Minute Fractions

The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions -- the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling.

-- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

The Most Useful Gift

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift would be curiosity.

-- Eleanor Roosevelt

A Place To Go

Having a place to go - is a home. Having someone to love - is a family. Having both - is a blessing.

-- Donna Hedges

Juggling

What's hard about what I'm doing is the sheer number of balls I'm juggling at once ... and they aren't balls. They're knives and chainsaws and burning [stuff] and the trick is not dropping any of that. That's what makes it hard.

-- Martin Eberhard, Tesla co-founder, CEO, and Illinois alumnus, UI Alumni Association's "Resonance", 16 November 2007

Good Weather

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

-- John Ruskin, author, art critic, and social reformer (1819-1900)

Baseball's Collective Failure

Manny Alexander     Brendan Donnelly    Ryan Jorgensen     
Chad Allen          Chris Donnels       Mike Judd          
Rick Ankiel         Lenny Dykstra       David Justice      
David Bell          Bobby Estalella     Chuck Knoblauch    
Mike Bell           Matt Franco         Tim Laker          
Marvin Benard       Ryan Franklin       Mike Lansing       
Gary Bennett        Eric Gagne          Paul Lo Duca       
Larry Bigbie        Jason Giambi        Nook Logan         
Barry Bonds         Jeremy Giambi       Josias Manzanillo  
Ricky Bones         Jay Gibbons         Gary Matthews Jr.  
Kevin Brown         Troy Glaus          Cody McKay         
Paul Byrd           Juan Gonzalez       Kent Mercker       
Alex Cabrera        Jason Grimsley      Bart Miadich       
Jose Canseco        Jose Guillen        Hal Morris         
Mark Carreon        Jerry Hairston Jr.  Daniel Naulty      
Jason Christiansen  Matt Herges         Denny Neagle       
Howie Clark         Phil Hiatt          Rafael Palmeiro    
Roger Clemens       Glenallen Hill      Jim Parque         
Paxton Crawford     Darren Holmes       Andy Pettitte      
Jack Cust           Todd Hundley        Adam Piatt         

Todd Pratt          Jeff Williams
Stephen Randolph    Matt Williams
Adam Riggs          Todd Williams
Armando Rios        Steve Woodard
Brian Roberts       Kevin Young
John Rocker         Gregg Zaun
F.P. Santangelo
Benito Santiago
Scott Schoeneweis
David Segui
Gary Sheffield
Mike Stanton
Ricky Stone
Miguel Tejada
Ismael Valdez
Mo Vaughn
Randy Velarde
Ron Villone
Fernando Vina
Rondell White

Everybody in baseball -- commissioners, club officials, the players' association, players -- shares responsibility.

-- George J. Mitchell, issuing a report on use of performance-enhancing drugs in baseball naming 86 past & current players, 13 December 2007

Workouts

I never stay away from workouts. I work hard. I've tried to take care of my body. I'll never look back and say that I could have done more. I've paid the price in practice, but I know I get the most out of my ability.

-- Carl Yastrzemski (1939-), American baseball player, Red Sox all-time leader in career RBIs, runs, hits, singles, doubles, total bases, and games played (second in home runs behind Red Sox great Ted Williams), last winner of the triple crown in the major leagues

Living A Second Time

Live as if you were living a second time, and as though you had acted wrongly the first time.

-- Viktor Frankl (1905-1997), author, neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor

Fun Is Hope

If you can have just a little fun today, it's a sign that maybe the future will hold even more fun for you. Fun isn't just fun - it's hope.

-- Linda Richman, author, summa cum laude graduate of the school of hard knocks

Important Decisions

The interesting thing is that there are so few important decisions. You don't have to go in the "right" direction. You don't have to enter the "right" business. What you have to do is have made a decision as to what you're going to do and then you just have to figure out how to succeed at it.

-- Ken Oshman, CEO & Chairman of the Board, Echelon Corporation

It Will Not Matter

One hundred years from now, it will not matter what my bank account was, how big my house was, or what kind of car I drove. But the world may be a little better, because I was important in the life of a child.

-- Dr. Forest E. Witcraft (1894-1967), scholar, teacher, and Boy Scout administrator, Scouting Magazine, October 1950, p2

Half Time

In the game of life, nothing is less important than the score at half time.

