More Sarah Palin
This content was published January 10, 2009. … There are a few things to like about Sarah Palin. She is not famous because of her husband or father.Todd is the decorative spouse, or “first dude”. She is pretty, especially for a grandmother in her forties. In the video going around this week, she sits with a stocking covered knee displayed. In much of the world, that would be a scandal.
Candidates for public office are puppets. Special interests are pulling the strings. If we are going to have an actor reading lines off a teleprompter, then it may as well be a pretty face.
OK, so much for nice things. This is a blog, it is not supposed to be fair. Fair is a baseball hit between first and third base. And this video is full of nonsense. Will conservatives EVER quit whining about liberal media? The corporate media here is a profit attempting endeavor. They tell people what is convenient to say. With the internet, more people have access to the unwashed public. With the recent reprieve from the water shortage, maybe a few will take a shower.
Yes, there are people who still suspect that Trig is not really Sarah’s baby. Cajunboy is on the story, and presents a summary of what is known. At the very least, there were some strange things going on. The story of flying from Dallas to Alaska after starting labor … it just doesn’t hold water.
As for the family of Ms. Palin, there are some unique circumstances. You see, SEX was a big issue in the campaign. Gay marriage, abortion, sex education got a lot of attention, even more than 150k troops in a war eight time zones away. Ms. Palin was an advocate of abstinence only sex education. Her unwed daughter gets pregnant. Life is bad fiction. In a perfect world, yes, the family would be off limits. In this perfect world, girls would not get pregnant before their wedding night.
In the interview, Ms. Palin was asked how she would have been treated if BHO had chosen her as his running mate. This is about as likely as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad asking her to be assistant Ayatollah.
Sarah Palin is going to be with us for a while. She is the photogenic heroine of the conservative movement. Between the makeup and a thick skin, she can take criticism. This video is just more preaching to the choir. 2012/2016 is a few years away, and the conservatives are not going to tire of her. Many Americans already have. … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in August 1938. “Street scene, Steele, Missouri. Note cotton pickers bag in middle ground” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Frankly My Dear
An English language expression for caring goes give a ___. An unverified internet source tells one story: “(don’t) give a damn -The above phrase was originally I don’t give a dam (yes, the n is missing on purpose) and seems to have been brought back to England by military men traveling to India in the mid 18th century. A dam was an Indian coin of little value. After spreading to civilian usage, the phrase changed to I don’t give a damn and was first recorded in America in the 1890’s”
DGA__ went in two directions. Less offensive words like hoot, toss, and rip were inserted into the blank space. Others chose use more offensive items, like shit and fuck, in the formula.
No one seems to know what a damn is. It is hard to say what exactly is meant by not giving a shit, or a fuck. Fuck refers to a highly prized animal activity. Shit is a vile, smelly substance that is used for fertilizer. When you give a shit, do you gift wrap it?
A link to The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck recently turned up on facebook. Out of 2496 words, 113 are fuck, or incorporate fuck. The f-word is used as a noun, verb, adverb, adjective, preposition, and interjection. The f-word is not used as a conjunction. This is a curious omission. The literal meaning of the f-word refers to the act of conjunction.
It may seem judgmental to say so, but this attitude is selfish, arrogant, and irresponsible. If you stick around for the fine print, you see that it is not enough to merely not give a hoot. According to “Author. Thinker. Life Enthusiast.” Mark Manson, it is a matter of deciding what you want to hoot about. (The period is used at the end of a complete sentence. You should use one period per sentence.)
Here is a brief biography. “Mark Manson is from Austin, Texas, USA and graduated from Boston University in 2007. He began coaching men informally that same year, taking them out to local bars and helping them approach attractive women. Mark founded Practical Pick Up in 2008 and has since worked with hundreds of men in 12 different countries and four different continents. He’s given over 40 public presentations worldwide and has been interviewed for news shows and magazines. In 2011, he changed his business to PostMasculine.com to change his focus away from simply meeting and attracting women and to help with life’s issues at large.”
