It Takes An Instant

It requires twenty years for a man to rise from the vegetable state in which he is within his mother's womb, and from the pure animal state which is the lot of his early childhood, to the state when the maturity of reason begins to appear. It has required thirty centuries to learn a little about his structure. It would need eternity to learn something about his soul. It takes an instant to kill him.

-- Voltaire

RIP Benazir Bhutto

I put my life in danger and came here because I feel this country is in danger. People are worried. We will bring the country out of this crisis.

-- Benazir Bhutto (21 June 1953 - 27 December 2007), Pakistani politician, first woman elected to lead a Muslim state, at a rally in Rawalpindi minutes before her assassination

Nobody

Without my body I am a nobody!

-- Hermes Conrad, Futurama, "Bender's Big Score"

Minute Fractions

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions -- the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.

-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Most Useful Gift

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

A Place To Go

Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing.

-- Donna Hedges

Juggling

What's hard about what I'm doing is the sheer number of balls I'm juggling at once ... and they aren't balls. They're knives and chainsaws and burning [stuff] and the trick is not dropping any of that. That's what makes it hard.

-- Martin Eberhard, Tesla co-founder, CEO, and Illinois alumnus, UI Alumni Association's "Resonance", 16 November 2007

Good Weather

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

-- John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Baseball's Collective Failure

Manny Alexander     Brendan Donnelly    Ryan Jorgensen     
Chad Allen          Chris Donnels       Mike Judd          
Rick Ankiel         Lenny Dykstra       David Justice      
David Bell          Bobby Estalella     Chuck Knoblauch    
Mike Bell           Matt Franco         Tim Laker          
Marvin Benard       Ryan Franklin       Mike Lansing       
Gary Bennett        Eric Gagne          Paul Lo Duca       
Larry Bigbie        Jason Giambi        Nook Logan         
Barry Bonds         Jeremy Giambi       Josias Manzanillo  
Ricky Bones         Jay Gibbons         Gary Matthews Jr.  
Kevin Brown         Troy Glaus          Cody McKay         
Paul Byrd           Juan Gonzalez       Kent Mercker       
Alex Cabrera        Jason Grimsley      Bart Miadich       
Jose Canseco        Jose Guillen        Hal Morris         
Mark Carreon        Jerry Hairston Jr.  Daniel Naulty      
Jason Christiansen  Matt Herges         Denny Neagle       
Howie Clark         Phil Hiatt          Rafael Palmeiro    
Roger Clemens       Glenallen Hill      Jim Parque         
Paxton Crawford     Darren Holmes       Andy Pettitte      
Jack Cust           Todd Hundley        Adam Piatt         

Todd Pratt          Jeff Williams
Stephen Randolph    Matt Williams
Adam Riggs          Todd Williams
Armando Rios        Steve Woodard
Brian Roberts       Kevin Young
John Rocker         Gregg Zaun
F.P. Santangelo
Benito Santiago
Scott Schoeneweis
David Segui
Gary Sheffield
Mike Stanton
Ricky Stone
Miguel Tejada
Ismael Valdez
Mo Vaughn
Randy Velarde
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White

Everybody in baseball -- commissioners, club officials, the players' association, players -- shares responsibility.

-- George J. Mitchell, issuing a report on use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball naming 86 past & current players, 13 December 2007

Workouts

I never stay away from workouts. I work hard. I've tried to take care of my body. I'll never look back and say that I could have done more. I've paid the price in practice, but I know I get the most out of my ability.

-- Carl Yastrzemski (1939-), American baseball player, Red Sox all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played (second in home runs behind Red Sox great Ted Williams), last winner of the triple crown in the major leagues

Living A Second Time

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

-- Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), author, neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor

Fun Is Hope

If you can have just a little fun today, it's a sign that maybe the future will hold even more fun for you. Fun isn't just fun - it's hope.

-- Linda Richman, author, summa cum laude graduate of the school of hard knocks

Important Decisions

The interesting thing is that there are so few important decisions. You don't have to go in the "right" direction. You don't have to enter the "right" business. What you have to do is have made a decision as to what you're going to do and then you just have to figure out how to succeed at it.

-- Ken Oshman, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Echelon Corporation

It Will Not Matter

One hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, how big my house was, or what kind of car I drove. But the world may be a little better, because I was important in the life of a child.

-- Dr. Forest E. Witcraft (1894-1967), scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout administrator, Scouting Magazine, October 1950, p2

Half Time

In the game of life, nothing is less important than the score at half time.

-- anonymous

Worries Diminished

A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.

-- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher, mathematician, essayist

I Write On Napkins

I write on napkins. One time, this seventeen-year-old waitress says to me, "Do you write on napkins because it doesn't count?" And bingo. That's exactly why I do it! When you're jotting on a napkin, you're not committing yourself. It's only a napkin, right? You can throw it away. You'd be surprised. It loosens you up. Some of the best stuff I've written has been done on napkins.

-- August Wilson (1945-2005), Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright

Power

You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's free again.

-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-), Russian author and Nobel laureate

Wars Begin Where You Will

Wars begin where you will, but do not end where you please.

-- Machiavelli; cited in Patrick Goldstein, "Rocky Road Paves Path to Iraq Drama" Los Angeles Times, 12 December 2006

Judicial Review

Climate change has ushered in a whole new era of judicial review.

-- Patrick Parenteau, environmental law professor, on an appeals court decision striking down Bush administration fuel economy standards as too lax, New York Times, 16 November 2007

Humorless

The humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't be trusted with anything.

-- Martin Amis (August 25, 1949-) British novelist

Disappointed

When terrorism finally ends, some people are going to be very disappointed. They will no longer have an excuse for expressing the distrust of others that they had all along.

-- Comment by RC, November 21, 2007 07:15 AM

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/more_war_on_the.html

Unreliable Parts

Software developers have become adept at the difficult art of building reasonably reliable systems out of unreliable parts. The snag is that often we do not know exactly how we did it.

-- Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++

Some Good

That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not.

-- James Kern Feibleman, philosopher and psychiatrist (1904-1987)

A Moment Of Intersection

A meal, however simple, is a moment of intersection. It is at once the most basic, the most fundamental, of our life's activities, maintaining the life of our bodies; shared with others it can be an occasion of joy and communion, uniting people deeply.

-- Elise Boulding, professor, author, peace activist

Prerogative

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

-- Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Not A Problem

I don't have a problem. Seventeen hours a day online is fine.

-- Lee Chang-Hoon, 15, at a camp for compulsive Internet users in South Korea, New York Times, 18 November, 2007

Resolving Technosocial Problems

Democratic societies, at least, have a right to expect that experts will help them, experts from all parts of academia and all the professions. I would even go so far as to say that there is at least an implicit social contract between professionals and the democratic societies in which they live, giving rise to this expectation that professionals will shoulder their responsibilities to improve the societies in which they live and work.

-- Paul T. Durbin, emeritus professor, University of Delaware, ACM Ubiquity, 11/13/07

Moral Order

The order of the universe that we live in is the moral order. It has become the moral order by becoming the self-conscious method of the members of a human society. The world that comes to us from the past possesses and controls us. We possess and control the world that we discover and invent. And this is the world of the moral order. It is a splendid adventure if we can rise to it.

-- G. H. Mead, cited in Ubiquity, November 2007

Yeah, Right

The emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner.

-- General Pervez Musharraf, regarding his refusal to lift martial law in Pakistan prior to new elections, New York Times, 14 November 2007

Not At The Library

Earth to parents: No. If you have to call the library and ask if your child is here, the answer is no. I know your child probably told you he'd be at the library, but what that really means is he didn't want to tell you where he was going to be, either because he hadn't decided yet, or because he just doesn't want you to know. This is true for children of all ages, but of course it goes double for teenagers.

