advice, books, democracy, life, news, relationships, simplify, value, writing

PART II.

Well. this is Part 2. So we’re up to.. about 165? another 200 good ones.. will be hard to find. But.. find them we will! Someday… I guess there is a bit of a theme here. A lot of quotes here are mostly about dumping out the Garbage we’ve all been taught. And a little more diversity, I guess.

  1. There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before – Willa Cather
  2. We all have an old knot in the heart we wish to untie – Michael Ondaatje
  3. My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I’m right – Ashleigh Brilliant.
  4. The value of marriage is not that adults produce children, but that children produce adults – Peter De Vries
  5. A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury – John S. Mill
  6. Those who teach, must never cease to learn – John Cotton Dana
  7. When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. I’m beginning to believe it. Clarence Darrow
  8. To find out what one is fitted to do, and to secure an opportunity to do it, is the key to happiness – John Dewey
  9. I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them. – Charles Bukowski
  10. Our view of the world is truly shaped by what we decide to hear. – William James
  11. Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. – William James
  12. Humans seldom have created anything of lasting value unless they were tired or hurting. – Jon Huntsman Sr.
  13. Academia is to knowledge what prostitution is to love; close enough on the surface but, to the non-sucker, not exactly the same thing – Nassim Taleb
  14. The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary – Nassim Taleb
  15. If we’re looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn’t test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power – PJ O’Rourke
  16. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable – GB Shaw
  17. I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve – Albert Schweitzer
  18. Most people would sooner die than think; in fact, they do so. – Bertrand Russell
  19. What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so. – Mark Twain?
  20. All cruelty springs from weakness – Seneca
  21. The number of those who undergo the fatigue of judging for themselves is very small indeed – Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  22. Maturity requires a final accommodation between our aspirations and our limitations – J William Fulbright
  23. We’re a nation of Adult children of alcoholics. We don’t get mad at the people who are inflicting the pain in this country. We get mad at the people who are pointing it out.- Jimmy Dore.
  24. But my lord, when we addressed this issue a few years ago, didn’t you argue the other side?” He said, “That’s true, but when I get more evidence I sometimes change my mind. What do you do? – John Maynard Keynes
  25. It’s amazing how people can change behind closed doors – Susan Forward
  26. it is the essence of morality to meditate on one’s own wrongdoing, to try to find ways to make up for it and to be resolved not to repeat it – Dan Kovalik
  27. The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. WALPOLE?
  28. He suddenly understood the message of so many spiritual teachers that the only revolution that can work is the inner transformation of every human being – Stanislav Grof
  29. We accept the reality of the world with which we are presented – Andrew Niccol
  30. Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes – William GIBSON
  31. To say nothing, especially when speaking, is half the art of diplomacy. – Will Durant
  32. If you keep telling the same sad small story, you will keep loving the same sad small life.- Jean Houston
  33. The highest reward for a man’s toil is not what he gets for it but what he becomes by it – John Ruskin
  34. There is never anything to change but our own perspective – Karen Casey
  35. We swallow greedily any lie that flatters us, but we sip only little by little at a truth we find bitter -Denis Diderot
  36. It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything – Chuck Palahniuk
  37. You measure democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists. – Abbie Hoffman
  38. Action isn’t my forte. I’m an expert on contemplation and mild regret. – R. SHECKLEY
  39. All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why. – James Thurber
  40. The greatest ownership of all is to glance around and understand. – William Stafford
  41. What we do not understand we have no right to judge – Henri-Frederic Amiel.
  42. Ask yourself this question: ‘Will this matter a year from now? – Richard Carlson
  43. A problem well stated is a problem half solved. – Charles Kettering.
  44. “If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin.” – Charles Darwin
  45. The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do. – Michael Porter
  46. “Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate, or despise, serves to defeat us in the end.” – Henry Miller
  47. No one learns as much about a subject as one who is forced to teach it. – Peter Drucker
  48. The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible — and achieve it, generation after generation. – Pearl Buck
  49. Clear thinking requires courage rather than intelligence. – Thomas Szasz
  50. Boredom is the feeling that everything is a waste of time; serenity, that nothing is. – Thomas Szasz
  51. Back home there was no freedom, but there were readers. Here there was freedom enough, but readers were missing – Sergei Dovlatov
  52. Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don’t you think? – Frank Baum
  53. The greatest evil that one has to fight constantly, every minute of the day until one dies, is the worst part of oneself – Patrick McGoohan
  54. In most of our human relationships, we spend much of our time reassuring one another that our costumes of identity are on straight. – Ram Dass
  55. Anxiety, trauma and crisis are necessary catalysts to stimulate self-consciousness. – Rollo Tomassi
  56. Rarely do great beauty and great virtue dwell together. – Petrarch
  57. You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from. – Cormac McCarthy
  58. “Think of denial as an acronym for Don’t Even Notice I Am Lying” – Debbie Ford.
  59. “The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.” – Charles Bukowski
  60. Don’t give advice, it will come back and bite you in the ass.. – Ellen DeGeneres
  61. although freedom of speech constitutes an important victory in the battle against old restraints, modern man is in a position where much of what “he” thinks and says are the things that everybody else thinks and says; that he has not acquired the ability to think originally – that is, for himself – which alone gives meaning to his claim that nobody can interfere with the expression of his thoughts – Erich Fromm
  62. America’s always been a great place to be crazy. It just used to be harder to make a living that way – Charles P Pierce
  63. A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say – Italo Calvino
  64. Happiness is not easy to find. It’s very difficult to find it in yourself — and impossible to find anywhere else… (Found this attributed to at least 3 different authors.. so let’s just say UNKNOWN)
  65. Natural selection favors the forces of psychological denial – GARRETT HARDIN
  66. When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray.” We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land. – Desmond Tutu
  67. People want an authority to tell them how to value things, but they choose this authority not based on facts or results – Michael Burry (movie, Big Short)
  68. A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point. -Leon Festinger
  69. Every man dies, not every man truly lives. – Sonny Barger
  70. Sex is like air; it’s not important unless you aren’t getting any. – John Callahan
  71. “He was old and wise, which meant tired and disappointed…” TE Lawrence.
  72. The first duty of a man is to think for himself – Jose Marti
  73. Through money, democracy becomes its own destroyer, after money has destroyed intellect. – Oswald Spengler
  74. An educated person is one who has learned that information almost always turns out to be at best incomplete and very often false, misleading, fictitious, mendacious – just dead wrong. – Russell Baker
  75. Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help. – Alex Haley.
  76. If people cannot rise to the level of applying to ourselves the same standards we apply to others they have no right to talk about right and wrong. – Noam Chomsky
  77. I have a problem with people who take the Constitution loosely and the Bible literally. – Bill Maher
  78. Ninety-five percent of the beliefs we have stored in our minds are nothing but lies, and we suffer because we believe all these lies – Don Miguel Ruiz
  79. Writing is like getting married. One should never commit oneself until one is amazed at one’s luck – Iris Murdoch
  80. The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal – Aristotle.
  81. The duty of youth is to challenge corruption. – Kurt Cobain
  82. The more things change, the more they are the same – Alphonse Karr
  83. ….
advice, books, life, patience, work

