Still Trying To Make It

Make the most of the best and the least of the worst.
—  Robert Louis Stevenson
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On This Day In:
2016	One Lucky Man
2015	Food Change ==> Health Change
2014	10 Commandments Of Logical Arguments (Fallacies)
2013	Sociology Of The Future
2012	1010
	There In The Sunshine
2011	Not Enough Time

Regrets – The Donald Failed The Test

…
Mr. Trump once boasted that he could shoot someone in the street and not lose voters.  Well, someone was just killed in the street by a white supremacist in Charlottesville.  His refusal this weekend to specifically and immediately denounce the groups responsible for this intolerable violence was both morally disgusting and monumentally stupid.  In this, Mr. Trump failed perhaps the easiest imaginable test of presidential leadership.  Rather than advance a vision of national unity that he claims to represent, his indefensible equivocation can only inflame the most vicious forces of division within our country.
If Mr. Trump had been speaking about the overall political climate, he might have been right to say that “many sides” are responsible for exacerbating social tensions.  Yet during the events in Charlottesville this past weekend, only one side — a deranged white nationalist — was responsible for killing anyone.  To equivocate about this fact is the height of irresponsibility.  Even those concerned about the overzealous enforcement of political correctness can hardly think that apologizing for neo-Nazis is a sensible alternative.
Those of us who supported Mr. Trump were never so naïve as to expect that he would transform himself into a model of presidential decorum upon taking office.  But our calculation was that a few cringe-inducing tweets were an acceptable trade-off for a successful governing agenda.
Yet after more than 200 days in office, Mr. Trump’s behavior grows only more reprehensible.  Meanwhile, his administration has no significant legislative accomplishments — and no apparent plan to deliver any.
…
Far from making the transformative “deals” he promised voters, his only talent appears to be creating grotesque media frenzies — just as all his critics said.
Those who found some admirable things in the hazy outlines of Mr. Trump’s campaign — a trade policy focused on national industrial development; a less quixotic foreign policy; less ideological approaches to infrastructure, health care and entitlements — will have to salvage that agenda from the wreckage of his presidency.  On that, I’m not ready to give up.
…
—  Julius Krein
From his opinion piece / editorial:  “I Voted for Trump.  And I Sorely Regret It”  17 Aug. 2017
Appearing in: “The New York Times“
The original editorial is located at:  http://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/17/opinion/sunday/i-voted-for-trump-and-i-sorely-regret-it.html
[Okay, so we agree.  #DonTheCon is “monumentally stupid”.  And, yes, you made a mistake.  So what now?  What are you going to do about it?  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2016	Just Ask “The Donald”
2015	Did You Pass On It?
2014	Even When It Ain’t, It Is
2013	Still Happens
2012	Possessing Eternity
2011	I Thought We Were Talking About Afghanistan

Adrift In The Oval Office

Ideals are the most powerful force known to man.  No nation’s greatness long survives the lowering of the greatness of its ideals.  And as with nations, so with individuals.  Low ideals and high station cannot long retain company.  We all must have ideals unless we are content to drift along aimlessly, ambitionless, ineffectually.  Ideals vitalize, ideals energize.
—  B. C. Forbes
[I would put my bet on Love being more powerful (individually), but Ideals would be close behind (collectively)… — KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2016	Just Ask “The Donald”
2015	Did You Pass On It?
2014	Even When It Ain’t, It Is
2013	Still Happens
2012	Possessing Eternity
2011	I Thought We Were Talking About Afghanistan

Courage

The courage we desire and prize is not the courage to die decently, but to live manfully.
—  Thomas Carlyle
The man who always fights one more round is never whipped.
—  James J. Corbett
[Better known as “Gentleman Jim” Corbett
World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, September 7, 1892 – March 17, 1897  —  KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2016	Don’t H8! — I’m With Her!!
2015	$20 Anyone?
2014	And Yet I Still Study
2013	Use Your Own
2012	Strengthen Freedom
2011	Attrition = A Lack Of Imagination
2010	Mind The Fire, Love
	Just Beyond My Reach…
	Even A Life Of Quiet Desperation!
	Acts Of Courage

Try Not To Run Short, Too

Find an aim in life before you run out of ammunition.
—  Arnold Glasow
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On This Day In:
2016	I Feel The Same (Thankful)
2015	It Couldn’t Hurt
2014	Sir, I Have Reasoned It Out!
2013	What Are We Becoming?
2012	Miracles
2011	“W” Finds A Nut!
2010	No Strain At All, But I’m Not Sure About Stress…
	An Evening at the Pavilion…

Be Responsible

Without responsibility to something outside of himself, man is not able to be free.  Responsibility is the criterion of freedom.
—  Victor E. Frankl
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On This Day In:
2016	Thinking About November 8th, 2016
2015	Lonely Teardrops
2014	Pleasurable Law
2013	Room For Justice
	In The Minds Of Others
2012	Extinction, n.
2011	Snap!

Open Your Eyes (And Your Heart)

The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all art and science.  He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead; his eyes are closed.
—  Albert Einstein
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On This Day In:
2016	Privilege Too…
2015	Otherwise Obscured
2014	Fundamentals
2013	Proof – ing
2012	Deluge, n.
2011	Hail, Caesar!
	Why Were You Sent?