“It’s all wrong. By right we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were…But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass.”
Samwise “Sam” Gamgee
The Two Towers
J.R.R. Tolkien
The World Population Review’s 2025 data finds that citizens of nations with more socialistic governance—Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Sweden, Netherlands—are happiest.
The Review ranks The Unted States of America as the 24th happiest. Folks in 23 nations, e.g., Mexico, Slovenia, Chechnya, Lithuania, Canada, United Kingdom, are happier than Americans.
An ex-Mormon’s thoughts on The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:
Standing tiptoe, a man loses balance,
Walking a stride, he has no pace,
Kindling himself he fails to light,
Acquiring himself forfeits his hearers,
Admiring himself, he does so alone.
Pride has never bought a man greatness
But, according to the way of life,
Brings the ills that make him unfit,
Make him unclean in the eyes of his neighbor,
And a same man will have none of them.
The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu
Translated by Witter Bynner
Someone could and should make a fortune creating and selling a set of bobbleheads of Trump and his cabinet!
A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists,
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him,
Worse when they despise him.
‘Fail to honor people,
They failed to honor you;’
But a good leader, who talks little,
When his work is done, his aim fulfilled,
They will all say, ‘We did this ourselves.‘
The Way of Life According to Lao Tzu
Translated by Witter Bynner
Donald Trump has achieved what seemed impossible: You can get bullshit from a horse’s ass!
Two-thirds of Americans, and everyone else on Earth, despise Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is the greatest catastrophe ever visited upon the United States of America.
In the broad picture, his dearth of compassion and moral constraint place Donald Trump shoulder-to-shoulder with Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin.
The MAGA Creed as articulated by M*A*S*H’s Major Frank Burns:
“The way I see it, if we don’t all march in step, it we don’t do as were told, if we don’t follow our leaders blindly, there’s no hope of saving our freedom.”
My Really Good Essays and Poems 