Do Nothing And Rest

Que bonito es no hacer nada, y luego descansar (how beautiful it is to do nothing, and then to rest afterward).

-- Spanish proverb

At The Expense Of

Everyone wants to live at the expense of the state. They forget that the state lives at the expense of everyone.

-- Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850), French economist and author

Lost Decade

This is truly a lost decade. We think of America as a place where every generation is doing better, but we're looking at a period when the median family is in worse shape than it was in the late 1990s.

-- Lawrence Katz, economics professor at Harvard University, New York Times, 14 September 2011

Crime Requires Police Work

How can we escape from the trap that the terrorists have set us? Only by recognizing that the war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war. We must, of course, protect our security; but we must also correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds. Crime requires police work, not military action.

-- George Soros (born Gyorgy Schwartz, 12 August 1930), Hungarian-born American businessman, philanthropist, and political activist, address at the University of Pennsylvania (2002)

Get Back

Somehow we need to get back the president we thought we elected in 2008.

-- Bill McKibben, an environmental activist, reacting after President Obama abandoned a plan for stricter air pollution guidelines, New York Times, 3 September 2011

Local Hero

If what you did yesterday still seems great today, then your goals for tomorrow are not big enough.

-- Michael Stern Hart (8 March 1947 - 6 September 2011, in Urbana), American author, best known as inventor of the electronic book (or ebook) and founder of Project Gutenberg, a project to make ebooks freely available via the Internet; most of the early postings were typed by Hart himself


I met Michael Hart in the mid 70's when I was still in high school. He was selling stereo equipment on the side, and I bought a pair of speakers from him. I recall his phone number at the time was FLY-HART (359-4278).

TMND, Sept 18-24, 2001

*****************************************************
T H E M O R R O C K N E W S D I G E S T
Tuesday Sept. 18, 2001 :: EMAIL EDITION
*****************************************************

THE TRAGEDY - WHAT IT MEANT,
WHAT IT CONTINUES TO MEAN

REFLECTIONS AFTER TERRIBLE TUESDAY

By JOHN DAVID POWELL
TMNS Contributor

What happened on that terrible Tuesday, September 11, 2001, was a tragedy
that profoundly affected us all. We stood motionless as we witnessed the
unthinkable become reality. We gasped as we saw twin towers crumble, and we
cried as we watched grown men weep. And then we were drawn together, as
communities and as a nation, to seek a collective consolation from those
around us -- our families, our friends, our colleagues.

Theodore Roosevelt wrote that "Death is always, and under all
circumstances, a tragedy, for if it is not, then it means that life itself
has become one." The great calamity that struck our nation was much more
than death. It was a vicious act that struck at the heart of America and
touched the souls of each of her citizens.

Friday night my younger daughter and I lit candles and stood on the
sidewalk in front of our safe, suburban house. We joined a handful of
neighbors and became links in a remarkable chain of candle bearers that
stretched from sea to somber sea.

* * *

My daughter has not talked much about the attacks. She was at a friend's
house that morning preparing for school pictures to be taken later in the
day. She saw the second jet crash into the second tower.

She developed a bad cold by Thursday and spent that day and the next at
home, watching the television coverage. She sat with me each night,
watching the events unfold. And still she did not talk about them.

Not until this week did the deep subconscious wounds bleed with
uncontrolled anger and frustration. And denial that anything was wrong. She
reminded me that she had seen bad things before. She remembers watching and
reading the news about Columbine High School, and she remembers witnessing
a schoolmate and a parent die as they were struck by a runaway bus at her
Albuquerque elementary school.

Her mother and I talked with her last night, explaining that it is not
unusual for a person to experience stress and anxiety months or years after
an event. It is hard to explain to a 12-year-old about post-traumatic
stress disorder.

* * *

I first learned of the attacks while talking on the telephone with my wife,
who was in Reno on business. We were having our morning talk when she
uttered, "Oh, my god. A building is on fire in New York."

She soon became one of the thousands of people stranded when the planes
were grounded. By Wednesday morning, she was driving a rented car across
Nevada's high desert, en route to Salt Lake City.

She did not look forward to what she knew would be an ordeal at the airport
Sunday morning. She arrived five hours before her scheduled departure.
There was no one at the Southwest Airlines ticket counter, she said, but
the line for Delta "snaked through the terminal."

