It's 1972. The drugs helped......................

Hot Butter............................................................Popcorn

Wisdom plays a good game of hide and seek....

"Wisdom is often buried somewhere within the fibers of things that seem mundane or obvious, as well as in the puzzling space between two opposites, and in our ability to tolerate the discomfort of this cognitive dissonance."
-as excerpted from this post by Rob Firchau

Three interesting items from Maggie's Farm........

-Taking a peek at the evolving relationship between the individual citizen and the government in Be happy, and have a burger:
       “How should we do x?”   The main problem is not the 
        answer, but the question itself, and the assumptions 
        behind that question, the belief that an answer exists.
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-Everyman's flowchart:

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-"Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."
-Eric Hoffer

It's not that I don't believe him.........................

"At twelve-thirty the doors were opened, and a long line passed by who wished merely to shake hands with the President.  On one occasion I shook hands with nineteen hundred in thirty-four minutes, which is probably my record.  Instead of a burden, it was a pleasure and a relief to meet people in that way and listen to their greeting, which was often a benediction."
-as excerpted from Cultural Offering's excerpt from Calvin Coolidge's autobiography

Reading the entire excerpt, one wishes politicians these days had some of Coolidge's discipline and habits, and that they regularly took time to actually greet the people.  

Not to be nit-picky, but there are 2,040 seconds in thirty-four minutes which means, on his record setting day, he was shaking a new hand every 1.07 seconds.  If he had said "high five" or "fist bump" instead of "shook hands," it might be more believable.

Fifty years ago......................

The Temptations.................................Baby, Baby I Need You

Something makes me think..............

........that Seth Godin believes most marketing money is wasted.

"It turns out that activating people who already like you is far more productive and profitable than it is to spend time and money yelling at people who are ignoring you."

Everything.........................................

Reba McEntire...................................He Gets That From Me

Six simple rules for liberty.............

1.   Don't hurt people.

2.   Don't take people's stuff.

3.   Take responsibility.

4.   Work for it.

5.   Mind your own business.

6.   Fight the power.

-as extracted from Matt Kibbe's Don't Hurt People And Don't Take Their Stuff:   A Libertarian Manifesto

Days.................................

"Intentional living recognizes that, while accidents happen, life is not an accident.  Days are built choice by choice."
-Mary Anne Radmacher

Showing much promise.......................

"The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky."
-Carl Sagan

larger photo and explanation here

Fifty years ago..........................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons.............Save It For Me

I wonder if this is what he meant................?

"Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits."
-Robert Louis Stevenson

cartoon via

On wars and religion.........................

 "Motives are rarely pure, and history is not a seminar in either theology or economics."

Us human types can be fairly complicated.  It is useful to remember that a "true understanding" is often not more than wishful thinking. Like in the Middle East for instance.  In this essay Peter Berger tries to improve our understanding of the Sunni/Shi'a relationship.  Good luck.

Reason.......................................

“Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.” 
-Blaise Pascal

cartoon via

Every once in a while only Jake and Elwood will do

The Blues Brothers................................................Rawhide

Two kinds of people....................................

"...the Iron Law of Bureaucracy: In every organization there are two kinds of people: those committed to the mission of the organization, and those committed to the organization itself. While the mission-committed people pursue the mission, the organization-committed people take over the organization. Then the mission-committed people tend to become discouraged and leave."
-As excerpted from the Coyote Blog's channeling of the Instapundit

On spirituality......................

     "But the game itself is spiritual.  I mean, you're not going for a two-minute run.  There has to be a connection and a trust with the teammates.  Which I think is where the spirituality is."
-Bobby Greacen, as excerpted from here

He wasn't the only one.................................

"Perhaps I was out sick the day they issued the philosophers' stone that allows for the transmutation of good intentions into desirable outcomes..."
-Samuel Wilson, as excerpted from this marvelous post

Fun with parodies...................

There was a time when I believed Gary Trudeau would have done this himself.........

The original:

The update:

courtesy of      thanks kpc

Fifty years ago....................................

The Rolling Stones....................................Time Is On My Side

It's nature's way......................................

via

Re-thinking Ralph Nader............................

TC: When it comes to human nature and human behavior, would you describe yourself as an optimist or a pessimist? 

RN: Pessimism has no function. It’s an indulgence of people who have little stamina to confront the challenges of modern life. And it’s a good way to rationalize their withdrawal from the work of participating in the great work of human beings, which is, as Senator Daniel Webster said, justice.

-as excerpted from here

As the sun slowly sets in the west..................

Lorne Greene..........................................................Ringo




Johnny Western................................................Ballad of Paladin

A few of my favorite things.................

From John Kay:   This has to be one of the greatest opening paragraphs to any blog post anywhere.

From Ka-Ching!:   A brief quote about tyranny.

