Holding Nothing Back

To be a good father means to offer everything, holding nothing back; to protect without suffocating; to pardon without asking anything in return; to wait patiently and trustingly.  It means following the example of the "Good Father" who is in heaven.  May God bless all fathers!

-- Pope Francis, via Twitter as @Pontifex, 19 March 2021

ACA Still Stands

[W]e conclude that the plaintiffs in this suit failed to show a concrete, particularized injury fairly traceable to the defendants' conduct in enforcing the specific statutory provision they attack as unconstitutional.  They have failed to show that they have standing to attack as unconstitutional the Act's minimum essential coverage provision.  Therefore, we reverse the Fifth Circuit's judgment in respect to standing, vacate the judgment, and remand the case with instructions to dismiss.

It is so ordered.

-- Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the 7-2 Supreme Court majority in California v Texas, which challenged the constitutionality of the zeroed-out tax mandate provision of the Affordable Care Act, upholding Obamacare for a third time, 17 June 2021

Juneteenth National Independence Day Act

S. 475 -- AN ACT To amend title 5, United States Code, to designate Juneteenth National Independence Day as a legal public holiday.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the "Juneteenth National Independence Day Act".

SEC. 2. JUNETEENTH NATIONAL INDEPENDENCE DAY AS A LEGAL PUBLIC HOLIDAY.

Section 6103(a) of title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to Memorial Day the following:

" Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19.".

-- Text of Senate Bill S. 475, which passed the Senate June 15, 2021 and awaits President Biden's signature

A Decent Living

We find our population suffering from old inequalities, little changed by vast sporadic remedies.  In spite of our efforts and in spite of our talk, we have not weeded out the over privileged and we have not effectively lifted up the underprivileged.  Both of these manifestations of injustice have retarded happiness.  No wise man has any intention of destroying what is known as the profit motive; because by the profit motive we mean the right by work to earn a decent livelihood for ourselves and for our families.

We have, however, a clear mandate from the people, that Americans must forswear that conception of the acquisition of wealth which, through excessive profits, creates undue private power over private affairs and, to our misfortune, over public affairs as well.  In building toward this end we do not destroy ambition, nor do we seek to divide our wealth into equal shares on stated occasions.  We continue to recognize the greater ability of some to earn more than others.  But we do assert that the ambition of the individual to obtain for him and his a proper security, a reasonable leisure, and a decent living throughout life, is an ambition to be preferred to the appetite for great wealth and great power.

-- Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882 - 1945),  American statesman and political leader who served as the President of the United States from 1933, to 1945, Second State of the Union Address (4 January 1935)

Some Other Nonsense

If every trace of any single religion were wiped out and nothing were passed on, it would never be created exactly that way again.  There might be some other nonsense in its place, but not that exact nonsense.  If all of science were wiped out, it would still be true and someone would find a way to figure it all out again.

-- Penn Fraser Jillette (1955 -), American magician, scientific skeptic, actor, musician, inventor, television presenter, and author, best known for his work with fellow magician Teller as half of the team Penn & Teller, God, No!: Signs You May Already Be an Atheist and Other Magical Tales, p. 129 (2011)

Reopening

* Upon entering Phase 5, fully vaccinated people can resume activities without wearing a mask except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

* Under Phase 5, all sectors of the economy can resume at regular capacity.  Phase 5 also marks the return of traditional conventions, festivals, and large events without capacity restrictions.  Large gatherings of all sizes can resume across all industry settings, and Phase 5 removes requirements that businesses institute mandatory social distancing in seated venues as well as daily health screenings of employees and visitors.

* All unvaccinated persons should wear face coverings in crowded settings, both indoors and outdoors, especially when youth are present. See CDC guidance for further information.

-- New guidance from the Illinois Department of Public Health, as Illinois today enters Phase 5 (Reopening) of the pandemic, 11 June 2021

Cardinal Method

The cardinal method with faults is to overgrow them and choke them out with virtues.

-- John Bascom (1827 - 1911), professor of rhetoric at Williams College from 1855 to 1874, and president of the University of Wisconsin from 1874 to 1887, quoted in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), p. 213

Old Man

I'm not afraid of growing old.  I'm not sure that I'll ever be an old man.  Maybe in the chronological sense -- but that's all.