It took fifteen minutes to hand search her checked luggage. Security
personnel also rummaged through her purse and laptop computer bag looking
for knives, corkscrews and letter openers. None was found and she was
allowed through the security stop. As she walked to her gate, she passed a
gift shop that normally offers for sale souvenir knives, corkscrews and
letter openers. She didn't stop to see if those items were still being
offered. If so, the nation's airports have a few kinks to work out if
they're going to get this security thing to succeed.

* * *

News reports tell of long lines at airports for whatever flights remain.
For now, at least, impatient American travelers have traded their
irritation for some semblance of security. Airport inconvenience is a small
price to pay to be relatively assured you will reach your destination
safely.

One cannot be totally free and totally secure. It must be a Taoist thing:
"To be free is to be confined."

Freedom and security sit on opposite ends of a seesaw, teeter-tottering
with the needs of the nation. If we are to be totally free, then we give
up all security. If we are to be totally secure, then we relinquish all of
our freedoms. If you need examples, just look at China, North Korea, Libya,
or a dozen other countries. When was the last time any of them suffered an
external terrorist attack? The people of those countries are totally
secure, but they have no freedoms.

What freedoms are the American people willing to give up to be secure? A
man from Arkansas, visiting Washington, D.C. on the day of the attacks,
noted that the terrorists win if we become a closed society. It can also be
said that terrorists will win if we remain an open society. I'm not sure
we've fully grasped the constitutional ramifications of Terrible Tuesday.

* * *

It has been interesting to note that the debate over religion has been set
aside while the nation seeks comfort and guidance. Children and their
teachers are praying in schools. The national day of mourning is led by
services in the National Cathedral. President Bush invokes the name of God
at every appearance. We had wrapped God in the flag, put them both in a
drawer, and allowed certain factions to lock them up and throw away the
key. And then came Terrible Tuesday. Americans broke the lock, displayed
the flag, and prayed to God for forgiveness and strength.

Some of us searched the old books for scriptures that would provide us
light and hope as we stumbled through darkness and fear. "He will swallow
up death in victory; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from off all
faces," the prophet Isaiah assures us from across the millennia.

Like little children, we ask why. Then our children turn to us and ask the
same question. But the answer does not come.

And then I remember an old gospel song and try to find answers from its
words:

When death has found and taken our loved ones, Leaving our home so lonely
and drear, Then do we wonder why others prosper, Living so wicked year
after year. Farther along we'll know more about it. Farther along we'll
understand why. Cheer up, my brother, live in the sunshine. We'll
understand it all by and by.



JUST BARELY
By MATTHEW HOGAN
TMNS Contributor

A different type of fear came over the streets of Washington. On every
intersection of Georgetown, there were humvees and camouflage-clad military
people directing traffic. Some of these had "MP" written on their armbands.

Scary? Yes. But not simply for the danger these generally good-natured
folks were protecting us from. It is scary in itself, of a different kind,
to see military on the street. It was still more bothersome when I could
spot a few places where they were not, but should have been.

It would have been nice to see fighters overhead on patrol. I saw none. But
there is no shortage of troops to direct the traffic and ordinary transport
in a relatively non-sensitive area. Military police, they were, rather than
ordinary police. Such a scene is a painful reminder that the enemy, in some
respects other than the physical destruction of life and property, has won
for a time.

Two words come to mind: Just barely.

If they won it is only temporary and just barely. But "just barely" is also
a measure of how tolerable it is to have troops in the street, to have talk
of vague war against a concept (terrorism) rather than defined individuals
and states, and to hear repeatedly the medias sinister-sounding talk of
life "changed forever." The war against "Communism" should have been a war
against Soviet expansion, not a general crusade that meandered
destructively through Vietnam and various killing fields in Latin America,
where the evil "war on drugs" is helping decimate Colombia.

It is a brutal truth that relatively targeted preventive measures, and not
mass surveillance, could have worked last week. Cockpits inaccessible to
passengers. Aircraft on patrol rather than on call to "scramble" over our
key cities. FBI "watch" alerts that the Immigration and Naturalization
Service pays attention to. We dont need to sacrifice everything, despite
the insidious talk of life changing forever.

