Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Maneuverability

Nidal HasanThere won't be a lot of guilt-innocence maneuverability there.

-- Thomas H. Dunn, former defense lawyer for the Army, on possible defense strategies for Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, who is accused in the Nov. 5 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, TX, New York Times, 16 November 2009

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tasted It

The Lady and the Unicorn: TasteWe got more than just a whiff. We practically tasted it with the impact.

-- Peter H. Schultz, professor of geological sciences at Brown University, on a satellite crash that confirmed the presence of water on the moon, New York Times, 14 November 2009

Friday, November 13, 2009

Lifers

LIFEThere are just over 100 people in the world serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed. All are in the United States. And 77 of them are in Florida.

-- Adam Liptak, New York Times, 7 November 2009

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Sesame Street

Sesame StreetSally, you've never seen a street like Sesame Street. Everything happens here. You're gonna love it!

-- Gordon Robinson (character), the very first line spoken on the very first episode, 10 November 1969. Sesame Street is the longest running children's program on US television.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

In Sarah We Trust

Sarah PalinWho calls a shot like that? Who makes a decision like that? It's a disturbing trend.

-- Sarah Palin, on a 2005 decision approved by President George W. Bush to put "In God We Trust" on the edge -- rather than the face -- of new presidential dollar coins, November 2009

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Safe To Assume

SafeAlthough CREW has been unable to uncover the demographic makeup of [these companies], it seems safe to assume the vast majority of their employees are not pregnant women, infants and children, young adults up to 24 years old, and healthcare workers.

-- Melanie Sloan of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, after more than a dozen companies were given the vaccines, including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, 5 November 2009

Monday, November 09, 2009

Berlin Wall

After the fall, Berlin 1990Niemand hat die Absicht, eine Mauer zu errichten! (No one has the intention of erecting a wall!).

-- DDR State Council Chairman Walter Ulbricht, press conference, 15 June 1961, prior to the 13 August 1961 establishment of the Berlin Wall, which finally came down on 9 November 1989

Friday, November 06, 2009

Small Enough To Fit

Constitution of the United StatesI want a government small enough to fit inside the Constitution.

-- DownsizeDC.org co-founder Harry Browne (1933-2006)

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Not Evil

MickeyMickey is never going to be evil or go around killing people.

-- Warren Spector, creative director of Junction Point, a Disney-owned game developer overhauling the image of Mickey Mouse, New York Times, 5 November 2009

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Train Set

Bachmann Santa Fe FlyerThis is all happening because my father didn't buy me a train set as a kid.

-- Warren Buffett, joking about his decision to buy a railroad, the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation, New York Times, 4 November 2009

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Karzai Wins!

Afghan President Hamid Karzai (right) and Minister of Foreign Affairs Abdullah Abdullah (center) meet with Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld (left foreground) in the Pentagon on June 14, 2004Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry.

-- George Ade (1866 - 1944), American writer, newspaper columnist, and playwright

Monday, November 02, 2009

At Once

Signature of Calvin CoolidgeWe cannot do everything at once, but we can do something at once.

-- Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), 30th president of the United States

Friday, October 30, 2009

Recession Over

EconomistAnyone who thinks the recession is over just because the economy grew in the 3rd quarter is an economist.

-- Ron Elving, NPR's "It's All Politics" podcast, 29 October 2009

Thursday, October 29, 2009

That Great Fiction

Frederic BastiatThe State is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else.

-- Frederic Bastiat, French economist of the 19th Century

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

I Don't Know

Uncle Sam's youngest son, Citizen Know NothingI don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I just really don't know.

-- Senator Max Baucus (D-Montana), on his health plan's chances of passing, New York Times, 28 October 2009

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Disturb The Peace

James Baldwin photographed by Carl Van Vechten, September 13, 1955Most of us, no matter what we say, are walking in the dark, whistling in the dark. Nobody knows what is going to happen to him from one moment to the next, or how one will bear it. This is irreducible. And it's true of everybody. Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace.

-- James Baldwin (1924 - 1987), African-American novelist, short story writer, playwright and essayist, "An interview with James Baldwin" (1961)

Monday, October 26, 2009

Happy Marriage

Screenshot from the DVD version of the 1971 film Dirty HarryThere's only one way to have a happy marriage and as soon as I learn what it is I'll get married again.

-- Clint Eastwood (May 31, 1930-), American actor, film director, film producer and composer; 5-time Academy Award recipient

Friday, October 23, 2009

Too Fatiguing

Chinese character: 'hate' 恨 (U+6068)We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.

-- Sarah Bernhardt (1844 - 1923), French stage actress, My Double Life (1907) Chapter 33

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Deviation

Frank and Gail Zappa, in their Hollywood Hills home, 1988Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

-- Frank Zappa (1940-1993), composer, musician, film director

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Remarkable

Mullah Mohammed Omar's 1998-06-15 letter to all TalibanHe's a semi-literate individual who has met with no more than a handful of non-Muslims in his entire life. And he's staged one of the most remarkable military comebacks in modern history.

