News Factoids for Fourth Quarter 2018

October 2018: The Mayor of Albuquerque, New Mexico announced that Netflix is about to complete its purchase of ABQ Studios [est. 2007] in the Mesa del Sol district; Netflix plans to increase its presence here and make the city a 'production hub'.

61 percent of Trump's twitter followers are not real, according to a new analysis by SparkToro online marketing company — per article at newsweek.com

The number of mobile phones on the planet - 7.2 billion - now exceeds the world’s population.

funny new internet spam cliché: "Your urgent is needed"

Nationally, the November 2018 voter turnout was 50 percent higher than in the last midterm election and, importantly, millions more young people voted.

The draft version of The Contract for The Web was released by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in November 2018. "The web was designed to bring people together and make knowledge freely available. Everyone has a role to play to ensure [that] the web serves humanity. By committing to [these] principles, governments, companies, and citizens around the world can help protect the open web as a public good and a basic right for everyone."

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

POEM for 2019

Trump and Putin went up the hill

To fetch some laundered money

Trump fell down

And lost his crown

And none of this mess is the least bit funny

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

December 2018 Quotations (50)

"The greatest threat facing the United States is its own President."
~~ Washington Post Editorial Board, 12/2018

"Freedom is never given; it is won."
~~ Civil Rights leader A. Philip Randolph [1889-1979]

"Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to p*ss us off."
~~ 86-year-old woman in Letter to New York Times

“Trump is a stupid man’s idea of a smart person, a poor man’s idea of a rich person, and a weak man’s idea of a strong man.”
~~ Fran Lebowitz

"Before you heal someone, ask him if he’s willing to give up the things that made him sick."
~~ Ancient Greek physician Hippocrates of Cos [c. 460 - c. 370 BCE]

“Peace has victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.”
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed—if all records told the same tale—then the lie passed into history and became truth." — George Orwell, in "1984"
~~ J.K. Rowling retweet to White House spokesperson Sarah Sanders

“We’re in a hell of a mess in every direction. Respect for government, respect for the Supreme Court, respect for the president, it’s all gone. Even respect for the Federal Reserve.“
~~ feisty former U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker

'found' text for T-shirt: garaged when not in use

"Donald Trump believes that Truth can be multiple choice: today is Tuesday or Friday or Sunday, it doesn't matter, it's whatever he says."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda."
~~ W.E.B. DuBois [1868-1963]

"Donald Trump and every congressman and senator who take campaign donations from the N.R.A. have blood on their hands."
~~ Norman Kolpas

"Once you wake up thought in a man, you can never put it to sleep again."
~~ writer Zora Neale Hurston [1891-1960]

"Just because a problem is obvious doesn’t mean it’s going to get solved."
~~ pro blogger Matt O'Brien

"If you're serious about changing your life, you'll find a way. If not, you'll find an excuse."
~~ author Jen Sincero

“There is no power in the world that can stop the forward march of free men and women when they are joined in the solidarity of human brotherhood.”
~~ labor leader Walter Reuther [1907-70]

"The obstinacy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinacy of folly and inanity."
~~ Harriet Beecher Stowe [1811-96]

"No blessing, no good, can follow in the path trodden by slavery."
~~ Dorothea Dix [1802-87]

"Progress is rewriting your own story."
~~ Audi TV ad 12/2018

"It is human nature to try to impose order and form on even the most defiantly chaotic and amorphous stuff of life . . . Some of us wage war. Others write books."
~~ novelist Lisa Halliday

"Many people, especially politicians, say we can’t shift from fossil fuels overnight. That may be true, but if we don’t start, we’ll never get there."
~~ Canadian eco-journalist David Suzuki

"As my grandfather would say, if she had another brain it'd be lonesome."
~~ folklore insult, source unknown

"Future historians will have to end every paragraph about Trump with the disclaimer, 'Seriously, no kidding, he really said that sh*t'."
~~ columnist John Sheirer, on Facebook

"The only normal people [that] you know are the ones [that] you don't know very well."
~~ Alfred Adler [1870-1937]

"Whatever our souls are made of, his and mine are the same."
~~ Emily Brontë [1818-48]

"Your task is not to seek for love! But to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it."
~~ Persian poet & mystic Rumi [1207-73]

"The government should be in the business of keeping families together, not tearing them apart."
~~ Sen. Kamala Harris

"Religion is at its best when it makes us ask hard questions of ourselves. It is at its worst when it deludes us into thinking [that] we have all the answers for everybody else."
~~ American poet Archibald Macleish [1892-1982]

"There is a separation of colored people from white people in the United States. That separation is not a disease of the colored people. It is a disease of white people. I do not intend to be quiet about it."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"The history of human achievement is that people have done remarkable things from very improbable beginnings."
~~ Sir Ken Robinson

"No person who can read is ever successful at cleaning out an attic."
~~ Ann Landers {Eppie Lederer 1918-2002}

"We are now in a second Gilded Age. Giant firms at the center of the American economy are distorting the market and our politics. We must resurrect antitrust."
~~ economist Robert B. Reich

"In a 'you and me' world, when you are successful, whole, validated, and fulfilled, I win."
~~ philosopher Werner Erhard

"If you want something [that] you've never had, you must be willing to do something [that] you've never done."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"Once weapons were manufactured to fight wars. Now wars are manufactured to sell weapons."
~~ Arundhati Roy

"Republicans have been pointing out that the Democratic [Party] platform contains no mention of God. Neither does the U.S. Constitution."
~~ TV news anchor Rachel Maddow

"As long as our country's leadership is so appalling and so corrupt, I'l be speaking out at every venue. To be silent in the face of such villainy is to be complicit."
~~ Robert De Niro

"Weakness is provocative."
~~ Donald Rumsfeld

"A great nation ought not to be a hammer, but a magnet."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]

"Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"We explore because we are human and we want to know."
~~ Stephen W. Hawking [1942-2018]

"Always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented."
~~ Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel [1928-2016]

"Donald Trump isn't a President. He's a motivational speaker for racists."
~~ John Pavlovitz

"Q: How are we to treat others? A: There are no others."
~~ Hindu sage Ramana Maharshi [1879-1950]

"I cannot bear to associate with the ordinary run of people. I have to surround myself with individuals who for the most part are more than a trifle insane."
~~ Wallace Thurman [1902-34], considered a member of the The Harlem Renaissance

"My three favorite things are eating my family and not using commas."
~~ outdoor marquee at Dunn Lumber of Washington State

"We cannot and need not eradicate our ego; rather, we must make sure [that] it is a serving ego and not a deserving ego."
~~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama

"Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth."
~~ Gautama Buddha [5th Century BCE]

"Reason is the only way of talking about a problem that is universal."
~~ Sam Harris

"You better cut the pizza into four pieces, because I'm not hungry enough to eat six."
~~ baseball great Yogi Berra [1925-2015]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

"I Am Spartacus" Game

There is a new game being played out across America and elsewhere.

When someone is asked what their name is when ordering at Starbucks or McDonald's or Arby's, et cetera, they tell the sales clerk 'Spartacus'. Then when the order is called out as ready, the first player stands and raises a fist and says loudly "I am Spartacus". What makes it a game is seeing how many other customers do likewise: raising their fist and saying "I am Spartacus".

For more information, visit the Spartacus [111–71 BCE] entry at Wikipedia.

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Recipe of The Month: Thanksgiving Dinner For Singles

Thanksgiving Dinner For Singles
This meal is quick and easy, and includes planned leftovers.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups water
2 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup dried or frozen cranberry pieces or raisins
1 or 2 green onions, sliced
1 pkg Buddig deli-sliced turkey meat, chopped
1 6 oz. pkg Cornbread Stuffing Mix (Albertsons sells Signature brand)
(This recipe is modified, so measurements are not the same as printed on package.)

INSTRUCTIONS:
1) Add water and butter and fruit pieces to a saucepan with a lid; bring to low boil.
2) Add onion and meat pieces; stir.
3) Add dry stuffing mix; stir and turn off heat; cover.
4) Let sit for 5 minutes.
5) Remove half of stuffing to large plate; replace cover.
6) Eat while warm.

