“The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions that we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it; and habit fills up what remains.” – Marcel Proust, In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower
“When the mind has a tendency to dream, it is a mistake to keep dreams away from it, to ration its dreams. So long as you distract your mind from its dreams, it will not know them for what they are; you will always be being taken in by the appearance of things, because you will not have grasped their true nature. If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time. One must have a thorough understanding of one’s dreams if one is not to be troubled by them; there is a way of separating one’s dreams from one’s life which so often produces good results that I ask myself whether one ought not, at all costs, to try it, simply as a preventive, just as certain surgeons make out that we ought, to avoid the risk of appendicitis later on, to have all our appendices taken out when we are children.” – Marcel Proust
平等不是自由的对手。这句话有两个意思。一是说平等和自由并不是相互竞争的两个价值，它们本来应该相互补充。二是说如果在平等和自由中选择，在这个并非理想的社会，人们总会先选自由而非平等。更因此，“人人生而平等”的确美好，也的确应该如此，但现实中平等却只在生死两端，人生的过程中是没有平等的。好在人人不同，绝对的平等也是不可能不需要的。这不是说因为人人不同所以没法平等，而是希望每个人都能有足够的经济能力和思考兴趣去追求自己的梦想。（这里经济、兴趣和梦想都是因人而异。）(美国独立宣言中的“人生而平等”的信仰大概是说人的政治权利是平等的。这里说的政治权利是Right，不是权力Power。)
幸福、焦虑及压力等等多是生活的副产品。如果可以生活得好，所有的喜怒哀乐和所有的起伏跌宕最终都会是美好的回忆。不必追求幸福，只要努力地好好生活就可以了。
great lines from lyrics
And I need you more than want you, and I want you for all time. And the Wichita lineman, is still on the line. – from Wichita Lineman, by Glen Campbell
Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine – from Gloria, by Patti Smith
They smelt of pubs, And Wormwood Scrubs, And too many right wing meetings – Down in the tube station at midnight, by the Jam
Then, as I walked down Second Avenue towards St. Mark’s Place, where all those people sell used books and other junk on the street, I saw my penis lying on a blanket next to a broken toaster oven – Detachable penis, by King Missile
See, my old man’s got a problem - lives with a bottle, that’s the way it is. He says his body’s too old for working, his body’s too young to look like his – Fast Car, by Tracy Chapman
Freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose.
Out on the road today I saw a Deadhead sticker on Cadillac. (Don Henley, Boys of Summer)
Don’t the sun look angry through the trees, don’t the trees look like crucified thieves. – Desperados under the eaves, by Warren Zevon
“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?” —- Gordon Lightfoot (The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald)
“I hate people when they’re not polite” – ‘Psycho Killer’ - Talking Heads
Hairstyles and attitudes—how do they relate? How well do we use the freedom to choose the illusions we create? -— Timbuk3
Safe sex is great sex, better wear a latex, ‘Cause you don’t want that late text, that “I think I’m late” text
Paper chasin’ tell that paper “Look, I’m right behind ya” Bitch real Gs move in silence like lasagna. – 6 Foot 7 foot, by Lil Wayne
Men go crazy in congregations, they only get better one by one. – All this time, by Sting
Fussin’ and flappin’ in priestly black like a murder of crows. – All this time, by Sting
Sting, Suzanne Vega, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello
“Do I have to tell the story of a thousand rainy days since we first met/it’s a big enough umbrella, but it’s always me that ends up getting wet” – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic, The Police
“Love is not a victory march” – Hallelujah, Leonard Cohen
“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn, is to love and be loved in return” - Nat King Cole, Nature Boy
“Oh I used to be disgusted, but now, I’m just amused.” – Elvis Costello, Red Shoes
And the man in the suit has just bought a new car, from the profit he’s made on your dreams. – The Low Spark of high heeled boys, by Traffic
She’s filling her nails while they’re dragging the lake. – Watching the Detectives, by Elvis costello
If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Rush - Freewill
“Poor man wanna be rich. Rich man wanna be king. And a king ain’t satisfied till he rules everything.” Badlands. Springsteen
I was seriously thinking ‘bout hiding the receiver when – the switch broke, ‘cause it’s old. – Radio, radio, by Elvis Costello
And the piano, it sounds like a carnival! And the microphone smells like a beer. And they sit at the bar and put bread in my jar and say man, what are you doing here. – Piano Man, by Billy Joe
It doesn’t mean that much to me, to mean that much to you. – Old Man by Neil Young
Is the power of love worth the pain of loss? – James 5.0
You know you got to go through hell, before you get to heaven.
You look into her eyes, and it’s more than your heart will allow.
I can’t see the point, but I see the attraction.
