Charles Bukowski on Writing 

* “Poetry is what happens when nothing else can.”

* “If I stop writing, then I am dead. And that’s the only way I’ll stop: dead.”

* “It’s better to do a dull thing with style than a dangerous thing without it.”

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John Adams, in a letter to his wife, Abigail, after signing the Declaration of Independence: 

“I am apt to believe that it [the signing] will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, illuminations from one end of the continent to the other from this time forward forever more.”

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“A poet’s work is to name the unnameable, to point at frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world, and stop it going to sleep.” – Salmon Rushdie

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Another Big Retail Store Bites the Dust! 

From Nellie Bowles (The Free Press) on crime in Portland:

“REI, the do-good outdoor recreation chain, the store where I buy most of my clothes (whoever says they don’t carry black tie clothes isn’t trying hard enough), is closing its big downtown Portland location, citing crime and theft. The company said that the store ‘had its highest number of break-ins and thefts in two decades, despite actions to provide extra security.’ From a local news channel: ‘The company said its theft problem came to a head last November, when a car crashed through the glass front doors on Black Friday. It was the store’s third break-in in a week.’

“I understand that Antifa doesn’t believe in private property and that Portland is their capital. But guys, all you wear are cargo pants and hiking boots. How is this going to work? Who will provide your balaclavas and headlamps?”

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“America is a victim of its own flim-flam. The peak of it… probably came when Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, announced that the US was ‘indispensable’… and that ‘we stand taller… and ‘see farther’ than other people. Since then, we’ve gotten shorter… by almost every measure. Even life expectancy. The rest of the ‘western,’ fully developed nations in the G7 have an average lifespan of 83 years. In America, we live to 76… and life expectancies are falling, along with wages, productivity, GDP growth, trust in government, innovation, happiness and just about everything else.” (Bill Bonner, Bonner Private Research, May 2, 2023)

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“Many people won’t attempt something unless they can find an example of someone else who is already doing it. Rely on this type of thinking too much and you’ll never do anything interesting.” – James Clear

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“If you can mandate or ban words, you can control thought. If you can control thought, you can control behavior. If you can control behavior, you have created a self-sustaining tyranny.” – Michael Masterson

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