Saturday, February 1, 2025
Ah, history..............................
The notion of a legitimate, loyal opposition had yet to take root. Schooled in the Revolution, each camp had a warrior's mentality. They argued that their rival's success jeopardized the nation's existence. They deemed the opposition not only wrongheaded but sinister, corrupt, even treasonous. Republicans accused Federalists of advocating a British-like monarchy. Federalists countered that Republicans sympathized with the French Revolution's violent radicalism. As strong as these passions were, even the most doctrinaire partisans thought the newfound party mania was temporary. They believed that the new constitutional order of separation of powers would stabilize government and cool men's fervency.
-James M. Bradley, Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician
Victor Davis Hanson................
.....................always worthy of a look:
Last, Europe is mentally worn out by the war, and increasingly reneging on its once-boastful unqualified support for Ukraine, as it hopes the demonic Trump can both end the hated war and be hated for ending it. . . .
Trump’s success in resetting the United States will hinge not merely on outwitting the desperation of his enemies, but also on navigating the paradoxes of implementing his own maga agenda.
a potion.......................
I will reveal to you a love potion, without medicine, without herbs, without any witch's magic; if you want to be loved, then love.
-attributed to Hecato of Rhodes
Friday, January 31, 2025
self-education......................
Knowing is not enough; we must apply what we have learned. Willing is not enough: we must do.
-attributed to Bruce Lee
Bubble watch...........................
Two years ago everyone was convinced we were going into a recession. It was the most over-forecasted recession of all-time that never happened.
Radical.....................
....................The Office of Crisis Identification.
7. Finally, recognize that the job of an OCI is counter intuitive. It is to follow the method of hockey star Wayne Gretsky and skate to where the puck will be, not where it is. Traditionally, there is little, or no recognition given for preventing crises, and yet those bold actions are deserving of honor.
Thursday, January 30, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
Got that right...............
Unlike his contemporaries, he did not consider the human animal the pinnacle of nature’s imagination. “Never say higher or lower,” he scribbled in the margin of a book, arguing with the author. “Say more complicated.”
DeepSeek anyone................?
At the risk of repeating myself ad nauseam, this is as good a time as any to remind ourselves how little we know about the present and how completely unexpected events can be in the future.
-Barry Ritholtz, from here
Certain......................
I will never be certain about the future. I’ve read too much about the past to be confident about the future. History is full of unpredictable events so the only thing I am confident about is that the future will be full of them too.
For us aficionados of Southern Rock.........
............................Any Major Dude With Half A Heart posts his Volume 2 mix tape. As a public service, Volume 1 is here.
Happy Birthday Sweetie...........................
Tuesday, January 28, 2025
rearranged their brains...............
I've come to know a lot of extremely successful people in my life, and while their temperaments run the gamut—lovable, aloof, enigmatic, even eccentric—they all have one thing in common. They think differently than most people. All of them, to a person, have rearranged their brains to prevail at achieving big goals in turbulent environments where conventional thinking often fails.
-Brad Jacobs, How to Make a Few Billion Dollars
Checking in with................................
................................................Julian
Who knows but they serve as
a useful reminded about (a) the mystery of life and (b) the limited time we’ve
left — and my life appears to be racing faster and faster right now and I decry
the fact that so much of it has been riven with the dread and despair about
doing meaningless, repetitive work.
manage.......................
That orientation is a spirit; a process or pattern that inhabits us, piques our interest, directs our intention, and motivates our action. What do we want to happen there, in our gardens, if and when we get it right? We may be incapable of tending the whole world, but we can manage our own small private natural spaces, and that is far from nothing.
-Jordan B. Peterson, We Who Wrestle with God
born to thrive.....................
Our muscles are prompted to grow by failure,
healing from countless micro-injuries.
healing from countless micro-injuries.
Our minds, science, and technology
are similarly nourished by defeat.
are similarly nourished by defeat.
We are creatures born to thrive
on the borderlands of ruin.
on the borderlands of ruin.
Home is a valley between saw-toothed peaks of loss.
Here we sow failure and harvest miracles
Here we sow failure and harvest miracles
Jarod K. Anderson, "Losing"
Monday, January 27, 2025
senses......................
And contemplation, I come to see, does not in any case mean closing your eyes so much as opening them, to the glory of everything around you. Coming to your senses, by getting out of your head.
-Pico Iyer, Aflame: Learning from Silence
delivery..................................
Someone must have brought her makeup supplies, or she had ordered them in. Maybe Uber delivered cosmetics now the way it delivered everything else except good government.
-Mike Lupica, Hot Property
readily.......................
Lead me, Zeus, and you too, Destiny,
To whatever your decrees have assigned me.
I follow readily, but it I chose not,
Wretched though I am, I must follow still.
Fate guides the willing, but drags the unwilling.
On various acting individuals.........
Philosophers had long since been eager to ascertain the ends which God or Nature was trying to realize in the course of human history. They searched for the law of mankind's destiny and evolution. But even those thinkers whose inquiry was free from any theological tendency failed utterly in these endeavors because they were committed to a faulty method. They dealt with humanity as a whole or with other holistic concepts like nation, race, or church. They set up quite arbitrarily the ends to which the behavior of such wholes is bound to lead. But they could not satisfactorily answer the question regarding what factors compelled the various acting individuals to behave in such a way that the goal aimed at by the whole's inexorable evolution was obtained.
-Ludwig Von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics
to heal........................
In order to heal the stark divisions in our country, we need to approach one another with compassion and understanding. It’s baffling to see how many members of both parties have never taken the time to understand the other point of view and learned to say, “I disagree, but I understand.” This is vital for the future of constructive discourse in our nation.
Christine Schueckler, from here
Sunday, January 26, 2025
on winging it...................
You might believe you need more experience or qualifications in order to feel confident among your peers, but the truth is that even the most experienced and qualified people feel as though they're winging it much of the time—and that if you're ever going to make you unique contribution to the world, you'll probably have to do it in a state of feeling unprepared.
-Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals
fear....................
We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.
too.....................
In any case, I've never wanted to be part of any group of believers. The globe is too wide, too various, to assume one knows it all.
-Pico Iyer, Aflame: Learning from Silence
He wasn't always right..........
After two delightful days, Van Buren told Jefferson that he had to return to Washington for a committee meeting. A disappointed Jefferson told him not to fuss over dreary state affairs. Punctuality, he said, was "a losing business."
-James M. Bradley, Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician
without apology......................
Van Buren's wooing of Jefferson captured the changing mores in US politics. The Revolutionary Era system of deference was rapidly crumbling. In most states, property qualifications were no longer a prerequisite for voting. A growing number of Americans—all white men, of course—were enfranchised and participating in the political process. The forty-one-year-old Van Buren typified this brash new style of egalitarian politics. He played the game of politics to win elections and build power, and he pursued those goals without apology.
-James M. Bradley, Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician
fraternizing.............................
Levelheaded and calm, he rarely lost his cool in the company of others. He spurned codes of honor. He ignored insults. He fraternized with his enemies, and even enjoyed their company. At a time when political rivals still settled their differences on the dueling ground, Van Buren's example of courtesy toward the opposition set an important example in establishing some semblance of a peaceful republic.
-James M. Bradley, Martin Van Buren: America's First Politician
About that village.............
The gullibility, and indeed ignorance, of contemporary governments and leaders about the intent, hatred, ruthlessness, and capability of their enemies are not surprising. The retreat to comfortable nonchalance and credulousness, often the cargo of affluence and leisure, is predictable given unchanging human nature, despite the pretensions of a postmodern technologically advanced global village.
-Victor Davis Hanson, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation
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