one more time…….

oh I want to talk about running. Just like Haruki.. hehe.

because That’s about all I do.. thats somewhat productive.

this really is a great time to Run in Michigan. Low 60s in the morning.

sometimes there is a little mist. Very peaceful.

If you get your ass out of bed before 9, it’s always refreshing. You won’t regret it.

but you gotta do it. Doing it. getting up. Is getting kind of hard.

I had a little insight the other day, I guess. We often look up people… like Jim Ryun… Gerry Lindgren. and we see how fast they run. ran. what medals they earned. Wow, that’s fast.

And then last night I watched a Jack Daniels video about… about what they did to get there. and no.. that’s not something we think about too much. Look at all the work. the hundreds and thousands of miles they travelled. to get to that.. that one race. that makes them a Champion.. forever.

They always talk about delayed gratification… just wait.. just wait and things will be better.

Maybe. Maybe not.

But in life it’s really not so simple is it. Everyone gets to take a course on the law of delayed consequences, before you get to call yourself Adult… required course for Adulting. The law of delayed consequences. At some point. we get to take that course.

You know for me.. I know I have to work my ass off the next month.. 28.. 27 days. to get in shape. and then maybe I’ll run that Boston qualifying marathon… but that doesn’t happen until.. April 2026. If I get every day right. Enough work. enough Food.. enough rest.. the next 28 days. After that there’s not much to worry about. You just show up. and You do what you’ve been training for. Just do it. hehe.

