Things To Be Measured

As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn’t measure up. 

-- Terence David John "Terry" Pratchett, OBE (1948 - 2015), English humorist, satirist, and author of fantasy novels, Night Watch (2002) p. 250

We Turn It

Nothing ever ends poetically.  It ends and we turn it into poetry.  All that blood was never once beautiful.  It was just red.

-- Kait Rokowski, as quoted in by Ahsia in "Letters To Reality" (2020)

Demolition Derby

Violence isn't chess at ninety miles per hour.  It's demolition derby.  And just like demolition derby, it's the driver with the most forward momentum who usually wins.

-- Tim Larkin, "When Violence Is The Answer" (2017) Chapter 3 "Mindset Matters Most" p. 80

RIP Harry Belafonte

My social and political interests are part of my career.  I cannot separate them.  My songs reflect the human condition.  The role of art isn't just to show life as it is, but to show life as it should be.

-- Harry Belafonte (1 March 1927 - 25 April 2023), Jamaican-American singer, songwriter, activist, and actor, "Pass The Torch: Harry Belafonte" at DVRepublic (2005)

Less Than The Price

The cost of liberty is less than the price of repression.

-- William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (1868 - 1963), American civil rights activist, sociologist, and author, John Brown: A Biography (1909): "The Legacy of John Brown"

Who Swings It

The tool of violence doesn't care who's in the right when it gets picked up, it only cares who swings it best.

-- Tim Larkin, "When Violence Is The Answer" (2017) Chapter 5 "When Violence Isn't The Answer" p. 110

The Price

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour.

-- Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (1452 - 1519), Italian Renaissance painter, architect, inventor, engineer, sculptor, and musician, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci (1883) XIX Philosophical Maxims, Morals, Polemics, and Speculations

Haidong Gumdo

White Belt again

This past weekend I took advantage of an opportunity to learn Haidong Gumdo, Korean swordsmanship.  Our instructor was Grandmaster Jeong-Ho Kim, who traveled here from South Korea for the occasion.  The students were seven Taekwondo Black belts who are instructors of Taekwondo.  We met for 3 hours Friday, 3 more hours Saturday, and another 5 hours on Sunday.  This was enough time to be introduced to all of the basic movements and stances, plus a few forms (although only 2 of us attended all 11 hours of instruction).

Grandmaster Kim will return roughly every six months to review our progress and teach us more material.  Ultimately, in a couple of years this training will lead to certification as instructors of Haidong Gumdo.  

The picture shows me, 3rd from the right, with Grandmaster Kim on my right, and my Taekwondo Master Instructor Grandmaster Namsoo Hyong on his right, in the middle.  This should be fun.

Alternate Universe

The truth matters.  Lies have consequences.  The truth does not know red or blue.  People across the political spectrum can and should disagree on issues, even of the most profound importance.  But for our democracy to endure for another 250 years ... we must share a commitment to facts.

Over two years ago, a torrent of lies swept Dominion and election officials across America into an alternate universe of conspiracy theories, causing grievous harm to Dominion and the country.

-- Justin Nelson, lawyer for Dominion Voting Systems, in a statement after the company settled its defamation suit against Fox New Corp for $787,500,000, 18 April 2023

Fast Or Slow

In martial arts, speed is not the true Way.  As far as speed is concerned, the question of fast or slow in anything derives from failure to harmonize with the rhythm. ...

The performance of an expert seems relaxed but does not leave any gaps.  The actions of trained people do not seem rushed.  The principle of the Way can be known from these illustrations.

-- Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 - 1645), famous Japanese swordsman, believed to have been one of the most skilled swordsmen in history, The Book of Five Rings (1644), Wind p. 86

Properly Balanced

A properly balanced sword is the most versatile weapon for close quarters ever devised.  Pistols and guns are all offense, no defense; close on him fast and a man with a gun can't shoot, he has to stop you before you reach him.  Close on a man carrying a blade and you'll be spitted like a roast pigeon -- unless you have a blade and can use it better than he can.

-- Robert Anson Heinlein (1907 - 1988), one of the most popular, influential, and controversial authors of science fiction of the 20th Century, in Glory Road (1963), Ch. 15

Except By Stealth

Those who aim at faultless regularity will only produce mediocrity, and no one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830), English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, "Thoughts on Taste", Edinburgh Magazine (July 1819), final paragraph

Not What Will Redeem

When you hate, you generate a reciprocal hate.  When individuals hate each other, the harm is finite; but when great groups of nations hate each other the harm may be infinite and absolute.  Do not fall back upon the thought that those whom you hate deserve to be hated.  I do not know whether anybody deserves to be hated, but I do know that hatred of those whom we believe to be evil is not what will redeem mankind. 

-- Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 - 1970), British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, and social critic; 1950 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Human Society in Ethics and Politics (1954), Part 1. Ethics, Ch. VI: Scientific Technique and the Future, p. 271

Amarillo Division

CONCLUSION

For the foregoing reasons, the Court GRANTS the Motion IN PART.  FDA's approval of mifepristone is hereby STAYED.  The Court STAYS the applicability of this opinion and order for seven (7) days to allow the federal government time to seek emergency relief from the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

SO ORDERED.
April 7, 2023

-- US District Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk granting the plaintiffs motion for a stay in Alliance For Hippocratic Medicine, et al., v U.S. Food And Drug Administration, 7 April 2023

Meta Nonsense Warning

As you may know, our Community Guidelines describe the boundaries for what we allow -- and don't allow -- on Blogger.  Your post titled "Deep Throat" was flagged to us for review.  This post was put behind a warning for readers because it contains sensitive content; the post is visible at http://blog.trvth.org/2005/06/deep-throat.html.  Your blog readers must acknowledge the warning before being able to read the post/blog.

We apply warning messages to posts that contain sensitive content. If you are interested in having the status reviewed, please update the content to adhere to Blogger's Community Guidelines. Once the content is updated, you may republish it at [redacted]. 

This will trigger a review of the post.

Sincerely, 
The Blogger Team

-- Email I received this week from Blogger regarding my 1 June 2005 Trvth post which refers to Bob Woodward's inside source for his book "All the President's Men"; perhaps this post will receive the same (clearly automated) restriction?

Most Fairly Distributed

Of all things, good sense is the most fairly distributed: everyone thinks he is so well supplied with it that even those who are the hardest to satisfy in every other respect never desire more of it than they already have.

-- René Descartes (1596 - 1650), French philosopher, mathematician, physicist and writer, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One's Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences (1637)

Thirty-First

After thorough debates across their whole societies and with large parliamentary majorities supporting the decision, Finland and Sweden simultaneously handed their official letters of application to join NATO over to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on 18 May 2022.  NATO Heads of State and Government extended an invitation to Finland and Sweden to join the Alliance at the Madrid Summit on 29 June 2022.  The accession protocols for both countries were signed on 5 July 2022 after completion of accession talks.  The protocols must now be ratified by all Allies, according to their national procedures.  

As of 4 April 2023, Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO and the NATO PA.

As it has done with past accessions, the NATO PA is monitoring and encouraging prompt ratification of Sweden's accession in Allied parliaments.

-- NATO Parliament Assembly on Ratification of Finland and Sweden's Accession to NATO, updated 4 April 2023

You Can Lead

I cannot determine what will define my time in this place.  But I do hope I have demonstrated something else entirely.  That you can be anxious, sensitive, kind and wear your heart on your sleeve.  You can be a mother, or not, an ex-Mormon, or not, a nerd, a crier, a hugger -- you can be all of these things, and not only can you be here -- you can lead.

Just like me.

-- Outgoing New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaking to parliament in her final address, 5 April 2023

A True Bill

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
-against-
DONALD J. TRUMP,
Defendant.

THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF NEW YORK, by this indictment, accuses the defendant of the crime of FALSIFYING BUSINESS RECORDS IN THE FIRST DEGREE, in violation of Penal Law §175.10, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of New York and elsewhere, on or about February 14, 2017, with intent to defraud and intent to commit another crime and aid and conceal the commission thereof, made and caused a false entry in the business records of an enterprise, to wit, an invoice from Michael Cohen dated February 14, 2017, marked as a record of the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, and kept and maintained by the Trump Organization.

-- Count 1 of 34 in New York State's felony indictment of former President Donald Trump, unsealed 4 April 2023

Bulwark Of Our Liberties

Times change but principles endure. The jury has protected us from the abuse of power.  While human government exists the tendency to abuse power will remain. This system, coming down from former generations crowned with the honors of age, is today and for the future our hope.  Let us correct its defects with kindly hands, let us purge it of its imperfections and it will be, as in the past, the bulwark of our liberties.

-- William Jennings Bryan (1860 - 1925), American lawyer, statesman, and politician, "The Jury System", delivered in response to a toast at a bar association banquet in Lincoln, Nebraska (February 1890)