August 19, 2009 - Coffee Break - Kansas City Missouri

My vindication is complete. The Committee (Covode May-June 1859) have reported no resolution looking to an impeachment against me; no resolution of censure; not even a resolution pointing out any abuse in any of the executive departments of the Government to be corrected by legislation. This is the highest commendation which could be bestowed on the heads of the departments – President James Buchanan

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We as a species are imperceptibly stupid – mainly because we are the only species capable of being stupid – it is exactly the same as saying we are the only rational animal

I am sober and industrious / and would be plain and playing / for a little while / until my rococo / self is more assured of its / distinction - Frank O’Hara – The Collected Poems of Frank O’Hara p185

Every age deplores the conditions under which they must manage their affairs, but doesn’t care to propose any alternative – no it’s the nature of the beast, it’s the burden we bear, it is the way of mankind – it made no difference whether he was a slave master producing cotton or a bank loan officer trying to push consumer credit. And the economists what do they propose – well creative destruction is an option, the entrepreneur will employ new technology and all the old bad things will go away. Whatever the condition we can look forward to some form of new  technology - it's built into the process – such an act of faith (cradle to grave)!

Though goes with the age and even with the objects that age engenders – Jean-Claude Carrière – Please, Mr. Einstein, 2005 p36

That a fact is true is what makes it a fact in the first place, but to call something a fact does not in itself make it true - and that's a fact

The man in whose favor no laws of property exist, probably feels himself less bound to respect those made in favor of others - Frederick Law Omsted – The Cotton Kingdom, 1861 p83

A doe ambles across the lawn and into the trees

A coal train rumbles its way south – traffic is blocked

              On Prospect

The birds are having breakfast and crickets can be heard
It’s a brand new day coming my way
The crossing is still blocked and the crickets still chirp
              Someone is getting fuel to create his own world

The penalty of age is this rather ugly knowingness – Soseki Natsumi - I am Cat II, 1979 p107

The current rapacious and suicidal market system may just be an accident of accounting rules – it can all be changed by re-inventing its measurements – it’s just that simple in concept at least.

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Up to a point it is better to let the snags be there than to spend such time in design that there are none – Alan Turing

In the sixteenth century, one persevering gentleman managed to inscribe the entire text of the Bible on the inside of a nutshell. That’s the stage we’re at. / Could anyone read it? / No, but it was the Bible nonetheless – Jean-Claude Carrière – Please, Mr. Einstein, 2005 p62

We’re well on our way to producing a nation of employees, not citizens… we’re ploughing swords into cogs – Mark Souka – Harpers (Sept 2009) p33


Rain does not follow the plow. Political freedom, whatever the market evangelists may tell us, is not an automatic by-product of a growing economy; democratic institutions do not spring up, like flowers at the feet of the Magi, in the tire tracks of commerce – Mark Slouka – Harpers (Sept 2009) p36
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