An Honorable Preference

Laughs are exactly as honorable as tears.  Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion, to the futility of thinking and striving anymore.  I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward.
—    Kurt Vonnegut
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On This Day In:
2021	Very Young Or Very New
	Feelin’ It
2020	Or To Destroy Democracy
2019	A Defense Of Liberty
2018	And Blog To Word Up To The Universe
	The Irony Of Greed
2017	Or Revisiting A Blog Site
2016	Alas, Too Often The Latter
2015	Either / Or
2014	Memorial Day – 2014
	Perfection
2013	Memorial Day Video
	Equal = Equal
2012	Congrats, Nephew!!
	Doggie Vision Networks
	The Flash: Omnibus
	JLI: vol 1
	Flash: Rebirth
	Burning Images
	What Do You Believe?
2011	Are We Still At War With The Poor?

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Dozing In The Backyard Hammock

How beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward.
—     Spanish Proverb
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On This Day In:
2021	Still Learning (And Practicing) Guitar
	Still Ain’t Quite Right
	More Changes…
2020	Remembering…
	You KNEW That Man Was Trippin’
2019	Kingslanding
2018	I’d Bet On Taxes
	Ooops! I Spoke Too Soon
2017	A Cautionary Wish
2016	Slogging
	It’s About…
	Man / Man
2015	Memorial Day – 2015
	Content People Love To Share
2014	I Resemble That Remark
2013	Long Range Exploration
2012	UBI
2011	Opportunity

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Strumming And Changing Chords

Talent is a pursued interest.  Anything that you’re willing to practice, you can do.
—     Bob Ross
[Maybe Bob is right, but it sure would be nice if this effortless guitar playing came faster…   Good thing I’m one of those OCD folks who actually enjoys practicing without seeing much improvement.  LoL.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2021	B U
	Blueprint Blue
2019	I Struggle With One At A Time
2018	An Infectious Political Cancer
	Site Update / Poems Page Evolution
2017	Our Thirst
2016	History Favors The Victor
2015	This We’ll Leave Them
2014	Sounds Like Faux News To Me
2013	Reasons
2012	American Libertarianism
2011	The Goal

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Try Walking

Pursue some path, however narrow and crooked, in which you can walk with love and reverence.
—     Henry David Thoreau
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On This Day In:
2021	Probably Why It Hurts So Bad
	5-0
2020	Unlike Faux News Viewers
2019	I Don’t Know Truth, Either
2018	An Approaching Disgrace
2017	Liberty, Collusion, History And The Republican Majority
2016	But I Have Too Many Questions
2015	A New Friend
2014	Do I Have To Fall In Love?
2013	More Democracy, Please
2012	Speaking Of Love
2011	Limits

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One Working Future

It was recognized that free trade in goods, though to be continued, was likely to be much less important to rich countries in the future than freedom for international and transnational telecommunications.  Now that factories (except in low wage areas) were bound to become more and more automated, people in the rich northern one-third of the world would mostly be in white collar jobs where they would be working with their imaginations rather than their hands.  But people in such jobs would not necessarily need to live near their workplaces.  What should be the nationality and tax position of a Belgian dress designer who lives in Monte Carlo and St Moritz in the winter, at Stratford-on-Avon in the spring, and Corfu in the summer, and does his work by daily telecommunication through a portable console to colleagues and computers at the largely automated textile factory at Volgograd where he works – who becomes, in fact, a telecommuter?
—     General Sir John Hackett (et al)
From: “The Third World War: August 1985“
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On This Day In:
2021	Still A Work In Progress
	An Innocent Man
2020	Three Stooges
2019	#Impeach45: Halt The Slide Into Tryanny
2018	Expecting Profit
2017	In Spite Of The President
2016	And Sets
	And My God For His Graces
2015	About Character
2014	Your Gain
2013	Look Up
2012	Count Me In
2011	Pirates Four, Three Songs
	Sir Charles
	Look First, Not Last
2010	Par-a-diddle

