Justice Needs Mercy

skyblack:  since wishes are some projection, can you find some formula to welcome the new year for k friends..

We—  im a fool i still think the new year is april first / springtime! / we're below double-digits here on the Farenheit scale

skyblack / be it 'january fools' then.. 

We—  There are no fools except for me. 

skyblack / yes we have the innocent and the foolosophers 

We—  and me / the fool / 

You—Terese , Happy New Year ! :-D

We—  football hump day! / the game starts at 10 and goes until after midnight

You—Therese , all the very best for the New Year ! 

We—  Stupidity matters! 

Nobody—Start and fail / start again - fail better!

You—Hqappy New Year to Ute ! / Happy

We—  what just happened?

e

Same to you You thanks

You—Thanks .

You—The Earth moves at about 67,062 miles per hour around the Sun (which is 1000 times faster than the speeds we go at on a highway!) . We've finished one trip ! / Happy New Year!

The Man—Happy New Year, You

You—Thanks :-D

We—  yeah in terrestrial years

Nobody—Lets all praise gravity!

We—  a galactic year is 125 million years

You—Isn't it fantastic ? / the speed at which we travel around the Sun ?

We—  the milky way needs light years or we could never get around it

Nobody—fasten seat belts

We—  30 km per hour / no collision necessary

Nobody—ready for take off

We—  just cruising really

Nobody—nice

We—  i lied / it's 30 km per second / really cruising / 70,000 mph

You—107,300 km/h

We—  everything is vast  

You—the forces of the universe are taking us around the sun with such incredible speed -- the sun which is the source of life and light !  

You—Dave , how's the mood there ? / New Year mood ?  

You—So, is there anything new? Is there anything that is really afresh, something that you have never seen before? I think this is rather an important question, if you will follow it - to turn all the days of our life into something which you have never seen before. That means a brain that has freed its

We—  our star is dragging us around The Milky Way at 828,000 km/hr

The Man—Well, apart from going to a noisy, crowded bar last night, generally quite quiet, as per normal. Some businesses are closed, others open. The bar was a mess, the floor disgusting. We went to an Italian restaurant beforehand, bad value for money - food portions were miserable

You—freed itself from its conditioning, from its characteristics, from its idiosyncrasies and the opinions and the judgments and the convictions. Can we put all that aside and really start a new year? It would be marvelous if we could do that. 

We—  im reading Vanity Fair

The Man—great book, I'm reading Hardy

We—  which one?

The Man—Far From the Madding Crowd

We—  have you read it before?

The Man—Also have the 60's movie / no

We—  i can't even tell you how many times i have read Vanity Fair

The Man—I'm sure

We—  Napoleon just had to have Russia too.

The Man—Is that in the book?

We—  yes

The Man—Yes, thought it was Georgian, or Regency

We—  Waterloo was Regency

The Man—Yes

We—  1815  

We—  i have two obscure Hardy's upstairs / i bought at a book sale / on the last day you paid a dollar for all the books you could fit in a grocery bag / i haven't read them yet / maybe i will

The Man—Not well known?

We—  like the Hardy boys / Two On A Tower and The Trumpet Major / ive schlepped through Life with me / i just read Casterbridge for the first time / that's what happens when you sell your wife / he was quite prolific / do you like Becky Sharp? / Thackeray is so fair to her.

The Man—She's quite a character, so I gather

We—  you didn't read it?

The Man—no, but have seen the BBC series

We—  i hope they didn't try to show the battle / The Death of Osborne

The Man—Can't remember...not sure

We—  im sorry / as far as i can tell Vanity Fair is the greatest novel ever written

The Man—about the incident?

We—  asking you to converse on something you don't care about

The Man—why do you think that?

We—  because you don't remember / even after 200 years i get all worked up about Buonoparte

The Man—yes, but it was along time since I watched it. The book will be on my list

We—  it's fun / in the middle of writing about the girl's school he tells you to throw the book across the room

The Man—Does he make you angry?

We—  no, he says it isn't going to get any better than this in the first chapter / like: Get out while the gettings good. / and it is so important when you see the difference in how the girls were treated in school how their destiny is not personality it is how people treat them

The Man—right, but I mean your feelings about Napoleon

We—  Thackeray wanted to be very clear on that point because he was relentless when it came to their silliness and their shenanigans. / about Napoleon? He didn't know when to quit. / He had to keep climbing.

The Man—yes / are the girls sisters?

We—  Two years it will be the anniversary. / Waterloo is why we all speak English. / Amelia Sedley Osborne and Rebecca Sharp Crawley went to Ms. Pinkerton's finishing school.