She was workin’ in a topless place and I stopped in for a beer. – Tangled up in Blue, Bob Dylan
Don’t you think every kitten figures out how to get down, Whether or not you ever show up… – Not a pretty girl by Ani DiFranco
You said you loved me, or were you just being kind? Or am I losing my mind? – Follies
They told me all of my cages were mental, so I got wasted like all my potential.
“And I sound like an infant, feeling like the very last drops of an inkpen.
Something that’s so close is still so far out of reach.
“I had a taste of the real world (Don’t waste a drop of it) when I went down on you girl (Don’t stop it)” —- Marty Balin, “Miracles“ (album version)
“Don’t tell me that they’re antisocial/somehow not antisocial enough” – Poets by the Tragically Hip
We’ve been waiting all our lives, For things we’ve always had but have no eyes to see.
Kahanism, a religious Zionist ideology, or Jewish superemacy and fascisim
Red Mafiya: The book elucidates the structure of Trump’s life and presidency: a merger of organized crime, white-collar crime, and government by criminals who elude, then rewrite, borders and laws. Some blame Russia for the US downfall, some blame Israel, but it was always both — along with American collaborators and assorted global operatives.
Red Mafiya names key villains and locales, including Trump Tower, which functioned as a dormitory for organized crime. Mogilevich became an early investor in Trump Tower after fleeing the USSR by getting an Israeli passport in 1988 from Robert Maxwell, the father of Jeffrey Epstein’s partner, Ghislaine. To say Red Mafiya is timeless is to acknowledge we’ve been frozen in hell for forty years.
The False Prophet describes current events: the extremism that Kahane espoused, and Friedman documented, now dominates Israel and in turn, the United States.
The architects of the Iran War know that too, but do not care. Elderly fanatics — from Netanyahu to Elliott Abrams, an Iran-Contra villain who served in nearly every administration of my life — understand that the time to see their goals reach fruition is running out. Trump is not the architect of the Iran war, only its vehicle.
Meir Kahane was a terrorist. The New York-based Kahane became an Orthodox rabbi before working as an undercover informant for the FBI to spy on Black Americans, whom he obsessively hated, believing, as Friedman writes, that “Black demands for equality would somehow sabotage Jewish achievements.” In 1970, Kahane and his followers plotted to mass murder the Black residents of Crown Heights.
In his spare time, Kahane worked secretly for the CIA to promote the Vietnam War and partnered with Italian-American mafia head Joseph Colombo. The union between Kahane and Colombo was brokered by mob lawyer Barry Slotnick, who later brokered another union: the prenup for Donald and Melania Trump.
Kach remained on the US terror watchlist until May 2022, when Biden removed it.
In 2021, Netanyahu, who, like Trump, was indicted and widely disliked, built a new political coalition out of the remains of Kach. He found support in a younger generation of Kahanists who celebrate genocide and align with white supremacists. The coalition includes Itamar Ben Gvir, a leader of the fascist Otzma Yehudit party who led the Kach youth movement as a teenager in the 1990s. Much as the second Trump administration is more extreme than the first, Netanyahu’s return to power was made possible by a coalition of once-derided fanatics who exult in violence.
Following the October 7 attack, the US showered Israel with a record amount of money and backed the ensuing genocide of Palestinians. Now, under Trump, the US aids the most extreme government in Israeli history in one of its oldest plans: war on Iran.
Among them are Mike Johnson, who said his state visit to Israel was the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy; Chuck Schumer, who told the New Yorker he was placed in the Senate by God to protect Israel; former Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who based foreign policy around the Rapture; and of course, Trump, who said that Israeli Jews view him as “The King of Israel” and “the second coming of God.”
Americans have a history of basing policy on the Apocalypse: one could ostensibly date it back to the Puritans. But extremism became sharper after Reagan’s embrace of the far right. Cabinet officials like James G. Watt, for example, opposed environmental protections because the end was nigh; might as well drill. The younger George Bush allegedly spoke of the End Times prophecy of “Gog and Magog” while his cabinet framed the invasion of Iraq as a holy war. Whether they believed it matters less than that they got the catastrophic result they desired. No country benefited from that catastrophe more than Israel.
In 1982, Oded Yinon, an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, devised a plan for “Greater Israel”: an Israel that subsumes six surrounding states, stretching from the Nile to the Euphrates. For decades, “Greater Israel” and “The Yinon Plan” were dismissed by Israeli officials as antisemitic myths.