-- Solomon "Sol" Kerzner (1935 -), South African accountant and business magnate, "The Miniature Minotaur" by Jani Allan, from the Just Jani column of the Sunday Times (1980s), republished in Face Value by Jani Allan (1983)

Films For The Blind

All I have to do is make you see this.  This one particular thing here.  That's all.  And sometimes it's impossible.  Sometimes, I know the best odds I can hope for are a thousand to one.  You'll see what you see, what your life has conditioned you to see upon encountering that combination of words, not what I want or need you to see.  Fiction writing is like making films for the blind.

-- Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (1964 -), Irish-born American author, paleontologist, and prolific blogger, blog entry at Unfit for Mass Consumption : The Online Journal of a Construct Sometimes Known as Caitlín R. Kiernan (Caitlín R. Kiernan's LiveJournal), 19 January 2005

Meta 40

Meta.  It occurred to me the other day that the 40th anniversary of the first Trvth note (on the CERL PLATO system, while I was working as a GS-9 Programmer for the Department of Defense at Chanute Air Force Base, Rantoul, IL (3330th Tech Training Wing)) was at hand.  I recollected it being May 1981, but a check of the archives shows a February 1981 entry as the first.

Anyway, 40 years.  In July 2019 I counted 5450 ish published, and it's been about 500 more since then, so now 6000 ish published.  The most recent 3500 ish (with titles that aren't "trvth", and images for each) are at trvth.org

***** appearances ~appleman / chanute ~2/24/1981 ~13:50
While nothing may seem to be as it first appears, there
are in fact some things which appear to be as they are,
amidst the other things which only appear to be as they
aren't.

It's For Them

The primary issue is how seriously we take our chosen obligations to people in the developing world who do not have Internet connections. ...  Frankly, and let me be blunt, Wikipedia as a readable product is not for us.  It's for them.  It's for that girl in Africa who can save the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around her, but only if she's empowered with the knowledge to do so.

-- Jimmy Donal "Jimbo" Wales (7 August 1966 -), British-American Internet entrepreneur and wiki pioneer who is most famous as one of the founders of Wikipedia, an international collaborative free content encyclopedia on the Internet, and the Wikimedia Foundation, Foundation-l mailing list (23 October 2005)

Cannot Stay Silent

As we leave high school we need to make our voices heard.  I was going to get up here and talk to you about TV and content and media because those are things that are very important to me.  However, in light of recent events, it feels wrong to talk about anything but what is currently affecting me and millions of other women in this state.

Recently the heartbeat bill was passed in Texas.  Starting in September, there will be a ban on abortions that take place after 6 weeks of pregnancy, regardless of whether the pregnancy was a result of rape or incest.  6 weeks.  Most women don't even realize they're pregnant by then.  And so, before they have the time to decide if they are emotionally, physically, and financially stable enough to carry out a full-term pregnancy, before they have the chance to decide if they can take on the responsibility of bringing another human into the world, the decision has been made for them by a stranger.  A decision that will affect the rest of their lives.

I have dreams, hopes, and ambitions.  Every girl here does.  We have spent our whole lives working towards our futures, and without our consent or input, our control over our futures has been stripped away from us.  I am terrified that if my contraceptives fail me, that if I'm raped, then my hopes and efforts and dreams for myself will no longer be relevant.  I hope you can feel how gut-wrenching it is, how dehumanizing it is, to have the autonomy over your own body taken from you.

And I'm talking about this today, on a day as important as this, on a day honoring the students' efforts in twelve years of schooling, on a day where we're all brought together, on a day where you will be the most inclined to hear a voice like mine, a woman's voice, to tell you that this is a problem.  A problem that can't wait.  I refuse to give up this platform to promote complacency and peace, when there is a war on my body and a war on my rights.  A war on the rights of your sisters, a war on the rights of your mothers, a war on the rights of your daughters.

We cannot stay silent.

-- Paxton Smith, Lake Highlands High School Valedictory Address, Dallas, TX, 30 May 2021

Bony, Labyrinthean Cave

Within a bony labyrinthean cave,
Reached by the pulse of the aerial wave,
This sibyl, sweet, and Mystic Sense is found,
Muse, that presides o'er all the Powers of Sound.

