Commercial Exploitation

Be it religion, love under all its forms, literature, or art, there is not a single spiritual force that does not become an object of commercial exploitation.

-- Etienne Gilson

Santa Claus

I stopped believing in Santa Claus when my mother took me to see him in a department store, and he asked for my autograph.

-- Shirley Temple

Going To Church

Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car.

-- Laurence J. Peter, 1919 - 1990

It Should Never Come To That

I'm glad to see Congress push through Senator McCain's prohibition against torture. While I don't expect it to provide any protection for our troops with respect to our current adversary, it's necessary for two major reasons. First, the United States should be above such tactics, regardless of the nature of the enemy. Second, torture (or abusive interrogation techniques of any kind) are an instance of punishment prior to adjudication. Due process is the key to any system that seeks to mete out actual justice. This was clearly demonstrated in the case of the German citizen, Khaled El-Masri, who was kidnapped by the CIA and interrogated for 5 months in an extra-judicial prison in Afghanistan. This proved to be a case of mistaken identity, as the victim of this "extraordinary rendition" merely shared the name of the person sought. Without the oversight of the courts and some semblance of due process, any number of innocent people could be swept up and "disappeared" by the government. In America, it should never come to that.

Onward, Moderate Christian Soldiers

Onward, moderate Christian soldiers
John C. Danforth, The New York Times
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 22, 2005

ST. LOUIS, Missouri It would be an oversimplification to say that America's culture wars are now between people of faith and nonbelievers. People of faith are not of one mind, whether on specific issues like stem cell research and government intervention in the case of Terri Schiavo, or the more general issue of how religion relates to politics.

In recent years, conservative Christians have presented themselves as representing the one authentic Christian perspective on politics. With due respect for our conservative friends, equally devout Christians come to very different conclusions.

It is important for those of us who are sometimes called moderates to make the case that we, too, have strongly held Christian convictions, that we speak from the depths of our beliefs, and that our approach to politics is at least as faithful as that of those who are more conservative. Our difference concerns the extent to which government should, or even can, translate religious beliefs into the laws of the state.

People of faith have the right, and perhaps the obligation, to bring their values to bear in politics. Many conservative Christians approach politics with a certainty that they know God's truth, and that they can advance the kingdom of God through governmental action. So they have developed a political agenda to do so.

Moderate Christians are less certain about when and how our beliefs can be translated into statutory form, not because of a lack of faith in God but because of a healthy acknowledgment of the limitations of human beings. Like conservative Christians, we attend church, read the Bible and say our prayers.

But for us, the only absolute standard of behavior is the commandment to love our neighbors as ourselves. Repeatedly in the Gospels, we find that the Love Commandment takes precedence when it conflicts with laws. We struggle to follow that commandment as we face the realities of everyday living, and we do not agree that our responsibility to live as Christians can be codified by legislators.

When, on television, we see a person in a persistent vegetative state, one who will never recover, we believe that allowing the natural and merciful end to her ordeal is more loving than imposing government power to keep her hooked up to a feeding tube.

When we see an opportunity to save our neighbors' lives through stem cell research, we believe that it is our duty to pursue that research, and to oppose legislation that would impede us from doing so.

We think that efforts to haul references of God into the public square, into schools and courthouses, are far more apt to divide Americans than to advance faith.

Following a Lord who reached out in compassion to all human beings, we oppose amending the Constitution in a way that would humiliate homosexuals.

For us, living the Love Commandment may be at odds with efforts to encapsulate Christianity in a political agenda. We strongly support the separation of church and state, both because that principle is essential to holding together a diverse country, and because the policies of the state always fall short of the demands of faith. Aware that even our most passionate ventures into politics are efforts to carry the treasure of religion in the earthen vessel of government, we proceed in a spirit of humility lacking in our conservative colleagues.

In the decade since I left the Senate, American politics has been characterized by two phenomena: the increased activism of the Christian right, especially in the Republican Party, and the collapse of bipartisan collegiality. I do not think it is a stretch to suggest a relationship between the two.