The idea that Israel is not pursuing “Greater Israel” would be more convincing had Israeli officials not put emblems of “Greater Israel” on IDF uniforms; invaded Lebanon and proclaimed it part of “Greater Israel”; announced that Israel would also conquer Jordan and parts of Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq and call that “Greater Israel”; made a “Greater Israel” amulet for Netanyahu; and displayed maps of “Greater Israel” that exclude Palestinians, whom Netanyahu calls “Amalek” while declaring their fate is to be slain.
The idea of “Greater Israel” dates back to Theodor Herzl, the father of Zionism, but Yinon devised its borders for the post-WWII era. In 2007, Wesley Clark, a US general who opposed the Iraq War, recalled that ten days after 9/11, he was given a memo on “how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”
Over the next twenty-five years, every country on that list was a target of US and Israeli military incursions.
Now, in 2026, we arrive at a full-fledged attack on Iran from the most autocratic regimes in both Israeli and modern US history. Regimes that respect neither international law nor the sanctity of human life and no longer make a pretense of doing so. Regimes that seek to destroy the world while wrapping themselves in mantles of piety and prophecy.
For Kahanist Israel, the goal is clear: the fulfillment of the “Greater Israel” agenda. Iran has long been an obstacle to that agenda by funding regional militia groups that oppose Israel and by declaring itself Israel’s steadfast enemy. That Israel’s government is bad does not make Iran’s government good. Iran’s government commits massive human rights violations, including the slaughter of protesters.
But that is not why Israel attacks it. They attack Iran because it’s in the way.
For the US, the motive is questionable, for there is no domestic benefit to an Iran War. After the disastrous Iraq War, the US regained international respect for about five minutes in 2009 when, in a fit of delirium, international observers awarded Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush.
Obama went on to pursue war under a different name, through drone strikes and administrative protection of corrupt financiers. Obama was followed by Trump, who horrified allies and pleased dictators in proportion to their relative sadism; then Biden, who backed a genocide; and once again Trump, now an American autocrat tasked with carrying out the long-planned attack on Iran.
The Iran War is being fought for Greater Israel — and for annihilation. The doctrine of annihilation is not unitary. Christian fanatics, Jewish fanatics, secular accelerationalists, and technofascists seeking depopulation all have their own agendas.
There is a desire to usher in the messianic age, but that gets tricky with competing Messiahs in play. The only certainty is carnage in the Middle East, possibly culminating in the destruction of Al Aqsa Mosque and the building of the Third Temple: a goal shared by Jewish and Christian extremists (though the extremists diverge radically in what they think happens once their preferred Messiah shows up) that horrifies Muslims worldwide and would expand the war to multiple fronts.
This is not a New World Order. This is a No World Order.
book: The False Prophet Rabbi Meir Kahane, From FBI Informant To Knesset Member, 1990
book: Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America, 2000
Iran-Contra was a political scandal in the United States that centered on arms trafficking to Iran between 1981 and 1986, facilitated by senior officials of the Reagan administration. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, an anti-Sandinista rebel group in Nicaragua. Under the Boland Amendments, a series of laws passed by Congress and signed by Ronald Reagan, further funding of the Contras by legislative appropriations was prohibited by Congress, but the Reagan administration continued funding them secretly using non-appropriated funds.
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Did Mr. Pompeo think President Trump had been “raised for such a time as this, just like Queen Esther, to help save the Jewish people from the Iranian menace?” “As a Christian, I certainly believe that’s possible,” Mr. Pompeo said. “It was remarkable — so we were down in the tunnels where we could see 3,000 years ago, and 2,000 years ago, if I have the history just right — to see the remarkable history of the faith in this place, and the work that our administration’s done, to make sure that this democracy in the Middle East, that this Jewish state, remains. I am confident that the Lord is at work here.”
White evangelical Christians are a powerful force in the Republican Party. Vice President Mike Pence is a staunch believer and former President George W. Bush is an adherent, too.
On Monday, in a speech at the annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel group, Mr. Pompeo told an anecdote about Tibor Baranski, a Christian who saved 3,000 Jews in Hungary during World War II. Then he said, “As secretary of state and as a Christian, I’m proud to lead American diplomacy to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”
The next day, Mr. Pompeo announced an expansion of Trump administration anti-abortion policies, saying the United States would stop funding foreign organizations that support other groups that perform abortions. It is a policy popular with conservatives, Catholics and evangelical Christians.
The most notable examples involve Israel. When Mr. Trump moved the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, evangelicals applauded.
Studies show that white evangelicals are much more likely than other Americans to believe that Israel fulfills a biblical prophecy. Known as Christian Zionists, they believe God promised the land to the Jews, and that the gathering of Jews in Israel is foretold in the prophecy of the rapture — the ascent of Christians into the kingdom of God.
Yitzak Rabin’s assassination was a pivotal point in Israel’s move to the far right. the followers of Kahane assassinated Yitzak Rabin.
