“To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” – George Washington (1790)
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First Principles: To Be Prepared For War Is One of the Most Effectual Means of Preserving Peace
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Effectual, First Principles, George Washington, Means, Peace, Prepare, War
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Upending the Trump Cards
Upending the Trump Cards
by Michael Doyle
Before my almost disbelieving eyes
The stuff of comics is seen as I realize
That theoretical physics is being sold
And the multiverse is the story being told
Page one and above the paper's fold
The blockbuster is showing up in bold
Print!...crashing technology into the mundane
Lives lived in parallel are presented as inane
While frames flash with the stuff of memory
That paints varied images as if choices of scenery
It serves to illustrate quotidian dissatisfaction
Yet doesn't miss a single beat of action
Spidey senses, despite pretenses, still tingle
While multiple discomforts manage to mingle
Some say this makes religion and philosophy obsolete
Because this has somehow made the past incomplete
In all the explanations that have been proffered
And most of the truth that has been offered
Human minds have internalized the cosmos until technology
Has begun to upend the trump cards of our past cosmology
(c) November 1, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Action, Beat, Block Buster, Bold, Choice, Comics, Cosmology, Cosmos, Disbelieving, Discomfort, Dissatisfaction, Explanation, Eyes, Fold, Frame, Human Minds, Illustrate, Incomplete, Memory, Mingle, Multiverse, Obsolete, Page One, Paint, Parllel, Philosophy, Poetry and Poems, Print, Religion, Scenery, Spidey Senses, Story, Technology, The Past, Theoretical Physics, Tingle, Told, Trump Cards, Truth, Upend
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Enough Pain To Go Around
Enough Pain To Go Around
by Michael Doyle
If there's one thing
That I've found
It's there's enough pain
To go around
Pages of sorrow
Tears of rage
Holding on for tomorrow
On this world's stage
It's the state of art
Of my darkened heart
Calling out across the multiverse
I've engineered it in reverse
Trying to live where the pieces fit
It only hurts just a little bit
The answers are missing, I must confess
When you live in the zip code of the wrong address
(What a mess...)
I'm not the only one
Who has had enough
All this has already been done
It's not enough to hang tough
Inside holds a primal scream
There's no hugging it out
When life rips apart the dream
Leaving only confusion and doubt
It's the state of art
Of my darkened heart
Calling out across the multiverse
I've engineered it in reverse
Trying to live where the pieces fit
It only hurts just a little bit
The answers are missing, I must confess
When you live in the zip code of the wrong address
(What a mess...)
(c) November 1, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Answers, Confess, Confusion, Darkened Heart, Done, Doubt, Dream, Engineer, Enough, Found, Go Around, Hang Tough, Hugging It Out, Huts, Inside, Little Bit, Live, Mess, Miss, Multiverse, Not the Only One, Pages, Pain, Pieces Fit, Poetry and Poems, Primal Scream, Rage, Reverse, Rip Apart, Sorrow, Stage, State of Art, Tears, Tomorrow, World, Wrong Address, Zip Code
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Thought For the Day: It Is Estimated That About 10 Percent of Students Will Experience Educator Sexual Misconduct By the Time They Graduate High School
“(I)t is estimated that about 10 percent of students will experience educator sexual misconduct by the time they graduate high school.” – Elizabeth Jeglic, Ph.D.
And yet the Uber Left tell us that parents should leave the well-being of their children up to the educators. What madness is this?