-- anonymous

Worries Diminished

A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing anxiety.

-- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British philosopher, mathematician, essayist

I Write On Napkins

I write on napkins. One time, this seventeen-year-old waitress says to me, "Do you write on napkins because it doesn't count?" And bingo. That's exactly why I do it! When you're jotting on a napkin, you're not committing yourself. It's only a napkin, right? You can throw it away. You'd be surprised. It loosens you up. Some of the best stuff I've written has been done on napkins.

-- August Wilson (1945-2005), Pulitzer Prize-winning American playwright

Power

You only have power over people so long as you don't take everything away from them. But when you've robbed a man of everything he's no longer in your power - he's free again.

-- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918-), Russian author and Nobel laureate

Wars Begin Where You Will

Wars begin where you will, but do not end where you please.

-- Machiavelli; cited in Patrick Goldstein, "Rocky Road Paves Path to Iraq Drama" Los Angeles Times, 12 December 2006

Judicial Review

Climate change has ushered in a whole new era of judicial review.

-- Patrick Parenteau, environmental law professor, on an appeals court decision striking down Bush administration fuel economy standards as too lax, New York Times, 16 November 2007

Humorless

The humourless as a bunch don't just not know what's funny, they don't know what's serious. They have no common sense, either, and shouldn't be trusted with anything.

-- Martin Amis (August 25, 1949-) British novelist

Disappointed

When terrorism finally ends, some people are going to be very disappointed. They will no longer have an excuse for expressing the distrust of others that they had all along.

-- Comment by RC, November 21, 2007 07:15 AM

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/11/more_war_on_the.html

Unreliable Parts

Software developers have become adept at the difficult art of building reasonably reliable systems out of unreliable parts. The snag is that often we do not know exactly how we did it.

-- Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++

Some Good

That some good can be derived from every event is a better proposition than that everything happens for the best, which it assuredly does not.

-- James Kern Feibleman, philosopher and psychiatrist (1904-1987)

A Moment Of Intersection

A meal, however simple, is a moment of intersection. It is at once the most basic, the most fundamental, of our life's activities, maintaining the life of our bodies; shared with others it can be an occasion of joy and communion, uniting people deeply.

-- Elise Boulding, professor, author, peace activist

Prerogative

It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes. But the half-wit remains a half-wit, and the emperor remains an emperor.

-- Neil Gaiman, Sandman

Not A Problem

I don't have a problem. Seventeen hours a day online is fine.

-- Lee Chang-Hoon, 15, at a camp for compulsive Internet users in South Korea, New York Times, 18 November, 2007

Resolving Technosocial Problems

Democratic societies, at least, have a right to expect that experts will help them, experts from all parts of academia and all the professions. I would even go so far as to say that there is at least an implicit social contract between professionals and the democratic societies in which they live, giving rise to this expectation that professionals will shoulder their responsibilities to improve the societies in which they live and work.

-- Paul T. Durbin, emeritus professor, University of Delaware, ACM Ubiquity, 11/13/07

Moral Order

The order of the universe that we live in is the moral order. It has become the moral order by becoming the self-conscious method of the members of a human society. The world that comes to us from the past possesses and controls us. We possess and control the world that we discover and invent. And this is the world of the moral order. It is a splendid adventure if we can rise to it.

-- G. H. Mead, cited in Ubiquity, November 2007

Yeah, Right

The emergency is to ensure elections go in an undisturbed manner.

-- General Pervez Musharraf, regarding his refusal to lift martial law in Pakistan prior to new elections, New York Times, 14 November 2007

Not At The Library

Earth to parents: No. If you have to call the library and ask if your child is here, the answer is no. I know your child probably told you he'd be at the library, but what that really means is he didn't want to tell you where he was going to be, either because he hadn't decided yet, or because he just doesn't want you to know. This is true for children of all ages, but of course it goes double for teenagers.

Almost all kids who come to the library come with their parents. If you aren't here, then your kids almost certainly aren't here either. Yes, we do have kids in the library all the time who are not accompanied by their parents, but it's the same two or three dozen kids all the time. If your child were one of them, you would know.