Book: Bible and Sword: England and Palestine from the Bronze Age to Balfour by Barbara W. Tuchman
capitalism vs feudalism vs slavery etc
when i think about the evolution of the societies, i realize that every society in our history is based on the best technology available around that time. Knowledge is important but somehow the knowledge has to be translated into technologies to be impactful.
if we think along this line, we know why slaves are important to masters, both land and tenant farmers are important to landlords, both machines and workers are important to capitalists. the advancement of technology makes the scale-up of agricultural production and consumer productions feasible and possible.
in this sense, before the industrial revolution, both people and land play key roles in our society. after the industrial revolution, both people and machines play key roles. the form of modern cooperations is very similar to the form of a landlord with his tenants. And we are in the age of machines (trains, airplanes, cars, electronics, computers, robots and so on). (when the robots could go around automatically like guards and helpers, that will be another age of auto-machines.)
before it is just many empires. now with the technologies and the machines, it is a global empire of liberty but not an empire of equality. why? the empire never goes away but transformed and scaled-up. now the gap between the rich and the poor has to be widened so that more people could be exploited and more aspects of human life could be penetrated.
to work in an age of machines, you have to be a specialists. to live a good life, you’d better be a generalist.
investing
20260728: today Apple tops $5 trillion market cap (AAPL $340.47). It is the second company to hit this milestone just after Nvidia. Nvidia became the first company to top a $5 trillion market valuation on October 29 last year.
20260729: divided Fed held the rate with 3 for rate hike once in this year. the higher inflation with steady job market, the more likely a rising rate. after hour, MSFT up 7%, META down 6.7%, QCOM down 2.5% ($250 in early June to $150, about 40% down since June). Crude oil up around $84 due to US-Iran conflict in the mid-east. chip sell-off continued.
20260730: AAPL down and AMZN up
Fed does not change interest rates. However, the 30-year Treasury yield climbed up to 5.27% this Friday, its highest since 2007. That means for mortgages and companies, the rate they pay to borrow is going up just like the inflation is up due to the war around Iran. (war + tariff -> price up -> inflation)
20260803: Last Friday US and Japan take action to prop up yen in rare joint move. This is to halt a slide in the yen after it fell to a fresh 40-year low. The joint intervention is the first since 2011 (earthquake and tsunami). Bank of Japan data indicated that Tokyo may have sold almost $59bn of US dollars to buy yen when it intervened in New York markets on Thursday, before Friday’s confirmed joint intervention with Washington.
The yen is historically weak mainly due to Japan having much lower central bank interest rates than other major economies like the US. That makes the Japanese currency less attractive to international investors.
The Bank of Japan last raised interest rates in June, as it increased its main rate to 1% - the highest level since September 1995. In comparison, the US Federal Reserve’s benchmark rate is in a range of 3.50% to 3.75%.
Japan also faces other issues including a decades-long slide in its working-age population, low productivity and a heavy reliance on energy imports that are priced in US dollars.
but why? can Japan increase its interest rate? a real Iran-US peace agreement?
- 20260803: there should be a calculated number to indicate the hotness of a stock. Like how fast it reaches a new high and continues. delta percentage over a period of time. Ref Yahoo most active heatmap view Here is the definition of stock heatmap A hot stock must have a big number of transactions within a short time, that is, more money in a short time to drive the price higher faster.
notes
Russia is the last surviving European empire. Then it was a totalitarian state controlling the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. Today it remains a centralized empire ruling over 21 national republics within the Russian Federation.
the biggest illusion many people in the West still cling to is the belief that Russia can become a democracy, return to the international community, and resume business as usual.
First, Russia has never been a democracy — not for a single day in its history.
The second problem with the fantasy of restoring relations with Russia under the slogan “trade is better than war” is even simpler. Russia already had all of that. It belonged to the G8. It traded freely with the democratic world. It created enormous wealth for its oligarchs while distributing just enough prosperity to much of its population. It expanded its influence across Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East while building partnerships with authoritarian regimes. It already reached that point. And it willingly sacrificed it for one overriding objective: preserving the empire.
