I'm sure this makes sense...............

 Let's hope this continues; let's hope the Fed doesn't feel compelled to squeeze the economy just because inflation is a little higher than they would like to see. The truth is that on the margin, inflation pressures are receding (and by some measures inflation is already back down to 2%—see Chart #1 in this post) and the best way to keep inflation low is to allow the economy to continue to grow while keeping interest rates high enough to keep the demand for money from plunging. A greater supply of goods and services, after all, will help absorb any extra money that is still sloshing around. 

-via the Calafia Beach Pundit

On getting what you deserve................

 This is not a Democrat or Republican issue, nor a liberal or conservative one; it is an existential one for the country. . . . 

-Kevin raises the alarm

If only he had been elected...........

 There is one policy I regret not having promoted, however; for no one else seems to have taken it up. This is to make the tax system, at every level, entirely voluntary.

-back story and more fun here

Thinking about..........................

...........the interplay of style and substance. 

learn.................

Claude Monet    The Bodmer Oak     Oil on Canvass   1865

 

 

When we shout at the oak tree, the oak tree is not offended. When we praise the oak tree, it doesn't raise its nose. We can learn the Dharma from the oak tree; therefore, the oak tree is part of our Dharmakaya. We can learn from everything that is around, that is in us. 

-Thich Nhat Hanh

Focus..........................

 

for a war of their own....................

 Things move slowly, for a long time, and then very fast. Europe has long become a museum to its own past; which is why we love it. We walk the cobblestone streets; dine in the ancient taverns under empty castles drinking wine that was made when life was lived then, raging all around and not in the rear view mirror. When people looked to the future, not the past for their ideas of the west.

-Joel D. Hirst, from here

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

Al Green...................................................Call Me

 

Checking in again.................

 .....................with Naval Ravikant:

The best jobs are neither decreed nor degreed.  They are creative expressions of continuous learners in free markets.

Intentions don't matter.  Actions do.  That's why being ethical is hard.

Embrace accountability and take business risks under your own name.  Society will reward you with responsibility, equity, and leverage.

Following your genuine intellectual curiosity is a better foundation for a career than following whatever is making money right now.

If they can train you to do it, then eventually they will train a computer to do it.

You're never going to get rich renting out your time.

Earn with your mind, not your time.

You will never be worth more than you think you're worth.

Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

. . . build your character in a certain way, then your character becomes your destiny.

remove the barricade of knowledge.....

       There's a great power in not knowing.  When faced with a challenging task, we may tell ourselves it's too difficult, it's not worth the effort, it's not the way things are done, it's not likely to work, or it's not likely to work for us.

       If we approach a task with ignorance, it can remove the barricade of knowledge blocking progress.  Curiously, not being aware of a challenge may be just what we need to rise to it.

-Rick Rubin, The Creative Act: A Way of Being

Makes perfect sense to me...........

 Nonetheless, what Nagel compels us to confront is the very real possibility that the most fundamental problems of philosophy are insoluble but, crucially, no less meaningful and important for that. Taking on board Nagel’s view of philosophy can be an unnerving experience since it asks us to doubt some of our most strongly held pre-theoretical as well as theoretical assumptions, not least the common presupposition that every authentic problem must have a definitive solution or, put negatively, that only spurious problems lack genuine solutions.

-from this article

it is up to us......................

     Among the functions of the soul there are some lowly ones; he who does not see that side of her also, does not fully know her.  And perhaps she is best observed when she goes at her simple pace.  The winds of passion seize her more strongly on her lofty flights.  Moreover, she gives all her being to each matter, and concentrates all her strength on it, and never treats more than one at a time.  And how she treats a matter not according to itself, but according to herself. 

     Things in themselves may have their own weights and measures and qualities; but once inside, within us, she allots them their qualities as she sees fit.  Death is frightful to Cicero, desirable to Cato, a matter of indifference to Socrates. . . .Wherefore let us no longer make the external qualities of things our excuse; it is up to us to reckon them as we will.  Our good and our ill depend on ourselves alone.  Let us offer our offerings and vows to ourselves, not to Fortune, for she has no power over our character; on the contrary, it drags her in its train and molds her in its own form.

-Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Works, Book 1, Chapter 50

Studies show.................

 Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.

-as culled from here