This recipe makes a meal for now plus leftovers for tomorrow. (Or meals for two.)

You can reheat the leftover stuffing in the same pan
or remove stuffing to a plate and reheat it in a microwave.

You're welcome.

NEW MEXICO DID THE 'BLUE TSUNAMI'

NM Democrats took back the Governor & Lt. Governor positions.
NM Democrats re-elected Senator Martin Heinrich.
NM Democrats took all three Congressional seats.

All the way down the ticket, Democrats won!
We kept both the state Legislature and Senate in control of Democrats.
Even won the big fight for State Land Commissioner.
And NM Democrats put a Latina and a female Native American in Congress.

Did any other states do this?

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

snippet from poet Langston Hughes [1901-67]

snippet from "Let America Be America Again" [1935] by poet Langston Hughes

The steel of freedom does not stain . . .

We, the people, must redeem
The land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
The mountains and the endless plain --
All, all the stretch of these great green states --
And make America again!

October 2018 Quotations (56)

"We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

"Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering - and it's all over much too soon."
~~ Woody Allen

"You're dead if you aim only for kids. Adults are only kids grown up, anyway."
~~ Walt Disney [1901-66]

"Never think that war, no matter how necessary, nor how justified, is not a crime."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"If we're serious about preventing catastrophic warming, we can't dig any new coal mines, drill any new fields, build any more pipelines. Not a single one."
~~ eco-activist Bill McKibben

"Power is like being a lady . . . If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."
~~ Margaret Thatcher [1925-2013], former U.K. Prime Minister

"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing you can do is keep your mind young."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

"Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]

"Only a fool would try to deprive men and women of their right to join a union of their choice."
~~ Gen. Dwight D. 'Ike' Eisenhower [1890-1969]

"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart."
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

"Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"Make perfect art and you will be admired. Make imperfect art and you will be loved."
~~ experimental filmmaker Jack Smith [1932-89]

"Looks like they're gonna do it, Kavanaugh on the court: women of America, consider yourself boofed."
~~ TV talk show host Bill Maher

"Work hard in silence, let your success be your noise.”
~~ musician Frank Ocean

“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty… I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.”
~~ Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919]

"There can be no peace without justice and respect for human rights."
~~ lawyer Irene Khan

"A leader is best when people barely know [that] he exists; when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

"The most important persuasion tool you have in your entire arsenal is integrity."
~~ salesman & speaker Zig Ziglar [1926-2012]

"All political power emanates from the barrel of a gun."
~~ Chairman Mao Tse-tung [1893-1976], in 1927

"[Donald Trump is] the biggest moronic liar America has ever known."
~~ Truth Matters, on Facebook

"K.K.K. stands for KnucKle-draggers of AmeriKa."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Don't brood. Get on with living and loving. You don't have forever."
~~ author & speaker Felice Leonardo 'Leo' Buscaglia, PhD [1924-98]

Dunning Kruger Effect: "Never expect rational debate with someone who thinks taxes are theft."

"Either everyone counts in America or no one does."
~~ Beto O'Rourke

"The divine right of kings has been replaced by the divine right of wealth – and it looks almost exactly the same."
~~ author Naomi Klein

"What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance?"
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"The most tragic thing in the world is a man of genius who is not a man of honor."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]

"When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant."
{Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826] never said this, so I might as well do so} ~~ G.E. Nordell

"Honesty and integrity are by far the most important assets of an entrepreneur."
~~ salesman & speaker Zig Ziglar [1926-2012]

"Clean up your act . . . Try to act Presidential"
~~ tweet response by John O. Brennan to tweet by {hashtag} realDonaldTrump

"For 2 years [Trump] has been pushing hate, bigotry, and violence from his podium. It's way past time for this to STOP!"
~~ Help STOP Truth Decay, on Facebook

"Knowledge has an infinite scope, and could take us across the galaxy."
~~ physicist David Deutsch of U.K.

"If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all . . . and don't write it on Facebook either!"
~~ Anonymous

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."
~~ novelist Anne Lamott

"Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on."
~~ Louis L'Amour [1908-88]

"Travel and tell no one, live a true love story and tell no one, live happily and tell no one - people ruin beautiful things."
~~ Kahlil Gibran [1883-1931]

"Your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. That's not pro-life. That's pro-birth."
~~ Sister Joan D. Chittister, O.S.B.

"We live in capitalism, its power seems unescapable - but then, so did the divine right of kings."
~~ fantasy author Ursula K. Le Guin [1929-2018]

"The power of the people is stronger than the people in power."
~~ internet activist Wael Ghonim

"There is a special place in hell for women who do not help other women."
~~ Madeleine Albright

"If we become too timid to fight for what is right and just, we will lose in the legislatures what we have won on the picket lines."
~~ labor leader James R. 'Jimmy' Hoffa [1913-75]

"Whatever you do, never run back to what broke you."
~~ musician Frank Ocean

"When you stop treating people like a waste of time or a dollar sign, then you can begin to add real value to your life."
~~ Kora-lea Vidal

"I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement in the U.S. that thinks Americans are not selfish enough."
~~ Christopher Hitchens [1949-2011]

"Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature, unaware that the Nature [that] he is destroying is this God [that] he is worshipping."
~~ Canadian scientist Hubert Reeves

"Why join the navy if you can be a pirate?"
~~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

"Humanity is acquiring all the right technology for the wrong reasons."
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]

"Ideas won't keep; something must be done about them."
~~ Alfred North Whitehead, OM FRS [1861-1947]

"Scientists and artists are the world's noticers. Their job is simply to notice what other people cannot."
~~ physicist Frank Oppenheimer [1912-85]

"The whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room."
~~ Orson Welles [1915-85]

"Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul."
~~ Gen. Douglas MacArthur [1880-1964]

"When you are face to face with a difficulty, you are up against a discovery."
~~ British physicist William Thomson, Lord Kelvin [1824-1907]

"The first half of our lives is ruined by our parents and the second half by our children."
~~ Clarence Darrow [1857-1938]

"Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
~~ Frederick Douglass [1818-95]

"The truth is like a lion. You don't have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself."
~~ Saint Augustine [354-430 C.E.] of Hippo

"Today is the word for winners and tomorrow is the word for losers."
~~ motivational speaker Robert Kiyosaki

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Honoring Journalism

If sanity is ever restored in Washington, DC there should be a movement for a federally-funded War Correspondents Memorial at Arlington or on the National Mall. They risked as much as any soldier, and usually carried no weapon but their pencil or pen. Names to include begin with Ernie Pyle [1900-45] and Edward R. Murrow [1908-65]. Maybe it should be given extra significance with a Tomb of the Unknown War Correspondent.

Working Minds Essay #115: Pre-Election Report

Google has changed their ranking algorithm so drastically in the last year that I am reaping next to no commission money from the Amazon links on the 1,600 hand-coded pages on my five online bookstores and the other sub-sites of my various domains. Before the 2008 G.O.P. Economic Meltdown, I earned $100 in some months; then payments fell because folks were buying less, so that last year I made $30 some months; this year the algorithm changes have shrunk my commissions to single digit dollars – daily results show no sales at all for two and three weeks at a time. (Amazon's associates fee schedule pays 4% to 6% commission on each purchase from my links depending on the product category.)

I have tried several programs and products to increase SEO ranking on my websites, but it isn't happening. Google Plus was announced as being shut down this month and in the process of removing Google+ code from a dozen or so of my 1,600 pages, I discovered a recommend-ation by the Manta.com business website that joining Google Small Business was a good thing to do to increase SEO ranking. I have done so, but it is early yet to see results.

So working all day to add more content on my websites is not cost effective at this time. This happens to coincide with increased activity among non-family connections on Facebook. Facebook is the number two time-waster on the internet (Pinterest is the #1 time-waster); Facebook is a surveillance engine and its availability as social media is secondary: while Facebook is active on your PC or laptop or PDA their software captures every keyboard stroke that you make.

However, I have gotten into the habit or practice over the last several weeks of spending almost all of my online work time using Facebook to spread the word to promote Democratic Party candidates and democratic/progressive memes.