-- Former CIA officer Bruce Riedel, on Mullah Muhammad Omar, the reclusive leader of the Taliban, New York Times, 11 October 2009

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Too Many

Motorbikes of the Cuerpo Nacional de PolicíaWhen there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty. When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace. When there are too many lawyers, there can be no justice.

-- Lin Yutang (10 October 1895 - 26 March 1976), Chinese writer and translator, as quoted in Alexander, James (2005). The World's Funniest Laws. Cheam: Crombie Jardine. pp. page 6

Thursday, October 15, 2009

For The Children

diagram illustrating the changing attitudes toward interracial marriage in the US from 1972-2002I'm not a racist. I do ceremonies for black couples right here in my house. My main concern is for the children.

-- Justice of the Peace Keith Bardwell, of Tangihapoa Parish, Louisiana, on his refusal to grant a marriage license to an interracial couple, 6 October 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Good Is Dumb

Marcel MarceauWhen good is dumb, evil will always triumph.

-- Jeff Atwood, 28 May 2008, Coding Horror Blog, 23 November 2000

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

World Peace

German postal stamp issued 1st day of death of George C. Marshall (1880–1959)If man does find the solution for world peace it will be the most revolutionary reversal of his record we have ever known.

-- George C. Marshall (1880 - 1959), American military leader and statesman, creator of the Marshall Plan, the only US Army general to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, Biennial Report of the Chief of Staff, US Army, 1 September 1945

Monday, October 12, 2009

They Surely Will Abide

Alfred NobelMy dynamite will sooner lead to peace than a thousand world conventions. As soon as men will find that in one instant, whole armies can be utterly destroyed, they surely will abide by golden peace.

-- Alfred Nobel (21 October 1833 - 10 December 1896), Swedish chemist, armaments manufacturer, inventor of dynamite, who in his will used his enormous fortune to institute the Nobel Prizes, as quoted in The Military Quotation Book (2002) by James Charlton, p. 114


[It didn't turn out that way.]

Friday, October 09, 2009

Getting The Demon Out

Stamp of AzerbaijanSongwriting is about getting the demon out of me. It's like being possessed. You try to go to sleep, but the song won't let you. So you have to get up and make it into something, and then you're allowed to sleep. It's always in the middle of the bloody night, or when you're half-awake or tired, when your critical faculties are switched off. So letting go is what the whole game is. Every time you try to put your finger on it, it slips away. You turn on the lights and the cockroaches run away. You can never grasp them.

-- John Lennon (9 October 1940 - 8 December 1980), singer, songwriter, guitarist, political activist, humorist, painter, and writer

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Insurmountable Opportunities

Mohuna village, Deobun, Northwest of Landour, Dehradun - 1850sWe are confronted with insurmountable opportunities.

-- Walt Kelly (1913-1973), creator of the Pogo comic strip

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Memories Of Those Who Cared

Hubble Space Telescope, deepest view yet of the universeLike the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

-- Harlan Ellison (27 May 1934-), American author and media critic, Paladin of the Lost Hour (1985)

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

A Dizzy Ride

Spinning, spoked flywheelTo sum up: 1) The cosmos is a gigantic fly-wheel making 10,000 revolutions a minute. 2) Man is a sick fly taking a dizzy ride on it. 3) Religion is the theory that the wheel was designed and set spinning to give him the ride.

-- H. L. Mencken, twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, "Coda" from Smart Set, December 1920

Monday, October 05, 2009

Paid For Taking Too Much Risk

Risk board gameThe simple proposition should be that you don't want people being paid for taking too much risk, and you want to make sure that their compensation is tied to long-term performance.

-- Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner, New York Times, 19 September 2009

Friday, October 02, 2009

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Civil Forfeiture

Radley BalkoWhile few would argue that criminals ought to be able to keep the proceeds of their crimes, civil forfeiture allows the government to seize and keep property without actually having to prove a crime was committed in the first place. ... Proceeds from civil forfeiture at the state and local level usually go back to the police departments and prosecutors' offices, giving them a clear and unmistakable incentive to seize as much property as often as possible.

-- Radley Balko, (1975-), American libertarian writer and speaker, reason.com, 8 September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Zelaya

Map of HondurasMy greetings to the United Nations. Anybody who had any doubt that a dictatorship is taking hold of my country, now with what has happened in the last ninety-three days of repression, I think that any of those doubts that might have subsisted are dispelled. But besides being subject to a coup d'etat, Honduras is being subjected to a fascist rule, which is suppressing the rights of its citizens and which is oppressing the Honduran people.

-- Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, addressing the UN via cell phone from the Brazilian embassy in Honduras, 28 September 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sneak And Peek

Peeing TomLet me tell you why I'm concerned about these numbers. That's not how this was sold to the American people. It was sold, as stated on DoJ's website in 2005, as being necessary, quote, "to conduct investigations without tipping off terrorists." I'm going to say, it's quite extraordinary to grant govenment agents the statutory authority to secretly break in to Americans' homes in criminal cases. And I think some Americans might be concerned that it's been used hundreds of times in just a single year in non-terrorism cases.

-- Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI), on sneak and peek warrants authorizing secret break-ins into US homes and businesses. Of 763 requests last year, just three had to do with terrorism investigations. 23 September 2009

Monday, September 28, 2009

Metal Detectorists

Metal detectorPeople laugh at metal detectorists.

-- Terry Herbert, an Englishman who found an Anglo-Saxon treasure in a farm field worth an estimated $1.6M, NY Times, 25 September 2009

Friday, September 25, 2009

Spoiled

'I Wait' by the photographer Julia Margaret Cameron (1815-1879), 1860sIt is not giving children more that spoils them; it is giving them more to avoid confrontation.

-- John Gray, author (b. 1951)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Reality

Gary ZukavReality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. What we take to be true is our reality.

-- Gary Zukav, best-selling author and former Green Beret officer during the war in Vietnam

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A Soldier

Command Sgt Major insigniaWhen I look in the mirror, I don't see a female. I see a soldier.

-- Command Sgt. Major Teresa L. King, who will be the first woman to hold the post of the Army's top drill sergeant, New York Times, 22 September 2009

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

On All The Time

Home computer stationWe have entered this new era where essentially everything is on all the time.

-- Alan Meier, an expert on energy efficiency, on the proliferation of gadgets in American homes, New York Times, 20 September 2009

Monday, September 21, 2009

What We Make It

Grandma Moses, 1953Life is what we make it, always has been, always will be.

-- Grandma Moses (Anna Mary Robertson Moses, 1860-1961), American folk artist

Thursday, September 17, 2009

RIP Mary Travers

Mary TraversThe longer I live the more I find that people seldom take the time
To really get to know a stranger and make him a friend.
But the power of a simple song can make everybody feel they belong.
Maybe singin' and playin' can bring us together again.
Singin' and playin' can bring us together again.

That music speaks louder than words

-- Mary Travers (9 November 1936 - 16 September
2009), of Peter, Paul, and Mary, lyric to Music
Speaks Louder Than Words

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Freedom To Offend

Salman RushdieWhat is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist.

-- Salman Rushdie, writer (b. 1947)

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Grand Things

Thriller in Mexico CityThis positions us as a grand city where grand things happen.

-- Alejandro Rojas Diaz, Mexico City's tourism secretary, who organized an event at which 12,937 people danced to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" in pursuit of a world record, New York Times, 8 September 2009

Monday, September 14, 2009

End-Of-The-World Switch

Big Red SwitchSome humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry.

-- Terry Pratchett, novelist (b. 1948)

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Obama School Speech

Barack Obama addresses students at Wakefield HSThe story of America isn't about people who quit when things got tough. It's about people who kept going, who tried harder, who loved their country too much to do anything less than their best.

It's the story of students who sat where you sit 250 years ago, and went on to wage a revolution and found this nation. Students who sat where you sit 75 years ago who overcame a Depression and won a world war; who fought for civil rights and put a man on the moon. Students who sat where you sit 20 years ago who founded Google, Twitter and Facebook and changed the way we communicate with each other.

So today, I want to ask you, what's your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve? What discoveries will you make? What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?

-- President Barack Obama, addressing students from Wakefield HS, 8 September 2009

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Vindicated?

Muammar al-Gaddafi at the 12th AU summit, February 2, 2009, in Addis Abeba.He likes to rub it in to the West that he was vindicated, that he's becoming an internationally recognized figure again.

-- Dirk J. Vandewalle, associate professor of government at Dartmouth College, on Libyan leader Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi's planned September trip to New Jersey, New York Times, 26 August 2009

Friday, September 04, 2009

Play

New York, New York. Chinese-American playing Chinese checkers with a Jewish friend in a Flatbush home. Collins, Marjory, 1912-1985, photographer.You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of discussion.

-- Plato, philosopher (427-347 BCE)

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Youth And Middle-Age

Building materialsThe youth gets together his materials to build a bridge to the moon, or, perchance, a palace or temple on the earth, and, at length, the middle-aged man concludes to build a woodshed with them.

-- Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), American author, poet, naturalist, and philosopher, Journals, July 14, 1852

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Allow Their Children

Three girls with faces painted as animalsHuman beings are the only creatures that allow their children to come back home.

-- Bill Cosby (1937-), American actor, comedian, television producer and activist

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Future

Charles F. Kettering, pictured with his first electric starter.My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my life there.

-- Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958), American inventor, founder of Delco