Quote of the Day........

All ideas having even the slightest 

redeeming social importance --

unorthodox ideas, controversial ideas, 

even ideas hateful to the

prevailing climate of opinion, 

have the full protection of the

guarantees [of the First Amendment].

-- Justice William J. Brennan
(1906-1997) U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Source: Roth v. United States, 1957

          *        *        *        *         *

"Since when do you have to 

agree with people

to defend them from injustice?"

-- Lillian Hellman(1905-1984).

 American playwright and memoirist.

         *        *         *        *         *

You seem ... to consider the judges as 

the ultimate arbiters of 

all constitutional questions; 

a very dangerous doctrine indeed, 

and one which would place us under 

the despotism of an oligarchy... 

The Constitution has erected 

no such single tribunal.

-- Thomas Jefferson.
(1743-1826), US Founding Father, 
drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Making of Mischief...........

All mischief is momentary

If we do not lend ourselves to it

It will pass, losing its momentum.

Quote of the Day...........

    

A people who extend civil liberties 

only to preferred groups 

start down the path 

either to dictatorship of 

the right or the left.

Beauty ? Art ....

What is mostly desired after 

has to be corrupted ( by the market forces )

To be mundanely accessible.

Quote of the day......

Concepts of justice

must have hands and feet or

they remain sterile abstractions.

The hands and feet we need

are efficient means and methods 

to carry out justice in every case

in the shortest possible time

and at the lowest possible cost.

-- Justice Warren E. Burger(1907-1995).

 Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1969-86)

           *        *        *        *        *
 
By freethinking I mean the use of 

the understanding in endeavoring to 

find out the meaning of 

any proposition whatsoever, 

in considering the nature of the evidence 

for or against, and in judging of it 

according to the seeming force or 

weakness of the evidence.

-- Anthony Collins(1676-1729).
Source: A Discourse of Freethinking, 1713.

Quote of the day.....

Protection, therefore, 

against the tyranny of 

the magistrate is not enough;

there needs protection against 

the tyranny of 

the prevailing opinion and feeling,

against the tendency of society to impose,

by other means than civil penalties,

its own ideas and practices 

as rules of conduction 

those who dissent from them.

 John Stuart Mill(1806-1873) 
 Source: On Liberty, 1859

         *          *         *         *        *

It is a maxim among lawyers 

that whatever hath been done before 

may be done again, and 

therefore they take special care 

to record all the decisions 

formerly made against 

common justice and 

the general reason of mankind. 

These, under the name of precedents,

they produce as authorities to justify 

the most iniquitous opinions, and 

the judges never fail of directing 

them accordingly. 

Jonathan Swift(1667-1745)
 Source: Gulliver’s Travels, 1726

           *         *        *        *        *

You do not examine legislation 

in the light of the benefits 

it will convey 

if properly administered, but 

in the light of the wrongs

it would do and the harm 

it would cause 

if improperly administered.

Lyndon B. Johnson(1908-1973) 
37th US President (1963-1969)

Homeless Ambition........

Everyday I see a great dream.

A great Possibility.

Yet each day passing 

I get on with next to nothing. 

In the Beginning........

The word in its True spirit is 

The Teacher.

Quote of the day.....

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds,

adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.

He may as well concern himself 

with his shadow on the wall.

Speak what you think now in hard words, and 

to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks 

in hard words again,

though it contradict everything you said to-day.

--'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'

-- Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?

Pythagoras was misunderstood, 

and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, 

and Copernicus, and Galileo, and

Newton, and every pure and 

wise spirit that ever took flesh.

To be great is to be misunderstood.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Quote of the Day.......

The law is not the private property of lawyers,

nor is justice the exclusive province of 

judges and juries.

In the final analysis, true justice is 

not a matter of courts and law books,

but of a commitment in each of us 

to liberty and mutual respect.

-- Jimmy Carter (1924- )
39th US PresidentSource: Dallas Times-Herald, 26 April 1978
 
                       *      *      *     *     *

Prayer of Teilhard de Chardin.............

                    Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.

We are quite naturally impatient in everything

to reach the end without delay.

We should like to skip the intermediate stages.

We are impatient of being on the way to something

unknown, something new.


And yet it is the law of all progress

that it is made by passing through

some stages of instability—

and that it may take a very long time.