To assert that I am on God's side and you are not, that only I know God's will, and that I will use the power of government to advance my understanding of God's kingdom is certain to produce hostility. By contrast, moderate Christians see ourselves, literally, as moderators. Far from claiming to possess God's truth, we claim only to be imperfect seekers of the truth.

We reject the notion that religion should present a series of wedge issues useful at election time for energizing a political base. We believe it is God's work to practice humility, to wear tolerance on our sleeves, to reach out to those with whom we disagree, and to overcome the meanness we see in today's politics.

Christians who hold these convictions ought to add their clear voice of moderation to the debate on religion in politics.

(John C. Danforth is an Episcopal minister and a former Republican senator from Missouri.)

Hope

Hope is not a strategy.

-- Thomas McInerney

God's Promise

God has promised forgiveness to your repentance, but He has not promised tomorrow to your procrastination.

-- Augustine of Hippo, 354 - 430

You Can Pretend

You can pretend to be serious; you can't pretend to be witty.

-- Sacha Guitry

I Had A Life

I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst ... in other words, I had a life.

-- Richard Pryor (December 1, 1940 - December 10, 2005), American actor and comedian

The Unknown

The unknown is what it is. And to be frightened of it is what sends everybody scurrying around chasing dreams, illusions, wars, peace, love, hate, all that. Unknown is what it is. Accept that it's unknown, and it's plain sailing.

-- John Lennon, October 9, 1940 - December 8, 1980

Achievement Vs. Success

My mother drew a distinction between achievement and success. She said that achievement is the knowledge that you have studied and worked hard and done the best that is in you. Success is being praised by others. That is nice but not as important or satisfying. Always aim for achievement and forget about success.

-- Helen Hayes

Man Vs. Trvth

The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple.

-- Rebecca West

Fanaticism

Fanaticism consists of redoubling your efforts when you have forgotten your aim.

-- George Santayana

Bite Me

Never break up a dog fight with your face.

-- Don Appleman, 11/29/05

Mind Is The Forerunner

Mind is the forerunner of (all evil) states. Mind is chief; mind-made are they. If one speaks or acts with wicked mind, suffering follows one, even as the wheel follows the hoof of the draught-ox.

Mind is the forerunner of (all good) states. Mind is chief; mind-made are they. If one speaks or acts with pure mind, affection follows one, even as one's shadow that never leaves.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Beginning And Ending

Everything that has a beginning has an ending. Make your peace with that and all will be well.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Secret Of Existence

The whole secret of existence is to have no fear. Never fear what will become of you, depend on no one. Only the moment you reject all help are you freed.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Envy

Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Buddha On Truth

The truth cures our diseases and redeems us from perdition; the truth strengthens us in life and in death; the truth alone can conquer the evils of error.

-- Buddha (B.C. 568-488)

Gratitude

Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy, and change ordinary opportunities into blessings.

-- William Arthur Ward

Matters Of Opinion

In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane.

-- Oscar Wilde

Taken For Granted

People often cannot see what they take for granted until they encounter someone who does not take it for granted.

-- "Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences," (MIT Press, 1999), by UC-San Diego communications professors Geoffrey C. Bowker and Susan Leigh Star)

Outlaw Privacy

If privacy is outlawed, only outlaws will have privacy.

-- Phil Zimmermann, cryptographer (1954- )

Privacy

Relying on the government to protect your privacy is like asking a peeping tom to install your window blinds.

-- John Perry Barlow

Cure For Boredom

The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

-- Ellen Parr

The Wheel Goes Round

The wheel goes round and round, some are up and some are on the down, and still the wheel goes round.

-- Josephine Pollard (1843-1892, American poet)

No More Fatal Blunderer

There is no more fatal blunderer than he who consumes the greater part of his life getting his living.