My favorite politician is Martin Heinrich, the U.S. Senator for New Mexico who is up for re-election to his second term. Republican opponent Mark Rich is weak and has few fans, but former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson just got into the race and he is well-funded as a Libertarian Party candidate by the Koch Brothers and other out-of-state money. Kool-aid Republican trolls abound on Facebook, with several especially dimwitted out-of-state trolls trying to damage Martin Heinrich.

In indulging my bitterest ad hoc humor to respond to these trolls, I developed a bunch of memes that I use to stomp on them, 'with prejudice'.

Here are those memes and sayings and factoids, for use by readers of this blog:

1) Blue Tsunami or fascism - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or economic disaster - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or voter suppression - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or environmental disaster - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or gun violence - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or torture & murder - CHOOSE !!
Blue Tsunami or racism - CHOOSE !!

I select two or three items from the above list and post as a comment; these get lots of Likes and red hearts.

2) "Zero Tolerance for Pollution in New Mexico"

3) “If the Republican Party had anything of value to offer the American voter, they would not need to lie and cheat and steal to win elections.” ~~~ G.E. Nordell

4) "The battle against ignorance and apathy and magical thinking is a full time job." ~~ G.E. Nordell

5) "FASCISM is when the corporations and the military take the government away from the people" ~~ Benito Mussolini, 1926

this event took place in the USA with the execrable Citizens United decision of January 2010 and then the GOP gameplan Secret Powell Memorandum of 1971 was fulfilled the day that Emperor Trump took office -- and now SCOTUS is locked in for the next 30 years

6) The Gamble v. US case goes to SCOTUS this week -- without Kavanaugh, the 4 to 4 vote lets the matter hang – WITH flunky Kavanaugh, the law will be changed so that anyone that Emperor Trump pardons for federal crimes cannot be charged for state crimes – THAT is why the hurry-up and the cover-up – Kavanaugh is the Trump Crime Family's get-out-of-jail-free card !!

We have but 20 days until the November 6th national election – local elections are equally important this time and always – which may just be our last chance to restore the Constitution as the basis of law and government in the United States.

Blue Tsunami or fascism - CHOOSE !!

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

The Problem Is The National Debt, NOT The Budget Deficit

When Reagan took office, the National Debt was ONE TRILLION DOLLARS, which included the entire Vietnam War.

At the end of Reagan-Bush (12 years), the National Debt was FOUR TRILLION - the GOP quadrupled it.

Clinton did lots that I don't like, but his fiscal policies shine: in his first term the increase was reduced to 25% and at the end of his second term he handed a BUDGET SURPLUS to George W.

George W. squandered the surplus and quadrupled the National Debt from $5.7 TRILLION to $25 TRILLION -- George W. Bush ran up the most debt of any person in the history of mankind.

Barack Obama saved the world economy before the GOP managed to prevent all his further proposals; in any case, Obama held the National Debt steady at $25T.

The idiot Trump has already handed $5.8T in loot to the One Percent in only 20 months, it simply gets added to the National Debt -- AND -- the GOP is now coming after your Social Security and otherwise working to bankrupt the country.

Blue Tsunami or economic disaster - CHOOSE !!

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

TRUMP DENIES HIS OWN SELF

Emperor Trump accused Sen. Elizabeth Warren of falsely claiming Native American ancestry, and promised a million dollars to the charity of her choice if she could prove it. Warren released DNA results today proving that she had Native American ancestors back "6 to 10 generations". Even though many tapes exist of Trump's accusation and promise, he denies having said what is on the tapes.

So the only conclusion possible here is identity theft: Somebody is going around pretending to be Donald Trump! The problem though is how to determine which is the real clown and which is the fake clown.

{ my name is G.E. Nordell and I approved this message }
Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

RECIPE OF THE MONTH: Anytime Veggie Meal

Anytime Veggie Meal

one 8½ oz. can whole kernel corn
one 7 oz. can mushrooms, stems & pieces
butter
garlic powder

1) Choose a medium size microwaveable soup or ramekin dish.
2) Open and drain the canned corn and spread into dish.
3) Sprinkle garlic powder on corn to taste.
4) Place several dabs of butter on top of corn.
5) Open and drain the canned mushrooms and spread atop the corn.
6) Heat in microwave. (My low-power microwave oven does the job at 2½ minutes.)
7) Serve while hot.

The GOP Hurry to Subvert Supreme Court

Why the hurry by Republicans? The Gamble v. US case goes to SCOTUS next week – without Kavanaugh, the 4 to 4 vote would let the matter hang; WITH flunky Kavanaugh on the court, the law will be changed so that anyone that Emperor Trump pardons for federal crimes cannot be charged for state crimes – THAT is why the hurry-up and the cover-up: Kavanaugh is the Trump Crime Family's get-out-of-jail-free card !!

September 2018 Quotations (55)

"Make no mistake: Brett Kavanaugh’s a liar. He lies about little things. He lies about big things. He lies under oath."
~~ editorial in the Boston Globe newspaper

"Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."
~~ John F. Kennedy [1917-63]

"Give to every other human being every right that you claim for yourself."
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809], in "The Age of Reason"

"Fascism is cured by reading, and racism is cured by traveling."
~~ poet & philosopher Miguel de Unamuno [1864-1936]

"Wow. I'm in the middle of a story about a rotten president who is about to be impeached. This is a once in a lifetime event!"
~~ reporter Bob Woodward, in 1972

"When you know who you are; when your mission is clear and you burn with the inner fire of unbreakable will, no cold can touch your heart, no deluge can dampen your purpose. You know that you are alive."
~~ Chief Seattle [1786?-1866]

"If anyone wants to clap, now is the time to do it."
~~ character Eeyore (a friend of Winnie the Pooh)

“I am a strong individualist by personal habit, inheritance, and conviction; but it is a mere matter of common sense to recognize that the State, the community, the citizens acting together, can do a number of things better than if they were left to individual action.”
~~ Theodore Roosevelt [1858-1919]

"Kavanaugh is a corporate supremacist to a fanatic level of protecting corporate cruelty and greed. Giving him an unaccountable lifetime position on the Court will weaken our democracy and empower the corporate state."
~~ Ralph Nader, in September 2018

“We’re supposed to stand up to discrimination. And we’re sure as heck supposed to stand up clearly & unequivocally to Nazi sympathizers. How hard can that be, saying that Nazis are bad?"
~~ Barack Obama

"I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"The greatest gift [that] you ever give is your honest self."
~~ children's TV host Fred Rogers [1928-2003]

“Building bridges takes us further than building walls.”
~~ Dr. DaShanne Stokes

"We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn."
~~ cultural anthropologist Mary Catherine Bateson

"Charisma is not so much getting people to like you as getting people to like themselves when you're around."
~~ blogger Robert Brault

“If I do not believe as you believe, it proves that you do not believe as I believe, and that is all that it proves.”
~~ Thomas Paine [1737-1809]

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

"Blood is thicker than water? So is toothpaste."
~~ Steven Martin Cohen, on Facebook 2018

"Does it seem funny to you that the same folks who complain when anybody mentions Hitler are the same crowd that worships dictator-wannabee Trump?"
~~ G.E. Nordell

"That was the heart of the problem: every choice made sense from some vantage point.”
~~ Jacob M. Appel

"Adapt to that which you can't prevent. Prevent that to which you can't adapt."
~~ eco-activist Bill McKibben

"The world has arrived at an age of cheap complex devices of great reliability; and something is bound to come of it."
~~ engineer Vannevar Bush [1890-1974]

“The world is most consistent with purposeful creation.”
~~ Nobel-laureate Arno Penzias

“The art and science of asking questions is the source of all knowledge.”
~~ novelist Thomas Berger [1924-2014]

"Beware of altruism. It is based on self-deception, the root of all evil."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]

"Divide each difficulty into as many parts as is feasible and necessary to resolve it."
~~ French/Dutch philosopher René Descartes [1596-1650]

"Belief is a moral act for which the believer is to be held responsible."
~~ playwright Lillian Hellman [1905-84]

