RIP Dianne Feinstein

I truly believe that there is a center in the political spectrum that is the best place to run something when you have a very diverse community.  America is diverse; we are not all one people.  We are many different colors, religions, backgrounds, education levels, all of it.

-- Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born Dianne Emiel Goldman; 22 June 1933 – 28 September 2023), American politician serving as the senior United States senator from California, previously Mayor of San Francisco from 1978 to 1988, "Sen. Dianne Feinstein's rise: How one badass woman fought to keep going" by Dana Bash, CNN (9 August 2017)

By Practice

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

-- Confucius (551 B.C. - 479 B.C.), Chinese social philosopher, The Confucian Analects, Vol. I of Legge's Chinese Classics (1861)

Fists Clenched

No man can think clearly when his fists are clenched.

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

As A Thing

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

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

OSIRIS-REx

We've got a busy week ahead of us.

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

Gun Violence Prevention

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

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

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

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

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

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

Out Of The Mist

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

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

Our Job

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

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

A Crazy Three Weeks

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

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

Unreasonable

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.  Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man.

-- George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950), Irish playwright, critic, polemicist, and political activist cited in: Stanley Marcus (1979) Quest for the Best. p. 97

An Excuse

[M]ost propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.

-- Michael Rivero (1952 -), American film worker, from his IMDB bio

Survival Rate

On a long enough timeline the survival rate for everybody drops to zero.

-- Charles Michael "Chuck" Palahniuk (1962 -), American satirical novelist and freelance journalist, Fight Club (1996)

Debacle

A major power can afford a military debacle only when it looks like a political victory.

-- Friedrich Dürrenmatt (1921 - 1990), Swiss author and dramatist, Portrait of a Planet (1971)

Pay Our Debts

We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.

-- John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (1875 - 1940), Scottish novelist, poet, and politician, Address to the people of Canada on the coronation of George VI (12 May 1937)

Remembrance

Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain.

-- Oliver Goldsmith (1728 - 1774), Irish novelist, playwright, poet, and physician, The Deserted Village, 1770, l. 81

Living Well

Living well is the best revenge.

-- George Herbert (1593 - 1633), English poet, Jacula Prudentum (1651) Full title: Jacula Prudentum; or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. Selected by Mr. George Herbert, Proverb 520; from The Complete Works in verse and prose of George Herbert: Volume III, Prose (1874)

Each Of Us

Americans have a strong interest in supporting democratic movements and respect for human rights around the world because free societies elsewhere contribute to our own security and prosperity here at home.  But that interest is undermined when others see our own house in disarray.  The world will not wait for us to address our problems, so we must both continue to strive toward a more perfect union and help those abroad looking for U.S. leadership.

Each of us has a role to play and responsibilities to uphold.  Our elected officials must lead by example and govern effectively in ways that deliver for the American people.  This, in turn, will help to restore trust in public service.  The rest of us must engage in civil dialogue; respect democratic institutions and rights; uphold safe, secure, and accessible elections; and contribute to local, state, or national improvement.

-- A statement from 13 presidential centers, signed by Obama Foundation, George W. Bush Presidential Center, Clinton Foundation, George & Barbara Bush Foundation, The Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute, The Carter Center, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Foundation, Richard Nixon Foundation, LBJ Foundation, John F. Kennedy Library Foundation, Truman Library Institute, Roosevelt Institute, Hoover Presidential Foundation (7 September 2023)

I'm Looking

The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth," and so it goes away.  Puzzling.

-- Robert M. Pirsig (6 September 1928 - 24 April 2017), American philosopher and novelist, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974) Ch. 1

Totally Screwed Up

Guns, knives, and martial arts skills do not ward off danger.  They help you deal with it more effectively and only in select circumstances.  Never forget that self-defense is really about not being there, using awareness, avoidance, and de-escalation to eliminate the need to fight.  Fighting is what you do when you've totally screwed up your self-defense.  

-- Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder, The Little Black Book Of Violence (What Every Young Man Needs To Know About Fighting), Section 3, Aftermath Of Violence, Handling Blows To Your Self Esteem, p 249 (2009)

Solidarity

The most important word in the language of the working class is solidarity.

-- Harry Bridges (1901 - 1990), Australian-born American union leader, first with the International Longshoremen's Association (ILA), quoted in Glass, Fred (2016). From Mission to Microchip: A History of the California Labor Movement

Experience And History

What experience and history teach is this -- that nations and governments have never learned anything from history, or acted upon any lessons they might have drawn from it.

-- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 - 1831), German philosopher, Lectures on the Philosophy of History (1832) Volume 1, Introduction, as translated by H. B. Nisbet (1975)