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Weather: A chance of showers, with thunderstorms also possible after 11am. Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Breezy, with a northeast wind around 17 mph, with gusts as high as 26 mph. Chance of precipitation is 50%. Thursday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before 2am, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2am. Partly cloudy, with a low around 71. Breezy, with a northeast wind around 16 mph, with gusts as high as 24 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
- Daily weather briefing from the National Weather Service in Jacksonville here.
- Drought conditions here. (What is the Keetch-Byram drought index?).
- Check today’s tides in Daytona Beach (a few minutes off from Flagler Beach) here.
- Tropical cyclone activity here, and even more details here.
Today at a Glance:
Drug Court convenes before Circuit Judge Dawn Nichols at 10 a.m. in Courtroom 401 at the Flagler County courthouse, Kim C. Hammond Justice Center 1769 E Moody Blvd, Bldg 1, Bunnell. Drug Court is open to the public. See the Drug Court handbook here and the participation agreement here.
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry: Flagler Beach United Methodist Church‘s food pantry is open today from 9:30 a.m. to noon at 1500 S. Daytona Ave, Flagler Beach. The church’s mission is to provide nourishment and support in a welcoming, respectful environment. To find us, please turn at the corner of 15 Street and S. Daytona Ave, pull into the grass parking area and enter the green door.
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Central Park, from noon to 2 p.m. in Central Park in Town Center, 975 Central Ave. Join Bill Wells, Bob Rupp and other members of the Palm Coast Model Yacht Club, watch them race or join the races with your own model yacht. No dues to join the club, which meets at the pond in Central Park every Thursday.
Story Time for Preschoolers at Flagler Beach Public Library, 11 to 11:30 a.m. at the library, 315 South Seventh Street, Flagler Beach. It’s where the wild things are: Hop on for stories and songs with Miss Doris.
‘Nunsense,’ at St. Augustine’s Limelight Theatre, Limelight Theatre, 11 Old Mission Avenue, St. Augustine. 7:30 p.m. except on Sundays, 2 p.m. Tickets are $37.55 per person. Book here. Definitely “habit-forming”, this riotous show takes us through a fundraiser organized by the Little Sisters of Hoboken. They are trying to raise money to bury one of their sisters who was accidentally poisoned by the convent cook, Sister Julia (Child of God). Originating as a line of greeting cards, Goggin expanded the concept into a full musical that became the second-longest off-Broadway run in history.
‘Sweeney Todd’ at Athens Theatre, 124 North Florida Avenue, DeLand, Thursday, Friday and Saturday a 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tickets: Preferred $37 (Row A-F, Orchestra & CC-DD Center Balcony), Adult $32 – Senior $28, Student/Child $12. A $5.00 per ticket Processing charge is added to all purchases. Book here. Prepare for a dark journey through the sinister streets of Victorian London with Sweeney Todd. Follow the vengeful barber as he seeks justice, aided by the cunning Mrs. Lovett and her rather… unique meat-pie business. Stephen Sondheim’s masterpiece weaves a twisted tale of love, revenge, and morality, brought to life by hauntingly beautiful music. Equal parts chilling and captivating, Sweeney Todd will leave you spellbound—and maybe a bit wary of your next shave…
Chatterbox: In this Kirk-addled world of ours, I asked ChatGPT to describe the mind-closing similarities between theology, ideology and teleology. Here was its answer, with which–its conclusion especially–I could not disagree:
Theology, ideology, and teleology—while conceptually distinct—share deep structural and psychological similarities that can lead to what you called “mind-closing” tendencies. Here’s a breakdown of how and why they function in similar, often rigid, ways:
1. Claim to Ultimate Truth or Purpose
At their core, theology, ideology, and teleology all offer frameworks that claim to explain the “why” behind existence, society, or action.
| Concept | What It Explains | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Theology | Why the universe exists, based on divine purpose. | “God created the world with a plan.” |
| Ideology | Why society should be organized a certain way. | “Capitalism is the natural outcome of human freedom.” |
| Teleology | Why things evolve or exist based on end-goals. | “Eyes exist so we can see, therefore evolution has a purpose.” |
➡️ Similarity: Each provides a final cause or ultimate explanation—closing the loop on inquiry. Once the “truth” is revealed, further questioning is discouraged.
2. Resistance to Falsification
Each system tends to shield itself from contradiction by redefining, reinterpreting, or ignoring conflicting data.
-
Theology invokes mystery, divine will, or sin to account for contradictions.
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Ideology blames external corruption, false consciousness, or incomplete application of principles.
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Teleology, especially in non-scientific use, interprets outcomes as evidence of intended purpose, not contingent process.
➡️ Mind-Closing Mechanism: Disconfirmation doesn’t lead to revision—it leads to rationalization.
