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“i do not accept second place for the united states of america” – President Barak Obama, State of the union address

When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get his wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him
But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do any miracles there because of their lack of faith.

Matt 13:53-58

so life being my muse, things may start to sound pretty intense coming out of this mind of mine. hooray for writing music on the ensuing fumes! began reading through Joshua… the awe of God that is mustered through the acts of the chosen people is something worth noting. who is he showing his might to now? is anyone paying attention?

the past couple of weeks i’ve been grabbing some releases of artists that i’ve wanted either for a while, or because they are new. here’s my list:

Swoon – Silversun Pickups
Chase This Light – Jimmy Eat World
Big Whiskey and the Groo Grux King – Dave Matthews Band
SpeakerBoxx/The Love Below – Outkast
Homogenic – Bjork
1979 [Single] – Smashing Pumpkins
Cherub Rock [Single] – Smashing Pumpkins

“It’s not quitting on yourself, it’s quitting on your country.”

Ender walked in silence for a few moments, trying to make sense of this.  The piggies killed Libo immediately after he saved them from starvation? Unthinkable, and yet it happened. How could such a society evolve, killing those who contributed most to its survival? They should do the opposite – they should reward the valuable ones by enhancing their opportunity to reproduce. That’s how communities improve their chances of surviving as a group. How could the piggies possibly survive, murdering those who contribute most to their survival?

And yet there were human precedents. These children, Miro and Ouanda, with the Questionable Activities  – they were better and wiser, in the long run, than the Starways committee that made the rules. But if they got caught, they would be taken from their homes to another world – already a death sentence, in a way, since everyone they knew would be dead before they could ever return – and they would be tried and punished, probably imprisoned. Neither their ideas nor their genes would propagate, and society would be impoverished by it.

Still, just because humans did it, too, did not make it sensible. Besides, the arrest and imprisonment if Miro and Ouanda, if it ever happened, would make sense if you viewed humans as a single community, and the piggies as their enemies; if you thought that anything that helped the piggies survive was somehow a menace to humanity. Then the punishment of people who enhanced the piggies’ culture would be designed, not to protect the piggies, but to keep the piggies from developing.

At that moment Ender saw clearly that the rules governing human contact with the piggies did not really function to protect the piggies at all. They functioned to guarantee human superiority and power. From that point of view, by performing their Questionable Activities, Miro and Ouanda were traitors to the self-interest of their own species.

“Renegades,” he said aloud.

“What?” said Miro. “What did you say?”

“Renegades. Those who have denied their own people, and claimed the enemy as their own.”

- p230-231

SInce beginingless time and into the never-ending future, men have loved women without telling them, and the Lord has loved them without telling, and the void is not the void because there’s nothing to be empty of. – p59