Why I read them every day.......

The Execupundit:  The "feel good fake action" is tokenism that is somehow supposed to announce to the world that the performer is a noble person. This can be baffling to those who scrutinize it for real substance because there is none, but they miss the action's origins. Substance is far down on the list of desired components - nice, if possible, but not really required - because if the action demonstrates that the performer is a kind, tolerant,  and generous intellectual then nothing else need be added. Any critics are ignorant souls who just haven't "evolved" enough.  Full post from whence this came is here.

Nicholas Bate:   24.  Money does not cause happiness; lack of money causes unhappiness.   25.  You don't have to know; but you do have to try.  26.  Despite the map she was still lost.  Epiphany:  Maybe the map was wrong.  Now there was a thought.     Full Executive Summary 1-26 of Jagged Thoughts for Jagged Times is here.

The not-so Simple Village Undertaker:  Sometimes it is better to show up and keep quiet.  Full post is here.

The Hammock Papers:   Be Aware of Invisibility.   Here

Eclecticity:  Doug, the Mighty E. and High Lord of Quirkiness, turns personal:  I did nothing to instill this natural drive in him. He is one of the lucky natural athletes that also has the heart of a champion. But it is over. I’m sad that this chapter has closed. There are tears welling. The story is here.

Seth Godin:  It's simple: the fear that used to protect us is now our worst enemy.  Full post is here.

David Kanigan:  Sit. Feast on your life.  Full love poem is here.

Sippican Cottage:  Greg riffs on his music appreciation teacher: He affected a style approximating Englebert Humperdinck, gone to seed. He had Civil War sideburns and high-water bell-bottom pants with garish socks and round-heeled shoes that looked like they were  designed by some unholy agglomeration of Florsheim and Cardinal Richelieu. We slumped in our chairs, while he waved one --just one-- 45 record in the air, intoning,"This is the greatest record ever made," and meant it. He put it on, and played it over, and over, and over again. He'd stop it now and then at odd intervals by yanking the needle up to pontificate on some minor point of interest he found in the noise, a signpost to the entrance of entertainment nirvana that only men like him, attuned to such things, could discern, and then he'd slam it back down and the sound would wash over us again from the tinny speaker in the ancient record player he used.  Full, Mark Knopfler dissing, essay is here

Cultural Offering:  The man who opened the entire blogosphere for me celebrates #1 son's college graduation:  Today is graduation day.  And it was all training.  ALL of it.  Yes, training in sciences and in speech and in writing and presenting and creating and thinking.  Training in the subjects was important.  But the other training was in scheduling, time management, working with others, creating and being.  Parts of the books will be of use in the future; all of the experiences will be.  Full post, with some interesting bits of advice, is here