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Category: Thought of the Day

  • A TIME OF AWAKENING

    There will be a morning when you will wake up to realize that the President that you voted for is a two faced charlatan with possibly no redeeming values. Many of us already know this and some have known it for a long time. But you will say how can that be. He sounds like…

  • AYN RAND ON STEROIDS

    There have always been those individuals who would put making money and/or attaining power above all else. Even going so far as to sell their souls. The difference between then and now, is that now it is considered the right thing to do. “Greed is good”, the underlying philosophy expounded by Gorden Gekko in the…

  • IT’S ALRIGHT, MA (I’M ONLY BLEEDING)

    Darkness at the break of noonShadows even the silver spoonThe handmade blade, the child’s balloonEclipses both the sun and moonTo understand you know too soonThere is no sense in trying. Pointed threats, they bluff with scornSuicide remarks are tornFrom the fools gold mouthpieceThe hollow horn plays wasted wordsProves to warnThat he not busy being bornIs…

  • AI RISKS AND SAFEGUARDS

    Experts warn that artificial intelligence (AI) poses significant risks, including uncontrollable behavior, bias, job displacement, and ethical concerns, necessitating careful management and regulation. Key Concerns About AI:Uncontrollable AI: Prominent AI scientists, including Yoshua Bengio and Max Tegmark, have expressed concerns about the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) that could operate independently. They warn that…

  • Read an Anthropic AI safety lead’s exit letter: ‘The world is in peril’

    Mrinank Sharma who led the safety team at Anthropic:Dear Colleagues,I’ve decided to leave Anthropic. My last day will be February 9th.Thank you. There is so much here that inspires and has inspired me. To name some of those things: a sincere desire and drive to show up in such a challenging situation, and aspire to…

  • THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUTH

    History is a set of lies agreed upon.- attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte What is history, but a fable agreed upon? – attributed to Fontenelle. History is written by the victors- Winston  Churchill/Walter Benjamin A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.-attributed to Winston Churchill…

  • SENIOR CITIZENS BLUES

    YOU HAVE A THOUGHT! THEN YOU’RE DISTRACTED! THEN YOU LOSE THAT THOUGHT! IT’S NOT THAT YOUR MEMORY IS SHOT! IT’S JUST THAT THE PARKING LOT FOR THOUGHTS HAS GOTTEN A LITTLE SMALLER! RJB Dedicated to my dear friend Carl Meier

  • A DISCARDED PAST OR A MORE NOBLE FUTURE

    Excerpt from the Secret Of Secrets By Dan Brown As the ferry churned closer, Katherine began to see details in the statue’s verdigris copper-the broken chains of bondage around her sandaled feet, the delicate folds in her robes of justice, the tablet in her left hand bearing the nation’s birth date, the steadfast gaze and…

  • IN A TIME OF PEACE OR WAR

    When coming to that fork in the road, when nations have the opportunity to prepare for peace, or prepare for war, they have almost always chosen the latter. Throughout history, man has learned to distrust his neighbors. It is said that the best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war. But eventually,…

  • SCIENTISTS MAY HAVE FINALLY “SEEN” DARK MATTER FOR THE FIRST TIME

    Scientists may have “seen” dark matter for the first time, thanks to NASA’s Fermi gamma-ray space telescope. If so, this would mark the first direct detection of the universe’s most mysterious substance. Dark matter was theorized in 1933 by astronomer Fritz Zwicky, who found that the visible galaxies of the Coma Cluster lacked the necessary gravitational influence…

  • Super Bowl And Other Great Quotes You Might Never Have Heard

    The Music Business is a long and shallow hallway lined with crooks and thieves… and then there's a bad side… Hunter S. Thompson                ————————————— “There is a Talmudic saying, "No one is the owner of his instincts," “But controlling them, that is civilization.” quoting Elie Wiesel               —————————————- Gov. Jerry Brown- "I believe in the Hernando…

  • THE GREAT TRUMP DEFLECTION

    Trump’s latest series of deflections came at a time when he badly needed to control the narrative in the news cycle. Epstein, food prices, alienation of friends around the world, an unpopular deportation policy, tariffs, retribution, Democratic victories in recent elections, a self aggrandizing ballroom, were all you heard about at a time when Trump’s…

