First Principles: If A Republican Government Fails To Secure Public Prosperity and Happiness, It Must Be Because the Citizens Neglect the Divine Commands, and Elect Bad Men To Make and Administer the Laws

“If the citizens neglect their duty and place unprincipled men in office, the government will soon be corrupted . . . . If a republican government fails to secure public prosperity and happiness, it must be because the citizens neglect the Divine commands, and elect bad men to make and administer the laws.” – Noah Webster

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Thought For the Day: The Vibrations On the Air Are the Breath of God Speaking To Man’s Soul. Music Is the Language of God. We Musicians Are As Close To God As Man Can Be.

“The vibrations on the air are the breath of God speaking to man’s soul. Music is the language of God. We musicians are as close to God as man can be. We hear his voice, we read his lips, we give birth to the children of God, who sing his praise. That’s what musicians are.” – Ludwig von Beethoven

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It’s Only A Memory

It's Only A Memory
by Michael Doyle

Cracked pictures from another time,
And now somehow it feels more than sublime.
Once we walked under the moon, hand in hand.
Where that went is hard to understand.

Is it funny how love fell into a crack?
And now we'd give anything to have it back.
Crazy words that cannot be unsaid,
It's hard to get past feelings that are dead.

Funny how it's lost in a memory,
How would you give up our love and family?
Ten years from the time called now,
Will I be able to be happy again somehow?

Heartbreak to heartache, it hurts to learn
How dying embers continue to burn.
It's funny, isn't it? This stupid thing called love?
What was it that we were thinking of?

That's not a tear rolling down my face.
It's just a raindrop fallen out of place.
Please don't turn and look at me,
Some things are meant to only be a memory.

How is t possible that we've given up our dream?
Is there life after we find that it has turned obscene?
It turns out there are things that I've never seen,
And that there is, indeed, love after pristine.

Two strangers sit at dinner talking,
Both of them have considered walking,
Instead, both throw each other rescue lines.
All it seems for the sake of Valentine's.

Do you get more credit if you cry?
I wonder how it is we don't know why.
Maybe it's time that the truth be told.
It is something that can't be undersold.

Into the night, we keep talking.
Both of us are unable to find legs for walking.
Emotional pain needs thrown lifelines
To get us through this day, we call Valentine's.

(c) February 12, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

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Thought For the Day: We Have Solved the Mystery of the Atom and Forgotten the Lessons of the Sermon On the Mount

“We live in a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants, in a world that has achieved brilliance without wisdom, power without conscience. We have solved the mystery of the atom and forgotten the lessons of the Sermon on the Mount. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about dying than we know about living.” – General Omar N. Bradley

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First Principles: If By the Mere Force of Numbers, A Majority Should Deprive A Minority of Any Clearly Written Constitutional Right, It Might, In A Moral Point of View, Justify Revolution

“If by the mere force of numbers a majority should deprive a minority of any clearly written constitutional right, it might, in a moral point of view, justify revolution.”- Abraham Lincoln

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Heart Made Whole

Heart Made Whole
by Michael Doyle

In the pain of endless moments,
There are times of sheer torment.
The things accidentally said,
These echo roundabout in my head.

Worse yet are the things I've seen.
Sights that destroy my inner being.
Painful recollections from the start
Are the scars that killed my heart.

Writing another note of praise,
My song will celebrate all days.
I keep on living in constant worship,
For my love of the Lord in His Kingship.

My heart is made whole
By the keeper of my soul.
With the most amazing grace,
The Lord anchors me in place.

From the outside of life's shadow,
I have surrendered what I know
For a life lived moving forward,
Ever toward the ways of the Lord.

Writing another note of praise,
My song will celebrate all days.
I keep on living in constant worship,
For my love of the Lord in His Kingship.

Holy is the angel's cry,
Up above in the bright blue sky.
I walk the walk of freedom,
Within this place called God's kingdom.

Joined together in our holy song,
This is where God's children belong.
We join in righting the darkest wrongs
With our love growing forever strong.

Writing another note of praise,
My song will celebrate all days.
I keep on living in constant worship,
For my love of the Lord in His Kingship.

(c) February 11, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved

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Thought For the Day: Wherever There Is A Human Being, I See God-Given Rights Inherent In That Being, Whatever May Be the Sex Or Complexion

“Wherever there is a human being, I see God-given rights inherent in that being, whatever may be the sex or complexion.” – William Lloyd Garrison

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First Principles: Government Has No Right To Control Individual Liberty Beyond What Is Necessary To the Safety and Well-Being of Society

“Government has no right to control individual liberty beyond what is necessary to the safety and well-being of society. Such is the boundary which separates the power of the government and the liberty of the citizen or subject in the political state.” – John C. Calhoun

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Bonhoeffer, Part 4 (Dirty Hands)

Dirty Hands
by Michael Doyle

The truth speaks loudly, and sometimes too much.
There is a penalty for doing such.
Sometimes, the things we do break us in two.
That's not too much of a price to pay for you.

So, our Lord, beloved, was there on the cross.
It was mankind's gain, but not God's loss.
Satan was defeated by a stone rolled away,
And so it is again, this fateful day.

A life for our lives is the bargain made.
There in the deck of cards given, then played.
Evil thinks it can do as it pleases and will,
But in the end, God delivers the final bill.

Is a country turned into a prison, still a country?
Can we have freedom where there is no liberty?
Can a people be a people beaten mercilessly?
What sort of arrogance does this to humanity?

It takes brave souls to take a stand.
It takes fools to not realize God's final command.
There is hurt and anger that pulls at our souls.
Life is loss, but in the end, God has control.

Crazy isn't it, when a pacifist finally understands.
Sometimes, necessary changes require dirty hands.
For every turn in life, there is a season.
Sometimes madness must be stopped for every good reason.

(c) February 10, 2026 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
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First Principles: The World Is A Severe Schoolmaster, For Its Frowns Are Less Dangerous Than Its Smiles and Flatteries, and It Is A Difficult Task To Keep In the Path of Wisdom

“The world is a severe schoolmaster, for its frowns are less dangerous than its smiles and flatteries, and it is a difficult task to keep in the path of wisdom.” – Phillis Wheatley

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