Let me reiterate that: if your child were one of the ones who comes to the library, you would know. If you have to ask, then he's not here. Please stop calling the library and asking if your child is here. Your child is not here.

-- Rant by librarian Jonadab, 5/23/2007 04:35:00 PM mistersanity.blogspot.com

RIP Norman Mailer

Every moment of one's existence one is growing into more, or retreating into less. One is always living a little more, or dying a little bit.

-- Norman Mailer (31 January 1923 - 10 November 2007) American novelist, journalist, playwright, screenwriter and film director, in "Hip, Hell, and the Navigator", Western Review No. 23 (Winter 1959)

There Was A Time

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

-- Anatole Broyard

What The General Says

How do you function as a lawyer when the law is what the general says it is?

-- Babar Sattar, on Pakistani lawyers' protests against President Pervez Musharraf, New York Times, 7 November 2007

Through The Looking Glass

Paradoxically, while the drumbeat for bombing Iran grows increasingly loud, there is a stunning silence in response to the pre-eminent risk for nuclear terrorism. Washington's Faustian pact with General Musharraf is now unraveling, yet we are blithely assured that Pakistan's weapons and nuclear materials will remain safe, whoever rises to power. We have seemingly entered a Through-the-Looking-Glass world where nuclear weapons that do exist are less dangerous than those that can be imagined.

-- Paul Woodward of the War in Context website, 3 November 2007

Endless Money

Endless money forms the sinews of war.

-- Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator, writer (106-43 BCE)

No Money In Poetry

There's no money in poetry, but then there's no poetry in money, either.

-- Robert Graves, poet and novelist (1895-1985)

Never Happened

Democracies don't prepare well for things that have never happened before.

-- Richard A. Clarke, former White House counter-terrorism chief

Perfect Order

Perfect order is the forerunner of perfect horror.

-- Carlos Fuentes (1928-)

More Annoying

In the part of this universe that we know there is great injustice, and often the good suffer, and often the wicked prosper, and one hardly knows which of those is the more annoying.

-- Bertrand Russell

The Trouble With Words

The trouble with words is that you never know whose mouths they've been in.

-- Dennis Potter, dramatist (1935-1994)

Aghast

I walked through the World Trade Center 20 minutes before the attack; saw the buildings burning; breathed the poisonous dust; wept for my country. Now Blackwater. Torture. An unprovoked, botched war. I am aghast, revolted. And ashamed.

-- Paul Nadler, Metuchen, N.J., Letter to the Editor, New York Times, October 4, 2007

If All They Want

If all that Americans want is security, they can go to prison.

-- President Dwight D. Eisenhower; cited at http://www.westpointgradsagainstthewar.org/

Middle Man

If no one out there understands, start your own revolution and cut out the middle man.

-- Billy Bragg

Played With Expression

I assure you that the typewriting machine, when played with expression, is not more annoying than the piano when played by a sister or near relation.

-- Oscar Wilde

Not Necessarily True

A thing is not necessarily true because a man dies for it.

-- Oscar Wilde, writer (1854-1900)

The Devil's post -- entry number 666

The Source Of Our Troubles

No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.

-- P. J. O'Rourke, writer (1947- )

Cousins

Every family has a black sheep.

-- Bill Burton, spokesman for Barak Obama, on Lynne Cheney's assertion that Obama & her husband Vice President Dick Cheney are distant cousins

Lemmings

There's a whiff of the lynch mob or the lemming migration about any overlarge concentration of like-thinking individuals, no matter how virtuous their cause.

-- P. J. O'Rourke, Parliament of Whores (1991)

Big Pharma Protects The Environment

Here's a point to ponder.

My ex has no health insurance, and currently has nine separate prescriptions to address her congestive heart failure and related maladies. Of these nine, I've been paying cash for the seven that cost under $100 per month each, skipping the two remaining, exorbitantly-priced meds.

This week I went to pick up her Albuterol inhaler, which has been available as a generic for quite a while. Unfortunately, I discovered that it's no longer available as a generic. The pharmaceutical company now has another 2(?) or 3(?) year monopoly on this product which, since it is so widely prescribed, is probably worth a $billion or so.

The change?

