Feels Great

I haven't quite figured it out yet, but it feels great.

-- Albert Woodfox, former Black Panther and one of the Angola 3, on being released after 43 years in solitary confinement, Democracy Now!, 22 February 2016

Luxurious Leisure

If machines produce everything we need, the outcome will depend on how things are distributed.  Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution.  So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality.

-- Stephen Hawking (1942-), Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) Science, 8 October 2015

No Smoke-Filled Room

There is no mechanism.  There is no smoke-filled room.  If there is, I've never seen it, nor do I know anyone who has.  This is going to play out in the way that it will.

-- Michael O. Leavitt, former governor of Utah, on how the Republican Party was unable to come up with a united front to quash Donald J. Trump's campaign, New York Times, 28 February 2016

One Question

Ms. Eisenstein, one question.  Can you give me -- ­­ this is a misdemeanor violation.  It suspends a constitutional right. Can you give me another area where a misdemeanor violation suspends a constitutional right?

-- Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (1948-), asking a question from the bench for the first time since 22 February 2006, in Voisine v. United States, 29 February 2016

Bats In The Belfry

My party has gone batshit crazy.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina on the GOP's embrace of Donald Trump, 25 February 2016

Just Wow

So, we won the evangelicals.  We won with young.  We won with old.  We won with highly educated.  We won with poorly educated -- I love the poorly educated -- with the smartest people, with the most loyal people.  And you know what I really am happy about?  Because I’ve been saying it for a long time -- 46 percent with the Hispanics, 46 percent, number one with Hispanics.  I’m really happy about that.

-- Presidential hopeful Donald Trump after winning the Nevada Republican Caucuses, 23 February 2016

A Stain

For many years, it’s been clear that the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay does not advance our national security. It undermines it.  This is not just my opinion.  This is the opinion of experts.  This is the opinion of many in our military.  It’s counterproductive to our fight against terrorists, because they use it as propaganda in their efforts to recruit. ...  Keeping this facility open is contrary to our values.  It undermines our standing in the world.  It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law.

-- President Barack Obama, 23 February 2016

No Eye To Our Convenience

Scientific discovery consists in the interpretation for our own convenience of a system of existence which has been made with no eye to our convenience at all.

-- Norbert Wiener (1894 - 1964), U.S. mathematician, as quoted in Comic Sections (1993) by D MacHale

Many Lunatics

The megalomaniac differs from the narcissist by the fact that he wishes to be powerful rather than charming, and seeks to be feared rather than loved.  To this type belong many lunatics and most of the great men of history.

-- Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl Russell (1872 - 1970), British philosopher, logician, mathematician, 1950 Nobel Laureate in Literature, The Conquest of Happiness (1930), Ch. 1: What Makes People Unhappy?

Backdoor

Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them.  But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create.  They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.

-- Apple CEO Tim Cook in an open letter to customers announcing his company’s decision to fight a court order to compel Apple to assist the investigation in unlocking the phone of San Bernardino shooter Syed Rizwan Farook,  16 February 2016

Priorities

Actions express priorities

-- Charles A. Garfield, author and motivational speaker, Peak Performers (1987)

This Fight

This fight has been fought by both sides for decades.

-- Ed Whelan, former law clerk to Justice Antonin Scalia and a prominent legal commentator, on the battle between conservatives and liberals over judicial appointments, New York Times,  16 February 2016

RIP Antonin Scalia

If you're going to be a good and faithful judge, you have to resign yourself to the fact that you're not always going to like the conclusions you reach.  If you like them all the time, you're probably doing something wrong.

-- Antonin Gregory Scalia (11 March 1936 - 13 February 2016), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, speech at Chapman Law School (August 2005)

Fooling Ourselves

Our first priority was making sure we weren’t fooling ourselves.

-- Keith Riles, University of Michigan physicist and member of the LIGO Detection Committee, on the successful detection of gravity waves, quoted in Cosmos Magazine, 12 February 2016

Life Is Very Simple

Life is very simple ...  It merely consists in learning how to accept the impossible, how to do without the indispensable, how to endure the insufferable.  What could be easier?

-- Kathleen Norris (1880-1966), American novelist, Foolish Virgin, a Novel (1927), p 178

Happyness

A new post, Minister of State for Happiness, will align and drive government policy to create social good and satisfaction.

-- Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, ruler of Dubai and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, on a new office established amid a sweeping government reorganization, New York Times, 10 February 2016

No Earthly Idea

I am truly, completely undecided.  I have no earthly idea what I'm going to do at the end of the day.

-- Barbara Wilson, 64, an undecided voter in Henniker, N.H., who said she likes Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and Marco Rubio,  New York Times, 9 February 2016

Please Clap

Please clap.

-- Presidential hopeful Jeb Bush during a speech to a New Hampshire audience that didn't respond to an applause line, 2 February 2016

Now, Less So

Trump has been looking good mainly because the sane vote has been so broken up, so fractured.  Now, less so.

-- Gordon Humphrey (1940-), former US Senator from New Hampshire, New York Times, 2 February 2016

The Groundhog Is Jesus

Michael Bronski, a film critic for The Forward who teaches a course in Jewish film history at Dartmouth, said he sees strong elements of not only Jewish but also Christian theology.  "The groundhog is clearly the resurrected Christ, the ever hopeful renewal of life at springtime, at a time of pagan-Christian holidays," he said, adding: "And when I say that the groundhog is Jesus, I say that with great respect."

-- Alex Kuczynski, on diverse interpretations of Groundhog Day (1993 film), in "Groundhog Almighty", New York Times, 7 December 2003

Real Liberty

Real liberty is neither found in despotism or the extremes of democracy, but in moderate governments.

-- Alexander Hamilton (1755?-1804), American politician, Debates of the Federal Convention, 26 June 1787

Angst And Hormones

I can be a bit grumpy.  I'm full of angst, and hormones.

-- Nicholas Hoult (1989-), English actor, interview in The Mirror, 2 February 2012

Fear Only One Person

Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself.      
 
-- Philip José Farmer (1918-2009), American author, The Magic Labyrinth (1980), opening lines

Irrational

There's a feedback between financial markets and the economy.  You might think markets are irrational, but even if they are, that spills over into the real economy.

-- Andrew T. Levin, former adviser to Fed chairwoman Janet L. Yellen, on how the decline of oil prices is causing other problems, too, New York Times, 22 January 2016

Aim Of An Argument

The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress.

-- Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824), French moralist and essayist, The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert (1883)

Hero By Mistake

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else.  If it had been possible he would have settled the matter otherwise, and without bloodshed.  He doesn't boast of his own death or of others'.  But he does not repent.  He suffers and keeps his mouth shut; if anything, others then exploit him, making him a myth, while he, the man worthy of esteem, was only a poor creature who reacted with dignity and courage in an event bigger than he was.

-- Umberto Eco (1932-), Italian philosopher, semiotician, and novelist, "Why Are They Laughing In Those Cages?", in Travels in Hyperreality: Essays (1986), Ch. III: The Gods of the Underworld, p. 122

Conspiracy Theory

You simply cannot invent any conspiracy theory so ridiculous and obviously satirical that some people somewhere don't already believe it.

-- Robert Anton Wilson (1932 - 2007), American novelist, essayist, and absurdist philosopher, Everything Is Under Control: Conspiracies, Cults, and Cover-Ups (1998), Introduction, p. 16

Not Moving

If you're stationary, you're not moving.

-- Ray Spooner, rayslittleride.com, 17 November 2015

Grab You By The Tail

To fear is one thing.  To let fear grab you by the tail and swing you around is another.

-- Katherine Paterson (1932-), American author of children's novels, Jacob Have I Loved (1980)

Don's Detour

Those who wish to follow along can visit my other blog at

http://donsdetour.blogspot.com/

Don's Detour

Trvth will take a brief hiatus while I attend to some medical issues.  I'm sure you'll hear from me again before Christmas.

Comfortable Conviction

Insurance -- an ingenious modern game of chance in which the player is permitted to enjoy the comfortable conviction that he is beating the man who keeps the table.

-- Ambrose Bierce (1842-1913?), American satirist and author, in: The Unabridged Devil's Dictionary, University of Georgia Press (2001) p. 133

Habit Rules

Habit rules the unreflecting herd.

-- William Wordsworth (1770-1850), English poet, Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part II, No. 28 (1821)

Just Kidding

The only difference between me and most people is that I'm perfectly aware that all my important decisions are made for me by my subconscious. My frontal lobes are just kidding themselves that they decide anything at all. All they do is think up reasons for the decisions that are already made.      

