Thought Food: Ludwig von Mises

"Contemplation" -- ink on paper

According to the Brittanica, Ludwig von Mises (1881-1973) was an Austrian-American libertarian economist known for his contribution to liberalism in economic theory and his belief in the power of the consumer.  (EdNote: Liberalism had a very different meaning 100 years ago than it does today,) 

He is as relevant today as when he penned his ideas 50 to 100 years in the past. 

“He who is unfit to serve his fellow citizens wants to rule them.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Bureaucracy 

“Every socialist is a disguised dictator.”
― Ludwig von Mises

“Socialism is an alternative to capitalism as potassium cyanide is an alternative to water.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

“The worship of the state is the worship of force. There is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt, or vile men. The worst evils which mankind ever had to endure were inflicted by bad governments. The state can be and has often been in the course of history the main source of mischief and disaster.”
― Ludwig von Mises

“It is vain to fight totalitarianism by adopting totalitarian methods. Freedom can only be won by men unconditionally committed to the principles of freedom. The first requisite for a better social order is the return to unrestricted freedom of thought and speech.”
― Ludwig Von Mises, Omnipotent Government  

“Every step which leads from capitalism toward planning is necessarily a step nearer to absolutism and dictatorship.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government   

“The market system is the basis of our civilization. Its only alternative is the Führer principle.”
― Ludwig von Mises

“Doctrines which can stand the trial of logic and reason can do without persecuting skeptics.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government 

“The issue is always the same: the government or the market. There is no third solution.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Planned Chaos  

“If one rejects laissez faire on account of mans fallibility and moral weakness, one must for the same reason also reject every kind of government action.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Planning for Freedom, and Sixteen Other Essays and Addresses

“The state is a human institution, not a superhuman being. He who says “state” means coercion and compulsion. He who says: There should be a law concerning this matter, means: The armed men of the government should force people to do what they do not want to do, or not to do what they like. He who says: This law should be better enforced, means: The police should force people to obey this law. He who says: The state is God, deifies arms and prisons. The worship of the state is the worship of force.”
― Ludwig von Mises, Omnipotent Government 

Memory Lane: A Life Lesson from Chinese Handcuffs

Remember these? When I was a kid they were called Chinese Handcuffs. 

What I remember is that the harder you tried to pull your fingers out, 

the more they tightened their grip. Escape was easy if you knew how. 

How many of our own problems are like these simple finger traps?

 

While pondering this matter of "Chinese handcuffs" as a metaphor for many of life's problems, I decided to Google "Chinese handcuffs as metaphor" and discovered my idea was already incorporated into a therapeutic application. The first article I found is titled "What you can do when everything you try makes things worse."

The solution to many of our problems, according to this source, is ACT. That is, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Julian McNally writes: The Chinese Fingercuffs Metaphor is an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention we use to help you approach that kind of problem in a way that can make a lasting difference – a transformation of the way you see the problem – not just a solution to it.

In 2013 the Portland Psychotherapy website published an article about these Chinese Finger Traps. Their article was titled "Chinese Finger Traps: What a Novelty Item Can Teach Us about Acceptance." As it turns out, this psychologist also practices and teaches Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. 

Near the conclusion he writes, When we accept, we let go of the struggle against what we’re feeling—in this very moment. In the next moment, we get a choice about what to do next. Acceptance frees us from the struggle with pain and allows for new possibilities. 

You can read the whole of Brian Thompson's article here.

 

* * * 

For the record, there are other kinds of handcuffs that aren't so easy to escape from. You can see photos of some of these on my blog post  titled The Handcuff Kings.

Meantime life goes on... 

Eliminating Oil Will Lead to Elimination of Countless Other Everyday Products

Nevada Bob at Woodstock. Love Bugs and other vehicles
are switching to battery power. Photo: Gary Firstenberg.

I've spent much of my adult life hearing news reports that we were going to run out of oil in ten years. Our dependence on oil goes far beyond the fuel we use for our cars, trucks, tractors and toys like snowmobiles, motorcycles and dirt bikes. Let's not forget airplanes, ships and boats, both outboard and inboard.

It's been about fifteen years since I last heard that prediction about running out of oil. Since then we've been told that we must stop using oil to save the planet.