Should we be on a war footing? No question. But war brings intrusive
measures that tend to overstay: income tax withholding, military drafts,
and elusive health insurance tied to employment are lesser historic
examples. We should cooperate, but not accept measures that require
permanent surrender of our American-ness or even permanent surrender of
common sense. The talk of expanding surveillance powers, of unprecedented
secrecy and press restrictions, is ominous -- perhaps necessary, and then
again, perhaps not.

In short, should we tolerate the increased security presence everywhere?
Yes. Should we give the benefit of the doubt to intrusive and secret steps
underway? Probably. But if so, we should accept it with an eye on what it
means to be American. And therefore we should do accept it in the following
manner:

Just barely.


TODAY'S QUOTE
=============

Listen, all of you. Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you. Pray for
the happiness of those who curse you;
implore God's blessing on those who
hurt you. . . . Do you think you
deserve credit for merely loving
those who love you? Even the godless
do that.

-- Jesus Christ (quoted by
St. Luke)

TMND, Fri, Sept 14, 2001

*****************************************************
T H E M O R R O C K N E W S D I G E S T
FRIDAY :: September 14, 2001 :: EMAIL EDITION
*****************************************************

PUNISH THE GUILTY -- BUT DON'T
BLAME RELIGIONS, ETHNIC GROUPS

===================================================
EDITOR'S NOTE: On Tuesday, as the magnitude of the
tragedies that had just happened began to become
clear, our contributor Matt Hogan filed a response,
and we immediately provided a link to it. Because
we believe it deserves to be read widely, we're
reprinting it here today. -- C.D.
===================================================

By MATTHEW HOGAN
TMNS Contributor

They said that all monuments were closed, but tourists ambled around the
famous Iwo Jima memorial in Arlington, Virginia. Still, the sight of large
groups of people crossing the bridge from the District of Columbia, and the
police closing the highway to the Pentagon, confirmed the crisis atmosphere
created by the crash of the American Airlines plane into the Pentagon and
the related sabotage-slaughter at the World Trade Center. At the nearby
Fort Myer facility, I walked past as bereted troops in fatigues inspected
each arrival.

Behind that, a plume of smoke came from one side of the headquarters of our
Defense Department.

Verbal bombs are following. Everyone is calling the terrorists "cowards" or
their actions "cowardly." Call it as you will: fanatic, evil, satanic,
dastardly; it was many things, but it was not cowardly. One person, perhaps
Orrin Hatch, has called them "cowards who would stop at nothing." The
shortsightedness of that comment is self-evident: it is the very opposite
of cowardice to be stoppable by nothing.

On the streets in Arlington an old white guy is saying how we need to close
the borders and keep the Muslims out. He lived in Saudi Arabia. I also
spent considerable time in the Middle East and I dont worry about Muslims,
just bad people who happen to be Muslims. (It also might be a good idea if
in the long run we got our own explosives out of the Middle East.) I fear
there will be a backlash against ethnic and religious groups by vigilantes
and mobs -- the same savage mentalities as the bombers themselves.

The media is fanning the flames of tyranny, trying to goad commentators to
say that we must now change our whole lives for the sake of security.
Rubbish. The people who tried to turn the Pentagon into the Square should
not be allowed to turn the free and the brave into slaves of fear. Let's
find the guilty and any sponsors and breathe fiery judgment. Let's solve
any underlying political issues that enable the guilty to circulate and
recruit.

From New York I learn that my brother who works for local TV is OK while
covering the event. My uncle used to work in the World Trade Center but
died a few years ago. Many people we know must at least know someone who
works there. It is conceivable that tens of thousands are dead. (I am not
an architect, but why should the whole building collapse when the top is
hit?)

I do agree the likely suspect is Osama bin-Laden. The method is familiar
-- multiple attacks, no claim of responsibility, a level of intelligent
organization. The targets dealt with American world power and foreign power
which usually dont bother militia type groups. The fact that they chose the
Pentagon is revealing as well. Palestinians dont have much grudge against
the American military, but the Osama people do because of U.S. military
presence in Saudi Arabia.

