nom de plume

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:
2013	The Real Reason
	From The Book
2012	When Young
2011	14 Ways To A Better Judgement

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Corrected And Amended

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:
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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Now In Imagination, On The Other Hand…

In reality there is nothing but atoms and space.
—  Democritus
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On This Day In:
2013	No Plan, No Map
2012	Singing About Love
2011	The Awesome Power Of Truth

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More Branches To Climb

“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:
2013	For And Against
2012	De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
2011	Similar And Different
2010	Reminiscing
	Differences

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Just In Time — Happy Thanksgiving (2014)

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:
2013	For And Against
2012	De Mortuis Nil Nisi Bonum
2011	Similar And Different
2010	Reminiscing
	Differences

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Beyond Proof

“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:
2013	Poor Students Of History
2012	Between Two Worlds
2011	Common Humanity
2010	The Last Two Olympians

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Intentional Mapping

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:
2013	The Sweet Path
2012	Living Free And Abolition
	Morning Wood
2011	I Resemble That Remark

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