3. Prescriptive and Normative Force
All three aren’t just descriptive; they tell us what should be.
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Theology prescribes moral behavior (e.g., divine commandments).
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Ideology prescribes political or social action (e.g., class struggle, free markets).
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Teleology, in a philosophical or moral sense, suggests a proper end to strive for (e.g., flourishing, utopia).
➡️ Similarity: These systems dictate not just how the world is, but how it must be—moralizing inquiry and marginalizing dissent.
4. Ingroup/Outgroup Dynamics
Each system often creates insiders (those who “see the truth”) and outsiders (those who are misguided, blind, or dangerous).
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Theological heretics are spiritually lost.
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Ideological opponents are enemies of progress or truth.
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Teleological skeptics are accused of nihilism or relativism.
➡️ Mind-Closing Effect: Identity becomes tied to belief, so questioning becomes betrayal.
5. Teleological Thinking Itself Is the Root
Ironically, teleology—the idea that things have intrinsic purposes or ends—is often embedded in theology and ideology.
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God’s plan (theology) is teleological: history unfolds toward salvation.
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Historical materialism (ideology) is teleological: history unfolds toward communism.
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Liberal democracy (ideology) is sometimes viewed teleologically: history is moving toward freedom.
➡️ Unified Core: All three assume direction, destiny, or design—rejecting randomness, ambiguity, or pluralism.
Conclusion: Why This Closes Minds
Because these systems provide totalizing narratives—explaining everything, justifying action, excluding dissent—they:
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Discourage open-ended inquiry
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Favor certainty over ambiguity
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Reinforce themselves through moral, emotional, and social incentives
The result: Minds don’t just close passively—they’re often compelled to close, because remaining open becomes socially or psychologically costly.
—P.T.
The Live Calendar is a compendium of local and regional political, civic and cultural events. You can input your own calendar events directly onto the site as you wish them to appear (pending approval of course). To include your event in the Live Calendar, please fill out this form.
October 2025
Flagler Beach United Methodist Church Food Pantry
Flagler County Drug Court Convenes
Model Yacht Club Races at the Pond in Palm Coast’s Town Center
Palm Coast Beautification and Environmental Advisory Committee
Flagler Beach City Commission Meeting
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
Florida Ethics Commission Meeting
Free For All Fridays With Host David Ayres on WNZF
Scenic A1A Pride Meeting
Friday Blue Forum
Acoustic Jam Circle At The Community Center In The Hammock
Thornton Wilder’s ‘Our Town,’ at Limelight Theatre in St. Augustine
‘The 39 Steps,’ at the Daytona Playhouse
For the full calendar, go here.
Whitman thought that we Americans have the most poetical nature because we are the first thoroughgoing experiment in national self-creation: the first nation-state with nobody but itself to please–not even God. We are the greatest poem because we put ourselves in the place of God: our essence is our existence, and our existence is in the future. Other nations thought of themselves as hymns to the glory of God. We redefine God as our future selves. Neither Dewey nor Whitman, however, was committed to the view that things would inevitably go well for America, that the American experiment in self-creation would succeed. The price of temporalization is contingency. Because they rejected any idea of Divine Providence and any idea of immanent teleology, Dewey and Whitman had to grant the possibility that the vanguard of humanity may lose its way. and perhaps lead our species over a cliff. As Whitman put it, “The United States are destined either to surmount the gorgeous history of feudalism, or else prove the most tremendous failure of time.” Whereas Marx and Spencer claimed to know what was bound to happen, Whitman and Dewey denied such knowledge in order to make room for pure, joyous hope.
–From Richard Rorty, Achieving Our Country (1998).
Pogo says
@In Memoriam
“… There are few people in human history whose last names alone are sufficient to conjure up kindness, goodness, wisdom, grace—Mandela, Gandhi, King, Lincoln. Add to that list Goodall. The other four left us years ago. Jane Goodall—primatologist, zoologist, anthropologist, conservationist, winner of the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE)—joined them today, dying at age 91…”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/jane-goodalls-message-of-hope-lives-on/ar-AA1NHi6O?ocid=TobArticle
Now she belongs to the ages.
— Paraphrasing Stanton speaking of Lincoln
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edwin_M._Stanton
Laurel says
How interesting! I am not familiar with teleology, and now wish I had known of it while in college. I would have had a deeper understanding of the art I was studying. Yet, it was always there! Thank you, PT, I will ponder it more often.