Another questionable comment is that this is unprecedented in America. Not
really. The British occupied New York in the Revolution and the rebels
burned a good part of it. In the War of 1812, the British burned
Washington. In the Civil War, the Yankees burned Atlanta. As deliberate
targeting of civilians in American history goes, however, this is
nonetheless a doozy.

Find the guilty. Kill them, preferably after due process; punish their
sponsors. Don't be blaming religions and ethnic groups. Realize that they
are not cowards. Also realize that intentionally killing civilians is
nothing that odd for people at war: we razed Japan, killing hundreds of
thousands.

"There is no morality in war," is the quote of the American pilot who
dropped the A-bomb and never lost a nights sleep. And the attackers of New
York and Washington obviously feel the same.

TODAY'S QUOTE
=============

Listen, all of you. Love your enemies.
Do good to those who hate you. Pray for
the happiness of those who curse you;
implore God's blessing on those who
hurt you. . . . Do you think you
deserve credit for merely loving
those who love you? Even the godless
do that.

-- Jesus Christ (quoted by
St. Luke)

TMND, Weds, Sep 12, 2001

*****************************************************
T H E M O R R O C K N E W S D I G E S T
WEDNESDAY :: September 12, 2001 :: EMAIL EDITION
*****************************************************

PASSENGERS CALLED HOME
FROM DOOMED AIRLINERS

Several passengers aboard at least two of the four airliners hijacked by
terrorists on Tuesday managed to call home on their cell phones before
crashing, telling families of their love and giving brief but horrific
descriptions of what was happening in the air.

One woman, aboard the plane that was about to strike the second World Trade
Center tower in New York, learned via cellphone that a hijacked plane had
plowed into the first tower, and she was apparently able to relay that
information to other passengers before they, too, struck one of the twin
towers.

==================================================

SYMPATHY FROM CHINA: Xiaochun Li, our correspondent
in China, sent this email message Wednesday morning:
"I am very sorry to have heard about the attack on
the USA. I offer my deepest sympathy! Could I
contribute my blood to the needy? Why human beings?
-- from a most, most, most common Chinese."
===================================================

Two men -- Mark Bingham of California and Jeremy Glick of New Jersey -- who
were passengers on the plane that eventually crashed near Pittsburgh called
out on their cell phones, and both indicated that a group of passengers was
going to take action against the hijackers, The Washington Post reported.

Pennsylvania Rep. John Murtha said he believes a struggle took place in the
cockpit of United Airlines Flight 93 as the plane headed for a significant
target in Washington, D.C.

"There had to have been a struggle and someone heroically kept the plane
from heading to Washington," crashing it instead in rural Pennsylvania,
Murtha said.

One caller said the hijackers began killing stewardesses in the rear of the
plane to lure the pilots out of the cabin. Information from callers
indicated that the hijackers were armed with knives and box-cutters and
made bomb threats.

The Bush administration said Wednesday that "credible" security information
had indicated that the White House and Air Force One were both targets of
the well-planned attack -- explaining why President Bush delayed returning
to the White House on Tuesday. The plane that struck the Pentagon may have
been aimed at the White House, officials said.

====================================================
A LESSON RELEARNED: Pearl Harbor taught us the same
lesson fifty years ago that the World Trade Center
taught us today -- when you fail to bring the fight
to the enemy, he will bring the fight to you.

-- TMND Correspondent Jim Skoog
====================================================

Armed cops and FBI agents stormed the 36-story Westin Hotel in Boston on
Wednesday and arrested three people, after federal authorities linked them
to the credit card allegedly used to purchase tickets on the hijacked
flights, The Boston Globe said. However, FBI Director Robert Mueller later
said that no arrests in connection with the hijackings had yet been made.
Also searched was the Park Inn at Chestnut Hill, in a Boston suburb.

Boston newspapers said authorities had identified five Arab men as
suspects, and had found a rental car containing Arabic-language flight
training manuals at Boston's Logan International Airport, from which two of
the hijacked planes took off. According to the Boston Globe, investigators
found two bags, intended for one of the flights, containing a training
videotape for commercial airline pilots, a copy of the Koran, and a fuel
consumption calculator.

The FBI said Wednesday that four separate terrorist cells working together
had carried out the attack plans.

The Boston Herald said two of the suspects, brothers, entered the U.S. from
Canada. One was a trained pilot; both held passports from the United Arab
Emirates.

Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden was most often mentioned as the suspected
head of the organization that carried out the attacks. A Pakistani
newspaper, however, reported Wednesday that bin Laden denied involvement,
saying, "The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have
nothing to do with it."

In Afghanistan, where bin Laden is known to have stayed for lengthy
periods, the ruling Islamic fundamentalist Taliban party reportedly
disavowed any knowledge of the terrorist plan and asked the U.S. not to
retaliate against the country.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the U.S. continued to search for survivors amid
the rubble -- in Manhattan, a five-story-high pile of concrete and twisted
metal -- and to try to absorb what had happened.

In a speech to the nation on Wednesday, President Bush said "the deliberate
and deadly attacks, which were carried out yesterday against our country,
were more than acts of terror. They were acts of war."

Casualty figures continued to grow. Some Officials estimated that as many
as 800 people may have died at the Pentagon crash site, but others put the
total at under 200. Though some Pentagon offices were open for business
early Wednesday morning, the complex was later evacuated as smoke from
burning embers continued to rise into the air.

In New York City, at least nine persons were rescued alive from the World
Trade Center rubble, and officials said a few more such rescues were still
likely. One man made repeated calls on his cell phone from beneath the
wreckage.

===================================================
RED CROSS SEEKS HELP: The Red Cross has several Web
sites and tollfree phone numbers with information
about how individuals can help:
* For blood donors:
http://www.redcross.org/donate/give
1-800-GIVE-LIFE
* To donate funds via credit card:
http://www.redcross.org/donate/donate.html
1-800-HELP-NOW
* Main Red Cross Web site (includes a search engine
for local Red Cross addresses):
http://www.redcross.org

The sites may be overloaded, unreachable at times.
===================================================

Hundreds were known dead, including at least 200 firefighters. New York
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani predicted the final death toll will be "a few
thousand people" in each building of the World Trade Center.

Commercial air traffic continued to be grounded for the second day in a
row, leaving thousands of travelers stranded. The Federal Aviation
Administration announced stringent new security procedures that must be
implemented at all airports before flights can be resumed. Curbside luggage
checking will be discontinued. No knives of any size, including tiny
pocketknives and the cutlery distributed with airline meals, will be
permitted. Boarding areas will be restricted to ticketed passengers only.

Major League Baseball canceled its full schedule of games for the second
day in a row.

The New York Stock Exchange was closed again Wednesday. The last two-day
closure of the NYSE followed the assassination of President Kennedy in
1963.

Bush asked Congress for emergency funding for the rescue and cleanup
efforts.

TODAY'S QUOTE
=============

The pictures of airplanes flying into buildings,
fires burning, huge structures collapsing, have
filled us with disbelief, terrible sadness, and
a quiet, unyielding anger.

-- U.S. President George W. Bush,
Sept. 11, 2001

TMND, Tues, Sep 11, 2001

[In July 2001 I subscribed to an on-line news digest created by a laid-off news editor. 9/11 soon rolled around. I archived the news digests from that period. Re-reading these gives me that visceral feeling of being in the moment once again -- the confusion as to what happened, why it happened, and what we should do about it ... the knee-jerk reactions, and the slow shift to thoughtful reflection.

For the rest of this week and on Monday, I'm going to do a little 9/11 retrospective. Some of you may find this interesting; others may wish to skip it entirely, if it's too boring. I hope you read it and reflect; I believe there is real wisdom to be found here.]


****************************************************
T H E M O R R O C K N E W S D I G E S T
TUESDAY :: September 11, 2001 :: EMAIL EDITION
****************************************************

BULLETIN: TERRORISTS ATTACK
WORLD TRADE CENTER, PENTAGON

Three hijacked passenger airliners, most likely under control of
terrorists, have crashed into and completely destroyed the twin towers of
the World Trade Center in New York City and damaged the Pentagon in
Washington, D.C.

At least one other hijacked airliner has also crashed, in the Pittsburgh
area, and another plane reportedly crashed near Camp David, Maryland.

Loss of life is estimated in the thousands in what is clearly the most
massive such attack on the U.S. in history. An estimated 50,000 people work
each day in the twin towers in Manhattan. Hospitals in New York City are
overwhelmed with the injured, many of them suffering from severe burns. All
of lower Manhattan was being evacuated.