The old-style inhaler used CFCs for the propellant; the new-style inhaler uses something more environmentally friendly. I'm guessing that it was big pharma that pushed for the environmental restriction against CFCs as a propellant for inhalers. I'm also guessing that more people will die from not being able to afford inhalers than would have died from the extra CFCs in the atmosphere.

So, an apparently innocuous and right-minded change to environmental law, meant to keep us healthy, is likely going to kill people.

Sanchez

After more than four years of fighting, America continues its desperate struggle in Iraq without any concerted effort to devise a strategy that will achieve victory in that war-torn country or in the greater conflict against extremism.

-- Lieutenant General Ricardo S. Sanchez, retired former top commander of American forces in Iraq, New York Times, 10/13/2007

Rockies

I meant to post this last Friday, but it just got better over the weekend.

In an amazing streak, baseball's Colorado Rockies won 13 of their final 14 games in the regular season to tie for the wildcard. That is to say, with that streak, they managed to tie for "best second place".

Since then, they have won a one-game playoff for the wildcard, swept Philadelphia in 3 games in the Division Series, and are on the verge of a sweep of Arizona, having won the first 3 in the best-of-seven League Championship Series.

Overall they have won 20 of their last 21 games, including all 7 games they've played in the post-season.

MQ Software

As of Friday 12 October the programming staff (i.e., 5 of 6 total people) of NEXVU Technologies were hired en masse by MQ Software

http://www.mqsoftware.com

... to work on products akin to the NEXVU product. We start work on Tuesday 16 October, and remain in our old office as a satellite of our Minneapolis-based overlords.

What A Living

If the rich could pay the poor to die for them, what a living the poor could make!

-- anonymous

Illuminati

Courtesy Mutant.net
http://www.mutant.net/editorials/illuminati.html

Re-reading The Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson and Robert Shea, I came across the following passage ...

"... But they can rule by fraud, and by fraud eventually acquire access to the tools they need to finish the job of killing off the Constitution."

"What sort of tools?"

"More stringent security measures. Universal electronic Surveillance. No-Knock Laws. Stop and frisk laws. Government inspection of first-class mail. Automatic fingerprinting, photographing, blood tests and urinalysis of any person arrested before he is charged with a crime. A law making it unlawful to resist even unlawful arrest. Laws establishing detention camps for potential subversives. Gun control laws. Restrictions on travel. The assassinations, you see, establish the need for such laws in the public mind. Instead of realizing that there is a conspiracy, controlled by a handful of men, the people reason - or are manipulated into reasoning - that the entire populace must have its freedom restricted in order to protect the leaders. The people agree that they themselves can't be trusted. ...

"... At present rate, within the next few years the Illuminati will have the American people under tighter surveillance than Hitler had the Germans. And the beauty of it is, the majority of the Americans will have been so frightened by Illuminati-backed terrorist incidents that they will beg to be controlled as a masochist begs for the whip."

From Pages 197-198 of the Dell Trade Paperback edition published in November 1988. The book was written in 1975. Sound familiar?

NEXVU

On Friday, 5 October 2007, NEXVU Technologies ceased operations. My first interview for a replacement gig is tomorrow.

Ann Coulter On Women And The Vote

If we took away women's right to vote, we'd never have to worry about another Democrat president. It's kind of a pipe dream, it's a personal fantasy of mine, but I don't think it's going to happen.

-- Ann Coulter, New York Observer, 2 October 2007

Pereiro

The only thing I won in 2007 is the 2006 Tour.

-- Cyclist Oscar Pereiro on his declaration as winner of the 2006 Tour de France after nominal winner Floyd Landis was stripped of his title for doping, VeloNews, 4 October 2007

Stupid Things

We have 1,000 guys out in the field. People make mistakes; they do stupid things sometimes.

-- Erik D. Prince, chief executive of Blackwater USA, which is under scrutiny for shootings by its employees in Iraq, Congressional hearing, 2 October 2007

Data Decryption Law In UK

From ars technica --

UK can now demand data decryption on penalty of jail time
By Ken Fisher | Published: October 01, 2007 - 10:20PM CT

New laws going into effect today in the United Kingdom make it a crime to refuse to decrypt almost any encrypted data requested by authorities as part of a criminal or terror investigation. Individuals who are believed to have the cryptographic keys necessary for such decryption will face up to 5 years in prison for failing to comply with police or military orders to hand over either the cryptographic keys, or the data in a decrypted form.

Part 3, Section 49 of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA) includes provisions for the decryption requirements, which are applied differently based on the kind of investigation underway. As we reported last year, the five-year imprisonment penalty is reserved for cases involving anti-terrorism efforts. All other failures to comply can be met with a maximum two-year sentence.
... snip ...

Cowardly Escape

War is a cowardly escape from the problems of peace.

-- Thomas Mann (1875-1955), German novelist, essayist, short story writer, and Nobel laureate

Miracle Mets

Do you know what it's like
To be chased by the Ghost of Failure
While staring through Victory's door?
Of course you do, you're a Mets fan.

-- Frank Messina, self-proclaimed Mets Poet, as the Mets complete the worst end-of-season collapse in baseball history, blowing a 7-game lead with 17 games to play to finish out of the running, New York Times, 29 September 2007

So This Is _Normal_ To Them

Forty percent of Americans have never lived when there wasn't a Bush or a Clinton in the White House, as president or vice president.

-- Associated Press, 28 September 2007

So the government as it currently exists is _normal_ to them.

If You Have To Be In A Soap Opera

If you have to be in a soap opera, try not to get the worst role.

-- Boy George

Counsel Of Our Fears

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell: What is the greatest threat facing us now? People will say it's terrorism. But are there any terrorists in the world who can change the American way of life or our political system? No. Can they knock down a building? Yes. Can they kill somebody? Yes. But can they change us? No. Only we can change ourselves. So what is the great threat we are facing?

I would approach this differently, in almost Marshall-like terms. What are the great opportunities out there\u2014ones that we can take advantage of? It should not be just about creating alliances to deal with a guy in a cave in Pakistan. It should be about how do we create institutions that keep the world moving down a path of wealth creation, of increasing respect for human rights, creating democratic institutions, and increasing the efficiency and power of market economies? This is perhaps the most effective way to go after terrorists.

Interviewer: So you think we are getting too hunkered down and scared?

Powell: Yes! We are taking too much counsel of our fears.

This doesn't mean there isn't a terrorist threat. There is a threat. And we should send in military forces when we have a target to deal with. We should also secure our airports, if that makes us safer. But let's welcome every foreign student we can get our hands on. Let's make sure that foreigners come to the Mayo Clinic here, and not the Mayo facility in Dubai or somewhere else. Let's make sure people come to Disney World and not throw them up against the wall in Orlando simply because they have a Muslim name. Let's also remember that this country was created by immigrants and thrives as a result of immigration, and we need a sound immigration policy.

Let's show the world a face of openness and what a democratic system can do. That's why I want to see Guantanamo closed. It's so harmful to what we stand for. We literally bang ourselves in the head by having that place. What are we doing this to ourselves for? Because we're worried about the 380 guys there? Bring them here! Give them lawyers and habeas corpus. We can deal with them. We are paying a price when the rest of the world sees an America that seems to be afraid and is not the America they remember.

-- Colin Powell in GQ Magazine, October 2007

Marcel Marceau

Do not the most moving moments of our lives find us all without words?

-- Marcel Marceau (March 22, 1923 - September 22, 2007) The Reader's Digest (June 1958)

What Everyone Knows

I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.

-- Former Federal Reserve Chair Alan Greenspan; cited in Katrina Vanden Heuvel, "Greenspan, Iraq & Oil" (Nation, September 15, 2007)

By The Numbers

The new Forbes 400, by the numbers --

Oldest member       : John Simplot, 98
Youngest member     : John Arnold, 33
Average age         : 65
Number never married: 11
Avg number of kids  : 3.2
Minimum net worth   : $1.3 Billion
Average net worth   : $3.8 Billion
Collective net worth: $1.54 Trillion
Entirely self-made  : 270
Entirely inherited  : 74
Number of women     : 39
California residents: 88
New York residents  : 73
NY City residents   : 64

Number of billionaires with not enough money to make the list : 84

Planet Bush

The president can make things true simply by solemnly pronouncing them from the Oval Office. He can reach out to his critics just by saying he is doing so. And people believe him. But over here in the real world, things are different. Iraq is mostly ruled by armed gangs, not a central government. American troops are dying in the crossfire as the country continues to violently disintegrate along ethnic and sectarian lines. We're in it pretty much alone. There's no end in sight. And the real al Qaeda is regrouping in Pakistan.