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A Little More Each Day

As we advance in love, we grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of the soul.
—     Fyodor Dostoyevsky
From:  “The Brothers Karamazov“
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On This Day In:
2021	Every Time It Gets Better
	Distant!
2020	I’m Persuaded
2019	Hungry For Trust
2018	Mutual Assistance
2017	The Toughest Job
2016	Congratulations!!
	Better Yet, Read!
2015	Even If It Kills Us Slowly
2014	Fun To Play God
	Of Anything
2013	Legal (Almost)
2012	Great Scots!
2011	The GI Bill – A Simple History Lesson
	Breaking Even

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We Are Seeing The Future

The wars of the late nineteenth century – the American Civil War, for example and the Franco-Prussian War – were wars of the railway, the telegraph, breech-loading small arms and tinned rations.  The seas were dominated by the ironclad.  At the beginning of the twentieth century the Russo-Japanese War show to any who cared to learn the dominance on the battlefield of the spade, barbed wire and automatic weapons.  The First World War rammed home the same lesson, in a war in which the internal combustion engine, artillery, the submarine, air power and armoured vehicles became the dominant features.  The Second World War was one of worldwide mobility on land and sea and in the air, of total mobilization of population and industrial reserves, of sea power and of air forces.  It ended in the shadow of the nuclear weapon.  The Third World War was widely expected to be the first nuclear war – and perhaps the last.  It turned out in the event to be essentially a war of electronics.
—     General Sir John Hackett (et al)
From his book:  “The Third World War: August 1985“
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On This Day In:
2021	The Correct Answer Will Be In The Form Of A Question
	Listen Up
2020	Testing To Open The Economy Safely
2019	Or Thought I’d Thought
2018	Go And Dare
2017	And Wealth A Poor Substitute For Ability
2016	Neither Darkness Nor Shadows
2015	It Took Roots
2014	Hard Evidence
2013	Full Participation
2012	Roving (Again)
	Ooops, Again
2011	Why Not?

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Or The Day After

Don’t do anything today that might keep you from running tomorrow.
—     John “The Penguin” Bingham
From his book:  “No Need For Speed“
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On This Day In:
2021	And Yet I Still Pray
	I’m Still Listening To It
2020	What Am I Missing?
	If Only
2019	For Most #IncompetentDonald Followers
2018	I Dare You
2017	To Republicans Who Choose Party Over Country
2016	All About Control
2015	Liberty Is Extravagant
2014	Always Remember To Reach
	Have You Registered To Vote Yet?
2013	Ripples From The Water’s Edge
	Because I Was Alone
2012	POI vs Reality
	Dear And Sacred
2011	Chilled Again

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We Just Need Will And Leadership

Researchers , and governments, also still need to figure out a better way to coordinate this effort around the globe.  “We haven’t learned this much about any disease so quickly, I would say, in the history of science that I’m aware of,” says Sumit Chanda, the director and a professor of the immunity and pathogenesis program at Sanford Burnham Presbys Medical Discovery Institute.  “Genomic technology allowed us to get here.  But if we really want to get serious about preparing for the next pandemic, there needs to be a global command and control infrastructure, with transparency from all governments around the world.  These viruses don’t know national boundaries, so it does not make sense to have a balkanized response to the virus.”
…
“We got pretty lucky that [COVID-19] vaccines work as incredibly well as they do,” says Sanford Burnham’s Chanda.  “But we can’t just rely on luck.  We need to make a global commitment and come up with an organization that has some teeth and has some funding whose job it is to survey, track and share genetic information.  We have the tools to do it – we just need the will and leadership and especially the public to demand that the devastation of COVID-19 is something that shouldn’t have happened and that we never want to have happen again.”
—     Alice Parker
From her article:  “The Sequencing Solution:  Genetic Surveillance Is The Key To Controlling Future Pandemics“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine;  dtd:  21/28 June 2021
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On This Day In:
2021	Standing Next To Anyone?
	Pitter Pater, Pitter Pater
2020	Only Now
2019	I Think I’ve Been Blurred
2018	Progress On The Honey Do List
	And It’s Mostly Free, Too!
2017	Both Dismissed
2016	Poetry Isn’t Going To Work
2015	MA Fix
	Getting Better
2014	Actually
2013	Unfortunate Evolutionary Accidents
2012	Tense (Past, Present And Future)
2011	What Is Your Preference?