Almost all kids who come to the library come with their parents. If you aren't here, then your kids almost certainly aren't here either. Yes, we do have kids in the library all the time who are not accompanied by their parents, but it's the same two or three dozen kids all the time. If your child were one of them, you would know.

Let me reiterate that: if your child were one of the ones who comes to the library, you would know. If you have to ask, then he's not here. Please stop calling the library and asking if your child is here. Your child is not here.

-- Rant by librarian Jonadab, 5/23/2007 04:35:00 PM mistersanity.blogspot.com

RIP Norman Mailer

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more, or retreating into less. One is always living a little more, or dying a little bit.

-- Norman Mailer (31 January 1923 - 10 November 2007) American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director, in "Hip, Hell, and the Navigator", Western Review No. 23 (Winter 1959)

There Was A Time

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

-- Anatole Broyard

What The General Says

How do you function as a lawyer when the law is what the general says it is?

-- Babar Sattar, on Pakistani lawyers' protests against President Pervez Musharraf, New York Times, 7 November 2007

Through The Looking Glass

Paradoxically, while the drumbeat for bombing Iran grows increasingly loud, there is a stunning silence in response to the pre-eminent risk for nuclear terrorism. Washington's Faustian pact with General Musharraf is now unraveling, yet we are blithely assured that Pakistan's weapons and nuclear materials will remain safe, whoever rises to power. We have seemingly entered a Through-the-Looking-Glass world where nuclear weapons that do exist are less dangerous than those that can be imagined.

-- Paul Woodward of the War in Context website, 3 November 2007

Endless Money

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)

No Money In Poetry

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

-- Robert Graves, poet and novelist (1895-1985)

Never Happened

Democracies don't prepare well for things that have never happened before.

-- Richard A. Clarke, former White House counter-terrorism chief

Perfect Order

Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.

-- Carlos Fuentes (1928-)

More Annoying

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.

-- Bertrand Russell

The Trouble With Words

The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they've been in.

-- Dennis Potter, dramatist (1935-1994)

Aghast

I walked through the World Trade Center 20 minutes before the attack; saw the buildings burning; breathed the poisonous dust; wept for my country. Now Blackwater. Torture. An unprovoked, botched war. I am aghast, revolted. And ashamed.

-- Paul Nadler, Metuchen, N.J., Letter to the Editor, New York Times, October 4, 2007

If All They Want

If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower; cited at http://www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org/

Middle Man

If no one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man.

-- Billy Bragg

Played With Expression

I assure you that the typewriting machine, when played with expression, is not more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

-- Oscar Wilde

Not Necessarily True

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

-- Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

The Devil's post -- entry number 666

The Source Of Our Troubles

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

-- P. J. O'Rourke, writer (1947- )

Cousins

Every family has a black sheep.

-- Bill Burton, spokesman for Barak Obama, on Lynne Cheney's assertion that Obama & her husband Vice President Dick Cheney are distant cousins

Lemmings

There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.

-- P. J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)

Big Pharma Protects The Environment

Here's a point to ponder.

My ex has no health insurance, and currently has nine separate prescriptions to address her congestive heart failure and related maladies. Of these nine, I've been paying cash for the seven that cost under $100 per month each, skipping the two remaining, exorbitantly-priced meds.

This week I went to pick up her Albuterol inhaler, which has been available as a generic for quite a while. Unfortunately, I discovered that it's no longer available as a generic. The pharmaceutical company now has another 2(?) or 3(?) year monopoly on this product which, since it is so widely prescribed, is probably worth a $billion or so.

The change?

The old-style inhaler used CFCs for the propellant; the new-style inhaler uses something more environmentally friendly. I'm guessing that it was big pharma that pushed for the environmental restriction against CFCs as a propellant for inhalers. I'm also guessing that more people will die from not being able to afford inhalers than would have died from the extra CFCs in the atmosphere.

So, an apparently innocuous and right-minded change to environmental law, meant to keep us healthy, is likely going to kill people.

Sanchez

After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism.

-- Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, retired former top commander of American forces in Iraq, New York Times, 10/13/2007

Rockies

I meant to post this last Friday, but it just got better over the weekend.

In an amazing streak, baseball's Colorado Rockies won 13 of their final 14 games in the regular season to tie for the wildcard. That is to say, with that streak, they managed to tie for "best second place".

Since then, they have won a one-game playoff for the wildcard, swept Philadelphia in 3 games in the Division Series, and are on the verge of a sweep of Arizona, having won the first 3 in the best-of-seven League Championship Series.

Overall they have won 20 of their last 21 games, including all 7 games they've played in the post-season.

MQ Software

As of Friday 12 October the programming staff (i.e., 5 of 6 total people) of NEXVU Technologies were hired en masse by MQ Software

http://www.mqsoftware.com

... to work on products akin to the NEXVU product. We start work on Tuesday 16 October, and remain in our old office as a satellite of our Minneapolis-based overlords.

What A Living

If the rich could pay the poor to die for them, what a living the poor could make!

-- anonymous

Illuminati

Courtesy Mutant.net
http://www.mutant.net/editorials/illuminati.html

Re-reading The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, I came across the following passage ...

"... But they can rule by fraud, and by fraud eventually acquire access to the tools they need to finish the job of killing off the Constitution."

"What sort of tools?"

"More stringent security measures. Universal electronic Surveillance. No-Knock Laws. Stop and frisk laws. Government inspection of first-class mail. Automatic fingerprinting, photographing, blood tests and urinalysis of any person arrested before he is charged with a crime. A law making it unlawful to resist even unlawful arrest. Laws establishing detention camps for potential subversives. Gun control laws. Restrictions on travel. The assassinations, you see, establish the need for such laws in the public mind. Instead of realizing that there is a conspiracy, controlled by a handful of men, the people reason - or are manipulated into reasoning - that the entire populace must have its freedom restricted in order to protect the leaders. The people agree that they themselves can't be trusted. ...

"... At present rate, within the next few years the Illuminati will have the American people under tighter surveillance than Hitler had the Germans. And the beauty of it is, the majority of the Americans will have been so frightened by Illuminati-backed terrorist incidents that they will beg to be controlled as a masochist begs for the whip."

From Pages 197-198 of the Dell Trade Paperback edition published in November 1988. The book was written in 1975. Sound familiar?

NEXVU

On Friday, 5 October 2007, NEXVU Technologies ceased operations. My first interview for a replacement gig is tomorrow.

Ann Coulter On Women And The Vote

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen.

-- Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 2 October 2007

Pereiro

The only thing I won in 2007 is the 2006 Tour.

-- Cyclist Oscar Pereiro on his declaration as winner of the 2006 Tour de France after nominal winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title for doping, VeloNews, 4 October 2007

Stupid Things

We have 1,000 guys out in the field. People make mistakes; they do stupid things sometimes.

-- Erik D. Prince, chief executive of Blackwater USA, which is under scrutiny for shootings by its employees in Iraq, Congressional hearing, 2 October 2007

Data Decryption Law In UK

From ars technica --

UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time
By Ken Fisher | Published: October 01, 2007 - 10:20PM CT

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

Part 3, Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) includes provisions for the decryption requirements, which are applied differently based on the kind of investigation underway. As we reported last year, the five-year imprisonment penalty is reserved for cases involving anti-terrorism efforts. All other failures to comply can be met with a maximum two-year sentence.
... snip ...