-- Dan Froomkin, "It Came From Planet Bush", Washington Post, September 14, 2007

Good Intentions

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions.

-- Daniel Webster

Origin Of Myths

If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.

-- Bertrand Russell

Front, Back

If a bullet went through the back of the head, it's sectarian. If it went through the front, it's criminal.

-- An intelligence analyst, regarding the violence in Iraq; cited in Paul Krugman, "Time to Take a Stand" (New York Times, September 7, 2007)

Occupied

If someone occupied my hometown in the same manner Americans occupy Iraq, I'd be killing them any way I could.

-- Marine Scott Ritter, "Reporting from Baghdad" (TruthDig, September 7, 2007)

A Great Soul And Vast Views

Power always thinks it has a great soul and vast views beyond the comprehension of the weak; and that it is doing God's service when it is violating all His laws.

-- John Adams, letter to Thomas Jefferson, 1816

We Do Not Remember Days

We do not remember days; we remember moments.

-- Cesare Pavese, 1908-1950, Italian novelist, poet, and translator

Air Power

If I hear one more lawyer with no military experience explain to me how air power alone really can do it this time, I'm going to kill him.

-- An active-duty US Army officer; cited in "We Don't Need Another Fight Right Now" (Swedish Meatballs Confidential, August 31, 2007)

Public Diplomacy

The government calls it "public diplomacy". Some call it "propaganda". I prefer the term "manure". Others may prefer an easier-to-spell synonym. But it all smells the same.

-- Winter Patriot, "Did Bush Just Declare War On Iran?" (Winter Patriot blog, August 29)

Most Joyful, Most Perfect

For me, music making is the most joyful activity possible, the most perfect expression of any emotion.

-- Luciano Pavarotti (October 12, 1935 - September 6, 2007) Italian opera singer

Lack Of Access

I believe, if we don't fix the health care system, that lack of access will be a bigger cancer killer than tobacco. The ultimate control of cancer is as much a public policy issue as it is a medical and scientific issue.

-- John R. Seffrin, of the American Cancer Society, which plans to devote its entire advertising budget this year to the consequences of inadequate health coverage, NY Times, 8/31/07

Finish?

Well, that was an exciting finish.

-- Steve Fossett, millionaire adventurer, reported missing Monday 3 September, 2007

Do It Right

There is no labor a person does that is undignified, if they do it right.

-- Bill Cosby (1937-, American Actor, Comedian)

Miracles

This [war] is an endless story unless a miracle takes place in a time when miracles do not take place any more.

-- Waleed al-Ubaydi, a political analyst at Baghdad University, August 2007

The Chain Of Change

And, oh! what beautiful years were these
When our hearts clung each to each;
When life was filled and our senses thrilled
In the first faint dawn of speech.

Thus life by life and love by love
We passed through the cycles strange,
And breath by breath and death by death
We followed the chain of change.

-- Langdon Smith

Intelligent Work

The great difference between those who succeed and those who fail does not consist in the amount of work done by each but in the amount of intelligent work.

-- Og Mandino (1923-1996), American motivational author, speaker

Gonzales Going Going Gone

To achieve victory at the cost of eroding civil liberties would not really be a victory. We cannot change the core identity of our Nation and claim success. And our identity has never been in doubt -- we are a free people, dedicated to liberty for the popular and the unpopular, committed to the ideal that the People govern themselves, and determined to have a government that cannot extinguish or suppress the rights that make us Americans.

-- Then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, at the U.S. Air Force Academy, November 20, 2006

Less And Less Obvious

Everything you've learned in school as "obvious" becomes less and less obvious as you begin to study the universe. For example, there are no solids in the universe. There's not even a suggestion of a solid. There are no absolute continuums. There are no surfaces. There are no straight lines.

-- R. Buckminster Fuller

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)