-- Abraham Coles (1813 - 1891), American physician, translator, author, Man, the Microcosm; and the Cosmos, p. 51 

[Today your humble narrator got hearing aids for the first time.  And just like that, I can see the leaves on the trees.]

I Felt Safe

I'm a survivor of the Tulsa Race Massacre.  Two weeks ago, I celebrated my 107th birthday.  

On May 31, of '21, I went to bed in my family's home in Greenwood.  I felt safe.  I had everything a child could need.  I had a bright future.

Within a few hours, all of that was gone.

I will never forget the violence of the White mob when we left our home.  I still see Black men being shot, Black bodies lying in the street.  I still smell smoke and see fire.  I still see Black businesses being burned.  I still hear airplanes flying overhead.  I hear the screams.

I have lived through the massacre every day.  Our country may forget this history, but I cannot.  I will not.  And other survivors do not.  And our descendants do not.

-- Viola Fletcher (5 May 1914 -), speaking to members of a House Judiciary subcommittee about one of the worst episodes of racial violence in U.S. history, 19 May 2021

Not Just One

As we set today aside to honor and thank our veterans, let us be mindful that we should do this every day of the year and not just one.

-- Beth Pennington

Nothing More

When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of the Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism, (probably mis-) attributed

Second Rate

And here's the reality that we have to face: If the conservative cause depends on the populist appeal of one personality, or on second-rate imitations, then we're not going anywhere.  Voters looking for Republican leaders want to see independence and mettle.

They will not be impressed by the sight of "yes men" and flatterers flocking to Mar-a-Lago.

-- Former House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, in the first in a series of addresses the Reagan Library will host this year on the future of the GOP, 27 May 2021

Suspicions Well Founded

And of even greater importance to this decision, the affidavits are so inconsistent with evidence in the record, they are not worthy of credence.  The review of the unredacted document in camera reveals that the suspicions voiced by the judge in EPIC and the plaintiff here were well-founded, and that not only was the Attorney General being disingenuous then, but DOJ has been disingenuous to this Court with respect to the existence of a decision-making process that should be shielded by the deliberative process privilege.  The agency's redactions and incomplete explanations obfuscate the true purpose of the memorandum, and the excised portions belie the notion that it fell to the Attorney General to make a prosecution decision or that any such decision was on the table at any time.

There is also a problem with the "pre" portion of "pre-decisional."

-- US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, in a ruling (recently appealed) ordering the Department of Justice to release an Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memo that DOJ asserts was legal advice used to support AG William Barr's summary for Congress of the Mueller Report.  Emails in evidence show the OLC memo was in fact completed after the Congressional summary, and written by some of the same people.  3 May 2021

My Advice

I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.

-- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694 - 1773), British statesman and man of letters, Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774), entry for 5 February 1750

A Song, A Poem

Anything I can sing, I call a song.  Anything I can't sing, I call a poem.

-- Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman on 24 May 1941), American folk and rock singer-songwriter, and 2016 Nobel laureate in Literature, Liner notes, The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan (1963)

The Rock

A new analysis of 1,300 films released from 2007 to 2019 found that just 5.9 percent of speaking characters were Asian or Pacific Islander.  Of the 1,300 films, just 44 had a lead or co-lead actor who was API, and in just six of them that lead or co-lead was a woman.  In fact, in 14 of the 44 films where the lead actor was API, that actor was Dwayne Johnson. 

-- Nancy Wang Yuen, Stacy L. Smith, Katherine Pieper, Marc Choueiti, Kevin Yao and Dana Dinh, in a report from the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, via Numlock News: May 21, 2021

Get The Answers

I recognize there are differing views on this issue, which is an inherent part of the legislative process and not something I take personally.

However, as the Republican leader of the Homeland Security Committee, I feel a deep obligation to get the answers U.S. Capitol Police and Americans deserve and ensure an attack on the heart of our democracy never happens again.

-- Representative John Katko (R-NY), who was authorized by Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to negotiate a bipartisan deal "to establish the National Commission to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol Complex, and for other purposes."  The bill easily passed the House with support from 35 Republicans, despite McCarthy's refusal to support the deal, 18 May 2021

Cocksure Ignorance

Education is man's going forward from cocksure ignorance to thoughtful uncertainty.