Cowardly Escape

War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

-- Thomas Mann (1875-1955), German novelist, essayist, short story writer, and Nobel laureate

Miracle Mets

Do you know what it's like
To be chased by the Ghost of Failure
While staring through Victory's door?
Of course you do, you're a Mets fan.

-- Frank Messina, self-proclaimed Mets Poet, as the Mets complete the worst end-of-season collapse in baseball history, blowing a 7-game lead with 17 games to play to finish out of the running, New York Times, 29 September 2007

So This Is _Normal_ To Them

Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton in the White House, as president or vice president.

-- Associated Press, 28 September 2007

So the government as it currently exists is _normal_ to them.

If You Have To Be In A Soap Opera

If you have to be in a soap opera, try not to get the worst role.

-- Boy George

Counsel Of Our Fears

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there\u2014ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.

Interviewer: So you think we are getting too hunkered down and scared?

Powell: Yes! We are taking too much counsel of our fears.

This doesn't mean there isn't a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But let's welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let's make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let's make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let's also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.

Let's show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That's why I want to see Guantanamo closed. It's so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we're worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.

-- Colin Powell in GQ Magazine, October 2007

Marcel Marceau

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

-- Marcel Marceau (March 22, 1923 - September 22, 2007) The Reader's Digest (June 1958)

What Everyone Knows

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

-- Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan; cited in Katrina Vanden Heuvel, "Greenspan, Iraq & Oil" (Nation, September 15, 2007)

By The Numbers

The new Forbes 400, by the numbers --

Oldest member       : John Simplot, 98
Youngest member     : John Arnold, 33
Average age         : 65
Number never married: 11
Avg number of kids  : 3.2
Minimum net worth   : $1.3 Billion
Average net worth   : $3.8 Billion
Collective net worth: $1.54 Trillion
Entirely self-made  : 270
Entirely inherited  : 74
Number of women     : 39
California residents: 88
New York residents  : 73
NY City residents   : 64

Number of billionaires with not enough money to make the list : 84

Planet Bush

The president can make things true simply by solemnly pronouncing them from the Oval Office. He can reach out to his critics just by saying he is doing so. And people believe him. But over here in the real world, things are different. Iraq is mostly ruled by armed gangs, not a central government. American troops are dying in the crossfire as the country continues to violently disintegrate along ethnic and sectarian lines. We're in it pretty much alone. There's no end in sight. And the real al Qaeda is regrouping in Pakistan.

-- Dan Froomkin, "It Came From Planet Bush", Washington Post, September 14, 2007

Good Intentions

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.

-- Daniel Webster

Origin Of Myths

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

-- Bertrand Russell

Front, Back

If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian. If it went through the front, it's criminal.

-- An intelligence analyst, regarding the violence in Iraq; cited in Paul Krugman, "Time to Take a Stand" (New York Times, September 7, 2007)

Occupied

If someone occupied my hometown in the same manner Americans occupy Iraq, I'd be killing them any way I could.

-- Marine Scott Ritter, "Reporting from Baghdad" (TruthDig, September 7, 2007)

A Great Soul And Vast Views

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws.

-- John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1816

We Do Not Remember Days

We do not remember days; we remember moments.

-- Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian novelist, poet, and translator

Air Power

If I hear one more lawyer with no military experience explain to me how air power alone really can do it this time, I'm going to kill him.

-- An active-duty US Army officer; cited in "We Don't Need Another Fight Right Now" (Swedish Meatballs Confidential, August 31, 2007)

Public Diplomacy

The government calls it "public diplomacy". Some call it "propaganda". I prefer the term "manure". Others may prefer an easier-to-spell synonym. But it all smells the same.

-- Winter Patriot, "Did Bush Just Declare War On Iran?" (Winter Patriot blog, August 29)

Most Joyful, Most Perfect

For me, music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

-- Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 - September 6, 2007) Italian opera singer

Lack Of Access

I believe, if we don't fix the health care system, that lack of access will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco. The ultimate control of cancer is as much a public policy issue as it is a medical and scientific issue.

-- John R. Seffrin, of the American Cancer Society, which plans to devote its entire advertising budget this year to the consequences of inadequate health coverage, NY Times, 8/31/07

Finish?

Well, that was an exciting finish.

-- Steve Fossett, millionaire adventurer, reported missing Monday 3 September, 2007

Do It Right

There is no labor a person does that is undignified, if they do it right.

-- Bill Cosby (1937-, American Actor, Comedian)

Miracles

This [war] is an endless story unless a miracle takes place in a time when miracles do not take place any more.

-- Waleed al-Ubaydi, a political analyst at Baghdad University, August 2007

The Chain Of Change

And, oh! what beautiful years were these
When our hearts clung each to each;
When life was filled and our senses thrilled
In the first faint dawn of speech.

Thus life by life and love by love
We passed through the cycles strange,
And breath by breath and death by death
We followed the chain of change.

-- Langdon Smith

Intelligent Work

The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work.

-- Og Mandino (1923-1996), American motivational author, speaker

Gonzales Going Going Gone

To achieve victory at the cost of eroding civil liberties would not really be a victory. We cannot change the core identity of our Nation and claim success. And our identity has never been in doubt -- we are a free people, dedicated to liberty for the popular and the unpopular, committed to the ideal that the People govern themselves, and determined to have a government that cannot extinguish or suppress the rights that make us Americans.

-- Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, November 20, 2006

Less And Less Obvious

Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.

-- R. Buckminster Fuller

Bodies Of Men

Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.

-- Alexander Hamilton

Context

For example, international terrorism annually causes the same number of deaths as drowning in bathtubs or bee stings. It would take a repeat of Sept. 11 every month of the year to make flying as dangerous as driving. Over a lifetime, the chance of being killed by a terrorist is about the same as being struck by a meteor .... In conclusion, an American's risk of dying at the hands of a terrorist is microscopic.

-- John Mueller, an Ohio State University political science professor

Waxing Eloquent

I can also say that this bike climbs like a monkey in a set of crampons, descends like a monkey in a set of crampons being droppd from a helicopter, handles corners like a prostitute, and accelerates like a particle in a particle accelerator that itself is just a tiny particle in a giant particle accelerator. Overall, the effect is like sitting in a cafe in a trendy Milan street while sipping a cappuccino and wearing fabulous clothes yet inexplicably traveling at or close to the speed of light. Pure Italian class.

-- Bike Snob NYC, waxing eloquent about the new Colnago Extreme Power bicycle

Neutron Loans

All of the old-timers knew that subprime mortgages were what we called neutron loans -- they killed the people and left the houses. The deals made in 2005 and 2006 were going to run into trouble because the credit pendulum at the time was stuck at easy.

-- Louis S. Barnes, a partner at Boulder West, a mortgage banking firm, NY Times, 8/19/07

Patience

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.

-- Franklin P. Jones

When We Teach

When we teach a child to draw, we teach him how to see. When we teach a child to play a musical instrument, we teach her how to listen. When we teach a child to dance, we teach him how to move through life with grace. When we tach a child to read and write, we teach her how to think. When we nurture imagination, we create a better world, one child at a time.

-- Jane Alexander

Crying And Rejoicing

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

-- Cherokee proverb

Never Have Children

Never have children, only grandchildren.

-- Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925-), novelist, essayist, playwright, and provocateur, quoting his grandfather, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore

The Mother Is Born

Giving birth is little more than a set of muscular contractions granting passage of a child. Then the mother is born.

-- Erma Louise Bombeck, 1927 - 1996

Saiya

At 6:27 AM today my number two daughter Sheena gave birth to my first grandchild. Saiya Marie Schwartz weighed in on arrival at 8 pounds 6 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Dinger

Throughout the past century, the home run has held a special place in baseball, and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of those years. I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement.

