If you haven't....................

......visited Bilbo's Random Thought Collection, well you should.  'Nuff said.

Reloading...............................

Kurt is reloading his iTunes.  His taste in music tends to be superb and I would never tell him what to listen to - but he has asked for our help.  Ergo, twenty suggested artists and albums, in no particular order:

Eagles      Hotel California 
Dire Straits      Brothers In Arms
Grateful Dead    Workingman Blues
Jefferson Airplane   Surrealistic Pillow
Mountain            Climbing
David Sanborn   Pearls
Marshall Tucker Band   Where We All Belong
Dan Fogelberg    Nether Lands
Lynyrd Skynyrd     One More From the Road
R.E.M     Automatic For The People
Bruce Hornsby      Hot House
Bon Jovi     Have A Nice Day
U2     The Best of 1980-1990
Allman Brothers      Eat a Peach
Fleetwood Mac    Mystery To Me
Beatles    (pick any)  Magical Mystery Tour
Beach Boys              Endless Summer
Joe Nichols    Man With A Memory
Creedence Clearwater Revival  Chronicles
Willie Nelson     Stardust

how happy I can be...............

The Monkees............................Daydream Believer

Interesting choices.....................

via

Just................................

visit Todd's world for fun stuff like this.

Strategery..............................

Conflict............................

"In mathematics, an integer is a number that isn't divided into fractions.  Just so, a man of integrity isn't divided against himself.  He doesn't think one thing and say another - so he's not in conflict with his own principles."
-Arthur Gordon

image via

Mind...........................

“Don't allow your mind to tell your heart what to do. The mind gives up easily.” 
-Paul Coelho

image via

Everything I need to know about Hegel..........

"'The owl of Minerva flies only at dusk.'  This was the view of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831). But what does it mean?  Actually, that question, 'What does it mean?' is one that readers of Hegel's work ask themselves a lot.  His writing is fiendishly difficult, partly because, like Kant's, it is mostly expressed in abstract language and often uses terms that he has himself invented.  No one, perhaps not even Hegel, has understood all of it.  The statement about the owl is one of the easier parts to decipher.  This is his way of telling us that wisdom and understanding in the course of human history will only come fully at a late stage, when we're looking back on what has already happened, like someone looking back on the events of a day as night falls."
-Nigel Warburton, A Little History of Philosophy

image via

Business as usual....................

via

One can waste lots of time.........

.....reading all the comments on various blogs, but there are also lots of laughs to be had.  The cartoon is from John Cox.  The comments - from Craniac: Waste of a good classic Mustang; from Russ: Not meant to offend, but I think that it would have been more appropriate to have them in a GM or Chrysler vehicle..

Why on earth anyone would disable the embedding for this classic is beyond me......

.....but to watch The Turtles perform their 1967 hit song, Happy 
Together live on Ed Sullivan please go here.

Opening paragraphs........................

"To push anything back into the past is equivalent to reducing it to its simplest elements.  Traced as far as possible in the direction of their origin, the last fibres of the human aggregate are lost to view and we are merged in our eyes with the very stuff of the universe."
-Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man

Ed. note:  I read de Chardin about thirty years ago.  I'd like to tell you I understood even half of what he was discussing, but -  I didn't.  Still, it felt like a valuable exercise.  One of these days I might post some of the stuff he said that I thought I understood at the time and highlighted.

Seeking.........................

"God often works more by the life of the illiterate seeking the things that are God's, than by the ability of the learned seeking the things that are their own."
-Saint Anselm of Canterbury

image via

On finding reality..............

"I've heard people say, 'Perception is reality.'  That's not true. Perception is important and should be considered, but it's not reality. Reality is reality. Settling for perception is a lazy person's way of decision making; a lowest common denominator mode of thinking. We want real facts, not assumed ones."
-Michael Wade  (full post is here)

image via

Well, actually it was grilled cheese and tomato soup, but you get the picture.................

courtesy of

Does this feel right to you..............?

An inflation report from the statistics people...................

Explanation and way larger image is available here

Not really...............................

via

Know..........................

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower - but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.
-Alfred, Lord Tennyson


image via

The more things change......................

The ordinary surroundings of life which are esteemed by men (as their actions testify) to be the highest good, may be classed under the three heads — Riches, Fame, and the Pleasures of Sense:  with these three the mind is so absorbed that it has little power to reflect on any different good.

-Baruch Spinoza (c. 1662)

cartoon via

...drink that beer...............

America is playing the fabulous Midland Theatre tonight.  Schedule conflicts will probably make us non-attendees, but.....................Senior year in college one of my suite mates had the habit of stacking five albums on his turntable and then, just before he went to bed, he would start them playing.  Since I stayed up somewhat later, I would invariably be heading to bed just as the fifth album was starting.  I'm not sure Mark, sound asleep by then, ever heard this song.  I listened to it most every night.  Never did get tired of it.

America.............................................Sandman

Tired of lies, damn lies, and statistics......?

Well, go here to find five ways to make statistics your friend.  One sample:

Abraham (Wald) is tasked with reviewing damaged planes coming back from sorties over Germany in the Second World War. He has to review the damage of the planes to see which areas must be protected even more. 

Abraham finds that the fuselage and fuel system of returned planes are much more likely to be damaged by bullets or flak than the engines. What should he recommend to his superiors?

Quick Answer:  Don't arm the places that sustained the most damage on planes that came back. By virtue of the fact that these planes came back, these parts of the planes can sustain damage.

If an essential part of the plane comes back consistently undamaged, like the engines in the previous example, that's probably because all the planes with shot-up engines don't make it back. 

The statistical math (that us History majors find incomprehensible) that backed up his answer can be found by scrolling through this document.  Yeow.   Smart people.

Might as well accept the responsibility...........

thanks jessica

If there was a beginning.........................

Guanciale said this....................

to which, I respond.............................

Imbalance........................

Didn't know there was one......................

via mischa richter and the New Yorker

A 1968 instrumental............

Paul Mauriat......................................Love is Blue

Mystical...........................

When I heard the learn'd astronomer; 
When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns
        before me; 
When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add,
        divide, and measure them;
When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he
         lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,
How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;
Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,
In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,
Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

-Walt Whitman, circa 1865

image via mme scherzo

Code.........................

Ouch.........................

Spengler is a fan of neither David Petraeus, nor our current foreign policy (or lack thereof) in the Middle East.  Essay here.  Three excerpts here:

The ingenious Gen. Petraeus found a way to allow the Bush administration and the proponents of nation-building to claim victory. Never mind that we left behind a pro-Iranian government and a country constantly threatening to disintegrate.

We Americans love no one better than he who helps us delude ourselves.

The Obama administration’s fixed idea of engaging radical Islamists will have the same result as trying to cuddle with your pet scorpion. 

It may not be pretty, but it is beautiful...

Some things never change.................

Give yourself.........................

...............five things.  So says Chase Jarvis.  It is a pretty good list.  Read it here.  A sample here:

5. A Break. Give yourself a damn break. You don’t have to be weird, unhappy, in ecstacy or pain to create great stuff. You have to be there. You have to be in the game, not on the sidelines. Adventuring and synthesizing, and reflecting and creating and shipping all take work; and that work won’t always be great. Don’t be a critic. The lives of critics are boring, ugly, short and full of yuck. Haven’t written a book? Don’t hate on one. Haven’t made a film? Be generous in your commentary. Don’t take, give. Give time, give gratitude, and by all means give yourself and others a break.

Cheeseburger, fries, and a coke please.......

thanks bilbo

Silly rules (and regulations).............

Cultural Offering is on the story.

The non-compliance issue is this:  We are all violators now.  We are all law breakers.  With 6,125 new regulations in 90 days we are bound to violate one of them without knowing on a regular basis.  Yet we should have known.  The tax code, environmental restrictions, traffic infringements, food safety laws, something. . .anything.  

We are responsible, as citizens, for staying aware of our laws, right?  So we break a law.  And once we do that, doesn't it demean the other laws?  Even just a little?  Maybe a lot.  After a while, the idea that we might violate another more serious law becomes more palatable, or perhaps more acceptable so long as we are not caught.  And worse, the questions "can we do that?" and "are we allowed?" start replacing "should we do that?" and "is that the right decision?"

thanks to Peter Steiner and the New Yorker for the cartoon

I once had a pair of pants like that...........

John Fred and his Playboy Band.........Judy in Disguise

Opening paragraphs...................

     As serious as a heart attack.  Maybe those were Ken Kramer's last words, like a final explosion of panic in his mind as he stopped breathing and dropped into the abyss.  He was out of line, in every way there was, and he knew it.  He was where he shouldn't have been, with someone he shouldn't have been with, carrying something he should have kept in a safer place.  But he was getting away with it.  He was playing and winning.  He was on top of his game.  He was probably smiling.  Until the sudden thump deep inside his chest betrayed him.  Then everything turned around.  Success became instant catastrophe.  He had no time to put anything right.
-The Enemy, Lee Child

Excellence......................

