Might I Have A Little More, Please

Nothing would be more tiresome than eating and drinking if God had not made them a pleasure as well as a necessity.
—    Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2021	All I See Are Nails
	More Money
2020	We Will Get Through This
2019	I Asked My Family Doctor Just What I Had
2018	You Have Just Begun To Climb
2017	Equal Protection Under Law
2016	A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion
2015	Or You Don’t
2014	If You Ever Fall…
2013	Glory Days (part 2)
2012	They Follow A Pattern – If You Know What I Mean
	What I Live For (Precis)
2011	Giving

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Jeopardy

Judge a person by the questions they ask rather than by the answers they give.
—     Voltaire
[All answers should be in the form of a question…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Jeopardy
2021	Will Republican Senators Convict A Former President?
	Keep Moving, Keep Rolling
2020	Republican Acceptance Of Abuse Of Office
2019	The Courage Of Four Skills
2018	And Stable Genius, Too
2017	And So We Continue
2016	Feeling Endangered?
2015	One Day
2014	Too Bad
2013	Unfinished
2012	First Steps Along The Path
2011	A Small Part Of Future Webs

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Joyous Incompatibility

In laughter there is always a kind of joyousness that is incompatible with contempt or indignation.
—    François-Marie Arouet   (aka:  Voltaire)
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On This Day In:
2022	Dreading The Slide Towards War
2021	Joyous Incompatibility
	My Heart Will Be Waiting
2019	Two Guarantee Freedom
2018	Less Mouth And More Back
2017	I Ought To Be A Little Careful
2016	Rising From The Ashes
2015	Honor
2014	Disappointment
2013	Seeing Heart
2012	On Success
2011	What This Place Needs Is Another Theory

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Seeking Center

God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere.
—    Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2022	An Experiment Without A Control Group
2021	Seeking Center
	Your Love Is Near
2020	You Mean I’m STILL In School?
2019	Finishing Work
2018	Diversity
2017	Timely Planning
2016	Just Too Easy To Know Fewer And Fewer
2015	A Fine Balance
2014	Next Rung
2013	Super Bowl Prep
	Romantics
	A Goal For Zen?
2012	Mutant Powers Of Obsession
2011	Federal Stars
	Mud Pie

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Chained To #45

It is hard to free fools from chains they revere.
—    Voltaire
[What every happened to the “good old days” when Republicans could be intelligent AND conservative;  who you could respect even if you disagreed with their policies?   I guess those folks have either died or left the GOP.   —   kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Be Someone For Somebody
2021	Genius (And Other Details)
	I Don’t Know Why
	Going Into The Deep End
2020	Repercussions For Health
2019	Chained To #45
2018	Some Men Make Their Office As Small As Themselves
2017	Too Many
2016	Not Yet, Anyway
2015	On Pornography
2014	Nudge, Nudge
2013	The Journey Will Be Joy
2012	Hopeful Flights
2011	Irrationally Predictable
	Lawful Restraint

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Thoughtful Attitudes

No problem can withstand the sustained power of great attitudes;  they are like ripples in the water…  they spread.
––    Anonymous
[Which seems to have been derived from:  …  ]
No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.
––    Voltaire
[Just saying…    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2021	What You’ll Find
	I Know I’m One
2020	Voting Has Consequences
	We Will Get There!
2019	Mutually Exclusive
2018	Basic Rights
2017	Thoughtful Attitudes
	Surprise!!
2016	The Bell Tolls
2015	It Is What It Is
2014	What Have You Learned (Gently) Lately?
	Orange October (I)
2013	Ignore The Man Behind The Curtain
	For A Time
2012	What Are Your True Measurements
2011	What It Is All About
2010	The Magnificent Seven
	Giants Fever!!

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Raise Yourself

Every man is the creature of the age in which he lives;  very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of the time.
—   Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2021	At Least Not Until Sunset
	Rain On The Leaves
2020	At Least A Little Less
	Two For The Post
2019	Promises, Promises
2018	You Mean There IS Something Else?
2017	Be Good
2016	Raise Yourself
2015	A Kids Movie Rip-Off
2014	Ready, Action!
2013	Responding To Challenges
2012	Abnormal, adj.
2011	Large Families
	On The Brink

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Are You Sure?

Doubt is not a pleasant state of mind, but certainty is absurd.
—    Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2015	Distracted
2014	What It Takes
2013	We Are
2012	Utopian
2011	Seen Any Black Swans Lately?