-- Kenneth G. Johnson, as cited in Michigan Education Journal, Volumes 36-37, page 285 (1958)

Skiing And Thinking

It is better to go skiing and think of God, than to go to church and think of sport.

-- Fridtjof Nansen (1861 - 1930), Norwegian explorer, scientist, diplomat, humanitarian, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, and champion skier as a youth, quoted in The New Yorker 86: p. 56. (15 March 2010)

Clarified

All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.

-- Thomas Henry Huxley PC FRS HonFRSE FLS (1825 - 1895), English biologist and anthropologist specialising in comparative anatomy, Lecture "On the Study of Biology" (1876) at South Kensington Museum, London, published in Collected Essays, vol 3, 1893

Perfect Encapsulation

Fascinated by how the behavior of the people who took 3 pieces of pizza at the pizza party because they thought it would run out and the people who took 1 piece for the exact same reason is such a perfect encapsulation of American beliefs about community.

-- Spencer, tweeting as @NobleSpencer, 12 May 2021

American Renewal

Alongside dozens of prominent Republicans, ex-Republicans and independents, we are announcing "A Call for American Renewal," a nationwide rallying cry against extremist elements within the GOP, and highlighting the urgent need for a new, common-sense coalition.

We urge fellow Americans to join us.

We will not wait forever for the GOP to clean up its act.  If we cannot save the Republican Party from itself, we will help save America from extremist elements in the Republican Party.

America cannot have just one party committed to preservation of its democratic institutions.  There must be at least two, if not more.

We still hope for a healthy, thriving Republican Party, but we are no longer holding our breath.

-- Former Representative Charlie Dent (R-PA), G W Bush Transportation Secretary Mary Peters, former Representative Denver Riggleman (R-VA), Former Chairman of the Republican National Committee Michael Steele, and former Governor Christine Todd Whitman (R-NJ), "The GOP has lost its way.  Fellow Americans, join our new alliance", Washington Post, 13 May 2021

Remaining Silent

Remaining silent and ignoring the lie, emboldens the liar.

-- Former House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming, quoted by Alex Woodward in "Liz Cheney denounces Trump on eve of GOP vote", The Independent, 11 May 2021

Purpose Of Aphorisms

The purpose of aphorisms is to keep fools who have memorized them from having nothing to say.

-- Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992), Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, In Memory Yet Green (1979), p. 188

A Cult

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been.  The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

-- Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992), Russian-born American biochemist who was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, "A Cult of Ignorance", Newsweek (21 January 1980)

Laughed

Men have been Laughed out of Faults which a Sermon could not reform.

-- Francis Hutcheson (8 August 1694 - 8 August 1746), Irish philosopher, The Dublin Weekly Journal, No. 12 (19 June 1725)

History Is Watching

The Republican Party is at a turning point, and Republicans must decide whether we are going to choose truth and fidelity to the Constitution.  In the immediate wake of the violence of Jan. 6, almost all of us knew the gravity and the cause of what had just happened -- we had witnessed it firsthand.

I am a conservative Republican, and the most conservative of conservative values is reverence for the rule of law.  Each of us swears an oath before God to uphold our Constitution.  The electoral college has spoken.  More than 60 state and federal courts, including multiple Trump-appointed judges, have rejected the former president's arguments, and refused to overturn election results.  That is the rule of law; that is our constitutional system for resolving claims of election fraud.

History is watching.  Our children are watching.  We must be brave enough to defend the basic principles that underpin and protect our freedom and our democratic process.  I am committed to doing that, no matter what the short-term political consequences might be.

-- House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney of Wyoming, "The GOP is at a turning point. History is watching us", Washington Post, 5 May 2021

Plot Twist

Since turning 60 a couple of years ago I've had a retirement plan targeted at age 68, six years from now, retiring with 16 years pension credit at the University of Illinois, on top of 26 years of existing credit with Social Security.  The university has been hit hard by costs related to the pandemic, and they're aiming to cut long-term employees with a cash incentive for those already eligible to retire.  As it happens, I'm eligible to repurchase 4 years pension credit from past employment at the Beckman Institute, the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and 40 years ago when I worked on the PLATO computer system.  For me, the incentive is pretty much the same as the cost to repurchase that pension credit.  By retiring and taking my pension now, I'll be making more in 6 years than if I waited and retired in 6 years.

