Hammer Time

If I Had A Hammer
Favorite Line(s):
Well, I’ve got a hammer
And I’ve got a bell
And I’ve got a song to sing
All over this land
It’s the hammer of justice
It’s the bell of freedom
It’s a song about love between
My brothers and my sisters
All over this land
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On This Day In:
2020	3 November Is Coming!
	Bee Gees’ing
2019	Senate Republicans: Impeachment – Because It Is Right!
	Dave’s Not Here, Man!
	Mixing Business And Pleasure
2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
	HF2: 1940’s Grapes
2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

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Well Within Our Power

Here we face a critical branch point in history, what we do with our world, right now, will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants.
We are star stuff, which has taken its destiny into its own hands.  The loom of time and space works the most astonishing transformations of matter.  Our own planet is only a tiny part of the vast cosmic tapestry, a starry fabric of worlds yet untold.  Those worlds in space are as countless as all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the earth.  Each of those worlds is as real as ours.  In every one of them there’s a succession of incidents, events, occurrences, which influence its future.  Countless worlds, numberless moments, an immensity of space and time, and our small planet at this moment — here we face a critical branch point in history.  What we do with our world, right now will propagate down through the centuries and powerfully affect the destiny of our descendants.  It is well within our power to destroy our civilization and perhaps our species as well.  If we capitulate a superstition or greed or stupidity, we can plunge our world into a darkness deeper than the time between the collapse of classical civilization and the Italian Renaissance.  But we are also capable of using our compassion and our intelligence, our technology and our wealth, to make an abundant and meaningful life for every inhabitant of this planet, to enhance enormously our understanding of the universe and to carry us to the stars.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	3 November Is Coming!
	Bee Gees’ing
2019	Senate Republicans: Impeachment – Because It Is Right!
	Dave’s Not Here, Man!
	Mixing Business And Pleasure
2018	Intensity Doesn’t Make It Correct
	HF2: 1940’s Grapes
2017	Proof Sits In The Oval Office
2016	Tragic Determinism
2015	Maybe It Should Be Clearer
2014	Make It Your Strength
2013	Four Score
2012	The Ruler
2011	Forever
2010	Just Cuz
	How Do You Mend A Broken Heart?
	It’s Alive!! (3rd Pair Shoe Review)

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We Don’t Listen Anyway

Time Has Come Today
Favorite Line(s):
Time has come today
Young hearts can go their way
Can’t put it off another day
I don’t care what others say
They say we don’t listen anyway
Time has come today
(Hey)
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On This Day In:
2020	Nothing New Here
	Talk To Me
	Register And Vote
2019	Love And Leave
2018	Smiling If Not Laughing
2017	Chilled And Smooth
2016	But Sometimes You Have To Stand In Front
2015	The Key Shift
2014	Remember ISIS / ISIL?
2013	What Have You Done Lately?
2012	B8
2011	I’m Definitely Not In Control

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Climate Change Deniers

Every spirit makes its house, and we can give a shrewd guess from the house to the inhabitant.
—    Ralph Waldo Emerson
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On This Day In:
2020	Nothing New Here
	Talk To Me
	Register And Vote
2019	Love And Leave
2018	Smiling If Not Laughing
2017	Chilled And Smooth
2016	But Sometimes You Have To Stand In Front
2015	The Key Shift
2014	Remember ISIS / ISIL?
2013	What Have You Done Lately?
2012	B8
2011	I’m Definitely Not In Control

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I Fear It Is (For Us If Not The Planet)

It’s Too Late Baby
Favorite Line(s):
It used to be so easy,
Livin’ here with you
You were light and breezy,
And I knew just what to do
Now you look so unhappy
And I feel like a fool
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On This Day In:
2020	#45 Never Shuts Up
	Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love
2019	Silly Pooh Bear
	Dominoes Or Jenga?
2018	Very Few
2017	Or The Candidate Who…
2016	The Happiest People
2015	Jumping Into The Dark
2014	I Would Be Sillier
2013	It Keeps Happening Anyway
2012	Take Time
2011	A Mother’s Lesson
2010	3rd Pair – Shoe Review (DOA and Final)

