Oh yeah, humility

Seamus McGoogle takes great pride in his humility.

As noted yesterday, as a young man Benjamin Franklin, whose Autobiography is the theme lately at Goat Rope, took it upon himself to achieve moral perfection.

It would be hard to say something like that today with a straight face...

Not surprisingly, he found his task difficult:

I concluded, at length, that the mere speculative conviction that it was our interest to be completely virtuous, was not sufficient to prevent our slipping; and that the contrary habits must be broken, and good ones acquired and established, before we can have any dependence on a steady, uniform rectitude of conduct.

From his reading and further rumination, he came up with a list of requisite virtues to pursue which he committed to writing. The first list included temperance, silence, order, resolution, frugality, industry, sincerity, justice, moderation, cleanliness, tranquility, and chastity.

He showed the list to a Quaker friend, who

having kindly informed me that I was generally thought proud; that my pride show'd itself frequently in conversation; that I was not content with being in the right when discussing any point, but was overbearing, and rather insolent, of which he convinc'd me by mentioning several instances; I determined endeavoring to cure myself, if I could, of this vice or follow among the rest, and I added Humility to my list, giving an extensive meaning to the word.

Leave it to a Quaker to bust your bubble...

SPEAKING OF RELIGION, here's a discussion of the results of a recent survey on religious identification in the US. There have been some major changes since the 1990s.

ON A RELATED NOTE, here are some reflections on religion, morality, and the idol of unfettered capitalism.

SERENITY NOW! Anger and hostility are bad for the heart, especially the male heart.

YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS. If you can.

URGENT RENAISSANCE VENETIAN VAMPIRE UPDATE here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: ELEVATED

Antici........pation (again)

Does the election have you howling at the moon?

The Gentle Reader may have noticed that there is an election going on today. Although this blog is about public affairs and policies (and whatever random topics are on my mind), El Cabrero has made no mention of it.

Here's the main reason: Goat Rope is the unofficial blog of the American Friends Service Committee WV Economic Justice Project. AFSC is a non-profit organization related to the Society of Friends (Quakers), although staff and volunteers come from all kinds of religious backgrounds.

While my day job is all about trying to improve conditions for low income and working families, I focus on issues rather than elections or candidates and these issues don't seem to go away no matter who or what party is in power.

In the spirit of 501(c)3 compliance, allow me to say a few things:

*if you haven't voted already, please get out and do so if you are registered.

*if you're not happy with the way it turns out, remember the theme here lately: the goddess Fortuna is fickle and her wheel turns. Sometimes she brings people up and sometimes down but the wheel keeps moving.

*sometimes you win by losing and lose by winning. It's hard to tell at the time.

*the country is in such a mess that whoever wins is going to have a rough time. If El Cabrero--God forbid--was ever elected to the office of the president, my first act would be to demand a recount. And people who care about good policies are going to have a lot of work to do however it turns out.

Here's hoping that by the time this day is over we have clear--and clean--winners.

DIGRESSION ON APPALACHIAN VOTING CUSTOMS. There's an old saying in West Virginia, "Vote early, vote often and it's not the way they're cast--it's the way they're counted."

There are all kinds of great stories about...shall we say colorful...Appalachian voting practices. One of these involves stories about dead people's ballots being counted.

As a true hillbilly unto the generations, part of me wants to say that it's OK to cast ballots for dead family members, as long as you know how they would have voted if they were still here.

But don't quote me on that.

A LITTLE (ABOUT) POLITICAL HUMOR here.

A LITERAL ECONOMIC MELTDOWN can be seen here.

ANGER MANAGEMENT here.

GOAT ROPE ADVISORY LEVEL: UNDETERMINED