Expert Discernment

The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things -- the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

-- Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871 - 1964), editor and translator, in the preface to Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (1917)

One Of The Best

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

-- Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti (1719 - 1789), Italian literary critic, poet, writer, and translator, during his years in England often known as Joseph Baretti, quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

More Frequently

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750 - 1752) No. 2 (24 March 1750)

Perversion And Exorbitance

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750–1752) No. 148 (17 August 1751)

We Are Inclined

We are inclined to believe those whom we do not know, because they have never deceived us.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Idler (1758 - 1760) No. 80 (27 October 1759)

Highly Unsettling

Suggestions that acetaminophen use in pregnancy causes autism are not only highly concerning to clinicians but also irresponsible when considering the harmful and confusing message they send to pregnant patients, including those who may need to rely on this beneficial medicine during pregnancy.

Today's announcement by HHS is not backed by the full body of scientific evidence and dangerously simplifies the many and complex causes of neurologic challenges in children.  It is highly unsettling that our federal health agencies are willing to make an announcement that will affect the health and well-being of millions of people without the backing of reliable data.

The conditions people use acetaminophen to treat during pregnancy are far more dangerous than any theoretical risks and can create severe morbidity and mortality for the pregnant person and the fetus.

-- Steven J. Fleischman, MD, MBA, FACOG, president of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), "ACOG Affirms Safety and Benefits of Acetaminophen during Pregnancy" (22 September 2025)

Deliberative Forces Should Prevail

Those who won our independence believed that the final end of the State was to make men free to develop their faculties, and that, in its government, the deliberative forces should prevail over the arbitrary.  They valued liberty both as an end, and as a means.  They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness, and courage to be the secret of liberty.  They believed that freedom to think as you will and to speak as you think are means indispensable to the discovery and spread of political truth; that, without free speech and assembly, discussion would be futile; that, with them, discussion affords ordinarily adequate protection against the dissemination of noxious doctrine; that the greatest menace to freedom is an inert people; that public discussion is a political duty, and that this should be a fundamental principle of the American government.  They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject.  But they knew that order cannot be secured merely through fear of punishment for its infraction; that it is hazardous to discourage thought, hope and imagination; that fear breeds repression; that repression breeds hate; that hate menaces stable government; that the path of safety lies in the opportunity to discuss freely supposed grievances and proposed remedies, and that the fitting remedy for evil counsels is good ones.  Believing in the power of reason as applied through public discussion, they eschewed silence coerced by law -- the argument of force in its worst form.  Recognizing the occasional tyrannies of governing majorities, they amended the Constitution so that free speech and assembly should be guaranteed.

-- Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, concurring in Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, at 375-376 (16 May 1927)

Instructions For Living

Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.

-- Mary Jane Oliver (1935 - 2019), American poet who won the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize, Red Bird (2008) "Sometimes", § 4

A Good Arbiter

A good arbiter of how close we are to bad hybrid regime shit is if the political comedy shows start getting pulled for whatever reason

-- Sharon, posting as @sharonk on Bluesky, in a post that anticipates recent shenanigans involving Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel (22 January 2025 @11:36 PM)

No One Dies

No one dies but some one is glad of it.

-- Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802 - 1838), English poet and novelist, Lady Anne Granard (or Keeping up Appearances), Chapter 1, page 1, Opening line

Pythagorean Triple Square Day

Pi Day (March 14) is a day of global mathematical celebration, but it's not the only numerically significant calendar date.  It's far from the rarest, either.  In fact, today marks a special occasion that only occurs once this century.  Not only is each number in today's date (9/16/25) a perfect square -- their consecutive square roots are also an example of a Pythagorean triple.  While an official name has yet to be assigned, "Pythagorean Triple Square Day" encapsulates the moment pretty perfectly.

Here's the specific math to add it all up: 3 multiplied by itself is 9, 4 squared is 16, and 5 squared is 2025 (sic).  On top of that, the sum of the first two square roots (sic) adds up to 25.

September 16, 2025, is the only date that fits the definition this century. 

-- Andrew Paul, "Forget Pi Day. Today is Pythagorean Triple Square Day", Popular Science (16 September 2025)

Servant Of Our Politics

When we vest our personal opinions with the trappings of religion, we make religion the servant of our politics.

-- John Danforth (1936 -), former United States Ambassador to the United Nations, former U.S. Senator (R-MO), and ordained Episcopal priest, Faith and Politics (2006) p. 213

We Have Our Agency

Now again, to my young friends out there, you are inheriting a country where politics feels like rage.  It feels like rage is the only option.

But through those words, we have a reminder that we can choose a different path.

Your generation has an opportunity to build a culture that is very different than what we are suffering through right now, not by pretending differences don't matter, but by embracing our differences and having those hard conversations.

I think we need more moral clarity right now.  I hear all the time that words are violence -- words are not violence.

Violence is violence, and there is one person responsible for what happened, and that person is now in custody and will be charged soon and will be held accountable.

And yet, all of us have an opportunity right now to do something different. ...

