The Long War

Yesterday, the Iraq conflict marked its 1,349th day, surpassing the length of World War II and its 1,348 days.

Vacation

No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one.

-- Elbert Hubbard

A Toast!

Enjoy the present hour,
Be thankful for the past,
And neither fear nor wish
Th' approaches of the last.

-- Abraham Cowley (1618-1667)

Put That Banner Away

The neoconservatives' moment in the sun may have been cathartic for those Americans who wanted a credo that would echo their self-righteous rage. But it has left America despised and weakened globally, strengthened our enemies, and divided our country. It's time to put the crusaders' banner away.

-- Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, November, 2006

Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran

... [P]repar[ing] to bomb Iran should be a top priority for the movement in the next two years. Make no mistake, President Bush will need to bomb Iran's nuclear facilities before leaving office. We need to pave the way intellectually now and be prepared to defend the action when it comes.

-- American Enterprise Fellow Joshua Muravchik, in the latest edition of Foreign Policy Magazine


I hope this guy got the November 7th memo from the voters.

Guillermo Mota

Regarding drugs in sports, don't you wish that just one guy who got caught would accept responsibility for his actions? Maybe say something like ...

"I have no-one to blame but myself. I take full responsibility for my actions and accept MLB's suspension. I used extremely poor judgment and deserve to be held accountable. To my teammates and the entire Mets organization, I am sorry. I truly regret what I did and hope that you can forgive me. To baseball fans everywhere, I understand that you are disappointed in me, and I don't blame you."

-- NY Mets Reliever Guillermo Mota, 11/1/06, on receiving a 50-game suspension for violating MLB drug policy

Life Is Like A Box Of Congressmen

About $2.6 billion was spent on the 468 House and Senate races. (Scandalized? Don't be. Americans spend that much on chocolate every two months.)

-- George F. Will (Washington Post, November 9, 2006)

Finger Pointing 101

James Baker of the Iraq Study Group is Bush I's go-to guy when W gets in real trouble (as in Florida 2000).

I imagine he sees his mandate as preserving the Bush legacy. That being the case, we now have Rumsfeld as the absent scapegoat for the current situation. Baker & the ISG will come up with a plan (doesn't matter what the plan is); Congress will be quick to endorse it, because otherwise they'd have to come up with their own plan, which would entail responsibility for its efficacy (something they *really* don't want).

Bush then will be able to say that the ISG & Congress have shown him the only politically practical way forward, and if that plan then fails, it won't be his fault, it will be the fault of the ISG & Congress. I'm sure W and his handlers already blame the electorate for being too weak-minded to support his proper plan of staying the course.

Does that secure the Bush legacy? Does it harm the newly-Democrat controlled Congress, or are they protected in the same way as Bush (i.e., if the plan fails, it's the ISG's fault)?

Progress

I do think we'll be able to measure progress. You can measure progress in capacity of Iraqi units. You can measure progress in megawatts of electricity delivered. You can measure progress in terms of oil sold on the market on behalf of the Iraqi people. There's ways to determine whether or not this government's plans are succeeding.

-- President George W. Bush, June 14, 2006

Survivors

Between 1983 and 2000 there were 568 plane crashes in the United States, with 53,487 people onboard. And 51,207 survived.

-- ABC News Nightline, 11/03/06

Public Opinion

Towering over presidents and [congress] ... public opinion stands out, in the United States, as the great source of power, the master of servants who tremble before it.

-- James Bryce, "The American Commonwealth," 1888; cited in Robert J. Samuelson, "What if We're to Blame?: Public Opinion and Muddled Policies" (Washington post, November 1, 2006)

Backing A Winner

Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.

-- Mark B. Cohen

Two Possible Outcomes

There's two possible outcomes: If the result confirms the hypothesis, then you've made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you've made a discovery.

-- Enrico Fermi, Nobel Prize winning Italian Physicist (1901-1954)

Vote

The man who can right himself by a vote will seldom resort to a musket.

-- James Fenimore Cooper

Voters Decide Nothing

Voters decide nothing; people who count votes decide everything.

-- Joseph Stalin

Great Thing About Democracy

The great thing about democracy is that it gives every voter a chance to do something stupid.

-- Art Spander

Vote For Someone

You've got to vote for someone. It's a shame, but it's got to be done.

-- Whoopi Goldberg

Candidates

If God had wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates.

-- Jay Leno

For Principle

Always vote for principle, though you may vote alone, and you may cherish the sweetest reflection that your vote is never lost.