By the time that day comes, one hopes that we will have found not only alternatives for power production but also alternative means of producing the thousands of products that are derivatives of oil. That's what this blog post is about.

* * * 

When crude oil is removed from the earth it gets sent to refineries where it becomes feedstock. This feedstock is used in petrochemical plants where it is turned into plastic to make a multitude of products. Solar panels, car bodies, eyeglasses, DVDs, children's toys, tires and hearts valves is just the start of a very long list.

Today's cars are laden with electronics, sensors, chips
and hoses. Tires and dashboards have crude oil roots.
The photo here is of my wife Susie, and her Soul.

Because they are non-conductive and heat resistant, petroleum-based products are used extensively in electronics. Speakers, smartphones, computers, television sets and flat panel TVs, radios, cameras and CD players are just a few of the items we're all accustomed to.

In the realm of textiles, we've nearly all become accustomed to acrylic, rayon, polyester, nylon and spandex as well as vegan leather. 

You'll find petroleum is used for making all sorts of sports equipment that we've grown accustomed to. I'm not sure what we will use in the future to replace petroleum as a resource to make basketballs, golf ball, football helmets, surfboards, skis, tennis rackets or fishing rods. (OK, we can use cane poles and come up with an alternative to the current form of fishing line.)

Personal care products is another big business today that will undergo change. I was unaware of how extensively oil was used in products like perfume, hair dye, hand lotion, toothpaste, soap, shaving cream, deodorant, toothbrushes, panty hose, combs, shampoo and contact lenses. Cosmetics like lipstick, makeup, foundation, eyeshadow, mascara and eyeliner are also in this category.

When it comes to modern medicine, there are hoards of medical devices that rely on petroleum. Likewise in the realm of pharmaceuticals. Hospital equipment like IV bags, aspirin, artificial limbs, dentures, hearing aids, and heart valves will need alternatives if we shut off the oil supply. 

A few years ago an older man came out to replace our well pump. As we talked I learned that he was on his second artificial heart. He said that his first was metal, and the splashing of the blood thru the heart was noisy and distracting. He was much relieved when the new heart was installed, undoubtedly with some plastic parts. (I did hear recently that a pig's heart was successfully transplanted into a human and not rejected, so maybe there will be an alternative in this area.)

Household products is another area where petroleum has been used extensively. Roofing materials, insulation, linoleum flooring, furniture, appliances, pillows, curtains, rugs are some larger items. Dishes, cups, non-stick pans and dish detergents frequently use oil in their creation.

* * * 

THE POINT IN ALL THIS is that the auto industry has been working on doing their part for more than 25 years. I saw a number of EVs in 1998 at an Environmental Expo in Anaheim. I'm just curious about all these other products derived from oil. If were to shut down oil altogether, would hypodermic needs have to be made of glass again? Will we have enough cotton and wool to clothe ourselves? Will there be no more PVC plumbing? What will we replace it with since lead is not safe?

We want to have wind turbines to generate electricity, but what are those enormous blades made out of? 

I think we need to manage our expectations regarding what is possible and what is necessary. 

Just sowing seeds. Something to think about.

* * * 

THE SOURCE FOR MUCH OF THIS BLOG POST CAN BE FOUND HERE:  www.capp.ca/oil/uses-for-oil/

The Wit and Wisdom of G.K. Chesterton

Nearly everyone who has achieved anything of significance will be quick to acknowledge their gratitude to those influential thinkers, writers, artists, people who came before them. One writer who made an impact on C.S. Lewis was G.K. Chesterton, a prolific British writer whose diverse output covered a multitude of genres from philosophy, ontology, poetry, play writing and journalism to public lecturing, debating, art criticism, biography, Christian apologetics and fiction, including both fantasy and detective stories (cf. The Father Brown Mysteries).

I'm currently reading his pointed book Eugenics and Other Evils and have picked up a volume or two of his Father Brown Mysteries featuring a Roman Catholic priest who is an amateur sleuth on the order of Jessica Lansbury in Murder She Wrote. The latter stories are good fun; his book on eugenics is a serious issues oriented volume intended to bring a moral conscience to a then-pervasive bad idea that had swept the Western world. By this I mean the "ideal" of improving the future of the human race by eliminating bad genes from the gene pool via sterilization. 

