“A people who extend civil liberties only to preferred groups start down the path either to dictatorship of the right or the left.” – Justice William O. Douglas (1898-1980)
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Thought For the Day: A People Who Extend Civil Liberties Only To Preferred Groups Start Down the Path Either to Dictatorship of the Right Or the Left
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Civil Liberties, Dictatorship, Extend, Justice William O. Douglas, Left, Path, People, Preferred Groups, Right, Thought For the Day
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Thought For the Day: Liberty Lies In the Hearts of Men and Women. When It Dies There, No Constitution, No Law, No Court Can Do Much To Help It
‘Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can do much to help it.'” – Judge Learned Hand
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Tagged Constitution, Court, Dies, Heart, Law, Learned Hand, Liberty, Men, Thought For the Day, Women
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First Principles: We Should Be Unfaithful To Ourselves If We Should Ever Lose Sight of the Danger To Our Liberties, If Anything Partial…Should Infect the Purity of Our Free…Elections
“We should be unfaithful to ourselves if we should ever lose sight of the danger to our liberties if anything partial or extraneous should infect the purity of our free, fair, virtuous, and independent elections.” – John Adams (1797)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Danger, Elections, First Principles, Infact, John Adams, Liberties, Lose Sight, Ourselves, Unfaithful
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In My Thanksgiving For You
In My Thanksgiving For You
by Michael Doyle
I don't have to wait for another day
To tell you, I am thankful in every way
For all those things you give to me
That's putting it maybe too simply
From the day you quietly said hello
My heart has known which way to go
That's the way that brings us together
So much closer, for worse or for better
Yes, I know, that it's only gotten better
I'm telling the world, I'm glad that I met her
Counting my blessings when you say my name
Even if I have forever, it will always be the same
(c) November 16, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Always Be the Same, Another Day, Closer, Counting My Blessings, Day, Every Way, For Worse Or For Better, Forever, Glad, Hello, Known, Met, My Heart, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Say My Name, Simple, Tell the World, Thankful, Thankgiving, Together, Wait, You
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First Principles: In Regard To Religion, Mutual Toleration In the Different Professions There Is What All Good and Candid Minds In All Ages Have Ever Practiced and…Inculcated On Mankind
“In regard to religion, mutual toleration in the different professions thereof is what all good and candid minds in all ages have ever practised, and, both by precept and example, inculcated on mankind.” – Samuel Adams
Posted in First Principles
Tagged All Ages, Candid, Different Professions, Example, First Principles, Good, Inculcate, Mankind, Minds, Mutual Toleration, Practice, Precept, Regard, Religion, Samuel Adams
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Thought For the Day: One of the Truest Tests of Integrity Is Its Blunt Refusal To Be Compromised
“One of the truest tests of integrity is its blunt refusal to be compromised.” – Chinua Achebe, writer and professor (16 Nov 1930-2013)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Blunt Refusal, Chinua Achebe, Compromised, Integrity, One, Thought For the Day, Truest Test
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Making A Difference In Possible End Days Blues
Making A Difference In Possible End Days Blues
by Michael Doyle
Determined that I am going to make a difference
Holding my head up high but still in reverence
As I am making way through 2020's day to day
Spending my soul's debt down, giving love away
I am going to join in living out the good deeds
Finding and sharing light as to this world's needs
Linking arms while opening eyes and open ears
Keeping it real in my prayers, erasing all of my fears
Here at the heralded two minutes to infamous midnight
Whatever time we have left, I am going to love it right
Turning my troubles over to God in a brand new view
Yes, I'm giving my heart over to the love God and you
There's a prepared place in house of sacred rooms
Where what matters is belief and grace not our doom
Jesus will descend again and in this is blessed return
What's important is the lessons we have prayerfully learned
Looking for God's good truth with a solid set of reasons
Knowing that these days look more and more like His blessed season
Regardless of the worst sort of aching birth pains
We will become blessed with faith's pouring rains
Everywhere I turn are reminders, given signs of our times
Lost up in misfortunes each enough for ceaseless rhymes
As believers around the world are being put to death
For their faith and reliance on God's holy breath
Still God keeps his promises as revealed in prophesy
We see this throughout all of man's long history
It's really a blink of miracles built out of mystery
But, I am confident of all that this means to me
It does no harm but only good to proceed being ready
Waiting devoutly and keeping God's faith steady
We do not know truth beyond the filters of our illusions
