Love Fear or Fear Love?
On this day back in 2013, people were in uproar over a JCPenney teapot that they said looked like Hitler. And guess what, it does!
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We stopped by St. Stephens Graveyard in New Holland for Memorial Day. All of my grandparents are buried there, along with a pair of my 8x great-grandparents, John and Susanna Schneider who left Germany in the early 1700's to escape religious persecution. Their son Michael (who I believe was my 7x great-grandfather) fought in the Revolutionary War. Zuzu saw fit to turn the occasion into a Dr. Pepper commercial.
May 28, 2023
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Someone asked the psychologist Jean Piaget one time which was more important to human development, nature or nurture. Piaget asked which was more important to the area of a field, length or width.
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Psychologist Alfred Adler left us on this day in 1937- he's the one who did work on inferiority complexes which play a huge role in how we view ourselves and others.
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YouTube viral hit in waiting for someone... edit the president shaking hands with the Three Stooges and jerking their arms violently, followed by them kicking his ass Stooge-style for like a half hour.
May 28, 2017
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It seems like the trans versus anti-trans argument boils down to whether there is any difference between... and sorry to have to put it like this... whether a trans woman who can not get pregnant from being raped, is identical to a woman who can.
Nobody owns words, they mean different things to different people.
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Pearce Chiles was born on this day in 1867. He played for the Phillies in 1899 and 1900, and was later a third base coach famous for stealing signs. He had a very strange nicknameh "What's the Use."
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A man of words, Noah Webster, left us on this day in 1848. A "man of words"... I guess that would be a lexicographer. They create dictionaries out of common usage, but they are not writing laws. Webster said:
"Tyranny is the exercise of some power over a man, which is not warranted by law, or necessary for the public safety. A people can never be deprived of their liberties, while they retain in their own hands, a power sufficient to any other power in the state."
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Other notable birthdays- Xin Qiji (1140), Jim Thorpe (1888), György Ligeti (1923), Carroll Baker (1931)
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Other notable deathdays- Kicking Bear (1904), Gary Coleman (2010)
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Peter Benenson's article The Forgotten Prisoners was published in several internationally read newspapers on this day in 1961, later thought of as the founding of the human rights organization Amnesty International.
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I love films that take place in a 24 hour period. Dazed and Confused took place on this day in 1976.
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GK Chesterton- "It is a test of a good religion whether you can joke about it." -
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I doubt I could ever go into a Home Depot again without imagining the people standing around Apartment Depot saying "We don't gotta buy shit." (Thanks Mitch.)
May 28, 2016
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16 Cognitive Distortions, Positive Psychology, by Courtney Ackerman
7. Magnification (Catastrophizing) or Minimization
Also known as the “Binocular Trick” for its stealthy skewing of your perspective, this distortion involves exaggerating or minimizing the meaning, importance, or likelihood of things.
An athlete who is generally a good player but makes a mistake may magnify the importance of that mistake and believe that he is a terrible teammate, while an athlete who wins a coveted award in her sport may minimize the importance of the award and continue believing that she is only a mediocre player.
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If fear is the opposite of love why isn't god-fearing the opposite of god-loving?
May 28, 2011
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Weddings and funerals- two of the last vestiges of ritual and symbolism in modern culture. Today's a good day.
May 28, 2011
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Tonight I might pretend I'm the Bukowski who likes watching baseball rather than listening to classical music. Know what I mean?
May 28, 2010
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Charles Bukowski- “Nothing was ever in tune. People just blindly grabbed at whatever there was: communism, health foods, zen, surfing, ballet, group encounters, orgies, biking, herbs, Catholicism, weight-lifting, travel, withdrawal, vegetarianism, painting, writing, conducting, yoga, gambling, drinking, Buddha, Christ, jet travel, New York City, and then it all evaporated and fell apart. People had to find things to do while waiting to die. I guess it was nice to have a choice.”
