Music..................

“The only truth is music.” 
-Jack Kerouac

“Music is ... A higher revelation than all Wisdom & Philosophy” 
- Ludwig van Beethoven

“Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” 
-Plato

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” 
-Aldous Huxley

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” 
-Albert Einstein

“Music . . . can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.” 
-Leonard Bernstein

“Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.” 
-Robert Fripp

“Music acts like a magic key, to which the most tightly closed heart opens.” 
-Maria von Trapp

“Life is one grand sweet song so start the music” 
-Ronald Reagan


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Well, I remember when..................

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Ring the bells......................

Bon Jovi..........................................Bells of Freedom

Evolution or devolution, that is the question......

Shhhhhhhh..........................

"In 1969, UNESCO passed a resolution outlining a human right that doesn't get talked about much - the right to silence.  I think they're referring to what happens if a noisy factory gets built beside your house, or a shooting range, or if a disco opens downstairs.  They don't mean you can demand that a restaurant turn off the classic rock tunes it's playing or that you can muzzle the guy next to you on the train yelling into his cellphone.  It's a nice thought though.....despite our innate dread of absolute silence, we should have the right to take an occasional aural break, to experience, however briefly, a moment or two of sonic air.  To have meditative moment, a head clearing space, is a nice idea for a human right."
-David Byrne, as quoted in the October Smithsonian

Ed. Note:  Wasted time on Searched the Oracle Google for ten minutes but could not find said resolution.  Sorry.

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Ouch..................

Walter Russell Mead scratches a sarcastic itch:

"As everybody knows, there is no such thing as a global war on terror anymore. Instead we live in a harmonious world of interfaith comity with only the occasional criminal act that is quickly and competently handled by law enforcement officials. As a result we can cut our defense budgets and get on with the real business of life, which is to say watching TV, going to the mall and voting to re-elect the strategic geniuses whose wise decisions and firm but thoughtful leadership gave us this tranquil world order."

Full interesting essay about this tranquil world order is here.

Consequences, intended or otherwise.............

"Today's empty-nesters have more debt and less savings than
previous generations."
-Irvin Schorsch, as quoted in Money

Hoffer.................................

Eric Hoffer, son of a cabinet maker, went blind at age 7.  His sight returned at age 15.  Fearing he might lose it again, he became a voracious reader and a collector of library cards.  He earned his keep as a migrant worker, a dock worker, and a writer.  Can we all agree he became a better than average philosopher?    A few of his sayings:

"A man is likely to mind his own business when it is worth minding. When it is not, he takes his mind off his own meaningless affairs by minding other people's business."

"Unless a man has talents to make something of himself, freedom is an irksome burden."

"We can be absolutely certain only about things we do not understand. A doctrine that is understood is shorn of its strength."

"Self-righteousness is a loud din raised to drown the voice of guilt within us."

"We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves."

"No one is truly literate who cannot read his own heart."

"The ratio between supervisory and producing personnel is always highest where the intellectuals are in power."

"In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists."

"One wonders whether a generation that demands instant satisfaction of all its needs and instant solution of the world's problems will produce anything of lasting value. Such a generation, even when equipped with the most modern technology, will be essentially primitive — it will stand in awe of nature, and submit to the tutelage of medicine men."

Ours too......................................

"There are two problems in my life:  The political ones are insoluble, and the economic ones are incomprehensible."
-Alec Douglas-Home

More than I can say.................

Firefall......................................Just Remember I Love You

Implication.......................

"There cannot be design without a designer; contrivance without a contriver; order without choice; arrangement, without any thing capable of arranging; subserviency and relation to a purpose; means suitable to an end, and executing their office in accomplishing that end, without the end ever having been contemplated, or the means accommodated to it. Arrangement, disposition of parts, subserviency of means to an end, relation of instruments to use, imply the preference of intelligence and mind."
-William Paley

Watched over.......................

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace

I like to think (and
the sooner the better!)
of a cybernetic meadow
where mammals and computers
live together in mutually
programming harmony
like pure water
touching clear sky. 

I like to think
(right now, please!)
of a cybernetic forest
filled with pines and electronics
where deer stroll peacefully
past computers
as if they were flowers
with spinning blossoms. 

I like to think
(it has to be!)
of a cybernetic ecology
where we are free of our labors
and joined back to nature,
returned to our mammal
brothers and sisters,
and all watched over
by machines of loving grace.

