MAGA’s And The Big Lie About The 2020 Election

For what a man would like to be true, that he more readily believes.
—     Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021	These Days Rather Loosely Held
	Harvest Time
2020	Why I’m Happy
	The Wind In My Face
2019	I Think Impeachment Is Another Test #45 Has Already Failed
2018	Second Chances – Rice, Now Trees
	And Then You Have To Start Training Again
2017	Small Hands, Small Grasp
2016	Two Murrow’s
	Election + 1 Week
2015	Not Mine, Anyway
2015	South By South East
2013	Don’tcha
2012	I Hear A Distant Thunder
2011	A Poison Tree

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Certainly Ending

If a man will begin with certainties, he shall end in doubts;  but if he will be content to begin with doubts, he shall end in certainties.
—     Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021	Certainly Ending
	The Moment When
2020	#45: The Biggest Loser’s Self-Image
	Happy Thanksgiving 2020!!
2019	Defining Trumpism In Today’s Republican Party
2018	#45: It’s Tougher Being President
2017	Consequences
2016	Shouting At The Void
2015	Crab Feed
	Happy Thanksgiving (2015)
2014	Beyond Proof
2013	Poor Students Of History
2012	Between Two Worlds
2011	Common Humanity
2010	The Last Two Olympians

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A Sovereign Good

The inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature.
—     Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2020	At Least Until The Rainbow Comes
2019	And/Or A Great Soulmate
	Austen Stalking
2018	Dead Red
	You Ain’t Done Yet
2017	Just Because
2016	As Close As They Can Get
2015	And So I Blog
2014	Take Flight
2013	Contributing Joy
2012	More Than A Race
2011	Institutionalized Leadership

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But Only Half

A prudent question is one-half of wisdom.
—    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021	Three Or Four Elements
	Something In My Eye
2020	I Am Shocked! Shocked I Say!
	But You Gotta Have Faith
	But Only Half
2019	…And Bullet-Proof Suits
	The Bottom Line (Is No Surprise To Me)
2018	What Do You Hear?
2017	I’ve Got A Pocket Protector
	Word Up!
2016	Better Value
2015	Any Port In A Storm
2014	Babies (II)
2013	Why The Young Stay In College Longer These Days
2012	Perceptions Of Worth
2011	Flavor
2010	Giants Win 1-0 !!

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A Receptive Push

“Push-hands: The Handbook For Non-Competitive Tai Chi Practice With A Partner”  —  book review
Today’s book review is for “Push-hands: The Handbook For Non-Competitive Tai Chi Practice With A Partner” (1997©), written by Herman Kauz.  This is one of those learn martial arts by pictures books.  Having said that, which makes my review sound disparaging – this is a valuable / useful book.
This is a very short book.  It is 128 pages (in my hard-bound edition), and the second half of the book has images on almost every page (at least a hundred images over the 50 pages).  If you are reading this book straight through, you can easily complete it in a day.  Unfortunately, you will get almost nothing from the book if you do this.  To borrow from Francis Bacon: this is a book to be “chewed and digested”.
I first became “aware” of push-hands as a teenager, when my uncle (who was taking Kung-fu lessons) demonstrated it to my brother and me.  Unfortunately, if you don’t have a partner close at hand for a LONG period, it is (IMHO) very difficult to get the prolonged experience necessary to learn from this practice.  I’ve never had such a partner.  At any rate, I have been a life-long dabbler / dilettante in several martial arts: boxing, wrestling, Hapkido, Judo, and Aikido.  I spent the most time playing Aikido, but even with almost a decade of intermittent practice, I was never very advanced.  With advancing age, I recently have become interested in Tai Chi as a form of exercise. I primarily wish to strengthen my ligaments and improve my balance.  “Push-hands” is one of the “forms” of practice which helps improve the Tai Chi students awareness of self and of others.
The author states early in the book, that one must have practiced the Tai Chi “first form” for a minimum of six months before attempting push-hands.  This is to establish the sense of self which will serve as your foundation for sensing others and establishing balance. I found this assertion to be very much in accordance with my own Aikido experience and from then on the book (author) had me “hooked”.  One note here.  The “balance” which I was seeking is not the same “balance” being used by the author.  I don’t want to fall down.  He wants more.  The author wants the reader (practitioner) to balance their personality and life – as well as – understand “balance” for martial purposes.
If the second half of the book is a picture-book tutorial of a martial art technique, what is the first half about?  History, philosophy, society and economics.  Huh??  Yup!  There are chapters on society, economics and history, the positive and negative aspects of competing, how we change what we think and why we should want to, the difficulty of doing so, seeing the world differently and then (finally) how we can use push-hands to develop ourselves as responsible / caring beings.
So, is this a good training / instructional manual?  Yes.  I believe it will be if you can find a partner to work with.  Is it interesting and / or well written?  Yes.  I was very pleasantly surprised to find it much better than (the many) martial art picture tutorials / books I’ve read in the past.  Final recommendation:  highly recommended.  Of course, I do have qualifications, but they are mainly about trying to learn any physical activity by reading about it.  Having said this, I think most anyone who is willing to do the pre-training (the six months on the first form) will find this a valuable addition to their library and a source of material for deep thought about society and about Tai Chi tactics as a martial art – beyond it’s calisthenics / health usefulness.
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On This Day In:
2022	Beyond Racial Classification
2021	There’s Still No Voter Fraud
	Versions
2020	Another Reason #DonTheCon Continues To Lie About The Pandemic
	A Receptive Push
2019	I’m Still Struggling To Rise
2018	Once Suddenly Free
2017	What Is Childlike
2016	The Latter A Lot Quicker Than The Former
2015	Notes On My Nightstand
2014	Generations
2013	Two For One
2012	Seen And Heard
2011	The Hazards And Vicissitudes Of Life

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Chaos Is Not Really A New Remedy

He that will not apply new remedies must expect new evils, for time is the greatest innovator.
—    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2022	42
2021	Blessings Larger Than Life
	Tomorrow She Sails
2020	The Sun Came Out
	Not A Wink On Guard
2019	The Importance Of A Deadline
	Chaos Is Not Really A New Remedy
2018	History Will Judge Harshly
	Father Time, Perhaps?
2017	Odds Are
2016	Prayer, Too
2015	History, n.
2014	See It Sometime
2013	Precious Friend
2012	It Couldn’t Be Done
	Feeling Surrounded?
2011	Surprise!

