Unpatriotic & Cowardly

Before the war is ended, the war party assumes the divine right to denounce and silence all opposition to war as unpatriotic and cowardly.

-- Senator Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)

An End To IRA Violence?

The leadership of Oglaigh na hEireann (IRA) has formally ordered an end to the armed campaign.

This will take effect from 4 p.m. this afternoon. All IRA units have been ordered to dump arms. All volunteers have been instructed to assist the development of purely political and democratic programs through exclusively peaceful means.

-- Excerpt from the Irish Republican Army statement of July 28, 2005, announcing an end to its armed campaign against British rule in Northern Ireland

Commander In Chief

One of the keys to being seen as a great leader is to be seen as a commander-in-chief ... My father had all this political capital built up when he drove the Iraqis out of Kuwait and he wasted it. If I have a chance to invade ..., if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency.

-- Texas Governor George W. Bush, 1999

War Without Censorship

Vietnam was the first war ever fought without any censorship. Without censorship, things can get terribly confused in the public mind.

-- General William C. Westmoreland (1914-2005)

Vive le Tour

Vive le Tour. Forever.

-- Lance Armstrong, Sunday, July 24, 2005, upon winning the Tour de France for a seventh time, before retiring from competition

Short, Decisive War

The belief in the possibility of a short, decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions.

-- Robert Lynd, writer (1879-1949)

A Depressing View Of War

Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.

-- Donald Rumsfeld

Ultimate Freedom

Our ultimate freedom is the right and power to decide how anybody or anything outside ourselves will affect us.

-- Stephen Covey

Only Two Modes

We have only two modes - complacency and panic.

-- James R. Schlesinger, the first energy secretary, in 1977, on the US approach to energy. Cited in New York Times, 7/12/05

Reckless

reckless (rk'ls) adj. Heedless or careless. Headstrong; rash. Indifferent to or disregardful of consequences: a reckless driver.

[Middle English reckeles, from Old English receleas.]
reck'lessly adv.
reck'lessness n.

SYNONYMS reckless, rash, precipitate, foolhardy, temerarious. These adjectives mean given to or marked by unthinking boldness. Reckless suggests wild carelessness and disregard for consequences: conceiving measures to protect the fur-bearing animals from reckless slaughter
(Getrude Atherton). Rash implies haste, impetuousness, and insufficient consideration: Take calculated risks. That is quite different from being rash (George S. Patton). Precipitate connotes headlong haste without due deliberation: destroyed in a precipitate burning of his papers a few days before his death (James Boswell). Foolhardy implies injudicious or imprudent boldness: a foolhardy attempt to wrest the gun from the mugger. Temerarious suggests reckless presumption: this temerarious foeman who dared intervene between himself [the elephant] and his intended victim (Edgar Rice Burroughs).

Dude

Congratulations to my big fat black cat Dude for attaining the age of 17 years as of 7/9/2005. The oldest cat I've ever owned, and still going strong.

He was born behind the couch in the apartment I shared with then-girlfriend (now ex-wife) Melody in Lakeside, CA, in 1988 on the same day that I flew to Illinois to check on job prospects that soon led to my return to Illinois from a 3-year stint in San Diego.

His father was my cat, "Tranch" (short for Tarantula, a name given by a friend who was amused by the long white hairs that stood out through his otherwise smooth black coat); his mother was Melody's cat Gizmo (who earlier survived a near-fatal encounter with a car, and had pins in her leg). On that same morning, my female cat Jasper & Melody's male cat JYC (Junkyard Cat) had a litter under the dishwasher that included Misty, who passed away in February of '04.

Dude & Misty were the 2 kittens that we brought with us from California when we moved. He's older than 3 of my kids (one of whom has her driver's license), and remains the alpha male in a 5-cat household.

The World Gets Better

The world gets better. It also gets worse. The time it will take you to address this is exactly equal to your lifetime, and if you're lucky you don't know how long that is. The future is dark. Like night. There are probabilities and likelihoods, but there are no guarantees.

-- Rebecca Solnit, author of Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (which developed from this piece) and 7 other books.

Originally published at TomDispatch.com

The Only Bible

Be careful how you live. You may be the only bible some people ever read.

-- Unknown

Let Us Not Look Back In Anger

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

-- James Thurber

Tyrants & Religion

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.

-- Aristotle

Fear Is The Mind Killer

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

-- Frank Herbert, Dune - The Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear

Execute Your Ideas

If you don't execute your ideas, they die.

-- Roger von Oech, author and consultant

Crayons

We could learn a lot from crayons: Some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, while others bright, some have weird names, but we have to learn how to live in the same box.

-- Author Unknown

Only Way To Achieve Happiness

There is only one way to achieve happiness on this terrestrial ball, and that is to have either a clear conscience or none at all.

-- Ogden Nash, 1902 - 1971