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Archive for November, 2014

Chance is the pseudonym God uses when he doesn’t want to sign his own name.
    —   Anatole France
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On This Day In:
2021 Seeking Emergence
Walking Alone
2020 51 Days Until The Moron (#45) Is Out Of Office
Tearing The Roof Off It
2019 #Impeach45: Once A Buffoon, Now A Bad Joke
2018 Good Sense
2017 E Pluribus Unum
2016 Lacking
2015 Chip, Chip, Chip
2014 nom de plume
2013 The Real Reason
From The Book
2012 When Young
2011 14 Ways To A Better Judgement

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Franklin’s Epitaph

The Body of B. Franklin,
Printer;
like the Cover of an old Book,
Its Contents torn out,
And stript of its Lettering and Gilding,
Lies here,
Food for Worms.
But the Work shall not be wholly lost;
For it will,
as he believ’d,
appear once more,
In a new & more perfect Edition,
Corrected and amended By the Author.
    —    Written by Benjamin Franklin
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On This Day In:
2021 Become Daily
Just Pickin’
2020 So, You Think You Know The Answer?
The One You Come Running To
2019 His Promises, OUR Hopes
2018 Where I Write
2017 At Last, An Honest Philosopher…
2016 Fake It ‘Til You Make It
2015 Hell Toupée
2014 Corrected And Amended
2013 Too Few
2012 Three Characters
2011 Universal Payment
2010 Privatizing the TSA? (An old – and long – post, but still relevant!!)

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In reality there is nothing but atoms and space.
     —    Democritus
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On This Day In:
2021 Eye On The Prize
Everything That’s Precious
2020 And Most Adults Don’t Either
And It Burns, Burns, Burns
Just Dessert
2019 Happy Thanksgiving (2019)
2018 And Smiles…
2017 Or Savor A Little Longer…
2016 Sometimes I Just Want To Smell The Flowers
2015 One Truth – Done Well
2014 Now In Imagination, On The Other Hand…
2013 No Plan, No Map
2012 Singing About Love
2011 The Awesome Power Of Truth

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“There ought not to be anything in the whole universe that man can’t poke his nose into – that’s the way we’re built and I assume that there’s some reason for it.”
“Maybe there aren’t any reasons.”
“Yes, maybe it’s just one colossal big joke, with no point to it.”  Lazarus stood up and stretched and scratched his ribs.  “But I can tell you this, Andy, whatever the answers are, here’s one monkey that’s going to keep on climbing, and looking around him to see what he can see, as long as the tree holds out.”
   —    Robert A. Heinlein
From his novel:  “The Past Through Tomorrow
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On This Day In:
2021 So Will Persistence
I Won’t Shed A Tear
2020 Minute Fractions Of Happiness
There’s Angels Everywhere
2019 Far Too Often
2018 A Divided / United Nation
2017 What We Want
2016 To The Extent
2015 Ambition
2014 More Branches To Climb
Just In Time — Happy Thanksgiving (2014)
2013 For And Against
2012 De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
2011 Similar And Different
2010 Reminiscing
Differences

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Faith in our collective power to resolve intractable problems is a gift that should inspire us all this Thanksgiving.  I give thanks for the activists and “troublemakers” across the glove who speak up for better government and the rule of law;  for those who defend dignity and rights while honoring the rights of others;  for our armed forces and diplomats;  and for all who rebel against the counsels of complacency and defeatism and who welcome the opportunity to achieve what others say cannot be done.
   —    John Kerry
I’m thankful for the people willing to be crazy in their time —  not for themselves or for their time, but for a future they know must be.  …  These people sacrifice something in the present for something important in the future.  They have, as Vaclav Havel puts it, not optimism but hope.  The certainty that their cause makes sense.  That it is just.  And that someone, sometime, has finally got to stand up for it.
   —    Lawrence Lessig
[Both quotes are from the “Briefing / Voices” section of Time Magazine, December 1 — 8, 2014, “The Genius Issue”   —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 So Will Persistence
I Won’t Shed A Tear
2020 Minute Fractions Of Happiness
There’s Angels Everywhere
2019 Far Too Often
2018 A Divided / United Nation
2017 What We Want
2016 To The Extent
2015 Ambition
2014 More Branches To Climb
Just In Time — Happy Thanksgiving (2014)
2013 For And Against
2012 De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
2011 Similar And Different
2010 Reminiscing
Differences

