06 | August | 2011 | Kevin Barrett's Blog

Archive for August 6th, 2011

I’ve made some minor changes to my blog’s home page.

I’ve added a couple of links to my sidebar under politics. They are for the Cook Report and FedBlog.

Charlie Cook is a guy I’ve seen on TV loads of times and I’ve been reading his blog column for a little over a year. He is remarkably fair in both mediums and seems to call it the way the numbers fall. (He is a professional pollster.) Even when I don’t agree with him, I still continue to read his work and consider his views. His blog is located at the National Journal site, which itself is an interesting site.

FedBlog is the tool I use to stay current with a lot of the issues which affect me as a Federal employee. FedBlog is run off of the Government Executive web site. When you read the comments on this blog you should be aware there are a number of companies (mostly on the right, but some on the left) who pay folks to troll these site and issue flaming comments which are both anti-federal government and anti-federal employee – so a lot of the comments must be taken with a grain of salt.

I highly recommend both the individual sites and the host web sites!!

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Hil’s Mum and Dad with Big Smiles
While I was back in Liverpool, I sat down to have a conversation with Hil’s mom. Nana Carter recently turned 80 years old and I wanted to ask her what she’d learned in four score years. Here was her reply:

1) There is a time to speak and a time to be quiet. You don’t always have to say the first thing that comes to your lips. You don’t always have to get wisdom from experience; although that’s usually where the most wisdom comes from. Sometimes you can get wisdom from others; but usually you have to be quiet and listen to them first.

2) One of the best gifts in life is contentment. If you can recognize that what you have is what you need, you don’t have to want for other things just to have them. Count your blessings and be happy with what you have.

3) Be truthful to others and to yourself. Follow the Ten Commandments and you won’t go wrong.

[The photo I’ve included is a section of another, larger photo which isn’t actually focused on Hil’s Mum and Dad (hence it’s a bit fuzzy), but it is one of very few “non-posed for” photos I’ve ever seen which shows a natural joy, friendship and physical closeness of an older couple who are very much in love. Because Hil’s parents were both raised with a great deal of “British reserve”, this remains one of my favorite photos of them. — kmab]

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A little knowledge that acts is worth infinitely more than much knowledge that is idle.

— Kahlil Gibran
From: “A Second Treasury of Kahlil Gibran“

[Perhaps the “Teabaggers” acting on their little knowledge will make them more politically valuable in the next election than the much better informed majority who will probably do very little to counter the constant battering of “right-wing / corporate news”. It is ALL about jobs, but it is also about personal freedoms, health care and the dignity of the American worker (and not just the middle class worker). Before you surrender to hopelessness, remember the next President and Senate will probably nominate and confirm at least two Supreme Court Justices. Will they be replacements for Alito’s, Scalia’s and Thomas’s seats? Your actions (or idleness) in the lead-up to the next election will make more of a difference than your actual vote. Be a force multiplier and not just a single vote!! — kmab]

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