Melancholia

"Ich steh mit einem Fuß im Grabe"


(I am standing with one foot in the grave),

Saturday, December 31, 2011

"For last year's words belong to last year's language. And next year's words await another voice. And to make an end is to make a beginning."
- T.S. Eliot





That action is best which accomplishes the greatest happiness for the greatest numbers."
- Francis Hutcheson
.........................................................

To each his suff'rings: all are men,

Condemn'd alike to groan,
The tender for another's pain;
Th'
unfeeling for his own.

Yet ah! why should they know their fate?
Since sorrow never comes
too late,

And happiness too swiftly flies.
Thought would destroy their
paradise.

No more; where ignorance is bliss,
'Tis folly to be wise.
--Thomas Gray
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Thomas_Gray



Do not hover always on the surface of things, nor take up suddenly with mere appearances; but penetrate into the depth of matters, as far as your time and circumstances allow, especially in those things which relate to your own profession. 

Do not indulge yourselves to judge of things by the first glimpse, or a short and superficial view of them; for this will fill the mind with errors and prejudices, and give it a wrong turn and ill habit of thinking, and make much work for retraction.
The Improvement of the Mind (1727), Ch. I, General Rules for the Improvement of Knowlege, Rule VII - 1885 edition online


Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence.
Improvement of the Mind (1741), Ch. I, General Rules for the Improvement of Knowlege, Rule X "Avoid a dogmatical spirit"

Fly, like a youthful hart or roe,
Over the hills where spices grow.
Hymn 79, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Book I.


Dave Johnson, Op-Ed: 

“It is clear where we are. But it is also clear that the system of control is breaking down. The elections of 2006 and 2008 shook the foundations. Democracy tried to reassert control. The behind-the-scenes system of lobbyists writing legislation that passes under cover of "studies" from corporate-front think tanks, telling us this is for our own good, propelled by a flurry of corporate-funded op-eds, stopped working. After the bailouts for banks / sell out for the rest of us, people started figuring things out.

http://c681724.r24.cf2.rackcdn.com/nextfightforeconomy1225.jpg


Article image


New Years at the Calaboose .....





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