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862, American essayist, poet, naturalist)

Lessons Not Learned

The Soviet concept for military occupation of Afghanistan was based on the following:

* stabilizing the country by garrisoning the main routes, major cities, airbases and logistics sites;
* relieving the Afghan government forces of garrison duties and pushing them into the countryside to battle the resistance;
* providing logistic, air, artillery and intelligence support to the Afghan forces;
* providing minimum interface between the Soviet occupation forces and the local populace;
* accepting minimal Soviet casualties; and,
* strengthening the Afghan forces, so once the resistance was defeated, the Soviet Army could be withdrawn.

-- General (Ret) Mohammad Yahya Nawroz, Army of Afghanistan, and Lester W. Grau, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas in "The Soviet War in Afghanistan: History and Harbinger of Future War?" (June 1996)

http://www.ciaonet.org/cbr/cbr00/video/cbr_ctd/cbr_ctd_52.html

American Idiot

American Idiot -- by Green Day (sorry, I lack specific writing credits)

Don't want to be an American idiot.
Don't want a nation under the new media.
And can you hear the sound of hysteria?
The subliminal mindfuck America.

[refrain] Welcome to a new kind of tension.
All across the alien nation.
Everything isn't meant to be okay.
Television dreams of tomorrow.
We're not the ones who're meant to follow.
Well that's enough to argue.

Well maybe I'm the faggot America.
I'm not a part of a redneck agenda.
Now everybody do the propaganda.
And sing along in the age of paranoia.

[refrain]

Don't want to be an American idiot.
One nation controlled by the media.
Information age of hysteria.
It's going out to idiot America.

[refrain]

Geological Consent

Civilization exists by geological consent, subject to change without notice.

-- Will Durant

Torture This

No individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States Government, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment.

-- Key phrase in Senator John McCain's anti-torture amendment to the Senate's defense spending bill, threatened with veto by President Bush


[The measure] shall not apply with respect to clandestine counterterrorism operations conducted abroad, with respect to terrorists who are not citizens of the United States, that are carried out by an element of the United States government other than the Department of Defense and are consistent with the Constitution and laws of the United States and treaties to which the United States is a party, if the President determines that such operations are vital to the protection of the United States or its citizens from terrorist attack.

-- Exemption to the McCain amendment being pushed by VP Dick Cheney

As Certain About Anything

As I stood before the gates I realized that I never want to be as certain about anything as were the people who built this place.

-- Rabbi Sheila Peltz, on her visit to Auschwitz

Small Things

Often we allow ourselves to be upset by small things we should despise and forget. We lose many irreplaceable hours brooding over grievances that, in a year's time, will be forgotten by us and by everybody. No, let us devote our life to worthwhile actions and feelings, to great thoughts, real affections, and enduring undertakings.

-- Andre Maurois (1885-1967), French Writer

Cherish What Makes You Unique

Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes!

-- Bette Midler (1945-) American singer, entertainer, actress

Yearbook

Sam intends to go to law school and eventually warm a seat on the Supreme Court.

-- 1972 Princeton Yearbook, regarding Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito

Responsibilities

It is easy to dodge our responsibilities, but we cannot dodge the consequences of dodging our responsibilities.

-- Sir Josiah Stamp (1880-1941)

Crime

C'est plus qu'un crime, c'est une faute (it's worse thana crime, it's a blunder).

-- Charles de Talleyrand, 18th Century French statesman

The Thing That Sustains

The only thing that sustains one through life is the consciousness of the immense inferiority of everybody else, and this is a feeling that I have always cultivated.

-- Oscar Wilde, "The Remarkable Rocket"

Find The Strangest Thing

In any field, find the strangest thing and then explore it.

-- John A. Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (1911-)

RIP Rosa

It was not pre-arranged. It just happened that the driver made a demand and I just didn't feel like obeying his demand ... I was quite tired after spending a full day working.

-- Rosa Parks (February 4, 1913 - October 24, 2005)

Sea Of Ignorance

We live on an island surrounded by a sea of ignorance. As our island of knowledge grows, so does the shore of our ignorance.

