The Lesson of the Ants, Vituperatively Not Defining "Vituperative"
It had to happen sometime. Sinead O'Connor apparently decided to leave us today. Devastating. I'm not sure that we deserved her to begin with, and she was too perfect to remain with us. When I first met Emma she had a shaved head and I made a Sinead connection. Who wouldn't. It's very possible that without Sinead O'Connor my kids wouldn't exist. I'm just glad she has no more pain.
July 26, 2023
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Billy Bragg- "Sinéad O’Connor was braver than brave. May she rest in peace."
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This one is from another planet. I've fallen into a YouTube Sinead O'Connor vortex the last few days.
Sinead O'Connor- Make Me a Channel of Your Peace
https://youtu.be/hIB_HJa1Zrw
September 11, 2019
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On this day in 1980, John Lennon was killed on Sinead O'Connor's 14th birthday. Here she is covering his Mind Games.
https://youtu.be/oVLTWobYoRA
December 8, 2022
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I do believe people will remember this person hundreds of years in the future.
Sinead O'Connor- Chiquitita
https://youtu.be/iE3meFEZEyI
October 4, 2013
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I'm so pleased to learn that she still has it in her.
Sinead O'Connor- Nothing Compares 2U, Late, Late Show
https://youtu.be/5KuGUP-C9Ko
September 9, 2019
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She turned 14 on the day John Lennon was killed, and she died on the day Mick Jagger turned 80. A turning point in her life was being booed off stage at Bob Dylan's birthday ceremony at Madison square gardens. Thanks to Kris Kristofferson for going on stage and comforting her when they wanted him to get her off stage. He said to her, "Don't let those bastards get you down."
Here they are singing help Me Make It Through the Night together.
https://youtu.be/_5i_vF7DRA0
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I watched an excellent CNN documentary by Fareed Zakaria on Trump's belief in conspiracy theories- birtherism, qanon-sense, Obamagate as the biggest scandal in history, etc. They are all converging on the mother of all conspiracy theories... that the next election is a fraud.
If you think back, he tried that with the last one when he thought he was going to lose! He tried it with the popular vote, even after he won!
Maybe he'll win, but if not, remember that between 2000 and 2014 with over a billion votes cast they were only 31 instances of voter fraud. It's a federal offense and the fact that it could happen equally on either side makes it all but impossible to change election results. He may very well win a democratic election, but his conspiracy theories are a dangerous threat to democracy.
July 26, 2020
Postscript- it's not like I was clairvoyant, it was like reading a book.
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To the believers- for the sake of argument, say there is no God. Would you want to know?
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Dostoyevsky- "It's better to be unhappy and know the worst, and to be happy in a fool's paradise."
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Is popcorn a vegetable? Socrates Memes poll said 59% yes, 41% no.
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Holy mackerel, Rachel Maddow just used the word "vituperative" like it was nothing. For those without dictionaries at their fingertips that was a pretty vituperative move.
July 26, 2017
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At the beginning of karate class the kids stretch out. When they do the butterfly stretch the teacher asks where their butterfly is flying. Once Gretel said "to a haunted house party," which sounded awesome. Last week she said it was flying "into the mirror," which might have given some of the parents an existential crisis. Tonight I'll admit I'm a little disappointed. She said it's flying to, "teeth."
July 26, 2016
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I threw a bunch of old eggs out in my garden a few months ago. Today I raked the mulch and maybe ten or so of those eggs exploded. Somehow they were still intact. The whole neighborhood smelled like sulfer for the afternoon and I think I attracted every fly within a mile radius. So if you live in Lancaster and noticed no flies today, you're welcome.
July 26, 2015
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I had a daydream that Carl Jung would have been 140 years old today. What does it mean???
“On my way to school [at 11 years old], I stepped out of a mist and I knew I am. I am what I am. And then I thought, ‘But what have I been before?’ And then I found that I had been in a mist, not knowing to differentiate myself from things; I was just one thing among many things.”
I remember this same moment in my life, do you?
There was a huge mass of ants on the sidewalk and I intentionally stepped right in the middle of them. I might have been 7 or 8. Looking at the ants roiling in agony I realized that I am something, and I'm part of something larger than myself.
Also, Jung might have been paraphrasing Popeye.
