Quote of the day.........

Poor naked wretches, whereso'er you are,

That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm,

How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides,

Your looped and windowed raggedness, 

defend you From seasons such as these? 

Oh, I have ta'en Too little care of this! 

Take physic, pomp.

Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel,

That thou mayst shake the superflux to them

And show the heavens more just.

----King Lear.

The storm...

Nothing he had ever seen before of life 

in the city or anywhere else had prepared him

for the stories they told him or

the chilling matter of fact-ness  of their telling,

as though the world that described was

the way the world has always been

as far as they knew would always go on being.

He came to realize that more often than not

their homelessness was not worse than the homes,

if they had ever had any, that they had fled or

be thrown out of a simply seen

fall pieces around their ears.

If the police would not let them sleep

in the subway, they simply moved on to

some boarded- up tenement or public latrine.

If they could get hold of drugs,

they injected oven cleaner, maybe , or 

sniffed glue or or gasoline, or

anything else that came their way.

If panhandling did not pay off they stole,or

if they weren't too battered looking,

they found somebody who would pay them

for the use of their bodies and may be even

take them in ,feed them and buy them cloths

and treat them decently for while,

often they would find themselves

a professional who would handle

such transactions for them,

enjoying themselves for free from time to time

and may be literally throwing them out

the window or off a fire escape when

they stopped bringing money.

If they were resourceful ,

they might pick up the price of a meal

by tearing out in to rush hour by traffic

when the lights turned red and swabbing off

wind shields with a wet rag, or

scourging the coin return slots of pay phones.

He suspected that beneath their opaque gaze,

they were asking them selves how

they might be able to make use of him

and wondering , if he in turn was asking

himself how and in what ways

he might be able to make use of them.

A girl would drop her eyes or a boy give

a knowing smile, when there did not seem

to be anything to smile at,and he suddenly

felt something that approached terror.

What terrified him was that

they were all of them for sale.

--- Fredric Buechner.

Quote of the day..........

"It is proper to take alarm at the first experiment 

on our liberties.

We hold this prudent jealousy to be 

the first duty of citizens,

and one of the noblest characteristics of 

the late Revolution.

The freeman of America did not wait till 

usurped power had strengthened

itself by exercise, and entangled 

the question in precedents.

They saw all the consequences in the principle,

and they avoided the consequences 

by denying the principle."

-- James Madison (1751-1836)
Father of the Constitution for the USA.
4th US President
Source: "A Memorial and Remonstrance".

Equal among Humans....Tu Tu.. Mi Mi.....

In matters of Human equality... 

One's actions are as arbitrary as that of others. 

Confession / Clarification...

Confession/clarification is 

One of the cleansing process of 

Inner thought ( self) and actions of a person :

A choice there remains is how 

One chooses to address it....

As a journey to regain 

One's lost innocence

That is humble and vulnerable.

Not as being insignificant Or indifferent Or

A manipulation of  the conscious self

That leads one to be delusional 

With a distortions of reality 

Where one is lost even more 

In to the trappings of falsehood 

An undoing.......

Where nothing is left for imagination 

And without such cleansing

There is neither freedom nor 

Evolution of the self

From its past.

The myth of wolf child......

Every intelligent life form 

Is equally capable of knowing 

what is known and that is to be known.

Commonsense....

Lacking in commonsense

Even the most complex calculations fall short.

Quote of the day..........

Our ultimate freedom

is the right and power to decide

how anybody or anything

outside of ourselves will affect us.

-- Steven R. CoveyAmerican author

     *      *      *      *      *
Let them stand undisturbed as monuments of

the safety with which error of opinion

may be tolerated,

where reason is left free to combat it.

-- Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826), US Founding Father,
3rd US President.
Drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Quote of the day.........

I think what motivates people is not great hate,

but great love for other people.

-- Huey P. Newton (1942-1989) 
Founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
Source: paraphrasing Che

Quote of the day........

Loyalty to petrified opinion never yet 

broke a chain or freed a human soul.

-- Mark Twain
[Samuel Langhorne Clemens1835-1910]

            *      *      *      *     *

Reaching consensus in a group is often 

confused with finding the right answer.

-- Norman Mailer(1923-2007) American novelist, 
journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, 
screenwriter, and film director.

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

There is a principle which is a bar against

all information,

which is a proof against all argument, and

which cannot fail to keep a man

in everlasting ignorance --

that principle is condemnation

before investigation.

-- Herbert Spencer(1820-1903) .
British author, economist, philosopher

Quote of the day.....