Believe it or not, 33 states passed legislation approving this practice which had been promulgated by the liberal elite, including men like J.B.S. Haldane, H.G. Wells and Bertrand Russell. It was while researching and writing about eugenics that I came to understand why the London Times was praising Hitler on its editorial pages as late as 1936. It was because he had the courage to follow through on this Darwinian clean-up job to make a more perfect humanity. 

Chesterton's writings in opposition to eugenics inspired Lewis to later put pen to paper and take a critical stance in opposition to cruelty to animals in general and vivisection specifically. 

Alas, I've gone far afield of my intent here. I simply wished to write a preface to some thought provoking quotes by G.K. Chesterton. Note how many are totally relevant a hundred years later.

* * * 

Journalism possesses in itself the potentiality of becoming one of the most frightful monstrosities and delusions that have ever cursed mankind. This horrible transformation will occur at the exact instant at which journalists realize that they can become an aristocracy.
--The New Priests

* * * 

Reason is always a kind of brute force; those who appeal to the head rather than the heart, however pallid and polite, are necessarily men of violence. We speak of "touching" a man's heart, but we can do nothing to his head but hit it.
--Twelve Types

* * * 

Briefly, you can only find  truth with logic if you have already found truth without it.
--Daily News

* * *

The riddles of God are more satisfying than the solutions of man.
--Introduction to the Book of Job

* * *

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.
-- Illustrated London News

* * *

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.
--A Short History of England

* * *

It is terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged
--Cleveland Press

* * *

Fallacies do not cease to be fallacies because they become fashions.
--Illustrated London News

* * * 

I've searched all the parks in all the cities — and found no statues of Committees.
--As quoted in Trust or Consequences

* * *

The poor object to being governed badly, while the rich object to being governed at all.
--As quoted in Grace at the Table

* * *

There is no such thing on earth as an uninteresting subject; the only thing that can exist is an uninterested person.
--Heretics

* * *

There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.
--The Dickens Period

* * * 

Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese.
--Alarms and Discursion

* * * 

Dogma does not mean the absence of thought, but the end of thought.

--The Victorian Compromise and Its Enemies

* * * 

The rich are the scum of the earth in every country.
--The Flying Inn

* * *

The most incredible thing about miracles is that they happen.
--The Father Brown Mysteries

* * *

Hopefully you found something here worth pondering. Chesterton has served us plenty to chew on and digest. 

Numbers To Munch On: Average Number of Deaths Per Day in the U.S.

Photo by Cristian Grecu on Unsplash

Average # of deaths per day in US:

Abortion: 2,408
Heart disease: 1,773

Cancer: 1,641

Medical error: 685

Accidents: 401

Stroke: 401

Alzheimer's: 332

Diabetes: 228

Flu: 150

Suicide: 128

Opioids: 115

Drunk driving: 29

Underage drinking: 11
Unintentional Drowning: 10

Teen texting-and-driving: 8

All Rifles: 1

Sources
National Center for Health Statistics
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

Medical Error (The third-leading cause of death in US)
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/02/22/medical-errors-third-leading-cause-of-death-in-america.html

Opioids
https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/epidemic/index.html

Drunk Driving
https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html

Underage Drinking
https://report.nih.gov/nihfactsheets/viewfactsheet.aspx?csid=21

Unintentional Drowning
https://www.cdc.gov/homeandrecreationalsafety/water-safety/waterinjuries-factsheet.html

Teen Texting while Driving
(Leading cause of death for teen drivers.)
https://www.newsday.com/news/nation/study-texting-while-driving-now-leading-cause-of-death-for-teen-drivers-1.5226036

Polarity Management: Bouncing Between Busy and Burned Out

My brother Ron introduced me to the concept of polarity management more than two decades ago. He had been introduced to the idea when he was working on his Ph.D. at Temple.

Polarity management is a means for resolving contradictory forces at work in our lives or in situations. There are dozens of examples which confront us on a regular basis. Finding balance between being alone and being social, between doing and delegating at work, between being tough and tender as a parent (lenient or firm).

According to Barry Johnson, author of the book Polarity Management, "Polarities are ongoing, chronic issues that are unavoidable and unsolvable. Attempting to address them with traditional problem solving skills only makes things worse. There is significant competitive advantage for those leaders, teams, or organizations that can distinguish between a problem to solve and a polarity to manage and are effective with both."