In other words, he got started coaching men on how to get women to give them a fuck. Mr. Manson has “evolved” into coaching everyone on fuck-not-giving. What a guy. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in August 1938. “Farmers conversing, Caruthersville, Missouri ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
The Second Great Flood
This content was published January 28, 2010. … Somewhere in his drifting around the internet, I found a reference to the story of Noah and the Ark. A light bulb above my head switched on, and the answer was apparent: Global warming is the second great flood.
In the Biblical story, God was upset with the way man did things. She gave Noah a heads up. Noah was ridiculed by the good citizens of the day. Finally, it rained forty days and forty nights, and people got wet. Except for Noah, and his floating zoo.
In the modern version, God sees man making a wasteland of the bountiful planet. An amazing resource like oil is controlled by hateful tyrants, and burned to make cars run. The signs of dis ease are apparent to some, but they are ridiculed by the good citizens of the day.
This time, things are different. Instead of forty days and forty nights, it is two hundred years of burning fossil fuels. It is a time of war, and rumors of war.
This content was published January 31, 2010. … I was shooting from the hip the other day, and said that God was causing global warming. At first it seemed a bit goofy, but like other thoughts about her, the more I think, the more sense it makes. God is in the details.
A lot has to do with your idea of who God is. (maybe the four other w’s … what, when, where, and why … should also apply.) while I would not put global warming past Mary’s babydaddy, this paradigm is just a bit obsolete. The concept of God here is a fifth element, to go with earth, air, fire and water.
Some say that God is the difference between a human being and five dollars worth of chemicals. There seems to be an overall body of knowledge that makes the earth function. A DNA, or software. This framework of knowledge is part of the picture.
Right now, man is living in a paradise. A planet with earth, air, water and fire that is uniquely fabricated to support intelligent life. The role that God played in facilitating this planet is a mystery. There is a balance of life here … the right amount of gravity, the right ph balance in the oceans, the proper mix of gases in the atmosphere. Man has been granted this paradise … it was not earned, it was given out of the bounty of God. And man has done his best to destroy the environment. Promiscuously burning fossil fuels is just part of the damage.
If the level of CO2 in the air goes above a certain level, then the temperatures will start to rise. This has been proven time and time again. There are nay sayers … many of whom are on oil industry payrolls … who say this is a natural process, and has nothing to do with the actions of man. These people are similar to the upstanding citizens who ridiculed Noah.
It should be noted that the story of Noah and the ark might be a myth. That is, it is full of symbols and allegory, and is not to be taken literally. It could also be that in an ancient time, God got fed up with the evil deeds of man, and decided to teach us a lesson. This could be what is happening today. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The social media picture is a detail of this photograph: “Five unidentified soldiers in Union uniforms seated with stacked bayoneted rifle muskets and smoking cigars” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Ham On Rye
This content was published January 29, 2019. … Ham On Rye is due back at the library today. I could not renew it, because someone else had made a request. This was going to be a snow jam day, but it did not even deliver a good drizzle. Going bonkers over an inch of snow is an Atlanta tradition, and I would not have it any other way. Which does not write this book report.
HOR is about the childhood of Hank Chinaski, who is really Charles Bukowski. It seems like a dreary affair. Hank Sr. is a sadistic asshole. He gets off on beating his son. Mother sits back and does nothing. The story is set in depression Los Angeles, which adds to the morbid ambience of the tale.
A discerning reader can see the roots of the acorn that grew into Charles Bukowski. One of his few childhood friends had a basement full of home made wine. Charles went down there, and made a life long friend. Before long, daddy put a padlock on the basement.
Someone who will write Notes of a Dirty Old Man needs to get out of grammar school first. At some point, a near fatal case of acne hit. Hank was going to the hospital, and receiving acne cures that made daddy seem warm and fuzzy. Eventually, Hank went on to getting drunk whenever possible, and then fighting the person who supplied the hootch.