But.. right now Im Anxious. I gotta get up. and Get those miles in. Every day. I gotta push myself a little harder every day. Then you run that race.

and you get to keep it. forever.

advice, life, love, patience, relationships, solitude, take it easy, value, work

Cancer.

oh wouldn’t it be nice to have cancer.

Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to go.

It’s nice! PEOPLE FEEL SORRY FOR YOU.

if things arent going well… I am doing something Wrong… they say.

well things have been kinda fucked up. and I really dont know wtf… wtf am I doing. Drinking? okay. yes. Maybe Im still drinking.

But more will be revealed! that’s also true… I guess. more is always revealed.

I discovered a new author. Christopher Lasch. historian. hehe. Cancer. Lucky. Died on Valentine’s day, did he?

You know I read this quote… yesterday. and I honestly don’t know what the hell he means. Maybe I should just get the book and see if he explains it further. Aren’t they both just SELLING something? what exactly is his point? that some things shouldn’t be for sale?? in most… states… heh.

is that what he means? I don’t know.

No, I never really was “Blazing through pussy” as one of my therapists used to say. too hard… fast… although yes I did have a nice year in Philadelphia. Philly was fun. no complaints. the last two uh… Quasi-relationships were with older gals… and I suppose there was a bit of a transfer of wealth in my direction. hehe. they weren’t bad looking, I’d do it for free… heh… but… hey the extra gratitude doesn’t hurt. I guess. I can always use more socks……. and food.

Was that really my objective? no… but how does.. Rollo say it? the “gynocratic social order” ?? is that what it’s about? Girls want what they want… and sometimes they’re even ready and willing to pay? and I really didn’t have much else going on. and all things considered… why not… it’s definitely better than the relationship I’ve been observing between my parents…. as we all know… by now.

Improper documentation of requirements always leads to many sleepless nights and angry people – ACCENTURE.

Good thing I remembered that one… hehe.

No. my only real objective for many years has been to see my father suffer horribly for making my life a living hell.

Strike 1 – Leaving Russia. You dumbass…. Strikes 2 & 3. didn’t fucking leave me ALONE when I actually had things going on… opportunities… in 2005. 2010 also. I could’ve been in a different fucking state and all he had to do was fucking LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE.

Nope. he’s got to keep fucking up my life. But. But THIS IS AMERICA. and that’s definitely 3 strikes, by my count.

and you’re a fucking piece of shit. And you will not be TRUSTED. you will just be observed. very closely. you dumb little piece of shit.

is there another way to look at it? Maybe. But I still think My view is more right than any other.

What else am I doing wrong?

the DECISION MAKERS. heh. they’re somewhere. they can open doors, I am sure. if they want. but. the doors are closed and it’s really not up to me. what the hell you really want? I did have 3 or 4 months of no drinking a couple years ago. AND NOTHING IS HAPPENING. so what the fuck do you really want. I don’t have any more fucking stories. sorry.

advice, democracy, religion, society, work

to tolerate the intolerant…

I think it was back in college that I had said once… true tolerance means you’ve got to tolerate the intolerant!!!!!!!

And I thought I was real smart. Years later… in fact not too long ago, I discovered that Karl Popper thinks I’m wrong… and now I am trying to understand his thinking… about tolerance… I’m sure he must be more right than I, because… after all, he was Karl Popper! And I’m a guy with a blog.

if we are not prepared to defend a tolerant society against the onslaught of the intolerant, then the tolerant will be destroyed, and tolerance with them…

Karl Popper

Then today I was thinking… well isn’t Tolerance kind of like Alcoholism… in that it’s Progressive. Murder is wrong. We won’t tolerate that, right? And we try to uh… keep drug use in society at a certain manageable level… I guess. Some things are Kosher… others not so much. Next I thought about religions. Well some things kind of make sense… and some things are kind of out there… I still have to get to a meeting of the Aetherius society. I know they’ve got a little lodge nearby. The aliens are coming…. I mean, as long as they’re not serving that Jonestown kool aid… I guess it’s still cool, right?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aetherius_Society

One society’s “tolerance” could be viewed… well, somewhat restrictive by others, right? I don’t know. I don’t really know what I am trying to say here… but it seemed important about an hour ago…… for some reason.