Educator Sexual Misconduct Remains Prevalent in Schools | Psychology Today
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged 10%, Educator, Elizabeth Jeglic PH.D., Estimate, Experience, Graduate, High School, Sexual Misconduct, Students, Thought For the Day, Time
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First Principles: The Foundation of National Morality Must Be Laid In Private Families
“The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families. … In vain are Schools, Academies, and Universities instituted, if loose principles and licentious habits are impressed upon children in their earliest years.” – John Adams (1778)
Happy Halloween 2023
Happy Halloween 2023
by Michael Doyle
Pumpkin, ghosts, and black cats
Coffins, ghouls, and witches hats
It's a dizzying juxtaposition
Of death in a freeform composition
Each holiday has its own marked place
That helps society's children embrace
The traces of life that we all know
That shift like magic to help them grow
These are the moments frightfully whimsical
That come scattered, and at times, nonsensical
All saintly souls are present on this day
Teaching the acceptance of death that comes this way
For all the horror tales, movies, and witches
That scare us to death or leave us in stitches
Memento mori pieces leave their best trace
As a reminder to all of mortality's embrace
Pumpkin, ghosts and black cats
Coffins, ghouls, and witches hats
It's a dizzying juxtaposition
Of death in a freeform composition
Scares, laughter, fear, and frivolity
As Fall prepares for Winter's dormancy
We wish each other happiness on this Halloween
And though we smile, we know exactly what it means
(c) October 31, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Acceptance, Black Cats, Children, Coffins, Composition, Death, Dormancy, Embrace, Fall, Fear, Freeform, Frivolity, Ghost, Ghouls, Grow, Halloween, Happiness, Happy Halloween 2023, Holiday, Horror Tales, Juxtaposition, Know, Laughter, Life, Magic, Marked Place, Mean, Memento Mori, Mortality, Movies, Nonsensical, Pieces, Poetry and Poems, Pumpkins, Reminder, Saint, Scare, Scares, Scattered, Shift, Smile, Society, Soul, Stitches, Teach, Trace, Whimsical, Winter, Wish, Witches, Witches Hats
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First Principles: If We Can Prevent the Government From Wasting the Labors of the People, Under the Pretence of Taking Care of Them, They Must Become Happy
“If we can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people, under the pretence of taking care of them, they must become happy.” – Thomas Jefferson (1802)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Care, First Principles, Government, Happy, Labor, Pretense, Prevent, The People, Thomas Jefferson, Waste
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Thought For the Day: There Are Three Things I’ve Learned Never To Discuss With People: Religion, Politics, and the Great Pumpkin
“There are three things I’ve learned never to discuss with people: religion, politics, and the Great Pumpkin.” – Linus, in It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown
The Blood of Unrequited Tears
The Blood of Unrequited Tears
by Michael Doyle
Even children book stories
Hold whispers of former glories
Like the Book of Life's Resurrection
If we follow the clues, we'll find the connections
A brave child will dare to read
Using his imagination to find where it leads
Even trying to imbibe life into bread
As if coaxing life will make it arise from the dead
He is reminded of this as he grows into a man
Paying the consequences that come the best that he can
Pulled from one adventure to life's next
This is the excitement felt as his life connects
Where and when in places where mercy is a word forgotten
These places fuel the damnation that festers spoiled and rotten
To Hell with the curses that fuel damnation's burning fire
As these curses lead to hope dying on lost funeral pyres
In the transparency of death and pain, he finds true despair
As diseases like the plague bring his life into disrepair
Doctors always put aside the attachments that make others care
And the Hippocratic Oath becomes a horrified, hypocritic snare
Filled with the unintended harm that is dealt
Out to the world that needs its cares felt
False superiority is as marked and abrasive as a rash
Seen in its observed cycle that always leads to its crash
It's the point where too much talking becomes only commotion
And leads to humanity drowning in its overwhelming emotions
These are the trembles that are greater than the sum of tears wept
Horror can be reduced only by the hours we have slept
(c) October 30, 2023 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Adventure, Arise, Attachment, Blood, Burning Fire, Children Book Stroies, Coax, Connection, Consequences, Curses, Damnation, Death and Pain, Despair, Disrepair, Doctor, Forgotten, Funeral Pyres, Hell, Hippocratic Oath, Hypocritic Snare, Imagination, Mercy, Plague, Poetry and Poems, Read, Tears
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First Principles: There Must Be Associations of Men of Unshaken Fortitude. A General Dissolution of Principles & Manners Will More Surely Overthrow the Liberties of America Than the Whole Force of the Common Enemy
“…(T)here must be Associations of Men of unshaken Fortitude. A general Dissolution of Principles & Manners will more surely overthrow the Liberties of America than the whole Force of the Common Enemy.” – Samuel Adams, in a letter to James Warren, Philadelphia, February 12, 1779.
Posted in First Principles
Tagged America, Association, Common Enemy, Dissolution, First Principles, Fortitude, James Warren, Liberties, manners, Men, Overthrow, Principles, Samuel Adams, Whole Force
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