The sophistry of the Republican party in acquitting Trump of impeachment marks the end of a pitiful era of American history. There is no one – including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell – who does not think Trump engaged in criminal activity. The juncture does not however obliterate the underlying racism of the so-called “Make America Great Again” political army, a movement which goes back far beyond the turn of the twentieth century when Eastern European immigrants were condemned as itinerant pedlars for not “tilling the land” – that is, for being different (though I have no idea where the remote landowners were otherwise expected to get their dry goods). Americans have devoted centuries to name calling one another because they’re different; and, to this day they continue to do the same.  It amazes me that we humans have yet to develop a new way to approach our fears, something Trump and his acolytes capitalized upon.

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Mid-winter is a widespread occasion for a sobering look at one’s protuberant belly. Although the aim is less about the Darwinian theme and more about the Ralph Lauren objective – that is, less about diet and more about appearance – healthful eating is always cogent. It’s at least intellectually inspiring. And that of course is the real problem; namely, raising the spirited ambition from chatter to action.

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Customer Review of 2021 Lincoln Aviator Reserve AWD
Manufacturer: The Lincoln Motor Company, Chicago
Dealer: Lincoln Heights Ford Sales Limited, Richmond Road, Ottawa, ON Canada
Lincoln Heights Ford Sales Limited

February 12, 2021

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There is within the ungodliness of my latest tactile absorptions (the visual, the mechanical and the artistic) an identifiable yet complicated scientific feature, the exact nature of which I know only by the very pleasing effect arising from its impenetrable cause. Isn’t that so often the case!  How willingly ignorant we are of origin yet how shamelessly avaricious we are for its reverberations, those fountains of transparency and brilliance from the wellspring. Thankfully there is no imperative to connect the two. The tolerance of rendition howsoever kindled is but an accepted convenience of society.

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One of the recognizable though perhaps less than lofty merits of shallowness is the over-riding permission (dare I say submission) to acquaint oneself with the hedonistic and patently visceral pleasures of life! In my defence – and speaking on behalf of the natural scientists of the planet – we are after all at heart but a stem from the root of the corporeal world! This fleshy, substantial sphere is however not so far removed from the unworldly, spiritual edacity that some would have us believe. Never overlook the strength of the mind/body dichotomy, thank-you René Descartes!

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Never had I imagined the current extravagance of nothing to do! With the exception of the occasional medical appointment and an outing for grocery shopping, the world is my own! It is however but an awakening privilege, one which expressly requires conditioning. Its unemployment is not a release from work for there is a new mandate. Nor by the way is the boon merely a product of retirement.  Indeed the first several years of my retirement were devoted to domestic adjustments and a prolonged review of paper and electronic files including the maintenance and settlement of the inter vivos and testamentary estates of my parents. What a profound peculiarity it is for me to reflect upon what is the precipitous disappearance of my parents and the equally abrupt injunction of the future horizon which I must now face entirely without them, without the joy or necessity of their approbation, as an unidentified personality in a wide open space of unfamiliarity. I have at last attained the summit of professional and familial obligation. My complacency is a confessed achievement of self-satisfaction though not without its percolating exigencies.

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This business of going to bed every night at precisely ten o’clock is in many ways a welcome adoption but at moments like this – when I’ve devoted an entire day to “taking care of business” I need a break from routine.  Not that it is something I am attempting to avoid; it’s just that sometimes I require more than habit to make me sleep or at least stay asleep without pondering things over and over again.  Anyway what’s keeping me up and going at this dreadful hour – it is shockingly now past midnight – is that I have been fussing all day rearranging things.  Just little things, really, but nonetheless things that obviously captured my attention.

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Uberrima fides (sometimes seen in its genitive form uberrimae fidei) is a Latin phrase meaning “utmost good faith” (literally, “most abundant faith”). It is the name of a legal doctrine which governs insurance contracts.

A higher duty is expected from parties to an insurance contract than from parties to most other contracts in order to ensure the disclosure of all material facts so that the contract may accurately reflect the risk being undertaken. The principles underlying this rule were stated by Lord Mansfield in the leading and often-quoted case of Carter v Boehm (1766) 97 ER 1162, 1164,

Insurance is a contract of speculation… The special facts, upon which the contingent chance is to be computed, lie most commonly in the knowledge of the insured only: the under-writer trusts to his representation, and proceeds upon confidence that he does not keep back any circumstances in his knowledge, to mislead the under-writer into a belief that the circumstance does not exist… Good faith forbids either party by concealing what he privately knows, to draw the other into a bargain from his ignorance of that fact, and his believing the contrary.

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The titillation surrounding the second impeachment of Donald Jennifer Trump is akin to the bloodthirsty animation accompanying a bullfight; namely, we know who wins in the end but not without the prospect of crowing about severe injury on both sides. The vindictive interest of the masses in the outcome is partially excused by the novelty of the citation in the history of the United States of America. The more compelling peculiarity in this instance is that the outcome will affect not only the combatants but also the spectators. America’s Grand Old Party (GOP) is on the precipice of more than cosmetic surgery.  Already certain of the Republicans have solidly distanced themselves from Trump. Their party colleagues are undoubtedly facing the same moment of truth, poised to fall back upon conventional identity or fall into the abyss of white supremacism that is called “Trumpism“.

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I’ve heard it said about writing, “Write what you know“. Sounds simple enough but it is not. There is a hesitancy to write what one knows not because of its intimacy but because of its negligibility. This I find is particularly so during the pandemic when everything social is limited. The implication is that gravity derives primarily from interaction, such things as gatherings with others, travel and specific adventures. Ironically the absorption then descends to what is happening not who is there. Yet nothing could possibly be more mind-numbing than a travel log. What sparks my interest is by contrast those bromidic reflections upon whatever one is doing. Permit me then to illustrate by sharing with you the trite brooding which arose during my bicycle ride this morning.

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