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Brevity And Decisiveness

The fighting could hardly have gone on for very long in any case.  Neither side could have sustained for more than a few weeks the expenditure of aircraft and of missile and other stocks – of fuel, for example, and of all manner of warlike stores and equipment – demanded in the modern battle.  Even if the production of munitions of war in the home bases had been possible at the rate at which they were used up on the battlefield, it is doubtful whether, with hostile interference to the lines of communication, supply could ever have kept up with consumption.
The Soviet concept of the application of armed force for the purpose of securing a political advantage, in the state of the art in the last twenty years of the twentieth century and in the circumstances of the time, was thus wholly rational. It was facing an adversary relatively weak in the first instance but disposing of potentially overwhelming resources.  Late twentieth-century war consumed material in such enormous quantities as to put very long drawn-out operations out of the question.  It was imperative, therefore, to secure a position of great political advantage in a short, sharp, violent encounter, starting with the offensive initiative, exploiting as far as possible the advantages of surprise and of a somewhat longer period of preparation than the enemy’s, and reaching a chosen strategic objective before the enemy could bring his superior resources to bear and while stocks were still sufficient to sustain intensive action.
—     General Sir John Hackett (et al)
From:  “The Third World War: August 1985“
[This quote is very similar to one I offered a few days ago.  The point is the same and it is one which was repeated in the cited book:  modern warfare needs to be quick and over.  It is also “best” when conducted by proxies rather than principals – particularly if it can’t be either brief or decisive.  This is because of the logistic and manufacturing requirements of modern warfare.  You need to have a large stock of logistics – ammunition, trained warriors and supplies – AND you need the ability to replenish the logistics as quickly and as continuously as possible.  National / internal manufacturing is better than buying internationally because it shortens your supply chain.  The counter to this is that it makes your manufacturing base an object of attack for an enemy seeking to break your logistics chain.  This is why factories are strategic targets.    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2021	They Don’t And They Aren’t
	Deep And High
2020	Social Distancing
2019	Touched?
2018	Chillin’ With My Bro
	Inconvenient Adventure
2017	Genuine Tragedies
2016	Why I’m Scared Of November
2015	I Can Tell Too
2014	In Hand
2013	No Fear
2012	Comic Books
	Keeping The Peace
2011	You Still Have To Pay For It

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Prescient (Or Not?)

Russia is still contending with the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Russia can meddle in Ukraine at the margins, but threats to fully invade and occupy a country of more than 44 million people aren’t credible.  That big a move would cost too many Russian lives and too many rubles for a chronically weak – and weakening – Russian economy.  In recent months, Belarus provided the latest example of the post-Soviet demand for fundamental change and the need to shoot people to keep protests under control.  In the most recent presidential election in Moldova, a Harvard-educated economist toppled a pro-Kremlin incumbent.  Last year, Turkey’s backing for Azerbaijan dealt a humiliating defeat to Russian ally Armenia in a region that Russia once dominated.  Beijing is increasingly competing for influence with Moscow among the former Soviet Central Asian states.
—     Ian Bremmer
From his opinion piece:  “The Risk Report: What game is Putin playing?“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine;  dtd:  21/28 June 2021
[It seems the “threat” of invasion was a little more “credible” than Mr. Bremmer believed (the editorial was from 2021).  IF the West continues to support Ukraine and IF Putin doesn’t resort to tactical nukes, it appears Mr. Bremmer will ultimately be proven correct that Russia bit off it bit more than it could chew (let alone conquer).    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2021	Or Faith In A Creator…
	It Seemed The Taste Was Not So Sweet
2020	Nearer My God To Thee, By George
	I’ve Got To Keep Working On It
2019	Laugh With Me
2018	Both Sides, Mr. President?
2017	Republicans Better Wake Up
2016	Truth Telling
2015	To Be Effective In The Modern World
2014	A Little Cover
2013	Binding
2012	Lift
2011	Another Good Movie, Another Excellent Book
	miSFits
	I’m Just Not Sure

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Long Past Time For A “Thorough-going Reappraisal”

