Aphorism of the Week

There are men and women who are less embroidered, but of finer weave.

Dedicated to the steel of Secret Service boss Paula Reid in rounding up, uncoverering, and expelling agents and supervisors in the agency whose advance-team mission and personal conduct were compromised by soliciting prostitutes.

Parable of the Week

The Cicada, The Beetle
Dawn rouged the pale bodies of two newborns - a Cicada and a Beetle.
The Cicada, a newly hatched but well-fed larva, dug a bed deep in the earth, and therein slept for seventeen years.
Arising on the moonlit night of a new millennium, he emerged from the Cocoon of the Earth reborn, with great rasping wings that shimmered like oil on still water.
Yet, as the Cicada flew into the night, he hurried about his business of finding

Aphorism of the Week

Contempt is the fist of the weak, gentleness the hand of the strong.

Dedicated in admonishment of Bashar al-Assad's refusal to abide by the U.N.-brokered ceasefire against his own fellow citizens, the people of Syria.

Parable of the Week

The Freeman, The Slave
As boys in the heart of summer, a freeman and a slave played together on a plantation.
The freeman child went on to a fine school and learned much about the world, while the young slave learned to read and write secretly, by moonlight.
As a grown man, the freeman returned to the cotton plantation of his childhood. Although his teachings conflicted with being a slave owner, he stifled his doubt and drove his father's slaves with a cane -- and a hardening heart. In night sweats, he cried out as he dreamed of

Aphorism of the Week

Herding is not the same as leading.

Dedicated to the Senior Class of Minneapolis DeLaSalle High School, who, after being herded by the Catholic Archdiocese into a mandatory student assembly, rationally and maturely faced off against presenters claiming their classmates with adoptive, single or gay parents were "sociologically unstable," and claiming a loving, committed relationship between two men was akin to sex with animals.

Parable of the Week

The Husband & Wife, The Spouses
Dwelling on the outskirts of a city, in a small cul-de-sac, was a loving family -- a husband and wife, their two children, and their pet dog.
Each morning, as the husband walked to his car to commute to work, he looked across their small cul-de-sac at the empty windows of a house for sale,

Aphorism of the Week

Doctrine is the crushing of thought.

Dedicated in supplication of the U.S. Supreme Court, that they put aside doctrinal adherence to politics to see and truly weigh the real legality, and value, of the Affordable Care Act.

Parable of the Week

The Way of Taqlid, The Way of 'Aql
Proudly the tribe reigned over deserts white with sand and spotted with black pools of oil.
Although war had been thrust upon them since the grey dawn of history, until peace was a fleeting memory, among their number had lived mathematicians, astronomers, scientists and librarians -- who had saved the foundations of the Edifice of Man.
Yet, when Man learned to transmute the black oil into gold, and when the hearts of many claimed the garden from which all men arose, the land and the tribe

Aphorism of the Week

The handmaiden of faith must be doubt.

Dedicated in admonishment of Parent's Action League (PAL), whose demands that Anoka-Hennepin schools in Minnesota provide institutional "resources for students of faith and moral conviction, ex-homosexuals and ex-trangenders," "training on overcoming sexual disorders," and "lessons linking homosexuality to AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases" all fail to comport with constitutional law and reason, and even with consistent application of biblical teachings, and thus are tantamount to bigotry. PAL is no "pal" to children.

Parable of the Week

The Apples, The Oranges
He was a great religious orator, a Preacher of a particular religion that claimed absolute salvation for all who shared its beliefs -- and absolute damnation

Aphorism of the Week

We all do better when we all do better. -- via Paul Wellstone

Dedicated to the discovery that the loss of native milkweed plants in pesticide-resistant farm fields of genetically modified corn and soybean is decimating the Monarch Butterfly, which nests on milkweed; and to public efforts to plant milkweed in other land areas, including pastures, gardens and conserved lands, to help restore the butterfly.

Parable of the Week

The Slave, The Gladiator
Colonnades, now broken and mouldy, gleamed pink rose in the Rome where lived a slave and a wounded gladiator.
Both men had been sentenced to the arena, wherein prowled hungry lions.
They were sentenced to be the lions' food.
As they stood before the metal gate shortly to open into the arena, the slave grasped the gladiator's

Aphorism of the Week

Ad hominem is against humanity.

Dedicated to the Anoka Six; because of their heroism in the face of discrimination from classmates and teachers, sanctioned bullying in America is waning.

Parable of the Week

The Pond Dwellers, The Platypus
Say God had a Claw.
If He skewered the pond with that mighty Claw, It'd poke out the other side of the world -- on the island continent from whence the Platypus came.
Ask the Platypus how he came to be in this woodland pond so far from home, he'd clap his duckbill a few times, and a silent tear would trickle down his furry face.
But one bright day, he shook off the dew beaded on his oily-smooth coat and scuttled over the muddy shoreline to greet a gaggle of wood ducks -- although they were known throughout the pond for being hoity-toity.

Aphorism of the Week

Get out of your own way. -- via Samuel L. Jackson.

Dedicated to the willingness of retiring GOP Senator Olympia Snow (R-ME) to cross the aisle and compromise; and in admonishment of Congress' inability to emulate her by working together to strengthen the U.S. economy, rather than debating the right of women to contraceptive healthcare.

Parable of the Week

The Feather, The Wing
House sparrows spent their days in search of seeds to fill their busy bellies.
One sparrow spread his smooth, brown wings and flitted from tree to tree -- his masked face and black pearl eyes espying the backyards below him.
But the other sparrow hopped along the ground, wings tucked, in search of his food.
The first sparrow, observing the second, called down, "Hey! Hey! Hey, you!"
"Why

Aphorism of the Week

Most people hold too many certainties and too few viewpoints.

Dedicated in supplication to the U.S. GOP Presidential candidades in advance of the Michigan primaries, to consider that the federal government has a role to play in encouraging economic progress to seek new directions -- a lesson now learned by the Detroit auto industry.

Parable of the Week

The Forest, The Prairie
Ere the passing of the Ice Age thirty thousand years before, the tribe had lived in the great forest.
A young warrior of the tribe often leapt upon the bare back of his appaloosa to explore the meandering rivers, valleys and hills of the forest.
He felt the rough, smooth or flaking bark -- and peered at the unique lobes and spikes on the leaves -- of uncounted trees, all well-met friends.