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On this date in 585 bc, a solar eclipse occurred as predicted by the Greek philosopher and scientist, Thales. It's actually led to a truce in the Battle of the Eclipse between Alyartes and Cyaxares, and became a cardinal date from which others can be calculated.
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On this day in 1830, Trump's favorite president, Andrew Jackson, signed the Indian Removal Act which denies Native Americans their land rights and forcibly relocates them. From a Washington Post article for 2017:
"On May 28, 1830, Jackson signed the Indian Removal Act, which Native Americans say was a form of legalized ethnic cleansing. The act forced more than 60,000 Native Americans from their lands in the Southeast United States, clearing the way for white pioneers. Native Americans were forced to walk hundreds of miles to resettle west of the Mississippi River. Historians believe more than 15,000 died on the difficult journey."
Our moral degenerate president had a bust of that Jackson in the oval office.
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Martha Vickers joined us on this day in 1925.
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On this day in 1993, a ball bounced off Jose Canseco's head and over the wall for a home run.
https://fb.watch/k_kbZN6vDB/?mibextid=irwG9G
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The Hill headline: Trump shares video of supporter saying that politically ‘the only good Democrat is a dead Democrat’
This is the logical conclusion of the president's rhetoric, and of course he re-posts it to heighten it. I'd encourage all of his supporters to draw a line in the sand... they should decide what limit there is to their support, or to be truthful to themselves and admit that there's no line he could cross that would end their support. (Similar examples through history are not examples anyone should follow.) Also, demand that this guy resigns for this garbage. Fruitless? Who knows. Republicans can still run an honorable campaign for the fall, with somebody else.
May 28, 2020
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Maya Angelou left us on this day in 2016.
“Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world but has not solved one yet.”
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I was just looking through pictures from old road trips and found one of three inches of President James Garfield's actual spine with a bullet hole clean through. It was on display in a museum. Over the years I think I convinced myself that I made the whole thing up, but I just looked it up and it was actually on display. Also on display- the full skeleton of the space chimp Ham.
May 28, 2021
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John Muir first organized the Sierra Club on this day in 1892, in San Francisco.
"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings, Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like autumn leaves."
I love the story of him climbing up some huge tree and staying there through some massive storm so he could understand what it's like for a tree to experience it.
But did he? What is it like to be something that has no consciousness???
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Pakistan celebrates Youm-e-Takbir on this day, the anniversary of them becoming a nuclear power back in 1998. If Russia's war on Ukraine escalates to a certain point, I bet India and Pakistan will engage in a full on nuclear war.
May 28, 2022
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Russell- "I will not pretend to obey a government which is organising a mass massacre of mankind."
For most of my intellectual life I would have agreed with that, but I'm starting to buy into Harari's argument that threat of destruction has led to the Long Peace. We shouldn't have machine guns either, but without them, we might all be speaking German.
Fun fact- instead of Long Peace, voice-to-text thought I said "long penis."
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The gorilla, Harambe, was shot to death on this day in 2016 after grabbing a three-year-old boy in his enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo.
A tragedy, but here's Chappelle's SNL joke:
"There’s more shootings that I can literally count. You can’t even go to the (expletive) zoo without seeing a shooting this day. They shot a gorilla in my local zoo! And the Cincinnati police said, 'Shooting that gorilla was the toughest decision this department ever had to make.' I said, 'Well, you 'bout to see a lot of n----- in gorilla costumes in Cincinnati."
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John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy, was born on this day in 1371. But guess how he died. Correct, assassinated! Seems like a fitting end for someone in power with absolutely no fear.
Have no fear though. He was succeeded by his son, Philip the Good, who formed an alliance with England, prolonging the Hundred Years' War for decades. Philip the Good? I'm not sure he's using that word correctly.
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Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, lived for the first time on this day in 1908.
“You only live twice: once when you are born, and once when you look death in the face."
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Rudy Giuliani was born on this day in 1944. Sam Harris said that psychology awaits its Einstein to examine the characterological arc of Rudy Giuliani. He must be one of the most complicated people alive today.