-- From Hank Aaron's video tribute to Barry Bonds on Bonds' record-breaking 756th career home run, August 7, 2007

TSA Guy

Security Consultant Bruce Schneier: By today's rules, I can carry on liquids in quantities of 3 oz or less, unless they're in larger bottles. But I can carry on multiple three-ounce bottles. Or a single larger bottle with a non-prescription medicine label, like contact lens fluid. It all has to fit inside a one-quart plastic bag, except for that large bottle of contact lens fluid. And if you confiscate my liquids, you're going to toss them into a large pile right next to the screening station -- which you would never do if anyone thought they were actually dangerous.

Can you please convince me there's not an Office for Annoying Air Travelers making this sort of stuff up?

Transportation Safety Administration Head Kip Hawley [who apparently has a sense of humor]: Screening ideas are indeed thought up by the Office for Annoying Air Travelers and vetted through the Directorate for Confusion and Complexity, and then we review them to insure that there are sufficient unintended irritating consequences so that the blogosphere is constantly fueled.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/conversation_wi_4.html

Any Event

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.

-- Lee Simonson

Ego

You need a healthy ego to endure the abuse that comes with any sort of success. The trick is to think of your ego as your goofy best friend who lends moral support but doesn't know shit.

-- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog, 7/23/07

Pervading Evil

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (February 28, 1877)

Power Corrupts

All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 1887

Everything Secret Degenerates

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter (January 23, 1861)

No Worse Heresy

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887

Not The First

You'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them -- if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

-- J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye

Homeland

The word "homeland," which resonates sinisterly like das Vaterland in German or rodina in Russian, was virtually unused before 9/11, and despite its relentless repetition by the Bush administration (to include the name of a cabinet agency), it has thus far refused to lodge itself in colloquial American English. ... Indeed, while Vaterland or rodina have non-ideological colloquial roots and were expropriated by Hitler and Stalin, "homeland" is a purely ideological construct of the Bush
administration.

-- Werther, a Northern Virginia-based defense analyst

Nothing So Obvious

There is nothing so obvious that it's obvious.

-- Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris in his essay on truth and photographs, on his New York Times blog, July 10, 2007


http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/pictures-are-supposed-to-be-worth-a-thousand-words/

Attack Like A Fool

I did not know the climbs so I attacked like a fool.

-- Barloworld cyclist Juan Mauricio Soler of Columbia, after winning the 9th stage of the Tour de France by attacking on the out-of-category climb up the Col du Galibier, July 17, 2007

One Word

If there is one word I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq -- on the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods, and at the national level -- that word would be fear.

-- Ryan C. Crocker, American ambassador to Iraq, New York Times, July 20, 2007

The Terrorists Cannot

Americans think their danger is terrorists. They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that.

-- Paul Craig Roberts, journalist, economist, and former Reagan Administration official, July 2007

SiCKO

This week, for the first time since I started work at NEXVU Technologies over 3 1/2 years ago, I missed a full day of work due to illness (Tuesday and Wednesday).

Absurd

Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.

-- George Santayana

People Who Cannot Find Time

People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.

-- John Wannamaker

Life, Love, And Death

Life is eternal; and love is immortal;
And death is only a horizon;
And a horizon is nothing
Save the limit of our sight.

-- Rossiter Worthington Raymond

RIP Deb Zoller-Fisher

I was working at Chanute AFB near Rantoul, IL, and I dropped DZD a pnote commenting on the heavy system load (something like 900 on-system, on the way to a peak around 1200 users). Her reply ...?

* zoller-dykema / o / cerl  8/21/80  7:50 am *

        munch a bunch a crunch a bunch a munch a bunch a
                USERS!

Our Death Is Not An End

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.

-- Albert Einstein

Life

Life -- a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.

-- Charles Lindbergh

Your Tax $s At Work, Killing People

A new estimate of the financial cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars shows expenditures of about $12B per month. If 90% of that cost is incurred in Iraq, that works out to an average of $250,000 per minute for our efforts there.

Coincidence

The attorney of record for Marc Rich when pardoned by President Bill Clinton was I. Lewis Libby.

-- "It's All Politics" radio program

Consequences

It's just interesting to think about unintended consequences, since those seem to be the only kind of consequences we ever see.

-- Scott Adams, "The Dilbert Blog", 6/28/07

Petraeus On Progress In Iraq

18 months after entering Iraq, I see tangible progress. Iraqi security elements are being rebuilt from the ground up.

The institutions that oversee them are being reestablished from the top down. And Iraqi leaders are stepping forward, leading their country and their security forces courageously in the face of an enemy that has shown a willingness to do anything to disrupt the establishment of the new Iraq. ...

Equipment is being delivered. Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being reestablished.

Most important, Iraqi security forces are in the fight.

-- General David H. Petraeus, "Battling for Iraq," washingtonpost.com, September 26, 2004

Presidential Scholars

We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.

-- Excerpt from a letter signed by 50 Presidential Scholars, presented to President George W. Bush, June 25, 2007

Discrimination

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

-- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in the majority opinion on school integration, June 28, 2007

Exit Blair

Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. That is that. The end.

-- Tony Blair's last official words as Prime Minister, said at Prime Minister's Questions on 27 June 2007

Flaws

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

-- Augusten Burroughs

Aimed Rather Low

If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.

-- George Carlin

Properly Free

I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows .... I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.

-- Mikhail Bakunin

Driving In Illinois

When you're driving in Illinois, watching the buildings in the distance move SO SLOWLY, you're watching a kind of movie that you've been watching all your life, and that isn't playing in any other cinema.

-- Ernie Metzger, Glasgow, Scotland, formerly of Urbana, IL

Bloomberg On Politics

Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles, and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology.

-- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, New York Times, June 20, 2007

Ready Booted And Spurred

I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.

-- Walt Whitman, American poet (1819-1892)

Sacrifices Must Be Made

For you to be successful, sacrifices must be made. It's better that they are made by others but failing that, you'll have to make them yourself.

-- Rita Mae Brown (November 28, 1944-), American writer

Real ID

The REAL ID Act is one of the largest identity management undertakings in history. It would bring more than 200 million people from a large, diverse, and mobile country within a uniformly defined identity system, jointly operated by state governments. This has never been done before in the USA, and it raises numerous policy, privacy, and data security issues that have had only brief scrutiny, particularly given the scope and scale of the undertaking.

It is critical that specific issues be carefully considered before developing and deploying a uniform identity management system in the 21st century. These include, but are not limited to, the implementation costs, the privacy consequences, the security of stored identity documents and personal information, redress and fairness, "mission creep", and, perhaps most importantly, provisions for national security protections.

The Department of Homeland Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking touched on some of these issues, though it did not explore them in the depth necessary for a system of such magnitude and such consequence. Given that these issues have not received adequate consideration, the Committee feels it is important that the following comments do not constitute an endorsement of REAL ID or the regulations as workable or appropriate.

-- The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security

Strength Of Character

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship's compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

-- Carl von Clausewitz

xkcd

You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think "some engineer was frustrated while designing this." It's a little human connection.

-- xkcd, 6/14/07, xkcd.com (check it out)

Liberty V. Security

The very point of protecting liberty is to demand that sacrifices to liberty are not in vain and that security interests, which compromise civil liberties, are sufficiently effective to warrant the cost.