From Marginal Revolution:  Tyler Cowen talks with Ralph Nader and suggests that we buy Ralph's new book:  Unstoppable: The Emerging Left-Right Alliance to Dismantle the Corporate State. 

Kevin Kelly says we will be amazed at what that next twenty years brings:  Asking the right questions will become more valuable than finding answers.   On the future of technology - here.

From the Execupundit:  When someone you admire greatly says a nice thing about your work it makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.  Thank you Michael!

Heard the mournful cry...........

Willie Nelson/Johnny Cash................Ghost Riders (In The Sky)



live version with Willie and Johnny here

Original Burl Ives version here

The classic Outlaws version here

Vaughn Monroe's 1949 version here

Marty Robbins's version here

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

In October 1859, Brevet Colonel Robert E. Lee, commanding the Second U. S. Calvary, in Texas, was home on leave, laboring to untangle the affairs of his late father-in-law's estate.  Despite a brilliant military career - many thought him the most capable officer in the U. S. Army - he was a disappointed man.  Nobody understood better than Lee how slowly promotion came in this tiny army, or knew more exactly how many officers were ahead of him in the all-important ranking of seniority and stood between him and the seemingly unreachable step of being made a permanent full colonel.  He did not suppose, given his age, which was fifty-two, that he would ever wear a brigadier general's single star, still less that fame and military glory awaited him, and although he was not the complaining type, he often expressed regret that he had chosen the army as a career.  An engineer of considerable ability - he was credited with making the mighty Mississippi navigable, which among other great benefits turned the sleepy town of Saint Louis into a thriving river port - he could have made his fortune had he resigned from the army to become a civil engineer.  Instead, he commanded a cavalry regiment hunting renegade Indians in a dusty corner of the Texas frontier, and not very successfully at that, and was now home, in his wife's mansion across the Potomac from Washington, methodically uncovering the debts and the problems of her father's estate, which seemed likely to plunge the Lees even further into land-poor misery.  Indeed, the shamefully run-down state of the Arlington mansion, the discontent of the slaves, he and his wife had inherited, and the long neglect of his father-in-law's plantations made it seem only too likely that Lee might have to resign his commission and spend his life as an impoverished country gentleman, trying to put things right for the sake of his wife and children.
-Michael Korda,  from the Preface to Clouds of Glory:  The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee

Is it just me..................................

....................or would the preceding "opening paragraph" benefit from a few more periods and a few less commas?  Just wondering.

Opening paragraphs..........Part Two

     State patriotism in the United States is much diminished in our time in favor of national patriotism, and indeed has been on the decline ever since the end of the Civil War.  Today Americans move quickly and easily over great distances, settle in states far from the one in which they were born without giving the matter much thought, and hardly even notice in which state which they are traveling except for the change in most of the license plates they see on the highway.  Of course this was always a country where tearing up roots and moving farther west to start all over again was a tempting option for those who had failed where they were, or who had greater ambitions, but loyalty to one's "home state" was at one time an important fact of American life.  Robert E. Lee's belief that he was first and foremost a Virginian, and owed to Virginia an allegiance stronger that that which he owed to the United States, may seem to some extreme now, but it was by no means so in his lifetime.
-Michael Korda,  Clouds of Glory:  The Life and Legend of Robert E. Lee

Forbearing............................

"The forbearing use of power does not only form a touchstone, but the manner in which an individual enjoys certain advantages over others is a test of a true gentleman.   The power which the strong have over the weak, the employer over the employed, the educated over the unlettered, the experienced over the confiding, even the clever over the silly — the forbearing or inoffensive use of all this power or authority, or a total abstinence from it when the case admits it, will show the gentleman in a plain light.  The gentleman does not needlessly and unnecessarily remind an offender of a wrong he may have committed against him. He cannot only forgive, he can forget; and he strives for that nobleness of self and mildness of character which impart sufficient strength to let the past be but the past. A true man of honor feels humbled himself when he cannot help humbling others.
-Robert E. Lee

Fifty years ago...............................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons..........................Rag Doll

Hmm..............................................?

Starting the day........................

"Ask yourself this question the moment you sit at your desk: The day is over and I am leaving the office with a tremendous sense of accomplishment. What have I achieved?"
-as excerpted from here.
thanks DK

So smile already..................................

Pick..........................

"Opportunity on every door doth knock, but it's never been known to pick a lock."
-Clarence "Big House" Gaines

Fine for a rainy Tuesday night..................

Dan Fogelberg.............................................Rhythm Of The Rain

 

A few of my favorite things.....................

From Nicholas Bate:  Freedom 7.  #6:  Never defer enjoying today or an opportunity for a hug or to tell someone how much you appreciate or love them.

From the Strategic Learner:   Giving thanks and counting blessings.

From xkcd:    Some days I almost understand the cartoons.

