We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
Ben Franklin
I was thinking about that, reflecting in a superfical manner about the Supreme's injunction about churches being open if they decided to. Of course, with parishioners or congregants attending if they wished to, or not.
It's a good topic for a Thanksgiving weekend given that some of our ancestors came to the US only for religious freedom. Not that the early settlers permitted religious freedom except for the Congregationalists, because here in Connecticut you would be in big trouble if you missed church. They hung Quakers in Boston but, interestingly, made exceptions for the Jews.
I am obliged to confess that I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University. Not, heaven knows, because I hold lightly the brainpower or knowledge or generosity or even the affability of the Harvard faculty: but because I greatly fear intellectual arrogance, and that is a distinguishing characteristic of the university which refuses to accept any common premise.
“America’s laziest and dumbest judge” seeks “a bright person to keep (the judge) from looking stupid,” and gave preference to University of Virginia law students “who studied interesting but useless subjects at snobby schools.”
Eric Hoffer observed that in America, “What starts out here as a mass movement ends up as a racket, a cult, or a corporation.” He made that observation a half century ago when America was still a country.
With the Superbowl of politics coming up, let's address real daily life. So many people seem hyper about the election. Relax. Life is good, except for House Mice.
Mus musculus was a native to northern India but is now worldwide, spread by shipping.
They are clever enough to realize that living in houses and barns are a good deal. They are annoying but cute pests for sure. Cats, in fact, were introduced to Europe from Egypt to control house mice on farms. Even today, you do not know how much House Mouse poop is in your flour.
Native wild mice of all varieties do not tend to invade homes or barns. Hardly ever, just the highest IQ ones.
What a life he led, from poverty to fame and fortune. He had the luck to be born handsome with an animal masculinity which, in some ways, limited his range. No matter what role he played, I always saw him through the role.
Sure, he defined James Bond, but if you never saw Hunt for Red October, watch it.
It's a class thing, or maybe an aesthetic thing, because few people tell you what Trump policies they oppose. Trump will win again. (This is an old snippet which is still timely)
The RC Church has a long and ancient history of being politically-involved and taking sides. Politically, and financially. It's their strength and their weakness. Mind you, spoken as an olde-tyme Protestant.
However, after many years, even Protestants have gotten into political games. It is a shame, in my view, for church to become too worldly.
The first thing is to bring clarity to those you work with. This is one of the foundational things leaders do every day, every minute. In order to bring clarity, you´ve got to synthesize the complex. Leaders take internal and external noise and synthesize a message from it, recognizing the true signal within a lot of noise. I don’t want to hear that someone is the smartest person in the room. I want to hear them take their intelligence and use it to develop deep shared understanding within teams and define a course of action.
Second leaders generate energy, not only on their own teams but across the company. It is insufficient to focus exclusively on your own unit. Leaders need to inspire optimism, creativity, shared commitment and growth through times good and bad. They create an environment where everyone can do his or her best work. And they build organizations and teams that are stronger tomorrow than today.
Third and finally, they find a way to deliver success, to make things happen.This means driving innovations that people love and are inspired to work on: finding balance between long-term success and short-term win; and being boundary-less and globally minded in seeking solutions.
Regarding the claim that “black social problems” are due to “white oppression,” Mead argued, “By that logic, the problems should have been worst prior to the civil rights reforms in the 1960s.” Yet in his reading of events, “The collapse of the black family occurred mostly after civil rights rather than before.” Hence Mead not only suggested that Western culture is better than non-Western culture, at least when it comes to getting ahead in America, but also that higher poverty rates among blacks and Hispanics are attributable to factors other than racial discrimination. As you can imagine, this message was not warmly received...
There are black (and white) subcultures which are not positive in orientation. But in 2020, everything is racism. Racism, or some other sort of victimology. Maybe it's an election year. Identifying as a victim is not a good approach to life though. A recipe for misery or dysfunction.
After a few years of shoeing horses, briefly interrupted by a temporary job mining silver, I ran a brush-clearing and landscaping company as a side hustle. During this scramble for meaningful independence, the leftist tendencies I’d absorbed at college dropped off bit by bit. Life as a capitalist entrepreneur brought out the best in me, even when I was flirting with homelessness. Moreover, being in the real working world pushed me into contact with people, ideas, and situations that challenged me in all sorts of ways. After a few near-fatal incidents with horses (one of which left my skull and jaw shattered), I began pursuing my own business full time in 2016.
With the Superbowl of politics coming up, let's address real daily life. So many people seem hyper about the election. Relax. Life is good, except for House Mice.