-- Daniel J. Solove, Data Mining and the Security-Liberty Debate, George Washington University Law School

Ironic Way Of Failing

It's not about money, it's about freedom. If you think it's about money you've missed the point. I want to use a computer in freedom, to cooperate, to not be restricted or prohibited from sharing. The GNU/Linux system is catching on somewhat more now. The system is becoming popular for practical reasons. It's a good system. The danger is people will like it because it's practical and it will become popular without anyone having the vaguest idea of the ideals behind it, which would be an ironic way of failing.

-- Richard Stallman in a Software Libre article by Richard Hillesley, 3/18/07

Refuse To Recognize

To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them "enemy combatants," would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution -- and the country.

We refuse to recognize a claim to power that would so alter the constitutional foundations of our Republic.

-- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., ordering the release from military detention of Ali al-Marri

Young And Foolish

To be young and foolish you need to be both young and foolish. One without the other is no good.

-- Wayne Howell

Romney Is An Idiot

As I slowly winnow away at the list of candidates, Romney makes it easy to elminate him from contention ... here's an excerpt from an article about the June 5 candidates' debate --


At the Republican candidates' debate on June 5, White House contender Mitt Romney remarkably claimed that weapons inspectors were barred from entering Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But Romney's error was little noted by the mainstream media.

Asked if he thought it was "a mistake for us to invade Iraq," Romney declared the question a "null set," and explained:

"If you're saying let's turn back the clock, and Saddam Hussein had opened up his country to IAEA inspectors, and they'd come in and they'd found that there were no weapons of mass destruction, had Saddam Hussein, therefore, not violated United Nations resolutions, we wouldn't be in the conflict we're in. But he didn't do those things, and we knew what we knew at the point we made the decision to get in."

Romney's suggestion that weapons inspectors were not permitted into Iraq before the war started is, of course, incorrect. Weapons inspectors from UNMOVIC (the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) returned to Iraq on November 18, 2002. Led by Hans Blix, the inspectors spent months in Iraq, issuing reports on Iraqi compliance that were a crucial part of the debate over whether to invade Iraq.

-- From "Romney's Iraq Gaffe Ignored, GOP contender's bizarre pre-war history" 6/8/07, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3112

Pro Patria

I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.
When I felt the bullet enter my heart
I wished I had staid at home and gone to jail
For stealing the hogs of Curl Trenary,
Rather a thousand times the county jail
Than to lie under this marble figure with wings,
And this granite pedestal
Bearing the words, "Pro Patria."

What do they mean, anyway?

-- From the "Spoon River Anthology"

Rearing Our Children In Captivity

We are rearing our children in captivity -- their habitat shrinking almost daily. In 1970 the average nine-year-old girl would have been free to wander 840 meters from her front door. In 1997 it was 280 metres. Now the limit appears to have come down to the front doorstep.

-- Mark Easton, Home editor, BBC News, 4 June 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6720661.stm

Eat Before You Are Hungry

Eat before you are hungry. Drink before you are thirsty. Rest before you are tired. Cover up before you are cold. Peel off before you are hot. Don't drink or smoke on tour. Never ride just to prove yourself.

-- Paul de Vivie (Velocio, 1853-1930) inventor of a two speed derailleur in 1905, on cycling

Tattoo Your Name On Their Chest

If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not switch brands.

-- An Indiana University professor (re: Harley-Davidson owners)

If We Quit Vietnam

If we quit Vietnam, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week we'll have to fight in San Francisco.

-- President Lyndon Johnson, quoted by Ron Hutcheson in "Some See Troubling Parallels Between Iraq and Vietnam" (Common Dreams, September 18, 2003)

My Own Funeral

I feel like I've been attending my own funeral, listening to all these speeches.

-- Billy Graham, at the dedication of a library honoring his ministry, May 31, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01graham.html?th&emc=th

Keith Richards At 63

I was number one on the "who's likely to die" list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.

-- Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, in British music magazine NME, March, 2007.

He Who Learns Must Suffer

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despite, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

-- Aeschylus

The Main Thing

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

-- Stephen R. Covey

Movin' On Up

Last night, my number four daughter, Brittany, graduated from middle school into high school. She was the only student with perfect attendance for the year, and she was recognized for honor roll, the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, and an academic letter.

Tonight, my number three daughter, Heather, will graduate from high school.

No Matter What Side

No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.

-- Jascha Heifetz

Tragedy For The World

I think that the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.

-- Former President Jimmy Carter, BBC Radio, May 19, 2007

Gas Prices

I bought gas on January 23, 2007 for $1.889 per gallon. I bought gas today for $3.359 per gallon. That's an increase of $1.47 in 129 days, rising at a rate of more than a penny a day for 4 straight months.

News

If it's in the news, don't worry about it. The very definition of "news" is "something that hardly ever happens." It's when something isn't in the news, when it's so common that it's no longer news -- car crashes, domestic violence -- that you should start worrying.

-- Bruce Schneier, security consultant

As I Interpret Them

His message of peace and reconciliation under almost all circumstances is simply incompatible with Christian teachings as I interpret them. This "turn the other cheek" business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for. What we need to do is take the battle to the Muslim heathens and do unto them before they do unto us.

-- Jerry Falwell (11 August 1933 - 15 May 2007) American pastor and conservative activist, on Jimmy Carter in a radio interview, 4 March 2002

Falwell At His Best

And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, an the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."

-- Jerry Falwell (11 August 1933 - 15 May 2007) American pastor, and conservative activist, in remarks to Pat Robertson after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, on The 700 Club, September 13, 2001

War Czar

We believe at some point, in order to break this dependence on the ... coalition, you simply have to back off and let the Iraqis step forward. You have to undercut the perception of occupation in Iraq. It's very difficult to do that when you have 150,000-plus, largely western, foreign troops occupying the country.

... I will tell you this, as the operation officer of Centcom, if a year from now I've got to call on all those army troops that General Schoomaker [US army chief of staff, who said his office was planning so troop levels could be maintained until 2009] is prepared to provide, I won't feel real good about myself.

-- Maj Gen Douglas Lute, newly-appointed War Czar, then-director of operations at US Central Command, Financial Times, August 24, 2005

Either/Or

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations -- one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it -- you will regret both.

-- Soren Kierkegaard in "Either/Or"

Mistakes We Didn't Make

War is war. We made a lot of mistakes, I'm sure of it. But there are a lot of mistakes we didn't make, too.

-- Secretary of State Condolezza Rice; cited in Joe Conason, "Condi Rice never looks back" (Salon, May 4, 2007)

Zedonk

T I P W O R L D
http://www.tipworld.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
W O R D O R I G I N S
September 22nd, 2000

===============================================================
TODAY'S WORD: ZEDONK

(ZEE-dongk)
(n.) The offspring of a male zebra and a female donkey

Yes, there is such a thing, and "zedonk" is what you get, linguistically speaking, when you cross a "zebra" with a "donkey."

By the way, in case you need a synonym, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that you can use "zonkey" instead of "zedonk."

And while you'd be forgiven for assuming that a "zebrass" is the unfortunate result of sitting too long on certain lawn chairs, it's actually yet another name for this hybrid critter.

"Yes, a lovely farm indeed, but would you happen to own any zedonks?"

Martha Barnette is the author of Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names. She's also the word maven at http://www.funwords.com.

A Hole Of One's Own Making

When one finds himself in a hole of his own making, it is a good time to examine the quality of workmanship.

-- Jon Remmerde, Christian Science Monitor

Bleeding Dads

Daughters are like swords without a hilt and handle. At certain times in their lives no matter how you try to hold them they cut you deeply. Would not have missed it for the world.