-- John A. Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (1911-)

Find Something Strange

If you haven't found something strange during the day, it hasn't been much of a day.

-- John A. Wheeler, American theoretical physicist (1911-)

Dangerous Patriot

The dangerous patriot ... drifts into chauvinism and exhibits blind enthusiasm for military actions.

-- Colonel James A. Donovan, USMC

Too Much Reality

Humankind cannot stand very much reality.

-- T. S. Eliot

Sick In America

You can't just be sick. You have to be sick and be drowning in paperwork.

-- Ellen Mayer of Chester, NY, who has gastrointestinal cancer, New York Times, October 13, 2005

Manufacture Of Consent

The manufacture of consent ... was supposed to have died out with the appearance of democracy ... but it has not died out. It has, in fact, improved enormously in technique ... Under the impact of propaganda, it is no longer plausible to believe in the original dogma of democracy.

-- Walter Lippman

Very Nice

Oh, a sleeping drunkard
Up in Central Park,
And a lion-hunter
In the jungle dark,
And a Chinese dentist,
And a British queen --
All fit together
In the same machine.
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice;
Nice, nice, very nice --
So many different people
In the same device.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

What We Pretend To Be

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "Mother Night" (1961)

Unquestioning Faith

Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "Mother Night" (1961)

Please Notice

And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, "If this isn't nice, I don't know what is."

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. "Knowing What's Right", In These Times, 2003

Don't Be Reckless

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, And don't put up with people that are reckless with yours.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Liberal Or Conservative

Thanks to TV and for the convenience of TV, you can only be one of two kinds of human beings, either a liberal or a conservative.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004

RIP Nipsey

The genius who created me only took care of my dashing good looks, my razor sharp wit, and my irresistible attraction to the wrong women.

-- Nipsey Russell (1924-2005) as the Tinman, in The Wiz

No Criticism

To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.

-- Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US President (1858-1919)

A New Population

When 25 percent of the population believe that the president should be impeached and 51 percent believe in UFOs, you may or may not need a new president, but you definitely need a new population.

-- Harry Reasoner (1923-1991), American journalist and news commentator

Repetition

Were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults in the first.

-- Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American scientist, publisher, diplomat

Hot Lead

US Forced To Import Bullets From Israel As Troops Use 250,000 For Every Rebel Killed - Andrew Buncombe (Independent, September 25, 2005)

US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan -- an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed -- that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand. As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article314944.ece

Saying What We Think

Saying what we think gives us a wider conversational range than saying what we know.

-- Cullen Hightower

Support The Troops

You can support the troops but not the president.

-- Representative Tom Delay (R-TX) on Clinton's actions in Bosnia

Swing Again

We will swing again in that place.

-- Kermit Ruffins, a trumpeter, on New Orleans, New York Times, Monday, September 26, 2005

RIP Don Adams

I may never get to play with the Philharmonic, but on the other hand, is Leonard Bernstein licensed to kill?

-- Don Adams (April 13, 1923 - September 25, 2005) as Agent Maxwell Smart, "Get Smart"

Hurricane

They said today that we should stock up on canned goods. So I went out and bought a case of beer.

-- John Gretchen III, preparing for a hurricane, 1984

Sharing Religious Views

People who want to share their religious views with you almost never want you to share yours with them.

-- Dave Barry, author and columnist (1947- )

Example Of Nonconformity

In this age, the mere example of nonconformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service.

-- John Stuart Mill, philosopher and economist (1806-1873)

Nuke Em

... In an article in the Asia Times, independent journalist Jim Lobe interviews Ivan Oelrich, of the Federation for American Scientists, who says one of the things that concerns him about the [draft Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations plan] is the way that it conflates several different levels of threats into one form of WMD threat.

"What we are seeing now is an effort to lay the foundations for the legitimacy of using nuclear weapons if [the administration] suspects another country might use chemical weapons against us," he said. "Iraq is a perfect example of how this doctrine might actually work; it was a country where we were engaged militarily and thought it would deploy chemical weapons against us."

