Be Whatever You Are, Filmy Eyes, and Miscellany

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama was born on this day in 1935. Here's some good advice.

"Do not try to use what you learn from Buddhism to be a Buddhist; use it to be a better whatever-you-already-are."

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Einstein- "If there is any religion that could respond to the needs of modern science, it would be Buddhism."

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Brian and I found the grave of our nearest common ancestor today after doing a little bit of genealogy work. David Witmer was born in 1797 and died in 1860, 114 years before we were born. He's my 4x great-grandfather and Brian's 5x great-grandfather, which makes us fifth cousins one time removed. His first wife is Brian's ancestor. She died, and his second wife is my ancestor. If he never existed, we wouldn't have existed.

July 6, 2024

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George Stephanopoulos asked Biden what he'll think if in spite of his best intentions Trump ends up getting elected. 

"I’ll feel as long as I gave it my all and I did the goodest job as I know I can do, that’s what this is about."

The goodest he can do is get out of the race, and let someone handle it who has energy, the ability to persuade on a national and world level, and none of his baggage. Perhaps someone who nobody suggests should get a cognitive test?

One cognitive test to be a world leader is that nobody suggests you need a cognitive test.

Sam Harris said, "Not even a successful performance in Cirque du Soleil could change the current perception of President Biden as too frail to do his job effectively."

Trump's former Chief of Staff, Reince Priebus, said months ago that if the Democrats actually believe everything they say about Trump, and think that Biden is the best one to beat him, they aren't taking this seriously. I have to agree.

July 6, 2024

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In my opinion, Nate Silver is the best pollster around. To put that another way, when I poll myself, he has 100% chance of being considered the best pollster around. 

In 2008, he correctly predicted every senate race, along with 49 of 50 state races for president. He's my number one example of polls having validity. 

In 2016 everyone was very confident Clinton would win but I was very nervous because Nate gave Trump a 32% chance. (It was like 10% before the Comey letter.) Trump winning doesn't mean that Nate was wrong. Take a hundred hypothetical races where Nate gave someone a 32% chance to win. If 32 end up winning, he was right. There's nothing wrong with probabilistic predictions versus binary predictions. 

So what does he think about Biden's current situation? He doesn't think he should drop out, he thinks he should resign. 

Apparently Biden said that the New York Times had him down 10% recently, and post-election he is only 6% down. That's total nonsense, and Nate thinks that Biden is not thinking clearly. He took it further, and said that someone who's not thinking clearly, believe it or not, shouldn't be commander-in-chief. He's calling for a 30 to 60 day plan to have Harris replace him.

July 6, 2024

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Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or: 

"A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to general applause from wits who believe it's a joke."

Powerhouse quote, but in fairness we shouldn't listen to all clowns.

July 6, 2019

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Emma and the girls went to Home Depot for a workshop and for the first time in maybe months I got to stay home by myself. Made great use of it... just sitting and staring, letting my mind wander. Quite a luxury.

July 6, 2019

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Keeping your eyes open during a prayer is the perfect crime. Anybody who catches you doing it is doing the same thing.

July 6, 2018

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Janet Leigh was born on this day in 1927. She had perhaps the most famous eye in the history of movies.

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A possible runner-up, from Un Chien Andalou:

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Can God create a rock so big that not even He could move it? Who cares! But is He so powerful that he could change Himself into a bunch of scientific processes that, if discovered, would completely explain the world to humans? Even better, could He turn himself into a metaphor?

July 6, 2014

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On this day in 1885, Louis Pasteur successfully tested his vaccine against rabies on Joseph Meister, a boy who was bitten by a rabid dog. 

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On this day in 1942, Anne Frank and her family begin 2 years of hiding in the secret annex above her father's office in an Amsterdam warehouse.

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On this day in 1944, Jackie Robinson refused to move to the back of a bus, leading to a court-martial.

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The Hartford circus fire happened on the same day- one of America's worst fire disasters, killing approximately 168 people and injuring over 700 in Hartford, Connecticut.

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John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time on this day in 1957, as teenagers at Woolton Fete. Elvis's Teddy Bear was set to replace Pat Boone's Love Letters In the Sand at the top of the charts.