-Richard Brautigan

Decent........................

"Man's capacity for sacrifice, for devotion and compassion and that most miraculous of all virtues - simple decency - can forever hearten and surprise us."
-Leo Rosten

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Stirs...........................

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

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all that 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 this 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

Added.........................

.........Project Gutenberg to my blog roll.  An impressive collection of really good books available for free downloading.  Do go visit - here

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thanks todd

Ready for a third party...................?

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Infinite...............................

"The more we learn about the world, and the deeper our learning, the more conscious, specific, and articulate will be our knowledge of what we do not know, our knowledge of our ignorance. For this, indeed, is the main source of our ignorance — the fact that our knowledge can be only finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite."
-Karl Popper

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OK, people...............................

It is time to buy.  Interest rates can hardly get much lower.  Home builders are starting to get busy.  And, have I told you lately, we have some beautiful wooded building lots for sale.

as always, thanks Bill for the chart

Had to check five dictionaries.........

..........before finding one that knew this word:

                            "paraprosdokian"

Can you figure out its meaning by these examples?

 Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience. 

 The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on my list. 

We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public. 

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit. Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good Evening,' and then proceed to tell you why it isn't. 

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station. 

Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says, 'In case of emergency, notify:' I put 'DOCTOR.' 

Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman. 

You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice. 

Nostalgia isn't what it used to be. 

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. 

Where there is a will, I want to be in it

My new favorite dictionary (very kindly providing some other quoted examples) is here 

A more complete list of examples, and the source for this post, is at Maggie's Farm.

Can't you see........................

American Flyer............................Light of Your Love

Punditry..................................

From the prolific pen of WRM.......................

On state funding of political parties in Greece:
"This state-funded system combines the worst of all worlds. In a society notorious for political corruption and sclerotic government, this system is wide open for abuse by unscrupulous politicians. If the parties’ finances get desperate enough that they are forced to choose between their finances and the good of the country, things could get ugly very quickly."

On China's labor situation:
"It’s a great historical irony that Communist China’s most pressing internal danger these days is the rising militancy of an industrial working class. "

On the crushing costs of higher education:
"Costs in education, like costs in health care, are rising too fast. But the deeper problem is that the entire higher-ed system is fundamentally broken, and no amount of tinkering at the margins will fix it."

This essay references a chart from Bloomberg.  Here is that chart:

A different path (self-discipline required)...........

Tynan offers the Hustler's MBA.  Rather than investing four years and $50,000-$200,000 to get a college degree, he suggests spending the four years, and a much lower sum of money, pursuing the following:

1. Learn poker. To an outsider, poker seems like a form of degenerate gambling. It can be, but that's not its nature. One of the most valuable skills I've learned in life is how to assess hundreds of factors, choose the important ones, evaluate them to make a decision quickly, and then execute that decision. Poker teaches this extremely well. .

2. Travel a lot. 

3. Read every single day for at least an hour. 

4. Write every single day.

5. Learn to program, even if you don't want to be a programmer. 

6. Do something social.

7. Eat healthy. 

8. Follow curiosity and spend money on it when necessary. 

9. Start a business after two years. 

This is a modern curriculum that, on average, will produce people better prepared for real life than college. 

His full essay, with each of these ideas fleshed out,  is here.   It is well worth the time.

thanks swissmiss

Deserve................................

“You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe, 
deserve your love and affection.”
-Buddha


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In return..........................

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” 
-Anaïs Nin

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Seeing deer everywhere.........................

thanks jokeroo

Saturday...........................

Feeling good about this country...............

Madison Rising.......................Star Spangled Banner




thanks Grant

Brick wall.......................

The interview....................................here


thanks Craig

Trust in your love.......................

Poco........................................Heart of the Night

A question from the Ragamuffin..........

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Precedence.....................

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot by fooled."
-Richard Feynman

Act..................................

Leave........................

Jonathan Fields interviews Helene Godin, a top-flight lawyer turned master pastry chef by the way.  Post here. Excerpt here:

"When I asked Helene what it was that made her leave such a long, esteemed, powerful and lucrative career, her answer was pretty simple…'I stopped waking up with a smile.'"

Interview video here:

Opposites...............................

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.” 
-Elie Wiesel

Well, yes..............................

Choices............................

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This is refreshing.............................

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Running in circles.......................