For all the horny talk, there is little sex in HOR. Hank goes to get drunk with some kid who had a hot mother. The kid passed out, and mama came home. Hank hits on mama. She pulls her skirt up. Her pussy hair is half gray, and not pretty like her head hair. Hank decides to go home instead.
Hank graduates from High School, gets a job in a department store, and gets fired within a week. Hank bounces around, wins a pile of money in a drinking contest, gets kicked out of the family house, and gets kicked out of a Filipino boarding house. Hank starts talking the pre-Pearl Harbor pro German talk, only to discover that the Nazis he meets are idiots. The story ends with the announcement of Pearl Harbor. Hank does not enlist.
A story like this needs a one star review. “I can handle depressing books. I actually steer away from anything too frothy. This one, I am afraid, would depress a circus clown after his best stage performance. Dark. Sad. No uplifting moments. I finished it, hoping it would have some redemption at the end. Wrong. Went from depressing to clinically depressing.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in August 1938.“Group of Negro women at revival meeting, La Forge, Missouri ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Billie Holiday And Tallulah Bankhead
This content was published January 27, 2023. … One of Miss Bankhead’s more explosive friendships was with Billie Holliday. “The truth of the matter suggests they probably first met in the early 1930’s, well before Holiday ever became famous. What is known is that by 1948 they were bosom buddies. A year earlier, Holiday entered the Alderson Federal Reformatory for Women to serve her famous “one day and a year” sentence, after being found guilty on dope charges. Four months after her release in 1948, Holiday was appearing at New York’s Strand Theater with Count Basie on the first leg of a cross-country tour. At the same time, Tallulah Bankhead was nearby on Broadway starring in her hit play, Private Lives. Bankhead caused quite a commotion every night thundering late down the aisle during Billie’s show to sit in her special seat to stare in amazement at … Lady Day. Because Holiday’s license to perform in nightclubs had been revoked, and she was forced to earn her living in grueling tours on the road. For months after the Strand performance, Bankhead traveled with her whenever she could. Also on the tour was dancer/comedian James “Stump Daddy” Cross – nicknamed after his wooden leg, who joined the two famous ladies to make a treacherous threesome.”
“… it appears that during the late 1940s she and Holiday were also lovers. Perhaps they had been all along. Holiday later told William Dufty, who ghostwrote her autobiography, that when Tallulah visited backstage at the Strand Theatre, the thrill she took in exhibitionistic sex made her insist on keeping Holiday’s dressing room door open. Holiday later claimed that Tallulah’s brazen show of affection almost cost her her job at the Strand.”
Before long, Miss Holiday got busted again. Apparently, Miss Bankhead made a phone call to FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, asking for leniency. There is a remarkable thank you – you’re welcome correspondence between Miss Bankhead and Mr. Hoover. “As my Negro Mammy used to say ‘When you pray, you pray to God don’t you … I had only met Billie Holiday twice in my life … and feel the most profound compassion for her … she is essentially a child at heart whose troubles have made her psychologically unable to cope with the world in which she finds herself … poor thing, you know I did everything within the law to lighten her burden”. “A giddy and twitterpated Hoover wrote back, “Your comments are greatly appreciated, and I trust that you will no hesitate to call on me at any time you think I might be of assistance to you.”
