Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Zelaya

Map of HondurasMy greetings to the United Nations. Anybody who had any doubt that a dictatorship is taking hold of my country, now with what has happened in the last ninety-three days of repression, I think that any of those doubts that might have subsisted are dispelled. But besides being subject to a coup d'etat, Honduras is being subjected to a fascist rule, which is suppressing the rights of its citizens and which is oppressing the Honduran people.

-- Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, addressing the UN via cell phone from the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, 28 September 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sneak And Peek

Peeing TomLet me tell you why I'm concerned about these numbers. That's not how this was sold to the American people. It was sold, as stated on DoJ's website in 2005, as being necessary, quote, "to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists." I'm going to say, it's quite extraordinary to grant govenment agents the statutory authority to secretly break in to Americans' homes in criminal cases. And I think some Americans might be concerned that it's been used hundreds of times in just a single year in non-terrorism cases.

-- Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), on sneak and peek warrants authorizing secret break-ins into US homes and businesses. Of 763 requests last year, just three had to do with terrorism investigations. 23 September 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Metal Detectorists

Metal detectorPeople laugh at metal detectorists.

-- Terry Herbert, an Englishman who found an Anglo-Saxon treasure in a farm field worth an estimated $1.6M, NY Times, 25 September 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Spoiled

'I Wait' by the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), 1860sIt is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more to avoid confrontation.

-- John Gray, author (b. 1951)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Reality

Gary ZukavReality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.

-- Gary Zukav, best-selling author and former Green Beret officer during the war in Vietnam

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A Soldier

Command Sgt Major insigniaWhen I look in the mirror, I don't see a female. I see a soldier.

-- Command Sgt. Major Teresa L. King, who will be the first woman to hold the post of the Army's top drill sergeant, New York Times, 22 September 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

On All The Time

Home computer stationWe have entered this new era where essentially everything is on all the time.

-- Alan Meier, an expert on energy efficiency, on the proliferation of gadgets in American homes, New York Times, 20 September 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

What We Make It

Grandma Moses, 1953Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

-- Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses, 1860-1961), American folk artist

Thursday, September 17, 2009

RIP Mary Travers

Mary TraversThe longer I live the more I find that people seldom take the time
To really get to know a stranger and make him a friend.
But the power of a simple song can make everybody feel they belong.
Maybe singin' and playin' can bring us together again.
Singin' and playin' can bring us together again.

That music speaks louder than words

-- Mary Travers (9 November 1936 - 16 September
2009), of Peter, Paul, and Mary, lyric to Music
Speaks Louder Than Words

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Freedom To Offend

Salman RushdieWhat is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

-- Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Grand Things

Thriller in Mexico CityThis positions us as a grand city where grand things happen.

-- Alejandro Rojas Diaz, Mexico City's tourism secretary, who organized an event at which 12,937 people danced to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in pursuit of a world record, New York Times, 8 September 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

End-Of-The-World Switch

Big Red SwitchSome humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

-- Terry Pratchett, novelist (b. 1948)

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Obama School Speech

Barack Obama addresses students at Wakefield HSThe story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

-- President Barack Obama, addressing students from Wakefield HS, 8 September 2009

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Vindicated?

Muammar al-Gaddafi at the 12th AU summit, February 2, 2009, in Addis Abeba.He likes to rub it in to the West that he was vindicated, that he's becoming an internationally recognized figure again.

-- Dirk J. Vandewalle, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, on Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's planned September trip to New Jersey, New York Times, 26 August 2009

Friday, September 04, 2009

Play

New York, New York. Chinese-American playing Chinese checkers with a Jewish friend in a Flatbush home. Collins, Marjory, 1912-1985, photographer.You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of discussion.

-- Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Youth And Middle-Age

Building materialsThe youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author, poet, naturalist, and philosopher, Journals, July 14, 1852

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Allow Their Children

Three girls with faces painted as animalsHuman beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.

-- Bill Cosby (1937-), American actor, comedian, television producer and activist

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Future

Charles F. Kettering, pictured with his first electric starter.My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

-- Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958), American inventor, founder of Delco