From this isn't happiness blog:   And now, a word from Calvin.

Spurious Correlations:  Reminding us not to link causation and correlation.  (thanks maggie's)

Will you still love me................................?

Switchback....................................................In My Glory




Nothing could prepare us for the  tightrope we must walk
Funny how unspoken love keeps us from falling off

Resistant....................................

via

Foundational truth................................

courtesy of Nicholas Bate

Not as easy as it looks.................................

"So here, alas, is where we now stand six years into the Age of Obama: The President isn’t making America safer at home, he doesn’t have the jihadis on the run, he has no idea how to bring prosperity, democracy, or religious moderation to the Middle East, he can’t pivot away from the region, and he doesn’t know what to do next. He’s the only President this country has got, and one can’t help but wish him well, but if things are going to get any better, he needs to stop digging. He probably needs to bring in some new blood, and he must certainly ask himself some tough questions about why so many of his most cherished ideas keep leading him and his country into such ugly places."
-Walter Russell Mead, as excerpted from here

More than you ever wanted to know......

...about the odds of the USA advancing to the knock-out round -- from Nate Silver.

Another interesting part of history........

........................................I neglected to learn in school.

The burning of books and the Jefferson library.  Story here.

Thanks Rob

Fifty years ago..............................

The Temptations...............................The Girl's Alright With Me

On wine and truth.....................

71.  Too much and too little wine.  Give him none, he cannot find truth;  give him too much, the same.
-Blaise Pascal,  Pensees

Reminds me of my favorite tee-shirt:

On men and machines..............

"One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man."
-Elbert Hubbard

Think I'll go eat breakfast........................

via

Start all over again..............................

Boz Scaggs.........................................Can I Change My Mind



Thanks Jb

A flick of light.......................................

Finn Brothers............................................Won't Give In



New (to me) music from this list.

My favorite optimist..........................

..................takes a scientific look at "global warming."

"The answer to climate change is, and always has been, innovation. To worry now in 2014 about a very small, highly implausible set of circumstances in 2100 that just might, if climate sensitivity is much higher than the evidence suggests, produce a marginal damage to the world economy, makes no sense. Think of all the innovation that happened between 1914 and 2000. Do we really think there will be less in this century?"

-Matt Ridley,  as excerpted from here

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

"No man is an island,  entire of itself;  every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main;  if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were;  any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;  it tolls for thee. "
-John Donne,  Meditation XVII

Human nature and "incentive-caused bias"...

So, I'm reading this longish essay by Charlie Munger titled "The Psychology of Human Misjudgment."   If you have been paying attention for the past twenty-five years (or if you follow the link), you know that Charlie Munger is worth paying attention to.  Anyway, this interesting passage caught my eye:

     "Now there are huge implications from the fact that the human mind is put together this way.  One implication is that people who create things like cash registers, which make dishonest behavior hard to accomplish, are some of the effective saints of our civilization because, as Skinner so well knew, bad behavior is intensely habit-forming when it is rewarded.
     "And so the cash register was a great moral instrument when it was created.  And, by the way, Patterson, the great evangelist of the cash register, knew that by his own experience.  He had a little store, and his employees were stealing him blind, so that he never made any money.  Then people sold him a couple of cash registers, and his store went to profit immediately.  He promptly closed the store and went into the cash register business, creating what became the mighty National Cash Register Company, one of the glories of its time.  "Repeat behavior that works" is a behavior guide that really succeeded for Patterson, after he applied one added twist.  And so did high moral cognition.  An eccentric, inveterate do-gooder (except when destroying competitors, all of which he regarded as would-be patent thieves), Patterson, like Carnegie, pretty well gave away all his money to charity before he died, always pointing out that 'shrouds have no pockets.'  So great was the contribution of Patterson's cash register to civilization, and so effectively did he improve the cash register and spread its use, that in the end, he probably deserved the epitaph chosen for the Roman poet Horace:  'I did not completely die.'"

On kind words..............................

"Kind words do not cost much.  They never blister the tongue or lips.  They make other people good natured.  They also produce their own image on man's soul and a beautiful image it is."
-Blaise Pascal

No surprise to me.......................

....Kurt learns and advances.  Full story here.  Snapshot here:

"I never once thought the owner had it in for me.  I never trashed him to the other employees.  I appreciated my brother’s willingness to help.  I watched how others bused the tables.  I engaged the owner to understand how he wanted things completed.  I wanted to advance.  I wanted more.  I never once thought that I was owed a certain number of hours during the week.  The system was brutally predictable:  Do well and don’t complain and you found yourself working all the hours you could handle;  take lots of breaks, loaf or complain and there was plenty of free time.  In the end, I could perform every function in the place."

Fifty years ago.................................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons................................Stay

 

Dormant forces...............................

