Arrogance Of Power

Power tends to confuse itself with virtue and a great nation is particularly susceptible to the idea that its power is a sign of God's favor, conferring upon it a special responsibility for other nations -- to make them richer and happier and wiser, to remake them, that is, in its own shining image.  Power confuses itself with virtue and tends also to take itself for omnipotence.  Once imbued with the idea of a mission, a great nation easily assumes that it has the means as well as the duty to do God's work.

I do not think that America's greatness is questioned in the world, and I certainly do not think that strident behavior is the best way for a nation to prove its greatness.  Indeed, in nations -- as in individuals -- bellicosity is a mark of weakness and self-doubt rather than of strength and self-assurance.

-- J. William Fulbright (1905 - 1995), American politician, academic, and statesman, US Senator from Arkansas from 1945 until 1974, The Arrogance of Power (1966)

Lifeguard Redux

Yesterday, for perhaps the last time, I got recertified as a lifeguard with the Red Cross.  Since it was a recertification, there was very little new training.  It was a brief review, followed by testing out in Water Rescue, First Aid, CPR, and AED.  

We started at 8:00 AM and finished just before 4:00 PM, including 3 1/2 hours in the water or on the pool deck demonstrating individual skills and team rescues.  

The training was hosted by the University of Illinois at their Activities & Recreation Center.  The other three trainees are lifeguards for the university, and we all managed to work pretty well together.  I'm pretty sure I'm old enough to be grandfather to any of them.

I'll be 67 in May and certification is good for 2 years, so I have time to decide whether to go through it one more time (when I'll be 69) and stay certified into my early 70s.

Truly Respectable

No government, any more than an individual, will long be respected without being truly respectable; nor be truly respectable without possessing a certain portion of order and stability.

-- Alexander Hamilton (1755 or 1757 - 1804), Founding Father of the United States, one of the most influential interpreters and promoters of the U.S. Constitution, Federalist No. 62 (26 February 1788)

If You Know

Three steps:  1) Accept what is.  2) Deliver "excellent best" right now.  3) Never quit; win it in the late innings. ...  If you know what's true but do not let that guide you, then you get what you deserve.

-- Robert Forster (1941 - 2019), American actor and TNS member, speaking to a crowd at ggg999, the General Global Gathering of the Triple Nine Society (1 September 2012)

From Whatever Source

One should accept the truth from whatever source it proceeds.

-- Moshe ben Maimon (1135 or 1138 - 1204), commonly known as Moses Maimonides, Jewish rabbi, physician, and philosopher, Foreword to The Eight Chapters Of Maimonides On Ethics, translated by Joseph I. Gorfinkle, Ph.D. (1912), Page 35-36

RIP Robert Mueller

You really don't think about it as you go through it; you just try to do the right thing at the right time.

-- Robert Swan Mueller III (7 August 1944 - 20 March 2026), American attorney who served as the 6th Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 2001 to 2013 and in 2017 as Special Counsel investigating Russian interference in the 2016 US elections and related matters, interview with Aaron Harber (2015)

Goodhart's Law

When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

-- Goodhart's law, named for Charles Albert Eric Goodhart, CBE, FBA (born 23 October 1936), British economist, originally (1975) expressed as "Any observed statistical regularity will tend to collapse once pressure is placed upon it for control purposes."