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“But you do believe in God?”
“I told you so, didn’t I?  Not that you had any business asking me.”
“Then you must believe in other things?”
“Of course I do!  I believe that a man has an obligation to be merciful to the weak…  patient with the stupid…  generous to the poor.  I think he is obliged to lay down his life for his brothers, should it be required of him.  But I don’t propose to prove any of those things;  they are beyond proof.  And I don’t demand that you believe as I do.”
    —    Robert A. Heinlein
From his novel:  “The Past Through Tomorrow
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On This Day In:
2021 Certainly Ending
The Moment When
2020 #45: The Biggest Loser’s Self-Image
Happy Thanksgiving 2020!!
2019 Defining Trumpism In Today’s Republican Party
2018 #45: It’s Tougher Being President
2017 Consequences
2016 Shouting At The Void
2015 Crab Feed
Happy Thanksgiving (2015)
2014 Beyond Proof
2013 Poor Students Of History
2012 Between Two Worlds
2011 Common Humanity
2010 The Last Two Olympians

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It is my intention to make the circuit of knowledge, noticing what parts lie waste and uncultivated, and abandoned by the industry of man;  with a view to engage, by a faithful mapping out of the deserted tracts, the energies of public and private persons in their improvement.
    —    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021 Happy Thanksgiving (2021)!
When You Get Where You’re Going
2020 Still In School
The First Deuce
Escape From Planet Junkyard
2019 Will John Bolton Testify?
2018 Just Maybe
2017 Police In My Review Mirror
2016 Full And Rich
2015 Go Deeper
2014 Intentional Mapping
2013 The Sweet Path
2012 Living Free And Abolition
Morning Wood
2011 I Resemble That Remark

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To the man with an ear for verbal delicacies  —  the man who searches painfully for the perfect word and puts the way of saying a thing above the thing said  —  there is the constant joy of sudden discovery, of happy accident.
    —     Henry Louis Mencken
From:  “A Book of Prefaces
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On This Day In:
2021 Why We Protect The First Amendment
When A Voice Can Make You Cry
The March Continues…
2020 #45: And State Prison Waits When You Leave Office
I Keep Getting Up
Difficult To Relax
2019 Looking For A Republican With A Profile In Courage
2018 Hammers, Bells And Songs
2017 My Friends
2016 In Need Of Some Work
2015 Elections Have Consequences
2014 An Ear Of Happy Accidents
2013 Powerful Substitute
2012 Heroes Restored
2011 As You Should

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Read not to contradict and confute;  nor to believe and take for granted;  nor to find talk and discourse;  but to weigh and consider.  Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;  that is, some books are to be read only in parts;  others to be read, but not curiously;  and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.  Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others;  but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.  Reading maketh a full man;  conference a ready man;  and writing an exact man.  And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory;  if he confer little, he had need have a present wit:  and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.
   —   Francis Bacon
From:  “On Studies
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On This Day In:
2021 Momentary Offering
Happy Noise
2020 No Crumbs
Too Many Detectives On This Case
A New Day Is Coming
2019 Or In This Case – What’s Wrong
2018 Just Passing Through
2017 True Torture
Happy Thanksgiving – 2017 !!
2016 Overtaken
2015 Alone Praying
2014 A Full Man
2013 Off Defending The Universe
Taking Precautions
2012 Never, Never, Never
2011 Testing 1, 2, 3

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He was forever reaching out and upward, attempting what seemed impossible to other men, relying solely on himself to get there, usually doing it.
     —    a description of James Middleton Cox
As quoted in:  “The New Outlook, vol. 126, Sept – Dec 1920
[This isn’t from an obituary, but it certainly is a sentence most ambitious young folks would like said describing themselves on their passing…   This quote was copied into my journal some 40-odd years ago.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021 Still Trying To Understand
V Memories From Saudi Arabia
2020 Sometimes Just Being There Is Enough
And I Owe It All To You
2019 Or Live For It
2018 Happy Thanksgiving (2018)
2017 Grateful Humility
2016 Obstacles
Election + 2 Weeks
2015 Done What You Could
2014 Impossible To Other Men
2013 Just In Case
2012 Isn’t This Just Pleasant?
2011 No Void In Sight