But God's holy word redeems us from our confusion
Today is the day of our blessed and needed salvation
Resting as it is on the Lord's ways and solid foundation
I silently repeat the sinner's prayer that I may yet live
Quietly thanking God for His love, graced that He forgives
(c) November 15, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 2020, Belief, Believers, Birth Pains, Blessed, Blink, Ceaseless Rhymes, Confident, Confusion, Day To Day, Debt, Descend, Determined, Difference, Doom, Ears, End Days, Faith, Fears, Filters, Forgives, Giving Love Away, Giving My Heart, God, God's Good Truth, God's Holy Breath, Good Deed, Grace, Graced, His Love, History, Holy Word, House, Illusions, Jesus, Keeping It Real, Lessons, Light, Linking Arms, Lord's Ways, Lost Up, Love, Love It Right, Make, May Yet Live, Means To Me, Miracles, Misfortune, Mystery, Needs, No Harm, Opening Eyes, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Pouring Rains, Prayerfully Learned, Prayers, Promises, Prophesy, Put to Death, Quietly, Reasons, Redeem, Reliance, Remind, Return, Revealed, Reverence, Sacred Rooms, Salvation, Season, Signs of Our Times, Silently Repeat, Sinner's Prayer, Solid Foundation, Soul, Steady, Thanking God, These Days, Time We Have Left, Turning My Troubles Over, Two Minutes to Midnight, Wait, World, You
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First Principles: The Aim of Every Political Constitution Is, Or Ought To Be, First To Obtain For Rulers Men Who Possess Most Wisdom To Discern and Most Virtue To Pursue the Common Good of the Society
“The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” – James Madison (1788)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Aim, Common Good, Continue, Discern, Effectual Precautions, First Principles, Hold, James Madison, Keep, Obtain, Political Constitution, Possess, Public Trust, Rules, Society, Virtue, Virtuous, Wisdom
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Thought For the Day: Culture Is the Widening of the Mind and of the Spirit. It Is Never A Narrowing of the Mind Or A Restriction of the Human Spirit Or the Country’s Spirit
“Culture is the widening of the mind and of the spirit. It is never a narrowing of the mind or a restriction of the human spirit or the country’s spirit.” – Jawaharlal Nehru, freedom fighter and the first Prime Minister of India (14 Nov 1889-1964)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Country, Culture, Human Spirit, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mind, Narrow, Restriction, Spirit, Thought of the Day, Widen
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NaNoWriMo Thoughts
NaNoWriMo Thoughts
by Michael Doyle
Since the first cave painting
Stories have been written and told
Here now in all of our waiting
Is yet another story to be written and sold
It's a path of thinking and imagination
In a what if world of machination
An another paints the explanation
Of facts observable with greater fascination
Then simply setting out the facts
An illustration that sticks through acts
Currently we look toward the future in fear
While seemingly all optimism all but disappears
Still, there is a held to hope for utopia
Rather than dwell on patterns of dystopia
There's a certain benefit and respectability
That lives our love with full accountability
In 50,000 words we are now ready for the serenity
As we rehearse our inner editors brandishing brutality
To arrive at the story that is ready to release
And yet find our way down the path of inner peace
"What if" has its own sense of direction
Problematic and wonderful in its connection
It's best to push ahead with what brings distinction
Before the plot runs too thick and into its own extinction
Not to sound too ungainly indiscriminate
But its best not too worry about a need to conjugate
But instead to forage on ahead with our story
Trusting that it will find its truest glory
Time confetti finds its pieces of shred
Where thoughts meander through our heads
Each stroke of the pen has its own sacred flow
Courageously apply it to paper and let it show
Stopping the need for endlessly doom scrolling
As life moves on without you, constantly rolling
In taking the time to reach our own voices
It's in doing this, we make our best choices
Seeing it through until we reach the end
Is how we become the world's and our own best friends
Keeping the pep bravely into the turn of page
Whether with love, sadness, happiness or in rage
(c) November 14, 2020 Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Accountabiltiy, Acts, Apply, Arrive, Benefit, Best Choices, Best Friends, Brutality, Cave Painting, Conjugate, Connection, Courageously, Direction, Disappear, Distinction, Doom Scrolling, Dystopia, End, Explanation, Extinction, Fact, Fascination, Fear, Forage, Full, Future, Glory, Happiness, Heads, Hope, Illustration, Imagination, Indiscriminate, Inner Editors, Inner Peace, Let It Show, Life Moves On, Love, Machination, Meander, NaNoWriMo, Optimism, Path, Patterns, Pen, Pep, Photograph, Pieces of Shred, Plot Runs Thick, Poem, Poetry, Problematic, Push Ahead, Rage, Reach, Release, Respectability, Rolling, Sacred Flow, Sadness, Serenity, Set Out, Sold, Stop the Need, Stories, Story, Stroke, Taking the Time, Thinking, Thoughts, Time Confetti, Told, Trust, Turn of Page, Utopia, Voices, Wait, What If, Wonderful, World, Worry, Written
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