July 26, 2015
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Moe was a good cat, but he's gone. He was never understood by the other cats in the house, not even by his own mother (who made an unexpected, surprise appearance at his funeral, as if out of some soap opera.) Every single time over the last two years that I have worked on something around the house, I've gotten an odd sense that somebody was watching me... I looked around, and saw him trying to figure out what in the heck I was doing- a curious cat to be sure! We will miss him not sitting on the front porch, welcoming us home. And we will perhaps surprisingly miss his friendly-past-the-point-of-annoyance personality. The local mouse and songbird populations welcome this news. There is no telling how many happy homes he's destroyed with his carnage. He would have had it no other way.
July 26, 2014
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This quote from Black Like Me made me sick when I read it and has haunted me ever since:
"One of the smaller girls salivated so heavily the chocolate dribbled syrup-like from the corner of her mouth. Her mother wiped it off with her fingertip and unconsciously (from what yearning?) put it in her own mouth."
And I'll be damned if I didn't just do the same exact thing last night after I let Gretel suck on a blueberry popsicle!
July 26, 2014
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I have a job ad on craigslist. This is what an applicant responded:
"you need driver? i best. 50 states. i know Illegal. i know Gay. Policeman approve Me. i drive far away, no sleep. muscle man. lift My own weight. You already hire me. start now." Convinced it's fake, I asked him to send a resume. This is what he responded: "mr Ben you ask what i know have. know Professer, Worker. Driver. best Driver. i show you. look for Orcganic and meet. then you see. then you hire."
Haha, good one... wish I knew who's messing with me.
July 26, 2013
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I agree with Carl Jung that “Man cannot stand a meaningless life.” So if there's no inherent meaning, it's up to us to create the meaning. Perhaps my favorite intellectual truth.
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Homage to John Ford on South Park!
July 26, 2012
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To all the Cuban revolutionaries on my friends list- Happy Revolution Day!
July 26, 2010
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I hope eating watermelon seeds isn't actually bad for you cause I just ate tens of thousands.
July 26, 2009
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On this day in 1861, George B. McClellan assumed command of the Army of the Potomac following the disastrous Union defeat at the First Battle of Bull Run.
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On this day in 1948, Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9981, desegregating the military of the United States.
On this day in 1953, Fidel Castro lead an unsuccessful attack on the Moncada Barracks, thus beginning the Cuban Revolution. The movement became known as The 26th of July Movement.
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Night of the Hunter was released on this day in 1955, the only film directed by Charles Laughton.
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Apollo 15 was launched on this day in 1971, first Apollo mission with a lunar roving vehicle.
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Carl Jung was indeed born on this day in 1875.
"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people. It would help you to have a personal insight into the secrets of the human soul. Otherwise everything remains a clever intellectual trick, consisting of empty words and leading to empty talk."
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Novelist and philosopher, Aldous Huxley, was born in 1894. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad."
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James Best was born on this day in 1926. Everybody knows him for chasing those Duke boys, but I also liked him in Sam Fuller's Shock Corridor.
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Stanley Kubrick was born on this day in 1929.
Interviewer: If life is so purposeless, do you feel it’s worth living?
Kubrick: The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism — and their assumption of immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But, if he’s reasonably strong — and lucky — he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death — however mutable man may be able to make them — our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.
Here's a picture he took early in his career:
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Marty Bystrom was born on this day in 1958. He was 22 years old when he was called up in September of 1980 and went 5-0 to help the Phillies clinch the division by one game. They went on to win their first World Series in franchise history. No Marty Bystrom, no 1980 World Championship Phillies? Quite possibly.
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The incomparable Darlene Love, was born on this day in 1941. He's a Rebel, one of the quintessential oldies:
See the way he walks down the street
Watch the way he shuffles his feet
My, he holds his head up high
When he goes walking by, he's my guy
When he holds my hand, I'm so proud
'Cause he's not just one of the crowd
My baby's always the one to try the things they've never done
And just because of that, they say
"He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good
He's a rebel 'cause he never ever does what he should"
But just because he doesn't do what everybody else does
That's no reason why I can't give him all my love
He's always good to me, always treats me tenderly
'Cause he's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no, to me
If they don't like him that way
They won't like me after today
I'll be standing right by his side when they say
"He's a rebel and he'll never ever be any good
He's a rebel 'cause he never ever does what he should"
Just because he doesn't do what everybody else does
That's no reason why we can't share our love
He's always good to me, good to him, I try to be
'Cause he's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no, to me
Oh, he's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no,
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
He's not a rebel, oh, no, no, no
Damn that song captures the spirit of the time! I wasn't even alive then, but I somehow know what it was like.
