Happy Halloween 2024

Happy Halloween!  

We had good weather this year, a little windy with temperatures in the upper fifties during Trick Or Treat time.  I had a good turnout, with 106 trick-or-treaters stopping by my house this evening.  My youngest daughter decorated the house, and kids and grandkids had a good time.  

I hope you all did as well.

Not Entirely True

I've made some things for you, Constant Reader; you see them laid out before you in the moonlight.  But before you look at the little handcrafted treasures I have for sale, let's talk about them for a bit, shall we?  It won't take long.  Here, sit down beside me.  And do come a little closer.  I don't bite.

Except ... we've known each other for a very long time, and I suspect you know that's not entirely true.

Is it?

-- Stephen King (1947 -), American author and screenwriter, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, Introduction (2015)

All Hallows' Eve

And it was the afternoon of Halloween.

And all the houses shut against a cool wind.

And the town full of cold sunlight.

But suddenly, the day was gone.

Night came out from under each tree and spread.

Behind the doors of all the houses there was a scurry of mouse feet, muted cries, flickerings of light.

Behind one door, Tom Skelton, aged thirteen, stopped and listened.

The wind outside nested in each tree, prowled the sidewalks in invisible treads like unseen cats.

Tom Skelton shivered.  Anyone could see that the wind was a special wind this night, and the darkness took on a special feel because it was All Hallows' Eve.  Everything seemed cut from soft black velvet or gold or orange velvet.  

-- Ray Bradbury (1920 - 2012), The Halloween Tree (1972) pgs 1-2

The Witches Fly

The witches fly
Across the sky,
The owls go,"Who? Who? Who?"

And the black cats yowl
And the green ghosts howl,
Scary Halloween boo!

-- Nina Willis Walter (1900 - 1977), American author and poet, in: Jill Bialosky History of a Suicide: My Sister's Unfinished Life (2012), p 104

Alienation

Without alienation, there can be no politics.

-- Arthur Asher Miller (1915 - 2005), American playwright, essayist, and author, Marxism Today (January 1988)

1,451 Days

It has been 1,451 days since the last presidential election and in that time there has been an attack by Trump supporters on the capitol, a botched withdrawal from a 20-year war, the end of Roe v Wade, decade-high levels of inflation, the growing crisis at the border, war in Europe and the Middle East, multiple assassination attempts, and the decision of the incumbent president to withdraw from the campaign.  Now, in eleven days, Americans will select the president for the first time since all of that happened.  

-- Galen Druke, in the introduction to the 538 Politics Podcast "The Most Valuable Data Point" (24 October 2024)

Power

VOTE, n. The instrument and symbol of a freeman's power to make a fool of himself and a wreck of his country.

-- Ambrose Bierce (1842 - ~1914), American short story writer, journalist, and poet, The Devil's Dictionary (1948), p. 359. Originally published in 1906 as The Cynic's Word Book

No Right Is More Precious

No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.  Other rights, even the most basic, are illusory if the right to vote is undermined.  Our Constitution leaves no room for classification of people in a way that unnecessarily abridges this right.

-- Hugo Black (1886 - 1971), American politician and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Majority opinion in Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1 (1964), at 17-18 on the right to vote as the foundation of democracy

Congratulations, David

Congratulations to my Taekwondo student, David, age 12, who successfully tested for Black Belt this Saturday. It was satisfying to watch as he performed his Black Belt test with its 10 forms, 30 different kicks (4 times each), and 17 pre-arranged sparring combinations, plus free-sparring against his fellow Black Belt candidates.

He's enthusiastic to continue the journey.

It's Interesting

When presented with options it's interesting to see what choices the people make.

-- Roger Willis Mitchell, Sr., Trooper Tales: Plus Other Bizarre, Odd and Funny Stories (2003), p. 30

Choice

Choice consists of the mental process of judging the merits of multiple options and selecting one of them.  While a choice can be made between imagined options ("what would I do if ...?"), often a choice is made between real options, and followed by the corresponding action.

-- Definition of "Choice" provided in WikiQuote's page of quotes on "Choice"

Nostalgia

Nostalgia -- because everything about the past is perfect, except how it led to the present.

-- Homer Simpson, attributed

Nobler Art

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is a nobler art of leaving things undone.  The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

-- Lin Yutang (1895 - 1976), Chinese writer and translator, The Importance of Living (1937) p. 162

We Do Not Need

We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.

-- Eugene McCarthy (1916 - 2005) American politician, poet, and 22-year member of the US Congress (D-MN), The New York Times (11 December 2005)

Limitless

We are not just guides; we are trailblazers.  Let this be a call to every Sherpa to see the dignity in our work, the power in our heritage, and the limitless possibilities in our future.