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Steps

A history of civilization shares the presumptuousness of every philosophical enterprise:  it offers the ridiculous spectacle of a fragment expounding the whole.  Like philosophy, such a venture has no rational excuse, and is at best but a brave stupidity; but let us hope that, like philosophy, it will always lure some rash spirits into its fatal depths.
—    Will Durant
From the Preface to the first volume to his series:  “The Story Of Civilization: I – Our Oriental Heritage“
I want to know what were the steps by which men passed from barbarism to civilization.
—    Voltaire
[Several years ago, I purchased the book series “The Story Of Civilization” by Will (and Ariel) Durant.  I first heard about the series perhaps forty years ago, when I was first thinking (and hoping) to “become” educated and cultured by reading great books and listening to classical music.  I found the books on sale at a used book store and picked them up as a promise to myself.  Since then, they’ve been sitting on my shelf calling to me…  Recently, I pulled down the first volume and started glancing through it.  Okay, I actually started to read it.
There are twelve volumes in the series and with one exception each is at least 1,000 pages.  When I looked the series up on line, one reviewer said any serious reader should expect to spend five years of his life reading these in their entirety, because anything less would fail to give them the consideration and justice they deserved.  Talk about your intimidating review!!
I doubt if I’ll finish them in five years.  I doubt if I’ll be able to find the time to give them the consideration they probably deserve.  But if I start now, who can say…
Fortunately, I do not feel foolish enough to set a goal of understanding all of human history or even to remember most of the 12,000+ pages related in this series.  I only hope to understand a little better how I got here (in this time and place) and what my minor role is in this great river of history.     —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2014	To Be Greatly Good
2013	Limited Capacity
2012	Two Ear Ticklers
	Justification
2011	To Avail The Nation

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In God’s Eyes

So, human beings complain that the world is ill-made, do they?  But ill-made for whom?  For Man, who, in the immense design of the Universe is no more than an unimportant mould!  The probability is that everything in this world which we think is botched or erroneous has its reasons at a totally different level of existence.  The mould endures, no doubt, a small amount of suffering, but somewhere there are giants who, huge in stature as in mind, live in a state of semi-divinity.  This is Voltaire’s answer to the problem of evil.  It is not very satisfactory because the mould need never have been created, and, in the eyes of God, it may well be that mere size is of no importance.
—    André Maurois
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On This Day In:
2013	We Root For Ourselves
2012	Like A Shark
2011	Discernible Virtue

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Unless

This is the character of truth:  it is of all time, it is for all men, it has only to show itself to be recognized, and one cannot argue against it.  A long dispute means that both parties are wrong.
—    Voltaire
From:  “Philosophical Dictionary“
[This presupposes that both parties are seeking truth.  In philosophy, that may be the case.  In politics, religion and commerce, that is rarely the case.  Rather, opposing sides are seeking to improve (or maintain) the positions of their representative constituencies.  It is rarely the case that a politician will side with the preponderance of truth when it runs against the economic interests of those who support him (or her) financially.  Nor should we ever expect it to be so for more than the briefest of times.    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	Under My Fingertips…
	Seeking The Divine
2021	And My Sister Is Taxing
	What Did The Wise Men Say?
2020	One Phrase
2019	Why #LyingDonald Can’t Trust Any Honorable Person
2018	An Old Style Conservative
2017	John Q.
2016	In Trembling Hope Repose
2015	Let There Be Light
2014	Unless
2013	Divergent Roads To Similarity?
2012	In The Process
2011	What Do You Emphasize?

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Questioned Faith

As long as people believe in absurdities they will continue to commit atrocities.
—    Voltaire
[Voltaire’s original name was François Marie Arouet    —    kmab]
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On This Day In:
2022	In My Defense…
2021	Mike Could Have Saved Us A Bundle On Border Walls
	Is It Too Late?
2020	And Then There Was Yellow
	At This Moment
2019	Sin Less Every Day
2018	Probably Only A Little Easier
2017	Stars Above
2016	Where Do You Stand?
	Health Update
2015	Leaving On A Mid-Night Train
2014	Questioned Faith
2013	At Home In Fire
2012	A Tale Of Two Books
	More Meaning
2011	Back At The Millstone
	To Learn, Teach

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Still Inventing

If there were no God, it would be necessary to invent him.
—    Voltaire
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On This Day In:
2022	If That’s What You Mean
2021	Awakening The Glow
	I Remember
2020	Golden Eagle
	Like #45: Incompetent Donald
2019	#45: Who Lost By Three Million Votes
2018	Torn Between Two Loves
	A Girl And A Boy
2017	I Think They Are Starting To…
2016	Living There
2015	Bookin’ West
	Beyond My Reach
	You Never Call Anymore…
2014	Winning?
2013	Still Inventing
2012	Motivated
2011	Waiting In Line At Starbuck’s

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