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

     The South Carolina that Francis Marion set out to liberate from British control in August 1780 was the key theater of operation in the American Revolution at that point.  It was also in turmoil—a society riven by war and rooted in lawlessness, fear, violence, and oppression.
      More battles, engagements, and skirmishes were fought in South Carolina during the Revolution than in any other colony.   Conservative estimates place the number of combat actions in the state at more than two hundred, a third of all that took place in the entire war.  No other colony had as many inches of its territory affected by battle;  of the state's forty-six present-day counties, forty-five ended up seeing Revolutionary War actions.  Nearly 20 percent of all Americans who died in battle in the Revolution died in South Carolina in the last two years of the war.

-John Oller,  The Swamp Fox:  How Francis Marion Saved The American Revolution

One of life's many contradictions................

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

The Rugby's......................................................................You, I

Good gridlock...................

". . . and if that gridlock can force the real work of governance back to state and local governments, then gridlock can be healthy."

-David French, from this post toasting Mitch McConnell

In defense....................................

..............of textbooks.   No word on why they're so expensive.

Marianne Williamson...............

You're a lamp; God is the electricity. You're a faucet; God is the water. You're a human; God is the divine within you. ALLOW the flow.

-as culled from this Althouse post

Five choices.............................

.......................................................including excellent and elite.

via

Wisdom..........................

10.  Days exist to give us endless fresh starts

-the rest of the list is here

A truth...............................

..................................................................................speaker.

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

...............................The Stonewall Riots in New York City

A catalyst for change.  More on the story:  here and here.

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

The Impressions...............................................Choice Of Colors

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

There is a pleasure in philosophy, and a lure even in the mirages of metaphysics, which every student feels until the coarse necessities of physical existence drag him from the heights of thought into the mart of economic strife and gain.  Most of us have known some golden days in the June of life when philosophy was in fact what Plato calls it, "that dear delight"; when the love of a modestly elusive truth seemed more glorious, incomparably, than the lust for the ways of the flesh and the dross of the world.  And there is always some wistful remnant in us of that early wooing of wisdom.  "Life has meaning," we feel with Browning—"to find its meaning is my meat and drink."  So much of our lives is meaningless, a self-cancelling vacillation and futility;  we strive with the chaos about us and within; but we would believe all the while that there is something vital and significant in us, could we but decipher our own souls.  We want to understand; "life means for us constantly to transform into light and flame all that we are or meet with", we are like Mitya in The Brothers Karamazov—"one of those who don't want millions, but an answer to their question"; we want to seize the value and perspective of passing things, and so to pull ourselves up out of the maelstrom of daily circumstance.  We want to know that the little things are little, and the big things big, before it is too late;  we want to see things now as they will seem forever—"in the light of eternity."  We want to learn to laugh in the face of the inevitable, to smile even at the looming of death.  We want to be whole, to coordinate our energies by criticizing and harmonizing our desires; for coordinate energy is the last word in ethics and politics, and perhaps in logic and metaphysics too.  "To be a philosopher," said Thoreau, "is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live, according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust."  We may be sure that if we can but find wisdom, all things else will be added unto us.  "Seek ye first the good things of the mind," Bacon admonishes us. "and the rest will either be supplies or its loss will not be felt."  Truth will not make us rich, but it will make us free.

-Will Durant, from the introduction to 1926's The Story of Philosophy

One reason I stay home so often...............

Alvin Lee.................................................................Motel Blues



Spent my life on the road
But it must be near the end
There's nowhere left to go
'Xcept 'round another bend
There's nothing left to do
There's nowhere left to go
And it's just another day
And it's just another show
Spent my life out on the road
Must be near the end

Spoils don't seem so great
____ ____ ____
And I don't wanna die
In some downtown motel
It's just another day
And it's just another show
I don't wanna go

Spent my life on the road
But it must be near the end
There's nowhere left to go
'Xcept 'round another bend
There's nothing left to do
There's nowhere left to go
And it's just another day
And it's just another show
Spent my life out on the road
Must be near the end

If you're going to recycle.........................

............................you might as well recycle the good stuff.

Wisdom..........................

A key to effective leadership, however, is identifying the real issue and building alliances so it can be effectively resolved. That usually takes courage, time, and hard work.

-Michael Wade

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

The Rascals...................................................A Ray Of Hope

The basics.......................................

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

At the newsstand..........................................Life Magazine

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

Dusty Springfield............................................A Brand New Me

Asking all the important questions........

larger print version here

What a concept......................

..................................................................Team Human.

Be VERY careful what you wish for.....

To modern millennials, however, fear of socialism seems as ancient as a rotary phone.  Story here.

via

A question for our age..................

.............is here.  Don't forget the money quote:  "everybody lies."

And here I've been trying to empty it..........

"The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled."

-attributed to Plutarch

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

Jimi Hendrix.......................................The Star Spangled Banner

Peace.......................

The important..................

"Remember that there is only one important time and that is now. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. The most important person is always the person you are with, who is right before you, for who knows if you will have dealings with any other person in the future? The most important pursuit is to do good for the person standing at your side, for that alone is the pursuit of life." 

-attributed to Leo Tolstoy

Alive.................................

“You'll have a good, secure life when being alive means more to you than security, love more than money, your freedom more than public or partisan opinion, when the mood of Beethoven's or Bach's music becomes the mood of your whole life … when your thinking is in harmony, and no longer in conflict, with your feelings … when you let yourself be guided by the thoughts of great sages and no longer by the crimes of great warriors … when you pay the men and women who teach your children better than the politicians; when truths inspire you and empty formulas repel you; when you communicate with your fellow workers in foreign countries directly, and no longer through diplomats...”

-Wilhelm Reich

Security................................

"Genuine security arises from actual, first-hand knowledge that one is both capable and worth of achieving happiness (through conscious, responsible action) and, once having attained it, that he deserves it."

-attributed to Michael J. Hurd

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

Jr. Walker & The All Stars......................................These Eyes

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

The Rascals............................................................................See