-- Nima Rinji Sherpa, 18, standing atop Tibet's Mount Shishapangma as the youngest person to have scaled all 14 mountains that the International Mountaineering and Climbing Federation (UIAA) recognises as more than 8,000 metres above sea level, 9 October 2024.  The previous record holder is Mingma Gyabu 'David' Sherpa, who achieved it at the age of 30 in 2019

Forgive Me My Nonsense

Forgive me my nonsense as I also forgive the nonsense of those who think they talk sense.

-- Robert Frost (1874 - 1963), American poet and winner of four Pulitzer Prizes, Letter to Louis Untermeyer (7 August 1915)

Underlying Purpose

The underlying purpose of AI is to allow wealth to access skill while removing from the skilled the ability to access wealth.

-- Joseph Browning via Facebook (10 July 2024) cited by jeffowski on Mastodon & Twitter

Early Autumn

It was autumn, and he always liked autumn.  Something about early autumn, when the leaves began to flee before a northern breeze and the days shortened, gave an extra edge to existence.

-- Brian Aldiss (1925 - 2017), English writer of general fiction and science fiction, "Steppenpferd", Fantasy & Science Fiction magazine (February 2000)

Your Experience Of Me

I see you, and you see me.  I experience you, and you experience me.  I see your behaviour.  You see my behaviour.  But I do not and never have and never will see your experience of me.  Just as you cannot "see" my experience of you.

-- Ronald David (R.D.) Laing (7 October 1927 - 23 August 1989), Scottish psychiatrist who wrote on mental illness and the experience of psychosis, The Politics of Experience (1967) Chapter 1 : Experience as evidence

All The Colors Of Poetry

All the colours of poetry, however splendid, can never paint natural objects in such a manner as to make the description be taken for a real landscape.  The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation.

-- David Hume (1711 - 1776), Scottish philosopher, historian, economist, and essayist, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748)

The Answer To That Question

The defendant asserts that he is immune from prosecution for his criminal scheme to overturn the 2020 presidential election because, he claims, it entailed official conduct.  Not so.  Although the defendant was the incumbent President during the charged conspiracies, his scheme was fundamentally a private one.  Working with a team of private co-conspirators, the defendant acted as a candidate when he pursued multiple criminal means to disrupt, through fraud and deceit, the government function by which votes are collected and counted -- a function in which the defendant, as President, had no official role.  In Trump v. United States, 144 S. Ct. 2312 (2024), the Supreme Court held that presidents are immune from prosecution for certain official conduct -- including the defendant’s use of the Justice Department in furtherance of his scheme, as was alleged in the original indictment -- and remanded to this Court to determine whether the remaining allegations against the defendant are immunized.  The answer to that question is no.

-- Special Counsel Jack Smith, in the opening paragraph of his 165-page filing in United States of America v Donald J. Trump, 2 October 2024

And Only Then

[F]or many women, their pregnancy was unintended, unexpected, and often unknown until well after the embryonic heartbeat began.  Yet that's too late under the LIFE Act's strictures: these women are now forbidden from undoing that life-altering change of circumstances -- before they even knew the change had occurred.

For these women, the liberty of privacy means that they alone should choose whether they serve as human incubators for the five months leading up to viability.  It is not for a legislator, a judge, or a Commander from The Handmaid's Tale to tell these women what to do with their bodies during this period when the fetus cannot survive outside the womb any more so than society could -- or should -- force them to serve as a human tissue bank or to give up a kidney for the benefit of another.  Considering the compelling record evidence about the physical, mental, and emotional impact of unwanted pregnancies on the women who are forced by law to carry them to term (as well as on their other living children), the Court finds that, until the pregnancy is viable, a woman's right to make decisions about her body and her health remains private and protected, i.e., remains her business and her business alone.  When someone other than the pregnant woman is able to sustain the fetus, then -- and only then -- should those other voices have a say in the discussion about the decisions the pregnant woman makes concerning her body and what is growing within it.

-- Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert C.I. McBurney, deciding SisterSong Women Of Color Reproductive Justice Collective, et al v State of Georgia in favor of the plaintiff, ruling that Section 4 of the LIFE Act is unconstitutional and unenforceable

HBD, Jimmy Carter

I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president.

-- Former President Jimmy Carter (1 October 1924 -), who turned 100 years old today, Cited by The Independent "Presidents’ Day: What America’s leaders did next after leaving the White House" The Independent (London, 21 February 2022).  Interview with reporters, as quoted in "Carter condemns abortion culture" The Washington Times (3 November 2005)