-- John Quincy Adams, 1767 - 1848

Never Trust A Computer

Never trust a computer you can't throw out a window.

-- Steve Wozniak

Seek Simplicity

Seek simplicity, and distrust it.

-- Alfred North Whitehead

Danger From All Men

There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty.

-- John Adams, Journal, 1772

Black Cat

It is difficult to catch a black cat in a dark room -- especially if the cat isn't there.

-- Chinese Proverb

Angriest People

The angriest people in this country are not those who opposed the war but those of us who supported it. I mean, we were completely deceived.

-- Pundit Andrew Sullivan; cited in Alex Koppelman, "Sullivan's Travels: Openly Gay Pundit Andrew Sullivan Maps His Transformation from Bush Disciple to Harsh Critic of the Administration" (Salon, October 16)

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/10/16/sullivan/print.html

Relentless Drift

There is a time when we must firmly choose the course we will follow, or the relentless drift of events will make the decision for us.

-- Herbert Prochnow

People Say They Love Truth

People say they love truth, but in reality they want to believe that which they love is true.

-- Robert J. Ringer

Complicated

Only in an election year this complicated can Republicans be happy that Mark Foley knocked the Iraq war off the front page.

-- Mark Campbell, a Republican strategist representing several Congressional candidates. New York Times, 10/19/06

Few Things

Few things are needed to make a wise man happy; nothing can make a fool content; that is why most men are miserable.

-- Francois De La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680, French classical writer)

300,000,000

US Population now 300,000,000 (and change).

A birth every 7 seconds.
A death every 13 seconds.
Two new immigrants every minute.

A net change of +1 every 11 seconds.

Palm T|X

Palm T|X

... as of 9am this morning, with WiFi, and which theoretically can talk Bluetooth with my new cell phone to get Internet connectivity everywhere.

So, over the weekend I wanted to listen to the St. Louis Cardinals baseball game, but WDWS was carrying UI women's volleyball. I caught the game on ESPN radio out of Chicago, but reception was pretty poor.

But I found myself musing that with the phone delivering IP via Bluetooth to the Palm I could stream RealAudio over the web to the Palm, then deliver it to the car stereo with the FM broadcast module that plugs into the headphone jack on the Palm. That would be RealAudio over IP over Bluetooth over the cellular CDMA network delivered to the stereo via FM. I'll hafta try that.

SAFE Ports

The Safe Accountability For Every Port Act of 2006 authorizes $3.4 billion over five years for safety measures, including installing radiation detectors at the 22 largest US ports by the end of next year, and increasing the number of random searches of the 11 million containers coming through US ports every year.
[Washington Post]

I'm glad to see Congress and the Administration doing something in this area. But I noticed that the $ amount quoted shines a bright light on the dollar cost of the Iraq war which, at about $1 billion per week, eats up as much as this 5-year allocation every 25 days or so.

Key To Understanding Kids

Jargon and slang speak volumes about the people who use them. Like a form of data compression, they can pack a tremendous amount of information -- the values, ideas, anxieties, and humor of a subculture -- into a single word or phrase. We can learn a lot about a subculture by decompressing its language.

-- Gareth Branwyn, American journalist and writer, "Jargon Watch", 1997

The Leading Edge

There's a fine line between being on the leading edge and being in the lunatic fringe.

-- Frank Armstrong [Preparing for Tomorrow's Challenges]

Duels

I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.

-- Mark Twain

Baseball, The Only Orderly Thing

Baseball is almost the only orderly thing in a very unorderly world. If you get three strikes, even the best lawyer in the world can't get you off.

-- Bill Veeck

My Method

My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity.

-- George Bernard Shaw, Answers to Nine Questions. Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

Accustomed

When will we realize that the fact that we can become accustomed to anything, however disgusting at first, makes it necessary to examine carefully everything we have become accustomed to?

-- George Bernard Shaw, A Treatise on Parents and Children. Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

Political Necessities

Political necessities sometimes turn out to be political mistakes.

-- George Bernard Shaw, St. Joan (1923). Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

Political Capacity

We must either breed political capacity or be ruined by Democracy, which was forced on us by the failure of the older alternatives. Yet if Despotism failed only for want of a capable benevolent despot, what chance has Democracy, which requires a whole population of capable voters?

-- George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman (1903). Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

A Yawn

A yawn is an honest opinion.

-- George Bernard Shaw. Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

What Really Flatters

What really flatters a man is that you think him worth flattering.

-- George Bernard Shaw. Irish literary Critic, Playwright and Essayist. 1925 Nobel Laureate in Literature, 1856-1950

Biggest Problem

The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.