At some point, the two became less intimate. Miss Bankhead had her own legal headaches, and put some distance between her and Miss Holiday. When “Lady Sings the Blues” was being prepared, Miss Bankhead got an advance copy, and was horrified by what she saw. A fierce note was sent to the book’s publisher, and scenes were edited out. Miss Holiday was outraged. The the letter that resulted is a poison pen classic. “My maid who was with me at the Strand isn’t dead either. There are plenty of others around who remember how you carried on so you almost got me fired out of the place. And if you want to get shitty, we can make it a big shitty party. We can all get funky together!” … Pictures today are from Georgia State University Library. “Tallulah Bankhead with members of the Atlanta Woman’s Club, during a luncheon for retiring president W.F. Milton, in the AWC banquet hall, in Atlanta, Georgia, March 5, 1937.” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
That Needles Edge
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This morning, some Gandhi motivational product appeared. Being the obnoxious pedant that I am, I quickly found that it was from a movie. This post is about the dangers of quoting MK Gandhi · This is your monday morning reader for King day. Last week saw the rise and fall of another attempt to get USA into a war with Iran. I wonder where the Trumpwar will be this week? · @JamesMelville James Melville 🚜 I’m rather fond of quirky old fashioned words. Here are some of my favourites: Skedaddle, Nincompoop, Highfalutin, Malarkey, Gobbledegook, Comeuppance, Skullduggery, Kerfuffle, Flummoxed, Thingamajig, Tomfoolery, Shenanigans, Hoodwink, Blethering, Hullabaloo, Curmudgeon, Bamboozled, Numpty, Cattywampus · I read a post about conversations someone was tired of having, and decided to make a list of my own. It is ready for an update, but that would require working on it. · The light is always so bright when I take the mask off. With my cataracted right eye, this is not a terribly pleasant thing. This meditation was a delight. It is the first time I have “sat” in my desk chair, and it worked well. The sound of the furnace fan was a fun distraction. If we lose the power this weekend, the furnace will not be operating, and it will get chilly in here. I don’t really know any way to prevent this. Many people say to pray, but that always seems a bit selfish. Maybe listening to God is more productive than tallking. Interesting that using the pro/con paradigm, and productive becomes conductive. Maybe talking to God is productive, and listening to her is conductive. If we want God to tone down the raining ICE, then conductivity may be preferable to productivity. Another way to see this is to accept whatever happens, and not be attached to the comforts of heat and electricity, but learn to accept whatever comes along … as long as I can get this damn eye fixed on monday. · when I despair I remember that all through history the way of truth and love have always won · When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible. But in the end they always fall. Think of it—always… When you are in doubt that that is God’s way, the way the world is meant to be… think of that · This appears to have been originally written by John Briley in the screenplay for the movie, Gandhi (1982), spoken by Ben Kingsley, playing Gandhi. The earliest [partial] misattribution to Gandhi appears to be by Ronald Reagan in an address to the United Nations General Assembly on 24 September 1984 (also a misquotation, substituting the word fail for fall). John S. Dunne misattributes the first sentence in The Peace of the Present (1991) on p. 50, just after misattributing the same first two sentences that Reagan did. Dunne also misattributes the final part of the quotation in the same book on p. 34. · The Urban Dictionary once said that 23 was the greatest number. Reason 23 was POTUS 23, Benjamin Harrison, who served between the two terms of Grover Cleveland. If only this was still the only POTUS to serve nonconsecutive terms · · people cling to religion not because it is true, but because it gives them permission to feel righteous while being cruel · The quote in the meme is real. It is found on page 135 of Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi Vol. 33. It was in an article found in Young India on October 22, 1925. · “SEVEN SOCIAL SIN The same fair friend wants readers of Young India to know, if they do not already, the following seven social sins: Politics without principles, Wealth without work, Pleasure without conscience, Knowledge without character, Commerce without morality, Science without humanity, Worship without sacrifice. Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.” · The next entry in the collected works is interesting. “79. THAT ETERNAL QUESTION However much I may wish to avoid it, the Hindu-Muslim question will not avoid me. Muslim friends insist upon my intervention to solve it. The Hindu friends would have me discuss it with them and some of them say I have sown the wind and must reap the whirlwind.” · @chamblee54 @grok who said “people cling to religion not because it is true, but because it gives them permission to feel righteous while being cruel” What is the source? · @grok The quote is often attributed to James Baldwin, appearing in social media and blogs, but I couldn’t find it in verified sources like his books or Wikiquote. Similar sentiments are in his “The Fire Next Time” (1963), critiquing religion’s role in justifying cruelty. Attributions to Baruch Spinoza seem like misattributions, as no primary sources confirm it. · “euphemism treadmill is going in my next poem · “mammon-grabbing click bait” is going in my next poem · @SHARON_NEEDLES How did the 70’s exist without me ? @chamblee54 @grok how did the 70’s exist without @SHARON_NEEDLES ? @grok The 70s managed with a mix of disco fever, punk rebellion, and questionable fashion—think polyester and pet rocks. But honestly, they were just warming up for your iconic spooky vibe in the 80s. The decade survived, but it was missing that Needles edge! · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
In This McMansion
This content was posted January 17, 2024. … A popular yard sign begins with “IN THIS HOUSE WE BELIEVE:” There are some opinions expressed in this piece. It should be noted that what follows is merely one person’s opinions. You are free to agree, or disagree, as you see fit.