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An Impossible Situation

If you just lose your income that is one thing, because you can adapt.  You find another job or another field.  But once you lose everything — your home, your school, your clinic, your road, your church — then it’s an impossible situation.  You become an environmental migrant because you have to find those facilities in some other place.
—     Elizabeth Meyerhoff
Up until now, the focus has been on stopping people from migrating in the first place.  Now the focus needs to be on how to make them an asset rather than a burden for the places they are going.
—     Alex Randall
Of the U.K.-based Climate and Migration Coalition
Both quotes are from:  Aryn Baker and Kampi Ya Samaki
In their article:  “Deep Waters“
Sub-titled:  “Flooding in Kenya is turning thousands of residents into climate migrants. Can cities cope with the influx?“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine; Dtd:  26 April 2021
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On This Day In:
2020	#45 Never Shuts Up
	Walkin’ In The Rain With The One I Love
2019	Silly Pooh Bear
	Dominoes Or Jenga?
2018	Very Few
2017	Or The Candidate Who…
2016	The Happiest People
2015	Jumping Into The Dark
2014	I Would Be Sillier
2013	It Keeps Happening Anyway
2012	Take Time
2011	A Mother’s Lesson
2010	3rd Pair – Shoe Review (DOA and Final)

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Dedicated To: Messrs. Rubio And Pompeo

Waist Deep In The Big Muddy
Favorite Line(s):
Well, I’m not going to point any moral
I’ll leave that for yourself
Maybe you’re still walking, you’re still talking
You’d like to keep your health
But every time I read the papers
Them old feeling come on
We’re waist deep in the Big Muddy
The big fool says to push on
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On This Day In:
2020	What It Takes
	Every Sign Was A Northern Star
2019	Stuff Happens
	Whistleblower Complaint Regarding President Trump And Ukraine
2018	Looking Into Golf
	Goin’ Yard
2017	Improvise
2016	Got Leisure?
2015	It’s Been Hurtin’ For Quite A While Now
2014	Curious Talent
2013	Eureka
2012	Slow Me
2011	He Said What?!?
2010	Gritty
	3 and 3
	Just A Hunch
	Wall Street – Movie Review
	2nd Pair – Shoe Review (Aborted and Final)

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Buying Time In A Fixed Game

Many who oppose climate policy would undoubtedly take issue with the notion that climate should be addressed in all elements of our economy and society.  For years, that rejection was rooted in a denial of climate science.  But in recent years, as public understanding of climate change has grown, that position has become increasingly untenable, and opponents of climate action have offered their own vision of climatization.  In a 2019 op-ed, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, for example, acknowledged that flooding would increase in the state and cited predictions that the “30-year mortgage will die out” in some parts of Florida because of climate risks.  He proposed adapting, to “buy time.”  That same year, then U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo celebrated new trade routes that would open in the normally frozen sea as a result of climate change.  “This is America’s moment to stand up as an Arctic nation,” he said, describing the region as “an arena of global power and competition.”  In these visions, climate change is taken for granted — and we are all left to play a game of survival of the fittest.
—    Justin Worland
From his article:  “Force Of Nature“
Sub-titled:  “The Pandemic Remade Every Corner of Society.  Now It’s the Climate’s Turn“
Appearing in: Time Magazine;  Dtd:  15 April 2021
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On This Day In:
2020	What It Takes
	Every Sign Was A Northern Star
2019	Stuff Happens
	Whistleblower Complaint Regarding President Trump And Ukraine
2018	Looking Into Golf
	Goin’ Yard
2017	Improvise
2016	Got Leisure?
2015	It’s Been Hurtin’ For Quite A While Now
2014	Curious Talent
2013	Eureka
2012	Slow Me
2011	He Said What?!?
2010	Gritty
	3 and 3
	Just A Hunch
	Wall Street – Movie Review
	2nd Pair – Shoe Review (Aborted and Final)

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And It Will Be Here Last

Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living.  The world owes you nothing.  It was here first.
—     Mark Twain
[Whether we leave it habitable or not is a different question…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Necessary And Desirable
	Who Made The Rules?
2019	The Far Side
2018	Hold On
	Day 11: Just Plain Tired
2017	Why Don’t You Tell Us What You Really Think?
2016	Discontent
2015	Do You Know Me?
	Appetite For Life Update
2014	Tough Journalism
2013	Things I’ve Learned
2012	Abstainer, n.
2011	Rain, Rain, Rain
	Test Your Strength
2009	End the mistakes…

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And Due To Be More Fluid

History is subject to geology.  Every day the sea encroaches somewhere upon the land, or the land upon the sea;  cities disappear under the water, and sunken cathedrals ring their melancholy bells.  Mountains rise and fall in the rhythm of emergence and erosion;  rivers swell and flood, or dry up, or change their course; valleys become deserts, and isthmuses become straits.  To the geologic eye all the surface of the earth is a fluid form, and man moves upon it as insecurely as Peter walking on the waves to Christ.
—     Will and Ariel Durant
From their book:  “The Lessons Of History“
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On This Day In:
2020	A Humbling Learning Process
	They Are All Good
2019	Another Thought On #45’s Poor Education
2018	As Long As You Survive Each Experience
	WordPress to Facebook Test…
	Day 7: Oh, Yeah!
2017	A Good Habit
2016	The Minds Of Trumpism
2015	Expressing Nonsense
2014	A Real Fight
2013	Unravelling
2012	I Resolve
2011	Practice, Practice, Practice
2009	Phoenix Trip (July ’09)