Russian empire: the third largest empire in history, just behind the British and Mongol empires. Russia was one of four continental European empires to collapse as a result of World War I, along with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman empire.
what is a set? what is a number? what is infinity? what are the axioms of math?
meta-math question: how should math respond to AI?
book: he John Burnside, Driftwork: selected poems, by Robin Robertson.
book: George Tsakraklides, Frankenpolitics
陈伯达和周扬晚年有所交往，1989年7月周扬病逝，1989年9月陈伯达离世。“何堪老泪交流日，多是秋风摇落时。”这句诗出自白居易的《寄刘苏州》。刘苏州就是刘禹锡，因任苏州刺史，所以称为“刘苏州”。
秋风萧瑟天气凉，草木摇落露为霜，群燕辞归鹄南翔。 – 魏晋曹丕的《燕歌行二首·其一》
心绪逢摇落，秋声不可闻。– 唐代苏颋的《汾上惊秋》
The Trump administration hates academic science funding, full stop. They hate where that money goes, and they hate who it goes to. They want to keep all that money for themselves, to hand out to favored cronies who can help them get elected and to steer yet more money and more power back into their hands.
on April 29, 2006. G.W.Bush
1959年5月，年仅24岁的陈钢与同窗何占豪共同完成小提琴协奏曲《梁祝》，由俞丽拿完成首演。作品融合民间越剧音调与西方交响乐架构，成为代表中国音乐的标志性名片。陈钢(1935-2026)是陈歌辛(1914-1961)的儿子。
崔健(1961-)成名曲为1986年的《一無所有》
- 陈歌辛歌曲
玫瑰玫瑰: 玫瑰玫瑰最娇美\ 玫瑰玫瑰最艳丽\ 长夏开在枝头上\ 玫瑰玫瑰我爱你\ 玫瑰玫瑰情意重\ 玫瑰玫瑰情意浓\ 长夏开在荆棘里\ 玫瑰玫瑰我爱你
夜上海: 大都市的天堂与地狱: 夜上海 夜上海\ 你是个不夜城\ 华灯起 乐声响\ 歌舞升平\ 只见她 笑脸迎\ 谁知她内心苦闷\ 夜生活\ 都为了衣食住行 (十里洋场的表面繁华与内情悲苦：夜上海是富人的天堂，穷人的地狱。)
- 刘雪庵
何日君再来, 1937: 好花不常开\ 好景不常在\ 愁堆解笑眉\ 泪洒相思带\ 今宵离别后\ 何日君再来
German author: Cornelia Funke, 1958-, an English translation of this triology by Anthea Bell, 1936 - 2018
Book #1 Inkheart (2003)
Book #2 Inkspell (2005)
Book #3 Inkdeath (2007)
Book #4 The Colour of Revenge (2024). this is a sequel
- book: The Greek Plays, Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm
book: Omar El Akkad, One day, Everyone will have always been against this
book: Francesca Albanese, When the world sleeps
A broken heart is an open heart.
How we disappear
I am in the store touching things.
Linen napkins, a blue bowl.
The world is on fire and I am choosing
between two kinds of soap.
Everyone here is doing this, filling carts
with small comforts while somewhere a child
goes to bed hungary, while the earth heats,
while men make decisions about who gets to live.
I know what this is, this careful arranging
while everything collapses.
This is how we survive.
And also how we disappear.
说起忍功，那是中华文明的国粹，祖传祖训，心字头上一把刀，刀口上再加一点，其锋利血腥可想而知。儒家的核心是仁，仁与忍同音。那么什么是仁呢？孔子说克己复礼为仁。
有人搬出克尔凯郭尔的《恐惧与颤栗》来，认为信仰和宗教高于理性和伦理，宗教不仅不依赖理性和伦理，反而是对理性和伦理的否定。上帝的存在不能用逻辑思辨来证明，上帝是超出理性的信仰。
为了他的神，亚伯拉罕竟然欺骗了他的仆人跟儿子。亚伯拉罕采取了行动。他劈好木柴，绑上以撒，点着柴火，拔出了刀子。在这个故事里，我感到了信仰与人的对立。信的代价就是杀人跟欺骗. 为了信神，他欺骗了人，甚至自己最亲爱的人。我听见了以撒的悲号：天上的主啊！请给我慈悲，亚伯拉罕的神啊，难道你不也是我的神？