Casualties and fatalities were reported at the Pentagon.

After the mid-morning attacks, all commercial air traffic in the United
States was shut down. Officials said service would not resume until at
least Wednesday morning, at the earliest.

President Bush made an early public statement describing the events as an
"apparent terrorist attack on our country."

Later, in Louisiana, he said democracy itself had been attacked. "Make no
mistake," Bush said. "The United States will hunt down and punish those
responsible for these cowardly attacks." All "appropriate security
measures" have been taken, he said, and the U.S. military worldwide is on
high alert status.

Stock markets were closed and trading halted.

Across the country, especially in larger cities, schools and government
offices were closed along with airports. The cable TV channels MTV, VHS1
and QVC suspended their operations and carried news feeds. Major league
baseball games were canceled.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Washington-based Islamic
advocacy group, and the American Muslim Political Coordination Council,
issued statements condemning "what are apparently vicious and cowardly acts
of terrorism against innocent civilians," saying that "no political cause
could ever by assisted by such immoral acts." The groups also advised that
"those who wear Islamic attire should consider staying out of public areas
for the immediate future."

TODAY'S QUOTE
=============

The essence of war is violence. Moderation
in war is imbecility.

-- John Abuthnot Fisher (Baron Fisher)
(1841-1920)

Status Quo

Bureaucracy defends the status quo long past the time when the quo has lost its status.

-- Laurence J. Peter (1919-1990), Canadian-born educator and "hierarchiologist", best known for the formulation of the 'Peter Principle', Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1977)

One Percent

If you're in the luckiest 1 per cent of humanity, you owe it to the rest of humanity to think about the other 99 per cent.

-- Warren Buffett (30 August 1930-), American investor, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, speaking at a $4,600-a-seat political fundraiser in New York, the Times Online, 28 June 2007

Wrong Side

The minute that the Republican Party becomes the party -- the anti-science party, we have a huge problem. We lose a whole lot of people that would otherwise allow us to win the election in 2012. When we take a position that isn't willing to embrace evolution, when we take a position that basically runs counter to what 98 of 100 climate scientists have said, what the National Academy of Science -- Sciences has said about what is causing climate change and man's contribution to it, I think we find ourselves on the wrong side of science, and therefore, in a losing position.

-- Republican presidential hopeful Jon Huntsman, 21 August 2011

Mislabeled

The bill is mislabeled. This is not protecting children from Internet pornography. It's creating a database for everybody in this country for a lot of other purposes.

-- Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), opposing HR 1981, the so-called "Protecting Children from Internet Pornographers Act of 2011", 27 July 2011

Eyewitness

Study after study revealed a troubling lack of reliability in eyewitness identifications.

-- Chief Justice stuart J. Rabner, of the New Jersey Supreme Court, on new rules that will make it easier for defendants to challenge eyewitness identifications in criminal cases, New York Times, 25 August 2011

Where Mystery Begins

A good parson once said that where mystery begins religion ends. Cannot I say, as truly at least, of human laws, that where mystery begins, justice ends?

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish statesman and writer, A Vindication of Natural Society: A View of the Miseries and Evils Arising to Mankind (1756)

Liberties

The people never give up their liberties, but under some delusion.

-- Edmund Burke (1729-1797), Irish statesman and writer, Speech at a County Meeting of Buckinghamshire (1784)

Quick & Chaotic

Everyone should be ready for the prospect of a very quick, chaotic transition.

-- Tom Malinowski, director of the Washington office of Human Rights Watch, on the turmoil in Libya, New York Times, 22 August 2011

Silly Things

If people did not do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.

-- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian-born philosopher, Culture and Value (1980)

Nine Out Of Five

Wall Street indexes predicted nine out of the last five recessions.

-- Paul Samuelson, (1915-2009), American economist, "Science and Stocks", Newsweek, 19 September 1966, p. 92

Distill It Down

Let me see if I get the logic behind this. The problem with this whole thing has been there's too much partisan gridlock in Washington. So what we're going to do is distill it down to the real stars of partisan gridlock, and that's going to get something done.