Philip Giraldi, former CIA analyst and member of the Defense Intelligence Agency, wrote in The American Conservative last month that Vice President Dick Cheney's office has requested the United States Strategic Command (STRATCOM) to draw up a plan to respond to another "9/11 type attack on the US."

The plan includes a large-scale air assault on Iran employing both conventional and tactical nuclear weapons. Within Iran there are more than 450 major strategic targets, including numerous suspected nuclear-weapons-program development sites. Many of the targets are hardened or are deep underground and could not be taken out by conventional weapons, hence the nuclear option. As in the case of Iraq, the response is not conditional on Iran actually being involved in the act of terrorism directed against the United States. Several senior Air Force officers involved in the planning are reportedly appalled at the implications of what they are doing--that Iran is being set up for an unprovoked nuclear attack--but no one is prepared to damage his career by posing any objections.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0914/dailyUpdate.html
http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/policy/dod/jp3_12fc2.pdf

Taking Stock Of The Forever War

Instead of fighting the real war that was thrust upon us on that incomprehensible morning four years ago, we stubbornly insisted on fighting a war of the imagination, an ideological struggle that we defined not by frankly appraising the real enemy before us but by focusing on the mirror of our own obsessions. And we have finished -- as the escalating numbers of terrorist attacks, the grinding Iraq insurgency, the overstretched American military and the increasing political dissatisfaction at home show -- by fighting precisely the kind of war they wanted us to fight.

-- Mark Danner, Taking Stock of the Forever War, New York Times, September 11, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/magazine/11OSAMA.html

Morality

Morality, I suppose, is the wisdom that prevents sacrificing long-term happiness for short-term happiness.

-- Gerald M. Weinberg, Understanding the Professional Programmer, 1988

No Inevitability

There is absolutely no inevitability as long as there is a willingness to contemplate what is happening.

-- Marshall McLuhan

Expert

My definition of an expert in any field is a person who knows enough about what's really going on to be scared.

-- P.J. Plauger, Computer Language Magazine, March 1983

Paid For Our Suspicions

There is no rule more invariable than that we are paid for our suspicions by finding what we suspect.

-- Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

For Every Credibility Gap

For every credibility gap, there is a gullibility fill.

-- Richard Clopton

A Modern Atlantis

Direct Hit in New Orleans Could Mean a Modern Atlantis

More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as [the] 140-mph hurricane churned toward the Gulf coast, threatening to submerge this below-sea-level city in what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.

-- Headline & opening paragraph, USA Today, September 14, 2004 as Hurricane Ivan approached New Orleans


The evacuation of New Orleans in the face of [the] hurricane ... looked sinisterly like Strom Thurmond's version of the Rapture. Affluent white people fled the Big Easy in their SUVs, while the old and car-less -- mainly Black -- were left behind in their below-sea-level shotgun shacks and aging tenements to face the watery wrath.

-- Mike Davis, TomDispatch (www.tomdispatch.com), September, 2004

Misery & Ignorance

We live in a world which is full of misery and ignorance, and the plain duty of each and all of us is to try to make the little corner he can influence somewhat less miserable and somewhat less ignorant than it was before he entered it.

-- Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)

Ragamuffin, Barefoot Irreverence

It is important that students bring a certain ragamuffin, barefoot irreverence to their studies; they are not here to worship what is known, but to question it.

-- Jacob Bronowski [The Ascent of Man] (1908-1974)

Never Despair

Never despair; but if you do, work on in despair.

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797)

Nothing More Weak Than Water

In the world there is nothing more submissive and weak than water. Yet for attacking that which is hard and strong nothing can surpass it.

-- Lao Tzu

Growing Up

Growing up is giving up.