And so I think it is with you;

your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,

let them shape themselves, without undue haste.

Don’t try to force them on,

as though you could be today what time

(that is to say, grace and circumstances

acting on your own good will)

will make of you tomorrow.


Only God could say what this new spirit

gradually forming within you will be.

Give Our Lord the benefit of believing

that his hand is leading you,

and accept the anxiety of feeling yourself

in suspense and incomplete.


-Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, From Hearts on Fire.

Shared by the  fellowship of  
MANNA Monday Lunch program.

Maya Angelou's "Change the Attitude"

One does only need to look in oneself

What one does not like in others.

Quote of the Day.....

Freedom of men under government is to have 

a standing rule to live by,

common to every one of that society and made 

by the legislative power vested in it and 

not to be subject to the inconstant, 

uncertain, arbitrary will of another man.

-- John Locke(1632-1704) 
English philosopher and political theorist.

Quote of the Day....

"Men in authority will always think that

criticism of their policies is dangerous.

They will always equate their policies

with patriotism, and find criticism subversive."

-- Henry Steele Commager(1902-1998) 
Source: Freedom and Order, 1966

Reality in modernist paradigm..........

In the context of modernity

Reality is not what it seems

As a construct

It is a suspension of disbelief.

Quote of the day.....

"We have never stopped sin by passing laws; and

in the same way, 

we are not going to take a great moral ideal

and achieve it merely by law."

-- Dwight D. Eisenhower
(1890-1969), 34th US President, WWII General

Some Nuggets from The Pilgrim writer's journal.....

                       THE TRUTH

There is a lot of liars out here,

Criminals ,Cons- Hustlers.

But there is one thing and

That's if something isn't True

If you are not honest with them

They can always tell, and

They don't like it

It's funny how people don't understand that.

----Miss Bartlett.
The Pilgrim -Black seed writers group

              *     *     *     *     *

                 THE RIGHT TO EXIST

Feels like all my living 

has mostly been a whole lotta fightin

for the right to exist.

Sitting on a jetty in the autumn rain

Friday night

I 'm huddled in my raincoat

trying to write

without soaking the page

Girls in glitter and pumps come by

fallin all over and under  the fog

first rangers , then cops come by-

trying to arrest me cause I refuse

to evacuate with no cause

But the girls in glitter can throw their

pumps all over the place

Long ago and far away

Colorado, rustle my stuff out of tall

grasses and rattlesnake nests

Confiscate my photos,

artwork for evidence

sent my sage and herbs

for forensic tests

Try to build a raft to camp

the only place legal and free and 

they say my old discarded fence and

nails will never pass as watercraft

Oh,and so the stories go

just plain cut and dried injustice -

I try not to be belligerent

instead fight them with calm logic

make them question themselves

put their sanity on trial, to the test

so their heart may change. . . . .

But more often 

Authority proven wrong

gets MEANER : seeking heads to roll

so the battle goes on 

the never ending need to be right

and when you think you've found

peace, Look ! Here it some again !

Another fight for the right to exist.

--- Katie Schultz
The Pilgrim -Black seed writers group
Jan /Feb Volume 3, Issue I


           *    *    *    *    *

                   LENTEN DARKNESS 

Lent will start in March this year. I've had to start

preparing for it now because it's been such an 

intense year.I¹ve always been able to put things 

in perspective, make peace with myself and move 

on after holy communion, but this year I may have 

to ask for some sort of extension.

I've met some very bad people and I¹ve seen bad 

things happen ­to me and to people around me.

I don't have a problem with forgiving people; 

I¹ve practiced that all my life. 

But I do need to determine how to forgive these 

people without enabling them to do these things again.

I¹m trying to understand their actions and intentions

so I can have a forgiveness that is clean and pure.

I won¹t receive communion at Easter with hurried

decisions of forgiveness it would be half-hearted.

Maybe I'll focus on what I can do, and get an

extension for the more complex things.

---- Diana Kottori,
 Source : The Pilgrim.The black seed writers group.

Banality of Truth.....

Truth is not only...... 

One of the most enduring 

Paths of  human existence

It is also one........ 

That is scientifically correct.

The Easter Marathon............

Beginning the Holy Week, in the wee hours of the day

and all day they run... run... run...

Some for fun and some to win,

They run... run... run...

Passing over one hurdle after another, 

reaching milestones, they run... run... run...