-- George Bernard Shaw. Irish literary critic, playwright and essayist. 1925 Nobel laureate in literature, 1856-1950

A Negative Judgement

A negative judgement gives you more satisfaction than praise, provided it smacks of jealousy.

-- Jean Baudrillard

Hallmark

I know all about America ... I've seen the Hallmark Channel.

-- Amal Nuradia, 27, a Somalian refugee; cited in Edmund Sanders, "All About America in 3 Days" (Los Angeles Times, September 12, 2006)

Easier

It is easier to make war than to make peace.

-- Georges Clemenceau, French politician, recently quoted by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld in his speech to the American Legion in Salt Lake City

Mugged

I'm a neoconservative who's been mugged by reality.

-- John Agresto, president of St. John's College in Santa Fe, N.M., who came to Iraq to build a whole new university system and left having accomplished almost nothing; cited in Sidney Blumenthal, "Emerald City Exposed" (Salon, 9/13)

El Diablo

The devil himself is right in the house. And the devil came here yesterday. Right here. It smells of sulfur still today, this table that I am now standing in front of.

-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the UN, 9/19/06, a day after President Bush spoke there

Results

However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.

-- Winston Churchill, attributed

Lids

It's a good idea to keep a lid on anything that has a lid.

-- Heather Appleman

Fine Line

Correct me if I'm wrong, but hasn't the fine line between sanity and madness gotten finer?

-- George Price

CIA Adage

The first time is happenstance, the second time is coincidence, but the third time is enemy action.

-- Old CIA Adage

Window Pane

Many a doctrine is like a window pane. We see truth through it but it divides us from truth.

-- Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931)

Politics

Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.

-- Ronald Reagan

Obama

For too long, the philosophy in Washington has been that you can spend without consequence or sacrifice. That we can fight a war in Iraq and a war on terror, protect our homeland, provide our citizens with Medicare and Social Security and maintain our domestic priorities, all while cutting taxes for the wealthy and funding every local project there is.

-- Senator Barack Obama, (D-IL) in the Chicago Tribune, November, 2005

Remembering The Past

Remembering the past gives power to the present.

-- Fae Myenne Ng, Chinese-American author (1957-)

No Obligation

Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect.

-- Margaret Mitchell

Less Than A Second

Everything you ever do on a daily basis should take less than a second.

-- Linus Torvalds, April, 2005

Agassi

The scoreboard said I lost today, but what the scoreboard doesn't say is what it is I have found. Over the last 21 years, I have found loyalty. You have pulled for me on the court and also in life. I found inspiration. You have willed me to succeed, sometimes even in my lowest moments, and I've found generosity. You have given me your shoulders to stand on to reach for my dreams, dreams I could never have reached without you.

-- Andre Agassi, to the fans after the last match of his professional tennis career. New York Times, September 4, 2006

Rob Peter

A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend upon the support of Paul.

-- George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born dramatist, critic, novelist, and Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

Cynicism

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it.

-- George Bernard Shaw, Irish-born dramatist, critic, novelist, and Nobel laureate (1856-1950)

Looking For Trouble

Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.

-- Ernest Benn

An Idealist

An idealist is one who, on noticing that a rose smells better than a cabbage, concludes that it will also make better soup.

-- H. L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

A Cynic

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.

-- H. L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Moral Standards

Whenever 'A' attempts by law to impose his moral standards upon 'B', 'A' is most likely a scoundrel.

-- H. L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

All Men Are Frauds

All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.

-- H. L. Mencken

Common Sense

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

-- H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Common Sense

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.

-- H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Reality Must Take Precedence

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.

-- Richard Feynmann

Under The Law

With all its defects, delays and inconveniences, men have discovered no technique for long preserving free government except that the Executive be under the law, and that the law be made by parliamentary deliberations.

-- Supreme Court Justice J. Jackson's concurring opinion in Youngstown Sheet & Tube v. Sawyer

What Is Done Well

What is done well is done quickly enough.

-- Augustus Caesar

Drugs And Dreams

I don't use drugs, my dreams are frightening enough.

-- Maurits Cornelis Escher, 1898 - 1972

Nothing Is Enough

Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.

-- Epicurus (c.341-270 BC, Greek philosopher)

I Just Need Enough

I just need enough to tide me over until I need more.

-- Bill Hoest

Under Control

If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough.

-- Mario Andretti (1940-, Italian-born American auto racer)

Unfit

We are born charming, fresh and spontaneous and must be civilized before we are fit to participate in society.

