Hopelessly Confused

If you are sure you understand everything that is going on, you are hopelessly confused.

-- Walter "Fritz" Mondale (1928 - 2021), American politician, diplomat, and lawyer who served as the 42nd vice president of the US from 1977 to 1981 under President Jimmy Carter, as quoted by Ann Landers, in The Poughkeepsie Journal (26 March 1978)

Unserious Leaders

Unserious leaders are unsafe.  There is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law so that we might maintain the integrity of our constitutional democracy.  This case highlights a leader’s unserious regard for the rule of law.  This case demonstrates how disregard for the rule of law does not merely result in an abstract infraction.  Rather, and tragically, this case is one of a long list of examples of how a leader’s wanton disregard for the rule of law causes very real harm to very real people.

This Court can and does judge the lawfulness of the process (or lack thereof) by which any policy choice might be made.  Here, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., unlawfully issued a declaration threatening to cut federal funding to medical providers who provided gender-affirming care to minors.  If such a declaration could have been enacted lawfully, there might have been ample time and opportunity for medical providers, families, and children -- all people and institutions of our great nation -- to seek out other alternatives and options.  Secretary Kennedy’s utter failure to promulgate rules in accordance with statutory authority, but instead threaten to cease federal funding to medical providers almost immediately after the declaration, caused chaos and terror for all those people and institutions of our great nation.  Secretary Kennedy’s unlawful declaration harmed children.  This case illustrates that when a leader acts without authority and in the absence of the rule of law, he acts with cruelty.

-- US District Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai (he/him), ruling against limitations on gender affirming care in Oregon v Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr (18 April 2026)

I Don't Doubt

"I don't doubt you're serious," he said wonderingly.  "What I doubt is your sanity."

-- Larry Niven (30 April 1938 -), American science fiction author, A Gift From Earth (1968) Chapter 14, "Balance of Power" (p. 246)

Woe To Those

Woe to those who manipulate religion and the very name of God for their own military, economic, and political gain, dragging that which is sacred into darkness and filth.

-- Pope Leo XIV, posting on Twitter as @Pontifex (16 April 2026)

Great Fault

It has been the great fault of our politicians that they have all wanted to do something.

-- Anthony Trollope (1815 - 1882), successful and prolific English novelist of the Victorian era, Phineas Finn (1869) Chapter 13

Understandable And Clear

Dear friends, the election result is not final yet, but it is understandable and clear.  The election result is painful for us, but clear.  The responsibility of governing was not given to us.  I have congratulated the winner.

-- Hungarian Prime Minister and Trump ally Viktor Orban conceding to opposition candidate Peter Magyar, whose party won two-thirds of seats in parliament, ending Orban's 16-year rule (12 April 2026)

A Tautology

A good poem is a tautology.  It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word which has never before been spoken.  The seed-word is always so ordinary that hardly anyone perceives it.  Classical odes grow from "and" or "because", romantic lyrics from "but" or "if".  Immature verses expand a personal pronoun ad nauseam, the greatest works bring glory to a common verb.

-- Alasdair James Gray (1934 - 2019), award-winning Scottish writer and artist, Unlikely Stories, Mostly (1983) "Prometheus", pp. 208-9

An Exception

Every man, in his own opinion, forms an exception to the ordinary rules of morality.

-- William Hazlitt (1778 - 1830), English writer remembered for his humanistic essays and literary criticism, Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823) No. 305

People With Control

People with real power never fear of losing it.  People with control think of little else.

-- Joseph "Joss" Hill Whedon (1964 -), American screenwriter, film and television director and producer, "Mom, He's Doing It Again..", at Whedonesque.com (10 November 2007)

Stubborn

Facts are stubborn things.

-- Tobias George Smollett (1721 - 1771), Scottish novelist, translator, historian, and editor, Gil Blas (1749), Book X, Chap. 1

A Thin Red Line

There's only a thin red line between the sane and the mad.

-- James Jones (1921 - 1977), American author, The Thin Red Line (1962) "Old midwestern saying" created by Jones for his story, as stated in James Jones: An American Literary Orientalist Master (1998) by Steven R. Carter

Pulling Us Back

From the cabin of Integrity here, as we surpass the furthest distance humans have ever traveled from planet Earth, we do so in honoring the extraordinary efforts and feats of our predecessors in human space exploration.  We will continue our journey even further into space before Mother Earth succeeds in pulling us back to everything that we hold dear.  But we most importantly choose this moment to challenge this generation and the next to make sure this record is not long-lived.

-- CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen aboard NASA's Orion spacecraft during the Artemis II test flight around the Moon, traveling 248,655 miles from Earth, surpassing the record for human spaceflight's farthest distance previously set by the Apollo 13 mission in 1970 (6 April 2026)

Family Vacation

The family is always the family but during vacations it is an extended family and that is exhausting.

-- Gertrude Stein (1874 - 1946), American expatriate writer, poet, feminist, and playwright, Paris France (1970), p. 107

Authoritarianism And Secrecy

Authoritarianism and secrecy breed incompetence; the two feed on each other.  It's a vicious cycle.  Governments with authoritarian tendencies point to what is in fact their own incompetence as the rationale for giving them yet more power.

-- Josh Marshall (1969 -), American political journalist and blogger, Talking Points Memo (17 January 2006)

Artemis II

NASA's Artemis II is the first crewed mission of the Artemis program and will carry NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, as well as CSA (Canadian Space Agency) astronaut Jeremy Hansen on an approximately 10-day mission around the Moon and back to Earth. 

The first crewed deep-space flight in over 50 years, Artemis II is expected to send the crew farther from Earth than any previous human mission, potentially breaking the record of about 248,655 miles (400,171 km) from Earth set by Apollo 13 during its lunar free-return trajectory.  This milestone will occur during the lunar flyby phase, when the crew travels on a free-return trajectory around the Moon, which allows the spacecraft to loop around the Moon and return to Earth without entering lunar orbit. 

During the test flight, NASA will test life-support systems and critical operations in deep space, paving the way for future lunar landings and Mars exploration. 

-- Jason Costa at Nasa.gov, "LIVE: Artemis II Launch Day Updates" (1 April 2026)