Centuries apart, keeping up with a 100 year-old tradition

during the Holy Week,

They run... run... run...

Some are young, some are old,

Some are strong, some are weak,

and there are women too, 

Yet they run... run... run...

Like Mary and her brothers in fellowship,

That stood before the open door,

To find the Holy One that showed us

The way to the heavens,

Beginning Easter they gather around in the wee hours

unburdening the past days,

Freeing themselves in resurrection of triumph and joy,

They run... run... run...

Some are young, some are old,

Some are strong, some are weak,

and there are women too.

Some for fun and some to win,

During Holy Week, like an Easter Bunny

They run... run... run...
  

Boundaries of Hypocrisy.....

Human hypocrisy like all other vices has no boundaries

It desires to transcend all that is good and human.

Facts and Due process.............

Facts like science help us 

towards due process.

From Mahatma Gandhi.....

"A nation's greatness is measured by 

how it treats its weakest members."

~ Mahatma Ghandi

Quote of the day......

"It is a fundamental human right, a privilege of nature, 

that every man should worship according to 

his own convictions. One man’s religion neither 

harms nor helps another man. 

It is assuredly no part of religion to compel religion, 

to which free will and not force should lead us."

-- Tertullian(160?-230? A.D) Carthaginian 
“Father of Latin theology”c. 200 A.D.

           *    *    *    *    *

"The purpose of education is to make 

the choices clear to people, 

Not to make the choices for people."

-- Peter McWilliams (1949-2000) Poet, author

High and Low among US...............

One might not be so above all to Judge

But one certainly is not so low to Discern.

The Unexpected.....

Most often the unexpected comes in the form of Abuse

Leaving One unprepared and Vulnerable.

More so It come in violation of ones faith.

Human Trivia......

Most often and sadly all most all times 

Human life and its miseries are ruled by Trivia.

(In the good old days it was known as indigestion and

In modern times it may be known as boredom and pain)

The parasitic nature of human poverty.......

Poverty of humanity (of any kind) parasites

By bequeathing A gift up on those 

That are not a Monk by disposition, then

They would be forced to live like one.

-- Being one with those that are deprived of a Home. . . 

Quote of The day.......

"An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty.

It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and 

To misapply even the best of laws.

He that would make his own liberty 

Secure must guard even his enemy from oppression;

For if he violates his duty he establishes 

A precedent that will reach to himself."

Thomas Paine(1737-1809) US Founding father, 
Source: Dissertation on First Principles of Government, 
7 July 1795

                     *    *    *    *   *

"Sometimes the law defends plunder and 

participates in it.

Thus the beneficiaries are spared the shame and 

danger that their acts would otherwise involve..

 But how is this legal plunder to be identified?

Quite simply.

 See if the law takes from some persons 

what belongs to them and gives it to 

the other persons to whom 

it doesn't belong.

See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of 

another by doing

what the citizen himself cannot do without 

committing a crime.

Then abolish that law without delay ... 

No legal plunder;

this is the principle of justice, peace, order,

stability, harmony and logic.

"-- Frederic Bastiat(1801-1850) 
French economist, statesman, 
- the French Revolution of February 1848.

                   *    *    *    *     *

"All bad precedents began as justifiable measures."

-- Gaius Julius Caesar(100-44 B.C.) Roman emperor

                  *    *     *    *    *

"Censorship always defeats its own purpose,

 for it creates, in the end,

the kind of society that is incapable of

 exercising real discretion...

In the long run it will create a generation 

incapable of appreciating the difference between

 independence of thought and subservience.

"-- Henry Steele Commager(1902-1998) 
Historian and author 
Source: Freedom, Loyalty and Dissent, 1954

Quote of the day...

“There are no ordinary people. 

You have never talked to a mere mortal. 

Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - 

these are mortal, and 

their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. 

But it is immortals whom we joke with, 

work with, marry, snub and exploit - 

immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. 

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually 

solemn.-We must play. 

But our merriment must be of that kind 

(and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) 

which exists between people 

who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously - 

no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption.”

― C.S. Lewis

As offered by Janathan Hill @St.francis.

Quote of the Day........

"It seems as if the Department [of Justice]

sees the value of the Bill of Rights as

no more than obstacles to be overcome."

-- Prof. Sanford H. Kadish

Quote of the Day.......

