On Patriotism
By · Comments“Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.”
Government today doesn’t need my loyalty; it needs my patriotism.
Just ’cause the president says it, don’t make it so.
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On Making Sure to Check Your Gratitude
By · Comments“Don’t go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first”
And while your at it, give the world your thanks for loaning you some ground to walk around on and air to breath. And be nice to the world while your here; after your gone, someone else will be using it (that’s right, it isn’t all about you).
On Palm Springs at the El Rancho
By · Comments“It used to be a good hotel, but that proves nothing – I used to be a good boy.”
I’d bet if I behave myself, this old place might still be a good hotel.
For more insight into the El Rancho, follow along with The Traveler’s Palm Springs and Coachella Valley travelogue at http://www.touristtravel.com/blog
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On Living and Learning
By · Comments“The man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he know too little”
And at 48, I feel youthful optimism begin to turn color, like a leaf in autumn. There is something a little melancholy about it, but more interesting nonetheless.
Ignorance is not always bliss, and a pessimist is simply an optimist that knows too much.
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On Congressional Hearings
By · Comments“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”
I’m sorry Senator, I don’t recall that either…
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On Why It Seems We’ve Been Here Before
By · Comments“It is not worth while to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.”
It is a question philosophers have debated for millennia; is history a straight line or does humanity run around in circles. Mark Twain, being our American Philosopher, addressed that question too. And judging from what’s happend in the world since he wrote these words, it would seem as if he got it right.
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Mark Twain on Four Years of War in Iraq
By · Comments“Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
Cheap lies become “faulty intelligence” and any reasonable doubt of ensuing policy – the call for war – is ascribed as sedition, “a validation of the enemy” – nothing short of treason.
When a nation justifies immoral acts through a self-proclaimed moral justification, too easily it becomes the truth that is the enemy, and to whom treason has been committed. Self-deception on the grandest scale.
Four years later, down the rabbit hole we have ventured, and none can find a way out.
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On Staying Organized
By · Comments“Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else; this is not advice, it is merely custom.”
Now, where did I put my keys?
On Taking Responsibility for Your Own Opinion
By · Comments“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
Having an opinion is one thing; having an informed opinion is hard work
On the Growing Scandal Surrounding Alberto Gonzales
By · Comments“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Is it then time for Mr. Gonzales to be truthful?
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