We can return violence with fire and violence.  We can return hate with hate.  And that's the problem with political violence is it metastasizes because we can always point the finger at the other side, and at some point, we have to find an off-ramp -- or it's going to get much, much worse.

See, these are choices that we can make.  History will dictate if this is a turning point for our country, but every single one of us gets to choose right now.  If this is a turning point for us, we get to make decisions.  We have our agency.

-- Governor Spencer Cox (R-UT) at a press conference with the FBI and local law enforcement officers on the investigation into the assassination of Charlie Kirk (12 September 2025)

You Don't Have To Know More

As of the time I'm writing to you, law enforcement has not yet offered a motive for Charlie Kirk's murder.  It's easy to jump ahead with assumptions that it was about his politics, but it's important to wait until the evidence is assembled before jumping to conclusions.  But you don't have to know more than we already do to know that it is wrong to kill people for their political views.  We can stand for decency.

-- Joyce Vance, "On Political Violence" (10 September 2025)

The Real Threat

I urge this Committee to consider the real threat to Americans' freedom of expression, the one here at home.  I have noted a handful of areas where this administration is putting freedom of expression under direct attack.  Where is the opposition, let alone outrage, given the attack not only on speakers -- journalists, public media, professors, students, whistleblowers, civil servants -- but on every American's right of access to information about the issues important to our democracy and to our public's health?  That, I would respectfully submit, is the real threat to American speech and innovation. 

-- David Kaye, Clinical Professor of Law, University of California, Irvine School of Law, and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression, in testimony delivered to the House Judiciary Committee in a hearing titled "Europe's Threat to American Speech and Innovation" (3 September 2025) (h/t Peter Picucci)

3 Steps

Be, beget, begone.

-- William Saroyan (1908 - 1981), Armenian American author, Jim Dandy : Fat Man in a Famine (1947)

Now What?

Everybody has to die, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case.  Now what?

-- William Saroyan (1908 - 1981), Armenian American author, Statement to the Associated Press, five days before his death (13 May 1981)

Some Things Count

Don't forget that some things count more than other things.

-- William Saroyan (1908 - 1981), Armenian American author, The Time of Your Life (1939)

Good Deal

You can't make a good deal with a bad person. 

-- Warren Edward Buffett (30 August 1930 -), American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist, currently chairman and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, "23 Quotes from Warren Buffett on Life and Generosity" forbes.com (2 December 2013)

Posse Comitatus

Congress spoke clearly in 1878 when it passed the Posse Comitatus Act, prohibiting the use of the U.S. military to execute domestic law.  Nearly 140 years later, Defendants -- President Trump, Secretary of Defense Hegseth, and the Department of Defense -- deployed the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, ostensibly to quell a rebellion and ensure that federal immigration law was enforced.  There were indeed protests in Los Angeles, and some individuals engaged in violence.  Yet there was no rebellion, nor was civilian law enforcement unable to respond to the protests and enforce the law.

Nevertheless, at Defendants’ orders and contrary to Congress’s explicit instruction, federal troops executed the laws.  The evidence at trial established that Defendants systematically used armed soldiers (whose identity was often obscured by protective armor) and military vehicles to set up protective perimeters and traffic blockades, engage in crowd control, and otherwise demonstrate a military presence in and around Los Angeles.  In short, Defendants violated the Posse Comitatus Act. 

Almost three months after Defendants first deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, 300 National Guard members remain stationed there.  Moreover, President Trump and Secretary Hegseth have stated their intention to call National Guard troops into federal service in other cities across the country -- including Oakland and San Francisco, here in the Northern District of California -- thus creating a national police force with the President as its chief.  Because there is an ongoing risk that Defendants will act unlawfully and thereby injure Plaintiffs, Governor Newsom and the State of California, the Court ENJOINS Defendants from violating the Posse Comitatus Act as detailed below.

[T]he Court ORDERS that Defendants are enjoined from deploying, ordering, instructing, training, or using the National Guard currently deployed in California, and any military troops heretofore deployed in California, to execute the laws, including but not limited to engaging in arrests, apprehensions, searches, seizures, security patrols, traffic control, crowd control, riot control, evidence collection, interrogation, or acting as informants, unless and until Defendants satisfy the requirements of a valid constitutional or statutory exception, as defined herein, to the Posse Comitatus Act.

-- US Judge for the Northern District of California Charles R. Breyer, ruling in Gavin Newsom, et al. v Donald Trump et al. that the administration violated the Posse Comitatus Act in its use of Federal and National Guard troops in California (2 September 2025)

Value Of A Sentiment

The value of a sentiment is the amount of sacrifice you are prepared to make for it.

-- John Galsworthy OM (1867 - 1933), English novelist and playwright, 1932 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Windows, Act II (1922)

A Great Teacher

History is a great teacher.  Now everyone knows that the labor movement did not diminish the strength of the nation but enlarged it.  By raising the living standards of millions, labor miraculously created a market for industry and lifted the whole nation to undreamed of levels of production.  Those who attack labor forget these simple truths, but history remembers them.

-- Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968), African American clergyman, civil rights activist, and Nobel laureate, speaking to the AFL–CIO (11 December 1961)