There will be no picture.

There will be no badge(r)s.

There is always More for those who want to know.

I am a retread. If I do more than poke at a few disgraces, I'll register with the authorities.

26. “the nearer we search into human Nature, the more we shall be convinced, that the Moral Virtues are the Political Offspring which Flattery begot upon Pride.” – Bernard de Mandeville, Fable of the Bees

27. “. . . it is probable, he (Square) at first intended to have contented himself with the pleasing ideas which the Sight of Beauty furnishes us with. These the gravest Men, after a full Meal of serious Meditation, often allow themselves by Way of Desert: For which Purpose, certain Books and Pictures find their Way into the most private Recesses of their Study, and a certain liquorish Part of natural Philosophy is often the principal Subject of their Conversation.” – Henry Fielding, Tom Jones

28. “He that shall examine this iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, et jam terras Astraea reliquit, Justice fled with her assistants, virtue expelled, Justitiae soror,/ Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas, all goodness, gone, where vice abounds, the devil is loose, and see one man vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent or a block, oppress, tyrannize, prey upon, torture him, vex, gall, torment and crucify him, starve him, where is charity?” – Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy Pr. 3, sec. 1.

29. "Money well timed, and properly applied, will do anything." – John Gay, The Beggar's Opera, II xii

30. "Have not I myself known five hundred living soldiers sabred into crows' meat for a piece of glazed cotton which they called their flag; which, had you sold it in any market-cross, would not have brought above three groschen?" -- Thomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus

I probably haven't, you know.

1. For the time being at least, I have a job. You probably have a job. This is not a job. A critical difference is that no one is anyone's boss, here. I am a single voice, and so are you. You have more important things to do than worry about me, and I have many more important things to do than worry about you.

2. I do not exist. Neither do you. We are collections of words. That is all we are. Because we operate behind pseudonyms, we neither get the credit for our "real world" credentials nor the burdens of them, but we also do not have reputations, fame, or ill fame. We're just ideas, words, and symbols in a philosophical discourse. We are powerful or weak to the degree that our propositions carry persuasion.

2A. I do not like anything which spikes #2. This includes "community" that promulgates personal attachments above the value of persuasion and ideas. Some of my friends feel differently. That's ok.

2B. The only guard to the ephemeral nature of "one voice" is transparency, and that's why I really don't like hidden discussions. Other people do, though.

3. I almost surely won't remember what you said. I wish you'd do the same for me.

4. I promise that I will be wrong. It's a given. I can only say that I will do my best to be wrong when I least know it. As a corollary, I'm likely to be quite sure that I'm not wrong when I am wrong.

5. I may remember it if you're dismissive and lordly or assert prerogative. That kind of thing is really aggravating to everyone, and I rather suspect those who do it intend it. Even then, though, no hard feelings. If topics weren't so rare, I'd rather be writing.