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Mick Jagger was born on this day in 1943, perhaps as his father was fighting the Nazis. So many Rolling Stones songs get stuck in my head. Quite a presence in the world. Who would we be without him?
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Other notable deathdays- Eva Perón (1952), Sam Houston (1863), William Jennings Bryan (1925)
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Playwright George Bernard Shaw left us on this day in 1856.
"Dancing is a perpendicular expression of a horizontal desire."
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Photographer, Diane Arbus, left us on this day in 1971.
If they look familiar to you, you likely have Stanley Kubrick to thank. Arbus was an inspiration.
No idea who her inspiration was. Maybe...
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Serial Killer, Ed Gein, died on this day in 1984. Werner Herzog and Errol Morris had a bit of a feud over his hometown of Plainfield, Wisconsin. Morris wanted to film a movie there, but Herzog beat him to it and filmed Strozceck there.
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Olivia de Havilland left us on this day in 2020 at the age of 104.
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From Errol Morris's Gates of Heaven: "There's your dog; your dog's dead. But where's the thing that made it move? It had to be something, didn't it?"
July 26, 2014
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Onion headline- Lifeguard Would Save Drowning Man, But Who Is He To Play God?
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Martin Luther King, Letter From a Birmingham Jail
"The Negro's greatest stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice."
Endlessly applicable
July 26, 2014
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10 Short Rules For a Better Life, From the Stoics
9. Focus on what you can control
"The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own..." -Epictetus
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Jung again- "You must go in quest of yourself, and you will find yourself again only in the simple and forgotten things. Why not go into the forest for a time, literally ? Sometimes a tree tells you more than can be read in books… "
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I often think about the guy who took the award-winning picture of the kingfisher diving for the fish. It took him 720,000 pictures until he got the perfect one.
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I'm at work and just clicked on a YouTube video so I could save it to watch it later... It was about what Hitler's plans were for the United States if he won World War II... It started, "Hitler's plans for a master race..." And I'm very glad that nobody walked into my office at that exact moment!
July 26, 2023
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Someone posted on Marginal Mennonite Society: "Mustard seeds are in fact not the smallest of all seeds. Orchid seeds are. Discuss."
Jesus said that the mustard seed, "is indeed smaller than all the other seeds." So he's wrong, and the Bible should not be taken for literal truth. Same as with all religions, legends, literature, films, and all art, if somebody can take something positive away from a story, even though it is not literally true, and it adds something to their life, great.
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Pythagoras- "Physical matter is music solidified"
Diagram of the harmonic series above, and a shell below.
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Johnny Cash:
“I'd love to wear a rainbow every day
And tell the world that everything's okay
But I'll try to carry off a little darkness on my back
'Til things are brighter, I'm the man in black.”
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Aldous Huxley- "Man is so intelligent that he feels impelled to invent theories to account for what happens in the world. Unfortunately, he is not quite intelligent enough, in most cases, to find correct explanations. So that when he acts on his theories, he behaves very often like a lunatic.”
Jung- "If there is a fear of falling, the only safety consists of deliberately jumping."
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Henry Miller, My Bike & Other Friends- "Political leaders are never leaders. For leaders we have to look to the Awakeners! Lao Tse, Buddha, Socrates, Jesus, Milarepa, Gurdjiev, Krishnamurti.”
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Peter Kropotkin- "Competition is the law of the jungle, but cooperation is the law of civilization.”
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John Prine- "I still love america. I just don't know how to get there anymore."
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Neil deGrasse Tyson- "If your Personal Beliefs deny what's objectively true about the world, then they're more accurately called Personal Delusions."
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George Bernard Shaw, again- “Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
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Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere- "He was no longer quite sure whether anything he had ever thought or felt was truly his own property, or whether his thoughts were merely a common part of the world’s store of ideas which had always existed ready-made and which people only borrowed, like books from a library."
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