"Science fiction is literary fiction with the lid blown off."
~~ Robin Winter

"The real purpose of Socialism is precisely to advance beyond the predatory phase of human development."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"Education is not something [that] you can finish."
~~ author Isaac Asimov [1920-92]

"My mission, should I choose to accept it, is to find peace with exactly who and what I am. To take pride in my thoughts, my appearance, my flaws - and to stop this incessant worrying that I can't be loved as I am."
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

"We all require and want respect, man or woman, black or white. It's our basic human right."
~~ Aretha Franklin [1942-2018]

"Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]

"Artists use lies to tell the truth while politicians use them to cover the truth up."
~~ from "V Is For Vendetta" [2006]

"An elective despotism is not the government [that] we fought for."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"All [that] tyranny needs to gain a foothold is for people of good conscience to remain silent."
~~ Edmund Burke [1729-97]

"Totalitarianism has many forms . . ."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"In the long run, the public interest depends on private virtue."
~~ James Q. Wilson [1931-2012]

"Men can only be happy when they do not assume that the object of life is happiness."
~~ George Orwell [1903-50]

"If they do not give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair."
~~ Cong. Shirley Chisholm [1934-2005]

"It's not a principle until it costs you money."
~~ advertising pioneer William Bernbach [1911-82]

"If you can go through life without experiencing pain, you probably haven't been born yet."
~~ playwright Neil Simon [1927-2018]

"The reason [that] I talk to myself is because I'm the only one whose answers I accept."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]

"We must talk about poverty because people insulated by their own comfort lose sight of it."
~~ activist Dorothy Day [1897-1980]

"Compassion for animals is intimately connected with goodness of character, and it may be confidently asserted that he who is cruel to animals cannot be a good man."
~~ Arthur Schopenhauer [1788-1860]

"I think [that] the environment should be put in the category of our national security. Defense of our resources is just as important as defense abroad. Otherwise, what is there to defend?"
~~ Robert Redford

"You know [that] great things are coming when everything seems to be going wrong. Old energy is clearing out for new energy to enter. Be patient!"
~~ motivational speaker Idil Ahmed

"Only a fool would try to deprive men and women of their right to join a union of their choice."
~~ Gen. Dwight D. 'Ike' Eisenhower [1890-1969]

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you 'til it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."
~~ Harriet Beecher Stowe [1811-96]

"The road to wisdom is paved with excess. The mark of a true writer is their ability to mystify the familiar and familiarize the strange."
~~ Walt Whitman [1819-92]

"I don't care how much talent a team has. If the boys don't think tough, practice tough, and live tough, how can they play tough on Saturday?"
~~ football coach Paul William 'Bear' Bryant [1913-83]

"We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words."
~~ John Fowles [1926-2005]

"You will be too much for some people. Those aren't your people."
~~ Glennon Doyle Melton

"Do not judge my path, you haven't walked in my shoes . . . or ridden my broom."
~~ pagan poet A.M. Galdorcraeft

"Everyone is born a genius, but the process of living de-geniuses them."
~~ R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Kavanaugh hearings

Joseph N. Welch stood up to Sen. Joseph McCarthy at the Senate Army-McCarthy hearings on June 9, 1954, responding "Have you no decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

This totally applies to the Republican Party in 2018.

News Factoids for Third Quarter 2018

Germany produces 85% of its electric power from renewables.

MAKES SENSE TO ME: When you’re stressed, you eat ice cream, cake, chocolate, and sweets. Why? Because stressed spelled backwards is desserts.

Americans own 46% of the world's 1 billion guns, per U.N. report.
~~ headline at TIME Magazine

U.S. drug companies increased prices for 104 drugs by an average of 31.5% (!!) in June.

Facebook says that posts on my account have 300 'likes' (7/2018) - up 100 since May.

Many open American jobs are going begging just now because positions that require a bachelor's degree are offering $10-$12 per hour.

A survey in February 2016 found that 20 percent of Donald Trump supporters think that ending slavery was a bad idea.

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

August 2018 Quotations (54)

"A civilization is not destroyed by wicked people; it is not necessary that people be wicked but only that they be spineless."
~~ James Baldwin [1924-87]

“Competing truths . . . are no longer the primary threat to American culture. Competing lies are.”
~~ Megan Garber, staff writer at The Atlantic Magazine

"That seems to me the great American danger we're all in, that we'll bargain away the experience of being alive for the appearance of it."
~~ Mike Nichols [1931-2014]

“Better to be strong than pretty and useless.”
~~ author Lilith Saintcrow

"Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

“I was not born to be forced. I will breathe after my own fashion. Let us see who is the strongest.”
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]

Collingridge Dilemma: “When change is easy, the need for it cannot be foreseen; when the need for change is apparent, change has become expensive, difficult, and time consuming.”
~~ David Collingbridge [1945-2005] of U.K. - in 1980

"We are living at a time when creeds and ideologies vary and clash. But the gospel of human sympathy is universal and eternal."
~~ Samuel Hopkins Adams [1871-1958]

“Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book.”
~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero [106-43 B.C.E.]

“Since childhood is a time when kids prepare to be grownups, I think it makes a lot of sense to completely traumatize your children. Gets ‘em ready for the real world.”
~~ comedian George Carlin [1937-2008]

“The term 'working mother' is redundant.”
~~ columnist Erma Bombeck [1927-96]

"The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer."
~~ sci-fi author Harlan Ellison [1934-2018]

“There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One of these is roots, the other, wings.”
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

“If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers.”
~~ E.W. Howe [1853-1937]

“It's being here now that's important. There's no past and there's no future. Time is a very misleading thing. All there is ever, is the now. We can gain experience from the past, but we can't relive it; and we can hope for the future, but we don't know if there is one.”
~~ musical legend George Harrison 1943-2001]

“Forgiveness means that you do not hold others responsible for your experiences.”
~~ Gary Zukav

“Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
~~ Coco Chanel [1883-1971]

“I don’t really want to become normal, average, standard. I want merely to gain in strength, in the courage to live out my life more fully, enjoy more, experience more. I want to develop even more original and more unconventional traits”
~~ Anaïs Nin [1903-77]

"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you."
~~ theologian Louis B. Smedes [1921-2001]

"May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]

"Everyone wants to be on a championship team but no one wants to come to practice."
~~ Dallas Cowboys football coach Tom Landry [1924-2000]

"It is easier to do nothing by the sea than anywhere else."
~~ E.F. Benson [1867-1940]

"Live neither in the past nor in the future, but let each day absorb all your interest, energy and enthusiasm. The best preparation for tomorrow is to live today superbly well."
~~ Sir William Osler [1849-1919]

“May we all remember [that] our lives are not measured by the number of years and days [that] we exist, but by what we
accomplish while we do live, and the good [that] we may render to our fellow man.”
~~ Henry Wells [1805-78], in a speech at Yale

"As a single footstep will not make a path on earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]

"The secret to a long life is knowing when to pull the rip cord."
~~ 'Non Sequitur' newspaper cartoon by Wiley

"There's nothing worse than a hillbilly with a hit record."
~~ one of the backup musicians for Johnny Paycheck [1938-2003]

"Celebrity is a mask that eats into the face."
~~ author John Updike [1932-2009]

"People really don't have to give you anything, so appreciate what people give you."
~~ musical legend Aretha Franklin [1942-2018]

"Be excellent to each other."
~~ 'Bill and Ted', comic movie characters

“Love does not begin and end the way we seem to think it does. Love is a battle, love is a war; love is a growing up.”
~~ James Baldwin [1924-87]

“One is loved because one is loved. No reason is needed for loving.”
~~ Brasilian author Paulo Coelho

“We're all fools, all the time. It's just we're a different kind each day."
~~ Ray Bradbury [1920-2012], in "The Illustrated Man" [1951]

“Love doesn't just sit there, like a stone, it has to be made, like bread; remade all the time, made new.”
~~ Ursula K. Le Guin

"Substantive fiscal policy work is essential, but all the good policy thinking in the world won’t matter unless the politics works. Without good politics, the policies won’t be implemented."
~~ Robert E. Rubin, a co-chairman emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations, was U.S. Treasury Secretary from 1995 to 1999.