Education is not to reform students or 

amuse them or to make them expert technicians. 

It is to unsettle their minds, widen their horizons, 

inflame their intellects, teach them to think straight, 

if possible.

-- Robert M. Hutchins (1899-1977).

              *      *      *      *      *

"The capacity to learn is a gift; 

The ability to learn is a skill; 

The WILLINGNESS to learn is a choice.

-- Unknown

Quote of the day.........

To act without clear understanding,

To form habits without investigation,

To follow a path all one's life

Without knowing where it really leads --

Such is the behavior of the multitude.

-- Mencius
[Mengzi Meng-tse] (c.371 - c.288 B.C.) 
Chinese Confucian philosopher

Quote of the day.........

An Idler says , A lion in the street !

A fierce Lion in the alley....!

---Sant Kabir.

How long? Not long.............

 Like an idea whose time has come, 

not even the marching of mighty armies can halt us. 

We are moving to the land of freedom.

  How long? Not long,  

  because no lie can live forever. 

  How long? Not long,  

  you shall reap what you sow.

  How long? Not long ...  

  How long? Not long, 

 Because the arc of the moral universe is long, 

But it bends toward justice.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

Quote of the day.........

Free inquiry requires that we tolerate 

diversity of opinion and that we respect 

the right of individuals to express their beliefs,

however unpopular they may be, 

without social or legal prohibition or 

fear of success.

-- Paul Kurtz
Source: “A Secular Humanist Declaration,”
 in On The Barricades, 1989

Quote of the day.........

Without freedom of thought,

there can be no such thing as wisdom;and 

no such thing as public liberty,

without freedom of speech.

-- CatoJohn Trenchard (1662-1723) & 
Thomas Gordon (169?-1750)
Source: Letters, 1720
    
        *      *      *      *      *

If a man will begin with certainties, 

he shall end in doubts,but 

if he will be content to begin with doubts, 

he shall end in certainties.

-- Francis Bacon(1561-1626) Philosopher, 
British Lord Chancellor.

        *     *     *     *     *

Compared with the totality of knowledge 

which is continually utilized in 

the evolution of a dynamic civilization, 

the difference between the knowledge 

that the wisest and that which the most 

ignorant individual  can deliberately employ is 

comparatively insignificant.

-- Friedrich August von Hayek(1899-1992), 
Nobel Laureate of Economic Sciences 1974

Quote of the day..........

To forbid us anything is to make us

have a mind for it.

-- Michel De Montaigne(1532-1592) 

Quote of the day........

It is not the critic who counts;

 not the man who points out how

the strong man stumbles, or where 

the doer of deeds could have done them better.

The credit belongs to the man

who is actually in the arena,

whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;

who strives valiantly; who errs,

who comes short again and again,

because there is no effort without error and

shortcoming;

but who does actually strive to do the deeds;

who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions;

who spends himself in a worthy cause;

who at the best knows in the end the triumph of

high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, 

at least fails while daring greatly, so that 

his place shall never be with those cold and timid

souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

-- Theodore Roosevelt(1858-1919)
26th US PresidentApril 23, 1910

Exodus.......Quote of the day.....

"Political tags -- such as royalist, communist, democrat,

populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth --

 are never basic criteria.

The human race divides politically into those

who want people to be controlled and those

who have no such desire."

~ Rober t A. Heinlein
(1907-1988) American writer
Source: The Notebooks of Lazarus Long

Violence..........Andha Yug....

All violence,

for it to make sense to Human condition

Is not only to be witnessed but experienced

As tragic loss...

Even that of slaying the villains and

beings that are irredeemable..

Otherwise it entails oneself to folly.

From the book of My name is Asher lev............

He should be careful of 

the influence of those 

with whom he consorts,

and he runs a great risk in 

becoming a member of 

a large society,

for large bodies then towards 

the leveling of individuality to 

a common consent,

the forming and adherence to 

a creed.

            *      *      *      *       *

You can do anything you want to do,

what is rare is this actual wanting 

to do a specific thing:

wanting it so much that you are 

practically blind to

all other things,

that nothing else will satisfy you.

             *      *      *      *      *

An artist has got to get acquainted 

with himself

just as much as he can.

It is not easy job

for it is not a present-day 

habit of humanity.

             *       *      *      *      *

Every great artist is a man

who has freed himself from 

his family

his nation, his race.

Every man who has shown 

the world the way to beauty,

to true culture, has been rebel

A "universal with out patritiosm", 

with out home"

Who has found 

his people every where.

Quote of the day..........