-- Lenny Hoover

A Moral Man And A Man Of Honor

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

-- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956), "Prejudices: Fourth Series," 1924

Guarantee Of Religious Pluralism

The secular state is the guarantee of religious pluralism. This apparent paradox, again, is the simplest and most elegant of political truths.

-- Christopher Hitchens

All Human Beings Are Equal

All human beings are equal. Men and women are not equal.
All human beings are equal. White people and people of color are not equal.
All human beings are equal. The rich and the poor are not equal.

-- Yolanda M. Carrington, http://www.genderracepower.com/

Power Used Wisely And Well

It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil.

The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.

-- Noam Chomsky

Plan B

Plan B is to make plan A work.

-- President George W. Bush, in response to a question by Charlie Rose on what would happen if the "surge" in Baghdad didn't work; cited in Dan Froomkin, "No One Suffers More Than the President" (washingtonpost.com, April 25, 2007)

Worry Kills

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

-- Robert Frost

OBL

I think it was Osama bin Laden's.

-- Presidential adviser Karl Rove, replying to the question of whose idea it was to start a preemptive war in Iraq; cited in Dan Froomkin, "Rove Watch; Bush Challenged on Iraq" (washingtonpost.com, April 19, 2007)

Tenet Disses Bush, Cheney

There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat.

-- George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, in his new book, New York Times, April 27, 2007

Amazing Variety

Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.

-- Samuel McChord Crothers

Gorbachev On Yeltsin

I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased [Boris Yeltsin] on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes.

-- Mikhail Gorbachev (2 March 1931 - ), leader of the Soviet Union 1985-1991, Reuters, 04/23/2007

An Excuse Not To Think

Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.

-- Michael Rivero

RIP Yeltsin

Dissidents should be paid 13 months' salary for a year, otherwise our mindless unanimity will bring us to an even more hopeless state of stagnation. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

-- Boris Yeltsin (1 February 1931 - 23 April 2007), first president of post-Soviet Russia, Against the Grain (1990), p. 172

Dissent

Ultimately, the Court admits that "moral concerns" are at work, concerns that could yield prohibitions on any abortion. Notably, the concerns expressed are untethered to any ground genuinely serving the Government's interest in preserving life. By allowing such concerns to carry the day and case, overriding fundamental rights, the Court dishonors our precedent. ("Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that cannot control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.")

Revealing in this regard, the Court invokes an anti-abortion shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence: Women who have abortions come to regret their choices, and consequently suffer from "[s]evere depression and loss of esteem." Because of women's fragile emotional state and because of the "bond of love the mother has for her child," the Court worries, doctors may withhold information about the nature of the intact D&E procedure. The solution the Court approves, then, is not to require doctors to inform women, accurately and adequately, of the different procedures and their attendant risks. Instead, the Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety.

This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women's place in the family and under the Constitution--ideas that have long since been discredited.

-- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent to the court's 4/18/07 5-4 decision upholding the federal partial-birth abortion ban, the first total ban on an abortion procedure with no exceptions for a woman’s life or health

Rage Is A Wind

Rage is a wind that blows out the candle of reason.

-- Unknown

If Only

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Source Of Evil

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

-- Joseph Conrad, 1857 - 1924

Genetic?

Over the weekend my 3 older brothers and I hosted a party for 39 people from at least 6 states to celebrate my father's upcoming 90th birthday. I hope his longevity is genetic.

A Series Of Accidents

I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan (1959)

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

The only proof he needed
For the existence of God
Was music.

-- Kurt Vonnegut (1922-11-11 - 2007-04-11), Vonnegut's Blues For America, 07 January, 2006 Sunday Herald

Not The Art Of The Possible

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Fig Newton

Fig Newton: The force required to accelerate a fig 39.37 inches/sec.

-- Johnny Hart (February 18, 1931 - April 7, 2007), in the comic strip BC

Surprise

We have a political system that awards high office to the most ruthless, cunning, and selfish of mortals, then we act surprised when those willing to do anything to win power are equally willing to do anything with it.

-- Michael Rivero

Conformists And Troublemakers

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.

-- Mignon McLaughlin

FSF

There are four "defining freedoms" to free software:

1) The freedom to run the program as you see fit,
2) Study and adapt it for your own purposes,
3) Redistribute copies to help your neighbour, and
4) Release your improvements to the public.

-- Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation

JPG

I need a girl whose name doesn't end in .jpg

-- anonymous

Blood Is Flowing

In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war.

-- King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Wednesday 3/28/07, at an Arab League meeting in Riyadh

COPA

Perhaps we do the minors of this country harm if First Amendment protections, which they will with age inherit fully, are chipped away in the name of their protection.

-- Senior U.S. District Judge Lowell Reed Jr. in his decision striking down the Child Online Protection Act, March 22, 2007

Acceptance

Acceptance is not submission; it is acknowledgement of the facts of a situation. Then deciding what you're going to do about it.

-- Kathleen Casey Theisen

Stem Cells

From my standpoint, it is clear today that American science will be better-served, and the nation will be better-served, if we let our scientists have access to more stem cell lines.

-- NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, Monday 3/19/2007 during a Senate Appropriations Committee subcommittee hearing on NIH funding for fiscal year 2008

Dropped Objects

Dropped objects seek the point of least accessibility.

-- Scott Adams

Wars Do Not Resolve

Wars generally do not resolve the problems for which they are fought and therefore ... prove ultimately futile.

-- Pope John Paul II

CNN Vs. The Onion

Several years ago, we reached the point where neither my friends nor I could not tell the difference between CNN and the Onion.

-- Wade J. Olsen, 3/20/07

The Forceps Of Our Minds

The forceps of our minds are clumsy forceps, and crush the truth a little in taking hold of it.

-- H. G. Wells, 1903

A380

Wait until it flies over Manhattan. It will block out the sun.

-- James Fazio, chief operating officer of JFK International Airport Terminal, on the Airbus A380 which made its maiden flight to the United States yesterday, New York Times, 3/20/2007

People Tend To Predict

In conditions of great uncertainty people tend to predict that the events that they want to happen actually will happen.

-- Roberta Wohlstetter

We Must Protest

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

-- Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (1928- )

Truth Does Not Change

It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.

-- Giordano Bruno

Think In Front Of A Tiger

If you know the point of balance, you can settle the details. If you can settle the details, you can stop running around. Your mind will become calm. If your mind becomes calm, you can think in front of a tiger. If you can think in front of a tiger, you will surely succeed.

-- Mencius (Mengzi Meng-Tse) c.370-300 BC, Chinese Philosopher

We Are Both Atheists

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.

-- usenet .sig

Stray The Course

So the Bush administration appears to be doing some things right, like talking to Iran & Syria, as suggested by the Baker-Hamilton Commission. Is this an actual change in strategy (pushed by Condi?) or is there something else happening here?

I thought Bush would go with the commission's report as a CYA approach to dealing with inevitable failure. However, Bush instead chose his "stay the course" troop buildup, providing what is perhaps too few troops to accomplish "victory" (whatever that is defined as, now), though apparently with the intention of producing a positive outcome.

Those who think he irrevocably screwed up the Iraq war 3 or 4 years ago would argue that victory is no longer possible. Bush appears to think otherwise, as I don't see much advantage for him in simply drawing things out prior to accepting ultimate failure.

So, is this a strategic shift? Is Condi behind it? Is there an ulterior motive in either talking to Iran/Syria or the troop buildup? Is Bush pursuing something other than ill-defined victory in Iraq? Comments?

More Nearly Certain

When one admits that nothing is certain one must, I think, also admit that some things are much more nearly certain than others.