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Kirk Gibson was born on this day in 1957, responsible for one of the greatest and most unlikely home runs in World series history. It always gives me goosebumps thinking about it.
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Carey Mulligan was born on this day in 1985. I have no idea how she did what she did in Drive. It's one of the greatest performances ever put on screen. Just walking down a hallway is entrancing.
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Phil Hartman was murdered by his wife on this day in 1998. I remember hearing the news on the radio as I drove cross country with two friends. When we stopped that night I read this poem in his honor.
Thanatopsis
by William Cullen Bryant
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50465/thanatopsis
Jon Lovitz was one of Phil Hartman's best friends. Ed O'Neill ran into Lovitz a few days after Phil was murdered and said, "Jon, what can I say?"
Jon- "What?"
Ed- "What can I say about Phil."
Jon- "What about him?"
Ed- "What about him? Come on, you know."
Jon- "What?"
Ed- "He was killed.
John "OH THAT!!!"
https://youtu.be/0BuRArvMMsI
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Church and State- Half of evangelicals think Trump is anointed by God
http://churchandstate.org.uk/2020/05/half-of-evangelicals-think-trump-is-anointed-by-god/
Well this isn't good... because last time I checked God isn't supposed to be capable of making a mistake. Is that why many think Trump is incapable of making a mistake?
Take a step back a second too... TRUMP??? He's the exact opposite of Jesus in every single way.
May 28, 2020
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Maybe not every way.
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I was just looking through pictures from old road trips and found one of three inches of President James Garfield's actual spine with a bullet hole clean through. It was on display in a museum. Over the years I think I convinced myself that I made the whole thing up, but I just looked it up and it was actually on display. Also on display- the full skeleton of the space chimp Ham.
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/garfields-spine-on-display-at-museum
May 28, 2021
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Einstein- "Even on the most solemn occasions I got away without wearing socks and hid that lack of civilization in high boots."
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Emerson- "I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching."
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Henry David Thoreau, Walden- "I should not talk so much about myself if there were anybody else whom I knew as well."
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Dylan:
Temptation’s page flies out the door
You follow, find yourself at war
Watch waterfalls of pity roar
You feel to moan but unlike before
You discover that you’d just be one more
Person crying
So don’t fear if you hear
A foreign sound to your ear
It’s alright, Ma, I’m only sighing
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Seneca- "We suffer more in imagination than reality."
Addendum
1.
Thanatopsis, by William Cullen Bryant
To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images
Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart;—
Go forth, under the open sky, and list
To Nature’s teachings, while from all around—
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air—
Comes a still voice—
Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more
In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid, with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist
Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go
To mix for ever with the elements,
To be a brother to the insensible rock
And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon. The oak
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place
Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world—with kings,
The powerful of the earth—the wise, the good,
Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,—the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods—rivers that move
In majesty, and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old Ocean’s gray and melancholy waste,—
Are but the solemn decorations all
Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.—Take the wings
Of morning, pierce the Barcan wilderness,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound,
Save his own dashings—yet the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first
The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep—the dead reign there alone.
So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glide away, the sons of men,
The youth in life’s green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron and maid,
The speechless babe, and the gray-headed man—
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those, who in their turn shall follow them.
So live, that when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.
2.
Myspace Blog
May 27, 2007
Learn the language???
One of my jobs at each rest area is to keep state police comment cards stocked in two plastic holders on the wall- a pocket of English ones and a pocket of Spanish ones. People hate the Spanish ones! They tear the pockets off the wall. They put things in front of them. They turn them all backwards. Once I told a janitor that the pocket was missing and he said "Good!" Quite an angry guy. (Don't worry though; he got his punishment- a miserable life.) Sometimes they steal all of the cards. What are these people doing with them? I imagine them putting them in a bonfire with their Menudo albums, Alex Rodriguez baseball cards and Chi-Chi's coupons.
Look at what someone wrote on this one:
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