What Is True For War Is Also True For Elections

The bitter lesson that may be drawn from this tragedy is that eternal vigilance is the price of civilization.  A nation must love peace, but keep its powder dry.
—  Will Durant
From his book:  “The History of Civilization: Our Oriental Heritage“
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On This Day In:
2018	Start By Trying
	Day 4: Difficult Day
2017	Outlasting Division
2016	Said The Man Who Trained To Fight For A Living
2015	Tripping On Treasure
2014	The Flower Of Light
2013	Eye Catching
2012	The Holstee Manifesto
2011	Three Crooners For The Shower
	The Soldier’s Faith
	Vacation, Books And Lots Of Movies

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And I’m Not Letting Go

A Place We Knew
I can picture you now,
taking your makeup off
You come into my room
and you kiss my lips
But this hotel life,
I’m not used to it
And you wear your heart
right on your sleeve
But it took you a while
to open up to me
I still love the way
that you smile when you leave,
mm
And I know you get scared
when I’m away
But I think about you
almost all the day, yeah
And I promised you that I’d
be back again
Just can you remember?
Oh can you remember when we were
Dancing in hotel rooms
It was just me and you
And we wouldn’t sleep all night
With you sitting by my side
And every moment
we had stolen was a feeling
‘Cause it never mattered
Where we were,
’cause we were falling in love
‘Cause your heart is my home,
your heart is my home
Your heart is my home,
and I’m not letting go
When I was feeling down,
you always picked me up
It didn’t matter what
I was doing wrong
’cause
I’ve lived my life without you
for too long
But when I walked in the door
and I saw your face
Ooh, I knew in that moment,
that my world had changed
How can I live my life
since you’ve been and gone?
But can you remember?
Just try to remember when we were
Dancing in hotel rooms
It was just me and you
And we wouldn’t sleep all night
With you sitting by my side
And every moment
we had stolen was a feeling
‘Cause it never mattered
Where we were,
’cause we were falling in love
‘Cause your heart is my home,
your heart is my home
Your heart is my home,
and I’m not letting go
But in any single moment you can change
‘Cause I’ve been gone so long and I can feel you slip away
but I’m getting closer and closer
Can you remember?
Just try to remember when we were
Dancing in hotel rooms
It was just me and you
We wouldn’t sleep all night
With you sitting by my side
And every moment
we had stolen was a feeling
‘Cause it never mattered
Where we were,
’cause we were falling in love
‘Cause your heart is my home,
your heart is my home
Your heart is my home,
and I’m not letting go
‘Cause your heart is my home,
and your heart is my home
Your heart is my home,
and I’m not letting go
‘Cause your heart is my home,
and your heart is my home
Oh, your heart is my home,
and I’m never letting go
Performed by:  Dean Lewis
Songwriters:  Dean Lewis, Grant Loaney
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On This Day In:
2018	The Continuing Failure Of Speaker Paul Ryan
	Day 3: Approaching The Half Way Point
2017	Orange Comb-Overs Unite!
2016	Speaking Of Which
2015	Complexity Has A Strict Architecture
2014	Just Support
2013	Wandering Free
2012	Contribute = Paying Taxes
2011	How Will You Be Judged?

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Happy 10th Anniversary — Thoughts On My First Decade Of Blogging