In absolute terms, moreover, the mass and volume (to say nothing of the cost) of all that was required, particularly in fuel and munitions, to maintain an army in field operations at an intensive rate against a similarly equipped opponent, was now very great.  It had taken a quantitative jump since the Second World War.  Warfare in the Middle East in the seventies had shown this very clearly, if on relatively small scale.  It was just no longer possible, at the rate at which stocks could now be exhausted, to sustain intensive operations of war for months on end.  Head – and equipment – counts were no longer the true measure of an army’s capability.  Formation in large numbers could be a liability rather than an advantage unless they could be kept effectively in action.
The Soviet war-fighting philosophy, from whatever origins it may been evolved, was in the circumstances of the 1980s exactly right.  It enjoined the initiation of total and violent offensive action, swiftly followed through to the early attainment of a valuable objective.  The position of military advantage thus secured would then be exploited by political means.  Speed was everything. The corollary was that failure to secure the objective in good time must result in a thorough-going reappraisal, in which to continue to press towards the same end might very well be the least sensible course.
—     General Sir John Hackett (et al)
From the “future-history” novel:  “The Third World War: August 1985“
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On This Day In:
2021	Facing Life
	70’s Sunshine Sound
2020	#IncompetentTrump And His Pandemic Briefings
	#IncompetentTrump
2019	I Hope So
2018	Painted Into
2017	Prayers, Miracles And Lottery Tickets
	Roman View
2016	Dignity And Grace
2015	Is It Warm Enough For You
2014	What The Right STILL Wants
2013	Embrace Serendipity
2012	Your Order, Please
2011	Well Enough Anyway

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I’m Just Sad (1,000,000 In U.S. Dead From COVID)

We were very encouraged by the rapid development of the vaccines, and everybody really thought we were going to vaccinate our way out of this,” he said.  “But then we had people that wouldn’t even take the damn vaccine.”
…
“We know vaccines work.  We know masks work.  We know social distancing works, and we know crowd control, limiting crowded spaces, works.  This is like a no-brainer, but we cannot seem to do it.”
—     Dr. Robert Murphy
Executive director of the Havey Institute for Global Health
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine
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On This Day In:
2021	I’ve Still Not Found #45’s One Thing
	Chewin’ On A Piece Of Grass
2020	Listening To A #IncompetentDonald COVID-19 Press Briefing
2019	I Am Doubtful
	Future Justice Looks Corporate
2018	True Measures
2017	Hoping For Tapes
	In It Now
2016	On Viewing This Mudball
2015	It Takes A Village
2014	In God’s Eyes
2013	We Root For Ourselves
2012	Like A Shark
2011	Discernible Virtue

