A Neatly Stacked Pile of Old Gravestones and the Incomprehensible Future

We visited the graves of some ancestors today- my kids' 5x great-grandparents, Francis and Catherine Kiehl who lived in the mid-1800's. 

Something that stuck with me- the giant pile of old graves stacked neatly in the far back corner. The cemetery must have been abandoned for years at some point. Many of the graves that were standing had been broken in half and repaired at some point. 

The Lititz Airport is nearby and there were planes flying overhead, one after another. The modern world might be as incomprehensible to them as the year 2200 will be to us. 

Or maybe they would still be on their farms living mostly the way they did back then, the way that many do.

November 21, 2021

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The beginning and end of the fraud charade in a nutshell is that the Democrats simply could not have had the ability to win the presidential election through fraud, while simultaneously unable to win the Senate, while losing seats in the House.

If we can accept that simple truth, then the only possible answer for the president's current strategy is that he wants to subvert the will of the voters, which in itself would be the greatest election fraud in the history of the United States.

In fact, the ATTEMPT could be the greatest election fraud in the history of the United States.

November 21, 2020

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What a succinct history lesson, perfectly describing how we got to this moment!

To realize how far we've strayed from the ideals of the founders, reflect on the fact that only one in three of us can even name the three branches of government and among the two-thirds that can't, we can include the newly elected senator from Alabama. (And I thought it was bad if a supreme court nominee couldn't name the five rights guaranteed by the First Amendment.)

Sad that this brilliant, critical history lesson seems destined to fall on the deaf ears of those who need to understand it the most.

Heather Cox Richardson: https://www.facebook.com/241446929332714/posts/pfbid07NQFHJZpBTEVFhn8T45ootL6BTRNgWT75fm8nk3T6SLvT2PYsgpgNrdEAR8yXwjyl

November 21, 2020

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I've always hated the saying, "whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger." You know why? Because of its nonchalant attitude toward the things that do kill us! I just nearly played the soul out of my body at racquetball and someone mentioned it. Yes, sure, but if I played the littlest bit harder I would have actually killed myself. That's not something to be commended!

"Maybe don't do things that are likely to kill you," that's my saying.

November 21, 2019

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You know what group of Republicans might be better at running the country than the current corrupt bunch? All those who testified over the last two weeks. I'm sure I disagree with them on policy, but at least they aren't self-dealers. Disagreeing on policy at this point seems almost quaint, versus disagreeing on basic human decency. 

( I think at this point I can make the contrary case- witch hunt, total exoneration, hoax, nothing to do with Russia, jobs, not good.)

November 21, 2019

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Great news! Coal turned the economy around so much it's time to deregulate the banks and cut taxes on the rich by $1 trillion. And with Christmas coming up, and all the naughty people out there, I'm investing in COAL!

November 21, 2017

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The president- "Let me just tell you, Roy Moore denies it. That's all I can say. He denies it. By the way, he totally denies it."

That's all he can say? Well that's enough I guess. To paraphrase him- "Sexual assault on a teenager is not as bad as being a Democrat. Vote Roy Moore."

November 21, 2017

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Purell kills 99.99% of germs. Instead I wish it said "Only 1 in 10,000 germs left unharmed!" We must have at least 10,000 germs every square millimeter, right? So we'd still have 1 every square millimeter- we're still covered in the filthy buggers. Let's accept the things we can not change.

November 21, 2011

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I'm letting my new blind cat explore the house today. She was down in the basement for a half hour and came up covered in cobwebs and dust. She's only been here one day and she's already chipped in to help clean up!

November 21, 2010

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The Danish astronomer Ole Rømer presented the first calculation of the speed of light on this day in 1676. 

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On this day in 1905, Albert Einstein's first published E = mc², in the journal Annalen der Physik.

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Piltdown Man's skull was revealed to be a hoax on this day in 1953.

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Come a Little Bit Closer by Jay and the Americans topped out at number 3 on the charts on this day 1964.

https://youtu.be/nRU38XbX6Xw

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The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election was held on this day in 2004, giving rise to massive protests and controversy over the election's integrity. Can't imagine who might have been behind that.

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A little baby Voltaire joined the world on this day in 1694. 

"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world."

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The wonderful Helen, of Bollywood fame, was born on this day in 1938. She was in over 1000 films spanning 70 years! I've watched this video at least a million of its 11 million views. Sung by Lata Magneshkar.

Is Duniya Mein Jeena Ho To, from Gumnaam

https://youtu.be/tKodgq-1TgY

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Björk joined us on this day in 1965!