-- Charlie Pierce (1953-), American writer and author, on the congressional supercommittee, on NPR's Wait, Wait ... Don't Tell Me quiz show, 6 August 2011

Having Rules

Simply having rules does not change the things that people want to do. You have to change incentives.

-- Jimmy Wales (8 August 1966), US Internet entrepreneur, founder of WikiPedia, Interview with Reason magazine (June 2007)

A Little More Luck

It felt like this was my moment. I don't feel like a failure at all. But we needed a little more luck.

-- Diana Nyad (22 August 1949-), ending her attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida, which she first tried in 1978. She holds the record of 102.5 miles for a 1979 shark-cageless, open-sea swim, when she stroked from the Bahamas to Florida, 8 August 2011

Printing Dollars

Of course, since U.S. debt is payable in dollars, and the U.S. government controls the printing of dollars, it is not clear what a downgrade could even mean. As long as the U.S. government knows how to print dollars, it will always be able to make the interest and principal payments on its debt.

-- Dean Baker, Co-Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, Statement on the S&P Downgrade (8 August 2011)

Common Good

The progressive-liberal values are America's values, and we need to go back to them. The heart of progressive-liberal values is simple: empathy (caring about and for people) and responsibility (acting responsibly on that empathy). These values translate into a simple principle: Use the common wealth for the common good to better all our lives. In short, promoting the common good is the central role of government.

-- George P. Lakoff (1941-), professor of cognitive linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, "The Post-Katrina Era" at Alternet.org (6 September 2005)

http://www.alternet.org/story/25099/

Good To Their Brothers

Men, said the Devil,
are good to their brothers:
they don't want to mend
their own ways, but each other's.

-- Piet Hein (1905-1996), Danish poet and scientist, Grooks - Mankind

Dissipate Certainty

Dogmatism and skepticism are both, in a sense, absolute philosophies; one is certain of knowing, the other of not knowing. What philosophy should dissipate is certainty, whether of knowledge or ignorance.

-- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970), British mathematician, philosopher, and logician, Unpopular Essays, Chapter 2 (1950)

Focus

The ability to focus attention on important things is a defining characteristic of intelligence.

-- Robert J. Shiller (1946-), American economist, academic, and author, Irrational Exuberance (2006)

It Will Not Be Humans

I'd like to widen people's awareness of the tremendous timespan lying ahead -- for our planet, and for life itself. Most educated people are aware that we're the outcome of nearly 4 billion years of Darwinian selection, but many tend to think that humans are somehow the culmination. Our sun, however, is less than halfway through its lifespan. Six billion years from now, it will not be humans who watch the sun's demise. Any creatures that then exist will be as different from us as we are from bacteria or amoebae.

-- Martin Rees (1942-), English cosmologist and astrophysicist, Our Final Hour (2003)

Tyrrany Of The Status Quo

There is enormous inertia -- a tyranny of the status quo -- in private and especially governmental arrangements. Only a crisis -- actual or perceived -- produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.

-- Milton Friedman (1912-2006), American economist, Capitalism and Freedom (1962), Preface

In Retrospect

You know, in retrospect, I question the inclusion of a self-destruct button in the first place.

-- Ferb, after Perry accidentally hits the self-destruct button on the Rainbowinator, on the Disney cartoon Phineas & Ferb, Season 1, Episode 47 (Hail Doofania!)

Outstanding Faults

The outstanding faults of the economic society in which we live are its failure to provide for full employment and its arbitrary and inequitable distribution of wealth and incomes.

-- John Maynard Keynes, (1883-1946), British economist, The General Theory of Employment Interest and Money (1935), Book 6, Chapter 24, Section 1

Effective Antidote

Mortal danger is an effective antidote for fixed ideas.

-- Erwin Rommel (1891-1944), German Field Marshal and commander of the Deutsches Afrika Korps in World War II, as quoted in The Rommel Papers (1982) edited by Basil Henry Liddell Hart

Nutters?

The irony of the situation at the moment, with markets opening tomorrow morning, is that the biggest threat to the world financial system comes from a few right-wing nutters in the American congress rather than the euro zone.

-- UK Business Secretary Vince Cable, after European leaders agreed a second rescue package for Greece, BBC Television, 24 July 2011

Nothing More Unequal

There is nothing more unequal than the equal treatment of unequals.