AI is something! I may have a love-hate relationship with it in the future, I don’t know. What I love about it, is, when I ask a question (DuckDuckGo is my browser) multiple choices come up. So, let’s say I ask “Why is the sky blue?” I click on one possibility, and get the ongoing opening, the story, and the summary. Maybe the answer I am looking for is there, maybe not. So, I try another. With AI (Search Assist) I get “The sky appears blue because molecules in the air scatter blue light from the sun more than they scatter red light. This scattering process, known as Rayleigh scattering, causes us to see the blue color most prominently during the day. National Weather Service National Geographic”
Bam! The answer is right there! I love it! In fact, I am using it more and more. The search has been narrowed down, and I don’t have to search the search results.
“teleology /tĕl″ē-ŏl′ə-jē, tē″lē-/
noun
The philosophical interpretation of natural phenomena as exhibiting purpose or design. The use of ultimate purpose or design as a means of explaining phenomena. Belief in or the perception of purposeful development toward an end, as in history.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at Wordnik”
The “hate” part, I don’t know yet. More like scary. I will have to keep an open mind.
Dennis C Rathsam says
AMERICA!!!!! THE WAY IT USED TO BE! Kiss goodbye to woke, kiss goodbye the its… in our military! A lean mean fighting machine. You never saw a chubby in WW2. Inlistments are double what they were under Biden. WHY????? TRUMP BABY TRUMP! Here in America, as Europe, we are seeing an invation of people trying take the world over. Look at Deerborn Mi…Taken over by radical Muslims, who chant death to America! The Americans in Deerborn are awakened at 5am everyday To loud chanting, calling them to pray.The old men want young wivies, 8 9 10 year olds to marry, against there will. They even beat their wivies too. There is no place for sharea law in America, never will be. America will stand tall & remove these hatefull scum from our shores! TRUMP knows what’s going on, he,s no dummy. He cleaned up Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Memphis. He has deported millions of Bidens invaders, with more going everyday. Next is the deportation of Muslims throughout America, & ban them from coming back They bring nothing to the USA but HATE!
Skibum says
Me thinks that if it is in fact true that military enlistments have doubled as Dennis Rathsman suggests, there may be a more ominous reason. Wanna be “proud boys” and “oath keepers”. You know, the good ‘ole southern boys who’s daddies had white robes with eye holes cut out, which are now hidden in trunks in their attics along with extra confederate flags, possibly swastikas, and what not.
The main cadre of military recruits in recent years have extremist ideology white supremist violence written all over them. I remember when drumph went to a military base to give one of his hate filled, extremist nonsense naziesque “speeches” to the troops, and before he got there, he and his top military officials put out orders that ONLY drumph supporting soldiers were to be in attendance because it was EXPECTED for each soldier to be as loud, as boisterous, as animated in support of everything coming out of drumph’s pie hole as possible, NO LIMITS as long as they were FOR what he was saying.
The military commanders ordered any soldiers who were not rabid drumph supporters to STAY AWAY, because no dissention in the ranks was going to be tolerated and punishment was going to follow anyone who disobeyed that directive.
The outlandish, unprofessional conduct during that speech by soldiers was not only disheartening, it was absolutely DISGUSTING! I remember watching the vulgar antics of some of those soldiers as it was played on TV afterward. It reminded me of nearly the level of outbursts by the maga mob we all watched on live TV on Jan. 6.
If that is in fact the type of military recruits who are signing up in droves since drumph’s inauguration earlier this year, WATCH OUT, AMERICA!!! Those good ‘ole boys are signing up so they can be issued guns, uniforms with storm trooper like jack boots, and orders to KILL. And just who do you think they will be ordered to target, huh? The answer: other Americans that drumph wants to target for removal, or retribution and revenge.
Kennan says
Anyone that can’t see what’s happening will get what they think doesn’t apply to them eventually.
These are the pitfalls that you and your ilk will suffer because of your perceived privileged station.
A sad corner of inhumanity, tribalism, racial imbalance, white nationalism, and “lockstep patriotism,” based on nothing, but how much of your body you can cover in the American flag.
We now have a” Secretary of War”. A government groping, drunk, former fox personality, with neither the experience or the temperament to run a group chat, much less a military.
A president and secretary of war that think putting National Guard and military in” Blue Cities” is good practice for the military.
Generals that could write books about their service and experience our lectured by Donald J Von Douchberg, a draft dodging, heel spur, crying felon. All the wild Pete Hegseth juggles insulting the military brass while massaging Trump‘s balls.
The level of hypocrisy, ignorance, and dictatorship is palpable.
I don’t care what political affiliation you have, what rock you crawled out from under, what language you speak. if you think any of this is remotely patriotic? I urge you to see a doctor. It’s OK. Just admit you fucked up. Get the help you need so you can move on with your life and hopefully not in fact, anyone else with whatever it is, you have
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Kennan.
Frederick says
The pro fascist won’t release the Epstein files. Big surprise. Point a finger. Republicans have the house senate and White House and corrupt Supreme Court but they put on national park websites it’s democrats fault for shut down. How pathetic and sad the king is.