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On the same day, Althea Gibson became the first black athlete to win Wimbledon.

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Frida Kahlo was born on this day in 1907.

"I paint flowers so they will not die."

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What kind of music would there be today if there was never a Bill Haley? He was born on this day in 1925.

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President George W. Bush, philosopher Peter Singer, and actor Sylvester Stallone were all born on this day in 1946.

Sylvester Stallone was once so poor that he sold his dog for $40 so that he could buy food. Once he made it, he bought the dog back for $15,000.

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Some GWB classics:

"Too many good docs are getting out of the business. Too many OB/GYN's aren't able to practice their love with women all across the country." 

"Free societies are hopeful societies. And free societies will be allies against these hateful few who have no conscience, who kill at the whim of a hat." 

"That's why I went to the Congress last September and proposed fundamental—supplemental funding, which is money for armor and body parts and ammunition and fuel." 

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," he said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."

"As you know, these are open forums, you're able to come and listen to what I have to say."

"The ambassador and the general were briefing me on the -- the vast majority of Iraqis want to live in a peaceful, free world. And we will find these people and we will bring them to justice." 

"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize himself."

"I was proud the other day when both Republicans and Democrats stood with me in the Rose Garden to announce their support for a clear statement of purpose (on Iraq): you disarm, or we will." 

"That makes sense to me, doesn't it?"

"I would still invade Iraq even if Iraq never existed."

"I would say the best moment of all (as president) was when I caught a 7.5 pound perch in my lake."

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some kind of federal program."

"The truth of that matter is, if you listen carefully, Saddam would still be in power if he were president of the United States, and we'd be a lot better off."

"You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test." 

"I know that the human being and the fish can coexist peacefully."

"The second pillar of peace and security in our world is the willingness of free nations, when the last resort arrives, to retain aggression and evil by force."

"See, free nations do not develop weapons of mass destruction."

"I'm also not very analytical. You know I don't spend a lot of time thinking about myself, about why I do things."

Speaking to Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso- "Do you have blacks, too?"

"We can help somebody who hurts by hugging a neighbor in need."

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

"If you're a single mother with two children, which is the toughest job in America as far as I'm concerned, and you're working hard to put food on your family."

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."

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Hitchens, on George W. Bush- "He's a man who is lucky to be governor of Texas. He is a man who is unusually incurious, abnormally unintelligent, amazingly inarticulate, fantastically uncultured, extraordinarily uneducated, and apparently quite proud of all these things."

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Vowell- I talk about going to [George W. Bush's] Inauguration and crying when he took the oath, 'cause I was so afraid he was going to wreck the economy and muck up the drinking water'... the failure of my pessimistic imagination at that moment boggles my mind now.

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Vonnegut- The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.

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Comedian Kevin Hart was born on this day in 1979. He seems like a great guy, but I never found one of his jokes funny.

Postscript- He did a world-class job hosting the Tom Brady roast.

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Eva Green, the Venus de Milo of The Dreamers, was born on this day in 1980.

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Thomas More left us on this day in 1535. From Utopia:

"Nobody owns anything but everyone is rich - for what greater wealth can there be than cheerfulness, peace of mind, and freedom from anxiety?"

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The French author, Guy de Maupassant, left us on this day in 1893 at the age of 42. He wrote his own epitaph: "I have coveted everything and taken pleasure in nothing."

So sad. How about something more upbeat?

"Our memory is a more perfect world than the universe: it gives back life to those who no longer exist.

Perfect. I think about that a lot. Thoseno longer with us still live in our memory. And it's even better than that, they are still alive in the past. I believe that.

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William Faulkner left us on this day in 1962.

"You cannot swim for new horizons until you have courage to lose sight of the shore."

That is perfectly awful advice! Keep swimming until you lose sight of the shore???

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Louis Armstrong left us on this day in 1971.

“Making money ain’t nothing exciting to me. You might be able to buy a little better booze than the wino on the corner. But you get sick just like the next cat and when you die you’re just as graveyard dead as he is.”

