NEW BOOK RECOMMENDED !
AMERICAN STRUGGLE- Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union
( by Jon Meacham ) 2026.
This is great American history, quite thorough. I must say the last commentary (“THE PATH TO AMERICAN AUTHORITARIANISM: WHAT COMES AFTER DEMOCRATIC BREAKDOWN” ) BY Steven Levitsky and Lucan A. Way ) is quite frightening 1. In its summary of the present and 2. In its vision of the looming future.
At one point, a fighter took the mic and made a nasty joke about Michelle Obama while standing in front of the house she once lived in with her husband, daughters and mother.
Even for a president with a lifelong penchant for P.T. Barnum-esque gambits, this one was in a league of its own. (NEW YORK TIMES )
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Raylan Givens: Sometimes, we have to make deals with lowlifes because we have our sights set on life forms even somehow lower on the ladder of lowlife than they.
(JUSTIFIED )
“Where have you gone, Joe Dimaggio ? Our nation turns it’s lonely eyes to you.”
May 25, 2026–HAPPY 85TH, MR. DYLAN
1962 ? 2026 ?
Come senators, congressmen, please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway, don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt will be he who has stalled
The battle outside ragin’
Will soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times, they are a-changin’
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You fasten the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion
As young people’s blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud
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Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
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“…if God is on our side
He will stop the next war.”
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Quotes from Bob Dylan
War:
“If God is on our side, he’ll stop the next war.” (With God on our Side)
“And his brain has been mismanaged with great skill.” (License to Kill)
“Alright – where do you want this killing done?” (Highway 61)
“Is your money that good? Will it buy forgiveness? Do you think that it could?” (Masters of War)
“Things are breaking up out there, High water everywhere!” (High Water)
“Let’s disconnect the cables, over turn the tables. The place just don’t make sense
to me nor more.” (Senor)
“And I’ll tell it, and think it, and speak it and breath it.” (Hard Rain)
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I’m trying to love my neighbor and do good unto others, But oh, mother, things ain’t going well
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May you have a strong foundation, When the winds of changes shift
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“Bury the rag deep in your face, for now is the time for your tears.” (Hattie Carol)
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Something is happening here, But you don’t know what it is, Do you Mister Jones.
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”Is your money that good? Will it buy forgiveness? Do you think that it could?
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Don’t criticize what you can’t understand.—
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“There’s a big gaping hole in my chest where my heart was,
and a hole in the sky where God used to be.
My American dream fell apart at the seams.
You tell me what it means. You tell me what it means.”
Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson
LUDDITE LITERATURE
I resisted the email, technology world that cropped up at the end of my coaching, teaching career.
We moved to the beach just before winter. I had never cut on my college issued computer. High school typing class was in 1956. Health issues, injuries, age, weather chipped away at my physicality.
I began to “hobby write “. Self-Publishing was possible and I waded in.
Any old person will tell you of the “nightmare of the new age”. Even now.
My seven “books” and 700 blog articles attest to one virtue–VOLUME. And while the process has been a retirement hobby, I haven’t changed my name to Shakes Parham.
Vanity has caused me to wonder “ is it any good ?”
In toto it is a jumbled mess. At 85 years and “ circling the drain “, finding out its worth is beyond me.
Here is a thought. With the galloping advances, will there be a way to edit out the good parts?
There are bigger questions:
Are there large numbers of people like me, who given self publishing, produced some unique period and worthwhile contributions?
The phrase “he could piss off the Pope” is a common idiomatic expression used to describe someone who is exceptionally abrasive, arrogant, or difficult to deal with. It has been attributed to various individuals in different contexts rather than originating from a single famous source:
OK–You are not Jesus, but you are Doctor Kildare !
Rule # 1: “First, do no harm.”
“Anyway you slice it, it’s still baloney.”
Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
“…if God is on our side
He will stop the next war.”
Are we really going to let some one person who doesn’t believe in the law, singularly write the rules ( i.e. laws )
for college athletics in America ?
WDBS (What did Bob say?)
Gentlemen, he said
I don’t need your organization, I’ve shined your shoes
I’ve moved your mountains and marked your cards
But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination
Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards
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An’ here I sit so patiently
Waiting to find out what price
You have to pay to get out of
Going through all these things twice
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I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
And just for that one moment I could be you
Yes, I wish that for just one time you could stand inside my shoes
You’d know what a drag it is to see you
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Mama, put my guns in the ground
I can’t shoot them anymore
That long black cloud is comin’ down
I feel I’m knockin’ on heaven’s door
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But to live outside the law, you must be honest
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Lookout kid, they keep it all hid.
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Gates of Eden
Bob Dylan ‧ 1965
There are no kings inside the Gates of Eden
The Little Green Book of Tennis 