The Sequoia Farm

Poor Substitute

"What is love? What is love in the time of ecstasy?
[...] Don't tell me that he died for that."

— from "Love In the Time of Ecstasy", by Withered Hand (Dan Wilson)

Q176: The minority that matters

"One of the great strengths of common law has been its general antipathy toward group rights, because the ultimate minority, the minority that matters, is the individual. The minute you have collective rights, you require dramatically enhanced state power to mediate the hierarchy of different victim groups."

— Mark Steyn

Q175: No limit

"[T]here is no form of government more fundamentally anti-Christian than a government that recognizes, in principle, no limit to what it can require."

— Douglas Wilson

Repetitio mater memoriae

ht: Gregory Williams

Q174: Story Time

"Practice reading stories, because that is what your life is."

— Douglas Wilson

The Decline Effect

Jonah Lehrer on some problems that scientific studies have been having:

"The decline effect is troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that’s often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe."

Full article here...

Blake's Jerusalem

And did those feet in ancient time,
Walk upon Englands mountains green:
And was the holy Lamb of God,
On Englands pleasant pastures seen!

And did the Countenance Divine,
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here,
Among these dark Satanic Mills?

Bring me my Bow of burning gold;
Bring me my Arrows of desire:
Bring me my Spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of fire!

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand:
Till we have built Jerusalem,
In England's green & pleasant Land.

— from Milton, by William Blake