Learn About Money

The easiest way for your children to learn about money is for you not to have any.

-- Katharine Whitehorn (1928-), British journalist, writer, and columnist

Not

There will no longer be any one-sided concessions. We don't agree to any extension of the freeze, not for three months, not for a year, half a year or one minute. It needs to be understood that signing a comprehensive peace agreement, which means an end to the conflict, settling of mutual claims and recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people, this is an unattainable goal, not in the coming year and not in the next generation.

-- Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in comments just days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to hold regular US-brokered talks following last year's summit in Washington, 7 September 2010

Veggies

There is nothing you can say that will get people to eat more veggies.

-- Harry Balzer, of market research company the NPD Group, New York Times, 25 September 2010

Extremism

Extremism. It is an almost infallible sign -- a kind of death-rattle -- when a human institution is forced by its members into stressing those and only those factors which are identificatory, at the expense of others which it necessarily shares with competing institutions because human beings belong to all of them.

-- John Brunner (1934 - 1996), science fiction author, Stand on Zanzibar (1968)

Tell Us

We don't want to see more dead. We don't want to see more wounded, nor do we want to be intimidated. It is impossible for us to do our job under these conditions. Tell us, then, what you expect from us, as a newspaper? ... This is not a surrender. This is about a truce with those who have imposed the force of their law in this city, so that you will respect the lives of those who dedicate themselves to the job of informing the public.

-- From an editorial on the front page of the Mexican newspaper El Diario de Juarez, following the second murder of an el Diario reporter, 20 September 2010

FDA

FDA Barring Food Makers from Advertising Products as GMO-Free

The FDA meanwhile appears to be enforcing a policy of barring food producers from trumpeting that their products don't contain genetically modified ingredients. According to the Washington Post, the FDA has sent a "flurry of enforcement letters" to companies that have advertised GMO-free products on their labels. The warnings come on top of existing policy not to require food makers to disclose if their products do contain GMOs. Congress member Dennis Kucinich said, "This, to me, raises questions about whose interest the FDA is protecting. They are clearly protecting industry, and not the public."

Democracy Now 20 September 2010

Original Thought

One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings.

-- Diogenes of Sinope (412 BC - 323 BC), Cynic philosopher of ancient Greece

Big Belly People

You should know that our leaders are big belly people, and they care about themselves more than anyone else.

-- Osman Shenwari, a village mayor in Afghanistan, New York Times, 18 September 2010

Knowingness

There are people for whom nothing is more embarrassing than to be caught not in the know. To arm themselves against embarrassment, they choose knowingness, which is just ignorance hidden by information.

-- Leon Wieseltier, Washington Diarist: In the Know, The New Republic: Books & Arts, 16 September 2010

Machine

The political machine triumphs because it is a united minority acting against a divided majority.

-- Will Durant (1885-1981), American historian, philosopher and writer


[1337]

Bless Them

We should not hold middle-class tax cuts hostage any longer. We are ready this week, if they want, to give tax cuts to every American making $250,000 or less. that's 98, 97 percent of Americans. Now, for any income over this amount, the tax rates would just go back to what they were under President Clinton. This isn't to punish folks who are better off -- God bless them -- it's because we can't afford the $700 billion price tag.

-- President Barack Obama on his proposed tax strategy, 8 September 2010

Premeditated

An expectation is a premeditated resentment.

-- Nina Paley, Mimi & Eunice, 14 September 2010,


http://ninapaley.com/mimiandeunice/2010/09/14/resentment/

Tired

I'm tired of talking about everything else, tired of the politics. Today is only about loss.

-- Alyson Low, whose sister died in the Sept. 11 attacks, on the controversies in the weeks before this year's commemoration, New York Times, 12 September 2010

Used To Be

What we were finding was that the soldiers we're getting in today's Army are not in as good shape as they used to be. This is not just an Army issue. This is a national issue.

-- Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, who oversees basic training for the Army, New York Times, 31 August 2010

Third Half

We want to make Google the third half of your brain.

-- Sergey Brin, Google's co-founder, on a new Internet search product, New York Times, 9 September 2010

It's Time

Simply put, it's time. Time for me. And time for Chicago to move on.

-- Richard M. Daley, mayor of Chicago since 1989, announcing that he would not seek re-election, New York Times, 8 September 2010

Potentially Explosive

Wyoming Town Near Drilling Told Drinking Water Unsafe, Potentially Explosive

Residents of a Wyoming town where natural gas drilling has occurred for years are now being warned their water is not only undrinkable but Environmental Protection Agency issued the warning after a second round of testing on the town of Pavilion's water supply. The first round found at least three water wells contained chemicals used in the natural gas drilling process of hydraulic fracturing. ProPublica reports the latest tests confirmed the presence of those chemicals as well as benzene, metals, naphthalene, phenols and methane. In addition to being told not to drink their water, Pavilion residents are also being advised to use fans and ventilation when showering or washing clothes to avoid the risk of explosions.

Democracy Now 2 September 2010

Two Party Failure

It's like picking a team when you really don't want to root for either team.

-- Kristin Johnson, 23, on the two political parties, New York Times, 3 September 2010

World Of Thought

It has always seemed strange to me that in our endless discussions about education so little stress is laid on the pleasure of becoming an educated person, the enormous interest it adds to life. To be able to be caught up into the world of thought -- THAT is to be educated.

-- Edith Hamilton (1867-1963), educator and writer, Saturday Evening Post, 27 September 1958

On Being Wrong

If you can't admit you're wrong, you should just stay home and knit sweaters. You shouldn't be involved with any occupation where your decision-making can have an impact on other people's health, life, or liberty.

I don't think it's specific to the legal system. I think generally speaking it's difficult for people to admit they're wrong, and the higher the stakes, the more difficult it becomes. So what you really want to do is educate people that it's OK to be wrong. It doesn't mean you're a fool. It's not going to be the end of your life.

-- Peter Neufeld, as quoted by Kathryn Schulz, Reasonable Doubt: Innocence Project Co-Founder Peter Neufeld on Being Wrong, Slate.com, August 17, 2010