Less And More Irritation

There is nobody so irritating as somebody with less intelligence and more sense than we have.
—    Don Herold
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On This Day In:
2014	That Marvelous Feeling
2013	Exceptional
2012	A Wild And Crazy Believer
2011	A Lack Of Scarcity
	The Joy Of Prevention

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Stretched Today?

Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.
—    Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
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On This Day In:
2014	Outta Here
2013	Getting Words Right
2012	There’s A New Dog In Town
	Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is
2011	A Conservative Is…

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When It Is Darkest

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.
––    Oscar Wilde
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On This Day In:
2014	Knowledge And Doubt
2013	Three Thoughts
2012	Gentle Reader
2011	Leave The Light On For Me Anyway

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He Says It’s Hard To Get There From Here

I would say here something that was heard from an ecclesiastic of the most eminent degree:  ‘That the intention of the Holy Ghost is to teach us how one goes to heaven, not how heaven goes.’“
Excerpted from Galileo Galilei’s letter to the Grand Duchess Christina of Tuscany, sent in 1615
Collected in Stillman Drake’s:  “The Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo“.
[Found at one of the blogs I follow:   http://jrbenjamin.com/
The specific post is located at:  http://jrbenjamin.com/2015/04/06/galileo-squares-faith-and-reason/
Please take a moment to visit the original site.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Question From A Founding Father
2013	Make Heroes
2012	See And Hold
2011	Am Not, Are So

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Getting The Story Right

For all the care you put into artistry, visual polish frequently doesn’t matter if you’re getting the story right.
—    Ed Catmull and Amy Wallace
From their book:  “Creativity Inc.“
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On This Day In:
2014	Like Shells On The Shore
2013	More And Why
2012	How To Gain Effective Fire
2011	Patriot Act

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However Vast The Darkness

The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent, but if we can come to terms with this indifference, then our existence as a species can have genuine meaning.  However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
―     Stanley Kubrick
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On This Day In:
2014	The Omnipresent Teacher
2013	Don’t Waste
2012	Earning Thanks
2011	Fuzzy Vision
2010	Movies and Book

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Little Understanding

Some day there is going to be a man sitting in my present chair who has not been raised in the military services and who will have little understanding of where slashes in their estimates can be made with little or no damage.  If that should happen while we still have the state of tension that now exists in the world, I shudder to think of what could happen in this country.
―    Dwight D. Eisenhower
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On This Day In:
2014	Open Early
2013	Movies And A Lifetime Of Lyrics
	This Truth
2012	Cheaper To Hold
2011	Resistance Is Futile
	One Great, One Enjoyable, One Terrible…
	Unfortunately, No Approval Is Required

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Hunger

No fear can stand up to hunger, no patience can wear it out, disgust simply does not exist where hunger is;  and as to superstition, beliefs, and what you may call principles, they are less than chaff in a breeze.
—    Joseph Conrad
From his novel:   “Heart of Darkness“
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On This Day In:
2014	Outside Dependence
2013	Doing Right
2012	A Short Course In Human Relations
	If Death Be My Future
	Strive
	Such A Fool
2011	I’m Working For A Living

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One View Of Failure

The man who lives for himself is a failure.  Even if he gains much wealth, position or fortune, he is still a failure.
—    Norman Vincent Peale
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On This Day In:
2014	We Speak For Earth
2013	Inward Urgency
2012	Delayed Reviews
	Fulfilling My Duty
2011	Interference

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Or You Don’t

You either believe people are fundamentally good or you don’t.  If you do believe they’re good, then as an entrepreneur, a team member, a team leader, a manager, or a CEO — or a government leader — you should act in a way consistent with your beliefs.  If people are good, then they should be free.  Too many organizations and managers operate as if, absent some enlightened diktat, people are too benighted to make sound decisions and innovate.
—    Laszlo Bock
Google’s head of human resources, (senior vice president, people operations)
From his book:  “Work Rules!“
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On This Day In:
2014	If You Ever Fall…
2013	Glory Days (part 2)
2012	They Follow A Pattern – If You Know What I Mean
	What I Live For (Precis)
2011	Giving

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Embarrassing Myself Again

When an acquaintance goes by I often step back from my window, not so much to spare him the effort of acknowledging me as to spare myself the embarrassment of seeing that he has not done so.
—    Georg C. Lichtenberg
[Sometimes I find humor in the strangest of settings…  I normally step forward and knock on the glass.  But then, I also wave at complete strangers just to see their reaction.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	I’ve Never Have Had
2013	Glory Days (part 1)
2012	Feeling Old?
2011	Even When I Wish Really, Really Hard
	Skeptical Fathers
	Cha-cha-cha-changes

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Remembering Oklahoma City

At the time, I was living overseas in Liverpool, but I remember the days and days of news coverage…
On April 19, 1995, the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City was the site of a domestic terrorist bomb attack.  Carried out by two survivalist and white supremacists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, the bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 680 others.  They were seeking to punish Federal law enforcement agencies for perceived attacks on anti-Federal groups at Ruby Ridge, Idaho and in Waco, Texas.
The following year, Garth Brooks sang “The Change” which is a tribute to those lost and injured and to those who rushed into harms way to provide aid.
See the video on YouTube.com at:   http://www.youtube.com/embed/LAJ9tNXZfu8 or you can click through the embedded video below.
The lyrics are available on my poems page at:  “The Change“
The song – and the memories it stirs – still brings tears to my eyes…     KMAB
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On This Day In:
2014	Who Was That Masked Man?
2013	Enemy Mine
2012	Strengthen Me
2011	Service, Please
2010	The Church In Crisis…

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We Must Dissent

We cannot play ostrich.  Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear.  Liberty cannot bloom amid hate.  Justice cannot take root amid rage.  America must get to work.  In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind.  We must dissent from the indifference.  We must dissent from the apathy.  We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust.  We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away.  We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope.  We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership.  We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.
The legal system can force open doors and sometimes even knock down walls.  But it cannot build bridges.  That job belongs to you and me.  Afro and White, rich and poor, educated and illiterate, our fates are bound together.  We can run from each other but we cannot escape each other.  We will only attain freedom if we learn to appreciate what is different and muster the courage to discover what is fundamentally the same.  America’s diversity offers so much richness and opportunity.  Take a chance, won’t you?  Knock down the fences that divide.  Tear apart the walls that imprison.  Reach out, freedom lies just on the other side.  We should have liberty for all.
—   Thurgood Marshall
Former Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Acceptance Speech for the Liberty Medal
July 4, 1992
Independence Hall
Philadelphia, PA
[I “found” this quote when it was read (twice) in the Netflix TV series “Daredevil” which I reviewed earlier this month.  The sentences about “dissent” were quoted.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2014	Now What?
2013	Judgement
2012	Stuck In My Mind
	Life’s Hope
2011	Just Getting Up
	Directions Please

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Deeply

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
—    Lao Tzu
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On This Day In:
2014	Hi-Yo Silver, Away!
2013	Warning:
2012	Thinking About Beauty
2011	A Founding Father’s Argument Against Public Funding Of Religious Education
	Weekend Update
	So Far, So Good

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Still Dreaming

The timeless in you is aware of life’s timelessness.  And knows that yesterday is but today’s memory and tomorrow is today’s dream.
―    Kahlil Gibran
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On This Day In:
2014	Good Wins
2013	Before
2012	Look To This Day
2011	One View Of Man

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