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Imagining Humor

Imagination was given to man to compensate him for what he is not;  a sense of humor to console him for what he is.
—    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021	Back To Paying Dues
	Keep Rollin’
2020	Diets And Lifestyle Changes
	Pay Attention
	Just Not Sure, And That’s Okay
2019	The Right Questions
	Day 3: Still Difficult
2018	A Thought For Those Continuing To Support President Trump
	Day 36: Pushing On
2017	Imagining Humor
2016	So Go On And Deal With It
2015	From A Letter To A Friend
2014	Your Part (Here)
2013	Complements
2012	Sound And Light
2011	Two Politicians Visit A Farm…
2010	Labor Day And Honorable Men

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Good Acts

The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new ones.
—    Francis Bacon
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On This Day In:
2021	Chocolate
	Never Knowing
2020	In Passing
	Look A Little Bit Closer
2019	Especially Mine
	90 Day Health / Weight Update (Dec 2019)
2018	And Some Never Do
2017	When We Know We Are Loved
2016	Good Acts
2015	Will You Be Leaving Soon?
2014	Just Long Enough
2013	R.I.P. – Tom Laughlin
	Seeking Success?
2012	All Aboard
2011	Sail On, Sailor

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Prospero’s Precepts

Dubbed “Prospero’s Precepts“, these eleven rules culled from some of history’s greatest minds can serve as a general-purpose guideline for critical thinking in all matters of doubt:
1.   All beliefs in whatever realm are theories at some level.  (Stephen Schneider)
2.   Do not condemn the judgment of another because it differs from your own.  You may both be wrong.  (Dandemis)
3.   Read not to contradict and confute;  nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse;  but to weigh and consider.  (Francis Bacon)
4.   Never fall in love with your hypothesis.  (Peter Medawar)
5.   It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data.  Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories instead of theories to suit facts.  (Arthur Conan Doyle)
6.   A theory should not attempt to explain all the facts, because some of the facts are wrong.  (Francis Crick)
7.   The thing that doesn’t fit is the thing that is most interesting.  (Richard Feynman)
8.   To kill an error is as good a service as, and sometimes even better than, the establishing of a new truth or fact.  (Charles Darwin)
9.   It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble.  It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.  (Mark Twain)
10.  Ignorance is preferable to error;  and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.  (Thomas Jefferson)
11.  All truth passes through three stages.  First, it is ridiculed, second, it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident.  (Arthur Schopenhauer)
—    Peter Surrock
From his book:  “AKA Shakespeare: A Scientific Approach to the Authorship Question“
[Found at a site I like to visit every now and then:   http://www.brainpickings.org/
The specific post was found at:  http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/04/01/aka-shakespeare/
Well worth a visit…     —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Where One Goes
2021	A Direct Relationship
	Another Night Train South
2020	One Person’s Roses…
2019	In The Long-Run
2018	#NeverAgain
	Doss II
	Doesn’t / Does
2017	Talent Hates To Move
2016	Looking To November
2015	It Isn’t The End
	Prospero’s Precepts
2014	Friends
2013	Learning Bitter
2012	Remembrance, Minstrels & Going Off To War
	May I Have More Happiness, Please?
2011	There Is No God, But God
2010	Another Running Book…

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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:
2021	Happy Thanksgiving (2021)!
	When You Get Where You’re Going
2020	Still In School
	The First Deuce
	Escape From Planet Junkyard
2019	Will John Bolton Testify?
2018	Just Maybe
2017	Police In My Review Mirror
2016	Full And Rich
2015	Go Deeper
2014	Intentional Mapping
2013	The Sweet Path
2012	Living Free And Abolition
	Morning Wood
2011	I Resemble That Remark

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A Full Man

Read not to contradict and confute;  nor to believe and take for granted;  nor to find talk and discourse;  but to weigh and consider.  Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested;  that is, some books are to be read only in parts;  others to be read, but not curiously;  and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.  Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others;  but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books, else distilled books are like common distilled waters, flashy things.  Reading maketh a full man;  conference a ready man;  and writing an exact man.  And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory;  if he confer little, he had need have a present wit:  and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know, that he doth not.
—   Francis Bacon
From:  “On Studies“
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On This Day In:
2021	Momentary Offering
	Happy Noise
2020	No Crumbs
	Too Many Detectives On This Case
	A New Day Is Coming
2019	Or In This Case – What’s Wrong
2018	Just Passing Through
2017	True Torture
	Happy Thanksgiving – 2017 !!
2016	Overtaken
2015	Alone Praying
2014	A Full Man
2013	Off Defending The Universe
	Taking Precautions
2012	Never, Never, Never
2011	Testing 1, 2, 3

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Tasted Bacon?

Some books are to be tasted;  others to be swallowed;  and some few to be chewed and digested.
—    Francis Bacon
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