Liberty and Love, 

They are all I need. 

For Love I sacrifice my Life 

For liberty I sacrifice my Love. 

--Sandor Petofi. 1823-1849.
Hungary's National poet.
His Twelve point manifesto called for
the Civil Liberties embodied in the US Bill of Rights.

In Propagand..........

Sometimes In propaganda

Imitations far outweigh

The original in rhetoric.

Conspiracy.........

Knowledge is diversity

Prejudice is conspiracy.

One more systemic subject...........

A Homeless person is a systemic subject 

not an accident in any given society.

The institutions that govern homeless might be of 

A bureaucracy in obscurity but 

It is a Person/ Human that overseas and decides  

who becomes and remains Homeless.

           *       *      *      *      *

Give me your tired, your poor, 

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: 

I lift my lamp beside the golden door.

-- Emma Lazarus(1849-1887) American poet.

Source: "The New Colossus", a sonnet written in 1883;
Appears on a bronze plaque in the pedestal of 
the Statue of Liberty placed in 1903

Quote of the day..........

The whole modern world has divided itself into

Conservatives and Progressives.
 
The business of Progressives is to go on

making mistakes.

The business of Conservatives is

to prevent mistakes from being corrected.

Even when the revolutionist might

himself repent of his revolution,the traditionalist is

already defending it as part of his tradition.

Thus we have two great types --

the advanced person who rushes us into ruin,

and the retrospective person who admires the ruins.

He admires them especially by moonlight,

not to say moonshine.

Each new blunder of the progressive or prig becomes

instantly a legend of immemorial antiquity for the snob.

This is called the balance, or mutual check,

in our Constitution.

~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton
(1874-1936) British essayist, critic, poet, and novelist
Illustrated London News, 1924

Quote of the day.......

In all affairs it’s a healthy thing now and then

to hang a question mark on the things

you have long taken for granted.

~ Bert rand Russell
(1872-1970) Philosopher, educator

Quote of the day..........

Attack another’s rights and 

you destroy your own.

-- John Jay Chapman(1862-1933).

 American Essayist and Poet

             *     *     *     *     *

In questions of science 

the authority of a thousand is

not worth the humble reasoning of 

a single individual.

-- Galileo Galilei
Astronomer (1564 - 1642)

Irredeemable self...........

When one's respective sins out weigh  

the very humanity one professes 

then the action of others

whether be right or wrong matters little.

Quote of the Day....../ The gravest danger.......

This is the gravest danger

that today threatens civilization:

State intervention, 

the absorption of all spontaneous 

social effort by the State;

that is to say, of spontaneous 

historical action,

which in the long-run sustains, 

nourishes and impels 

human destinies.

 -José Ortega y Gasset(1883-1955) 

Spanish philosopher

Source: Espana Invertebrada, 1922

             *      *     *     *     * 

But to manipulate men, 

to propel them toward goals

which you -- the social reformers -- see, 

but they may not,

is to deny their human essence,

to treat them as objects 

without wills of their own,

and therefore to degrade them.

-- Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997)
Source: Two Concepts of Liberty, 1958

Quote of the day............

A man’s liberties are none 

the less aggressed upon 

because those who coerce him 

do so in the belief 

that he will be benefited.

-Herbert Spencer(1820-1903)

Economist, philosopher
Source: The Principles of Ethics 

Quote of the day...........

Facts matter, that's all that matters.

People often times in very hot issues —

like race or gender — they take sides;

that's so wrong.

We have to wait for the facts.

 Facts really, really, matter.

It's painful, but people just take sides.

-- Greta Van Susteren.
American commentator.

Silent catalog..........

In a world that privillages it self

in violation of other's lives

price for one's silence and

profiteering through office

is indexed like a catalog.

Quote of the day.....

Most men are followers, and implicitly rely 

upon the judgment of others.

They mistake solemnity for wisdom, and 

regard a grave countenance as the title page and 

Preface to a most learned volume. 

So they are easily imposed upon by forms, 

strange garments, and solemn ceremonies. 

And when the teaching of parents, 

the customs of neighbors, and 

the general tongue approve and 

justify a belief or creed, no matter how absurd, 

it is hard even for the strongest to hold 

the citadel of his soul. 

In each country, in defence of each religion, 

the same arguments would be urged.

-- Robert G. Ingersoll
(1833-1899) American political leader, orator
Source: The Great Infidels (1881)

Quote of the day........

It is proof of a base and low mind for 

One to wish to think with the masses or majority,

merely because the majority is the majority.

Truth does not change because it is, or is not, 

believed by a majority of the people.

