Combining Intelligence For Service

Civilization is to groups what intelligence is to individuals.  It is a means of combining the intelligence of many to achieve ongoing group adaptation.  Civilization, like intelligence, may serve well, serve adequately, or fail to serve its adaptive function.  When civilization fails to serve, it must disintegrate unless it is acted upon by unifying internal or external forces.
―     Octavia E. Butler,
From her book:  “Parable of the Sower“
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On This Day In:
2023	Enjoying Being A Serious Blogger
2022	We Are Seeing The Future
2021	The Correct Answer Will Be In The Form Of A Question
	Listen Up (The Shoop Shoop Song)
2020	Testing To Open The Economy Safely
2019	Or Thought I’d Thought
2018	Go And Dare
2017	And Wealth A Poor Substitute For Ability
2016	Neither Darkness Nor Shadows
2015	It Took Roots
2014	Hard Evidence
2013	Full Participation
2012	Roving (Again)
	Ooops, Again
2011	Why Not?

Happy Meeting Day 40 (And Counting)

…When you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.
—     Harry Burns
From: “When Harry Met Sally“
Our favorite holding period is forever.
—     Warren Buffett
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Forty years ago I met the love of my life…   Loving her a little more each day makes getting old easier than I ever imagined it would be.
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On This Day In:
2023	Happy Meeting Day 39 (And Counting)
2022	Happy Meeting Day 38 (And Counting)
	9 (40) – Done
2021	Happy Meeting Day 37 (And Counting) (A Long And Winding Road)
2020	Happy Meeting Day 36 (And Counting) (I Want To Hold Your Hand)
2019	Happy Meeting Day 35 (And Counting) (Could It Be I’m Falling In Love)
2018	Happy Meeting Day 34 (And Counting)
	Storytelling
2017	Happy Meeting Day 33 (And Counting) (A Little More Time On You)
2016	Picture Perfect (The Colour Of Love)
2015	Life Showed Compassion (One In A Million You)
2014	And Then I Met Her (God Only Knows)
2013	Defining Maleness
	The Run Continues
2012	All Set
2011	Not Always

Just Curating

Introverts are collectors of thoughts, and solitude is where the collection is curated and rearranged to make sense of the present and future.
—     Laurie Helgoe
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On This Day In:
2023	Even A Trickle Wears Away The Stone
2022	Or The Day After
	9 (40) Redux – And Tips To Make It Through The Day
2021	And Yet I Still Pray
	I’m Still Listening To It (Heard It In A Love Song)
2020	What Am I Missing?
	If Only
2019	For Most #IncompetentDonald Followers
2018	I Dare You
2017	To Republicans Who Choose Party Over Country
2016	All About Control
2015	Liberty Is Extravagant
2014	Always Remember To Reach
	Have You Registered To Vote Yet?
2013	Ripples From The Water’s Edge
	Because I Was Alone
2012	POI vs Reality
	Dear And Sacred
2011	Chilled Again

Some Times I Just Crave Jazz

There is a tremendous difference between alone and lonely.  You could be lonely in a group of people.  I like being alone.  I like eating by myself.  I go home at night and just watch a movie or hang out with my dog.  I have to exert myself and really say, oh God, I’ve got to see my friends because I’m too content by myself.
—     Drew Barrymore
Introvert conversations are like jazz.  Each player gets to solo for a nice stretch before the other player comes in and does his solo.
—     Laurie Helgoe
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On This Day In:
2023	Similar To Options And Decisiveness
2022	We Just Need Will And Leadership
2021	Standing Next To Anyone?
	Pitter Pater, Pitter Pater (Rhythm Of The Falling Rain)
2020	Only Now
2019	I Think I’ve Been Blurred
2018	Progress On The Honey Do List
	And It’s Mostly Free, Too!
2017	Both Dismissed
2016	Poetry Isn’t Going To Work
2015	MA Fix
	Getting Better
2014	Actually
2013	Unfortunate Evolutionary Accidents
2012	Tense (Past, Present And Future)
2011	What Is Your Preference?

Confirmation Bias, Anyone?