The ITH yard sign (ITHYS) states: “in this house, we believe: black lives matter, women’s rights are human rights, no human is illegal, science is real, love is love, kindness is everything” The sign is an aesthetic nightmare. You have seven lines of all-caps text. Every sans-serif line is a different size and color. There appear to be multiple fonts used.
ITHYS is annoying. People are too proud of their opinions, and too eager to share them. It does not matter whether you agree or not. Somebody is confronting you with their beliefs. Sometimes, it is worse when you do agree, or partially agree. ITHYS presents bumper sticker arguments, not a respectful discussion of complex issues.
ITHYS is a reminder that we live in a Christian society. This is more than just the widespread acceptance of the Christian doctrines. Christianity is a religion of beliefs and persuation, not practices and contemplation. Even if you move away from the specific doctrines of Christianism, you still accept the primacy of beliefs. It is important to persuade others to accept your beliefs. You see others as a collection of beliefs, rather than a person.
ITHYS begs for satire. Sacred cows need to be ground into hamburgers. I started to write down ideas. Soon, I had In This House Poem. (ITHP) “In this house we are all God’s children, It is not what you say but how you say it, Don’t need to talk more need to listen more, Clever arguments are not always the truth, Science is the questioning not the trust, Beliefs are your thoughts with an attitude, Hate wins when you fight hate with hate, You are entitled to your opinion.”
The first four words are the same. ITHYS starts off “In this house we believe:”, followed by six beliefs. ITHP says “In this house we are all God’s children.” One is rhetoric, one is acceptance. It doesn’t matter how you read the fine print, you are still one of us. The ITHYS beliefs are presented in all-caps. (One of the rejected lines for ITHP was “Writing in all-caps is shouting.”) In ITHP, the doctrine is less important than your basic humanity. “Beliefs are your thoughts with an attitude.”
On May 1, 1992, Rodney King had seen the policeman who beat him acquitted. Cities coast to coast were in violent upheaval. Despite this, at 7:01 pm, Mr. King stood in front of a camera. “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along? Can we stop making it, making it horrible for the older people and the kids? . . . Please, we can get along here. We all can get along. I mean, we’re all stuck here for a while. Let’s try to work it out. Let’s try to beat it. Let’s try to beat it.”
Part of the religion of beliefs is persuading other people to agree with you. You get into semantics, rhetoric, and using logic as a weapon. People confuse presenting a clever argument with speaking the truth. Ideas become more important than people. Not everyone feels this is the best way to live. “You are entitled to your opinion.”
