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How to Make a Doorstop

 

480 Days

 Only 480 days since my last post here.

Florence is soon to be a memory, as we escape to a more promising future, away from the foul miasmas that invade our space and nip away at our health like human piranha, leaving us stripped almost to the bone.  

Liberal Conservative Continuum

A living cell is enclosed by a "skin", a semi-permeable membrane that allows nutrients to enter the cell while repelling harmful substances, and also allows the expulsion of waste products while retaining everything it needs to survive. If the membrane were solid, the cell would die from lack of nutrients and accumulation of waste. That is ultimate conservatism. If the membrane did not exist, the cell contents would disperse and be ravaged by predators, and the cell would die. That is ultimate liberalism. The conservative-liberal continuum exists from the smallest individual cell and permeates all of life, and extends to the social and political spheres. The proper balance must be maintained. The conservative-liberal continuum is all about boundaries. With no boundaries we die. With rigid boundaries we die. Examine conservative and liberal beliefs and philosophies, and you will see this at play, underlying all of it. Selfishness vs generosity? There it is. Totalitarianism vs anarchy. Yes. Right vs left. That's what it is all about. Conservatism is not about keeping the status quo or reverting to an earlier age. It is about boundaries. Me vs you. My family vs your family. My team vs your team. My country vs your country. Conservatives push to tighten boundaries, while liberals push to loosen them. Currently the boundaries have been tightened to the point of a sickness in the social order and ill health on a personal level. People are dying. The planet is dying.

971

971 Days

It has been 971 days since my last post here. 971 is a prime number. 971 in Roman Numerals is CMLXXI. In the year 971 The grave of Swithun, Anglo-Saxon bishop of Winchester, was moved into an indoor shrine (he was previously buried outside) in the Old Minster. The ceremony was said to have been marred by 40 days of torrential rain. State Route 971 is a state highway in the U.S. state of Washington. West Virginia Route 971 is a 9.9-mile (15.9 km) north–south state highway in Wyoming County, West Virginia. Numerologically, 971 reduces to 8, which is a building number. It builds things.

National Noodle Day

National Noodle Day was created in 1899 to commemorate the great chef Marconi Franconi Francois Mifferstein, one of the leading chefs of New York City and a personal favorite of national and world leaders.

Chef Mifferstein believed, with rabid fervancy expressed often to his admirers, that noodles were a transubstantial representation of the intestines of Jesus Christ.  He was heard on at least one occasion quoting Christ's words to his disciples:  "Take.  Eat.  These are my guts."

After the Chef's death, a few of his followers started a religion based upon his noodle teachings, but without his recipes, which he carried with him to his grave (in his back pocket), the faith soon died out.  An attempt to exhume the body and retrieve the recipes was blocked by his widow, who exclaimed, "Leave the man sleep, you crazy bastards!"

Many of us register with a major party soley to have a voice in the primaries. If you don't like what the parties have become and the way they operate, and you have already voted in your state's primary election, consider sending them a message by changing your voter registration to "Not a Member of a Party", or to a minor party. This won't affect your vote in the November election if you change it before the registration deadline in your state (31 days at the most). It would be so great to see a big drop in the Democrat and Republican numbers.

If you live in Oregon, you can change your voter registration on line here:

http://sos.oregon.gov/voting-elections/Pages/my-vote.aspx