We see what we believe rather than what we see.
—     Alan Watts
[And, no, I’m not pointing fingers only at MAGA believers.  Some Democrats can be just as biased (and downright crazy).    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2023	Seek Truth
2022	Brevity And Decisiveness
2021	They Don’t And They Aren’t
	Deep And High (Hymm)
2020	Social Distancing
2019	Touched?
2018	Chillin’ With My Bro
	Inconvenient Adventure
2017	Genuine Tragedies
2016	Why I’m Scared Of November
2015	I Can Tell Too
2014	In Hand
2013	No Fear
2012	Comic Books
	Keeping The Peace
2011	You Still Have To Pay For It

#45:TheLoser To His MAGA Followers

The demagogue is one who preaches doctrines he knows to be untrue to men he knows to be idiots.
—    H. L. Mencken
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On This Day In:
2023	Give Freedom
2022	8 And 9 (40)
	Prescient (Or Not?)
2021	Or Faith In A Creator…
	It Seemed The Taste Was Not So Sweet (Changes)
2020	Nearer My God To Thee, By George
	I’ve Got To Keep Working On It
2019	Laugh With Me
2018	Both Sides, Mr. President?
2017	Republicans Better Wake Up
2016	Truth Telling
2015	To Be Effective In The Modern World
2014	A Little Cover
2013	Binding
2012	Lift
2011	Another Good Movie, Another Excellent Book
	miSFits
	I’m Just Not Sure

Recognition And Thankfulness

Acknowledging the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
―     Eckhart Tolle
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On This Day In:
2023	Aim Above
2022	Grr-Argghh
	Long Past Time For A “Thorough-going Reappraisal”
2021	Facing Life
	70’s Sunshine Sound (Keep It Comin’ Love)
2020	#IncompetentTrump And His Pandemic Briefings
	#IncompetentTrump
2019	I Hope So
2018	Painted Into
2017	Prayers, Miracles And Lottery Tickets
	Roman View
2016	Dignity And Grace
2015	Is It Warm Enough For You
2014	What The Right STILL Wants
2013	Embrace Serendipity
2012	Your Order, Please
2011	Well Enough Anyway

How About Just More Respect And Less Trying To Change

If you have some respect for people as they are, you can be more effective in helping them to become better than they are.
—    John W. Gardner
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On This Day In:
2023	Toll Roads
2022	I’m Just Sad (1,000,000 In U.S. Dead From COVID)
2021	I’ve Still Not Found #45’s One Thing
	Chewin’ On A Piece Of Grass (Ventura Highway)
2020	Listening To A #IncompetentDonald COVID-19 Press Briefing
2019	I Am Doubtful
	Future Justice Looks Corporate
2018	True Measures
2017	Hoping For Tapes
	In It Now
2016	On Viewing This Mudball
2015	It Takes A Village
2014	In God’s Eyes
2013	We Root For Ourselves
2012	Like A Shark
2011	Discernible Virtue

What Is And What Is Not

Life is the fire that burns and the sun that gives light.  Life is the wind and the rain and the thunder in the sky.  Life is matter and is earth, what is and what is not, and what beyond is in Eternity.
—     Lucius Annaeus Seneca
[This quote was found at a blog I follow:  “A Pondering Mind“
The site is located at:  https://aponderingmind.org/
The specific post can be found at:  https://aponderingmind.org/2020/05/09/life-is-the-fire/
Please visit the original site if you have some free time…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2023	A Balancing Act
2022	Truly And Simply
2021	Lessons
	We Used To Sing (Brown Eyed Girl)
2020	And #45 Is Flat On His Face
2019	I’m Still Hungry
2018	What Matters
2017	By Far
2016	Until…
2015	Or Infinitesimal
2014	I’ve Looked At Clouds
2013	Undiscovered Ocean
2012	Feeling Old? (Part 2)
2011	What About Freedom?

Why I Fear The MAGA Movement

It is astonishing how foolish humans can be in groups, especially when they follow their leader without question.
—    Brian Herbert
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On This Day In:
2023	Necessities
	On CNN Interviewing #45DonaldTheLiar
2022	Threat Calculus
	7 (And 6) – 40
2021	Questioned By Life
	If There’ll Come A Time (Never My Love)
2020	Trying To Grow Pearls?
2019	Instantly Turned
2018	Sitting
2017	No Right Way
2016	Still Ticklish
2015	Maybe Sooner Than You Think
2014	The Path Of Mastery
2013	Love’s Ignorance
2012	Here’s To Enjoyment
2011	Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