....in bloggery is on display at the Hammock Papers.  Scroll through Rob's last week of posts and see if you don't agree.  He's so good, it is easy to overlook his fascination with Michigan sports.  Do go visit.  Here are two examples of what he brings to the table:

A video snippet taken from Gettysburg  (said scene is taken directly from Michael Shaara's fabulous book, Killer Angels)



--------------------------------------------------------

People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.

- Søren Kierkegaard 

Deep nonsense.....................

"At the heart of science is an essential balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes--an openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive they may be, and the most ruthless skeptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new. This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense."
 -Carl Sagan

cartoon via

So, my youngish son and I were talking..........

............about relationships with the opposite sex.  Pretty sure I
wasn't much help.  His story goes something like this:

courtesy of

Was it that long ago......................?

History being made in 1976:  the first perfect 10.00
(Happy belated 51st birthday, Nadia)




thanks Sean

Smarts............................

thanks maggie's farm

Just like yesterday......................

The Who.............................Won't Get Fooled Again

Self..........................

"Real freedom is won through self-government, not through
self-expression."
-Roy L. Smith

image courtesy of

On asking.........................

Michael Wade points to opportunities missed.  His post resonated with me.  My grandfather was a young, small-town, down-state Illinois, country banker when the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent depression struck the nation.  By some combination of  prudent business practices and forceful personality, he was able, not only to stave off a run on his bank, but to also be handed control over a number of less fortunate country banks in his part of the world.  I had the opportunity, but not the wit, to ask him about those trying days.  The questions, that are now too late to ask him, include, "what were you thinking?", "how did you do it?", and "did you see it coming?".

About the telephone..................

if................................

if seventy were young

and death uncommon

(forgiving not divine,

to err inhuman)

or any thine a mine

-dingdong:dongding-

to say would be to sing

if broken hearts were whole

and cowards heroes

(the popular the wise,

a weed a tearose)

and every minus plus

-fare ill: fare well-

a frown would be a smile

if sorrowful were gay

(today tomorrow,

doubting believing and

to lend to borrow

or any foe a friend

-cry nay:cry yea-

november would be may

that you and i'd be quite

-come such perfection-

another i and you,

is a deduction

which(be it false or true)

disposes me to shoot

dogooding folk on sight

-e e cummings

From the Department of Timing is Everything....... or, Who didn't see this coming?..................

WRM delivers the new about our government and General Motors.  It ain't pretty.  Full post is here.  Excerpt here:

To some the GM bail-out seems like the distant past, especially since President Obama recently hailed it as a success in Midwestern swing states. But now that the election is out of the way, its true cost to the taxpayers – billions – is about to become very clear.

The government still owns 32% of the auto company, and stands to lose a good amount when selling its share. Right now GM shares are trading at less than half the price the government needs to break even, and if all the shares were sold at this price, it would only bring in about $14.1 billion, meaning that the taxpayers stand to lose about $15 billion on their “investment”.

Now that the election is over the government will likely sell the stocks at a loss.

Let's propose a toast...................

via

Pretty please.............................

Trying to keep the Scottish economy afloat....

Not this blog's typical music selection.  However, real talent is always appreciated...............Enjoy

Bette Midler.....................Strangers/Do You Want To Dance?

Indebted..................................

We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong.
-Karl Poppers

image via

Good question........................

WRM pens an essay about the economic struggles of Argentina and Brazil in a commoditized world.  The question he poses may be the question of the age:

If you can’t make your people happy and placid by creating a Fordist mass prosperity economy, what can you do instead? It’s a question policy makers all over the world need to start thinking about, because the door to 1950s America is closed.

Hate it when that happens..........

A verse for Sunday...............

A sense of separation from God is the only lack you really need correct.  This sense of separation would never have arisen if you had not distorted your perception of truth, and had thus perceived yourself as lacking.
-A Course in Miracles, I:VI:2

Forgive.....................

The times are disgusting enough,
surely, for those who long for peace
and truth.  But self-disgust
also is an injury:  the coming
of bodily uncertainty with age
and wear, forgetfulness of things
that ought to be remembered,
remembrance of things best forgot.
Forgive this fragmentary life.

-Wendell Berry