Bodies Of Men

Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity.

-- Alexander Hamilton

Context

For example, international terrorism annually causes the same number of deaths as drowning in bathtubs or bee stings. It would take a repeat of Sept. 11 every month of the year to make flying as dangerous as driving. Over a lifetime, the chance of being killed by a terrorist is about the same as being struck by a meteor .... In conclusion, an American's risk of dying at the hands of a terrorist is microscopic.

-- John Mueller, an Ohio State University political science professor

Waxing Eloquent

I can also say that this bike climbs like a monkey in a set of crampons, descends like a monkey in a set of crampons being droppd from a helicopter, handles corners like a prostitute, and accelerates like a particle in a particle accelerator that itself is just a tiny particle in a giant particle accelerator. Overall, the effect is like sitting in a cafe in a trendy Milan street while sipping a cappuccino and wearing fabulous clothes yet inexplicably traveling at or close to the speed of light. Pure Italian class.

-- Bike Snob NYC, waxing eloquent about the new Colnago Extreme Power bicycle

Neutron Loans

All of the old-timers knew that subprime mortgages were what we called neutron loans -- they killed the people and left the houses. The deals made in 2005 and 2006 were going to run into trouble because the credit pendulum at the time was stuck at easy.

-- Louis S. Barnes, a partner at Boulder West, a mortgage banking firm, NY Times, 8/19/07

Patience

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance.

-- Franklin P. Jones

When We Teach

When we teach a child to draw, we teach him how to see. When we teach a child to play a musical instrument, we teach her how to listen. When we teach a child to dance, we teach him how to move through life with grace. When we tach a child to read and write, we teach her how to think. When we nurture imagination, we create a better world, one child at a time.

-- Jane Alexander

Crying And Rejoicing

When you were born, you cried and the world rejoiced. Live your life so that when you die, the world cries and you rejoice.

-- Cherokee proverb

Never Have Children

Never have children, only grandchildren.

-- Gore Vidal (October 3, 1925-), novelist, essayist, playwright, and provocateur, quoting his grandfather, Senator Thomas Pryor Gore

The Mother Is Born

Giving birth is little more than a set of muscular contractions granting passage of a child. Then the mother is born.

-- Erma Louise Bombeck, 1927 - 1996

Saiya

At 6:27 AM today my number two daughter Sheena gave birth to my first grandchild. Saiya Marie Schwartz weighed in on arrival at 8 pounds 6 ounces, and 20 inches long.

Dinger

Throughout the past century, the home run has held a special place in baseball, and I have been privileged to hold this record for 33 of those years. I move over now and offer my best wishes to Barry and his family on this historic achievement.

-- From Hank Aaron's video tribute to Barry Bonds on Bonds' record-breaking 756th career home run, August 7, 2007

TSA Guy

Security Consultant Bruce Schneier: By today's rules, I can carry on liquids in quantities of 3 oz or less, unless they're in larger bottles. But I can carry on multiple three-ounce bottles. Or a single larger bottle with a non-prescription medicine label, like contact lens fluid. It all has to fit inside a one-quart plastic bag, except for that large bottle of contact lens fluid. And if you confiscate my liquids, you're going to toss them into a large pile right next to the screening station -- which you would never do if anyone thought they were actually dangerous.

Can you please convince me there's not an Office for Annoying Air Travelers making this sort of stuff up?

Transportation Safety Administration Head Kip Hawley [who apparently has a sense of humor]: Screening ideas are indeed thought up by the Office for Annoying Air Travelers and vetted through the Directorate for Confusion and Complexity, and then we review them to insure that there are sufficient unintended irritating consequences so that the blogosphere is constantly fueled.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/07/conversation_wi_4.html

Any Event

Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian.

-- Lee Simonson

Ego

You need a healthy ego to endure the abuse that comes with any sort of success. The trick is to think of your ego as your goofy best friend who lends moral support but doesn't know shit.

-- Scott Adams, The Dilbert Blog, 7/23/07

Pervading Evil

The one pervading evil of democracy is the tyranny of the majority, or rather of that party, not always the majority, that succeeds, by force or fraud, in carrying elections.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, The History of Freedom in Antiquity (February 28, 1877)

Power Corrupts

All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 1887

Everything Secret Degenerates

Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter (January 23, 1861)

No Worse Heresy

There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it.

