JimBlog.net
my thoughts on my life and my world
Welcome to Jimblog.net!
I am Jim Miles, a high school teacher of religion and history in the Central Valley of California. I am the lucky husband of Kim Miles, a lovely, wonderful, intelligent, classy lady. I am a musician, a bass-player, veteran of two bands, the most recent of which was called Sol. I am an on-again, off-again blogger, and I present here my own opinions, especially about politics (see the War page, for example), religion, cinema, books, music, and lots of other topics, which you could explore in the tag cloud.
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Quotes
"A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection - not an invitation for hypnosis"
"How do I know what I think until I see what I say?"
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that is counted counts."
"By encouraging people constantly to pursue the emblems of success, and by causing them to equate possessions with status, what are we doing to their emotions and their sense of values?"
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move in the opposite direction."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice."
"In the face of a 24/7 propaganda assault, war, a lawless American government, corruption, and state-sanctioned terror and torture--now more than ever, we must speak truth to power."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
"...the working class who fight all the battles... who make the supreme sacrifices... have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both."
"At the risk of seeming ridiculous, let me say that the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love."
"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act."
"If the quintessential symbol of [WWII] was Rosie The Riveter, the poster for the Bush Wars has to be that of an SUV driver receiving a tax break while sucking down enough Saudi oil to drive to a mall where he's expected to buy lead-tainted crapola manufactured overseas..."
Equality of opportunity cannot truly exist in a society which embraces capitalism.
In 1957 Time Magazine had on its cover "The Smartest Man in America" (the latest winner of the most popular TV trivia game show at that time.) It was later uncovered that the contestant received the answers in advance from the show's producers because he was widely loved by the viewers. In fact, one hundred twenty contestants and staff initially swore on the Bible during a grand jury investigation that the television show was not rigged. Most later recanted, and it is now known they all lied. If all these people were willing to lie for a little money, how much more for alleged national security? The fact is, Time Magazine was wrong. The best way to fool the world was to fool the media.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
"At the Bush White House, a constitutional crisis is when somebody actually reads the Constitution."
"Rah el sani, ija el ussta — Gone is the apprentice, in comes the master." - One of the popular sayings repeatedly heard in Baghdad in 2003, describing the relations between the U.S. and Saddam’s regime.
"The issuing power of money should be taken from banks and restored to Congress and the people to whom it belongs. I sincerely believe the banking institutions having the issuing power of money, are more dangerous to liberty than standing armies."
"If the American people ever allow the banks to control the issuance of their currency, first by inflation, and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property, until their children wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered."
"I just want to say that I am sorry for the hate and destruction that I have inflicted on innocent people, and I’m sorry for the hate and destruction that others have inflicted on innocent people. At one point, it was OK. But reality has shown that it’s not and that this is happening and that until people hear about what is going on with this war, it will continue to happen and people will continue to die. I am sorry for the things that I did. I am no longer the monster that I once was. Thank you."
Think it can’t be done? So did I, until I saw a guy with three Purple Hearts and a Silver Cross turned into a weak, wimpy, lying coward, in order to make sure that a weak, wimpy, lying coward who went to Margaritaville instead of the Mekong Delta during the Sixties could be portrayed as some sort of macho tough guy, and thus steal another four years in the White House.
Sin blinds. Power corrupts. God loves. Truth shines. The battle rages on. The darkness of misapprehension is a fog of war. All souls are soldiers, knowingly or not, willingly or not. Every mind, a moral agent.
"This Act (the Federal Reserve Act, Dec. 23rd 1913) establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President (Woodrow Wilson) signs the Bill, the invisible government of the Monetary Power will be legalised... The worst legislative crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency Bill."
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