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John Frankenheimer left us on this day in 2002. Imagine that you're the director responsible for giving us Montgomery Clift's first film (The Search), and Marlon Brando's (The Men.) And those were two of your films that you're not even known for! The films that you're known for are High Noon, From Here to Eternity, and A Man of All Seasons.

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Robert McNamara left us on this day in 2009. I'm so conflicted over him, a testament to the power of Errol Morris's film, the Fog of War. McNamara is so perfectly awful, yet often makes so much sense. 

"What makes us omniscient? Have we a record of omniscience? We are the strongest nation in the world today. I do not believe we should ever apply that economic, political, or military power unilaterally. If we had followed that rule in Vietnam, we wouldn't have been there! None of our allies supported us; not Japan, not Germany, not Britain or France. If we can't persuade nations with comparable values of the merit of our cause, we'd better reexamine our reasoning. In the end, it was luck. We were *this* close to nuclear war, and luck prevented it."

More true today than ever, applying even further than before to include our own political parties. Gerrymandering put us in the position that we don't even have to persuade our own representatives.

He has a very strange middle name- Robert Strange McNamara.

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Ennio Morricone left us on this day in 2020. It's strange experience, seeing a picture and hearing the music, a testament to the composer.

Probably in the Top Ten of Film Eyes

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Tom: My grandfather is 75 years old and didn't fight in two world wars for the silliness.

BoboN1: The first world war was over 100 years ago. How did he fight in that?

Tom: He didn't fight as I just said.

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From Reddit:

What's the worst thing to do while driving?

Top answer:

Crash and die probably.

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Wife tells her husband to to the store and get a half gallon of milk, and if they have avocados, to get six.

Husband comes home with six half gallons of milk, and says, "They had avocados."

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Cracked had this to say about stoats hypnotizing rabbits- 'The jerky movements are somewhere between "stop, drop, and roll" and "the worm," as performed by an octopus in the middle of an aneurysm.'

July 6, 2013

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Vice headline, July 6, 2013- Police Broke Up a Drug-Fueled Vatican Priest Orgy

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Can Bernie Sanders be a democratic socialist and a capitalist? Yes. All of us have beliefs on the socialism spectrum. I don't think I know anybody who doesn't believe in the concept of social security, unemployment, or Medicare, despite the fact that they all have problems. Nor do I remember ever having a conversation with anybody who was calling for the state seizing the means of production. So we're all in the middle somewhere.

July 6, 2019

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Vice, January 25, 2018, Should a Criminal With Brain Damage Get A Lighter Sentence?

Great question for the 21st Century!

Also from the article: "Is criminal law just about punishing people for doing bad things? Or is it about deterring them and deterring others? Is its purpose to lock them up so they can’t hurt other people? Or is it to rehabilitate? Is it really that different if your behavior was caused by a brain tumor, or caused by being raised in a very bad family, with drug-addicted absent parents? People don’t have a choice about that either."

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/mbpd5p/should-a-criminal-with-brain-damage-get-a-lighter-sentence

July 6, 2019

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The Atlantic, June 23, 2019- Republicans Don’t Understand Democrats—And Democrats Don’t Understand Republicans

Each side tends to believe a caricature of the other side, and the more news you watch, the worst you are at guessing the actual opinions of the other side.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/06/republicans-and-democrats-dont-understand-each-other/592324/

July 6, 2019

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From Random Thoughts: "Reading is just staring at a dead piece of wood for hours and hallucinating."

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Once we hit the point that every year we discover treatments that add one year or more to our lifespan, we're home free. Well that's a relief.

IFLScience- Futurist Predicts Humans Will Achieve Immortality By 2030

https://www.iflscience.com/futurist-predicts-humans-will-achieve-immortality-by-2030-67965

July 6, 2023

Matt responded that he expected a Borg-esque evolution which I said I'd welcome 

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Hemingway- "The first draft of anything is shit."

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Elie Wiesel, Night:

My faceless neighbor spoke up:

“Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve.”

I exploded:

“What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?

His cold eyes stared at me. At last he said, wearily:

“I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.

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Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality- "The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows, "Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody."

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Salman Rushdie, The Satanic Verses- "From the beginning men used God to justify the unjustifiable."

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