Ken Kielty
Talking About Things That Matter
Matthew Arnold & Alfred, Lord Tennyson
Forgotten Mermen
Greg Pizzoli
Books With Ellie @Kitti's List
"Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it? -- every, every minute?"
Question asked by Emily, in OUR TOWN
"to find a value above all price for the smallest events in our daily life" ~Thornton Wilder
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Animated Cards by Jacquie Lawson |
Listen to the States asserting: "The hour has struck! Americans shall be American. The U.S.A. is now grown up artistically. It is time we ceased to hang on to the skirts of Europe, or to behave like schoolboys let loose from European schoolmasters—"
All right, Americans, let's see you set about it. Go on then . . . Where is this new bird called the true American?
. . . Heaven knows what we mean by reality. Telephone, tinned meat, Charlie Chaplin, water-taps, and World-Salvation, presumably. Some insisting on the plumbing, and some on saving the world: these being the two great American specialties. Why not?
from Studies in Classic American Literature
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"How selfish to risk everything and for what?
'Freedom?' she almost screamed to herself. 'Freedom!' Her mind raced as the word crossed her mind repeatedly. She was in the freedom capital of the world" -- New York, New York! (432) Kenneth M. Kielty from his 2011 novel Visiting Brooklyn (432) Photo: Christmas 2015 MetLife, Chrysler Bldg., and Grand Central Station See also Facebook, KL & Facebook |
“Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us? The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents. We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily. We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet. . . .[A]t the constitutional level, speech need not be a sedative; it can be disruptive . . . [A] function of free speech under our system of government is to invite dispute. It may indeed best serve its high purpose when it induces a condition of unrest, creates dissatisfaction with conditions as they are, or even stirs people to anger.”
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Steve Benen: "We’re talking about an exam that’s used to identify evidence of dementia, mental deterioration and neurodegenerative diseases. . . . Trump somehow convinced himself, however, that it was akin to a Mensa exam and that his ability to get a perfect score was proof of his genius. It was not."
These perception - checkers may be non - ceremonious, non - likeable, non - literary, devoid of charm -- but not without irony. I have tried to pick examples that emphasize the irony of the pot calling the kettle black -- or the old calling the old old. How ironic that one candidate living with dementia was eliminated, only to be replaced by another candidate living with dementia. We need upward age limits for President, Senate, Congress, and Supreme Court. It is not only embarrassing but also dangerous and wrong to see the world being so badly run by elders way past their prime.
Q: Have you called the governor yet or been able to speak to any of them?
A: Um, I think the governor of Minnesota is so whacked out, I'm not calling him. Why would I call him? I could call him. Say, "Hi, how you doing?" Uh the guy doesn't have a clue so, he's a mess. So you know, I could be nice and call him but, why waste time?
"It's a shame, this guy -- I have a guy -- do you ever have a guy that's not a smart person and you're dealing with him and he's not a smart guy."
"A lot of wars there was no reason for. You look right up there. I don't know. See the Declaration of Independence. And I say I wonder if you, you know the Civil War always seemed to me maybe that could have been solved without losing 600,000 plus people."
"I will never say good looking waitress because looks don't matter anymore. You know, in our modern society. She happened to be beautiful, but I won't say that. I won't mention that, but nevertheless a waitress came over. . . . So I want to thank that young, beautiful waitress."
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Disco Ball at High Noon
on the Summer Solstice! |
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Booker Taliaferro Washington
(April 5, 1856 - November 14, 1915) |
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Living with dementia and craving to be king:
"I don't feel like a king. I have to go through hell to get stuff approved. A king would say I'm not going to get this. I -- a king would have never had the California mandate to even be talking to him. He wouldn't have to call up Mike Johnson and Thune and say, fellas, you got to pull this off and after years we get it done. No, no, we're not a king. We're not a king at all." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WE??? Has someone been talking to Queen Victoria? |
"I think you're gonna find that it's a very different, uh, warfare out there today. Now, they've introduced a thing called drone. A drone is a little bit different. It makes -- You have to go back and learn a whole new form of warfare, and you're gonna do it better than anybody else." [Photo: Beginner Drone Set]
"We're gonna have a big, big celebration, as you know, 250 years. In some ways I'm glad I missed that second term where it was because -- I wouldn't be your president for that. Most important of all, in addition, we have the World Cup and we have the Olympics. Can you imagine? I missed that four years and now look what I have, I have everything. Amazing the way things work out. God did that, I believe that too. God did it."
"But we've found things that are unbelievably stupid and unbelievably bad with the Department of Government Efficiency. . . . DOGE has installed geniuses with an engineering mindset and unbelievably talented people and computers. I actually asked Elon one time, what's their primary thing, and they have a lot of primary things, all having to do with being smart."
Ernest speaks sarcastically of Jesus, right along with the tooth fairy: “I made an incorrect assumption that everyone in the auditorium understood that, yes, we are all going to perish from this earth,” she said. “So I apologize, and I’m really, really glad that I did not have to bring up the subject of the tooth fairy as well. For those that would like to see eternal and everlasting life, I encourage you to embrace my Lord and savior Jesus Christ.”
“What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!”
"We're going up to Camp David. We have meetings with various people about very major subjects."
"I watched it very closely and it was amazing the job that the National Guard did. And by the way, the police were working very hard also. But the police are given instructions to be politically correct. I said, no, no, you don't have to be politically correct, you have to do the job."
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2024 was a Landslide...for 'Did Not Vote'
Just a reminder: one half of the country did not vote for the current Republican administration -- only about one third. Not the same thing. |
"I won the election by a landslide. I mean, we have a crack -- and we have a big mandate because of that."