-- Lord Acton (10 January 1834 - 19 June 1902), English historian, Letter to Mandell Creighton, April 5, 1887

Not The First

You'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them -- if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.

-- J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye

Homeland

The word "homeland," which resonates sinisterly like das Vaterland in German or rodina in Russian, was virtually unused before 9/11, and despite its relentless repetition by the Bush administration (to include the name of a cabinet agency), it has thus far refused to lodge itself in colloquial American English. ... Indeed, while Vaterland or rodina have non-ideological colloquial roots and were expropriated by Hitler and Stalin, "homeland" is a purely ideological construct of the Bush
administration.

-- Werther, a Northern Virginia-based defense analyst

Nothing So Obvious

There is nothing so obvious that it's obvious.

-- Academy Award winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris in his essay on truth and photographs, on his New York Times blog, July 10, 2007


http://morris.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/07/10/pictures-are-supposed-to-be-worth-a-thousand-words/

Attack Like A Fool

I did not know the climbs so I attacked like a fool.

-- Barloworld cyclist Juan Mauricio Soler of Columbia, after winning the 9th stage of the Tour de France by attacking on the out-of-category climb up the Col du Galibier, July 17, 2007

One Word

If there is one word I would use to sum up the atmosphere in Iraq -- on the streets, in the countryside, in the neighborhoods, and at the national level -- that word would be fear.

-- Ryan C. Crocker, American ambassador to Iraq, New York Times, July 20, 2007

The Terrorists Cannot

Americans think their danger is terrorists. They don't understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. ... The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren't able to perceive that.

-- Paul Craig Roberts, journalist, economist, and former Reagan Administration official, July 2007

SiCKO

This week, for the first time since I started work at NEXVU Technologies over 3 1/2 years ago, I missed a full day of work due to illness (Tuesday and Wednesday).

Absurd

Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together.

-- George Santayana

People Who Cannot Find Time

People who cannot find time for recreation are obliged sooner or later to find time for illness.

-- John Wannamaker

Life, Love, And Death

Life is eternal; and love is immortal;
And death is only a horizon;
And a horizon is nothing
Save the limit of our sight.

-- Rossiter Worthington Raymond

RIP Deb Zoller-Fisher

I was working at Chanute AFB near Rantoul, IL, and I dropped DZD a pnote commenting on the heavy system load (something like 900 on-system, on the way to a peak around 1200 users). Her reply ...?

* zoller-dykema / o / cerl  8/21/80  7:50 am *

        munch a bunch a crunch a bunch a munch a bunch a
                USERS!

Our Death Is Not An End

Our death is not an end if we can live on in our children and the younger generation. For they are us; our bodies are only wilted leaves on the tree of life.

-- Albert Einstein

Life

Life -- a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter.

-- Charles Lindbergh

Your Tax $s At Work, Killing People

A new estimate of the financial cost of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars shows expenditures of about $12B per month. If 90% of that cost is incurred in Iraq, that works out to an average of $250,000 per minute for our efforts there.

Coincidence

The attorney of record for Marc Rich when pardoned by President Bill Clinton was I. Lewis Libby.

-- "It's All Politics" radio program

Consequences

It's just interesting to think about unintended consequences, since those seem to be the only kind of consequences we ever see.

-- Scott Adams, "The Dilbert Blog", 6/28/07

Petraeus On Progress In Iraq

18 months after entering Iraq, I see tangible progress. Iraqi security elements are being rebuilt from the ground up.

The institutions that oversee them are being reestablished from the top down. And Iraqi leaders are stepping forward, leading their country and their security forces courageously in the face of an enemy that has shown a willingness to do anything to disrupt the establishment of the new Iraq. ...

Equipment is being delivered. Training is on track and increasing in capacity. Infrastructure is being repaired. Command and control structures and institutions are being reestablished.

Most important, Iraqi security forces are in the fight.

-- General David H. Petraeus, "Battling for Iraq," washingtonpost.com, September 26, 2004

Presidential Scholars

We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants.

-- Excerpt from a letter signed by 50 Presidential Scholars, presented to President George W. Bush, June 25, 2007

Discrimination

The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.

-- Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., in the majority opinion on school integration, June 28, 2007

Exit Blair

Some may belittle politics but we who are engaged in it know that it is where people stand tall. Although I know that it has many harsh contentions, it is still the arena that sets the heart beating a little faster. If it is, on occasions, the place of low skulduggery, it is more often the place for the pursuit of noble causes. I wish everyone, friend or foe, well. That is that. The end.

-- Tony Blair's last official words as Prime Minister, said at Prime Minister's Questions on 27 June 2007

Flaws

I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions.

-- Augusten Burroughs

Aimed Rather Low

If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.

-- George Carlin

Properly Free

I myself am human and free only to the extent that I acknowledge the humanity and liberty of all my fellows .... I am properly free when all the men and women about me are equally free. Far from being a limitation or a denial of my liberty, the liberty of another is its necessary condition and confirmation.

-- Mikhail Bakunin

Driving In Illinois

When you're driving in Illinois, watching the buildings in the distance move SO SLOWLY, you're watching a kind of movie that you've been watching all your life, and that isn't playing in any other cinema.

-- Ernie Metzger, Glasgow, Scotland, formerly of Urbana, IL

Bloomberg On Politics

Any successful elected executive knows that real results are more important than partisan battles, and that good ideas should take precedence over rigid adherence to any particular political ideology.

-- Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York, New York Times, June 20, 2007

Ready Booted And Spurred

I never would believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden.

-- Walt Whitman, American poet (1819-1892)

Sacrifices Must Be Made

For you to be successful, sacrifices must be made. It's better that they are made by others but failing that, you'll have to make them yourself.

-- Rita Mae Brown (November 28, 1944-), American writer

Real ID

The REAL ID Act is one of the largest identity management undertakings in history. It would bring more than 200 million people from a large, diverse, and mobile country within a uniformly defined identity system, jointly operated by state governments. This has never been done before in the USA, and it raises numerous policy, privacy, and data security issues that have had only brief scrutiny, particularly given the scope and scale of the undertaking.

It is critical that specific issues be carefully considered before developing and deploying a uniform identity management system in the 21st century. These include, but are not limited to, the implementation costs, the privacy consequences, the security of stored identity documents and personal information, redress and fairness, "mission creep", and, perhaps most importantly, provisions for national security protections.

The Department of Homeland Security's Notice of Proposed Rulemaking touched on some of these issues, though it did not explore them in the depth necessary for a system of such magnitude and such consequence. Given that these issues have not received adequate consideration, the Committee feels it is important that the following comments do not constitute an endorsement of REAL ID or the regulations as workable or appropriate.

-- The Data Privacy and Integrity Advisory Committee of the Department of Homeland Security

Strength Of Character

Strength of character does not consist solely in having powerful feelings, but in maintaining one's balance in spite of them. Even with the violence of emotion, judgment and principle must still function like a ship's compass, which records the slightest variations however rough the sea.

-- Carl von Clausewitz

xkcd

You can look at practically any part of anything manmade around you and think "some engineer was frustrated while designing this." It's a little human connection.

-- xkcd, 6/14/07, xkcd.com (check it out)

Liberty V. Security

The very point of protecting liberty is to demand that sacrifices to liberty are not in vain and that security interests, which compromise civil liberties, are sufficiently effective to warrant the cost.

-- Daniel J. Solove, Data Mining and the Security-Liberty Debate, George Washington University Law School

Ironic Way Of Failing

It's not about money, it's about freedom. If you think it's about money you've missed the point. I want to use a computer in freedom, to cooperate, to not be restricted or prohibited from sharing. The GNU/Linux system is catching on somewhat more now. The system is becoming popular for practical reasons. It's a good system. The danger is people will like it because it's practical and it will become popular without anyone having the vaguest idea of the ideals behind it, which would be an ironic way of failing.

-- Richard Stallman in a Software Libre article by Richard Hillesley, 3/18/07

Refuse To Recognize

To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them "enemy combatants," would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution -- and the country.

We refuse to recognize a claim to power that would so alter the constitutional foundations of our Republic.

-- United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, in Richmond, Va., ordering the release from military detention of Ali al-Marri

Young And Foolish

To be young and foolish you need to be both young and foolish. One without the other is no good.

-- Wayne Howell

Romney Is An Idiot

As I slowly winnow away at the list of candidates, Romney makes it easy to elminate him from contention ... here's an excerpt from an article about the June 5 candidates' debate --


At the Republican candidates' debate on June 5, White House contender Mitt Romney remarkably claimed that weapons inspectors were barred from entering Iraq before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. But Romney's error was little noted by the mainstream media.

Asked if he thought it was "a mistake for us to invade Iraq," Romney declared the question a "null set," and explained:

"If you're saying let's turn back the clock, and Saddam Hussein had opened up his country to IAEA inspectors, and they'd come in and they'd found that there were no weapons of mass destruction, had Saddam Hussein, therefore, not violated United Nations resolutions, we wouldn't be in the conflict we're in. But he didn't do those things, and we knew what we knew at the point we made the decision to get in."

Romney's suggestion that weapons inspectors were not permitted into Iraq before the war started is, of course, incorrect. Weapons inspectors from UNMOVIC (the U.N. Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission) returned to Iraq on November 18, 2002. Led by Hans Blix, the inspectors spent months in Iraq, issuing reports on Iraqi compliance that were a crucial part of the debate over whether to invade Iraq.

-- From "Romney's Iraq Gaffe Ignored, GOP contender's bizarre pre-war history" 6/8/07, Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3112

Pro Patria

I was the first fruits of the battle of Missionary Ridge.
When I felt the bullet enter my heart
I wished I had staid at home and gone to jail
For stealing the hogs of Curl Trenary,
Rather a thousand times the county jail
Than to lie under this marble figure with wings,
And this granite pedestal
Bearing the words, "Pro Patria."

What do they mean, anyway?

-- From the "Spoon River Anthology"

Rearing Our Children In Captivity

We are rearing our children in captivity -- their habitat shrinking almost daily. In 1970 the average nine-year-old girl would have been free to wander 840 meters from her front door. In 1997 it was 280 metres. Now the limit appears to have come down to the front doorstep.

-- Mark Easton, Home editor, BBC News, 4 June 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/6720661.stm

Eat Before You Are Hungry

Eat before you are hungry. Drink before you are thirsty. Rest before you are tired. Cover up before you are cold. Peel off before you are hot. Don't drink or smoke on tour. Never ride just to prove yourself.

-- Paul de Vivie (Velocio, 1853-1930) inventor of a two speed derailleur in 1905, on cycling

Tattoo Your Name On Their Chest

If you can persuade your customer to tattoo your name on their chest, they probably will not switch brands.

-- An Indiana University professor (re: Harley-Davidson owners)

If We Quit Vietnam

If we quit Vietnam, tomorrow we'll be fighting in Hawaii, and next week we'll have to fight in San Francisco.

-- President Lyndon Johnson, quoted by Ron Hutcheson in "Some See Troubling Parallels Between Iraq and Vietnam" (Common Dreams, September 18, 2003)

My Own Funeral

I feel like I've been attending my own funeral, listening to all these speeches.

-- Billy Graham, at the dedication of a library honoring his ministry, May 31, 2007

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/us/01graham.html?th&emc=th

Keith Richards At 63

I was number one on the "who's likely to die" list for 10 years. I mean, I was really disappointed when I fell off the list.

-- Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, in British music magazine NME, March, 2007.

He Who Learns Must Suffer

He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despite, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.

-- Aeschylus

The Main Thing

The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

-- Stephen R. Covey

Movin' On Up

Last night, my number four daughter, Brittany, graduated from middle school into high school. She was the only student with perfect attendance for the year, and she was recognized for honor roll, the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, and an academic letter.

Tonight, my number three daughter, Heather, will graduate from high school.

No Matter What Side

No matter what side of the argument you are on, you always find people on your side that you wish were on the other.

-- Jascha Heifetz

Tragedy For The World

I think that the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world.

-- Former President Jimmy Carter, BBC Radio, May 19, 2007

Gas Prices

I bought gas on January 23, 2007 for $1.889 per gallon. I bought gas today for $3.359 per gallon. That's an increase of $1.47 in 129 days, rising at a rate of more than a penny a day for 4 straight months.

News

If it's in the news, don't worry about it. The very definition of "news" is "something that hardly ever happens." It's when something isn't in the news, when it's so common that it's no longer news -- car crashes, domestic violence -- that you should start worrying.

-- Bruce Schneier, security consultant

As I Interpret Them

His message of peace and reconciliation under almost all circumstances is simply incompatible with Christian teachings as I interpret them. This "turn the other cheek" business is all well and good but it's not what Jesus fought and died for. What we need to do is take the battle to the Muslim heathens and do unto them before they do unto us.

-- Jerry Falwell (11 August 1933 - 15 May 2007) American pastor and conservative activist, on Jimmy Carter in a radio interview, 4 March 2002

Falwell At His Best

And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, an the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People for the American Way -- all of them who have tried to secularize America -- I point the finger in their face and say, "You helped this happen."

-- Jerry Falwell (11 August 1933 - 15 May 2007) American pastor, and conservative activist, in remarks to Pat Robertson after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, on The 700 Club, September 13, 2001

War Czar

We believe at some point, in order to break this dependence on the ... coalition, you simply have to back off and let the Iraqis step forward. You have to undercut the perception of occupation in Iraq. It's very difficult to do that when you have 150,000-plus, largely western, foreign troops occupying the country.

... I will tell you this, as the operation officer of Centcom, if a year from now I've got to call on all those army troops that General Schoomaker [US army chief of staff, who said his office was planning so troop levels could be maintained until 2009] is prepared to provide, I won't feel real good about myself.

-- Maj Gen Douglas Lute, newly-appointed War Czar, then-director of operations at US Central Command, Financial Times, August 24, 2005

Either/Or

I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations -- one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice is this: do it or do not do it -- you will regret both.

-- Soren Kierkegaard in "Either/Or"

Mistakes We Didn't Make

War is war. We made a lot of mistakes, I'm sure of it. But there are a lot of mistakes we didn't make, too.

-- Secretary of State Condolezza Rice; cited in Joe Conason, "Condi Rice never looks back" (Salon, May 4, 2007)

Zedonk

T I P W O R L D
http://www.tipworld.com
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
W O R D O R I G I N S
September 22nd, 2000

===============================================================
TODAY'S WORD: ZEDONK

(ZEE-dongk)
(n.) The offspring of a male zebra and a female donkey

Yes, there is such a thing, and "zedonk" is what you get, linguistically speaking, when you cross a "zebra" with a "donkey."

By the way, in case you need a synonym, the Oxford English Dictionary notes that you can use "zonkey" instead of "zedonk."

And while you'd be forgiven for assuming that a "zebrass" is the unfortunate result of sitting too long on certain lawn chairs, it's actually yet another name for this hybrid critter.

"Yes, a lovely farm indeed, but would you happen to own any zedonks?"

Martha Barnette is the author of Ladyfingers & Nun's Tummies: A Lighthearted Look at How Foods Got Their Names. She's also the word maven at http://www.funwords.com.

A Hole Of One's Own Making

When one finds himself in a hole of his own making, it is a good time to examine the quality of workmanship.

-- Jon Remmerde, Christian Science Monitor

Bleeding Dads

Daughters are like swords without a hilt and handle. At certain times in their lives no matter how you try to hold them they cut you deeply. Would not have missed it for the world.

-- Lenny Hoover

A Moral Man And A Man Of Honor

The difference between a moral man and a man of honor is that the latter regrets a discreditable act, even when it has worked and he has not been caught.

-- H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956), "Prejudices: Fourth Series," 1924

Guarantee Of Religious Pluralism

The secular state is the guarantee of religious pluralism. This apparent paradox, again, is the simplest and most elegant of political truths.

-- Christopher Hitchens

All Human Beings Are Equal

All human beings are equal. Men and women are not equal.
All human beings are equal. White people and people of color are not equal.
All human beings are equal. The rich and the poor are not equal.

-- Yolanda M. Carrington, http://www.genderracepower.com/

Power Used Wisely And Well

It is only in folk tales, children's stories, and the journals of intellectual opinion that power is used wisely and well to destroy evil.

The real world teaches very different lessons, and it takes willful and dedicated ignorance to fail to perceive them.

-- Noam Chomsky

Plan B

Plan B is to make plan A work.

-- President George W. Bush, in response to a question by Charlie Rose on what would happen if the "surge" in Baghdad didn't work; cited in Dan Froomkin, "No One Suffers More Than the President" (washingtonpost.com, April 25, 2007)

Worry Kills

The reason why worry kills more people than work is that more people worry than work.

-- Robert Frost

OBL

I think it was Osama bin Laden's.

