… if I could have one do-over… I may not have went Galt quite so soon. I also missed out on a decade of stock market returns because I never dreamed the bubble could have been sustained for this long. Even so, from a Dow Jones perspective, I still believe 11 years early is better than one minute late.

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Random Musings at The End of Life as We Knew It

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

For me, the proverbial glass is either half empty or half full contingent upon where I’m looking. When I watch the news, I get angry. And every day, as I experience the strange surreality of post-America, I have to pinch myself just to make sure I’m not dreaming like Rip Van Winkle waking up in a Tim Burton film.

For my own mental state, therefore, I have to look away at times and step into the brilliant day. It truly is a beautiful time of year. Even so, whilst out in the lush emerald environs, and under the warm sun, it’s hard to shake the sense of doom; as this may be the last good summer.

—-The Stage is Set

Society is wide open here currently and masks, for the most part, have been relegated to the lowly relevance of a bad memory.

It’s a trap, of course, that will likely spring shut this fall and winter. But, in the meantime, the people are celebrating their freedom-via-Big Pharma, and perfectly timed with good weather. It could not have been planned any better. This is because the Covid vaccinations have, apparently, “culturally misappropriated” the power of Vitamin D in the summer sun. Or stated another way: Big Pharma is stealing the immune system’s valor.

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Why independent websites matter {more than ever!}

Greetings to whoever stumbles upon this article! We hope you stick around to read it. We’re going to talk about the current state of “communication” (in quotes on purpose) in the world today.

Why independent websites matter {more than ever!}

We’ve owned and operated NJroute22.com for pushing two years. And certainly, no strangers to “blogging,” as we ran a successful website previously (starting circa 2005 before the over-saturation of “social media.”)

However, our latest creation here is “struggling,” for lack of a better word.

It’s understandable that any good product (today) takes some time to grow – and requires a lot of patience, refinements, adjustments, and know-how.

But in 2019 and beyond, a major shift has occurred. Both in user behavior as well as how the technology works. Equally important.

The main point is, and we feel it has been forgotten – is the real value of independent websites and publishers!

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An Offer You Can’t Refuse

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

We read to know we’re not alone.

Although that particular truism is often mistakenly attributed to the author C.S. Lewis, it was actually William Nicholson who wrote those words in his 1989 play “Shadowlands”, a story about C.S. Lewis.

Indeed. The power of words. And perhaps many of us out here in the interwebic blogosphere write to know we’re not alone as well.

Especially during times like these.

We use words to comfort and curse, to encourage, to promise, to teach, buy, sell, debate, learn, manipulate, lie, share, seduce, pray, preach, promote, warn, and even survive.

In the aforementioned play, “Shadowlands“, there is another quote that many now reading this may also find relevant to our times:

….pain is God’s megaphone to rouse a deaf world. Why must it be pain? Why can’t he rouse us more gently, with violins or laughter? Because the dream from which we must be wakened, is the dream that all is well.

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As the Games Begin: The One about the Jews, the Baby, & the Bathwater

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

Certainly any one who has the power to make you believe absurdities has the power to make you commit injustices.

– Voltaire. (1765). “Questions sur les Miracles”.

This blogger has posted over 120 original essays since the fall of 2016. With topics ranging from politics to philosophy, I’ve strived to be true for the most part; and, at the very least, accurate. In so doing, I would attempt to find three separate ways to vet source material – and, in my mind at least, I’ve built some trust with the readers and believe my essays, so far, have stood the test of time. But if I ever wrote anything blatantly false, everything written henceforth by me, as well as my past articles, should be viewed with greater suspicion by the readers; and for good reason.

Accordingly, we are very fortunate to have the internet; at the very least, for its processing capabilities. It is in the digital rooms of the interwebic blogosphere where intelligent people face-off in a virtual mixed-martial-arts cage fight where free thought and speech, link attributions, and interactive media, are traded like jabs, uppercuts, body-blows, and roundhouse kicks. Using the ethernet to test ideas could also be compared to running software at the speed of light, with multiple programming variations, and zero real life consequences; until, that is, we choose to apply the computations. And this is when it becomes risky business.

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Peachy Keen and Cool as a Cucumber in a Banana Republic

By Doug “Uncola” Lynn via TheBurningPlatform.com

One of my favorite quotes of all time comes from the movie “Almost Famous”. I enjoyed that film because I sort of lived it; and it does have a lot of great lines. But, for me, the most treasured words of advice in the movie came from a famous music critic who was encouraging a young aspiring writer. He said:

The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.

As mentioned before I’m an obscure businessman who’s found a late-in-life catharsis with writing. Honestly, I was inspired by the courage of others throughout the unregulated internet, and started my blog in the fall of 2016 when I fully expected Hillary Clinton to win the U.S. Presidency.

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Starting a BLOG in 2018 is hard as HELL!

By NJroute22

Creative logo, eh?

Hey TBP’ers!

I’ve been a reader of TBP since practically the beginning. I’ve also commented a lot and contributed guest posts in the past.

Probably my favorite site to read online! But that isn’t the point!

We’ve taken on a new identity (NJroute22) and decided to start a new blog for central New Jersey and parts of Pennsylvania.

The blog is called NJroute22.com – and thanks go out to the Admin Jim for allowing me to post on TBP. (And please take a look and tell me what you think!)

Today’s introductory post is about how ridiculously difficult it is to start a blog in 2018. It’s literally hard as hell to make a “blog” successful. Not impossible, but an uphill battle all the way. Not for the faint of heart, or those who do the “bare minimum.”

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