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None Live Apart

I am interested in the way that we look at a given landscape and take possession of it in our blood and brain.  None of us lives apart from the land entirely;  such an isolation is unimaginable.  If we are to realize and maintain our humanity, we must come to a moral comprehension of earth and air as it is perceived in the long turn of seasons and of years.
—     Navarre Scott Momaday
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On This Day In:
2020	In The Moment
2019	I Will Try Again
	Original Chips
2018	Still Blogging
2017	Reliable Vision
2016	Still Walking
2015	Steps
2014	To Be Greatly Good
2013	Limited Capacity
2012	Two Ear Ticklers
	Justification
2011	To Avail The Nation

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Saving Democracy And A Voting Rights Act

Some things you miss because they’re so tiny you overlook them.  But some things you don’t see because they’re so huge.
—    Robert M. Pirsig
From his book:  “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance“
[To “save” American democracy we need three things:  A voting rights act (to save the people’s right to decide our leaders);  increased vaccinations (single payer health care would be nice, too);  and, an infrastructure bill which make fighting climate change a national priority.  Unfortunately, one or two will not be enough – and the clock is ticking…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2020	Two Hours From Now
	Criminal Incompetence, Criminal Indifference Or Both
2019	Slow Wisdom
	It Is A Start…
2018	Young, Fun And Playing Well
2017	Earning Your Blessings
2016	A Suggestion…
	Capable Of Being
2015	Looking For The Needles In The Haystacks
2014	The Definition Of A Gentleman
2013	Thar She Blows (Not)!
2012	Naturally
2011	Been Here, Done That
	Remember
2010	Timeless Classics

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False Freedom And Failure

“For a lot of people a car means freedom and social status,” says Janette Sadik-Khan.  “But if a city provides you no choice but to drive, a car isn’t freedom, it’s dependence.  If you have no choice but to drive for every trip, it’s not your fault.  Your city has failed.”
—    Janette Sadik-Khan
Head of New York City’s Department of Transportation
Quoted by:  Adam Rogers
In his article:  “Road Warriors“
Appearing in:  Wired Magazine, dtd:  Apr 2020
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On This Day In:
2020	A Short Count
	Two Loves
2019	Don’t Forget: Fire Burns
2018	Especially In The Middle East
2017	A Good Local
2016	Life Unlimited
2015	Still Trying
2014	Destiny, n.
2013	No Apologies
2012	Utterly Convinced
2011	A Key To Effectiveness

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Broaden The Circle

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group.  Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations.  We have broadened the circle of those we love.  We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience.  If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth.  Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant.  They will fear the loss of power.  We will hear much about treason and disloyalty.  Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones.  But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	Stay Gentle
2019	Immoral #45
2018	From My Soapbox
2017	The Single Most Effective Thing For Health
2016	A Trumpet Solo
2015	Potential Is A Heavy Burden
2014	Fear Not, Weep Not
2013	Half Way There
2012	Sacrificed Any Lately?
2011	The Value Of One’s Character
2010	Intervals
	On Being Human
	Non-predictive Emergence
	Events
	Bodily Functions
	Standing Thoughts
	Sent Home Is Better Than Fixed

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The Rush Is On

Unlike the La Pérouse expedition the Conquistadors sought not knowledge but Gold.  They used their superior weapons to loot and murder, in their madness they obliterated a civilization.  In the name of piety, in a mockery of their religion, the Spaniards utterly destroyed a society with an Art, Astronomy and Architecture the equal of anything in Europe.  We revile the Conquistadors for their cruelty and shortsightedness, for choosing death.  We admire La Pérouse and the Tlingit for their courage and wisdom, for choosing life.  The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity.  As the ancient myth makers knew we’re children equally of the earth and the sky.  In our tenure on this planet we’ve accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage, propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders, all of which puts our survival in some doubt.  But we’ve also acquired compassion for others, love for our children, a desire to learn from history and experience and a great soaring passionate intelligence, the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity.  Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth.   But up there in the Cosmos an inescapable perspective awaits.  National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space.  Fanatical ethnic or religious or national identifications are a little difficult to support when we see our Earth as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and the citadel of the stars.  There are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours rush inevitably headlong into self-destruction.
—    Carl Sagan
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On This Day In:
2020	It Is Still About Sharing And Cheering
2019	Sounds Like #LyingDonald
2018	Start Building
2017	Woof! Woof!
2016	Cast Out
2015	Small Pieces
	Happy Father’s Day!
2014	Uncertain Work
2013	Unpatriotic And Servile
2012	What Price Freedom?
2011	Particular Importance
	Three From Bette…

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