Nov 06
Ever wonder how the fascist took control of Germany in the 1930s? Ever wonder which side you’d have been on if you’d lived in that country? Now, if you live in America: you know both. – It isn’t simply a matter of stupidity. It is more a matter of disinformation and fear. “I could stand …
Nov 04
Sitting here on the eve of the 2024 election, we don’t know who will be the next president. Trump may win or Harris may win. I could provide a slew of links to all that is heinous about Trump but I’d run out of energy well before I ran out of sources. And at this …
Oct 29
“What words are these have falle’n from me?Can calm despair and wild unrestBe tenants of a single breast,Or sorrow such a changeling be?” ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson; In Memoriam A. H. H.
Sep 29
“And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.” ~ Donald Trump
Sep 19
“Of all men’s miseries the bitterest is this: to know so much and to have control over nothing.” ~ Herodotus, The Histories
Aug 26
“The colors live a remarkable life of their own after they have been applied to the canvas.” ~Edvard Munch
Jul 17
“I do not see as well without her. I do not hear as well without her. I do not feel as well without her. I would be better off without a hand or a leg than without my sister.” ~Erin Morgenstern
Jun 27
“Never despair, but if you do, work on in despair.” ~Edmund Burke
May 27
“Until one has loved an animal, a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~Anatole France
Apr 27
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.” ~ Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Mar 31
“There should have been a better farewell. But in the end, there never is. And we take what meagre scraps we can find.” ~ Richard K. Morgan
Feb 28
“The human race is a monotonous affair. Most people spend the greatest part of their time working in order to live, and what little freedom remains so fills them with fear that they seek out any and every means to be rid of it.” ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
Dec 31
I’ve been fighting a flu here at year’s end. So this last post of 2023 is a quickie. 2023 was a, ‘challenging’ year (to put it mildly). And the sallow, grey, late fall and winter light has been draining. I took this photo at a local fair, July 3, 2010. I chose this image, not …
Nov 27
“You don’t waste October sunshine. Soon the old autumn sun would bed down in cloud blankets, and there would be weeks of gray before it finally decided to snow.” ~ Katherine Arden, Small Spaces
Oct 24
“The blues don’t jump right on you. They come creeping.” ~ Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run (Autobiography)
Oct 22
The King James version of the Bible has a fair amount to say about Hell. A single case in point: “And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the …
Sep 19
“His grief he will not forget; but it will not darken his heart, it will teach him wisdom.” ~J.R.R. Tolkien, (Aragorn), The Return of the King
Aug 22
“Americans used to be ‘citizens.’ Now we are ‘consumers.” ~Vicki Robin, Your Money or Your Life
Jul 18
I saw Mister Silverado on the road a number of days ago. Full disclosure: I didn’t actually see the driver, but I’m highy confident it was indeed a, ‘Mister’. The window sticker, ‘TAXATION IS THEFT‘ is what made the encounter noteworthy. There are some trivial times in one’s life that a person fantasizes about having …
Jul 09
“Nothing is permanent in this wicked world, not even our troubles.” ~ Charlie Chaplin
May 15
“When the world wearies and society fails to satisfy, there is always the garden.” ~ Minnie Aumonier
Apr 27
“If you are not willing to own a stock for 10 years, do not even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” ~Warren Buffet
Apr 26
“None are so old as those who have outlived enthusiasm.” ~Henry David Thoreau
Mar 26
“That which isn’t good for the hive, isn’t good for the bee.” ~Marcus Aurelius
Feb 26
“Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? ~Marcus Aurelius
Jan 30
“Nobody can bring you peace but yourself.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
Dec 26
“I think it’s perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don’t know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it’s because he’s ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they’re responsible …
Nov 19
“There is a child in every one of us who is still a trick-or-treater looking for a brightly-lit front porch.” ~Robert Brault
Oct 20
“Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.” ~Neil Gaiman, Coraline
Sep 27
“Fantasy, if it’s really convincing, can’t become dated, for the simple reason that it represents a flight into a dimension that lies beyond the reach of time.” ~Walt Disney
Jul 30
I recently saw a Facebook post from a really sweet guy I know. (I’ve redacted his name.) He is a very compassionate individual. The kind of man who is sensitive and cries at life’s tragedy. He also happens to have an advanced degree (Doctorate) and has a career that requires constant education. And yet, this …
Jul 01
“You cannot run away from weakness; you must some time fight it out or perish; and if that be so, why not now, and where you stand?” ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
Jun 26
The people protesting the overturn of Roe v Wade outside of the Supreme Court are wasting their time. That battle has been lost at the federal level… (for now.) The American Taliban (formally known as the GOP) have sufficiently packed courts to ensure the enforcement of their crusade. (Grand Wizard Trump appointed one quarter of the …
Jun 01
“Think of the life you have lived until now as over and, as a dead man, see what’s left as a bonus and live it according to Nature.” ~Marcus Aurelius
May 27
There is something seriously broken about the United States. It goes deep to the bone. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. ~ Second Amendment to the United States Constitution There are various readings of …
May 19
“I should like to save the Shire, if I could – though there have been times when I thought the inhabitants too stupid and dull for words, and have felt that an earthquake or an invasion of dragons might be good for them. But I don’t feel like that now. I feel that as long …
Apr 28
“I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” ~Albert Einstein
Mar 31
Given current affairs, especially with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I’ve seen this quote circulating a lot: There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time, they can seem invincible, but in the end, they always fall. Think of it–always.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi Sadly, it simply isn’t true. Two quick examples of long lived tyrant …
Mar 28
“Every aspect of Nature reveals a deep mystery and touches our sense of wonder and awe. Those afraid of the universe as it really is, those who pretend to nonexistent knowledge and envision a Cosmos centered on human beings will prefer the fleeting comforts of superstition. They avoid rather than confront the world. But those …
Feb 28
Let’s talk about Amazon’s upcoming series, ‘The Rings of Power’. Recently, we’ve learned more based on a released teaser trailer and a vanity fair promo puff piece. Naturally, I won’t spoil anything if you aren’t versed in the subject. Short Summary Don’t have time to read my ramblings? Understood. Here is my quick take: It …
Feb 04
“If you cannot understand that there is something in man which responds to the challenge of this mountain and goes out to meet it, that the struggle is the struggle of life itself upward and forever upward, then you won’t see why we go.” ~Edmund Hillary
Jan 22
“The summit is what drives us, but the climb itself is what matters.” ~Conrad Anker
Dec 02
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.” ~ Marie Curie
Nov 15
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” ~ Albert Camus
Oct 20
“It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” ~ Abraham Lincoln
Sep 13
“Men fear thought as they fear nothing else on earth – more than ruin, more even than death. Thought is subversive and revolutionary, destructive and terrible, thought is merciless to privilege, established institutions, and comfortable habits; thought is anarchic and lawless, indifferent to authority, careless of the well-tried wisdom of the ages. Thought looks into …
Aug 18
“If we offer too much silent assent about mysticism and superstition – even when it seems to be doing a little good – we abet a general climate in which scepticism is considered impolite, science tiresome, and rigorous thinking somehow stuffy and inappropriate. Figuring out a prudent balance takes wisdom.” ~ Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted …
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