“I wish all of you great adventures, good company, and lives as lucky as mine."
~~ Sen. John McCain [1936-2018]

“Gods and politics are the tools with which the godless and unprincipled manipulate the gullible.”
~~ author Janet E. Morris

“There are two rules for success . . . 1: Never reveal everything [that] you know.”
~~ Ylond Miles-Davis

“Death is lighter than a feather. Duty, heavier than a mountain.”
~~ Robert Jordan [1948-2007], in "The Eye of the World" [1990 novel]

“If the ending is not happy, the story is not finished.”
~~ fantasy author J.P. Leck, in "The Strangely Undying" [2014 novel]

“They did not know it was impossible, so they did it.”
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

”I'm back . . . and you knew I was coming. On my way here I passed a cinema with the sign 'The Mummy Returns'.”
~~ former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [1925-2013]

"Global warming is no longer a philosophical threat, no longer a furure threat, no longer a threat at all. It's our reality."
~~ eco-activist Bill McKibben

"To pursue science is not to disparage things of the spirit."
~~ engineer Vannevar Bush [1890-1974] Page

“Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.”
~~ Carl Sagan [1934-96]

“Research is what I'm doing when I don't know what I'm doing.”
~~ rocket scientist Wernher von Braun [1912-77]

“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.”
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62] — in "Walden and Other Writings", 1854

"The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues."
~~ René Descartes [1596-1650]

"We have spent the last 35-plus years deregulating so many parts of our economy that one would swear Republicans take Jesus’ statement that 'The poor will always be with you' as a commandment."
~~ Brian Wade Bough

“Nothing in life is more liberating than to fight for a cause larger than yourself, something that encompasses you but is not defined by your existence alone.”
~~ Sen. John McCain [1936-2018]

“It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not.”
~~ Nobel-laureate André Gide [1869-1951]

“When the situation is hopeless, there’s nothing to worry about.”
~~ eco-activist Edward Abbey [1927-89]

"We should be draining the swamp and protecting public lands, not the other way around."
~~ Martin Heinrich — U.S. Senator for New Mexico

"There's no Republican Party anymore, there's only Trump and Fox News."
~~ Berkeley economist Robert B. Reich

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

July 2018 Quotations (59)

"I have long believed [that] the 2018 elections will almost certainly be the most consequential midterms of my lifetime."
~~ Dan Rather on twitter (@DanRather)

“If you are afraid to speak against tyranny, then you are already a slave.”
~~ John Bryant [1943-2009]

“The response to tyranny . . . must always be this: Dismantle it.”
~~ Barry Lopez

“Eliminate the clutter and all the things that are going on outside and focus on the things that you can control with how you sort of go about and take care of your business. … It’s the process of what it takes to be successful.”
~~ Nick Saban, football coach at University of Alabama

"Leadership is not about titles, positions, or flowcharts. It is about one life influencing another.”
~~ John C. Maxwell

"No right worth fighting for is ever earned without a fight. Selma, Stonewall, Seneca Falls - channel the struggle and spirit of those who came before you. Understand that this is your time now. And make it count for them, for those around you, for those whose lives are yet to come."
~~ actor George Takei on twitter

"I believe that, come summer, ice cream is considered one of the major food groups."
~~ outdoor writer John Clary Davies

"Expect the best, plan for the worst, and prepare to be surprised."
~~ motivational speaker Denis Waitley

"To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men."
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

“Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth.”
~~ George Washington [1732-99]

“Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.”
~~ Persian poet & mystic Rumi [1207-73]

"The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."
~~ sci-fi author Harlan Ellison [1934-2018]

“Banning books gives us silence when we need speech. It closes our ears when we need to listen. It makes us blind when we need sight.”
~~ writer-director Stephen Chbosky

“You have to accept whatever comes, and the only important thing is that you meet it with the best you have to give.”
~~ Eleanor Roosevelt [1884-1962]

"The only reason I would take up jogging is so I could hear the sound of heavy breathing again."
~~ Erma Bombeck [1927-96]

"The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives."
~~ philosopher and psychologist William James [1842-1910]

"If you do not have a good father, you should procure one."
~~ Friedrich Nietzsche [1844-1900]

"Under a government which imprisons unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]

"You can laugh about anything, but not with anyone."
~~ French comedian Pierre Desproges [1939-88]

"That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is one of the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach."
~~ Aldous Huxley [1894-1963]

"The trouble with some women is that they get all excited about nothing – and then marry him."
~~ actress-singer Cher

"Stop calling it ‘meddling’. It’s actually information warfare."
~~ Dr. Brian Klaas of London, U.K.

"Most people associate reading with laying on the beach. They don't see that [reading is] crucial for democracy."
~~ author David Baldacci

“I’d like to have kids. I get those maternal feelings. Like when I’m laying on the couch and I can’t reach the remote control.”
~~ comedian Kathleen Madigan

“Once you have children, it forever changes the way you bore other people.”
~~ cartoonist Bruce Eric Kaplan {BEK}

"The universe is not complicated. There's just a lot of it."
~~ physicist Richard P. Feynman [1918-88]

"You can never go wrong by voting for a bill that fails, or against a bill that passes."
~~ politician Bob Dole

"To be born is to be wrecked on an island."
~~ British playwright J.M. Barrie [1860-1937]

"The only function of economic forecasting is to make astrology look respectable."
~~ John Kenneth Galbraith [1908-2006]

"The surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that it has never tried to contact us."
~~ cartoonist Bill Watterson

"I drink to make other people more interesting."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"Life itself is the proper binge."
~~ Julia Child [1912-2004]

"All men and women stand equal under the sky."
~~ Georgia O'Keeffe [1887-1986]

"Reading all the books that must be read is like going to the beach and drinking up the ocean."
~~ reporter Murali Krishnan

"To myself, I am the only child playing on the beach, while vast oceans of truth lie undiscovered before me."
~~ Sir Isaac Newton [1643-1727]

"For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others."
~~ Nelson Mandela [1918-2013]

"Today's press conference in Helsinki was one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory."
~~ Sen. John McCain of Arizona

"Those who play with the devil's toys will be brought by degrees to wield his sword."
~~ visionary R. Buckminster Fuller [1895-1983]

"Great things in business are never done by one person. They're done by a team of people."
~~ Steve Jobs [1955-2011]

"Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."
~~ Voltaire [1694-1778]

"Illegal immigrants caught voting should be stripped of their citizenship."
~~ idiot Ben Carson, as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

"If you love life, don't waste time, for time is what life is made up of."
~~ Bruce Lee [1940-73]

"America's problems have nothing to do with what happens in bedrooms, or whether women are allowed to end their pregnancies. Our problems have to do with what occurs in boardrooms, and whether corporations and wealthy individuals are allowed to undermine our democracy."
~~ Robert B. Reich

"It's not hoarding if it's books."
~~ The Great American Read on PBS

"When the speech condemns a free press, you are hearing the words of a tyrant."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"Sometimes the fastest way to start doing what works for you is to stop doing what doesn't work."
~~ Jeffrey Allen

"When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the loser."
~~ Socrates [469-399 B.C.E.]

"Nothing external to me can have any power over me."
~~ Walt Whitman [1819-92]

"Anyone who doesn't take truth seriously in small matters cannot be trusted in large ones either."
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks."
~~ Sir Winston Churchill [1874-1965]

"The best political, social, and spiritual work [that] we can do is to withdraw the projection of our own shadow onto others."
~~ Carl Gustav Jung [1875-1961]

"A boss has the title, a leader has the people."
~~ motivational speaker Simon Sinek

"Some people see things as they are and ask 'why?'. Some people dream of things that never were and ask 'why not?'. Some people have to go to work and don't have time for all that."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]

"The fascination of shooting as a sport depends almost wholly on whether you are at the right or wrong end of the gun."
~~ P.G. Wodehouse [1881-1975]

"Learn to Value yourself, which means: Fight for your happiness."
~~ philosopher Ayn Rand [1905-82]

"A mind that's afraid to toy with the ridiculous will never come up with the brilliantly original."
~~ sci-fi author David Brin

"What a strange machine man is! You fill him with bread, wine, fish, and radishes and out comes sighs, laughter, and dreams."
~~ Nikos Kazantzakis [1883-1957]

"They always say [that] time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself."
~~ artist Andy Warhol [1928-87]

"Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face."
~~ boxer Mike Tyson

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

News Factoids for Second Quarter 2018

Carbon dioxide levels have surged to the highest point in 800,000 years due to human-caused pollution and a strong El Nino The key greenhouse gas' concentrations reached an average of 403.3 parts per million in 2016, up from 400 parts per million the year before, and the increase was 50 percent greater than the average over the last 10 years.
~~ The World Meteorological Organization, in October 2017

Emperor Trump is using motor-mouth lawyer Rudy Giuliani to contaminate the New York and D.C. juror pools in advance of any indictments. The lawyers can battle on this issue for years. Whether he wins or he loses, he wins: moving trial to another jurisdiction is a simple delay, and if the jury pool is declared not contaminated, then he will have a nicely-contaminated juror pool. Then the lawyers can fight a different artificial legal battle.

