Real down-home…
Plain faced
Published June 1, 2021 by Nan MykelReal down-home…
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Only Pain
Published June 1, 2021 by Nan MykelHaven’t laughed this much in a long, long time!
Remember in Home Alone 2, when the family lands in Miami and they are passing everyones luggage down the line – “Give this to Kevin” – only to find out that, “Kevin’s not here”? And then Catherine O’Hara finds out and is like, “Kevin’s not here lolz” before screaming, “KEVIN!” and faints?
Remember that hullabaloo?
Well, take the essence of that scene, apply it to the Toronto Maple Leafs, and congratulations! You’re now fully caught up on the last six playoff exits, dating back to 2013.
It’s the slow realizaton that you don’t actually have what you thought you did, and you’re about to boomerang yourself back into a horrible situation.
Now then, let’s get the official police statement – if you will – out of the way before I go any further.
Ahem.
The Toronto Maple Leafs were leading their first round playoff series, 3-1, against the Montreal…
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Unrelenting Poet
Published June 1, 2021 by Nan Mykel
Her ankle turned and she fell,
umbrella cartwheeling
into traffic. Brakes squealed
as the curb’s unforgiving concrete
found her face. Fingers scrabbled
against grit and she finally
cried out, “All this for the sake
of a poem?”
Keith Says
Published May 31, 2021 by Nan Mykel
You don’t stroke a bully…
| Keith Wilson | May 27, 2021, 10:46 AM (4 days ago) |  | |
| A Reblog…Musingsofanoldfart |
One of my favorite authors is Malcolm Gladwell, a Canadian born to a Jamaican mother and English father. In an interview, he responded to a question about his ability to look from afar at issues close at hand. He noted his bizarre appearance made him an obvious outsider, so he crafted an outside looking in perspective.
One of his books is called “David and Goliath” about how underdogs sometimes are not whom they first appear to be. In one of his examples, he noted the Nazi’s bombing of London during World War II was actually counterproductive. Why?
People did perish and were injured. And, buildings were destroyed. But, the lion’s share of Londoners were not impacted other than being frightened. They were also galvanized with a defiant “I am still here.”
We should not set aside that galvanizing affect as it is crucial to the British resolve. Outside of tacit support from America before December 7, 1941, the British bore the heavy load to fight the Nazis and Italian fascists in the Europe/ Africa campaign. I am still here was a big part of their perseverance, especially after near catastrophe at Dunkirk which may have cost them severe loss of soldiers had it not been for a make-shift volunteer navy.
Standing up against tyrants and bullies requires that kind of perseverance. It is said the tenacious Winston Churchill was the ideal man to lead Great Britain during these times. He saw Adolph Hitler for exactly who he was – a psychopathic tyrant. Churchill’s predecessor tried to appease Hitler, which seems ludicrous in hindsight. You don’t stroke a bully.
The only way to stand up to a bully is with resolve. Please remember that when bullies, name callers and liars try to denigrate and gaslight you. The truth is your ally. So, is your conviction. I am still here. And, I know who and what you are.
 | ReplyForward |
Oh Oh…
Published May 27, 2021 by Nan Mykel
I got to heaven. God is a black transgender.
Was he carrying?
Couldn’t tell, but since he said Black Lives Matter
I figured I was in the wrong place so
I came back on down here.
IS RACISM A HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION?
Published May 27, 2021 by Nan MykelIt seemed kind of strange to me back in 10/23/2004 when Rense.com posted the story that “Bush Signs Global ‘Anti-Semitism’ Law.” Don’t get me wrong–I’ve laid flowers at Auschwitz–but why pick one area of human rights violations and not others? In fact, his state department had opposed the legislation, saying it was unnecessary as the department already includes such information in its annual reports on human rights and religious freedom.
“Today I signed the Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004. This law commits the government to keep a record of anti-Semitic acts throughout the world, and also a record of responses to those acts,” Bush said.
