How do you know what you think?

Some people may simply know what they think. For me, it often takes hearing someone say something that either resonates within me as true or is so obviously wrong that it makes me angry.

These positive or negative reactions of mine not only indicate to me what my beliefs are, they also demonstrate to me how deeply I feel about them.

When I express my agreement or disagreement with others' statements, I then learn from my own expression exactly what the details of my beliefs are.

Thinking Alike

Viewing the speech by Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei to a crowd of thousands, I wondered what would happen to a person in the crowd who said, "I don't believe in that Mohammed was a prophet of God". I imagine he or she would be torn limb from limb.

And then I wondered what would happen to a person, who made a comparable statement, in a crowd listening to a hate filled speech by some politician pandering to the religious fears and anger of Americans. Such a person might not immediately by violently attacked, but he or she would be be denounced as worthy of being attacked or killed - as was Dr. George Tiller.

There isn't too much independent thinking going on in a rabid crowd motivated by fear and hate. Let's be frank - the right side of the political spectrum in this country actively courts such crowds of followers.

The left side of the political spectrum is not free from blame either. They could do a lot more to point out the harm that religious prejudice does in political dialogue.

Quotes - Mine and Others

Mine (This is some of the advice I find myself giving to others. They are words that I want to keep in mind myself.):

1. Suck the juice out of life.


2. Humor is the grease of life.


3. Happiness is a process, not a destination.


4. Care ... about people (kindness) and about ideas (curiosity).


5. The first person to ask is yourself

My favorite quotes:

1. Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. -- Mahatma Gandhi


2. Happiness is wanting what you get, NOT getting what you want. - Robert A. Heinlein


3. The only way to avoid being miserable is not to have enough leisure to wonder whether you are happy or not. -- George Bernard Shaw


4. I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have. -- Thomas Jefferson


5. Pain makes man think. Thought makes man wise. Wisdom makes life endurable. -- John Patrick in The Teahouse of the August Moon


6. It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and then don't say it. -- Sam Levenson


7. Wisdom begins in wonder. -- Socrates


8. We may give advice, but not the sense to use it. -- Francois De La Rochefoucauld


9. The world is a tragedy to those who feel, but a comedy to those who think. -- Horace Walpole (1717 - 1797)


10. Take what you need, and find solace where you can. -- Crispen Sartwell


11. Life is too important to be taken seriously. -- Oscar Wilde


12. Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses. -- Alphonse Karr


13. Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler. -- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)


14. ... When I am working on a problem , I never think about beauty .I think of only how to solve the problem . But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong . " -- Buckminster Fuller


15. It's not just the slam of a door, or the clang of a gate that imprisons.
    It is, more often, the silent closing of the mind to reason." -- In some article I read which I now can't find


16. At the end of all Seeking . . . the Seeker is the one Sought. -- Christopher Wynter


17. "Wisdom consists in knowing what to do with what you know." - Anonymous

Teaching Kids to Think

One major problem with math education is that the failures of the past are carried over to the future by teachers who were poorly taught themselves.

Instead of encouraging curiosity, they suppress it because they are made uncomfortable when they are asked questions to which they don't have ready answers.

The attitude of a teacher should be, "I am here to learn"; not "I know everything and will pass on to others parts of my knowledge". A teacher should be an explorer, not a shoveler of facts.

Teachers who are nervous about thinking on their feet will engender that attitude toward their students.

A math class should take a test composed by a teacher other than their own. That way each teacher will be forced to teach students to be flexible and to cope with unfamiliar concepts.

Students need to learn to cope with a bit of intellectual discomfort. They should learn to appreciate receiving their ideas unwrapped, instead of demanding concepts in lovely gift wrap with a pretty bow on top.

The Failure of Democracy in the USA circa 2007

Among the many factors contributing to the failure of democracy in the USA circa 2007, the co-opting of the news media by large corporations looms large.

Would most Americans choose to give such power to Bush if they knew the total lack of character that his background indicated?

He earned his money solely through nepotism - people paid him to get access to his father; he shirked the draft by getting a cushy position in the national guard and then went awol from even that light duty; he spent years as a shiftless, drunken partier; he got into Yale using his connections and then got bare minimum grades.

You may say that there were articles about these topics but they were buried in the inside pages and were reported far less often than were other frivolous items less relevant to whether he was qualified to govern. The media focused on how popular he is measured by his ratings and whether most people would prefer to have a beer with him.

The people didn't know the character of the man for whom they are voting, so they voted for a man who would exert his power for himself and his friends and not for the good of the general public.