Emperor Trump complains that giant retailer Amazon is not paying its 'fair share of taxes', and too little for using the Post Office, but Trump’s own retail website only pays sales taxes in three states, while Amazon pays sales taxes in 45 states.

From 2010 to 2017, films earning more than $100 million have grown from 48 percent to 64 percent of the domestic box office.

Today there are 40 million slaves around the world. ~~ per Raj Patel

Since 2016, half of all coral in the Great Barrier Reef has died.

U.S. banks have logged $643 billion in profits since the 2008 financial crisis.

In 13 states, plus Washington DC, voter registration is now automatic: Alaska, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington State, and West Virginia.

Facebook says that posts on my account have 200 'likes'. (5/2018)

Electronic debit card payments exceeded cash payments in the U.K. for the first time in 2017.

People killed by handguns last year: Japan 10, Sweden 41, Switzerland 47, U.K. 50, Israel 105, Canada 611, United States 38,658.

The Golden State Fence Company was hired to build part of the US-Mexico border wall and were fined $5M for hiring illegal immigrant workers.

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

June 2018 Quotations (58)

"The true character of a society is revealed in how it treats its children."
~~ Nelson Mandela [1918-2013]

"The enemy is fear. We think [that] it is hate, but it is fear."
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]

"Paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people."
~~ Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black [1886-1971]

Leviticus 19:33-34 and 24:22 – "When the alien resides with you in your land, you shall not oppress the alien. The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves."
~~ Henry David Thoreau [1817-62]

"Hate has caused a lot of problems in this world, but it has not solved one yet."
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

"If you’re really going to be free you’re going to have to overcome the love of wealth and the fear of death."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

"Luxury is the opposite of mediocrity."
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"Everything is hard before it is easy."
~~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe [1749-1832]

"The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of what is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope."
~~ John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir [1875-1940] of Scotland

"Take away the right to say 'f***' and you take away the right to say 'f*** the government'."
~~ Lenny Bruce [1925-66]

"Le seul moyen de guérir, c'est de se considérer comme guéri. {The only way to heal is to consider yourself cured.}"
~~ Gustave Flaubert [1821-80]

"Socialism is a fraud, a comedy, a phantom, a blackmail."
~~ Benito Mussolini [1883-1945]

"You wake up in the morning and you say, 'There are dragons to slay and giants to fight'."
~~ Dr. Jordan B. Peterson

"Those who are not looking for happiness are the most likely to find it, because those who are searching forget that the surest way to be happy is to seek happiness for others."
~~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [1929-68]

"I'm back with my own kind of people here now, the bums and drinkers and no goods and it is a fine thing."
~~ John Steinbeck [1902-68]

"Science does not know its debt to imagination."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"Science is always discovering odd scraps of magical wisdom and making a tremendous fuss about its cleverness."
~~ Aleister Crowley [1875-1947]

"Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]

"Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done."
~~ Robert A. Heinlein [1907-88]

"It was easy enough to despise the world, but decidedly difficult to find any other habitable region."
~~ Edith Wharton [1862-1937]

"Everything passes. Nobody gets anything for keeps. And that's how we've got to live."
~~ Haruki Murakami

"You'll see it when you believe it."
~~ Dr. Wayne W. Dyer [1940-2015]

"This world, after all our science and sciences, is still a miracle; wonderful, inscrutable, magical and more, to whosoever will think of it."
~~ Thomas Dekker [1572-1632]

"If honor were profitable, everybody would be honorable."
~~ Sir Thomas More [1478-1535]

"I don't do drugs. I am drugs . . . There are some days when I think I'm going to die from an overdose of satisfaction."
~~ Salvador Dali [1904-89]

"To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest."
~~ Buddhist leader Acharya Pema Chödrön

"The greatest mistake we make is living in constant fear that we will make one."
~~ John C. Maxwell

"The only place where success comes before work is the dictionary."
~~ Vince Lombardi [1913-70]

"Elect a clown, expect a circus."
~~ Mikel Jollett, on Twitter

"At the risk of sounding sexist, I'm looking forward to Ivanka Trump's excellent perp walk photos."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"[President Trump] is morally oblivious. He is, by an order of magnitude, the most amoral creature to ever occupy the White House."
~~ TV pundit Lawrence O'Donnell

"We are not 'his' people, we are Americans."
~~ David Zasloff

"Make the lie big, keep it simple, keep saying it and eventually they will believe it."
~~ Joseph Goebbels [1897-1945], Nazi Propaganda Minister, 1933-45

"Our government should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso. These images are eerily reminiscent of the internment camps for U.S. citizens and noncitizens of Japanese descent during World War II, now considered to have been one of the most shameful episodes in U.S. history."
~~ former First Lady Laura Bush

"Science has a simple faith, which transcends utility. It is the faith that it is the privilege of man to learn to understand, and that this is his mission."
~~ engineer Vannevar Bush [1890-1974]

"The poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese."
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]

"I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"Has anybody studied whether alcohol is a gateway drug to cocaine and heroin?"
~~ G.E. Nordell

"I don't hate Trump. I pray for him."
~~ Tyler Merritt

"One child kidnapped is an Amber Alert. 2,000 children kidnapped is Republican policy."
~~ Emelie Rose Barg, on Facebook

another 'found' slogan for t-shirts: Prize inside!

"The people who sheltered Anne Frank were breaking the law. The people who killed her were obeying the law."
~~ Gershon Baskin of Israel, on Facebook

"Just because you don’t see a judge doesn’t mean you aren’t receiving due process."
~~ White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

"I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition (Christianity) one redeeming feature. They are all alike founded on fables and mythology."
~~ Thomas Jefferson [1743-1826]

"Our decision to move some of our operations [off-shore] is 100% based on President Trumps tariffs. Mr. Trump knows nothing about economics and even less about trade. The man is a moron."
~~ Harley Davidson CEO Matthew S. Levatich

"That's one of the remarkable things about life. It's never so bad that it can't get worse."
~~ character Calvin in the "Calvin & Hobbes" daily cartoon [1985-95] as drawn by cartoonist Bill Watterson

"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 [1875-1965]

"Democracy is a device that ensures [that] we shall be governed no better than we deserve."
~~ George Bernard Shaw [1856-1950]

"The Fake news for today is that the Fake President used Fake Diplomacy to prevent a Fake War. So maybe he deserves a Fake Nobel Peace Prize?"
~~ G.E. Nordell

"We are fools whether we dance or not. So we might as well dance."
~~ Japanese proverb

"I have already lost touch with a couple of people [that] I used to be."
~~ Joan Didion

"We are in the throes of a transition where every publication has to think of their digital strategy."
~~ Bill Gates

"The trouble is, you think [that] you have time."
~~ Gautama Buddha [5th Century BCE]

"I've seen several tweets comparing [Trump's concentration camps] to Nazis and the Holocaust and saying things like 'this is how it begins'. I teach holocaust literature so let me be clear: this isn't how it began. This is already several stages along the way."
~~ Aviva Dautch of London, U.K.