As a result of this arithmetic, I will be retiring from the university on July 1st of this year, at age 62.  I'll need to make some money to supplement my retirement, and to delay taking Social Security for a while.  Over the next 6 years, I plan to greatly expand my martial arts practice in Monticello.  I didn't expect an opportunity to reinvent myself at this point in my life, but I'm happy to give it a try.

Today is my birthday, and my last day, June 30th, is 8 weeks from today.

Prayer For Artists

Our idea, which art in the ether, that cannot be named:
Thy vision come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is an abstraction.
Give us this day our daily spark and forgive our criticisms,
as we forgive those who critique against us.
And lead us not into stagnation, but deliver us from ego,
for thine is the vision, the power, and the glory forever.  
Amen.

-- Nina Paley (3 May 1968 -), American cartoonist, animator, and free culture activist, most famous for her film Sita Sings the Blues, "Nina Paley's Prayer for Artists (2018)"

2020 Census

2020 Census

Census Day was April 1, 2020

Population

331,449,281 U.S. Resident Population

93.8 Population per square mile of land area

7.4 Percent increase of population from 2010 to 2020

50 Number of States

-- Top-line numbers from the 2020 decennial census

Worthwhile

It's always worthwhile to make others aware of their worth.

-- Malcolm Stevenson Forbes (1919 - 1990), American businessman, and the publisher of Forbes magazine, as quoted by T. Duncan in Wealth Strategies: 9 1/2 steps to achieving physical, financial, and Spiritual abundance (2000) p. 196

Madame Speaker, Madame Vice President

Madame Speaker.  Madame Vice President.  No president has ever said those words from this podium.  No president has ever said those words, and it's about time.

The First Lady, I am her husband.  The Second Gentleman, Mr. Chief Justice, Members of the United States Congress and the Cabinet -- and distinguished guests.

My fellow Americans, ....

-- President Joe Biden, in the opening remarks of his first Presidential address to Congress, 28 April 2021

RIP Michael Collins

The thing I remember most is the view of planet Earth from a great distance.  Tiny.  Very shiny.  Blue and white.  Bright.  Beautiful.  Serene and fragile.

-- Michael Collins (31 October 1930 - 28 April 2021), American astronaut who flew the Apollo 11 command module Columbia around the Moon in 1969 while his crewmates, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, made the first crewed landing on the surface, quoted by NPR, Apollo 11 Astronaut Michael Collins Dies, 28 April 2021

Mechanized Barbarians

It is impossible to understand the American public without taking into account the tremendous psychological effect of bringing up a generation of people in a daily environment of advertising.  It is impossible to escape the advertising man; his sales talk assaults us in the morning newspaper, in the street car, with billboards along the highways, and in his shameless use of the radio.  This means that from morning till night, in the midst of our work as in our recreation, we live constantly in an atmosphere of intellectual shoddiness.  Every popular prejudice and vulgar conceit is played upon and pandered to in the interests of salesmanship.  Everywhere material interests and herd opinion are strengthened to the loss of personal independence.  The tendency is to think and speak for effect rather than out of one's inner life.  There is a marked decline the ability to play with ideas, or to live the spiritual life for its own sake.  Hence a decline in civilization of interest, humor, and urbanity.  Advertising tends to make mechanized barbarians of us all.

-- Everett Dean Martin (1880 - 1941), American minister, writer, and advocate of adult education, The Conflict of the Individual and the Mass in the Modern World (1932), pp. 29-30

Equal Before The Law, But

We are all equal before the law, but not before those appointed to apply it.

-- Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909 - 1966), Polish poet and aphorist

I try not to repeat myself at trvth.org, so I often do a little checking before posting.  Since 2005, I've used quotations from Stanisław Lec only twice.  I noticed this while preparing Friday's Trvth.  The above Trvth from April 2008 seems particularly appropriate still in April 2021.

Joint Reality

All of our separate fictions add up to joint reality.