希腊哲学家伊壁鸠鲁 Epicurus很早就提出过这样一个命题：神不可能既是善的， 又是全能的。他论证道：神是存在的，恶也是存在的。对于恶之存在，有两种可能性。一是，神有能力阻止恶，但他却不愿意阻止恶发生，因此神不是善的；另一种可能性是神意欲阻止恶，但却无能力阻止，因此神不是全能的。
1951年董时进在香港出版《论共产党的土地改革》和《我认识了共产党》:共产党的真正目的，并非是要耕者有其田。这不过是他们一时应用的一种策略，是在革命过渡时期用来拉拢一部分的贫农和流氓地痞的手段。他们的真实意图是要将一切土地社会化，这即是收归国有。将来一切人都不准拥有土地，一切土地都归共产党的政府，使那个政府变成独占全国土地的大地主。
共产党的土地改革，实际上就是假改革之名行抢劫之实。
诺奖得主索尔仁尼琴曾有名言说：“暴力必以谎言为继”， 在我看来，谎言也必为暴力先导。
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
“Thus it is that no cruelty whatsoever passes by without impact. Thus it is that we always pay dearly for chasing after what is cheap.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
“Gradually it was disclosed to me that the line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either – but right through every human heart – and through all human hearts. This line shifts. Inside us, it oscillates with the years. And even within hearts overwhelmed by evil, one small bridgehead of good is retained. And even in the best of all hearts, there remains … an unuprooted small corner of evil. Since then I have come to understand the truth of all the religions of the world: They struggle with the evil inside a human being (inside every human being). It is impossible to expel evil from the world in its entirety, but it is possible to constrict it within each person.” – Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
宗教将善恶说教及裁决与全知全能合二为一，维护权力，以信仰替代知识，为权力划分善恶，将未来交给虚妄。世界是永恒变化的，没有全知的人，也没有全能的人，而宗教却凭空创造了上帝先知。面对未知和不确定的未来，宗教却尽皆掌控，这又怎么可能？知善恶明是非是件又难又易的事，不能简而化之。
“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
“You only have power over people as long as you don’t take everything away from them. But when you’ve robbed a man of everything, he’s no longer in your power—he’s free again.” -― Alexander Solzhenitsyn,
“A man is happy so long as he chooses to be happy.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Cancer Ward
“Human beings are born with different capacities. If they are free, they are not equal. And if they are equal, they are not free.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
“Unlimited power in the hands of limited people always leads to cruelty.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956
book: 听大雪落满耶鲁：苏炜自选集
独自面对: “雪满千山行独夜，声喧九域守荒晨”
2019年诺贝尔文学奖得主彼得·汉德克曾说过：“人生，是等待收割的土地，活着就是一种恩典。”
美国哲学家埃里克霍夫在《狂热分子》一书中说，“自我若是软弱无力，再多的自由又有何用？”
芒克: 那冷酷而伟大的想象／是你在改造着我们生活的荒凉。
史保嘉与郭路生（食指）、孙恒志被视为红卫兵运动终结时期的三位代表诗人
史保嘉，她是北岛最初的女友。宝嘉是史保嘉女士的笔名之一。
剑头凤尾翩翩舞，清涟顾影婷婷。静如秀玉动生笙，彩鳞多婀娜，锦鳃自含情。杯中有水乐便在，何必逐浪平生？龙门堪劝鲤兄明：似我非无志，终饰案头瓶。
《暗香》里的两句歌词：“心若在灿烂中死去／爱会在灰烬里重生”
