It’s the last day of May. Sunday is my day off. Three books I return to for extended reading on that day of rest are Berry’s The Unsettling of America, Abbey’s A Fool’s Progress, and a collection of essays by H.L. Mencken.

These three writers are all, in different ways, disgusted with what modern America has become — but they each bring something different to the table. Abbey takes you out into the wilderness and says this is what we’re destroying, and sometimes you have to fight dirty to protect it. Berry plants his feet on a Kentucky farm and says the problem is that we’ve forgotten how to live in a place and care for it. Mencken sits back with a drink and says the deeper problem is that most Americans are too credulous and self-satisfied to even notice. You need all three — the romantic, the farmer, and the cynic — because each one catches what the others miss.

#EdwardAbbey
#WendellBerry
#HLMencken

Clear and simple

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.

slip:4a1257.

When fanatics are on top, there is no limit to oppression.
-- H. L. Mencken

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #Fanaticism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Dinosaur #Tracks #Colorado

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will make better soup.
-- H. L. Mencken

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #Idealism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Palms #Florida

As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adoured by a downright moron.
-- H. L. Mencken (On Politics)

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #Americans #Politics #ThePresidency

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #TheMaze #Canyonlands #Utah

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will make better soup.
-- H. L. Mencken

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #Idealism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunrise #LakeSantaFe #Florida

Today in Labor History January 19, 1920: Crystal Eastman, Roger Nash Baldwin, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (from the IWW) and others founded the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Their original focus was freedom of speech, primarily anti-war speech, and supporting conscientious objectors. In 1923, they defended author Upton Sinclair after he was arrested for trying to read the First Amendment during an IWW rally. In 1925, they persuaded John T. Scopes to defy Tennessee's anti-evolution law in The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes. Clarence Darrow, an ACLU member, headed Scopes' legal team. The ACLU lost the case and Scopes was fined $100. In 1926, they defended H. L. Mencken, who deliberately broke Boston law by distributing copies of his banned American Mercury magazine and won their first major acquittal. However, they kicked Elizabeth Gurley Flynn off their board in 1940 because of her Communist affiliations. And they refused defend Paul Robeson and other leftists in the 1950s.

#workingclass #LaborHistory #IWW #union #elizabethgurleyflynn #communism #aclu #evolution #uptonsinclair #PaulRobeson #clarencedarrow #hlmencken #freespeech #antiwar #education #school #freeppress #journalism #firstamendment @bookstadon

Puritanism -- The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.
-- H. L. Mencken

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #Puritanism

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Vegetables #Market

For every problem, there is one solution which is simple, neat and wrong.
-- H. L. Mencken

⬆ #Wisdom #Quotes #HLMencken #ProblemSolving

⬇ #Photography #Panorama #Sunrise #SacandagaLake #Adirondacks #NewYork

“No form of liberty is worth a darn which doesn’t give us the right to do wrong now and then.” — H. L. Mencken, A Little Book in C Major
#QOTD #HLMencken #Quote #Liberty #Quotation

https://yahooeysblog.wordpress.com/2025/12/17/quote-of-the-day-5372/