If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!
If, by Rudyard Kipling.
The best posts of the week of August 23, 2026.
A week in which we recalled a celebrated murder:
A noted the passing of a beloved cinematic lover:
We noted the idiocy of agriculturalist in supporting the Republican Party:
And we noted the brilliance of war gamers and the dimness of the Trump administration.
We concluded our post on the primary election results:
And we noted the declining mental status of a person whose never been admirable, but now is outright dangerous.
The deficit passed an unconscionable level.
The Horsemeat March commenced.
We revolted against being lumped in with Evangelicals as we are members of the original Church.
We watched as the United States descended into outright absurdity.
Scott Bessent declared an economic D-Day which wasn't really one.
There were developments over the bar.
We looked the race:
The illegitimate occupant of the White House tried to change the name of a Great Lake.
The Freedom Caucus tried to throw its diminished weight around.
A survivor of genocide emerged, the last of his tribe.
Glenn Beck and Donald Trump came up with a way to satiate cattlemen so that the GOP can keep on screwing them.
Dolly Parton died and it somehow became a matter of official national observance.
The Feral Week:
A week noted by the ongoing story of Angi Bruce, late of the Game and Fish, data center controversies, and lost hikers and dogs.
The Agrarian Week:
It was a week which stood out for the idiocy of agriculture in politics.
And a lost dog (which was later found):
Last edition: