Reading And Writing

If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time or the tools to write.

-- Stephen King

Books

Books are a uniquely portable magic.

-- Stephen King

Creatively Maladjusted

Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted.

-- Martin Luther King Jr.

War On Terror

Cal Thomas: With what you know now, what might you have done differently in Iraq?

Donald Rumsfeld: I don't think I would have called it the "war on terror." I don't mean to be critical of those who have. Certainly, I have used the phrase frequently. Why do I say that? Because the word "war" conjures up World War II more than it does the Cold War. It creates a level of expectation of victory and an ending within 30 or 60 minutes of a soap opera. It isn't going to happen that way. Furthermore, it is not a war on terror. Terror is a weapon of choice for extremists who are trying to destabilize regimes and, [through] a small group of clerics, impose their dark vision on all the people they can control. So "war on terror" is a problem for me.

-- Chicago Tribune, December 12, 2006
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0612120277dec12,0,206705.story?coll=chi-newsopinioncommentary-hed

Folly's Antidote

A nation informed by a vivid understanding of the ironies of history is best equipped to manage the tragic temptations of military power. Let us not bully our way through life, but let a growing sensitivity to history temper and civilize our use of power.

-- Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., "Folly's Antidote" New York Times, January 1, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/01/opinion/01schlesinger.html?pagewanted=print

Clear And Hold

We could not clear and hold.

-- Stephen J. Hadley, the president's national security adviser, on Iraq strategy. New York Times, January 2, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/02/washington/02war.html?th&emc=th

Iraqi NSA

The nature of the American military is that they won't let go. I understand it because they do it much better than we do. But we have to stand alone. We have to wean ourselves off the coalition and make our own mistakes and learn from our own mistakes.

-- Mowaffak al-Rubaie, Iraq's National Security Adviser, New York Times, December 13, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/13/world/middleeast/13troops.html?th&emc=th

Patrick J. Fitzgerald's blog

While surfing the Internet the other day I ran across what appears to be the blog of US Attorney Patrick J. Fitzgerald (responsible for the arrest of VP Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff "Scooter" Libby).

Here's how he introduces himself --

Patrick J. Fitzgerald -- Location: U.S. Attorney On Assignment - WDC

Think Globally Prosecute Locally - I grew up in Flatbush, kept my nose clean, went to law school. Now that I am in Chicago and D.C. I have found that the rampant graft and corruption to be a travesty - a travesty of a mockery of a sham of a mockery of a travesty of two mockeries of a sham.

http://patrickjfitzgerald.blogspot.com/

Bush Signing Statement

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
W pushes envelope on U.S. spying
By James Gordon Meek, Daily News Washington Bureau
Thursday, January 4th, 2007

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it.

Bush's move came during the winter congressional recess and a year after his secret domestic electronic eavesdropping program was first revealed. It caught Capitol Hill by surprise.

"Despite the President's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill.

All Our Misfortunes

If all our misfortunes were laid in one common heap whence everyone must take an equal portion, most people would be contented to take their own and depart.

-- Socrates (469?-399 B.C.)

OK Down Here

We're O.K. down here.

-- Wesley Autrey, from under a New York subway train, after he jumped onto the tracks to save a stranger


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/03/nyregion/03life.html?th&emc=th

2006 Mileage

For the year 2006, driving my 1999 Saturn which now has >135,000 miles:

Total miles     : 25,111
Total cost      : $1,942.72
Total gallons   : 776.47
Avg gallons/day : 2.127
Avg days/fillup : 4.9
Avg miles/day   : 68.80
Avg cost/day    : $5.27
Avg cost/gal    : $2.50
Avg miles/gal   : 32.77

Powell Surge

I am not persuaded that another surge of troops into Baghdad for the purposes of suppressing this communitarian violence, this civil war, will work. We have to be very, very careful in this instance not just to grab a number out of the air.

-- Colin Powell, 12/17/06

You Are The Author

If you want your life to be a magnificent story, then begin by realizing that you are the author and every day you have the opportunity to write a new page.

-- Mark Houlahan

Youth

There is always some specific moment when we become aware that our youth is gone; but, years after, we know it was much later.

-- Mignon McLaughlin

Roses

God gave us memories so that we might have roses in December.

-- James M. Barrie

RIP, Jerry Ford

My fellow Americans, our long national nightmare is over.

