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Every father hopes his children become strong, but to watch you two become the individuals you are, through endless striving and unwavering resolve, has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I trained and coached you boys for 10 years. I witnessed you struggling through pain, self-doubt, and exhaustion, and I witnessed you getting up, time after time. I would dream of such a beautiful life, a life in which my sons would be disciplined in mind, zealous in eyes, and affectionate in relationship. You've fulfilled that dream. Both of you have worked and rehearsed well over 10,000 hours. We…

If you're just starting out with your career and desire to have the best time ever, then redshirting could be your worst-kept secret. You have the privilege to rehearse, train, and hone your body, brain, and strategists, minus spending a precious year of eligibility on the shelf. Instead of idle bench sittings and glimpsing mere fleeting actions on game nights, you enjoy a complete season working out in the backburner shadows, twice stronger, faster, and smarter. Yes, being a bench player allows you to get into the mix immediately, but redshirting is about playing the long game,…

So typical of most American people that have many mix ethnicities, Pope Leo XIV has French, Italian, Spanish, and genealogy of African Creole descent. The chicago-born American is extremely well read, well traveled, and well educated with three University degrees including, a doctorate. To see the least, he's no pushover. You stand at the crossroads of two superpowers, both old in appearance but new in manifestation. To your left is President Trump, the very personification of American political might, a man who feeds on power, drama, and command. To your right is the First American Pope, a…

"Free open-source software, by its nature, is unlikely to feature secret back doors that lead directly to Langley, Va." ~ Evgeny Morozov "Open source is a development methodology; free software is a social movement." ~ Richard Stallman "Open source isn't about saving money, it's about doing more stuff, and getting incremental innovation with the finite budget you have." ~ Jim Whitehurst "I think, fundamentally, open source does tend to be more stable software. It's the right way to do things." ~ Linus Torvalds "There are many examples of companies and countries that have improved their…

"We've lost an edge that we used to have in scientific innovation applications to goods to be sold. In many ways, that is also changing in the electronic field. Almost all of the materials that we use now are of advanced technology, I have an iPad and also an iPod, both of which are made in China. Although we have designed them here with Apple, for instance, they are manufactured overseas." ~ Jimmy Carter "You know, if you look back in the 1930s, the money went to infrastructure. The bridges, the municipal buildings, the roads, those were all built with stimulus money spent on…

Part of the narrative which is sort of supported by the data is that Trump voters are the least educated, and they're voting for Trump out of white solidarity or out of frustration that they're, quote, unquote, "losing their country". And my concern with that is that it sort of reduces the condition of the Trump voter to one of pure ignorance. And I think it's far more complicated. ~ Marc Lamont Hill The weird thing was that I went to Trump rallies thinking I was going to run into militant, right wing, racist people and mostly I didn't. That should have been a clue to me. The people I…

If you go to working class, and working poor areas of America, the food sources that are relegated to them are generally limited to unhealthy ones. ~ Anthony Bourdain The working poor are the people suffering out subprime mortgages and fatal loans and more and more of our money - you know, capitalism is operated by extracting money, not so much directly being paid. ~ David Graeber The working poor in the South are often blamed for their reliance on "traditional" Southern food, while in reality, most are eating the same heavily processed, cheap, convenience foods that the majority of…

"Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway." ~ Earl Nightingale "Sometimes life hits you like a brick in the face. Don't give up." ~ Steve Jobs "If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it." ~ Michael Jordan "Start by doing what's necessary; then do what's possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible." ~ Francis of Assisi "It's hard to beat somebody when they don't give up." ~ Babe Ruth For a collegiate-bound basketball player, the adjustment isn't about playing at a new level…

"So long as public schools are treated as places that exist to provide guaranteed jobs to members of the teachers' unions, do not be surprised to see American students continuing to score lower on international tests than students in countries that spend a lot less per pupil than we do." ~ Thomas Sowell "Just as members of American teachers unions often send their own children to private schools, so unionized workers at government-run hospitals in Britain have insurance that allows them to go to private hospitals. In both cases, those on the inside realize how bad these institutions are,…

I never use the concept, multipolar. I use multilateral. Because we have only one global power: whether you like it or not, this is the United States. ~ Joschka Fischer In a multipolar world, there must be more powers capable of taking responsibility, the US and Europe must be able to unite to achieve peace in the Middle East. ~ Dominique de Villepin A unipolar world - one with only one power - makes sure that this space almost disappears. In a multipolar world this space multiplies. Therefore, there is nostalgia for a multipolar world. ~ Eduardo Galeano Imagine trending social media…

"I don't know what I'm doing, but my incompetence has never stopped my enthusiasm." ~ Woody Allen "Incompetence is a double-edged banana." ~ John Perry Barlow "We used to have a War Office, but now we have a Ministry of Defence, nuclear bombs are now described as deterrents, innocent civilians killed in war are now described as collateral damage and military incompetence leading to US bombers killing British soldiers is cosily described as friendly fire. Those who are in favour of peace are described as mavericks and troublemakers, whereas the real militants are those who want the war." ~…

"There are few things more dangerous than a mixture of power, arrogance and incompetence." ~ Bob Herbert "Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte "Always assume incompetence before looking for conspiracy." ~ Niccolo Machiavelli "Incompetence is certainty in the absence of expertise. Overconfidence is certainty in the presence of expertise." ~ Malcolm Gladwell If a politician is rated as incompetent or below par, the term can have various meanings depending on context. It can mean absence of policy understanding, poor communication…

There are few things more bizarre than watching people advocate that another country be bombed even while acknowledging that it will achieve no good outcomes other than safeguarding the 'credibility' of those doing the bombing. Relatedly, it's hard to imagine a more potent sign of a weak, declining empire than having one's national 'credibility' depend upon periodically bombing other countries. ~ Glenn Greenwald The proliferation of bureaucrats and its invariable accompaniment, much heavier tax levies on the productive part of the population, are the recognizable signs, not of a great,…

"Tell the truth or trump-but get the trick." ~ Mark Twain "When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear." ~ Thomas Sowell "Dishonesty increases disorder exponentially. It's hard enough to communicate when you're telling the truth." ~ Karen Marie Moning When you start up Truth Social, Trump's own internal propaganda machinery disguised as a social media Twitter copy platform, you are offered one of Trump's most extreme myths to date. Trump is trying everything possible to create a narrative for the…

"Our view of the law is that it - if somebody is here without sufficient documentation, that is not reason for deportation." ~ Nancy Pelosi "Anyone who has entered the United States illegally is subject to deportation. That is what it means to have laws and to have a country. Otherwise we don't have a country." ~ Donald Trump "The destination of the deportation is annihilation." ~ Talaat Pasha "As long as being a stranger and surrounded by strangers was seen as a temporary irritant, a smallest departure from the binding rules of conduct by a member of a minority, was taken for a major…