-- Stanisław Jerzy Lec (1909 - 1966), Polish poet and aphorist, Unkempt Thoughts (1957), as translated by Jacek Galazka (1962)

Extraordinary Possibilities

The countries that take decisive action now to create the industries of the future will be the ones that reap the economic benefits of the clean energy boom that's coming.

We have to move.  We have to move quickly to meet these challenges.  The steps our countries take between now and Glasgow will set the world up for success to protect livelihoods around the world and keep global warming at a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius.  We must get on the path now in order to do that. 

If we do, we'll breathe easier, literally and figuratively; we'll create good jobs here at home for millions of Americans; and lay a strong foundation for growth for the future.  And that can be your goal as well.  This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a moment of peril but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities. 

-- Remarks by President Biden at the Virtual Leaders Summit on Climate Opening Session, 22 April 2021

Mutual Disposition

[I]f we do not learn to sacrifice small differences of opinion, we can never act together.  Every man cannot have his way in all things.  If his own opinion prevails at some times, he should acquiesce on seeing that of others preponderate at others.  Without this mutual disposition we are disjointed individuals, but not a society. 

-- Thomas Jefferson (1743 - 1826), third president of the United States (1801-1809), letter to John Dickinson (23 July 1801), published in The Works of Thomas Jefferson in Twelve Volumes, Federal Edition, Paul Leicester Ford, ed., New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1904, Vol. 9, pp. 280-282

A Noble Profession

Policing is a noble profession, and it is a profession.  You met several Minneapolis police officers during this trial.  You met them.  They took the stand, and they testified.  Make no mistake, this is not a prosecution of the police, it is a prosecution of the defendant, and there's nothing worse for good police than a bad police who doesn't follow the rules, who doesn't follow procedure, who doesn't follow training, who ignores the policies of the department, the motto of the department to protect with courage, to serve with compassion.

-- Prosecution attorney Steve Schleicher in his closing statement in Derek Chauvin's trial for the murder of George Floyd, 19 April 2021

Ingenuity

We upload the commands we want to run, and then we die inside for hours waiting to learn what happened.  Then, when all the data comes back, we frantically get online and look at it to make sure that everything went the way we wanted it to go.

-- Ingenuity lead operations manager Tim Canham, discussing the Ingenuity helicopter, which made history early Monday when the small but intrepid drone became the first powered craft to fly on another world, Wall Street Journal, 19 April 2021

Climate Of Opinion

Professor Whitehead has recently restored a seventeenth century phrase -- "climate of opinion."  The phrase is much needed.  Whether arguments command assent or not depends less upon the logic that conveys them than upon the climate of opinion in which they are sustained.

-- Carl Lotus Becker (1873 - 1945), American historian of early American intellectual history and on the Enlightenment, The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-century Philosophers (1932)

We Think We Know

It is what we think we know that keeps us from learning.

-- Chester Irving Barnard (1886 - 1961), American business executive and public administrator, as attributed in: Brand, Richard A. "Hypothesis-based research", Journal of Orthopaedic & Sports Physical Therapy 28.2 (1998): 71-73

Longest War

I'm now the fourth United States President to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan: two Republicans, two Democrats.  I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth.

After consulting closely with our allies and partners, with our military leaders and intelligence personnel, with our diplomats and our development experts, with the Congress and the Vice President, as well as with Mr. Ghani and many others around the world, I have concluded that it's time to end America's longest war. ...

We went to Afghanistan because of a horrific attack that happened 20 years ago.  That cannot explain why we should remain there in 2021. 

War in Afghanistan was never meant to be a multi-generational undertaking. ...  And it’s time to end the forever war. 

-- Remarks by President Biden on the Way Forward in Afghanistan, 14 April, 2021

Not Governing

[I]f you aren't making news, you aren't governing.

-- Florida Republican Representative Matt Gaetz (1982 -), Firebrand (2020), stating a basic political premise of his which appears to be the opposite of true

Cho Dan Student

On Saturday afternoon I watched from the sidelines as my most advanced Taekwondo student successfully tested for Black Belt.  It was nerve wracking, but awesome.  This 13-year-old is the first student I've taken all the way from White Belt to Black Belt, a journey of about three years.