"The best path in life should aim for the goal of wholeness."
~~ Deepak Chopra

"Anybody who comes out for peace is not for peace. Peace is the time it takes to reload your rifle."
~~ Bob Dylan, June 1986 Rolling Stone Magazine interview

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

May 2018 Quotations (59)

"To Roseanne: Racism is not a known side effect of our drug (Ambien)."
~~ manufacturer Sanofi-Aventis USA

"Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society."
~~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. [1841-1935]

"One should either be sad or joyful. Contentment is a warm sty for eaters and sleepers."
~~ Eugene O'Neill [1888-1953]

"Laughter is America's most important export."
~~ Walt Disney [1901-66]

"I believe there is something out there watching us. Unfortunately, it's the government."
~~ Woody Allen

"They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason."
~~ Ernest Hemingway [1899-1961]

"One word / Frees us of all the weight and pain of life: / That word is love."
~~ Ancient Greek playwright Sophocles [496-406 B.C.E]

"Be tolerant with others and strict with yourself."
~~ Marcus Aurelius [121-180 C.E.]

"The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time."
~~ Mark Twain [1835-1910]

"Beer, it's the best damn drink in the world."
~~ actor Jack Nicholson

“After all is said and done, a helluva lot more is said than done!”
~~ corollary to Murphy's Law, source unknown

"I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value."
~~ Hermann Hesse [1877-1962]

"On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use."
~~ Epictetus [55?–135? C.E.]

"It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke."
~~ Benjamin Disraeli [1804-81]

“If there's a single lesson that life teaches us, it's that wishing doesn't make it so.”
~~ Lev Grossman

“That's the thing about lessons, you always learn them when you don't expect them or want them.”
~~ Irish novelist Cecelia Ahern

"Comey will not be prosecuted."
~~ The Pen at Peace Team activism website, April 2018

"Time to hold Trump to the same standard we’re holding Bill Cosby."
~~ Kanisha J. Jackson, on Twitter

"Now I lay me down to sleep . . . for all the fun stuff . . . thanks a heap!"
~~ bedtime prayer by Dennis the Menace in a syndicated daily cartoon panel

“Every moment is an organizing opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world.”
~~ Dolores Huerta

“Your fear is 100% dependent on you for its survival.”
~~ Steve Maraboli

“Be a lamp, or a lifeboat, or a ladder. Help someone's soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd.”
~~ Persian poet & mystic Rumi [1207-73]

"Peace of mind comes from not wanting to change others."
~~ Dr. Gerald Jampolsky

"Freedom is never really won. You earn it and win it in every generation."
~~ Coretta Scott King [1927-2006]

“What could be worse than getting to the end of your life and realizing you hadn't lived it?”
~~ playwright Edward Albee [1928-2016]

“If you want to be a doormat you have to lay yourself down first.”
~~ Oscar Wilde [1854-1900]

"I reject the false choice that you can either have a strong economy or a strong environment. We can do both."
~~ U.S. Senator Kamala Harris [Dem-CA]

"By your early forties, the best part about going to bed is imagining the coffee [that] you’re going to drink in the morning."
~~ composer Jason Hayes

"Trump isn’t the cause of what’s happened to America. He’s the consequence – the product of years of stagnant wages and big money’s corruption of our democracy."
~~ economist Robert B. Reich

"Remember: Life is short. Dream big or go home."
~~ motto of Lost Hiker Brewing Company in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico

"There's really no such thing as the 'voiceless'. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard."
~~ Arundhati Roy

“I’m a success today because I had a friend who believed in me and I didn’t have the heart to let him down.”
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

“If the government is covering up knowledge of aliens, they are doing a better job of it than they do at anything else.”
~~ Stephen W. Hawking [1942-2018]

"Divorce the story of your limitation and marry your unlimited capacity."
~~ Tana Ray

“To make profound changes in your life, you need either inspiration or desperation.”
~~ Anthony 'Tony' Robbins

"The only thing new in the world is the history [that] you don't know."
~~ Harry S. Truman [1884-1972]

"From fake news to Stormygate, [this country's] spinning out of control like a clown car without a designated driver."
~~ comedian Lewis Black, in an email for the American Civil Liberties Union (A.C.L.U.)

“Life is not an easy matter…. You cannot live through it without falling into frustration and cynicism unless you have before you a great idea which raises you above personal misery, above weakness, above all kinds of perfidy and baseness.”
~~ Leon Trotsky [1879-1940]

“If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly.”
~~ G.K. Chesterton [1874-1936]

"If it's Tuesday, it's Election Day."
~~ new motto (2018) of the U.S. Democratic Party [est. 1848]

“Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.”
~~ Albert Einstein [1879-1955]

"Love of beauty is taste. The creation of beauty is art."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

“Life is a sh*t blizzard.”
~~ Florida author Carl Hiaasen

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
~~ President Dwight D. 'Ike' Eisenhower [1890-1969]

“Every moment is the paradox of now or never.”
~~ writer Simon Van Booy

"It is time to revive anti-trust [enforcement]."
~~ economist Robert B. Reich

"Things don’t always go your way just because you’re awesome."
~~ cartoonist Lincoln Peirce

“Nothing is better for self-esteem than survival.”
~~ journalist Martha Gellhorn [1908-98]

"'Just be yourself' is the worst advice [that] you can give some people."
~~ syndicated comedian Argus Hamilton

"Sociology is the outhouse in the grove of academe."
~~ H.L. Mencken [1880-1956]

"Truth is relative. They [Robert Mueller's team] may have a different version of the truth than we do."
~~ lawyer & politician Rudolph 'Rudy' Giuliani

"Smart people learn from everything and everyone. Average people [learn] from their experiences. Stupid people already have all the answers."
~~ Socrates [469-399 B.C.E.]

"The first lesson of economics is scarcity: there is never enough of anything to fully satisfy all those who want it. The first lesson of politics is to disregard the first lesson of economics."
~~ Thomas Sowell

"On Mother's Day I can think of no mother more deserving than a mother who had to give one back."
~~ Erma Bombeck [1927-96]

"Consider that all accomplishment is constituted by a series of resolved breakdowns."
~~ philosopher Werner Erhard

"The law must be clear that anti-discrimination laws exist to protect people, not beliefs."
~~ Terry Sanderson

"Don't just teach your children to read . . . Teach them to question what they read. Teach them to question everything."
~~ George Carlin [1937-2008]

"We have a single mission: to protect and hand [off] the planet to the next generation."
~~ François Hollande, President of France

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}

Donald Trump Has A Strategy

Emperor Trump is using motor-mouth lawyer Rudy Giuliani to contaminate the New York and D.C. juror pools in advance of any indictments. The lawyers can battle on this issue for years. Whether he wins or he loses, he wins: moving trial to another jurisdiction is a simple delay, and if the jury pool is declared not contaminated, then he will have a nicely-contaminated juror pool. Then the lawyers can fight a different artificial legal battle.

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

my letter published in today's Albuquerque Journal newspaper

wind & solar power is good for New Mexico

The Rio Grande Foundation claims to be non-partisan, but they are not: a good portion of their funding is from the State Policy Network, which is partly funded by the Koch Brothers and other polluters.

The Rio Grande Foundation's recent letter/op-ed in the Journal (May 12th) is filled with propaganda that is intended to prevent progress in renewable energy in New Mexico.

One point that is easily rebutted is Rio Grande Foundation's claim that the production tax credit of $24 per megawatt is 'an enormous sum'. The 1992 federal law that pertains here mandates a 1.5 cent tax credit per kilowatt. Such production tax credits are payable for ten fiscal years, while typical solar panels are warranted for 25 years.

The tax credit has been increased for inflation; the current 2.4 cent per kilowatt production tax credit is still much lower than the charge on my P.N.M. bill of 8.3 cents per kilowatt. This incentive has P.N.M. building hundreds of acres of solar and wind farms around New Mexico.

Production of electricity by solar and wind and other renewables is a very good deal for New Mexico. Just not so good for the Rio Grande Foundation and the fossil-fuel companies who fund them.