-- Bertrand Russell, "Am I An Atheist Or An Agnostic?", 1947)

Three Natural Laws Of The Digital World

Bruce Schneier's Three Natural Laws of the Digital World:

I. Bits are inherently copyable, easily and repeatedly; digital files cannot be made uncopyable, any more than water can be made not wet.

II. Software has the ability to encapsulate skill.

III. The digital world lacks political boundaries.

Sudo

I should clearly buy a breathalyser, connect it to my computer, and make sudo check it before allowing me to access the root account.

-- Fred Emmott (fred87), Planet KDE, March 8, 2007

Snow Shadow

I wouldn't have thought it was possible. Over the weekend we had several hours of snow flurries, along with a steady breeze.

This picture shows the snow shadow. Apparently the wind direction did not vary as the snow fell, allowing all of the snow to sharply align with the edges of anything that blocked the wind. The shadow lasted until the next day. Snow was still (slowly) falling when I took this picture.

Ironic Times

We mistakenly quoted Texas Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison calling for accountability from top White House aides Libby and Rove by saying, "Something needs to be said that is a clear message that the rule of law is intact and the standards for perjury and obstruction of justice are not gray." In fact, when Senator Hutchison made the remarks, she was calling for accountability from President Clinton in 1999. More recently, in regard to accountability for Libby and Rove, she referred to perjury as a "technicality." We regret any confusion caused by our error.

-- Ironictimes.com

Libby

Mr. Libby's story that he was at the tail end of a chain of phone calls, passing on from one reporter what he heard from another, was not true. It was false. He was at the beginning of the chain of the phone calls, the first official to disclose this information outside the government to a reporter. And he lied about it afterward, under oath and repeatedly.

-- Federal Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, "Cheney Adviser Resigns After Indictment" on ABCnews.com (October 28, 2005)

Success In Your Field

You've achieved success in your field when you don't know whether what you're doing is work or play.

-- Warren Beatty

Of Course

Of course, there is no doubt that if we lived in a police state, it would be easier to catch terrorists. If we lived in a country that allowed the police to search your home at any time for any reason; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to open your mail, eavesdrop on your phone conversations, or intercept your email communications; if we lived in a country that allowed the government to hold people in jail indefinitely based on what they write or think, or based on mere suspicion that they are up to no good, then the government would no doubt discover and arrest more terrorists. But that probably would not be a country in which we would want to live. And that would not be a country for which we could, in good conscience, ask our young people to fight and die. In short, that would not be America.

-- Senator Russ Feingold

The Mystery Cat

He always has an alibi, and one or two to spare:
At whatever time the deed took place - Macavity wasn't there!

-- T. S. Eliot, Macavity: The Mystery Cat

As Many Nights As Days

There are as many nights as days, and the one is just as long as the other in the year's course. Even a happy life cannot be without a measure of darkness, and the word "happy" would lose its meaning if it were not balanced by sadness.

-- Carl Gustav Jung, 1875 - 1961

Dude

On his 17th birthday I wrote in here about my California Cat, Dude. He was the oldest cat I've ever owned, and today he gave up the fight after more than 18 1/2 years.

He was born July 9, 1988 behind the couch in the apartment I shared with then-girlfriend (now ex-wife) Melody in Lakeside, CA, on the same day that I flew to Illinois to check on job prospects that soon led to my return to Illinois following a 3-year stint in San Diego. I had him before and since my 16-year marriage, a fact I find amazing.

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 will graduate from high school this spring), and remained the alpha male in a 5-cat household.

Judicial Process

The overarching principle of fundamental justice that applies here is this: before the state can detain people for significant periods of time, it must accord them a fair judicial process.

-- Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin, of Canada, in a ruling striking down a law that allowed the indefinite detention of terrorism suspects, February 23, 2007

All Mad

When we remember we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.

-- Mark Twain

God's OS?

We don't know the OS that God uses, but the Vatican uses Linux.

-- Sister Judith Zoebelein, the Vactican's webmaster

Bulwer Lytton

The runner-up in 1983's Bulwer Lytton Contest (held by the English Department of San Jose State University [California]), wherein one writes only the first line of a bad novel:

The sun oozed over the horizon, shoved aside darkness, crept along the greensward, and, with sickly fingers, pushed through the castle window, revealing the pillaged princess, hand at throat, crown asunder, gaping in frenzied horror at the sated, sodden amphibian lying beside her, disbelieving the magnitude of the frog's deception, screaming madly, "You lied!"

Play With Words

Play with words. Take similar words or ones in which there are shades of difference. For instance, what's the difference between involvement and commitment? Think of ham and eggs. The chicken is involved. The pig is committed. See what I mean?

-- Rita Mae Brown, "Starting from Scratch"

Consensus

My colloquial definition of consensus is as follows: at best, everyone agrees. Barring that, the majority who agree also agree that the minority who disagree are being disagreeable.

-- P.J. Plauger, "The Politics of Standards", Computer Language Magazine, February, 1990

Not The Towering Oak

Courage is not the towering oak that sees storms come and go; it is the fragile blossom that opens in the snow.

-- Alice M. Swaim

A Note To My Daughter

Hi,

I have a Post-It note on my computer monitor observing that there is a constant duel between life being our daily routine, and life being the exceptions to our daily routine.

Every day we do some of the same things; these habits are the fabric of our daily lives. But a life of pure routine strikes us a a dead-end existence. We crave the exceptions to routine, the things that make today different from yesterday, and that promise that tomorrow will be different from today.

Yet when we look back at the "good old days", it's usually a period of time, not a single event or even a series of events. In looking back we realize that there can be fulfillment in routine, so long as that routine is directed at our life's goals (work, wealth, relationships, volunteerism, whatever goals we set to fulfill our lives).

Take a look at your life. Sit back, and see what you've done so far, and think about what you really wish to have happen. There are a lot of things that I wish would happen in my life, but some of those wishes don't make it onto my list of goals because the life I lead isn't directed at fulfilling those wishes.

Of all the things you wish for, decide which of these wishes to make into goals. Think about how important they are to you; think about how important it is to make the fulfillment of some of those wishes a part of your future life. Does it matter? Is it selfish? Does it make me a better person? Does it do something for the future me? This last question applies to just about everything, from reading a good book to saving for retirement to raising kids.

Once you've started thinking about these things, you'll find that it's hard to sort them out. I've told you to prioritize, to make the big decisions about life on purpose, with your eyes wide open, rather than just coasting into things. But it doesn't hurt to take some time, coasting along while you consider these big issues.

You'll find over time that some of your wishes should be real goals, that they're important and that you need to work for them. Other wishes will lose their appeal; you'll realize that the "future you" doesn't need some of these wishes fulfilled in order to be a happy and fulfilled person.

Take your time. Discuss some of your goals and wishes with your life partner. Find out what his wishes and goals are. Sometimes you'll share goals, sometimes your goals will include helping him reach his goals, and sometimes his goal will be to help you reach your goals.

You give up a lot by entering onto a life-path such as marriage at an early age -- you have obligations, the details of which you did not see before committing yourself. But that doesn't mean that you're in a position where you can't find fulfillment. Take some time to sit back, think, share, and enjoy individual days. Over a period of days and weeks, I think you'll find that your "true wishes" and goals reveal themselves, that they're not impossible to reach, and that you can be happy living a life of routine that is aimed at achieving those goals and making the "future you" a better, more interesting, more happy person than ever.

Love,
Dad

Each Snowflake

Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty.

-- Stanislaw J. Lee

Abominable Snowman

I've never seen an abominable snowman,
I'm hoping not to see one,
I'm also hoping, if I do,
That it will be a wee one.