-- Judith Martin, (Miss Manners)

Never Be A Civilized Country

This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do on chewing gum.

-- Elbert Hubbard

Hesitate To Say Anything Nice

I hesitate to say anything nice about him, for fear that it would be used against him. And that's a terrible commentary on the state of politics and the political climate today.

-- Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, on Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, Democrat of Connecticut. New York Times, July 16, 2006

An Insult Instead Of A Stone

The first human who hurled an insult instead of a stone was the founder of civilization.

-- Sigmund Freud, neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis (1856-1939)

The Right To Be Let Alone

The right to be let alone -- the most comprehensive of rights and the right most valued by civilized men.

-- Supreme Court Justice Louis D. Brandeis, (November 13, 1856 - October 3, 1941)

A Gift Of God

Technology is a gift of God. After the gift of life it is perhaps the greatest of God's gifts. It is the mother of civilizations, of arts and of sciences.

-- Freeman Dyson

True Civilization

The true civilization is where every man gives to every other every right that he claims for himself.

-- Robert Green Ingersoll, lawyer and orator (1833-1899)

War Is Hell

It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.

-- William Tecumseh Sherman, Union General in the American Civil War (1820-1891)

Landis

One day before he was the leader, then he was defeated. But he was no coward, and thanks to his great heart, it is a very great performance.

-- Jean-Marie LeBlanc, director of the Tour de France, on the performance of Floyd Landis. New York Times, 7/26/07

--

Landis had the overall lead after the first really tough mountain stage in the Alps. He then lost the lead by eight minutes the next day, falling into 11th place. It appeared that his chances of winning were over.

The very next day Landis rode a solo, 145-km breakaway on the final mountain stage, winning by 7:30 and rising to second place, 30 seconds out. Two days later, in the final stage before the arrival in Paris, Landis won the individual time trial by a minute and a half, ultimately winning the overall by 59 seconds in one of the closest, most back-and-forth tours ever. Unfortunately, several days later it was revealed that Landis tested positive for synthetic testosterone on the day of his epic comeback.

Wildness Is A Necessity

Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.

-- John Muir, naturalist, explorer, and writer (1838-1914)

Indictments Of Civilization

One of the indictments of civilizations is that happiness and intelligence are so rarely found in the same person.

-- William Feather (1888-1981, American writer, businessman)

Acknowledge A Fault

Always acknowledge a fault quite frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more.

-- Mark Twain, 1835 - 1910

Every Great Advance

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

-- Thomas Huxley (1825-1895)

Our Memories Are Card Indexes

Our memories are card indexes -- consulted, and then put back in disorder, by authorities whom we do not control.

-- Cyril Connolly

To Punish Me

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

-- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Unthinking Respect

Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.

-- Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel laureate (1879-1955)

Always Right

Under the law of war, the President is always right.

-- Justice Department representative Steven Bradbury; cited by Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times, July 14, 2006

Undesirable To Believe

It is undesirable to believe a proposition when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.

-- Bertrand Russell, Sceptical Essays (1928), "On the Value of Scepticism"

One Of The Commonest Mistakes

It is one of the commonest of mistakes to consider that the limit of our power of perception is also the limit of all there is to perceive.

-- C. W. Leadbeater

The Power Of The Symbol

The power of the symbol comes from the nature of perception and thought. The train whistle makes us see the train, the footstep in the hall reminds us of the family relative. The oranges bring back the breakfast table.

-- Delmore Schwartz

Syd Barrett

My head kissed the ground
I was half the way down, treading the sand
Please, please, lift a hand
I'm only a person whose armbands beat
On his hands, hang tall
Won't you miss me?
Wouldn't you miss me at all?

-- Syd Barrett (January 6, 1946 - July 7, 2006), Co-founder of British psychedelic rock band Pink Floyd, lyrics to "Dark Globe" from the album "The Madcap Laughs"

Chastity Of The Intellect

Scepticism is the chastity of the intellect, and it is shameful to surrender it too soon, or to the first comer.

-- George Santayana, 1863 - 1921

What And How

Once the "what" is decided, the "how" always follows. We must not make the "how" an excuse for not facing and accepting the "what".

-- Pearl Buck

Free And Unrestrained Press

Only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government.

-- Hugo Black, Supreme Court Justice

Skepticism A Virtue

Most institutions demand unqualified faith; but the institution of science makes skepticism a virtue.

-- Robert King Merton, sociologist (1910-2003)

Pessimist?

To the question whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic.

-- Albert Schweitzer, philosopher, physician, musician, Nobel laureate (1875-1965)