From your pen to God's ear................

But, increasingly, it appears that global yields are telling us that the threat of deflation is receding, and receding more rapidly than many, myself included, would have expected.
-as excerpted from here

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

Ronnie Dove................................One Kiss For Old Times' Sake

It is a dilemma...............................

So as Obama's critics shout about the president putting politics, and legacy, ahead of security, the truth is that his ambivalence reflects the collective churning of the American gut. We think we've seen this movie before, and we didn't like the ending.  
-as excerpted from this Kristin Roberts essay on ISIS

Chill.........................................

The Dave Brubeck Quartet.........................Strange Meadowlark

Just get on board.......................................

The Chambers Brothers.................................People Get Ready

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

     It may well be true that successful entrepreneurs possess perseverance and leadership skills, of course.  What is less obvious - and much less boring - is what the speaker neglected to mention:  that those traits are likely to be the characteristics of extremely unsuccessful people, too.  "Think about it," Denrell observed afterwards, "Incurring large losses requires both persistence ... and the ability to persuade others to pour their money down the drain." ... It seems likely that the very successful and the very unsuccessful might actually have rather similar personalities.  The only indisputable difference between the two is the the very unsuccessful are much, much less frequently interviewed by management scholars who are studying the causes of success.
-Oliver Burkeman,  The Antidote:  Happiness For People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking

If you try..........................................................

Santana...................................................................Move On

Technically correct..................................

via

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

Bob Dylan..................................................Like A Rolling Stone

the awakening................................

For many students, being required to produce critical thought in front of a class is a new sensation, often a not very pleasant one ... To create what is, for most of us, that “new sensation,” you need a professor who provokes and a student who stops slumbering. It is the responsibility of colleges and universities to place students in environments that provide these opportunities. It is the responsibility of students to seize them. Genuine education is not a commodity, it is the awakening of a human being.

-Hunter Rawlings, as excerpted from this essay

via

Leaders damn the world and roar........................

Tim Buckley.................................No Man Can Find The War

Thank God.......................................

thanks Todd

Here's one for Jetboy and Skip....................

Taj Mahal................................................................Cruisin'

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

Blind..................................................

It is an illusion to believe that any solution is beneficial for all people and all times;  no human achievement cam be taken as the final word.  Jefferson's uncomfortable dictum "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty" applies outside the fields of politics as well;  it means that we must constantly reevaluate what we do, lest habits and past wisdom blind us to new possibilities.
-Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi,  Flow:  The Psychology of Optimal Experience

Liking the alternative.............................

      Mr Obama stands accused, at home and abroad, of having no strategy to deal with the mess.  Jeb Bush, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, accuses the president of alienating America's friends and failing to inspire fear in its enemies.  Critics say Mr Obama is so keen on his "pivot" to a security policy focused on East Asia that he neglects the Middle East - or he is simply to gutless to act.
      The alternative is to see Mr Obama's position on the sidelines as a deliberate choice.  For a president elected to extricate America from its wars in the region it makes sense to commit American forces only in circumstances of great need and on a limited scale.  In general he will intervene only when convinced that to do so will not make things worse - which is to say, in the Middle East, rarely.

-As excerpted from this The Economist essay, A dangerous modesty

Well, why didn't you just say so............

Learned a new word today.  Probably will never use it.

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

Wayne Fontana & The Mindbenders....................Game of Love

Well, that's pretty cool........................

A whole bunch more interesting ideas here

Sad, but true........................................