Ray W. says
Hello Skibum:
This is from the U.S. Department of War website:
“… [T]he services increased the number of recruits from 200,000 in FY 2023 to 225,000 in FY2024, which ended September 30.
“Additionally, she [Director of Military Accession Policy Katie Helland] said, the services had a 35% increase in written contracts, and the active components’ delayed entry program started FY2025 with a 10% larger pool.”
Make of this what you will.
Me?
The number of persons entering military service rose more that 10% to 225,000 over the year before President Trump took office, and the number of persons awaiting entry into military service in 2025 was 10% higher at the end of FY 2024 than it had been at the end of FY 2023.
What this means is that President Trump inherited a pool of military enlistees that was growing when he took office.
So I checked on FY 2025 recruiting goals for the military. The Army seeks 61,000 recruits this fiscal year, which it has already reached. The Navy seeks 44,096 recruits. The Air Force seeks 29,950 recruits. The Marine Corps does not publish recruiting goals, but is has an annual goal of 30,536 active duty and reserve Marines, plus 1,792 officers. This leaves out the Space Force and the Coast Guard, but the total number of recruits for FY 2025 for the three branches that list recruitment goals is 135,046, a number far less than the 225,000 who enlisted during FY 2024. Whether the Space Force, plus the Coast Guard, plus the Marine Corps can enlist another 90,000 persons this year is debatable, as these are the three smallest branches of the military.
If the data obtained from the U.S. Department of War’s website is true, and I see little reason to disbelieve the figures, then Dennis C. Rathsam’s claim that enlistments have doubled thus far in FY 2025 from FY 2024 is almost certainly a lie, something he so often does in his other comments. If Dennis C. Rathsam got his “double” claim from a member of the professional lying class that sits at the top of one of our two political parties, then while he may not know enough to know that he is almost certainly lying; he is almost certainly laundering a lie, another thing that he so often does in his comments.
As for deportations, on August 28th, CNN published an article based on Department of Homeland Security records. Nearly 350,000 persons have been deported since January, plus repatriations by US Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard. In the three months of FY 2025 prior to President Trump taking office, 71,400 persons were deported, which would translate to an annual rate of 285,600.
As an aside, since Dennis C. Rathsam often presents as a person who is innumerate, i.e., unable to speak, know and understand numbers, if military recruitment to double from FY 2024 to FY 2025 as he claims they are going to, then that would mean some 450,000 persons would enlist this fiscal year, an absurd number.
Given his history of laundering lies and when not laundering lies his history of outright lying is it reasonable to argue that no one should take at face value anything Dennis C. Rathsam types?
As for self-deportations, a curious situation exists.
The Pew Research Center recently released a report holding that the overall number of immigrants of all types, including naturalized citizens, was 55.3 million at the beginning of January 2025. The Pew Research Center defines immigrant as including those who have “naturalized, i.e., ‘U.S.’ citizens'” status. The number as of the end of June was 51.9 million, a reduction of 1.4 million.
The Center for Immigration Studies published a report that concluded that the overall foreign-born population dropped by 1.6 million between January and July 2025, a period of seven months.
The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published a report showing a decline of 1.937 million foreign-born persons from March to July, but that report does not count the foreign-born who are under the age of 16.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, which conducts its own immigration and emigration studies, 1.44 million “other foreign national category” persons emigrated out of the country between 2023 and 2024, an average of 720,000 per year but the number for 2024 was 36% higher than the number for 2023.
One of the authors of the Center for Immigration Studies report concluded:
“… (1) not every alien who comes here remains forever, and many voluntarily leave; (2) most aliens come illegally to work and only stop working when they either can’t work or leave; and (3) enforcement works.”
I recall from other studies that the foreign-born population total in the U.S. dropped during 2020, the year of the pandemic.
I take from all this that some 50 million foreign-born persons, naturalized or not, documented or not, live in the U.S., give or take a million or so. Some 700,000 of these foreign-born persons may be emigrating out of the U.S. every year, give or take a 100,000 or so, to either their home countries or to other countries. Prior to the second Trump administration, some 250,000 persons were deported by court order each year, excluding those turned back at or near the border, without deportation orders.
The record number of deportations was set at 316,000 during the Obama administrations. None of these figures account for the number of foreign-born persons who die in the U.S. every year.
Is it reasonable to argue that for years, the number of foreign-born persons in the U.S. who die, emigrate out of the country or who are deported by court order is somewhere in the range of 900,000 per year, give or take annual fluctuations? 800,000? If this is so, then is it reasonable that any figure regarding the number of foreign-born deportations or self-deportations has to be considered in the context of historical figures?
Laurel says
Ray W: I think that Dennis actually believes the stuff he hears on biased TV shows. His *bubble* appears to be much smaller than most.