On the perils of not knowing...........................

John Adams warned us about this when he said democracy couldn’t work if people weren’t paying attention: “A frequent recurrence to the fundamental principles of the Constitution, and a constant adherence to those of piety, justice, moderation, temperance, industry, and frugality, are absolutely necessary to preserve the advantages of liberty, and to maintain a free government,” Adams said, adding, “this crap carnival is gonna get outta hand if voters don’t know anything.” At least I feel he said that, and feelings must be at least as important as facts. That’s in the Ninth Amendment, I’m pretty sure.

-Kyle Smith, from this article about the worrisome tendency of people not knowing things

Ed. Note:  The ninth amendment:  The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

The Founders did not like to waste words.

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

The James Gang..............................................Funk #49

Hmmm...............................

 from Zen Flash

Checking in with Althouse.....................

 As cut-and-pasted from this post:

While Rogan is politically liberal, he is — argues former Obama 2008 campaign strategist and Rogan listener Shant Mesrobian — culturally conservative, by which he does not mean that Rogan holds conservative views on social issues (again, he is pro-choice and pro-LGBT rights). He means that Rogan exudes culturally conservative signals: he likes MMA fighting, makes crude jokes, hunts, and just generally fails to speak in the lingo of the professional managerial class and coastal elites. And it is those cultural standards, rather than political ones, that make Rogan anathema to elite liberal culture because, Mesrobian argued in a viral Twitter thread, liberals care far more about proper culture signalling than they do about the much harder and more consequential work of actual politics....

Democrats are crazy to let conservatism take possession of the crude, manly sector!

That, in my limited experience, is a fairly sizable sector.

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

Around the time that he reached the unnerving milestone of turning thirty, Leonardo da Vinci wrote a letter to the ruler of Milan listing the reasons he should be given a job.  He had been moderately successful as a painter in Florence, but he had trouble finishing his commissions and was searching for new horizons.  In the first ten paragraphs, he touted his engineering skills, including his ability to design bridges, waterways, cannons, armored vehicles, and public buildings.  Only in the eleventh paragraph, at the end, did he add that he was also an artist.  "Likewise in painting, I can do everything possible," he wrote.

-Walter Isaacson, from the Introduction to Leonardo Da Vinci

Paint, he could:

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

 Leonardo da Vinci had the good luck to be born out of wedlock.  Otherwise, he would have been expected to become a notary, like the firstborn legitimate sons in his family stretching back at least five generations.

-Walter Isaacson, Leonardo Da Vinci

Ten questions for aspiring revolutionaries.....

 Art Carden posts this interesting response to the news that a professor at W & L is offering a writing seminar, "How to Overthrow the State."   The intent of said course is to “place(s) each student at the head of a popular revolutionary movement aiming to overthrow a sitting government and forge a better society.”   Carden, who describes himself as a "free-market anarchist," is intrigued by the course, but offers ten questions that should be answered in the process.  As he says:

 "if your best argument is that your heart is in the right place, then your heart is most definitely not in the right place."

via

David Warren is under the impression.................

.................that the Mericans in the Natted States will soon be holding an election.  His take, from That Land Up North, is worth the investment of your time.  A wee sample:

Frankly, I think “Trump” is a spendthrift liberal, and dangerous because he’s a fairly honest man. While I’m not an opponent of the rule of law, which he seems to favour, he accepts massive intervention by the state, which has been consistently counter-productive, not only recently, but through all time. I would recommend that “Trump” take counselling from me, on how to do nothing. A great deal of trouble is created by politicians, who feel neurotically compelled to take action of some sort, after foolishly listening to “do something” counsellors.

Can I get an amen.................................?

 These days when people ask how I am doing, I say that I am having a good pandemic.

-Arnold Kling, taken from here

To paraphrase Bob Dylan, you're gonna have to invest in something....................

 Complaining can be cathartic at times but it’s not an investment strategy.

-Ben Carlson, as culled from this post

So, inquiring minds want to know...............

 .....................................is complaining cathartic?

The Oracle Google was consulted on the question, and this muddle popped up:

Though we think of complaining as an ongoing way of leaking negativity into our lives, sometimes it can have a cathartic effect. Often, what we need isn’t to ignore the “bad” feeling, but to validate it. Gilbertson argues that simply embracing how we feel can be a powerful practice. “ Emotions, once felt, will change themselves over time . . .

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

Complaining is terrible for your health, and the repetitive nature of it tends to hardwire you to perpetuate the behavior. (Neurons that fire together, wire together.) On the other hand, worrying and rumination activate the same part of the brain as creativity (the amygdala) and especially for those in creative fields, often seems like a necessary evil.

Taking a stab at it, my guess is that complaining can only be cathartic if said complaint is followed by action to either change the situation or to change oneself.  Your guess is as good as mine.

Back when journalism was respectable...............

      Huey's description of the ceremonial consumption of potlikker delighted newspaper men all over the country.  In the first grim years of the depression they welcomed any item that promised relief from the drab daily record of lengthening unemployment.  Julian Harris, the witty and cultured editor of the influential Atlanta Constitution, devoted a lead editorial to Huey's recipe.  The governor of Louisiana might know how to prepare potlikker, Harris said, but he certainly did not know how to eat it:  anybody who appreciated this delectable dish crumpled the cornpone.  Huey, matching Harris's mock seriousness, fired off a telegram to the editor defending his recipe.  Harris retaliated with a charge that Huey crumbled in private.  Huey replied in a letter addressed to Harris as the editor of the Potlikker and Cornpone Department.  He had been resentful at first, he said, but had concluded that Harris was honest at heart, though "ignorant of the finer arts of the subject."  But, continued Huey, Harris had goon beyond the limits of respectable journalism with the charge that he crumbled privately.  He had merely crumbled before a few friends to demonstrate the faults of the technique.

-T. Harry Williams,  Huey Long

About seeking............................

 You are always seeking pleasure, avoiding pain, always after happiness and peace.  Don't you see that it is your very search for happiness that makes you feel miserable?  Try the other way:  indifferent to pain and pleasure, neither asking, nor refusing, give all your attention to the level on which 'I am' is timelessly present.  Soon you will realize that peace and happiness are in your very nature and it is only seeking them through some particular channels, that disturbs.  Avoid the disturbance, that is all.  To seek there is no need; you would not seek what you already have.

-Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj,  I Am That

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

 The richest person is the one with a cool mind, free of tension and anxiety.  Changing all these world situations is not in our hands. We are not going to stop all these things.  But what is in our hands is the ability to find joy and peace right here and now.  If we live in the present, even thought he whole world might blow up in a minute, it won't bother us.  We can be happy in situations of tension.  If we have decided to be happy, nobody can make us unhappy.

-Sri Swami Satchidananda,  The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali

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

 3.   Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind let each of you regard one another as more important that himself;

4.  do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.

-The Holy Bible, Philippians 2:3-4

Repositories..............................

 The sacred books of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and the Veda are the best repositories of the ideas that mattered most to our ancestors, and to ignore them is an act of childish conceit.

-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,  Finding Flow