  • THE GREATEST

        Secretariat won the Triple Crown in 1973. He set a record in each race, that are still records today. He won the Belmont Stakes by a remarkable 31 lengths. Truly a magnificent race horse. Many would call him the greatest race horse of all time. Some may consider another race horse as the…

  • True Dat

             "A lie ain't a side to a story. It's just a lie"— "the wire"          "If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster"  Clint Eastwood , from the Rookie , 1990  ,

  • A RARE KIND OF INSANITY RULES THE DAY

    "Insanity in individuals is something rare but in groups, parties, nations and epochs it is the rule."—Friedrich Nietzsche

  • EVERY DAY ANNOYANCES

                             There are some things that annoy most of us. Some of them are listed below: Expiration dates that can’t be read or are too small to read. Don’t take it if you’re allergic to it. Streaming football.  The internet is full of rankings.…

  • MEANS TESTING

    Means Testing was always a good idea to cut Social Security costs. Those very wealthy individuals who are collecting, in many cases around $5000 a month,  are legally entitled to receive their payouts, but most muti millionaires and all billionaires, do not need the monthly payouts. If the law was established to allow Means Testing, …

  • HOW EASILY GREATNESS CAN GO AWRY OR NOT

     Hermann Hesse's mother Marie wrote: "The little fellow has a life in him, an unbelievable strength, a powerful will, and, for his four years of age, a truly astonishing mind. How can he express all that? It truly gnaws at my life, this internal fighting against his tyrannical temperament, his passionate turbulence […] God must…

  • HISTORICAL DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE PARTIES

    The Democrats tax and spend. The Republicans borrow and spend. The American people love Republican's levels of taxation and Democrat's levels of spending. Fareed Zacharia The only difference between the Democrats and the Republicans is that the Democrats allow the poor to be corrupt too. Oscar Levant in the 1950s   Some Thoughts on Politics,…

  • SOME ROBERT KENNEDY QUOTES

    ON HOPE:“Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest…

  • STRAIGHT SHOOTERS IN A TIME OF B.S.

    Without leaning toward political commentary, or an overly cultural point of view, these are some people who I think bring an honest, thoughtful, interesting, and sometimes humorous dialogue to the American conversation:  Bob Costas, Eugene Robinson, Caitlin Flanagan, Howard Dean, Andrew Sullivan, Neal Katyal, Bill Maher, Anand Giridharadas, Jon Stewart, Rachel Maddow, Fareed Zakaria and…

  •  THE GREAT WITCH HUNT HOAX

        The Attraction of a Dangerously Damaged Individual                     From Socialite To Comic Book Villain I really don’t want to spend any more time, emotional capital or energy writing about D. J. Trump.  I wrote extensively about him from 2015 through 2020, when I felt…

  • A POEM AND TWO QUOTES

    “Hay mas tiempo que vida.          “Life is short. Seize the moment.” “It’s easy to do anything in victory. It’s in defeat that a man reveals himself.” –Floyd Patterson                                          Sometimes when I’m…

  • Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”: We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones

    Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German theologian and anti-Nazi dissident who was executed in Germany in 1945.1 Bonhoeffer’s ideas and beliefs have continued to resonate long after his death, particularly his theory of stupidity. Bonhoeffer argued that it was not evil people who were the greatest danger to society- it was stupid people. Bonhoeffer's theory of stupidity:…

  • LIES ARE SO MUCH MORE FUN

    NEW BEST SELLER- [HOW TO ATTAIN PROFIT AND POWER BY LYING AND COMMITTING FRAUD]   Written by George Santos, with a forward by Donald Trump and pictures supplied by Marjorie Taylor Greene BLOCKBUSTER MOVIE IN PRODUCTION WITH CAMEOS BY JIM JORDAN AND RAND PAUL CLASSES START IN THE FALL AT ALL MAJOR UNIVERSITIES

  • Lawyers and Presidents

    He sends everyone to the Capital to start an uprising, and he tells them" Let's go"  I'm putting on my Riotin' shoes and I'll be right there with you. Now you know who I mean. I have just one question: Do you really think he wanted to go there. I mean,  Where's Trump going to…

  • SOME QUOTES BY THE AUTHOR

      You can't be richer than a genuinely contented man.   One of the great things in life is being able to say you're lucky.    It is a life well lived that has only a few regrets.   My behavior is derived from habit rather than tradition.   There is no measuring stick for…

  • HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB

     

  • Who Can Win America’s Politics of Humiliation?

