Fists Clenched

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.

-- George Jean Nathan (1882 - 1958), American drama critic and editor, The Smart Set: A Magazine of Cleverness, Volume 69 "Undeveloped Notes" (August 1922)

As A Thing

If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing.

-- John Brunner (1934 - 1995), science fiction author, The Shockwave Rider (1975), Book 3, Ch. "Like They Say, It's Bounce Or Break"

OSIRIS-REx

We've got a busy week ahead of us.

-- Dante Lauretta, planetary scientist at the University of Arizona and leader of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission, after the successful recovery of samples taken from asteroid Bennu in a mission that launched in 2016, 24 September 2023

Gun Violence Prevention

I'm proud to announce the creation of the first-ever White House Office of Gun Violence Prevention. ...

Today, guns -- I never thought I'd even remotely say this in my whole career -- guns are the number one killer of children in America.  Guns are the number one killer of children in America -- the United States of America.  More than car accidents, more than cancer, more than other diseases.

In 2023 so far, our country has experienced more than 500 mass shootings and well over 30,000 deaths due to gun violence.  That's just totally unacceptable.  It's not who we are.  And we have to act, and we have to act now. ...

We all want our kids to have the freedom to learn how to read and write in school instead of duck and cover, for God's sake.  And it matters. ...

May God bless you all.  May God protect our troops.  And may God protect our children.  Thank you so very much.

-- President Joe Biden, Remarks on Gun Safety, 22 September 2023

Out Of The Mist

Memory, out of the mist, in a long slow ripple
Breaks, blindly, against the shore.

-- Alfred Noyes (16 September 1880 – 28 June 1958) was an English poet, short-story writer and playwright, Songs of Shadow-of-a-leaf and other poems (1924), "Seagulls on the Serpentine"

Our Job

Our job is not to take orders from the President, from Congress, or from anyone else, about who or what to criminally investigate.  As the President himself has said, and I reaffirm here today: I am not the President's lawyer.  I will also add that I am not Congress's prosecutor.  The Justice Department works for the American people.

-- U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in his opening statement before the House Judiciary Committee, 20 September 2023

A Crazy Three Weeks

It's incredible to be here.  Normally I'm a bit out there watching these two guys stand up on the podium and, yeah, like I told them earlier on the bus, for me being with these two, with Primoz (Roglic) for the Giro and Jonas (Vingegaard) for the Tour, I feel so proud and honored to to be standing with them here in La Vuelta and it's been a crazy three weeks.

-- Sepp Kuss, support rider for cycling team Jumbo-Visma, on his overall victory at the Tour of Spain (La Vuelta a Espana), as he shared the podium with his teammates Primoz Roglic, winner of this year's Tour of Italy (Giro d'Italia), and Jonas Vingegaard, winner of this year's Tour de France, speaking at the finish in Madrid, 17 September 2023