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Truly And Simply

What is love to me?  Love is the little things.  The countless unplanned stares.  The sweet smiles when you hear their name.  When that person is in your mind at random times for no reason.  Wanting to be around that person for hours.  Looking into each other’s eyes and just knowing what you both feel. It’s talking about stupid things, but never wanting to say goodbye.  Holding on to everything they’ve ever said.  Making memories.  The little kisses that seem to linger on your lips.  The daydreams.  The actual dreams that you never want to wake up from.  Finding any reason to bring that person up in a conversation.  Cuddling and being completely intrigued by that person’s heartbeat and how in sync you feel with them.  Talking about everything you don’t like and all the things you do.  Trying to get through problems.  Failing at trying to solve them.  It’s the little arguments.  The movie dates.  The hugs where you never want to let go.  Laughing at everything.  Embarrassing ourselves in front of one another.  The tears, the yelling.  The way their voice brightens your day.  Never wanting to give up.  It’s when you see a future with someone.  It’s writing that persons name over and over again because you like the way it looks.  It’s trying to prove each other wrong.  Trying to figure things out.  Trying to make that person believe you’re the one.  Giving that person every reason to think you’re out.  It’s giving that person every opportunity to break you down, but hoping they won’t.  It’s the cheesy pick up lines.  The silly faces made at each other.  The support for each other.  It’s trust.  It’s putting in everything you got.  It’s letting go and hoping they won’t stay gone.  It’s letting down your guard.  It’s sharing things like favourite colours and movies.  It’s finding all the things you have in common and all the things you have in common and all the things that are different.  It’s doubling.  It’s content thinking.  Overthinking.  Believing.  It’s feeling like everything’s a dream, but realising its reality.  It’s doing things like staring at the stars and going for walks.  It’s noticing each other in a crowd.  Noticing how their eyes sparkle in the sun.  Or how their voice squeaks when they giggle.  It’s being consumed.  It’s being intrigued by everything about them.  It’s being confused.  It’s being happy.  Being sad.  Even being mad.  It’s getting jealous over stupid things.  Fighting for each other.  Teasing each other playfully.  Being comfortable with someone.  Not feeling the need to hide.  Not feeling the need to change.  Getting butterflies.  Feeling love.  Feeling wanted.  It’s the hour long walks.  Lying in someone’s arms and feeling like nothing could ever tear you all apart.  It’s the jokes.  That can sometimes go too far.  It’s helping someone conquer their fears.  Bringing someone’s fairy tales to life.  Believing in each other.  Feeling free.  Seeing each other break.  It’s listening.  It’s being goofy.  It’s doing gross things like shooting milk out of your nose and having the person accept it.  It’s making promises.  Breaking promises.  It’s adoring someone.  It’s keeping each other strong.  It’s overreacting.  Apologising.  It’s dealing with mood swings.  The little goodbyes when it’s time to leave.  It’s never wanting that person to leave.  It’s being spontaneous.  It’s doing things like sitting outside instead of going to restaurants.  It’s breaking rules.  It’s staying out late.  It’s wanting to spend all your time with that person.  Not being able to describe your feelings.  It’s crazy and beautiful.  It’s loving someone’s personality.  Loving their heart.  It’s forgetting about everything else because that person consumes your mind.  It’s trying even when you know you should give up.  It’s dedicating songs.  It’s seeing something and having it automatically remind you of that person.  It’s holding on to everything they’re even given you.  It’s remembering all the little things.  It’s caring too much.  It’s not saying I love you, but feeling the love within yourself.  It’s not knowing where you stand.  It’s acceptance.  It’s heart wrenching.  It’s going out of your way to see them happy.  It is truly and simply, love.
—    From the blog:  Be Inspired..!!
Located at:  https://empress2inspire.blog/
The post is titled:  Love To Me Is
The specific post is located at:  https://empress2inspire.blog/2022/05/04/love-to-me-is/
[Please visit the original site if you have some spare time…    —    KMAB]
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On This Day In:
2021	Lessons
	We Used To Sing
2020	And #45 Is Flat On His Face
2019	I’m Still Hungry
2018	What Matters
2017	By Far
2016	Until…
2015	Or Infinitesimal
2014	I’ve Looked At Clouds
2013	Undiscovered Ocean
2012	Feeling Old? (Part 2)
2011	What About Freedom?

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Threat Calculus

The Fed has had almost no success gently bring down inflation once an economy has started to overheat.
…
The long-run threat (facing the economy) is that we will cease to be one effective country.  Whether that’s a failure of public investment in everything ranging from collecting the taxes that are owed – where there will be $7 trillion in taxes that are owed but not paid over the next decade;  that is a huge loss to the government  …  [and] a huge source of injustice because most of the nonpayment comes among the highest-income Americans.  Whether it is the fact that at the early stage, we were dependent on other countries for masks, and we were not well prepared for a pandemic, despite the fact that there had been repeated warnings that a next pandemic would come.  Whether it is the fact that it takes half an hour longer on the schedule to fly from Boston to Washington that it did when I first started taking the trip regularly 40 years ago.  This falling-apart of society is our greatest long-term threat.
…
I think another important part of the calculus is that when governments lose control over money, people tend to lose confidence in them.  Progressives need to ponder the fact that when they’re not able to keep inflation under control, they can pay a very large political price.
—     Larry Summers
Former Secretary of the Treasury
In an interview with / by:  Eben Shapiro
The interview was titled:  “The Leadership Brief: Inflation worries are keeping Larry Summers up at night“
Appearing in:  Time Magazine;  dtd:  21/28 June 2021
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On This Day In:
2021	Questioned By Life
	If There’ll Come A Time
2020	Trying To Grow Pearls?
2019	Instantly Turned
2018	Sitting
2017	No Right Way
2016	Still Ticklish
2015	Maybe Sooner Than You Think
2014	The Path Of Mastery
2013	Love’s Ignorance
2012	Here’s To Enjoyment
2011	Not Just The Facts, Ma’am

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