-- Graffitist Borf; cited in Libby Copeland, "The Mark of Borf: with Graffitist's Arrest, Police Put a Name to the Familiar Face" (Washington Post, July 14, 2005)

Examine The Service

If things are not going well with you, begin your effort at correcting the situation by carefully examining the service you are rendering, and especially the spirit in which you are rendering it.

-- Roger Babson (1875-1967, American statistician, columnist)

WillYouJoinUs

Energy will be one of the defining issues of this century. One thing is clear: the era of easy oil is over. What we all do next will determine how well we meet the energy needs of the entire world in this century and beyond.

Demand is soaring like never before. As populations grow and economies take off, millions in the developing world are enjoying the benefits of a lifestyle that requires increasing amounts of energy. In fact, some say that in 20 years the world will consume 40% more oil than it does today. At the same time, many of the world's oil and gas fields are maturing. And new energy discoveries are mainly occurring in places where resources are difficult to extract, physically, economically and even politically. When growing demand meets tighter supplies, the result is more competition for the same resources.

We can wait until a crisis forces us to do something. Or we can commit to working together ... Whatever actions we take, we must look not just to next year, but to the next 50 years.

-- Text from a new ad campaign from Chevron @ http://www.willyoujoinus.com

Describe Things

If you describe things as better than they are, you are considered to be a romantic; if you describe things as worse than they are, you will be called a realist; and if you describe things exactly as they are, you will be thought of as a satirist.

-- Quentin Crisp, "The Naked Civil Servant"

The Real Test Of Power

Today the real test of power is not capacity to make war but capacity to prevent it.

-- Anne O'Hare McCormick

What We Do Not Want To Know

Far more crucial than what we know or do not know is what we do not want to know.

-- Eric Hoffer

The Winds That Blow

The winds that blow our billions away return burdened with themes of scorn and dispraise.

-- Garet Garrett

Too Much Certainty

I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.

-- Michael Crichton, State of Fear

Tales Of Successful Violence

No society that feeds its children on tales of successful violence can expect them not to believe that violence in the end is rewarded.

-- Margaret Mead, anthropologist (1901-1978)

Marriage Vows

You will reciprocally promise love, loyalty, and matrimonial honesty. We only want for you this day that these words constitute the principle of your entire life and that with the help of divine grace you will observe these solemn vows that today, before God, you formulate.

-- Pope John Paul II


On the occasion of my first "Used to be my anniversary, but isn't anymore".

However Scrupulously Concealed

You have just dined, and however scrupulously the slaughterhouse is concealed in the graceful distance of miles, there is complicity.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher (1803-1882)


When I read this recently, the image that jumped into my mind was someone pumping gas into an SUV, with the Middle East as the slaughterhouse.

No Sufficient Reason

If there is no sufficient reason for war, the war party will make war on one pretext, then invent another ... after the war is on.

-- Senator Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)

In Times Of Peace

In times of peace, the war party insists on making preparations for war. As soon as prepared for, it insists on making war.

-- Senator Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)

War Party

Every nation has its war party. It is not the party of democracy. It is the party of autocracy. It seeks to dominate absolutely.

-- Senator Robert M. La Follette (1855-1925)

It's A Dry Heat

In Iraq, it's a dry heat. And the language that none of our troops or diplomats speak is Arabic rather than Vietnamese.

-- Daniel Ellsberg

Iran v Iraq?

It is true that weapons clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq.

-- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, August, 2005


If this claim is true, with its clear implication that the Iranian government is supporting Iraqi insurgents, can someone tell me why the Iranians would support a largely Sunni Iraqi insurgency against an allied, mainly Shiite government?

Making A Graceful Exit

General Casey, the US commander in Iraq, will announce at an opportune moment before the November 2006 US elections that "Iraqization" has reached a point where he can begin the troop withdrawals that he previewed with Secretary Rumsfeld in Baghdad on July 27. The conservative media conglomerates on which ordinary Americans depend for news will judge Iraq's civil war no longer newsworthy, since US troops are officially not involved. When the carnage becomes too gruesome to ignore, the President will explain that it was the Iraqi politicians, not America's brave soldiers, who had failed. The American people will believe because Bush himself will believe.