I guess I came up from a middle class background… more or less. Get through school, find a job you can tolerate, do your work. Don’t rock the boat. But then I watched that Jack Canfield movie. And he said I can have anything. ANYTHING! Just put it on the vision board. Ask, believe, receive. I started to drink in college, and eventually it was time to join AA. They told me about a loving, powerful God. Well that’s even better. At some point I started looking for this Higher power, and started tuning into Joel Osteen. Explosive Blessings! Wow. Now my expectations are REALLY high. Once in a while some asshole says something about getting a job, and I tell the fucker to go back to China. “Get a job” is not in the 12 steps. Fuck off…

By, Me
advice, business, life, money, society, value, work

Black Americans…

Sometimes I feel I must comment on this… Subject.

Honestly, I do feel lots of empathy for Black people here

I was also dragged here (America) against my will.

mostly because of Idiotic parents, but also facilitated by the US state dept. Lottery, eh? Nice.

and they all said this was a GOOD THING.

no.

Stop it. Stop dragging people here. This is not a good idea.

It’s time to stop.

Anyway. Now that we’re here.

You eventually begin to wonder how Money really works.

Some people are good at making money. Sure

But… sometimes… there are times.

The Government. decides to pull money out their ass

to protect the assets… investments… accounts of certain people… or Entitities.

They just pull money out their ass.

but. But then they turn around. and they tell you ya still gotta earn that Honest buck!

Earn the Honest buck!! in that same currency… they just pulled out their ass.

Ya gotta tell them to fuck off.

Fuck off. I didn’t even get any pussy in college.

Well. that’s what I say, Anyway. You say whatever you want.

But in that general direction.

Two Economists I follow are Chris Martenson and Aaron Clarey. They have Utubs…

Good luck.

advice, charity, communication, life, money, school, value, work

Poverty Solutions

as many of you know…. I am a University of Michigan graduate. I guess I’m pretty smart, but there were definitely classes I struggled with in Ann Arbor, so I guess I’m not as brilliant as I thought I was.

I like to check in once in a while, with my alma mater. I once asked for a million dollars (True story), and they sent a detective out here. They don’t just give out money, I guess… there’s always hoops to jump through.

Now, I haven’t actually reached out to this POVERTY SOLUTIONS group. It looks like it may just be one guy coloring excel sheets or something, but I really think the Name is a little uh…. ill-fitting, I want to say. Like everything around here, in America. lots of HOPE… not much substance.

No, Mr. Luke does have a large staff, actually. Data, data, data. STRATEGIC PROJECTS. They have a Communications Specialist and also a Senior Communications Specialist. Wow. and they’re all SOLVING POVERTY.

See, for me, being an alcoholic, homelessness became a real possibility after graduation. if it weren’t for the codependent Mom, I probably would be on the street somewhere. I wonder how many homeless University of Michigan graduates there are. I bet the Poverty Solutions director knows. I am real curious.

So. I don’t know. maybe I should reach out to them. I am just trying to imagine how that Conversation might go. He might tell me to go SEE SOMEONE (like a therapist). that’s what the Detective said when she arrived here. And I did. I saw lots of therapists. probably close to a dozen. they haven’t even gotten me sober yet.

or, maybe. GET A JOB. JUST GET A FUCKING JOB SOMEWHERE.

No, no no no no. See, that would be ME doing stuff. Everyone and their Cat tells me to get a job. That’s not very original. See, you’re the guy with the POVERTY SOLUTIONS. so Solve my Poverty!!!

How about this, how about you tell me how I can get my very Own Poverty Solutions bullshit budget, and I bet that would solve some problems. for me.

Well? How about it? Where do I sign up?

poverty.umich.edu

advice, communication, money, news, school, society, war

a quick lesson in how to think.

Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something.

Someone said it… many years ago.

a lesson in how to think… and maybe history. I’ve been sort of thinking about this since February and I think today something clicked, and maybe someone will see some value here.

so my thesis here is that the Universities of Yale and Cambridge are engaged in the activity of Propaganda. This is my third post on the blog about the Subject, and hopefully the last. It would be nice I think for everyone if the conflict wraps up soon.

Propaganda, defined by Oxford as information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote or publicize a particular political cause or point of view… I think. yes, I copy pasted that from somewhere.

Perhaps this a case of Genuine ignorance, but come on, you’re a Cambridge professor for fuck’s sake. Aren’t you?