-- Rex Stout (1886-1975), American author of detective novels, "Author Rex Stout Vs. The FBI" in Life Magazine (10 December 1965)

The Same Individual

Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.

-- Arthur Koestler (1905-1983), Hungarian-British author and journalist, Drinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967 (1967)

Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
    For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
    For everything Thy goodness sends.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), American philosopher, essayist, and poet, Thanksgiving

The Message Is Clear

The message to the West is clear: We have bought their buildings, we have bought their companies, and now we are going to buy their art.

-- Liu Yiqian, Chinese billionaire who made the winning bid at auction for a Modigliani portrait at $170.4 million with fees, New York Times, 18 November 2015

Almost Dead

Almost dead yesterday, maybe dead tomorrow, but alive, gloriously alive, today.

-- Robert Jordan (1948-2007), American fantasy author, Lord Of Chaos (1994)

Acnestis

acnestis:

The part of an animal's skin that it cannot reach to scratch itself, usually the space between the shoulder blades.

Not Something To Aspire To

Normal is not something to aspire to, it is something to get away from.

-- Jodie Foster (19 November 1962-), two-time Academy Award-winning American actress, director, and producer,  as quoted in Diamonds, Pearls & Stones : Jewels of Wisdom for Young Women from Extraordinary Women of the World (2004) p. 6

A Crown

The man who is well wears a crown that only the sick can see.

-- Sir William Osler, (1849 - 1919), Canadian physician

Half The World

Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can't, and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.

-- Robert Frost, attributed

Ego Says

Ego says, "Once everything falls into place, I'll feel peace."  Spirit says, "Find your peace, and then everything will fall into place."

-- Marianne Williamson (1952-), American spiritual teacher, author, and lecturer, on Twitter as @marwilliamson, 10 August 2013

Life Is A Shipwreck

Life is a shipwreck, but we must not forget to sing in the lifeboats.

-- Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet) (1694-1778), quoting the character Bottiglia, in Candide (1759)

Made Entirely Of Flaws

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

-- Augusten Burroughs (1965-), American writer, Magical Thinking: True Stories (2004)

Edmund Fitzgerald

On this date (10 November) in 1975, forty years ago, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, the largest ship on North America's Great Lakes, sank in Lake Superior with the loss of 29 lives.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Edmund_Fitzgerald

Knack Of Flying

The knack of flying lies in learning to throw yourself at the ground and miss. ...  Clearly, it is this second part, the missing, which presents the difficulties.

-- Douglas Adams (1952-2001), English author and satirist, Life, the Universe and Everything (1982), Chapter 9

Arbitration

This amounts to the whole-scale privatization of the justice system.  Americans are actively being deprived of their rights.

-- Myriam Gilles, law professor at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, on businesses bypassing the legal system with arbitration, New York Times, 2 November 2015

With Curious Art

With curious art the brain, too finely wrought,
Preys on herself, and is destroy'd by thought:
Constant attention wears the active mind,
Blots out our powers, and leaves a blank behind.

-- Charles Churchill (1731 – 1764), English poet and satirist, Epistle to William Hogarth (July 1763), line 645

Telescopium

Here's something I learned today --

Telescopium is a minor constellation in the southern celestial hemisphere, one of twelve created in the 18th century by French astronomer Nicolas Louis de Lacaille and one of several depicting scientific instruments. Its name is a Latinized form of the Greek word for telescope. Telescopium was later much reduced in size by Francis Baily and Benjamin Gould. The brightest star in the constellation is Alpha Telescopii, a blue-white subgiant with an apparent magnitude of 3.5, followed by the orange giant star Zeta Telescopii at magnitude 4.1. Eta and PZ Telescopii are two young star systems with debris disks and brown dwarf companions. Telescopium hosts two unusual stars with very little hydrogen that are likely to be the result of merged white dwarfs: HD 168476, also known as PV Telescopii, is a hot blue extreme helium star, while RS Telescopii is an R Coronae Borealis variable. RR Telescopii is a cataclysmic variable that brightened to magnitude 6 in 1948 as a nova.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telescopium

RIP Fred Thompson

My daddy always said that a man who walks around with a smile on his face all the time can't possibly know what's going on.

-- Fred Dalton Thompson (19 August 1942 - 1 November 2015), American politician, actor, US Senator (R-TN) 1994-2003, Teaching The Pig To Dance (2010)