-- John Brady Kiesling, freelance writer and former political counselor at the US embassy in Athens. Excerpted from an article in the Athens News, August 5, 2005, page 9

Reason Is A Verb

Many are destined to reason wrongly; others, not to reason at all; and others, to persecute those who do reason.

-- Francois-Marie Arouet de Voltaire (1694-1778, French historian, writer)

Science

science [Lat. scientia=knowledge]. For many the term science refers to the organized body of knowledge concerning the physical world, both animate and inanimate, but a proper definition would also have to include the attitudes and methods through which this body of knowledge is formed; thus, a science is both a particular kind of activity and also the results of that activity.

The Scientific Method
The scientific method has evolved over many centuries and has now come to be described in terms of a well-recognized and well-defined series of steps. First, information, or data, is gathered by careful observation of the phenomenon being studied. On the basis of that information a preliminary generalization, or hypothesis, is formed, usually by inductive reasoning, and this in turn leads by deductive logic to a number of implications that may be tested by further observations and experiments (see induction; deduction). If the conclusions drawn from the original hypothesis successfully meet all these tests, the hypothesis becomes accepted as a scientific theory or law; if additional facts are in disagreement with the hypothesis, it may be modified or discarded in favor of a new hypothesis, which is then subjected to further tests. Even an accepted theory may eventually be overthrown if enough contradictory evidence is found, as in the case of Newtonian mechanics, which was shown after more than two centuries of acceptance to be an approximation valid only for speeds much less than that of light.

Role of Measurement and Experiment
All of the activities of the scientific method are characterized by a scientific attitude, which stresses rational impartiality. Measurement plays an important role, and when possible the scientist attempts to test his theories by carefully designed and controlled experiments that will yield quantitative rather than qualitative results. Theory and experiment work together in science, with experiments leading to new theories that in turn suggest further experiments. Although these methods and attitudes are generally shared by scientists, they do not provide a guaranteed means of scientific discovery; other factors, such as intuition, experience, good
judgment, and sometimes luck, also contribute to new developments in science.

Columbia University Press, http://www.answers.com/science&r=67

Intelligent Design

Intelligent Design: Why limit equal time to biology class?
Salt Lake Tribune 8/05/2005

President Bush has thrown in with those who think that an idea called "intelligent design" should be taught alongside evolution in the nation's schools.

"I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought," the president told some visiting newspaper reporters from his native Texas.

OK. But why stop there?

While the science teacher is at it, he might make the study of astronomy more poetic by including the theory that the sun is not a frighteningly impersonal thermonuclear furnace but actually the flaming chariot of Phoebus Apollo streaking across the sky.

Or he might calm the students' fears of being adrift in a soulless universe by casting aside all this Copernican nonsense and admitting that, as any fool can see just by looking up, the Earth stands still and the sun, moon and stars revolve around us, er, it.

History? Make sure all those open-minded students hear that we never landed on the moon, President Kennedy was killed by the CIA and the Nazis couldn't possibly have killed 6 million Jews.

Seriously, are all those alternative ideas to be banned from the public consciousness? Of course not. They might even be discussed in school, if there's time.

But given the limited time and resources of our schools, and the sometimes minuscule attention span of our students, we need to make sure we don't lose our focus.

In science class, focus on established science.

http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_2915082

Gathering Honey

If you want to gather honey, don't kick over the beehive.

-- Dale Carnegie (1888-1955, American Trainer, author, "How to Win Friends and Influence People")

Kill A Story

Kill a story before it kills you.

-- A simple rule in politics, according to journalists Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen; cited in their "In Plame Leaks, Long Shadows: Rove Knew of CIA Agent, Husband's Role in Criticizing Bush" (Washington Post, July 17, 2005)

Boredom

Boredom: the desire for desires.

-- Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, 1828-1910

Smooth & Easy War

Never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter.

-- Sir Winston Churchill