Uncle Kish (unclekish)

Uncle Kish quotes

Claiming that someone else's marriage is against your religion is like being angry at someone for eating a donut because you're on a diet. !q @Seth__Rogen

Uncle Kish

Bertrand Russell's 10 Commandments of Teaching: Perhaps the essence of the Liberal outlook could be summed up in a new decalogue, not intended to replace the old one but only to supplement it. The Ten Commandments that, as a teacher, I should wish to promulgate, might be set forth as follows: 1. Do not feel absolutely certain of anything. 2. Do not think it worth while to proceed by concealing evidence, for the evidence is sure to come to light. 3. Never try to discourage thinking for you are sure to succeed. 4. When you meet with opposition, even if it should be from your husband or your children, endeavor to overcome it by argument and not by authority, for a victory dependent upon authority is unreal and illusory. 5. Have no respect for the authority of others, for there are always contrary authorities to be found. 6. Do not use power to suppress opinions you think pernicious, for if you do the opinions will suppress you. 7. Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. 8. Find more pleasure in intelligent dissent than in passive agreement, for, if you value intelligence as you should, the former implies a deeper agreement than the latter. 9. Be scrupulously truthful, even if the truth is inconvenient, for it is more inconvenient when you try to conceal it. 10. Do not feel envious of the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise, for only a fool will think that it is happiness. - December 16, 1951, The New York Times Magazine, at the end of the article "The best answer to fanaticism: Liberalism." #q

Uncle Kish

Some great photos, from a kids' photo competition: http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/kids/photos/gallery/international-photo-contest-2010-for-kids-international-winners/#/people-bulgaria-magdalena-velkova_31229_600x450.jpg #beauty

Uncle Kish quotes

'these virtues are formed in man by his doing the actions'; we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. -- Will Durant, describing the ideas of Aristotle. !q !tm

Uncle Kish quotes , Productivity and Time Management

A 'No' uttered from the deepest conviction is better than a 'Yes' merely uttered to please, or worse, to avoid trouble. - Gandhi (attributed). It's also great !timemanagement advice. !q

Uncle Kish quotes

Fearlessness may be a gift but perhaps more precious is the courage acquired through endeavour, courage that comes from cultivating the habit of refusing to let fear dictate one's actions, courage that could be described as "grace under pressure" — grace which is renewed repeatedly in the face of harsh, unremitting pressure. - Aung San Suu Kyi, acceptance message for 1990 Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought (July 1991) !q

Uncle Kish

When I start on a blog post as part of my work, I regularly experience powerful urges to: check email, do some task or other that comes to mind which is small but suddenly seems important (when in reality it's neither), check FB/G+, play a video game, pursue some form of entertainment... Choosing not to right now - just noting the observation on this personal journal, and now back to work. Need to be !productive in this area...

Uncle Kish quotes

The worst vice of a fanatic is his sincerity. - Oscar Wilde. !q #belief

Uncle Kish quotes

I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever. - Daniel J. Boorstin !q #belief

Uncle Kish quotes

My own childhood in Jerusalem rendered me an expert in comparative fanaticism. Jerusalem of my childhood, back in the 1940s, was full of self- proclaimed prophets, redeemers and messiahs. - Amos Oz, "How to Cure a Fanatic" !q #belief

Uncle Kish quotes

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? - Alexandr Solzhenitsyn The Gulag Archipelago (1973). !q #empathy

Uncle Kish quotes

"the general root of superstition [is] that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss; and commit to memory the one, and forget and pass over the other." - Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum Century X (1627) !q !belief. Now I see why that say this guy was smart.

Uncle Kish quotes

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively exceeds the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here." - Richard Dawkins, 'Unweaving the Rainbow' !q #life

Uncle Kish quotes

"Revealed faith is not harmless nonsense, it can be lethally dangerous nonsense... And dangerous because we have all bought into a weird respect, which uniquely protects religion from normal criticism. Let's now stop being so damned respectful!" - Richard Dawkins when asked about the impact of Sep 11. !q

Uncle Kish Simple delicious vegetable recipes

Some vegetarian recipes I posted long ago and almost forgot - http://ur1.ca/5n0wb Will have to make the baharat spice mix again - that's a great recipe, and the tagine, and the yellow bean & turmeric... !SimpleDeliciousVeg

Uncle Kish

"Religions are like glow-worms: they need darkness in order to shine" - attributed to Arthur Schopenhauer #q

Uncle Kish Simple delicious vegetable recipes

Bruschetta: Toast your bread (my choice is wholemeal or rye, but a baguette is good). Rub a raw garlic clove over the toast, so it scrapes off on the toast. Either drizzle with extra virgin olive oil & have it with soup, or chop up ripe tomatoes onion (preferable red onion) and chopped basil. Add olive oil & salt, optionally balsamic vinegar, black pepper (cracked or fresh ground). Mix, let sit for 20 min (if you're patient), add to the toast. Eat! !simpledeliciousveg

Uncle Kish quotes

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity. - Lord Acton. !q #corruption

Uncle Kish

"WHAT DO WE WANT?! Respectful discourse. WHEN DO WE WANT IT?! Now would be agreeable to me, but I am interested in your opinion" - another great sign at last year's "Rally to Restore Sanity". http://ur1.ca/5da4p