I remember my first firearms instructor in basic training, this huge, hulking sergeant. He stood in front of us with an m-16, turned down range and shot a watermelon on a post, which just came apart. That, he said, was someones head.

Then he told us something that stuck in my mind till this day.

I hate these weapons, he said. They are ugly things. You only use them if you have to. I have been dealing with them my whole career, and when I retire next year I will never touch one again.

Later in life I read this in the Tao Te Ching and thought of that Sergeant:

Fine weapons are ill-omened tools

They are hated.

Therefore the old Taoist ignores them.

Weapons are ill-omened tools,

Not proper instruments.

When their use can't be avoided,

Calm restraint is best.

Don't think they are beautiful.

Those who think they are beautiful

Rejoice in killing people.

When many people are killed

We feel grief and sorrow.

A great military victory

Is a funeral ceremony.

I know I really hated the m-60 machine gun, which I became quite adept in. Noisy bastard jumping around sucker. And hand grenades gave me the willies.

bebop-o:"George ought to stroll via the streets like Marcus Aurelius and write about his courageous insights, compassion, and deepest inner thoughts.

That's to be very real.

That's a commander-in chief."

Plato once said there will be no justice in society until the lovers of wisdom (not to be confused with philosophy professors)are king.

Only happened once in history that I know of off-hand, with dear old Marcus Aurleius--and look how quick it all went downhill when he was off the scene!

that was well said: thanks.

the thread today is just full of good things. Thanks for the quote about John Edwards.

Thich Nhat Hanh and I smile, bebop-o, and feel a little better.

A bow to you all, buddhas to be. All: even my enemies are my respected teachers.

that your description is accurate: "Once you've drained the treasury, lost two wars, devastated your country's reputation, and earned the undying loathing of three quarters of Americans and nine tenths of all humanity"

If I had come across this as a prediction eight years ago I would not have taken it seriously at all. But now its simply the common wisdom.

I need something from the Tao Te Ching to cheer me up:

Humans are born soft and weak.

They die stiff and strong.

The ten thousand plants and trees

Are born soft and tender,

And die withered and sere.

The stiff and strong

Are Death's companions.

The soft and weak

Are life's companions.

Therefore,

The strongest armies do not conquer,

The greatest trees are cut down.

The strong and great sink down.

The soft and weak rise up.

"If government is muted and muffled'

People are cool and refreshed.

If government investigates and intrudes,

People are worn down and hopeless.

Bad fortune rests upon good fortune.

Good luck hides within bad luck.

Who knows how it will end?

If there is no principle

Principle returns to disorder,

Good reverts to calamity,

People's confusion hardens and lingers on.

Therefore the Sage

Squares without cutting,

Corners without dividing,

Straightens without extending,

Shines without dazzling."

[Chapter 58]

has a nice essay on Mukasey on Huffpo: http://tinyurl.com/24wjc6

It contains this quote from Simone Weil:

"Politically speaking, it is the essential characteristic of totalitarian regimes that they prolong, year after year, a situation which is only natural in a state of general excitement. Every people is liable occasionally to what we may call totalitarian moments. At such moments there are unanimous and cheering crowds and even the passive elements of the population, including those who were formerly hostile to what is being acclaimed, feel a vague admiration and sense of satisfaction....Totalitarian regimes commence more or less in this kind of atmosphere, and that is why their tyrannical character is recognized more quickly by foreigners than by their own subjects. Then, as the years go by, everything is expected to continue, day by day throughout the whole country, on the assumption that the state of excitement is permanent. The real stumbling-block of totalitarian regimes is not the spiritual need of men for freedom of thought; it is men's inability to stand the physical and nervous strain of a permanent state of excitement....Enthusiasm is a machine that wears out, and then a man begins to be aware of coercion; and the sense of being coerced is enough to produce in his mind that combination of docility and rancor which is typical of slaves."

Time to sleep for me too: gotta get my rest to teach logic in the morning.

are a critical majority of the democrats simply republicans in disguise? or are the critical majority of both parties simply corporatists (another way of putting the same point, I guess?). Whenever anyone says on here that it is all simply kabuki shadow play, you , Glenn, usually respond that it is more complex than that. And I agree: there are all kinds of folks up in congress, ranging from outnumbered and outgunned idealists to total stooges of the corporate world. But isn't it the case that the critical majority of both parties are corporatists, making it a de facto shadow play? That no matter how messy it gets around the edges, it really is just one big party with two wings shadow boxing? Or not? Will more better democrats make the difference? And do the more better kind even stand a chance of becoming the critical majority? I mean, even Bill Clinton was just a sort of republican lite, was he not?

You got me bummed out this morning, Glenn :)

how to be shush?

BE shush. That is a worthy goal.

Thanks for the reminder, bebop-o.

Though I am not sure what you mean by the lasciviousness!

lasciviousness

as the natural antidote to lies.

I like that one, bebop-o.

Thanks for explaining.