G.E. NORDELL
Rio Communities, New Mexico

Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

A Margot Kidder Story

None of the stories today about the death of actress Margot Kidder mention the Western TV series that she starred in back in 1971-72 with James Garner. It was called "Nichols" and ran for 24 episodes and was about the dying of the Old West. They painted the dirt streets of the Western Town backlot sets to look like asphalt, put up some telephone poles, brought in old cars and a motorcycle for Garner, and called it 1914.

I was then a computer programmer at Warner Brothers in Burbank and one of the privileges was walking around the backlot during lunch hour and other times. We got to watch grips and actors working there or on the sound stages, a real education in film making.

Margot came off as a bit wild. Actor David Carradine was filming a different TV series at Warners, the one where the old Oriental called him 'Grasshopper'. He drove around in a baby blue 1950s Packard convertible. He and Margot became pals; I think the thing that they most had in common was that they both loved running around barefoot. You'd see them from time to time playing among the various backlot sets, acting like children. (It was the Seventies, so 'weed' may have been involved. Who knows?)

One day, they came back to Margot's dressing room - just as I was passing by - and discovered that she had locked herself out. What followed was a crackup. Both were in costume; Margot - wearing the big skirts of a Western barmaid - was helped thru the window of her dressing room by Carradine, with whooping and laughter. The event was like a Laurel & Hardy or Buster Keaton skit, or maybe something with Carol Burnett.

Memories are wispy things, as are the lives of individuals. The news stories today mentioned "Superman" and the many tragic events in Margot's life. But what I remember is that she was a great laugher.
Copyright 2018 by G.E. Nordell, all rights reserved

Welcome to New Mexico True!

April 2018 Quotations (57)

"We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It's easy to say 'It's not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.' Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes."
~~ children's TV host Fred Rogers [1928-2003]

"Old age is a privilege. There are 14 teenagers and three teachers in Parkland, Florida who do not get to go there."
~~ G.E. Nordell

“Live the Life of Your Dreams: Be brave enough to live the life of your dreams according to your vision and purpose instead of the expectations and opinions of others.”
~~ Roy T. Bennett

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all."
~~ Peter F. Drucker [1909-2005]

"The question is not how to survive, but how to thrive with passion, compassion, humor and style."
~~ Dr. Maya Angelou [1928-2014]

"Tyranny naturally arises out of democracy."
~~ Plato [427-347 BCE]

"There is no greater tyranny than that which is perpetrated under the shield of law and in the name of justice."
~~ Montesquieu [1689-1755]

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is in keeping them ignorant."
~~ Maximilien Robespierre [1758-94]

"Change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program, and it requires organizing."
~~ Barack Obama, on 7 May 2016

"If you correct the mind, the rest of your life will fall into place."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

“Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
~~ St. Francis of Assisi [1181?-1226]

"With guns you can kill terrorists. With education, you can kill terrorism."
~~ Malala Yousafzai

“Of all forms of caution, caution in love is perhaps the most fatal to true happiness.”
~~ Bertrand Russell [1872-1970]

“It isn't what you have or who you are or where you are or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about it.”
~~ Dale Carnegie [1888-1965]

"If the words 'life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness' don't include the right to experiment with your own consciousness, then the Declaration of Independence isn't worth the hemp [that] it was written on."
~~ ethnobotanist Terrence McKenna [1946-2000]

“Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.”
~~ Mahatma Gandhi [1869-1948]

“I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to what light I have.”
~~ Abraham Lincoln [1809-65]

“Don’t make the mistake of thinking [that] you’re Facebook’s customer, you’re not – you’re the product. Its customers are the advertisers.”
~~ Bruce Schneier, quoted in TIME Magazine 11/2010

"Google Users - You're The Product, Not The Customer"
~~ article in Forbes Magazine 12/2013

"One does not discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time.”
~~ Nobel-laureate André Gide [1869-1951]

'found' slogans for back of T-shirts:
         message and data rates may apply
         BACK - by popular demand

"Humankind has not woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect."
~~ Chief Seattle [c. 1786-1866]

"When I let go of who I am, I become what I might be."
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
~~ Marcus Aurelius [121-180 C.E.]

"He who would do great things should not attempt them all alone."
~~ Seneca the Younger [4? B.C.E. - 65 A.D.]

"It does not require many words to speak the truth."
~~ Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce Tribe [1840-1904]

"All that zoos actually offer to the public in return for the taxes spent upon them is a form of idle and witless amusement,
compared to which a visit to a penetentiary, or even to a state legislature in session, is informing, stimulating, and ennobling."
~~ H.L. Mencken [1880-1956]

"Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work."
~~ Stephen King

"Hope is the ability to hear the melody of the future. Faith is the willingness and the courage to dance to it today."
~~ Pastor Peter Kuzmic of Croatia

“Love is an untamed force. When we try to control it, it destroys us. When we try to imprison it, it enslaves us. When we try to understand it, it leaves us feeling lost and confused.”
~~ Brasilian author Paulo Coelho

"If we really think children are our future, shouldn’t the people who mold their minds make more than the night manager at GameStop?"
~~ TV host Bill Maher

"To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82], essay "Self-Reliance" [1841]

"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions."
~~ Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519]

"Surround yourself with people who make you hungry for life . . . touch your heart and nourish your soul."
~~ salesman & speaker Zig Ziglar [1926-2012]

"Hate mail is far more entertaining than valentines."
~~ columnist Gustavo Arellano

"The use of force is proof of the absence of Reason."
~~ G.E. Nordell

"Our chief want (lack) in life is somebody who shall make us do what we can."
~~ Ralph Waldo Emerson [1803-82]

"Decide who you're not before you decide who you are."
~~ musician Questlove

"Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt."
~~ Leonardo da Vinci [1452-1519]

"Families are about love overcoming emotional torture."
~~ cartoonist Matt Groening

"All love is doomed, seen in the light of death."
~~ novelist Anita Shreve [1946-2018]

"You need someone who believes in this country, again, to begin to change it."
~~ James Baldwin [1924-87]

"Polarizing people is a good way to win an election, and also a good way to wreck a country."
~~ journalist & columnist Molly Ivins [1944-2007]

hoist on his own petard, as it were: “Anyone being investigated by the F.B.I. is not qualified to be the president of the United States.”
~~ tweeted by @realDonaldTrump on 8/3/2016, 9/7/2016, 10/15/2016, 10/20/2016, 10/21/2016, 10/25/2016, 10/30/2016

"Let the world know why you're here, and do it with passion."
~~ Dr. Wayne W. Dyer [1940-2015]

"I guess if someone is going to threaten to shoot liberals I’m glad it’s Ted Nugent, he hasn’t had a hit in years."
~~ Jean Little, on Twitter

"While the Lord will sometimes provide, He may be busy looking after somebody else when you need Him most."
~~ anonymous article writer in the August 1965 The Atlantic Magazine

"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity."
~~ Kahlil Gibran [1883-1931]

“For if you suffer your people to be ill-educated, and their manners to be corrupted from their infancy, and then punish them for those crimes to which their first education disposed them, what else is to be concluded from this, but that you first make thieves and then punish them.”
~~ Thomas Moore [1779-1852]

“If you wish to be out front, then act as if you were behind.”
~~ Chinese philosopher Lao-Tzu [IVth Century B.C.E.]

“No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissastifaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.”
~~ American choreographer Martha Graham [1894-1991]

“Making judgments under severe stress is the most difficult thing there is. The more preparation you have prior to the conflict, the more you can do in a clinical situation, the better off you will be.”
~~ Bill Walsh [1931-2007], coached the San Francisco 49ers

“Don't let someone else's opinion of you become your reality.”
~~ motivational speaker Leslie C. 'Les' Brown

“The older I get, the more I realize that arguing on the basis of facts and logic only gets you labeled as someone who is out of step with the times, if not lacking in compassion."
~~ Thomas Sowell

"Insulting people is one of the few things for which Trump possesses a genuine talent."
~~ John Cassidy, columnist in The New Yorker Magazine

"Be open enough to see opportunities. Be wide enough to be grateful. Be courageous enough to be happy."
~~ motivational speaker Dr. Steve Maraboli

"By being yourself, you put something wonderful in[to] the world that was not there before."
~~ Edwin Elliot

{each set of posted quotations are then posted at the Working Minds website, alphabetical by author}