    About four years ago, without asking anybody, I changed my job description. It used to be "New York Times foreign affairs columnist." Instead, I started calling myself the "New York Times humiliation and dignity columnist." I even included it on my business card. It had become so obvious to me that so much of what…

  • THOUGHTS OF THE DAY

    “All truth passes through three stages: first, it is ridiculed; second, it is violently opposed; and third, it is accepted as self-evident.”   –Schopenhauer(19th Century Philosopher)  The club motto of (The Bohemian Club),  "Weaving Spiders Come Not Here", a line taken from Act 2, Scene 2, of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.  implies that outside concerns and…

  • It’s Starting To look like Fascism

    Machiavellian characters come and go. A difference with the character currently residing in 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. is that arrogance is a source of pride. While the firing of Comey and McCabe rounded out the course material for Fascism 101, the assaults on the media and Justice Department have completed the introduction to Fascism 202. Where…

  • TRUMP – A DAY IN THE LIFE

      I wake up every morning excited to find out who I can berate today. What little guy can I beat up on today. Who has said something unflattering about me today. I can't wait to tear into them. What piece of Obama's legacy can I spit on today! Who can I disparage that will…

  • Trump’s relationship with the truth is becoming a national embarrassment

    CNN)Donald Trump’s peculiar relationship with the truth — his penchant for promoting unfounded stories and conspiracies theories — represents not just a curious quirk or a character flaw. They are a much-practiced technique that has paid dividends as self-promotion in his business career and in his political rise. Over decades spent in the company of…

  • HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, WE’RE IN FOR A BUMPY RIDE

    On the eve of the inauguration, when power looms mighty, we stop and give pause to the intentions of the almighty. POWER ALWAYS THINKS IT HAS A GREAT SOUL, AND THAT IT IS DOING GOD’S SERVICE, WHEN IT IS VIOLATING ALL HIS LAWS.   – JOHN ADAMS NEARLY ALL MEN CAN STAND ADVERSITY, BUT IF YOU…

  • Some thoughts of the day

      Let others praise you. It is unbecoming to praise yourself.  Coolidge devotedly articulated Garman’s ethics forty years later: “There is a standard of righteousness that might does not make right, that the end does not justify the means, and that expediency as a working principle is bound to fail. The only hope of perfecting…

  • When Society Moves Too Fast

     Why did the electorate vote for Trump.  Let’s try these explanations: In their desire to find someone different from the mainstream politician, the voters chose someone different from everybody. A lot of people don’t have the time or inclination to read the New York Times  or the Economist, or even watch the nightly news.  They come…

  • AND THE UPSETS HAVE IT

    On the morning of the Brexit vote in England, Ladbrokes Betting Parlor was giving five to one that England would stay in the EU.  The odds that Cleveland would win the NBA championship after being down 3 games to 1, was Golden State -1600, Cleveland +850. One week before the Nobel Prize for literature was announced,…

  • TRUMP- AMALGAM OF STRANGE

    People have been trying to figure out what Trump is all about. What makes him behave the way he does. What is an act and what does he truly believe.  Donald Trump is an amalgam of strange. From his appearance, to his hand gestures, to his facial expressions, to his use of repetition in his speech pattern,…

  • Clinton-The Ad She Needs To Run

    Donald Trump talks a lot about things he will fix, but he has never fixed anything.  He has built some buildings, but a lot of people have built buildings, they don't say it qualifies themselves to be President. He has defrauded students at his so called University and is currently being investigated. He has discriminated…

  • Trump- The latest attempt at fooling the public

    Trump’s teleprompted speech last night, didn’t include either of the words; sorry or apologize. Does he regret saying all those insulting, stupid and provocative things? He regrets them because the blowback was more than he could handle. The polls indicated a seriously deteriorating chance of even being competitive in the election. New people came in…