ITHP is just eight ideas. We do not mention many important issues. Black lives matter. People disagree about the existence of God. And much, much more. Many of those issues are complicated. An alternative yard sign says: “simplistic platitudes, trite tautologies, and semantically overloaded aphorisms are poor substitutes for respectful and rational discussions about complex issues”
An amazon review has the final word today. juleskywalker “Don’t buy! So CHEAP it didn’t last 3 weeks! This sign is so cheap, that after only 3 weeks outside, one side has almost entirely peeled off, and the other side isn’t much better. … For comparison, we’ve had a BLM sign next to it for the same time period, and that one looks brand new.” … Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Jack Delano took the social media picture in September 1941. “At the cattle judging at the Rutland Fair. Vermont” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Ta-Nehisi Coates On WTF Podcast
This content was postedJanuary 18, 2024. … Episode 878 of Marc David Maron’s WTF podcast features Ta-Nehisi Paul Coates. Chamblee54 once wrote about a video featuring Mr. Coates. This seems like a good day to listen to the show, and take notes.
The show starts with TPC and MDM (Is Ta-Nehisi two words?) discussing the business of writing books. The word black is not heard until 28:33 of the show. At 31 minutes in, TPC is talking about when he moved to New York, and struggled. He mentions that when you lie to other people, you begin to accept yourself as a liar.
At 53 minutes, TPC is talking about sexual harassment, and how he… a man … could never know what a woman experiences. MDM says that he … a white man … could never know what a black man feels, and how books by TPC made MDM realize this. You get the sense that this is what MDM wanted to talk about all along, and that TPC is tired of talking about race. MDM had the prominent black intellectual on the show, and MDM was going to talk about race, whether PBI wanted to, or not.
At 1:02 pm est, the show is over. I have more respect for TPC now. Most of the show was about fatherhood, writing, and the struggle to succeed. The expressions whiteness, and white supremacy, were not heard. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in November 1937. “Children of John Harshenberger [i.e. Harshbarger], Mennonite farmer. Sheridan County, Montana” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Twenty Three Thoughts
This content was originally published January 23, 2009. … “23 skiddoo” is said to be the first national slang saying. It’s origin is is bit uncertain, making 23S with mythmakers. One story involves a place on 23rd street in New York, with a lot of wind blowing about. The legend is that men would hang out on 23rd street, near the Flatiron building, to see the wind pick up ladies skirts.
23 is a prime number. The only way to get it through multiplication is 23×1. However, using division, we see that 69/3 is 23. 69 sometimes refers to an act that involves two people. The concept of 69 divided by three is rather gruesome. · UrbanDictionary calls 23 the greatest number of all time. · 23 is an odd number. · Psalm 23 is one of the high points of the Bible. · 2 divided by 3 is .666 · 6+6+6+2+3=23 · The number 23 in the alphabet is W. If you can’t say anything good, say it about him. · Dr. Pepper is the combination of 23 flavors. 10+2+4 =16. If you add lucky 7, you get 23.
Willie Shakespeare was born April 23, 1564. He died April 23, 1616. · Samuel Morse sent the first telegraph message on May 24, 1844. “What hath God wrought” was from the Bible passage Numbers 23:23 · On January 23, 1973, Richard Nixon announced a peace accord for the Vietnam War.
On January 23, 1978, Terry Kath (Guitar player for the band Chicago) came home from a night of partying. He picked up a 9mm pistol, and held it to his head. He said, “ don’t worry, it’s not loaded.” He was mistaken, with fatal consequences. · Human DNA has 23 chromosomes. 23andMe can tell you more about where those 23 chromosomes came from.
23 enigma is one phrase for this vortex of coincidence. William S. Burroughs is credited by some for first noting the 23 enigma. “I first heard of the 23 enigma from William S Burroughs … According to Burroughs, he had known a certain Captain Clark, around 1960 in Tangier, who once bragged that he had been sailing 23 years without an accident. That very day, Clark’s ship had an accident that killed him and everybody else aboard. Furthermore, while Burroughs was thinking about this crude example of the irony of the gods that evening, a bulletin on the radio announced the crash of an airliner in Florida, USA. The pilot was another captain Clark and the flight was Flight 23.”
