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President’s Day
So, today is President’s Day. This holiday started off as a celebration of our first President’s birthday which is actually on the 22nd. However, since two of our most historically noteworthy presidents have February birthdays, the holiday was conflated to be Washington and Lincoln’s birthday celebration and of US Presidents in general.
POTUS
Our current president is no stranger to controversy, but neither were George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. George Washington was definitely the soul of propriety. He was a dignified gentleman with Enlightenment Age ideals and genteel manners. On the other hand, he was leading the Continental Army in armed revolt against the British Crown in a war for independence and national sovereignty. Had we lost, he and many of the Founding Fathers would have been imprisoned and most likely hung for treason. Abraham Lincoln, while revered historically as the president who preserved the country in the face of Civil War and emancipated the slaves with the ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, was seen in his own time as a violator of state’s rights and a tyrant who suspended the writ of habeas corpus. History will judge our current president. My belief is that history will be much more kind to Mr. Trump than the talking heads of the media-entertainment world are today. I guess we’ll see.
My li’l Lemby-poo is winging her way back from the Windy City tonight, so I’ll be fetching her from the airport and I’m looking forward to the tales of Nick, Nick, Nick, Nick and all the other guys in her favorite bands. My son enjoyed a chilly and muddy camping excursion, so he enjoyed coming home where it’s warm and dry all the more.
My work on the YouTube channel is proceeding apace, so that should start budding and bearing some fruit in the coming weeks. I’ve got some other projects in mind once I’ve processed all of the videos for the channel. I want to get a head start on my Christmas content this year, so I’ll start staging that as time allows.
Some More Rules
Rule #256: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble. ~George Washington
This reminds my of my own axiom that “When you point the finger, you’ve got four pointing right back at you.” Oh, the Profits of Doom who have been salivating over the prospects of finding dirt on our current president are eating an economy-sized slice of humble pie. The more they dig for supposed misconduct by POTUS45, the more of their own misdoings are coming to light. Bwa-ha-ha-ha!!! Keep digging, idiots. You’re digging your own graves (figuratively). It won’t be long until these knuckleheads all get frog-marched off to spend the rest of their misbegotten lives in orange jumpsuits. It’s only a matter of time before someone turns state’s evidence and sells the rest of the dirty dealers down the river. Don’t start none and there won’t be none, y’all. They’ve been trying to nail our current president since before he was even the official candidate. They’ve lost and lost spectacularly and yet they continue to dig. Keep digging. You’re only exposing the skeletons in your own closets. Freaking people…
Rule #257: When the messenger comes to appropriate your profits, kill the messenger
This isn’t an official rule. It was made up on the spot by a Ferengi who was stuck in the Delta Quadrant when he read “The Unwritten Rule: When no rule applies, make one up.“. The crew of the starship Voyager was trying to get the two displaced Ferengi to leave the primitive society by disguising one of their crewmen as a representative of the Grand Nagus. He told them they were being recalled and that their profits were being appropriated. Well, you just don’t come between a Ferengi and his profits. They started chasing him around with swords trying to kill him until he admitted the ruse. It’s one of my very favorite episodes.
Rule #258-260: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
My great concern is not whether you have failed, but whether you are content with your failure. ~Abraham Lincoln
This is one of the great calamities of life. When we fail, we can try again or we can live with the failure. Thomas Edison is famously quoted as saying, “I haven’t failed. I found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” in regard to his discovery of the working model of an incandescent light bulb. I have to admit that there are many times when I have pressed on against the bounds of absurdity in pursuit of a goal and more than a few times when I discovered a variety of ways that won’t work and finally said screw it. You have to decide what threshold you face in the cost-benefit analysis. If the benefit of what you hope to achieve is worth the cost of 10,000 variations that won’t work, then you do it 10,001 times. If it’s a nice to have but doesn’t amount to a hill of beans with or without it, then there is an obvious threshold of sanity. Only you can determine which is which.
Rule #261: A wealthy man can afford everything except a conscience
Well, George Soros might agree with this but I don’t think it’s a very good rule. The early Church didn’t seem to think it was a good idea either. Two of the four Gospels specifically mention the notion that “What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world but lose their soul?” Matthew 16:26 and Mark 8:36 both ask the same crucial question. In the Gilded Age, the Titans of Industry ran roughshod over the rights and interests of others mainly because they were able to isolate themselves from the consequences of their actions. In the Information Age, I think there’s a lot more capital available in doing legitimately good deeds for all of humankind. I think it’s also easier for bad actors to find their comeuppance. Between hactivists and paparazzi, the movers and shakers of this world are under much more of a microscope than their forebears ever were. Going forward, I think the genuinely good people in this world will begin to prosper in ways that the liars and tricksters used to be able to.
Rule #262: Not yet cited in Star Trek episodes, movies or novels
Little minds are tamed and subdued by misfortune; but great minds rise above them. ~Washington Irving
This is akin to the Lincoln quote above. Whether you settle for failure or succumb to misfortune is, in Mr. Irving’s view, a measure of your mind. To a certain extent, I suppose this is true. There are people who have overcome misfortunes that would crush any one of us. Some souls are sheerly indomitable. On the other hand, some people trip haphazardly over the tiniest obstacles. I don’t know if it is necessarily a measure of mind as it is a measure of mindset. Some people are naturally brilliant in some subject or subjects and hopeless in others. That’s actually a good measure of what you ought to be doing. If you have a natural capacity for some field of study, you should probably do that. Even if it is absolutely useless to 99.99% of humanity, you can still live a tremendously fulfilling life as the best at whatever you’re best at. Take into consideration that there are experts who make a very good living hunting ghosts, UFOs, sasquatch or making art out of bellybutton lint. Some specialties are harder to cash in on than others, but just the same you will almost always find someone making a killing at the most obscure and inane things. Don’t doubt your brilliance. Find out what it is you are best at and be the best you can be.
Rule #263: Never let doubt interfere with your lust for Latinum
FUD: fear, uncertainty & doubt. These are some of the greatest poisons you can introduce into someone’s mind. They weaken the defenses and pave the way for brainwashing. When you want to undermine someone’s confidence and sow the seeds of your own message, you can FUD them. Feeding on FUD is a diet of destruction. The Ferengi are actually spot-on with this one. Well, you don’t necessarily need to lust for Latinum but whatever your goal is, don’t let doubt interfere with it. Don’t let uncertainty lead you away from your plan. Fear is the mind-killer.
The banks are closed and the mail’s not being delivered, but the kids are in school just the same. Strange. Well, anyway, have a great President’s Day.