The language that THEY are using is… Russian Empire… Imperialist ambitions. Aggression aggression aggression. And I have to say that’s a new sort of idea for me, when it comes to Ukraine. My grandparents had a little apartment near the Sea of Azov. I’d spend my summers there. In the early 1990s. I don’t remember any Aggression. There just wasn’t any aggression, back then, in Mariupol. We’d go to the beach and eat cotton candy and stuff. That’s what I remember. Had a pretty happy childhood, actually, until they dragged me to the USA. I have not seen a lot of Mr. Putin’s declarations of his imperialist ambitions. I’ve seen him talk a lot about Ukraine and Russia as being friendly nations. Both were part of the USSR a little over 30 years ago, after all. The Crimea referendum of 2014 is Some evidence of that. Isn’t it? That’s a big chunk of the story these “Historians” keep trying to ignore. Or misrepresent.

You’re trying to attribute Incorrect Motives to Putin, or Russia… or whoever it is. I’m not sure why, but that is my conclusion. And why do you keep nourishing these resentments, instead of looking for a real way out? Why?

Why?

So, I will ask You, Mr Rory Finnin, Mr Tim Snyder, where the Fuck did this Aggression come from? Are you sure it’s all Russia? Mr. Putin can also show you lots of evidence of Nato shit getting pumped into Ukraine. I can see how he might view that as very unfriendly. Very, very unfriendly.

Mearsheimer predicted years ago that Ukraine will be wrecked and here we are. But don’t play dumb and act like you didn’t see this coming. and like you had nothing to do with it. who the fuck do you work for? Yale, or MIC?

Seriously.

advice, business, law, money, society, solitude, value, work

People are Real. “money” isn’t…..

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn’t have a job if he was any smarter. (Gotti or Gottman… I’m actually not sure. One of those… starts with a “G”)

Money is Imaginary!

Clint Rogers

Indeed, the interests of the oppressors lie in ‘changing the consciousness of the oppressed, not the situation which oppresses them’; for the more the oppressed can be led to adapt to that situation, the more easily they can be dominated.

Paulo Freire

Well, we all get to decide for ourselves what’s real or not, I guess. Jordan Peterson says Pain is real. Yes. Philip K. Dick? Real is that which doesn’t go away, when you stop believing it. So you figure it out. What’s real. What’s bullshit. I’m no revolutionary. I’m just throwing some ideas out there. I just want a BOOK DEAL, and I want to go back to Russia. Really, I do. I’ve been screaming about this for years on Facebook. But I need that book deal. That Snowden fucker didn’t even finish college as far as I know. He got an Oliver Stone film, too. Pretty sexy.

But, Im still going to go ahead and say that People are More real than “Money” – Crypto… Dollars…. Rubles. Fucking whatever it is. People are more real than money.

I’m actually very grateful to have worked at the US Dept. of Labor after college in 2009. Met lots of interesting characters. the “Boss” there was really good at kissing ass and playing dumb. He talked a lot about being PROFESSIONAL, which I think means “in Denial”

Just think… the FLSA law, which was my main area of study while I was there, that stipulates overtime compensation for All workers in America was passed in 1938. But even these days…. so many business owners seem to be confused about when they need to pay their people “time and a half”

They’d rather pay a lolyer to talk to me for a few hours, just to get clear on this simple idea of “time and a half for hours over forty.” well sometimes it was a little more complex, but usually not. When someone steals a fistful of cash, we don’t seem to be confused about the situation, you know? We’ll pull a gun on someone if they take that Money. But when people’s sweat and tears…. are shed, and some asshole’s trying to muddy the situation, we need to BE PROFESSIONAL and have lots of meetings, and interviews, and really, really, really get clear on the fact that people are exploited. Why?

I had years of talking to therapists and social workers who kept trying to talk me into doing some bullshit job because I haven’t worked in years… or because I caught some bullshit misdemeanor somewhere. And I intuitively knew that I had to push back on their bullshit. You ain’t gonna get away with this, you lying piece of shit. But only this year, did I come across the Paulo Freire book, which explained to me my intuition. So think about it, for a while. I’ve said this elsewhere and I’ll say it again. I’m done acting. I’ll live in a tent if I have to, but you ain’t paying me enough to be an actor. I got skills, you know? I got 4 years of college drinking under my belt.