"The internal effects of a mutable policy are calamitous.

It poisons the blessings of liberty itself.

It will be of little avail to the people that

the laws are made by men of their own choice,

if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read,

or so incoherent that they cannot be understood;

if they be repealed before they are promulgated,

or undergo such incessant changes that 

no man who knows what the law is today 

can guess what it will be tomorrow."

-- James Madison
(1751-1836), Father of the Constitution for the USA, 4th US President


             *    *    *    *    *


"Sometimes the law defends plunder and 

participates in it.

Thus the beneficiaries are spared 

the shame and danger that

their acts would otherwise involve...

But how is this legal plunder to be identified?

Quite simply. See if the law takes from some persons

what belongs to them and gives it to the other persons

to whom it doesn't belong.

See if the law benefits one citizen at the expense of

another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do

without committing a crime.

Then abolish that law without delay .. No legal plunder;

this is the principle of justice, peace, order,

stability, harmony and logic."

-- Frederic Bastiat
"The Law" by Frederic Bastiat, 1850

Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam../ Monuments Men.....

If history has anything to teach us,

It is not about winning war/s

Nor even it is about lossing one

But of we were to loose our humanity 

We loose not only ourself but 

Everything one has come to value.

Quote of the Day......

Facts are stubborn things;

and whatever may be our wishes,

our inclinations,

or the dictates of our passion,

they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.

-- John Adams

(1735-1826) Founding Father, 2nd US President

                 *     *    *    *    *

"Law logic -- an artificial system of reasoning,

exclusively used in courts of justice,

but good for nothing anywhere else."


-- John Quincy Adams
(1767-1848) 6th US President


                  *     *     *     *     *

In view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, 

there is in this country no superior, dominant, 

ruling class of citizens.There is no caste here. 

Our Constitution is colorblind, and neither knows 

nor tolerates classes among citizens."

-- John Marshall Harlan
(1899-1971) U. S. Supreme Court Justice
Source: Plessy v. Ferguson, 1896

                    *     *     *     *     *

Laws are like cobwebs which may catch small flies,

But let wasps and hornets break through.

-- Jonathan Swift
(1667-1745) Anglo-Irish Poet and Satirist
Source: A Critical Essay upon the Faculties of the Mind, 
1707, & Gullivers Travels, 1726

                     *     *     *     *     *

When you have no basis for argument, 

abuse the plaintiff.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero
(106-43 B.C.) Roman Statesman, Philosopher and Orator

To be enlightened.....

There is nothing to prove in this world

Except to find out for oneself.

Quote of the day.....

"Nothing inspires murderous mayhem in

human beings more reliably than

sexual repression."

----Psychology Today article 4/20/2010

                *    *    *    *    *

       Nothing inspires murderous mayhem in human beings more reliably than sexual repression. Denied food, water, or freedom of movement, people will get desperate and some may lash out at what they perceive as the source of their problems, albeit in a weakened state. But if expression of sexuality is thwarted, the human psyche tends to grow twisted into grotesque, enraged perversions of desire.

      Unfortunately, the distorted rage resulting from sexual repression rarely takes the form of rebellion against the people and institutions behind the repression. (If it did, perhaps we'd be reading of abused priests rather than priests as abusers.)  Instead, the rage is generally directed at helpless victims who are sacrificed to the sick gods of guilt, shame, and ignorant pride.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sex-dawn/201004/sexual-repression-the-malady-considers-itself-the-remedy

Unbecoming of Moses....

When a state begins to interfere in most issues

Where there is no regulatory Role to play 

In its overreach where the human agency that overseas it

Increasingly begins to invest itself in 

the abuse and misuse of its institutional mechanisms 

that are invested with Vast Powers by its constituents 

making the society unstable and morally vulnerable 

in lacking critical insight for it to guide 

Its citizenry towards A right direction

Thus breeding incompetence, unaccountability,

Nepotism and corrupt profiteering

On a scale that undermines its own historical viability.

Quote of the Day...

As for adopting the ways which

the state has provided for remedying the evil,

I know not of such ways.

They take too much time, and

A man's life will be gone."

-- Henry David Thoreau
(1817-1862)

About the Burglers....

The fear of burglars is not only 

the fear of being robbed, 

but  also the fear of a sudden and 

unexpected clutch out of the darkness.

---Elias canetti.