Sugarcubes- Hit

This wasn't supposed to happen

I was happy by myself

Accidentally you seduced me

I'm in love again

I lie in my bed, totally still

My eyes wide open, I'm in rapture

I don't believe this, I'm in love again

This wasn't supposed to happen

I've been hit with your charm

How could you do this to me?

I'm in love again

I lie in my bed, totally still

My eyes wide open, I'm in rapture

I don't believe this, I'm in love again

This wasn't supposed to happen

This wasn't supposed to happen

Ég og hann, ég og hann við segjum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

Ég og hann, ég og hann við segjum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

A small story which never happened

I said ouch! This really hurts

That can't be this has been

Practiced for millions of years

Therefore we are

Yes, but I, I'm a boy

A small story which always happens

I said ouch! This really hurts

This could well be

But this has

Been practiced for millions of years

Therefore we are

Yes, but, you're a girl

I lie in my bed, totally still

My eyes wide open, I'm in rapture

I don't believe this, I'm in love again

This wasn't supposed to happen

I lie in my bed, totally still

My eyes wide open, I'm in rapture

You've put a seed inside me

And while you're away

It's growing silently

Starts in my stomach (to be a life)

Embraces my insides

And about to reach my heart

This wasn't supposed to happen

This wasn't supposed to happen

Ég og hann, ég og hann við segjum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

Ég og hann, ég og hann við bítum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

This really hurts

Ég og hann, ég og hann við bítum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

Ég og hann, ég og hann við bítum

Ég og hann, ég og hann við finnum til

...

Stan "The Man" Musial was born on this day in 1920.

"I consciously memorized the speed at which every pitcher in the league threw his fastball, curve, and slider; then, I'd pick up the speed of the ball in the first thirty feet of its flight and knew how it would move once it had crossed the plate."

"When a pitcher's throwing a spitball, don't worry and don't complain, just hit the dry side like I do."

Bob Costas- "He didn't hit a homer in his last at-bat; he hit a single. He didn't hit in 56 straight games. He married his high school sweetheart and stayed married to her, never married a Marilyn Monroe. He didn't play with the sheer joy and style that goes alongside Willie Mays' name. None of those easy things are there to associate with Stan Musial. All Musial represents is more than two decades of sustained excellence and complete decency as a human being."

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Ken Griffey Jr. was born on this day in 1969.

"The other guys, all they have to do is use their big butts and big python arms to hit homers. Me, I'm the little guy in the group. People always root for the little guy."

Here he is robbing Juan Gonzalez of a home run.

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Of all the ridiculously is our baseball facts, this is one near the top- Ken Griffey Jr is not the best outfielder born on November 21st in Donora, Pennsylvania. Stan Musial was also born in Donora, Pennsylvania.

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English actor, author, and illustrator, Quentin Crisp, left us on this day in 1999. 

"When I told the people of Northern Ireland that I was an atheist, a woman in the audience stood up and said, 'Yes, but is it the God of the Catholics or the God of the Protestants in whom you don't believe?"

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Ayaan Hirsi Ali- On Leaving Islam

I just finished one of the best books I've read in a while- Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel. This passage about leaving Islam is just so beautifully written, so clear-sighted, eloquent, and brave. You might have heard about the Dutch filmmaker, Theo van Gogh, who was killed because he directed a short film written by her, about her experiences with Islam. Not only was he killed... and this is gruesome... his murderer stabbed a letter to his chest. It was addressed to her. Do you know what that means? It means she has something important to say!

.

I had no one to talk to about this. One night in that Greek hotel I looked in the mirror and said out loud, “I don’t believe in God.” I said it slowly, enunciating it carefully, in Somali. And I felt relief.

It felt right. There was no pain, but a real clarity. The long process of seeing the flaws in my belief structure and carefully tiptoeing around the frayed edges as parts of it were torn out, piece by piece–that was all over. The angels, watching from my shoulders; the mental tension about having sex without marriage, and drinking alcohol, and not observing any religious obligations–they were gone. The ever-present prospect of hellfire lifted, and my horizon seemed broader. God, Satan, angels: these were all figments of human imagination. From now on I could step firmly on the ground that was under my feet and navigate based on my own reason and self-respect. My moral compass was within myself, not in the pages of a sacred book.