"The windmills are killing our country, by the way. . . . Even if they're white ones, a beigey white, ones a darker white, ones a lighter white. And then they start to rust after four or five years. And then they start to wear out and nobody takes them . . . Windmills, all over the place, tall ones, short ones, dead ones, they're all dead."
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Alternative Facts "But trust in authority is not exactly at an all-time high, as you’ve probably heard. It’s been more than eight years since Kellyanne Conway’s coinage of the phrase “alternative facts” on “Meet the Press,” an Orwellian way to soft-pedal the outright falsehoods being told by powerful institutions. You don’t hear much about alternative facts anymore, but only because so many of them are no longer the alternative to anything. They have moved to the mainstream."
[Thanks Ken Jennings]
Which hearkens back to Stephen Colbert's term --
Truthiness: "Truthiness is the belief or assertion that a particular statement is true based on the intuition or perceptions of some individual or individuals, without regard to evidence, logic, intellectual examination, or facts.[1][2] Truthiness can range from ignorant assertions of falsehoods to deliberate duplicity or propaganda intended to sway opinions.
"The concept of truthiness has emerged as a major subject of discussion surrounding U.S. politics during the late 20th and early 21st centuries because of the perception among some observers of a rise in propaganda and a growing hostility toward factual reporting and fact-based discussion."
[Thanks Wikipedia]
The House at Rueil (1882)
by Édouard Manet (1832 - 1883) |
Someday, I would like to go home. The exact location of this place, I don't know, but someday I would like to go. There would be a pleasing feeling of familiarity and a sense of welcome in everything I saw. People would greet me warmly. They would remind me of the length of my absence and the thousands of miles I had travelled in those restless years, but mostly, they would tell me that I had been missed, and that things were better now I had returned. Autumn would come to this place of welcome, this place I would know to be home. Autumn would come and the air would grow cool, dry and magic, as it does that time of the year. At night, I would walk the streets but not feel lonely, for these are the streets of my home town. These are the streets that I had thought about while far away, and now I was back, and all was as it should be. The trees and the falling leaves would welcome me. I would look up at the moon, and remember seeing it in countries all over the world as I had restlessly journeyed for decades, never remembering it looking the same as when viewed from my hometown."
[emphasis added]
Henry Rollins (b 1961)
American singer and writer
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Rest in Peace RFK
November 20, 1925 – June 6, 1968 American politician and lawyer United States Attorney General and Senator Assassinated after giving a speech in Los Angeles, when running for the Democratic presidential nomination. |
“Each time someone stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, they send forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”
Robert Francis Kennedy
from a speech given in
Cape Town, South Africa
exactly 2 years before his death
June 6, 1966
As far back as I can remember, my grandparents had a picture of JFK and RFK, just like the one above, hanging on their living room wall. According to family lore, my youngest brother thought that the Kennedy brothers were our uncles, because their picture was right next to the framed photograph of Uncle Rudy, my dad's handsome brother who died in WWII.
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Rest in Peace Uncle Rudy
TSgt Raymond R. Carriker b. June 3, 1921 - d. April 1, 1944 93rd Bombardment Group Stationed at RAF Hardwick, Norfolk, UK Killed in action, over Reims, France |
Shall we never be done fighting the body image fight? Or is it going to be forever popping up like a whack-a-mole for the rest of our lives? That's how it seems, if current events are any indication. Just take a look into the fun mirror of popular culture and medical media for a barrage of images and messages to make you feel bad about your appearance.
Thank goodness for counter messages such as these, that keep offering a healthier alternative:
Sad but true -- every single one. But one weird thing about "no guy wants to have sex with a virgin" -- I was taught the exact opposite: "Guys only want to have sex with virgins." Catch 22: so you better never have sex or you won't be a virgin and no one will want to have sex with you. I guess for every hateful message, there's an equally hateful counter-message. So you can never win."
Speaking of weight, I was irritated at the endocrinologist’s office recently to hear the nurse advise me that if I had carried more weight over the years my bones would probably be stronger and denser now — while simultaneously giving me a personal fitness handout stating that I need to lose weight!
So the message is, okay, you may have a scrawny little compromised worthless skeleton, but you’re still too fat! What??? Which one is it? How small does a woman have to be around here for people to stop telling her that she is too big? Sometimes I think the right answer is "When she disappears. That's when she'll be small enough."
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Sunrise, looking east
from St. Charles toward St. Louis |
Some listeners like to pretend that this is a song about the Shenandoah Valley and the Shenandoah River, but no! It is a song about the Wide Missouri!
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A thoughtful activity for Memorial Day:
go on a nature walk or to the cemetery, find some rocks, and assemble a cairn, like this impressive stack of stones, gathered and balanced in our neighbor's backyard. More cairns on my blog. Also called ebenezers. |
The Cairn
When I think of the little children learning
In all the schools of the world,
Learning in Danish, learning in Japanese
That two and two are four, and where the rivers of the world
Rise, and the names of the mountains and the principal cities,
My heart breaks.
Come up, children! Toss your little stones gaily
On the great cairn of Knowledge!
(Where lies what Euclid knew, a little grey stone,
What Plato, what Pascal, what Galileo:
Little grey stones, little grey stones on a cairn.)
Tell me, what is the name of the highest mountain?
Name me a crater of fire! a peak of snow!
Name me the mountains on the moon!
But the name of the mountain that you climb all day,
Ask not your teacher that.
by Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892 - 1950)
More poems: QK & FN & KL