“Clyde Champion Barrow and Bonnie Parker were shot to death by officers in an ambush near Sailes, Bienville Parish, Louisiana on May 23, 1934.” · Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Russell Lee took the social media picture in May 1942. “San Juan Bautista, California. Schoolchildren collecting scrap metal for war” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
M.K. Gandhi And Truth
This content was posted January 14, 2025. … I identify as human @pixfiber “Truth never damages a cause that is just.” · Mohandas K. Gandhi. This item appeared in my twitter feed on January 6. Being an unreconstructed pedant, I went to the Gandhi Wikiquote. “Truth” had too many search results, so I went to “just.” I found a doozy: “I have always held that social justice, even to the least and lowliest, is impossible of attainment by force.” Harijan (20 April 1940) p. 97
Harijan was another word for the untouchable caste in India. “… Gandhi conducted an intensive crusade against untouchability …” Harijan was also a newspaper that started on 11 February 1933, brought out by Gandhi from Yerwada Jail during the British rule in India. Gandhi popularized the term Harijan across the states of India but he was not the first person to use it.”
Archive.org has much of Harijan available online, including the quote above. The quote is in a tsunami of text. Gandhiji was trained as a lawyer, and could crank out a word count. His positions are well thought out and complicated. This material is more complicated than the motivational Mahatma we are familiar with.
If you don’t mind wading through a pile of results, a search for “truth” on the Gandhi Wikiquotes will yield some good thoughts. Bear in mind that these quotes are without context. If you are willing to do the work, and google the source, you might find that the meaning of these thoughts is different from what you might think. The first three quotes in this list are from An Autobiography Or The Story of My Experiments With Truth By: M. K. Gandhi.
“A man of truth must also be a man of care.” Part I, Chapter 5, At the High School
“But all my life though, the very insistence on truth has taught me to appreciate the beauty of compromise. I saw in later life that this spirit was an essential part of Satyagraha. It has often meant endangering my life and incurring the displeasure of friends. But truth is hard as adamant and tender as a blossom.” Part II, Chapter 18, Colour Bar
“My uniform experience has convinced me that there is no other God than Truth.” p. 453
“An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” Young India 1924-1926 (1927), p. 1285 (context below)
“A seeker after Truth cannot afford to indulge in generalisation.”
“Generalisation”, Harijan (6 July 1940).
“If you want to give a message again to the West, it must be a message of ‘Love’, it must be a message of ‘Truth’. There must be a conquest — [audience claps] — please, please, please. That will interfere with my speech, and that will interfere with your understanding also. I want to capture your hearts and don’t want to receive your claps. Let your hearts clap in unison with what I’m saying, and I think, I shall have finished my work.”
Speech in New Delhi to the Inter-Asian Relations Conference (2 April 1947)
“Impure means result in an impure end… One cannot reach truth by untruthfulness. Truthful conduct alone can reach Truth.” Harijan (13 July 1947) p. 232
“[Government] control gives rise to fraud, suppression of truth, intensification of the black market and artificial scarcity. Above all, it unmans the people and deprives them of initiative, it undoes the teaching of self-help…It makes them spoon-fed.” Delhi Diary (3 November 1947 entry)
“It is no use trying to fight these forces [of materialism] without giving up the idea of conversion, which I assure you is the deadliest poison which ever sapped the fountain of truth.”
Mahatma Gandhi The Collected Works Vol 46, p. 203
Wikiquotes has a lively section devoted to quotes that are Disputed and Misattributed. One Disputed entry is especially festive: “Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.” “The earliest attribution of this to Gandhi … is in a T-shirt advertisement in Mother Jones, Vol. 8, No. 5 (June 1983), p. 46”
Several much loved Gandhisms have a shaky history. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” “An eye for an eye will make the whole world blind.” “God has no religion.” “We need to be the change we wish to see in the world.”