When we got back from Corfu, I began going to museums. I needed to see ruins and mummies and old dead people, to look at the reality of the bones and to absorb the realization that, when I die, I will become just a bunch of bones. I was on a psychological mission to accept living without a God, which means accepting that I give my life its own meaning. I was looking for a deeper sense of morality. In Islam you are Allah’s slave: you submit, and thus, ideally, you are devoid of personal will. You are not a free individual. You behave well because you fear Hell; you have no personal ethic. If God meant only that which is good, and Satan that which is evil, then both were in me. I wanted to develop the good side of me- discipline, generosity, love- and suppress the bad side: anger, envy, laziness, cruelty.

I didn’t want more imaginary guides telling me what to do, but I needed to believe I was still moral. Now I read the works of the great thinkers of the Enlightenment- Spinoza, Locke, Kant, Mill, Voltaire- and the modern ones, Russell and Popper, with my full attention, not just as a class assignment. All life is problem solving, Popper says. There are no absolutes; progress comes through critical thought. Popper admired Kant and Spinoza but criticized them when he felt their arguments were weak. I wanted to be like Popper: free of constraint, recognizing greatness but unafraid to detect its flaws.

Three hundred and fifty years ago, when Europe was still steeped in religious dogma and thinkers were persecuted- just as they are today in the Muslim world- Spinoza was clear-minded and fearless. He was the first modern European to state clearly that the world is not ordained by a separate God. Nature created itself, Spinoza said. Reason, not obedience, should guide our lives. Though it took centuries to crumble, the entire ossified cage of European hierarchy- from kings to serfs, and between mean and women, all of it shored up by the Catholic Church- was destroyed by this thought.

Now, surely, it was Islam’s turn to be tested.

Humans themselves are a source of good and evil, I thought. We must think for ourselves; we are responsible for our own morality. I arrived at the conclusion that I couldn’t be honest with others unless I was honest with myself. I wanted to comply with the goals of religion, which are to be a better and more generous person, without suppressing my will and forcing it to obey inhuman rules. I would no longer lie, to myself or others. I had had enough of lying. I was no longer afraid of the Hereafter.

November 21, 2015

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One of my favorite quotes- "Keep an open mind, but not so open that your brains fall out." But who said it?

http://www.skeptic.com/insight/open-mind-brains-fall-out-maxim-adage-aphorism/

November 21, 2015

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Richard Dawkins Foundation For Reason and Science- The Jew/Atheist Paradox

"When I recently wrote about Godless Jews, I cited a Harris survey that surprised a lot of people. The majority of Jews don’t believe in God. They are atheists. What makes this result even more interesting is another finding in a Pew Research Center survey on how Americans feel about different religious and nonreligious groups: Jews are viewed the most warmly of all groups and atheists the least warmly. Go figure!"

http://ow.ly/UOlvb

November 21, 2015

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PBS News Hour- How does the refugee vetting process work?

Seems like important basic info to know...

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/how-does-the-refugee-vetting-process-work

November 21, 2015

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Politico- Leading Trump Census pick causes alarm

Huh!

"The Trump administration is leaning toward naming Thomas Brunell, a Texas professor with no government experience to the top operational job at the U.S. Census Bureau."

He "is the author of a 2008 book titled “Redistricting and Representation: Why Competitive Elections Are Bad for America.”"

http://politi.co/2zXG4aL

November 21, 2017

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McSweeney's- QUIZ: ARE YOU THE WORST FUCKING PARENT? by KRISTEN MULROONEY

This is the loudest I laughed at anything in a while! The juxtaposition of those two reasons for someone to be a terrible parent should be remembered for a hundred years.

-You fed your toddler hot dogs. Don’t you know what hot dogs are made of? PIG ANUSES.

-You let your toddler go without dinner because they refused to eat anything but pig anuses.

https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/quiz-are-you-the-worst-fucking-parent

November 21, 2020

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I made this palindrome:

God, now I'm a banana. BAM! I won, dog.

That is the top of my ability.

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Edgar Allen Poe- "Every poem should remind the reader that they are going to die."

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Crisp, again- "Life was a funny thing that happened to me on the way to the grave."

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Steven Wright- "Why is it, when a door is open it’s ajar, but when a jar is open, it’s not a door?"

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Vonnegut, Timequake- "Extenuating circumstance to be mentioned on Judgment Day: We never asked to be born in the first place."

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Sagan- "But the fact that some geniuses were laughed at does not imply that all who are laughed at are geniuses. They laughed at Columbus, they laughed at Fulton, they laughed at the Wright brothers. But they also laughed at Bozo the Clown."

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Bertrand Russell- “There's a Bible on that shelf there. I keep it next to Voltaire – poison and antidote.“