Coldplay....................................The Scientist

Deserve.........................

“I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.” 
― Marilyn Monroe

Judging..............................

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.” 
-Mother Teresa

Continuing education..............

thanks John

More media equals more arguing.................or, cooperation without coordination.....................or, a new form of arguing................

Clay Shirky...........How the Internet will (one day) transform government




thanks swissmiss

Hmmmmm.................................

"The alternate to employment is not unemployment, but independence."
-G. K. Chesterton

Longing........................

               The Road Home

An ant hurries along a threshing floor
with its wheat grain, moving between huge stacks
of wheat, not knowing the abundance
all around.  It thinks its one grain
is all there is to love.

So we choose a tiny seed to be devoted to.
This body, one path or one teacher.
Look wider and farther.

The essence of every human being can see,
and what that essence-eye takes in,
the being becomes.  Saturn. Solomon!

The ocean pours through a jar,
and you might say it swims inside
the fish!  This mystery gives peace to
your longing and makes the road home home.

-Rumi

Sorry for slacking off.................

Say it's not so.............................

Terrible news.............................here or here

Reach you..............................

Simon and Garfunkel...................Sounds of Silence

On reading to learn.................

"Most of the time when we read, we think an idea is good, we nod in agreement, and we browse on. Instead read with the intention of finding a good idea that you can use in your sales practice. Appropriate that idea by writing it down, along with how and when you intend to use it."
-S. Anthony Iannarino

Zestfully.......................

"Have you ever stopped to think what fun this business of living can be? If you haven't, and if you are one of those who insist upon believing that life is humdrum, grim and boring, then I'm afraid this department is not for you. For I don't believe any such thing. I know that we can all free ourselves and live our lives fully, zestfully and joyfully!"
-Dorothy Draper

Something about kangaroos today...............

Woody Allen.............................................

Today vs Tomorrow...............

"If you are selling tomorrow, be very careful not to pitch people who are only interested in buying things that are about today. It's virtually impossible to sell financial planning or safety or the long-term impacts of the environment to a consumer or a voter who is relentlessly focused on what might be fun right now."
-Seth Godin

Amen............................

"Revisiting the question of 'What are we about?' is not a once-every-seven-years activity. You'll need to do it frequently."
-Michael Wade

"My boys press on. They have no natural advantages, and lots of impediments. How can they fail?"
-Greg Sullivan

"The buzz of doing a lot gets beaten - easily - by the buzz of achievement, of satisfaction.  Of finally doing a job well."
-Nicholas Bate

Can't we all just get along.......

This one's for Jetboy....................

The Blasters..............................................I'm Shakin'

Confused by opposites.......................

"The invisible hand in politics operates in the opposite
direction to the invisible hand in the market."
-Milton Friedman

Mixed messages...............

"Education is the established church of the United States. It is
one of the religions that Americans believe in.  It has its own
orthodoxy, its pontiffs, and its noble buildings."
-Michael Sadlier

We don't often get political, but when we do.......

thanks jonco

Ed. Note:  The Oracle Google delivers a mixed message as to the
name of a large collection of baboons.  Troop is the most
commonly cited name.  Congress does appear several places,
but we are not sure if it is officially sanctioned, or mere wishful
thinking.  You decide.

Right nor wrong.............................

"You are neither right nor wrong because the crowd disagrees with you.  You are right because your data and reasoning are right."
-Benjamin Graham

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Every so often...............

Old fraternity friends gather for fun and laughs

in beautiful north east South Carolina.

A calm 18,000 acre  lake in the early morning fog

awaiting the much used canoe.

2 pounds of bacon and 18 eggs.  Just enough.

A late afternoon cruise on the neighbor's pontoon.

Still recovering from last years bout with the skis

My favorite rides top out at 58 mph.  Fast enough

Good eats and craft beer.  Life is good.

David Gray...........................................Sail Away

R.E.M.........................................The Outsiders

Sade..................................Smooth Operator

Doobie Brothers............................South City Midnight Lady

Kathy Troccoli/Beach Boys...............I Can Hear Music

Mark Knopfler/Chet Atkins.............................Imagine

Boney James.........................Stop, Look, Listen

Sonny Rollins..................................Alfie's Theme

David Sanborn..........................................Pearls

Stan Getz..........................................Wave

John Coltrane.....................................Greensleeves

Paul Desmond................................Skylark