I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
Edgar Allen Poe

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
- H. L. Mencken

Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
-Bertrand Russell

What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
-James Branch Cabell

January 20, 2017 - 10:42 a.m.

Listen to the Rabbi

Sixteen hours ago, I asked who was marching on Saturday and where they were marching. So far there have been 104 responses. It's not quite 104 people responding as some people made more than one comment and a few people not marching responded, mostly in support of those that are. One person marching in DC responded by private message. I'm sure lots of my friends either never saw it or didn't bother to comment. I feel safe in saying that at least 90 of my friends are marching. I'm marching too.

I am proud of all of you and privileged to have such great people as friends. We lost the election but not the country; we are the country. The terrible people make the news because they are the exception, not the rule. Most people are decent. A good number are not just decent but willing to work to make the world better. There are many ways to do so. We can give money and time to causes. We can protest. We can't change the world by ourselves but we can make a big difference for a small number of people and a small difference for a large number. We can help each other. We can be kind. We can make art. We can live our lives in ways to help not hurt the environment. We can talk to each other. We can listen. We can lift each other's spirits. We can encourage.

Facebook tells me that 101 different people have commented on my post. The number of marches is closer to 95. Of those 101 people, only one was discouraged. I listed all those things we could do and I forgot the most important; we can be happy. I was thinking of ending with Donne's No Man is an Island or something inspirational by King, Gandhi, or Thoreau. I could post a video by Pete Seeger. But instead I'm going to tell a joke I heard as a kid on of all places, The Mike Douglas Show; my mother watched it. I have forgotten who told it other than he was a young Jewish comedian. It's a rabbi, priest and a minister joke and as usual, the rabbi gets the punchline. I'm just going to give the set up and the punchline.

God tells the word that in two weeks he's going to make a second flood. The rabbi addresses the congregation and says: "God said that in two weeks he is going to flood the world. You know what that means; we have two weeks to learn how to breath underwater.
That's how you survive 3,000 years and it's how we'll survive now. Let's get on the breathing underwater thing.


I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.





Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018



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Horvendile January 20, 2017
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