-- Gerald R. Ford (July 14, 1913 - December 26, 2006), 38th president & 40th vice president of the United States, on being sworn into office August 9, 1974 following the resignation of President Richard M. Nixon.

Ford remains the only US president to hold office without ever winning a national election.

Kid's Eye View

I love summa' ... Christmas is the best!

-- An Australian Kid

Godfather Of Soul

Thank God for the journey.

-- James Brown, The Godfather of Soul, May 3, 1933(?) - December 25, 2006

Requisites For Contented Living

Nine requisites for contented living: Health enough to make work a pleasure. Wealth enough to support your needs. Strength enough to battle with difficulties and overcome them. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished. Charity enough to see some goods in your neighbor. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others. Faith enough to make real the things of God. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

-- Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe (1749-1832), German Poet, Dramatist, Novelist

Anything But Live For It

Men will wrangle for religion, write for it, fight for it, die for it, anything but live for it.

-- Charles Caleb Cotton

Price Of Freedom

The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.

-- Robert Jackson

Astronomies Change

The fact that astronomies change while the stars abide is a true analogy of every realm of human life and thought, religion not least of all. No existent theology can be a final formulation of spiritual truth.

-- Harry Emerson Fosdick, preacher and author (1878-1969)

Test Of A Good Religion

It is the test of a good religion whether you can make a joke about it.

-- British author G. K. (Gilbert Keith) Chesterton

Easier To Get In

It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.

-- Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, writing in the 1970s; cited in James Mann, "Rumsfeld versus Rumsfeld" (Los Angeles Times, May 3, 2006)

Information Progression

void -> noise -> signal -> data -> information -> knowledge -> wisdom -> enlightenment -> nirvana

The right side is religion, and the left is physics.

-- Chuck Fuller

Surprise

I doubt whether the world holds for anyone a more soul-stirring surprise than the first adventure with ice cream.

-- Heywood Campbell Broun, 1888 - 1939

Tolerance

The highest result of education is tolerance. Long ago men fought and died for their faith; but it took ages to teach them the other kind of courage, the courage to recognize the faiths of their brethren and their rights of conscience. Tolerance is the first principal of community; it is the spirit which conserves the best that all men think.

-- Helen Keller

Pinochet

Sometimes democracy must be bathed in blood.

-- Augusto Pinochet (November 25, 1915 - December 10, 2006), former military ruler of Chile

RIP Jeane Kirkpatrick

Vietnam presumably taught us that the United States could not serve as the world's policeman; it should also have taught us the dangers of trying to be the world's midwife to democracy when the birth is scheduled to take place under conditions of guerrilla war.

-- Jeane Kirkpatrick (November 19, 1926 - December 7, 2006), U.S. public official. "Dictatorship and Double Standards, Commentary" (New York, Nov. 1979).

Iraq Study Group

The current approach is not working, and the ability of the United States to influence events is diminishing.

-- Lee H. Hamilton, co-chairman of the Iraq Study Group, New York Times, 12/7/2006

A Music Bath

Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons, and you will find that it is to the soul what the water bath is to the body.

-- Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (1809 - 1894)

Plague Of Mankind

The plague of mankind is the fear and rejection of diversity: monotheism, monarchy, monogamy and, in our age, monomedicine. The belief that there is only one right way to live, only one right way to regulate religious, political, sexual, medical affairs is the root cause of the greatest threat to man: members of his own species, bent on ensuring his salvation, security, and sanity.

-- Thomas Szasz

Traditions

Traditions are group efforts to keep the unexpected from happening.

-- Barbara Tober

Ice Storm

Life in the Midwest. Sometimes it's hot out, sometimes cold. Last night it turned cold after being warmer than average for more than a week (mid-60s on Thanksgiving Day).

We woke up December 1st to the results of an overnight ice storm. Our two 50-foot Chinese Elms bore the brunt of the damage. Here's what it looked like first thing in the morning.

NMH

Either I've been missing something or nothing has been going on.

-- Karen Elizabeth Gordon

Too Many TVs

The average American home now has more television sets than people according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said.

-- New York Times, November 22, 2006

Ex-KGB

There are no ex-KGB officers, just as there are no ex-German Shepherds.

-- Alexander Nikitin, a former submarine officer accused of treason

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)