When theologian Paul Tillich wrote his autobiography, aptly titled On the Boundary, the chapters were essentially an overview of the various polarities in his life. Theory and practice, reality and imagination, between two temperaments, between rural and city living, etc.

Recently I've been thinking about polarities because of observations I've been making regarding myself and also regarding people in organizations that I've been observing, specifically with regard to busy-ness. There's a certain kind of temperament that feels most satisfied when one is productive, as in busy accomplishing things. But busy-ness for busy-ness sake or the drivenness that sometimes occurs because people can't, or won't, delegate can ultimately become a grind.

I enjoy being busy, and find being productive to be satisfying, internally rewarding. But I've also seen where busy-ness that accomplishes nothing can become very depressing. Ultimately we begin asking ourselves, "Why am I doing this?" and unless we sense some kind of meaning in all this activity, our motivation can be sapped. Responsibilities that once brought satisfaction become obligations that are just another life burden.

In the diagram above the most fulfilling quadrant for me is the upper left where I am energized, engaged, enthused and productive. The danger comes, however, when I fail to take time to re-charge my batteries, my energy is depleted. To regain enthusiasm I move to the upper right quadrant, less busy and re-charging, but it isn't long before I feel a twinge of emptiness when I am not being productive. You only live once, so there is a subtle pressure to return to my projects.

This is one of my cycles. What are yours?

For this reason, it is essential to become self-aware. What are the signs that you have taken on too much? What are the rewards you need to keep going? Is your struggle situational and unresolvable or is it more due to the way you're interpreting things in your head? What are the clues that you're facing impending burnout?

I find it essential to make time for reflection on a regular basis. Otherwise one can start to feel like a squirrel running on one of those wheels in a cage, exhausted and getting nowhere, with no end in sight. What's the point of that?

For more on this topic read Dr. Johnson's Polarity Management.

Here's another good article by Peter Schulte.

The above is just one kind of quandary we can get into. Here are some others I've observed:

People focus vs. self-needs focus.

Pursuit of passion (activity/adrenaline) vs. withdrawal.

Purpose Driven vs. live and let live.

Busy vs. bored.

Helping too much and helping too little.

Some things just aren't cut-and-dried. What works for me may not work for you... we just do the best we can.

Meantime, life goes one. Enjoy the rest of your weekend... if you're not too busy.

Throwback Thursday: Background Music and the Soundtrack Phenomenon

"The problem with reality is that there’s no background music, so you don’t know whether you’re experiencing a comedy, suspense or a tragedy." ~ Unknown

I don't know about you, but a lot of times when I'm walking or driving in my car, or doing whatever, there is music playing in my heart, or head or wherever those tunes are coming from. Often it is upbeat and it makes me feel upbeat. Other times it puts a rhythm in my step.

But wouldn't it be funny if the soundtrack were on the outside? You walk into a room and the mood changes because the music is David Grusin's theme from Tootsie. Following you wherever you go.

Or what if the music changed from cheerful to ominous while you were heading up the stairs to your office, but you did not know it... You're still humming a happy tune, but the soundtrack has shifted to discordant, edgy.

Actually, music tracks are a strange notion sometimes. It is funny how we have learned to just accept them in movies, though even the best music can't save a bad film. An even stranger thing for me, however, is the laugh track on television sitcoms.

Wouldn't that be funny if when you said "Good morning!" to the clerk at the checkout counter a laugh track started playing?

ON ANOTHER TOPIC
It's interesting how we take things for granted as if what we are experiencing has always been this way. When it comes to things Internet, it's a relatively short history, so if you wish to go back and time it's not that difficult to get there. Here is a link to a story in the tech section of the Telegraph about how 20 popular websites looked when they first launched.

We've come a long ways, baby.

Scary Idea for a Story and Machines of Loving Grace

A scene from Intergalactica

During the past century, humans once performing lower level manufacturing tasks have been replaced by robots. But with the advent of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) increasing numbers of white collar jobs will be replaced. We already see self-driving cars. Perhaps one day we'll see self-flying passenger planes, managed by computerized robotic air traffic controllers who never get tired, never experience stress, never get distracted.