-- Presidential adviser Karl Rove, replying to the question of whose idea it was to start a preemptive war in Iraq; cited in Dan Froomkin, "Rove Watch; Bush Challenged on Iraq" (washingtonpost.com, April 19, 2007)

Tenet Disses Bush, Cheney

There was never a serious debate that I know of within the administration about the imminence of the Iraqi threat.

-- George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, in his new book, New York Times, April 27, 2007

Amazing Variety

Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways.

-- Samuel McChord Crothers

Gorbachev On Yeltsin

I express the very deepest condolences to the family of the deceased [Boris Yeltsin] on whose shoulders rest major events for the good of the country and serious mistakes.

-- Mikhail Gorbachev (2 March 1931 - ), leader of the Soviet Union 1985-1991, Reuters, 04/23/2007

An Excuse Not To Think

Most people prefer to believe their leaders are just and fair even in the face of evidence to the contrary, because once a citizen acknowledges that the government under which they live is lying and corrupt, the citizen has to choose what he or she will do about it. To take action in the face of a corrupt government entails risks of harm to life and loved ones. To choose to do nothing is to surrender one's self-image of standing for principles. Most people do not have the courage to face that choice. Hence, most propaganda is not designed to fool the critical thinker but only to give moral cowards an excuse not to think at all.

-- Michael Rivero

RIP Yeltsin

Dissidents should be paid 13 months' salary for a year, otherwise our mindless unanimity will bring us to an even more hopeless state of stagnation. It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts.

-- Boris Yeltsin (1 February 1931 - 23 April 2007), first president of post-Soviet Russia, Against the Grain (1990), p. 172

Dissent

Ultimately, the Court admits that "moral concerns" are at work, concerns that could yield prohibitions on any abortion. Notably, the concerns expressed are untethered to any ground genuinely serving the Government's interest in preserving life. By allowing such concerns to carry the day and case, overriding fundamental rights, the Court dishonors our precedent. ("Some of us as individuals find abortion offensive to our most basic principles of morality, but that cannot control our decision. Our obligation is to define the liberty of all, not to mandate our own moral code.")

Revealing in this regard, the Court invokes an anti-abortion shibboleth for which it concededly has no reliable evidence: Women who have abortions come to regret their choices, and consequently suffer from "[s]evere depression and loss of esteem." Because of women's fragile emotional state and because of the "bond of love the mother has for her child," the Court worries, doctors may withhold information about the nature of the intact D&E procedure. The solution the Court approves, then, is not to require doctors to inform women, accurately and adequately, of the different procedures and their attendant risks. Instead, the Court deprives women of the right to make an autonomous choice, even at the expense of their safety.

This way of thinking reflects ancient notions about women's place in the family and under the Constitution--ideas that have long since been discredited.

-- Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her dissent to the court's 4/18/07 5-4 decision upholding the federal partial-birth abortion ban, the first total ban on an abortion procedure with no exceptions for a woman’s life or health

Rage Is A Wind

Rage is a wind that blows out the candle of reason.

-- Unknown

If Only

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

-- Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Source Of Evil

The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.

-- Joseph Conrad, 1857 - 1924

Genetic?

Over the weekend my 3 older brothers and I hosted a party for 39 people from at least 6 states to celebrate my father's upcoming 90th birthday. I hope his longevity is genetic.

A Series Of Accidents

I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan (1959)

RIP Kurt Vonnegut

If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:

The only proof he needed
For the existence of God
Was music.

-- Kurt Vonnegut (1922-11-11 - 2007-04-11), Vonnegut's Blues For America, 07 January, 2006 Sunday Herald

Not The Art Of The Possible

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

-- John Kenneth Galbraith

Fig Newton

Fig Newton: The force required to accelerate a fig 39.37 inches/sec.

-- Johnny Hart (February 18, 1931 - April 7, 2007), in the comic strip BC

Surprise

We have a political system that awards high office to the most ruthless, cunning, and selfish of mortals, then we act surprised when those willing to do anything to win power are equally willing to do anything with it.

-- Michael Rivero

Conformists And Troublemakers

Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers.

-- Mignon McLaughlin

FSF

There are four "defining freedoms" to free software:

1) The freedom to run the program as you see fit,
2) Study and adapt it for your own purposes,
3) Redistribute copies to help your neighbour, and
4) Release your improvements to the public.

-- Richard Stallman of the Free Software Foundation

JPG

I need a girl whose name doesn't end in .jpg

-- anonymous