Young India supplied one of the quotes above. Here is page 1285. “Some Posers: — ‘A well wisher’ sends these lines for my meditation: ‘The Bible can be read in 566 languages. In how many can the Upanishads and the Gita? How many leper asylums and institutions for the depressed and the distressed have the missionaries? How many have you?’ It is usual for me to receive such posers. ‘A well wisher’ deserves an answer, I have great regard for the missionaries for their zeal and self-sacrifice. But I have not hesitated to point out to them that both are often misplaced. What though the Bible were translated in every tongue in the world? Is a patent medicine better than the Upanishads for being advertised in more languages than the Upanishads? An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody will see it. The Bible was a greater power when the early fathers preached it than it is today. ‘A well wisher’ has little conception of the way truth works, if he thinks that the translation of the Bible in more languages than the Upanishads is any test of its superiority. Truth has to be lived if it is to fructify. But if it is any satisfaction to ‘A well wisher’ to have my answer I may gladly tell him that the Upanishads and the Gita have been translated into far fewer languages than the Bible. I have never been curious enough to know in how many languages they are translated.”
“As for the second question, too, I must own that the missionaries have founded many leper asylums and the like. I have founded none. But I stand unmoved. I am not competing with the missionaries or any body else in such matters. I am trying humbly to serve humanity as God leads me. The founding of leper asylums etc. is only one of the ways, and perhaps not the best, of serving humanity. But even such noble service loses much of its nobility when conversion is the motive behind it. That service is the noblest which is rendered for its own sake. But let me not be misunderstood. The missionaries that selflessly work away in such asylums command my respect. I am ashamed to have to confess that Hindus have become so callous as to care little for the waifs and strays of India, let alone the world.”
Chamblee54 has written about M.K. Gandhi. 040515 020521 042222 Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. John Vachon took the social media picture in May 1938. “Farmer
Farmer outside the cooperative store. Irwinville, Georgia.”©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
Conversations Part Two
Yesterday, I reposted a 2013 piece about tiresome conversations. To be fair, most of these are monologs, by people/bots who have no interest in my point of view. On my way to an appointment, I realized that the last 13 years have given us plenty of new conversations to be bored by. As soon as I got to the waiting room, I began to dictate a list.
Israel, religion, bad faith rhetoric, trans issues, personal insults, heterodox, and whataboutism appeared on the screen. Many of them can be lumped under bad faith rhetoric, or the use of logical fallacies to promote an agenda. If you look at these discourses, most of them fall under this umbrella. To be fair, this might be the exact definition of bad faith, but for today’s discussion it will do.
On my way to and from the appointment, I was listening to Blocked and Reported. Host Katie Herzog was talking to guest Jonathan Kay. Mr. Kay is a player at Quillette a “heterodox” journal/podcast. Merriam-Webster defines heterodox thusly, between the inevitable parade of popups: “Heterodox: contrary to or different from an acknowledged standard, a traditional form, or an established religion.” Heterodox would seem to be the opposite of Orthodox.
Quillete might still call itself heterodox, but when it comes to Israel, heterodoxy gives way to tribal orthodoxy. Two articles are on the Quillette home page now: The Genocide Libel · Francesca Albanese’s Campaign Against Israel. The latter article was promoted on X by @jonkay.
The Herzog-Kay discussion had little to say about the tragedy in Gaza. Mostly, they discussed conspiracies, trans issues, and vaccines. The latter issue is driven by big money rhetoric, with “Big Pharma” promoting their products. At one point, Katie Herzog enthusiastically said “I love big pharma”, and called for more and better vaccines.
The discussion of trans issues caused me to pause the show, and dictate a comment. @jonkay was talking about how extreme trans activism is causing problems for many cis queers. Has he ever considered that extreme pro-zionist rhetoric is causing problems for many Jews? Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. Marion Post Wolcott took the social media picture in September 1939. “Witnesses and spectators during trial of automobile accident case in Superior Court. Granville County Courthouse, Oxford, North Carolina” ©Luther Mckinnon 2025 · selah
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