《暗香》由陈涛填词，三宝作曲。2002年9月，《金粉世家》全部音乐创作交由三宝制作。三宝就决定将这首歌交给沙宝亮演唱。“当花瓣离开花朵\ 暗香残留\ 香消在风起雨后\ 无人来嗅\ 如果爱告诉我走下去\ 我会拼到爱尽头\ 心若在灿烂中死去\ 爱会在灰烬里重生\ 难忘缠绵细语时\ 用你笑容为我祭奠\ 让心在灿烂中死去\ 让爱在灰烬里重生\ 烈火烧过青草痕\ 看看又是一年春风\ 当花瓣离开花朵\ 暗香残留\ 当花瓣离开花朵\ 暗香残留\ 香消在风起雨后\ 无人来嗅\ 如果爱告诉我走下去\ 我会拼到爱尽头\ 心若在灿烂中死去\ 爱会在灰烬里重生\ 难忘缠绵细语时\ 用你笑容为我祭奠\ 让心在灿烂中死去\ 让爱在灰烬里重生\ 烈火烧过青草痕\ 看看又是一年春风\ 当花瓣离开花朵\ 暗香残留”
宝嘉《中秋随感呈友人》：当年明月去无踪\劫后相逢半梦中\洞隐武陵绝魏晋\槎浮沧海浪西东\白头莫忆开元事\壮志犹存易水风\且品新茶醒旧酒\天涯此夜共从容
黄克诚, 1902-1986: 满树桃花红烂漫，一阵狂飙，吹掉一大半。落地残红何足羡，且待来年看新瓣。人间变化千千万，升降起落，犹如急流泛。天翻地覆大转换，英雄转瞬成坏蛋。– 《黄克诚自述》
郭路生 - 食指 相信未来: 当蛛网无情地查封了我的炉台，当灰烬的余烟叹息着贫困的悲哀，我顽固地铺平失望的灰烬，用美丽的雪花写下：相信未来!当我的紫葡萄化为深秋的泪水，当我的鲜花依偎在别人的情怀，我仍然固执地望着凝露的枯藤，在凄凉的大地上写下：相信未来！
邢奇《虹》: 白日追虹触手空，梦乡再遇却成功。莫怪青春多异梦，青春色彩有如虹。
施小明: 羊归何处？漫漫牛车路。茫茫雪原向西去，不知搬家几度。落日余晖尽收，寒凝大地生愁。遥望毡包新立，恰似海上孤舟。
杜九森: 走走走，喝闷酒\胡豆豌豆都没有\只有嘴啃手\来来来，敞开怀\一醉方休胜活\土地是棺材\唱唱唱，自晃荡\知哥知妹浪打浪\句句扎心上\哭哭哭，八阵图\不见爹娘不见屋\泪水大扫除
他(郑朝宗)列举的《管锥编》八项新义，倘若不是深邃扎实的研究者是绝对说不出来的。这八义包括：（一）学士不如文人；（二）通感；（三）以心理之学释古诗文小说中透露的心理状态；（四）比喻之“二柄”与“多边”；（五）诗文之词虚而非伪；（六）哲学家、文人对语言之不信任；（七）词章中写心行之往而返、远而复。（八）译事之信、当包达、雅。
book: Eat Your Ice Cream: Six Simple Rules for a Long and Healthy Life, by Ezekiel J. Emanuel
张孝祥《西江月》
问讯湖边春色，
重来又是三年。
东风吹我过湖船，
杨柳丝丝拂面。
如今世事已惯，
此心到处悠然。
寒光亭下水连天，
惊起沙鸥一片。
1928 - 1996
厦门大学校长: 王亚南(1901-1969)湖北省黄冈县人，马克思主义经济学家。1950-1969. 曾鸣(1916-1996)厦门大学党委书记、校长(1978-1982)
在１９４９年之后的社会动荡里，知识分子脱胎换骨，脊梁抽筋，斯文扫地。我从小在(厦门)大学生活，看透了这个圈子里的世态炎凉，在我心里，知识分子头上可没那么多光环。老一代的读书人，固然也有文人相轻一类的旧习，但总的说来仍然保守着独立的人格。许多旧文人，象陈寅恪马寅初，出污泥而不染，在险恶的现实里坚守读书人的风骨，令人肃然起敬刮目相看。然而不幸的是好的不传坏的不断，过了那一代就世风日下。
not for religious reason, not the religious god, but deal with uncertainty of life or chances in life.
Graceful Prayer
By Maya
Lord, grant me grace to take this pain,
With hope and joy, come what may.
To trust Your hand in love or strife,
And walk in faith throughout this life.
Give me the strength to rise and stand,
When trials weigh like shifting sand.
The courage, Lord, to boldly bear,
The burdens placed within my care.
Teach me to yield what I can’t mend,
To let You guide, to let You tend.
For in Your wisdom, vast and true,
You weave a plan beyond my view.
主啊，
求赐恩典承此痛，
纵逢万难亦欢欣。
信汝圣手抚悲喜，
虔心度此尘世行。
赐我挺立之力量，
流沙压顶不彷徨。
更授勇毅担重任，
无惧前途风雨狂。
悟彻人力终有穷，
唯随主引唯主躬。
汝智渊深若星海，
妙手织就天机重。
李菁《往事不寂寞》
普鲁斯特《追忆逝水年华》: The only true paradise is paradise lost. “Love is a reciprocal torture.”
我是极简主义者。信奉爱因斯坦的名言：如果你不能把事情简单说明，那是因为你根本没弄明白。
普鲁斯特是个励志大师。他那样病弱的人意志力跟精神却超级强健，无惧无畏，能有毅力跟身体来完成这样的巨著。男身女相的性格居然内功强大，面对痛苦，他说：We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
受苦(suffering) 沉迷If a little dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time. 封闭的空间: 在封闭的空间，没有他人言语的介入，想象独立开花，思想在密闭的烤炉里烘烤完整成型，身体各处都能觉知感受. 普鲁斯特是文学里的爱因斯坦。他以及同时代的乔伊斯改变了我们对于小说的定义。The time at our disposal each day is elastic; the passions we feel dilate it, those that inspire us shrink it, and habit fills it.