The Man—yes, I thought they did

We—  What do you think is the greatest novel? / you can change your mind as soon as you make it up

The Man—really couldn't say. I've read some good ones

We—  can you not pick one?!

The Man—Well...I'll have to think for a mo  

We—  my friend, the math professor has made me aware of stopping to think, i strongly urge it for all human beings ... thought has a bad reputation here, and JK explains it but it is invaluable to hold up your end of the conversation and even JK used it as evidence for not setting too much store by it

The Man—How about...Les Miserables a 'strong' work

We—  there's another one that i browse / i keep thinking i'll be able to read it in french / same as proust

The Man—I've read that one

We—  i read chapters / just can't seem to push through

The Man—It does take some ploughing

We—  you know he wrote Hunchback to save the cathedral and it worked / NotreDame was falling to wrack & ruin.

The Man—Yes, i read somewhere...

We—  the Catholics weren't Catholic anymore / everyone in 19th century France was catholic by name and no one went to church / i did love when my kids were little and the disney movie came out and they used the french accent instead of the college in west bend / a whole generation got that

The Man—right

We—  it's a very nice name you know it's not Our Lady of anything in our particular ... our lady of this or our lady of that  

The Man—are you referring to Mary?

We—  yes the church in Paris. / there is a Laura Ingall's Wilder tour where you travel the same route she did from Lake Pepin Wisconsin to DeSmet Dakota / and on to Missouri where she died / she is another author to read and read over and over

The Man—'Little House on the Prarie' / Have spelt 'P' wrong?

We—  that was book #2, they went to Kansas and her Pa built a house in the middle of a field and planted

The Man—loved the TV series

We—  Pa had to clear out of Kansas. / The Americans said this is our land.

The Man—'Prairie' is correct, I think. Missed the i

We—  Laura listened to the drums of the powwow of about six American tribes that had converged near their settlement. / it was an annual hunting frolic

The Man—interesting background to the stories

We—  the Osage spoke French and the Leader met with her father but they could not understand each other / she stood in her doorway when the osage left / the entire nation moved together all day long / travelling to the mississippi / Laura wanted the papoose.

The Man—what's that?

We—  a baby

The Man—oh

We—  it was on mom's back on a horse / she wrote about the black hair and black eyes looking at her / and she wanted it / so much poetry / when she goes out on the lake in the moonlight and the wolves watch her

The Man—right

We—  at the end of the railway line being built in dakota / her father was the only one who stayed behind / at the surveyor's house / in the spring the homesteaders were all over the floor of their house every day and they built the town in a month / Napoleon again. / He sold everything West of The Mississippi to Jefferson. / he sold out the Americans

The Man—is all this from Ingalls Wilder herself, or did you find another book?

We—  they all spoke French / no Laura was doing the dishes for all the men / fortunately for her the first thing that got built was the hotel in DeSmet / the railroad got that far / so they needed a town to go with it / railroad workers go a jump on the best land / close to town / Pa was restless. / Ma was a trooper. / Laura wrote about her life with them from age 5 until she married.

The Man—yes

We—  amazing true history / from the eyes of a child who trusts her parents implicitly  as children do  

The Man—are you still writing your book?

We—  Vanity is a study of friendship between the bourgeois and the poor. Both aspire to the ton. / im working on a utopia / it isn't the kind of thing you finish / i am giving countrys away to my friends / would you like one? / did i already give you a land mass?

The Man—'Country's?' no / Oh, I get it

We—  you can have The UK

The Man—oh, right, the parts I like

We—  then you can immediately free Wales, Scotland and Ireland  

We—  put three friends in charge / or hell put four in power and go live on the continent

The Man—a good theory

We—  i was shocked when i heard that Mubarek was in prison, i thought he was drinking mai tais in exile somewhere / Elba maybe or St. Helena / but no / it seems if you voluntarily step down from the presidency they should not immediately throw you into prison / it seems very illegal  

The Man—and Egypt is in turmoil

We—  in my entire Life if anyone asked me "any trouble" i could always answer "The Middle East" and i was paying for the part my nation plays in it / and there was nothing anyone could do about it other than vote / and people don't vote / it seems like neither side is unlikely to stop the bloodshed ... can we not vote for very good people? / everywhere?

The Man—good theory

We—  my whole LIFE / why is it that 50 years ago Gandhi made a Labor contract in India that is still working and valid today. / and these guys can't find a way to make it work / we need to make more contracts / stop buying guns / they need really good lawyers / who can pound out a deal / lawyers like Gandhi/ People who love justice like a good attorney / Justice is a lot like Self. / It doesn't exist and it sure needs mercy!