Then it occurred to me–even in 2004, when I clipped the article– that the state department should cite the US on such a list, and then wondered how racism is categorized, and if our acts against people of color are being lawfully recorded along with responses to those acts.
Temporarily Sourceless
Published May 24, 2021 by Nan Mykel
FROM NOTES FOUND WHILE CLEANING OUT…
Hatred of evil affects the one who hates. It makes him or her a hateful person, a person who also has absented his self or her self from the light. If you strike without compassion against the darkness, you yourself enter the darkness. (Sorry, I’ll try and find the source).
Sometimes it’s helpful to remember that there’s a big difference between non-assertiveness, assertiveness, and aggression, as I recall from Your Perfect Right…
Monkey Men?
Published May 23, 2021 by Nan Mykel
Theunis Bates, in The Week’s Editor’s Letter (5-14-21) writes that…The stuff of science fiction is once again becoming the stuff of reality. In a breakthrough study, researchers in the U.S. and China have created for the first time embryos that contain both human and monkey cells….Scientists hope that these mixed species “chimeras”–named for the fire-breathing creature of Greek mythology that’s part lion, part goat, and part snake–will help them find new ways to grow human organs for transplant and provide better subjects in which to test drugs and study disease. “Our goal is not to generate any new organisms, any monster,” study co-author Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte told NPR.org. The embryos were destroyed after 20 days, but bioethicists worry that someone will push this work further and try to produce a chimeric baby. Human cells might end up a part of the resulting creature’s brain, raising questions about whether the hybrid would be classed as human, animal, or something else entirely.
“I don’t think we’re on the edge of Planet of the Apes,” said Stanford University bioethicist Hank Greely. But it’s “time for us to start thinking about. Should we ever let these go beyond a petri dish?”
History suggests that these clusters of cells won’t remain in the dish for long. In the early days of artificial intelligence, researchers insisted that thinking machines would be used only for good and that the killer robots of The Terminator were dystopian nonsense. Yet Russia, China and the U.S. are all developing AI weapons that can identify and “engage”–that is, kill–human targets….The chimeras are coming, because whatever science can do, it inevitably will do.
Nan says: Dare I point out that no human embryos should be taken from people of color? From our recent vision of the underbelly of much of humankind, I’d vote for giving up on the dream of a Nobel Prize in exchange for empathy and avoidance of even more evil in the world. And I for one would donate any betterment of my health or longevity in order not to cause harm. Impossible to envision Russia, China and the U.S. agreeing to anything, much less limiting it to only good. The Week’s news story is on their page 21.
An adjacent thought: Are we building our robots with any ethics? If so, whose ethics? And how do you think that will turn out?
Forgetful and Gullible?
Published May 21, 2021 by Nan MykelStill in the process of “organizing,” I came across the following from the South Carolina Gazette:
Dec. 17, 1763: The following books are lent to persons whose names I have forgot…Samuel Carne
Warburton’s edition of Pope’s works, complete, duodecimo. 1st, 10th and 11th volume of the Craftsman. 1st and 2d volumes of Shakespeare’s plays, duodecimo. Rabelais works, 1st and 2d volumes. Madame Dacier’s Horace, 5th volume, French. Van Swieten on the diseases of the army, French. Hughes’s history of the Barbadoes. Russell on glandular diseases. Bontius de Morbis Egypitiorum. Bonnett’s Theatrum Tabidorum. 1st volume of Dr. Smellie’s midwifry. 1st and 2d volumes of the Edinburgh medical essays.
WONDER
Published May 20, 2021 by Nan Mykel
I doubt it’s a god, not even
an intelligent designer, but
there’s something so beyond
our ken at work out there, in here,
that we cannot begin to admit it
to ourselves.
Too many inexplicable surprises…
Where is the grand metaphor
for us to munch on in the abyss
of our nights? Our guesses are
getting colder, not hotter. Can
you feel it? The more we know,
the less.
What’s really behind our blind
spot? Where did mathematics
come from?
What gifts are we shuffling off
to the robots, and what will
they do with them?
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