白圭之玷，尚可磨也，斯言之玷，不可为也。– 《诗经・大雅・抑之》
想起那个和尚抱女子过河的佛经故事。老和尚跟小和尚在河边过河，一个不能趟水的女人也要过河，老和尚就抱了她过去。走出好远了，小和尚问：师父，你破了戒啊。老和尚说，我过河了就放下了，你怎么还抱着呢？佛用这个讲故事，自有他的用心。佛法、时间跟心都是是流转的，法无定法，死板教条，墨守成规就失去了佛法的生命源泉。
卓别林的老电影《凡尔杜先生》中，凡先生对那位他本想谋杀的女子惨然说道： “你要无情才能活在这无情的世界。”
人生是前也不堪，后也不堪，前不可追，后不可得，唯有眼前当下是欢喜。
- 鱼玄机
翠色连荒岸，烟姿入远楼；影铺春水面，花落钓人头。根老藏鱼窟，枝底系客舟；萧萧风雨夜，惊梦复添愁。
云峰满月放春睛，历历银钩指下生；自恨罗衣掩诗句，举头空羡榜中名。
羞日遮罗袖，愁春懒起妆；易求无价宝，难得有情郎。枕上潜垂泪，花间暗断肠；自能窥宋玉，何必恨王昌。
- 齐简: 路上飘满红罂栗 – 关于诗的回忆
方含: 我从天空慢慢地下降／梦轻盈地落在我的心上
衣锡群《巴黎公社》: 奴隶的枪声汇进悲壮的音符/一个世纪落在棺盖上/象纷纷落下的泥土/巴黎，我的圣巴黎/你象血滴，象花瓣/贴上地球蓝色的额头//黎明死了/在血泊中留下早露/你不是为了明天的面包/而是为了长青的无花果树/向戴金冠的骑士/举起了孤独的剑
https://amclain.com/blog/feminism-and-science-fiction-a-syllabus
no grid and no overlap. with territory, with possible deadzones, with eyes, with captures and so on.
演员都是传奇人物，都是聪明绝顶的人。他们高居于日常生活之上，悠然注视着舞台下的大众；他们能够记住铿锵的台词，仿佛把整个世界都掌握在手中。孩子不满足于贫瘠单调的现实生活，因而对舞台充满热切执着的渴望。孩子当然不明白“舞台小人生，人生大舞台”这幺深奥的哲理，这个哲理必须等到孩子饱经生命的风霜之后才能领悟到。很多年之后，当我读莎士比亚的剧本时，在《第十二夜》中发现了这段话，顿时像被闪电击所中一样震撼了：“这个人去做俳优是够聪明的了。干这个营生，真是很需要一点聪明，他必得观察他们所取笑的人们的心情、那人的人品，与时间得当否。并且还要似未受过训练的苍鹰，对于面前的每一个飞禽都要追逐。这一种工作与智慧者的精心艺术一样充满了辛苦。因为他用聪明所表现的愚蠢是恰当的，但是聪明人若跃在愚蠢里，却要把聪明污损了。”莎士比亚既是作家，又是演员；既是旁观者，又是介入者。在舞台上，他发现了幕前、幕后的分野；在生活中，他更发现了那道一般人看不见的“幕布”――那些看起来最聪明的人，其实就是自由自在地出入于这道幕布的人。如何才能自由自在地出入于幕布内外呢？那幺！，你必须给自己戴上一个面具。所有的戏剧说到底都是戴着面具的舞蹈。
…就是根深蒂固的“瞒与骗”（鲁迅语）的文化和政治特性。中国人固然很聪明，但这种聪明仅仅是把“屡战屡败”改写为“屡败屡战”的聪明；中国人固然很勤劳，但这种勤劳仅仅是苦练表演招式、让面具内化为面部肌肉的勤劳。通过这个小故事，汪康年极其沉痛地揭示出了这种可怕的现实：我们生活在一个互相欺骗和捉弄的优孟王国，我们从来没有真实、诚恳、认真地生活过。我们的历史打上了浓重的“ 优孟史”的烙印，我们的文化染上了“优孟文化”的致命毒素。在这个与现实生活几乎“同构”的舞台上，无论皇帝还是弄臣，无论官僚还是黎民，都兼有“骗人” 和“被骗”的两重身份。
晚清名伶德君如是穆彰阿之孙，他却不顾显贵的出身，“下海”而为艺人。家人强迫他承袭爵位，他断然拒绝。叔父萨廉骂他自甘下贱，玷辱门风，将他逐出宗族，注销族名。即便如此，德君如也绝不回头。有朋友劝他归家继承爵位，他却说：“我在舞台上一身而兼帝王将相，威重一时，为何要回家？”友人说：“这戏中的帝王将相可是假的。”他反驳说：“天下事还有什幺是真的？”这是一种彻头彻尾的大绝望。在一个举世皆骗子的世界上，德君如认为：既然我无法揭穿所有的谎言，那幺我乾脆就去做那个明目张胆地宣称自己是骗子的演员。这种绝望正如鲁迅所说的，是铁屋子中的人醒来之后发现无法打破铁屋子的绝望。
book: Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974), a libertarian answer to John Rawls’ A Theory of Justice (1971). Nozick proposes his minimal state as the only justifiable form of government.