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When you get this letter, it will have been just a little over a year… since I started to learn the profession of killing my brothers…  And in this year of contact with the world my respect for man has dwindled instead of increasing.  For even among the best and the best are I take it those who devote them selves to the service of Mars, there is not the self sacrificing love of fame or self denying selfishness which I feel and which I had expected in others but rather a languid lassitude careless indifference or hazy uncertainty not becoming in my estimation a soldier or a man.  But let this be:  the fewer of a species there are the greater is its individual worth.  And if my nature prove incapable of the task I have set myself or if the opportunity never comes I can at least die happy in my own vanity knowing that I stood alone and that alone I fell.
     —    [then] Cadet George S. Patton, Jr.
From:  “The Patton Papers
Written by:  Martin Blumenson
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On This Day In:
2021 Still Building
Golden
2020 Books And Blogs
You Don’t Know What I Got
2019 #45 Is The Inverse
2018 A Message To The White House Press Corps
2017 Eeny Meeny Miny Moe
Binge, Binge, Binge
2016 Feeling Warm Yet?
Four Documentaries
2015 Just Like All The Others
2014 In My Own Vanity
2013 Filled With Words
2012 Lectio Auget Existentiae Meae
2011 Lied Lately?
2010 Born To Work At Faux News
Lost Again (Uh, Make That Still)
Qui Genus Humanum Ingenio Superavit
They’re Back… (Part 1)

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Fame never yet found a man who waited to be found.
     —    General George S. Patton, Jr.
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On This Day In:
2021 Small Curves
One For Me
2020 Like Belief In Truth And Facts
Hey #45, Are You Tired Of LOSING Law Suits Too?
2019 Many Forms
2018 Serenity Prayer
2017 But The Clock Says It’s Already Two Minutes 30 Seconds to Midnight
2016 Towards No Regret
2015 109 And Beyond
2014 Are You Waiting?
2013 Traditional Human Sacrifice
2012 A Division Of Men
2011 Miles, Legends and Superwoman
Got Tragedy?
2010 My Company For A Prince!!
On The Shoulders Of Titans

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The important things of life will not perish.  The greatest things will endure – faith, hope, and love, and the moral nature in man.
    —    Claude M. Fuess
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On This Day In:
2021 Too Bad Politics And Greed Get In The Way
Little Prayers
2020 Precarious Fools
A Shining City Upon A Hill
2019 How #45’s Father Raised Him For Incompetence
2018 Describing #45 – “The Loser” – As A Successful Businessman
Raking – #PresidentIdiot Proposes Full Employment For California
2017 Federal Deficit, National Debt And Tax Cuts For The 1%
2016 Picky, Picky, Picky
2015 Another Limitation On Religion
2014 Enduring
2013 Tell Me More…
2012 Passing…
2011 Fake It ‘Til You Make It

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 Conversation enriches the understanding,
 But solitude is the school of the genius.
    —    Kahlil Gibran
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On This Day In:
2021 Misunderestimated
The Sincerest Form Of Flattery
Four Fifths Of Music
2020 Doctor’s Orders
Make That Seven Orders…
2019 Innocent
2018 Ripost
2017 Just Asking…
2016 And 4
How Tall Do You Stand?
2015 More Prejudice
2014 Say What?
2013 Daring Errors
2012 Are You Comfortable?
I Just Have To
In Flux
2011 True New
2010 A Job Well Started Is A Job Half Done
I See With My One Good Eye

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George Patton, you have seen what the enthusiasm of men can mean for things done.  As God lives you must of your self merit and obtain such applause by you own efforts and remember that though at times of quiet this may not seem worth much yet at the last it is the only thing and to obtain it life and happiness are small sacrifices.  You have done your damdest and failed now you must do your damdest and win.  Remember that is what you live for Oh you must!  you have got to do some thing!  never stop until you have gained the top or a grave.
    —    George S. Patton, Jr. (General)
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On This Day In:
2021 In That Moment
Something A Little More Recent
A Request For Help (Indian Pop Music)
2020 Above Her Sink
In A Slower Lane Now
2019 #DullDonald
2018 And Start With Charity
2017 First Things First
2016 Why Would We Expect Truth From A Liar?
Unknown Fear
2015 Something Pagan
2014 A Note To Self
2013 Determining Our Degree Of Freedom
2012 Journalism And Fantasy
Known Knowns
Jerk, n.
2011 Love Questions

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