This post marks the first day of my second decade of blogging here on WordPress.  Below is an image of the various countries which have someone who has visited my site…  I’m guessing Cuba and North Korea will be the last two to eventually visit (but you never know).  Someone should advise them:  “Resistance Is Futile…“
My first decade of viewers…
The Past:
I started this blog to experiment with writing and for an opportunity to stand on my soapbox and shout at the universe.  It turned out I am not that creative a writer and not angry enough to maintain a full throated shout / tirade.  Also, time became a factor.
Not knowing what I was doing, I was spending a whole day composing one long (or several short) posts about whatever bone I had to pick that day.  My daughter suggested I try scheduling so I would stop bombarding her with posts two or three times per month.  (She was my first follower, and, my only one for most of the first year.)
Sometime around year three, I reached my tenth follower.  By then, I had switched (added to) my blog by posting quotes from my early adulthood journal.  After another period, I added book and movie reviews.
I had already begun adding poems, speeches and the lyrics to favorite songs.  …Again, the same as my hand-written journal.
By then, I was following about 30-50 other sites, but I am not (and have rarely been) much of a joiner, and my own interests tend to be broad rather than deep, which I guess limits my appeal to others as much as it does others appeal to me.
The Present:
My blog has become a regular part of my daily life now that I’m retired.  (Yes, that does sound sad, doesn’t it?)  I still do book and movie reviews, but I’ve found keeping up with the several hundred bloggers I follow to be quite time consuming.  I probably spend about 60-90 minutes a day reading posts – which my wife considers a complete waste of time.  My better half thinks my time would be much better spent on her “Honey-Do” list or actually reading “real” books.  (Did I mention I have two walls lined with unread books I’ve acquired over the years?)
Although my site says I have over a thousand followers, I believe it’s closer to 15-20 on a good day.  I would say I consistently have 3-5 likes most days and these are my steady followers / visitors.  (You know who you are!)  To all of you, I would like to offer my heartfelt thanks for your valuable time.  I honestly hope I bring you a smile (or a groan) every once in a while.  At the very least, I hope you occasionally wonder: “What’s that guy Kevin thinking about today?”
As mentioned above, I follow several hundred bloggers (almost 300).  That’s not a daunting as it may sound as a few are dead (at least three), many more have stopped blogging, and most rarely post anymore.  I get about 100 emails a day, but a few you (them) are newbies who post 5-15 times a day (you know who you are, too).  And, yes, I remember the excitement of posting multiple times a day and getting a handful of “likes” every month or so.  I don’t mind, because they’ll get tired eventually…
The Future:
Who knows what the future holds…  I sure don’t.  I’ve been posting every day since mid-January 2011.  Will I keep up the streak?  I don’t know.  I’ve come close to missing a day more than once in the last eight years, but now it’s kind of become a “thing”.  I trust this means the universe will offer up an interruption soon…  LoL!!  And that’s okay too.  As long as I’m enjoying it, I’ll just pick back up and start a new streak.  And, when blogging stops being fun…  Well, hopefully, that’ll be quite a while from now.  For now: “Excelsior!“
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On This Day In:
2018	Happy 9th Anniversary — Three Thoughts
	Day 2 – Notes On Progress
2017	Happy 8th Anniversary
2016	Happy 7th Anniversary
2015	Happy 6th Anniversary
2014	Happy 5th Anniversary
2013	I Resemble That Remark!
2012	Happy 3rd Anniversary
2011	Is America Safe Tonight?
2009	Hello world! (See how it all began…)

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And Yet, I Believe

Religious doctrines … are all illusions, they do not admit of proof, and no one can be compelled to consider them as true or to believe in them.
—  Sigmund Freud
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On This Day In:
2018	Beats
	First Step: Starting Cleansing (Again)
2017	Effective Stimuli
2016	Dave’s Not Here, Man
2015	Blink
2014	The Struggle To Educate America Continues…
2013	On Elections
2012	Warm Smiles
	Pick Your Poison
2011	Straight Shooters

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Speak Up / Call Out

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.
—  Martin Luther King Jr.
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On This Day In:
2018	Does Smiling Count?
2017	Giving Much
2016	Sounds Like Class
2015	Inert Ideas
2014	Worth Anything?
2013	Bruises Before Bed (Or Why You Didn’t Answer)
	Revealed Riches
2012	Extra Gears
2011	Say What?
2010	Hello Frogs…

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Paint-By-Numbers

Fundamentalists are to Christianity what paint-by-numbers is to art.
—  Robin Tyler
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On This Day In:
2018	#45: Still Trying To
	Oh, Well…
2017	Two Views Of The Starting Line
2016	Never Had It, Never Will (Donald Trump)
2015	20/20
2014	All Of My Best Ideas Come While Walking…
2013	Learn To Learn
2012	I Remind You
2011	Respect And Prestige
2010	Living Legends (Willie Nelson) and the Gettysburg Address

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The Tragedies Are About To Get Worse

Egypt was living through one tragedy after another.  People were killed every day because of something.  This became our own Columbine reality on a weekly basis.  There was always this challenge of trying to make people laugh amid such terrible circumstances.  But what could we do?  If we closed up shop every time Egypt lived through another tragedy or unrighteous killing, we might as well not have a show at all.  Nonetheless, my team implored me to cancel the show.  They were worried about how we would be perceived.  I was already stressed out because I still wasn’t used to the timing of a live program and found myself shouting in the control room, “I can’t just go and cancel the show every other episode!  This is the country we are living in.  Death has become a mere statistic.  You will always find trolls who will say to you, how dare you laugh at whatever tragedy is going on in the country.  Well, guess what, the tragedies are about to get worse and the trolls will watch us in secret anyways.  There are people out there who need this.  I am doing the show.”
—  Bassem Youssef
From his book: “Revolution For Dummies“
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On This Day In:
2018	Plunge
	Time To Meet God
2017	Wealth Within
2016	Soaring
2015	Gone To The Library…
2014	Choose To Lead
2013	Not Sent Yet
2012	Wall-Crawler Reboot
	Learning To Count
	On Worshiping God
2011	Emancipated Differences
2010	A Little More Technology, Please…

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