"When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds:  Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great and wonderful world.  Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and you discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.” 
-attributed to Patanjali

A line so fine...............................

"Genius is often only the power of making continuous efforts. The line between failure and success is so fine that we scarcely know when we pass it — so fine that we are often on the line and do not know it. How many a man has thrown up his hands at a time when a little more effort, a little more patience, would have achieved success. As the tide goes clear out, so it comes clear in. In business sometimes prospects may seem darkest when really they are on the turn. A little more persistence, a little more effort, and what seemed hopeless failure may turn to glorious success. There is no failure except in no longer trying. There is no defeat except from within, no really insurmountable barrier save our own inherent weakness of purpose."
-Elbert Hubbard

The power......................................

"I have observed the power of the watermelon seed. It has the power of  drawing from the ground and through itself 200,000 times its weight. When you can tell me how it takes this material and out of it colors an outside surface beyond the imitation of art, and then forms inside of it a white rind and within that again a red heart, thickly inlaid with black seeds, each one of which in turn is capable of drawing through itself 200,000 times its weight - when you can explain to me the mystery of a watermelon, you can ask me to explain the mystery of God."
-William Jennings Bryan

On the importance of knowing things......

via

Soundtracks...............................

From the Thomas Crown Affair (1999 version)

Sting..................................................Windmills of Your Mind



Michael Wade offers a great list of his sixty favorite movie soundtracks.  This one is my favorite.

Real wealth is a by-product...................

"There is a cost to trying to be super-rich, and most people die at that altar of greed.  I suspect that most that succeed, did not aim to be super-rich, but pursued that task because they found it interesting.  They were idealists who happened to be in business, and their ideals matched up with what would enable society to pursue its goals more effectively."
-David Merkel, as excerpted from this interesting post

Foresightful.................

     "....Liberty is to faction, what air is to fire,  an ailment without which it instantly expires.  But it could not be a less folly to abolish liberty, which is essential to political life, because it nourishes faction, than it would be to with the annihilation of air, which is essential to animal life, because it imparts to fire its destructive agency."

     "The latent causes of faction are thus sown in the nature of man;  and we see them every where brought into different degrees of activity, according to the different circumstances of civil society.  A zeal for different opinions concerning religion, concerning Government and many other points, as well as speculation as of practice;  an attachment to different leaders ambitiously contending for pre-eminence and power; or to persons of other descriptions whose fortunes have been interesting to the human passions, have in turn divided mankind into parties, inflamed them with mutual animosity, and rendered them much more disposed to vex and oppress each other, then to co-operate for their common good.   So strong is this propensity of mankind to fall into mutual animosities, that where no substantial occasion presents itself, the most frivolous and fanciful distinctions have been sufficient to kindle their unfriendly passions, and excite their most violent conflicts.  But the most common and durable source of faction, has been the various and unequal distribution of property.  Those who hold, and those who are without property, have ever formed distinct interests in society.  Those who are creditors, and those who are debtors, fall under a like discrimination.  A landed interest, a manufacturing interest, a mercantile interest, a monied interest, with many lesser interests, grow up of necessity in civilized nations, and divide them into different classes, actuated by different sentiments and views.  The regulation of these various and interfering sentiments forms the principal task of modern Legislation, and involves the spirit of party and faction in the necessary and ordinary operations of Government."

-Publius, as channeled by James Madison on November 22, 1787 in The Federalist No. 10

thanks maggie's

Persist......................................

     "The universe does not favor the greedy, the dishonest, the vicious, although on the mere surface it may sometimes appear to be so;  it helps the honest, the magnanimous, the virtuous.   All the great teaches of the ages have declared this in varying forms, and to prove and know it a man has but to persist in making himself more and more virtuous by lifting up his thoughts."

     "Achievement, of whatever kind, is the crown of effort, the diadem of thought.  By the aid of self-control, resolution, purity, righteousness, and well-directed thought a man ascends;  by the aid of animality, indolence, impurity, corruption, and confusion of thought, a man descends."

-James Allen, as excerpted from As a Man Thinketh

Becoming..............................

thanks hugh

Fifty years ago...........................

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons............Dawn (Go Away)

Beauty..................................

From my Sweetie's garden..........................-

If.........................................

If we have become a people incapable
of thought, then the brute-thought
of mere power and mere greed
with think for us.

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all we have will be taken from us.

If we have no compassion,
we will suffer alone, we will suffer
alone the destruction of ourselves.

These are merely the laws of the world
as known to Shakespeare, as known to Milton:

When we cease from human thought,
a low and effective cunning
stirs in the most inhuman minds.

-Wendell Berry,  This Day
Sabbaths:  2005  XII

Verse.......................

Be not wise in thine own eyes;  fear the Lord, and depart from evil.
-Proverbs 3:7
The Holy Bible
King James Version