“We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. We inflame wild beasts with the smell of blood, and then innocently wonder at the wave of brutal appetite that sweeps the land as a consequence.” Mark Twain Speech, between October 5 and October 17, 1907

I probably should do more research on this character. He seems like someone that we share a lot of views in common. I have to say that I ran across this quote when I was scrolling through one of the groups I watch on MeWe. When I tried to find the source, I found a lot of quotes that were interesting.

“No amount of evidence will ever persuade an idiot”, “I was educated once – it took me years to get over it” and “Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level and then beat you with experience.” These are a handful of quotes that makes you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

Mark Twain, was the pen name of Samuel Clemmons. Every time you read about him, he is described as a ‘humorist‘. As far as I am concerned, I see him as a man that was intelligent and had a platform to deliver his views in a way that was palatable to many, like Shakespeare or Benjamin Franklin. In some ways, I think this is what Rush Limbaugh did. You may not have liked his views or even thought he was funny, but there were many times he was attempting to use humor as a way to make a point.

Of course, I have read Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And, you should know by now, I am not convinced of the innuendo between Twain and his writings in terms of a social platform. I will not deny that his views outside of his writing were pretty clear and direct. All that being said, you cannot necessarily separate Twain’s opinion and the subject matter of his writings. At the very least, his writing built his speaking platform.

I ran across this over the weekend…

I think irony is an important aspect of humor. Isn’t it ironic that someone would want to organize some sort of anti-violence demonstration while simultaneously promoting violence at the same time.

I am going to speculate about what I think Bob is saying. No country should invade another country and kill it’s citizens and try to take it’s territory, therefore I side with Ukraine. After thinking about this, I have to say that even self defense is violence. I have to imagine that if Ukraine was not resisting, there would be significantly less death and destruction. That is not a conviction of right and wrong, but educated conjecture.

I skimmed through most of the replies and I am confused about the intent of this. This is organized as a response to the Uvalde shooting last week. I think orange was a bridge between hunter orange i.e. gun owners and people wanting to protest bun violence (?). I have no doubt that a large contingent of people do not fully understand the second amendment but there is no connection between that and hunting other that guns are mostly used to participate.

I think Twain would do his research on the subject before commenting. Which side is really the good/bad guys here? Is it the Ukrainians who denied regional succession to become Russians after an overwhelming vote to do so or is it Russians seizing foreign territory? And, how can you be against violence yet support it at the same time?

We have got some issues here. Unfortunately, people are not looking deep enough into something before adding a no thought given emoji to their signature. I am giving Bob the benefit of the doubt here, I am assuming he is ignorant and really means well. I sure hope that it is not the other way.

End Your Programming Routine: “Just because you’re taught that something’s right and everyone believes it’s right, it don’t make it right.” I don’t know the exact context of this quote, but Twain was an unapologetic abolitionist. Think about the context of the day versus today’s view of slavery. Now, use that same discipline for everything else in life.