-- Thomas Jefferson (attributed)

A Floor, A Ceiling?

Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?

-- Maurits Cornelis (M.C.) Escher (1898-1972), Dutch artist, M.C. Escher, His Life and Complete Graphic Work: with a fully illustrated catalogue, Volume 1982, Part 1, H. N. Abrams (1982)

It Is Easy

The Taliban said they were proud to kill my brother. My message for the Taliban is that, my countrymen, my brothers, stop killing your own people. It is easy to kill, and anyone can do it, but the real man is the one who can save people's lives.

-- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on the occasion of his brother's funeral, 13 July 2011

Jens

Shut up, legs!

-- Jens Voigt (17 September 1971-), German professional road cyclist for Leopard-Trek, speaking to his legs during a climb in the Tour de France

In Charge

The lunatics end up in charge of everything. Sane, normal people don't need power trips.

-- James P. Hogan (1941-2010), British science fiction author, Paths to Otherwhere, Chapter 28 (1996)

Plato Promotes PLATO

Do not train [children] to learning by force and harshness, but direct them to it by what amuses their minds, so that you may be better able to discover with accuracy the peculiar bent of the genius of each.

-- Plato (c 427 BC - 347 BC), Greek philosopher, student of Socrates, teacher of Aristotle, founder of the Academy of Athens, in The Republic, Book VII, section 16

Nothing More

There is nothing more agreeable in life than to make peace with the Establishment -- and nothing more corrupting.

-- Alan John Percivale (AJP) Taylor (1906-1990), British historian of the 20th Century, "William Cobbett", New Statesman (London, 1953)

Neptune's First Anniversary

Yesterday was the first anniversary of the discovery of Neptune -- in Neptune years. 11 July 2011 marks the first full orbit of the planet Neptune since its discovery on the night of September 23-24, 1846.

-- Charlie Jane Anders, io9.com, based on an article by Tammy Plotner, universetoday.com, 11 July 2011

2**18 Miles

Last week my car hit 2**18 miles. I'd like to hit 2**19, but I don't think that's going to happen. Of course, when I hit 2**17, I didn't really expect to make it this far.

Don Appleman

Panetta Channels Bush/Cheney

The reason you guys are here is because on 9/11 the United States got attacked. And 3,000 Americans - 3,000 not just Americans, 3,000 human beings, innocent human beings - got killed because of Al Qaeda. And we've been fighting as a result of that.

-- Defense Secretary Leon Panetta speaking to troops in Iraq, contradicting the White House, the 9/11 Commission, and independent specialists who have said there is no evidence Al Qaeda had a presence in Iraq before the US-led invasion in 2003, Washington Post, 12 July 2011

Space Isn't Remote

Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards.

-- Fred Hoyle (1915-2001), British astronomer and science fiction author, "Sayings of the Week", The Observer (9 September 1979)

Completing A Chapter

We're not ending the journey today, we're completing a chapter of a journey that will never end. Let's light this shuttle one more time ... and witness this nation at its best. The crew of Atlantis is ready to launch.

-- Atlantis Commander Chris Ferguson, just before the 11:29:29am EDT launch of STS-135, the final Space Shuttle mission, 8 July 2011

Life Is Like A Ten-Speed Bicycle

Life is like a ten-speed bicycle. Most of us have gears that we never use.

-- Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000), American cartoonist, Linus in the comic strip "Peanuts" (29 May, 1981)

Get A Bicycle

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live.

-- Mark Twain (1835-1910), American humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer, Taming the Bicycle (1917)

The Amazing Rodrigo Martins

Yesterday my family said farewell to Rodrigo Martins, our foreign exchange student for the past 10+ months. Rodrigo is from Curitiba, Paraná, Brazil, and turned 17 this May while living with us in Bement.

The decision to host a foreign exchange student was made almost on the spur of the moment, and it turned into one of the most positive experiences my family has had. For this, all the credit is due to Rodrigo himself, as he proved to be a bright, sensitive, and engaging young man, who I am sure is destined for great success.

My family and the many friends Rodrigo made while living in Bement look forward to the day when he is able to return for a visit.

Equal Creation

We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

-- Thomas Jefferson, (1743 - 1826), draft of the Declaration of Independence, 21 June 1776