A General Guideline For Voting In The 2022 Mid-Terms

How can you tell if you should be voting Democrat or Republican:
Vote Republican if you hire exterminators to kill bugs in your house.
Vote Democrat if you step on the bugs.
Vote Democrat if you buy books which have been banned somewhere.
Vote Republican if you form censorship committees and read the books as a group.
Vote Democrat if you eat the fish and game you catch or hunt.
Vote Republican if you hang them on a wall.
Vote Republican if you keep your bedroom shades drawn (although there is little reason you need to).
Vote Democrat if you ought to but don’t.
—    From “An Incomplete Education“, by Judy Jones and William Wilson
[The above quote was posted several years ago, but I’ve recently re-read it, so I’m re-posting it.  I would add:
Vote Democrat if you believe America should be a representative democracy based on the votes of a majority of the American public.
Vote Republican if you believe a theocratic minority (mostly hypocritical) should be able to impose their religious beliefs on the rest of America.
—    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	Press On
	Mama Said There’d Be Days Like This
2020	AMA
	Still Shiny
2019	Things That Go Bump In The Night
	Hoping I’m Careful
2018	I Must Be Truly Wise
2017	My Sensei
2016	The Worst Sin
2015	Rules Of Thumb
2014	A Prayer
	Orange October (IX) – Giants Lose Game 2 In Bullpen Collapse
2013	Complacent Reality
2012	Two-minute Sex
	Just Staring, Why?
2011	A World Of Difference

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Still Incomplete

One week to go ’til my flight to Baltimore…
I tried to push through and complete my reading of “An Incomplete Education“, but I didn’t quite make it.  I’ve still got some 20 odd pages to go.  I decided I’d rather post a quick entry and finish it tomorrow.  So far, it’s been a terrific read – thought provoking even when not fully understood (appreciated).  I realize (am reminded of) my memory limitations when I read an overview of knowledge like this.  I flipped back through some of the earlier chapters and realize how little I have retained.  That’s the difference between hearing / reading and learning / internalizing something.
Today was the celebration of the Epiphany in church.  The sermon was interesting because the priest was trying to advise us that sometimes the “illumination” can be from a thousand little candles (family and friends) in our daily lives and doesn’t necessarily have to be a sudden revelation from God.  I have never considered “epiphany” in this way, but it certainly does warrant consideration.
My jog seemed harder today.  For whatever reason, I felt as if I had less to think about.  When that happens, my mind wanders and loses track of time – which sometimes makes it seem longer rather than shorter.  Sometimes it works the other way.  No, I don’t know why.  I just know the sensation / observation of time lengthening can go either way based on thought or non-thought.
Rebecca returned to UCLA today.  She left at 8AM and didn’t get there until about 10:30PM.  Snow on I-5, and lots of accidents.  The girl she drove down with had to turn around, go back North and then go down 101.   Still, they got there safe, so we can stop worrying.
Hil and I ended the evening sitting on the couch, looking at the Christmas tree and just quietly chatting.  It’s something we like to do each year.  Sometimes we talk about the year gone by, sometimes our plans for the future, sometimes we just chat and enjoying being with each other.
Another Christmas and New Year’s gone and I have health, love, family and faith.  God is Great and I am a lucky man…
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On This Day In:
2021	More New Year’s Exercises
	7 Done, 12 Down
2021	Another Public Service Message
	Greetin’ The Sun
2020	From The Mountains To The Shores
2019	Watering The Trees And Seeds
	1221
2018	Take Care Of Me…
2017	Make Some Difference
2016	Still 99%
2015	Adolescent Opinion
2014	In A Big World
2013	Vacancy For God
2012	Sweat Equity
	Try It… You’ll Like It
2011	Still Incomplete
2010	Happy New Year – 2010

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Reminiscing

Last Thursday was Thanksgiving.  We collected Mom and drove down to have dinner with my sister’s family.  I got to talking about the different jobs I’ve had with my nephew (Patrice, who’s attending Harvard Law) and it got me thinking back about options, choices, paths not taken and fading memories.  Later, I heard an old favorite song of mine by Garth Brooks titled:  “Every Now And Then“.
If Robert Frost is correct and the paths we choose to take make all the difference in the world (see:  “A Road Not Taken“), then I imagine lost loves make up a big part of the difference.  I’ve added the link to the lyrics to my poems page.  As usual, read the lyrics and then go find the song – the words, the imagery, the music – are haunting.
On a lighter note, as usual, after eating, we sat around and played team Jeopardy.  Neither team did very well.  Art’s team (Bec and Sarah) won, but mostly because they had a whole category they killed on – nicknames for musicians.  We fared about even on most of the other categories.  Playing Jeopardy always reminds me how uneven my own education is.  I know very little about the Arts – literature, art/paintings, music, etc.  I always tell myself I’ll spend more time on broadening my education, but I’m afraid I’m very much a creature of habit – in reading as much as in everything else.  Well, some time ago, I bought “An Incomplete Education“.   It’s a book dedicated to teaching / reminding / exposing its readers to a broad range of liberal education.  The topics include US history, world history, Art, Literature, Economics, Psychology, Science, Religion, and Philosophy – pretty much all the stuff I should have learned about from Grammar school through University (but never did).  The book is only 700 odd pages, so it obviously can’t get too deep into any single topic, but I’m hoping it will whet my appetite to go back to school to gain more depth.
Today I read the first 70 pages – mostly about US history – poets, literature, political parties and historic scandals, and, finally, important Supreme Court decisions.  To tell the truth,  other than the political parties and Supreme Court cases, it was a dreadful bore.  Even the few paragraphs on Frost were not particularly interesting.  I’m surprised because I like his poems, but didn’t find Frost himself interesting.
I guess when I’m done with the book I’ll have to re-evaluate the plan.  Reading the Percy Jackson (Greek mythology) series was vastly more interesting.  At least that series prompted me to Wiki some of the characters and stories to learn more about the real Greek myths.   The funny thing is, it’s not really the writing style of the authors, which is, in turn, straight-forward, sarcastic, ironic, humorous, pithy, and seems well organized.  I’m just not finding the ideas from the people they are covering to be particularly of interest.  Quite discouraging actually!  Still, I’ll plod through, gleaning what I can…
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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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Differences

How can you tell if you should be voting Democrat or Republican:
Vote Republican if you hire exterminators to kill bugs in your house.
Vote Democrat if you step on the bugs.
Vote Democrat if you buy books which have been banned somewhere.
Vote Republican if you form censorship committees and read the books as a group.
Vote Democrat if you eat the fish and game you catch or hunt.
Vote Republican if you hang them on a wall.
Vote Republican if you keep your bedroom shades drawn (although there is little reason you need to).
Vote Democrat if you ought to but don’t.
—    From “An Incomplete Education“, by Judy Jones and William Wilson
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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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