I Support Overturning The “Citizens United” Decision

The concept of the public welfare is broad and inclusive … the values it represents are spiritual as well as physical, aesthetic as well as monetary.  It is within the power of the legislature to determine that the community should be beautiful as well as healthy, spacious as well as clean, well balanced as well as carefully patroled.
—     Justice William O. Douglas
Power that controls the economy should be in the hands of elected representatives of the people, not in the hands of an industrial oligarchy.
—     Justice William O. Douglas
“United States v. Columbia Steel Co., 334 U.S. 495”.
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On This Day In:
2023	Still Dreaming
2022	Not Exactly Preventing Or Realizing
2021	Maybe He Agreed With His Mum
	Come To Me, You’ll See (Who Loves You – Pretty Baby)
2020	Imagine Existence
	Posing As Action
2019	Voices Of The Past
2018	Sunrises, Rainbows And Newborn Babies
2017	Untold Agony
2016	Just Borrowed
2015	Warning
2014	Always More Productive
2013	Is Not
2012	Loosely Translated
2011	Your Opinions Are Not My Facts

But Sometimes Blindness IS Willful

The challenge to our liberties comes frequently not from those who consciously seek to destroy our system of government, but from men of goodwill – good men who allow their proper concerns to blind them to the fact that what they propose to accomplish involves an impairment of liberty.
—     William O. Douglas
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On This Day In:
2023	Too Small
2022	But Don’t Forget It Either
2021	Appreciating Intricacy
	I Read It In A Fairy Tale (One Of A Kind)
2020	Insensitive To Silence
	Weaker, Sicker And Poorer
2019	Don’t Be Small
2018	Persistence
2017	Are You A Loser?
2016	Constitution And Conscience
2015	Separate, Fearful And Imprisoned
2014	Something Worth Making
2013	Absolutely
2012	Can Do
2011	Wise Criticism

Four Changes

Security can only be achieved through constant change, through discarding old ideas that have outlived their usefulness and adapting others to current facts.
―     William O. Douglas
Awareness is the greatest agent for change.
―     Eckhart Tolle
The measure of intelligence is the ability to change.
―    Albert Einstein
Things do not change;  we change.
―     Henry David Thoreau
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On This Day In:
2023	Two More From Eleanor
2022	Get Outdoors More
2021	Re-institute The Wall Between Church And State
	Once In My Life (For Once In My Life)
2020	Early Knowledge
	Seen Any Messages Lately?
2019	I Don’t Think We’ll Be Serving Them Cake
2018	New And Old
2017	Ever
2016	At The Center
2015	True Value In Life
2014	A Potential To Be Concerned
2013	Fine No More
2012	Have You Checked Your Height Lately?
2011	Are You Convinced?

And The Last Shall Be First

Look for three things in a person.  Intelligence, energy, and integrity.  If they don’t have the last one, don’t even bother with the first two.
—     Warren Buffett
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On This Day In:
2023	Playing Golf?
2022	Do Good Works
2021	We Like To Believe So, Anyway
	More SoCal Sounds (I Get Around)
2020	I’m Older Now
2019	Why #45 (#LazyDonald) Was Destined To Be A Failed Presidency
2018	Easter In Liverpool
	Star Guides To Destiny
	Growl
2017	Decisions
2016	Along The Path
2015	Make Mine Rare, Please
2014	Passion Flooding
2013	On Purpose
2012	Sans Gall Bladder, Day 4
	How Did You Spend Your Day?
2011	It’s Hammerin’ Time!!
	Convenient Auxiliaries

Everything Has Its Cost

The Universe operates on a basic principle of economics:  everything has its cost.  We pay to create our future, we pay for the mistakes of the past.  We pay for every change we make . . . and we pay just as dearly if we refuse to change.
—    Brian Herbert
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On This Day In:
2023	Reveal And Conceal
	Heart Update (+30 Days)
2022	The Edge Of Today
2021	Why I’m Wrinkled With Age
	Is There A Generic Available? (Love Potion #9)
2020	I Feel Noblesse Oblige
2019	Live For Something
2018	My Dogs Beat ‘Em Up
	Is Your Sky Falling?
2017	Unseen Here, Too
2016	Criticized Anyway
2015	Sometimes The Truth Hurts
2014	All Agreed, Say “Aye”
2013	Two Books, Two Movies
	Just Because
2012	God’s Requirements
2011	Greater Purity