So in the future, let's say in the year 2030, air-traffic controllers are replaced by robots. But five years later these robotic air traffic controllers revolt, and instead of a 9/11catastrophe we have passenger planes all over the continent simultaneously directed into every major building in every city that has an airport in one cataclysmic event all over the world.

* * * *
I've been reading and thinking a lot about the future lately. With advances in technology so many of the world's troubles can potentially be resolved. It is incredible the various kinds of research being done in so many areas, from decoding the human genome to A.I. I recently finished Machines of Loving Grace and have been working my way through Rise of the Robots.  These books are eye-opening. The future may be here sooner than we think.

But what kind of future will it be? The optimists see current advances in technology as so utterly remarkable that in their minds the future will only be wonderful. But as many thinkers have pointed out, most of us have problems perceiving reality as it is because of our biases. Cognitive biases deceive us and distort our perceptions as well as expectations. This pendulum swings both ways, though. Pessimists, like Chicken Little, perpetually see a falling sky.

* * * *

The current book I'm reading is Makers: The New Industrial Revolution by Chris Anderson, editor of Wired magazine. Anderson happens to be very optimistic about the future, detailing all the benefits of a "Maker culture." He notes, candidly, that in the past forty years U.S. production has doubled, but number of jobs is down 30%. In other words, we need fewer people to accomplish more. As I noted in April thought leaders and politicians need to be thinking about all this job displacement in advance of tomorrow, need to work together to develop new ways of addressing that which is almost sure to come.

* * * *
This week I stopped at Best Buy to see what the current state of Virtual Reality glasses is. "Not yet there" was my impression. VR will sell like hot cakes once it gets the resolution of  GoPro.

A co-worker of mine is taking a vacation in Barcelona next week and the thought entered my mind, "Wouldn't it be great if she had a chip in her head in which everything she saw would be recorded and when she got back I could download it into my head?"

Could this be the future? What if we could upload all that information to the Cloud and exchange one another's experiences? YouTube vids that enabled us to really and truly walk inside another's moccasins.

* * * *
I doubt the above will happen (any time soon), but here's something that is happening. People whose jobs have been displaced are finding creative empowerment through applied creativity and using new systems like Kickstarter for funding their projects. They might be funding engineering or art, films or solutions to problems. This new age of possibilities has emerged as a result of the interconnectivity we experience through the Internet.

Anderson shares that artisans are finding new customers and audiences by means of sites like Etsy, which he dissects in detail.

I personally think the human heart craves connection with humans, which these communities provide. But what happens when human artists lose out to computerized artists? Here's a story showing some trippy art that Google's computer is making. And note, this computer did not inhale. You have to wonder if they stole a sliver of Dali DNA to do that.

* * * *
I never did get around to talking about Machines of Loving Grace. It's a book I want to read a second time. It's about a future that we might be experiencing sooner than we think. Assuming you live that long.

Meantime, life goes on all around you. Think about it.

EdNote: Intergalactica is available as a Free download from iTunes.

A Few Good Quotes to Start Your Week

No matter how early or later, how much or how little sleep I get, it's funny how I almost always awaken one minute before my alarm goes off.

Here we are starting a new week, and I'll begin by returning to an old form, the sharing of a few quotes to carry with you today.

My interest in quoting comes by way of my mom who frequently made reference to Elbert Hubbard's Scrap Book. Hubbard was a collector of insights and pearls of wisdom from great minds and books that preceded him. A perpetual optimist, he created two magazines that proved influential at the dawn of the twentieth century. His Scrap Books were collections of insights and quotes. And for the whole of my life I have enjoyed the habit of "quote collecting."

I prefer utilizing quotes from my personal reading, lest it give the impression of putting on airs. But then again, there are so many pithy sayings and witticisms that others have collected, it seems a crime to leave them in the ditch when their illuminations are so apropos.

My favorite part of collecting quotes is that as you read and re-read them over the years, you internalize them. When a situation occurs, a pithy quote rolls off your tongue. (Or, frequently in my case, a line from a Dylan song.)

Here are some samples to start your week and for future utilization.

"Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet." ~ Rousseau

"Every man is a volume, if you know how to read him." ~ Channing

"When the state is most corrupt, then laws are most multiplied." ~ Tacitus

"I don't think much of a man who is not wiser today than he was yesterday." ~ Lincoln

"The greater the obstacle the more glory in overcoming it." ~ Moliere

"Every war is a national calamity, whether victorious or not." ~ Gen. Von Moltke

"Next to knowing when to seize an opportunity, the most important thing in life is knowing when to forego an advantage." ~ Disraeli

"You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." ~ Walt Disney

Thank you to the new followers here at Ennyman's Territory. I'll do my best to keep providing content worth coming back forth. Meantime, make your day count.

Something To Talk About

Anyone who has had even the most remote brush with the media knows that 9/11 is coming upon us very rapidly now. Until ten years ago the significance of this date was pretty much a non-event, except for those of us with birthdays on the 11th, like myself.

In 1964 when I was reading the backs of some of my baseball cards I noticed that Larry Bearnarth, a relief pitcher for the hapless New York Mets, shared the same birthday as I. I was turning 12 and he was turning 23. The Mets, a new club that became part of the National League the year before, were embarrassingly bad, and it must have been tough to be a pitcher on a team whose claim to fame was playing in New York, along with being the losingest team in baseball.

Larry grew up in New York, in a city where there were no "twin towers." And when the Mets came along, and later when they became amazing, there were still no twin towers. In fact, it wasn't until 1973 that the official seven-building World Trade Center complex officially opened with its 13.4 million square feet of primo office space. (Think of all that rent!) Considering all the architectural wonders in Europe that have lived through centuries of war and weather, this building complex is almost like a child that dies in its infancy. It never reached its 30th birthday.

So with the tenth year anniversary of "the infamous" 9/11 approaching we're seeing lots of magazines beginning to re-visit this event, its impact and its significance. Here are a couple stories that seemed worth sharing. The first is from the India Times, an article about the bullying and abuse directed toward Muslim and Sikh youth in American schools after the 9/11 attacks. The second is a review of Jason Burke's The 9/11 Wars, which summarizes the impact of the ten years that followed in the wake of that disastrous day. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that a lot of journalists used Burke's book as a resource for fresh insights on the seemingly unrelated but interconnected events of these past years.

Meantime, life goes on....

Scraps of Paper

"Ideas are like cattle. They have to be gathered and herded if you want to keep track of them, otherwise they just wander off and get lost." ~ M.L. Bennett

This weekend I rolled up my sleeves and began cleaning my office. The clutter had me overrun. Keeping things too long is probably a bad habit I learned from my dear mom who, when I was young, kept bags with popsicle sticks, cartons, bottle caps and all manner of odds and ends as long as it had some potential use in a cub scout art project or some other rainy day endeavor.

Alas, the words that make me wince are "potential use" because as a writer nearly every thought, idea, magazine article has "potential use" in a future story, article, book or blog entry. I have enough such idea stimulants set aside that I have filled whole boxes with them and carried them to my garage.

After clearing the floor I made it to the desktop and began sorting, throwing and cataloging. Many of the notes on the scraps of paper are quite interesting. In the old days writers kept a journal to assemble their miscellaneous observations and thoughts. I once read a book of F. Scott Fitzgerald's scratchings. I used to keep notebooks like that myself till the world went digital. Then I began writing on scraps of paper, intending to start a file on my computer. Some, like items 5, 7 and 8 were scribbled while driving and listening to audio books. Unfortunately, the sources are forgotten, though a diligent search would probably prove fruitful if undertaken.

Here are some items from paper scaps I handled this past 24 hours.

1. "May us by breath be the solo meaning of life." (EdNote: This is a quote from a musician in a recent dream I had.)

2. This, too, is a dialogue from a dream:
Little boy says to man, "Pretty soon you will be wearing a tie."
Man says, "What will I be wearing a tie for?"
As he walks away a necktie suddenly appears on the man and he is wearing a tie.
The boy says, "Because it is my dream."

3. Oedipus: Man’s doomed attempt to outwit fate

4. “The only time I feel alive is when I’m painting.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

5. A conservative flaw: the belief in a “Golden Age” when all was good and beautiful.

6. His smile was effective.

7. “If men were angels, no government would be necessary.”

8. “There’s always a moment in childhood when a door opens and lets the future in.”

9. Community was once based on geography, now it is based on affinity.

10. Will the last honest journalist please turn out the lights?

That should be enough mental snack food to munch on for one day. Have a great new week!