-- Ogden Nash

Advice Is Like Snow

Advice is like snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet and philosopher (1772-1834)

No Snowflake

No snowflake ever falls in the wrong place.

-- Zen saying

Aging Vs. Snowballs

The aging process has you firmly in its grasp if you never get the urge to throw a snowball.

-- Doug Larson

Unncessary Freezing

A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.

-- Carl Reiner (March 20, 1922-), American actor, film director, producer, writer, and comedian

Downward Course

You and I are told increasingly that we have to choose between a left or right, but I would like to suggest that there is no such thing as a left or right. There is only an up or down -- up to a man's age-old dream; the ultimate in individual freedom consistent with law and order -- or down to the ant heap of totalitarianism, and regardless of their sincerity, their humanitarian motives, those who would trade our freedom for security have embarked on this downward course.

-- Ronald Reagan (February 6, 1911 - June 5, 2004), 40th president of the United States

No Room Left

Some marry the first information they receive, and turn what comes later into their concubine. Since deceit is always first to arrive, there is no room left for truth.

-- Baltasar Gracian

You Never Know

Today, if we went into Iraq, like the president would like us to do, you know where you begin. You never know where you are going to end.

-- George F. Kennan (February 16, 1904 - March 17, 2005), American diplomat and historian, September 6, 2002

Cheney '91

Once you've got Baghdad, it's not clear what you do with it ... it's not clear what kind of government you would put in place of the one that's currently there now. Is it going to be a Shia regime, a Sunni regime, or a Kurdish regime? Or one that tilts toward the Baathists, or one that tilts toward the Islamic fundamentalists? How much credibility is that government going to have if it's set up by the United States military when it's there? How long does the ... military have to stay to protect the people that sign on for that government, and what happens to it once we leave?

-- Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking in 1991; cited in George F. Will, "Dubya's Disaster" (New York Post, November 12, 2006)

Entry Fee

We are looking at a $100 million entry fee.

-- Michael Toner, chairman of the Federal Election Commission, on the 2008 presidential race.

A Huge Debt

I think the Iraqi people owe the American people a huge debt of gratitude.

-- President George W. Bush; cited in Derrick Z. Jackson, "Amid Bloodshed, Bush Wants a 'Thank You'" (Boston Globe, Janaury 18, 2007)

Even If It Fails

Even if it fails, the policy will be worth it. At a minimum it will damp down the charge that we did not do all that we could have done, and this charge will be important in many countries, including our own.

-- Advice given by McGeorge Bundy to Lyndon Johnson in a memo dated February 7, 1965, concerning an escalation plan for Vietnam that Bundy thought might have as little as a twenty-five-per-cent chance of success; cited in Steve Coll, "The Planner" (New Yorker, January 15, 2007)

The Only Time We've Got

Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got.

-- Art Buchwald (October 20, 1925-January 17, 2007), American humorist and newspaper columnist, in "Art Buchwald Celebrates His Life" a profile on CNN Newsroom (2 November 2006)

Attack The Establishment

If you attack the establishment long enough and hard enough, they will make you a member of it.

-- Art Buchwald (October 20, 1925-January 17, 2007), American humorist and newspaper columnist, International Herald Tribune (May 24, 1989)

How Paranoid Is This?

How paranoid is this scenario?

First, add 20K troops to Iraq. It'll take a while to get any results, so this automatically extends the status quo by several months. During this interlude, provoke Iran, or trigger/claim provocations on the part of Iran.

Next, expand the Iraq war into Iran (and Syria?). This ensures that the neocons get to attack Iran, which they've always wanted to do. Perhaps more importantly, from the President's perspective, this ensures no withdrawal from Iraq during the current term (since the expanded war will last into the next administration). Withdrawing from Iraq is unacceptable because it is an acknowledgement of failure in Iraq. Establishing a legacy of success is a prime motivator. If the Iraq War can be pushed into the next administration, and the next administration withdraws (and Iraq fails), then it will be the next administration's fault.

Having Israel launch an early assault against Iran would be another easy way to expand the war (with essentially the same results), without the need for manufactured provocations vs. the US.

Getting Even

People ask what I am really trying to do with humor. The answer is, "I'm getting even." ... For me, being funny is the best revenge.

-- Art Buchwald (October 20, 1925-January 17, 2007) American humorist and newspaper columnist, Leaving Home, 1995

Travel Companions

It's easier to find a travel companion than to get rid of one.

-- Art Buchwald (October 20, 1925-January 17, 2007), American humorist and newspaper columnist

Lowest Ebb

Every time you think television has hit its lowest ebb, a new program comes along to make you wonder where you thought the ebb was.

-- Art Buchwald (October 20, 1925-January 17, 2007), American humorist and newspaper columnist

The Most Important Things

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them.

-- Stephen King

A Reactive Thing

It's a reactive thing, like a Geiger counter; you click whenever you come close to whatever you were built to do.

-- Stephen King

Reading And Writing

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

-- Stephen King

Books

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

-- Stephen King

Creatively Maladjusted

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

War On Terror

Cal Thomas: With what you know now, what might you have done differently in Iraq?

Donald Rumsfeld: I don't think I would have called it the "war on terror." I don't mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word "war" conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn't going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a war on terror. Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and, [through] a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So "war on terror" is a problem for me.

-- Chicago Tribune, December 12, 2006
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0612120277dec12,0,206705.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

Folly's Antidote

A nation informed by a vivid understanding of the ironies of history is best equipped to manage the tragic temptations of military power. Let us not bully our way through life, but let a growing sensitivity to history temper and civilize our use of power.

-- Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., "Folly's Antidote" New York Times, January 1, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/opinion/01schlesinger.html?pagewanted=print

Clear And Hold

We could not clear and hold.

-- Stephen J. Hadley, the president's national security adviser, on Iraq strategy. New York Times, January 2, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/washington/02war.html?th&emc=th

Iraqi NSA

The nature of the American military is that they won't let go. I understand it because they do it much better than we do. But we have to stand alone. We have to wean ourselves off the coalition and make our own mistakes and learn from our own mistakes.

-- Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Adviser, New York Times, December 13, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/world/middleeast/13troops.html?th&emc=th

Patrick J. Fitzgerald's blog

While surfing the Internet the other day I ran across what appears to be the blog of US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald (responsible for the arrest of VP Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff "Scooter" Libby).

Here's how he introduces himself --

Patrick J. Fitzgerald -- Location: U.S. Attorney On Assignment - WDC

Think Globally Prosecute Locally - I grew up in Flatbush, kept my nose clean, went to law school. Now that I am in Chicago and D.C. I have found that the rampant graft and corruption to be a travesty - a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

http://patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com/

Bush Signing Statement

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
W pushes envelope on U.S. spying
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 4th, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

All Our Misfortunes

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

-- Socrates (469?-399 B.C.)

OK Down Here

We're O.K. down here.

-- Wesley Autrey, from under a New York subway train, after he jumped onto the tracks to save a stranger


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html?th&emc=th

2006 Mileage

For the year 2006, driving my 1999 Saturn which now has >135,000 miles:

Total miles     : 25,111
Total cost      : $1,942.72
Total gallons   : 776.47
Avg gallons/day : 2.127
Avg days/fillup : 4.9
Avg miles/day   : 68.80
Avg cost/day    : $5.27
Avg cost/gal    : $2.50
Avg miles/gal   : 32.77

Powell Surge

I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work. We have to be very, very careful in this instance not just to grab a number out of the air.

-- Colin Powell, 12/17/06

You Are The Author

If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and every day you have the opportunity to write a new page.

-- Mark Houlahan