-- Giordano Bruno(1548-1699)
Source: On Shadows of Ideas

Quote of the day...........

If I am not for myself, Who will be for me ?

If I am not for others, Who am I ?

And if not now, when ?

-- rabbi Hillel ( 110 BC- 10 AD )

        *    *    *    *    *

Only a mediocre writer is always at his best.

-- Somerset Maugham.

This is It --Tich Nhat Hanh......

In the middle of the night

Like a drowning man

holding on to a blade of grass

seizing on a fleeting thought

to immemorialize  ones wits end

scribiling on blindly in darkness

hoping for a new dawn.

Quote of the day................

When we remember

we are all mad,

the mysteries disappear

and life stands explained.

-- Mark Twain
[Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910)

Quote of the day....

[T]here is nothing more difficult to carry out, 

nor more doubtful of success, 

nor more dangerous to handle, 

than to initiate a new order of things.  

For the reformer has enemies in all those 

who profit by the old order, and 

only lukewarm defenders in all those

 who would profit by the new order.

-- Niccolo Machiavelli
(1469-1527) Italian Statesman and Political Philosopher.

Quote of the day........

The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous 

and the storm terrible,

but they have never found these dangers 

sufficient reason for remaining ashore.

-- Vincent van Gogh.

Quote of the day...........

If you would be a real seeker after truth,

it is necessary that at least once in your life

you doubt, as far as possible, all things.

-- Rene Descartes
(1596-1650) French philosopher
Source: Principles of Philosophy, 1644

              *     *     *     *     *

[When] Men are not allowed to think freely

about chemistry and biology,

why should they be allowed to think freely

about political philosophy?

-- Auguste Comte.
Isidore Marie Auguste François Xavier Comte(1798-1857) 
French philosopher, founder of Positivism and Sociology
Source: The Positive Philosophy, 1830-40

              *     *     *     *     *

The free-thinking of one age is 

the common sense of the next.

-- Matthew Arnold (1822-1887)

Quote of the day.............

The heart of the liberal philosophy

is a belief in the dignity of the individual,

in his freedom to make the most of his capacities

and opportunities according to his own lights...

This implies a belief in the equality of man in one sense;

in their inequality in another."

-- Milton Friedman

(1912-2006) Nobel Prize-winning economist, 
economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan,
 "ultimate guru of the free-market system"
Source: Capitalism and Freedom, 1962

Quote of the day.........

You make men love 

their government and 

their country by giving them 

the kind of government 

and the kind of country 

that inspire respect and love; 

a country that is free and unafraid, 

that lets the discontented talk 

in order to learn the causes of 

their discontent and end those causes, 

that refuses to impel men to spy 

on their neighbors, 

that protects its citizens vigorously 

from harmful acts 

while it leaves the remedies for 

objectionable ideas 

to counter-argument and time.

-- Zecharian Chafee, Jr.(1865-1957)
Source: Free Speech in the United States, 1942

Quote of the day.....

The highest manifestation of 

life consists in this:

that a being governs its own actions.

A thing which is always subject to 

the direction of another is 

somewhat of a dead thing.

-- Saint Thomas Aquinas(1225-1274).

 Italian philosopher and theologian

       *       *       *       *       *

To learn who rules over you,

simply find out who you are 

not allowed to criticize.

-- Voltaire
[François Marie Arouet] (1694-1778)

Quote of the day.....

A wise man neither suffers 

himself to be governed,

nor attempts to govern others.

-- Jean de la Bruyere.

quote of the day..........

May the Declaration of Independence

be to the world, what I believe it will be 

(to some parts sooner,

to others later, but finally to all)

the signal of arousing men to burst 

the chains under which monkish ignorance and 

superstition had persuaded them 

to bind themselves, and to assume 

the blessings and security of self-government. 

That form which we have substituted, 

restores the free right to the unbounded

exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. 

All eyes are opened, or opening, 

to the rights of man.

-- Thomas Jefferson(1743-1826). 

US Founding Father, 3rd US President
drafted the Declaration of Independence.

Quote of the day.......

No man is justified in doing evil

on the ground of expediency.

-- Theodore Roosevelt(1858-1919) 

26th US President.

Carpe diem.......

Next to the swans nesting

By the lake side - eerie and surreal

Under the shadows of giant trees

That stood mourning through the night

Keeping a vigil, lighting a candle

People flowing in the streets streaming

The colored chalks glowing

With thoughts and words flowing

For good will hunting

There rises a memorial for 

The spirit’s resting.