Tic Tac

Tic Tac respects all women.  We find the recent statements and behavior completely inappropriate and unacceptable.

-- Tweet by @TicTacUSA in response to comments made by Donald Trump in 2005 during a taping of Access Hollywood, 2:03 PM - 8 October 2016

Unacceptable

The really sad part is that in the United States we accept 35,092 people dying on the roadways and thinking that's okay.  It should be unacceptable.

-- Mark Rosekind, the head of NHTSA, NPR, 5 October 2016

Gentlemen

Gentlemen, the people at home cannot understand either one of you when you speak over each other.  I would please ask you to wait until the other is finished.

-- Moderator Elaine Quijano of CBS News, after the first part of the Vice Presidential debate was marked by the candidates frequently interrupting and talking over each other, 4 October 2016

Doomsday Scenario

That is the doomsday scenario, in some respects, of having an eight-member court.

-- Carter G. Phillip, a lawyer, describing the possibility that a deadlocked Supreme Court might face a dispute over the outcome of the presidential race in its next session, New York Times, 2 October 2016

Possible For Beer

We got the idea from looking at other life provisions that run through pipes.  Water pipes, electricity pipes, cable distribution, etc.  So why wouldn't that be possible for beer?

-- Xavier Vanneste, director of De Halve Maan, or The Half Moon, a Belgian brewery, on the world's first beer pipeline, in Bruges, New York Times, 17 September 2016

The Same Way

Optimists and pessimists die the same way.  They just live differently.  I prefer to live as an optimist.

-- Shimon Peres (2 August 1923 - 28 September 2016), Polish-born Israeli statesman, as quoted in "Serving 60 Years to Life", Newsweek Europe (12 December 2005)

Ahead Of My Time

I haven't worried about an email being hacked since I've never sent one.  I'm, like, ahead of my time.

-- Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on the queasiness in Washington as yet another victim, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, fell prey to seeing his personal musings distributed on the Internet and highlighted in news reports, New York Times, 16 September 2016

A Million Pianos

It sounded like a million pianos just dropped.

-- Unidentified young girl near the scene of a terrorist bombing in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan, 19 September 2016

Arab Dictator 2.0

He's a different kind of bloodthirsty dictator, the kind who shops online on his iPad. He's sort of Arab dictator 2.0.

-- Nadim Houry, of Human Rights Watch, referring to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, New York Times, 18 September 2016

Worn Thin

Once again the crust of civilization has worn thin, and beneath can be heard the muttering of primeval fires.  Once again many accepted principles of government have been overthrown, and the world has become a laboratory where immature and feverish minds experiment with unknown forces.  Once again problems cannot be comfortably limited, for science has brought the nations into an uneasy bondage to each other.     

--John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (1875 - 1940), Scottish novelist, poet, and politician, Augustus (1937)

Mother Teresa

I think, perhaps, we may have some difficulty in calling her St. Teresa: Her holiness is so near to us, so tender and so fruitful, that we continue to spontaneously call her Mother Teresa.

-- Pope Francis, in off-the-cuff remarks during his homily at the canonization ceremony elevating Mother Teresa to sainthood, New York Times, 5 September 2016

To Boldly Go

Space: the final frontier.  These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.  Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

-- Canadian actor William Shatner (1931-), in the voice-over introduction to the television series Star Trek in its debut episode, 8 September 1966

We Will Rock You

It's just a dot of light, but it's a very special dot of light.

-- Queen guitarist Brian May, describing the asteroid (official designation: Asteroid 17473 Freddiemercury) named for his late friend and bandmate, Freddie Mercury


The celestial body was discovered in the same year Mercury died at age 45.  It was dedicated to the singer in honor of what would have been his 70th birthday, in a move that May announced in a video shown at a party for Mercury's 5 September 2016 birthday, in Montreux, Switzerland.

American Women

American women are the most fortunate class of people who ever lived on the face of the earth. We can do anything we want to do.

-- Phyllis Schlafly (15 August 1924 - 5 September 2016), American conservative political activist and Equal Rights Amendment opponent, Cultural Conservatism and the Religious Right, C-SPAN.org (4 April 2012)

Greenland Shark

It's no fish tale: The Greenland shark is the longest-lived vertebrate on the planet, a new study says.

The largest shark in the study, at 16.5 feet (five meters) in length, was estimated to be approximately 392 years old.  Nielsen says there is some uncertainty around that estimate.  He and his colleagues determined with 95 percent certainty that the shark was between 272 and 512 years old, and it was most likely around 390.

-- National Geographic, "272-Year-Old Shark Is Longest-Lived Vertebrate on Earth", by Mary Bates, 11 August 2016

What Problems

Don't ask kids what they want to be when they grow up.  Ask them what problems they want to solve.  This changes the conversation from who do I want to work for, to what do I need to learn in order to be able to do that.

-- Jaime Casap, Google Global Education Evangelist, on Twitter as @jcasap, 24 January 2015

RIP, Gene Wilder

It is so hard for us little human beings to accept this deal that we get.  It's really crazy, isn't it?  We get to live, then we have to die.  What we put into every moment is all we have ....  What spirit human beings have!  It is a pretty cheesy deal -- all the pleasures of life, and then death.

-- Gilda Radner (1946 - 1989), American comedienne and actress, It's Always Something (1989), pg. 87 (2009 edition)

Rules Of The Road

Their relationship as a current president and a former president would be a very, very sensitive issue early on, and they'd need to carefully work out the rules of the road for the sake of both of them.

-- David Gergen, senior adviser to several presidents, including Bill Clinton, on his role if Hillary Clinton were to be elected president, New York Times, 27 July 2016

One Of The Shouts

We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will.  Incredible.  The Life Force experimenting with forms.  You for one.  Me for another.  The Universe has shouted itself alive.  We are one of the shouts.

-- Ray Bradbury, American fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer, "G. B. S. -- Mark V", in I Sing the Body Electric: And Other Stories (1998)

A Critical Task

The forces going on in the society are not things the media can prevent or change.  But we can and should help understand this crisis and warn against false solutions.  If feelings are trumping arguments -- the pun is fully intended -- it doesn’t mean that arguments don’t still have to be made.  It may not win the news cycle.  It may not even win this election cycle.  But it’s a critical task.

-- Andrew Sullivan (1963-), libertarian conservative author and political commentator, as quoted in "Andrew Sullivan on His Brief Return to the Online Political Fray" by Jennifer Schuessler, in The New York Times, 29 July 2016

RIP Gawker.com

Gawker.com is shutting down today, Monday 22nd August, 2016, some 13 years after it began and two days before the end of my forties.  It is the end of an era.

It is a fitting conclusion to this experiment in what happens when you let journalists say what they really think.

-- Nick Denton, 22 August 2016, final post on gawker.com

The Cat Probably Deserved It

Omaha dad finds pot brownies, eats 4 of them, says mean things to cat

Paramedics called to the scene who checked the man found his vital signs to be normal.  But they noted that he was displaying odd behavior -- crawling around on the floor, randomly using profanities, and calling the family cat a "bitch".

-- Headline and snippet from an article by Kevin Cole in the Omaha (Nebraska) World-Herald, 19 August 2016

http://tinyurl.com/gmxgxky

Letter Of Life

Dear DONALD GRAHAM APPLEMAN

Our records indicated that you were deceased.  This record was in error and has been corrected.

If you have any questions, you should call, write, or visit any Social Security office.  If you visit an office, please bring this letter.  It will help us answer your questions.

Social Security Administration

-- Contents of a letter I picked up at the local Social Security office today after I got an email from my credit card company telling me they had closed my account because I was dead

A Sad Thing

It is a sad thing when men have neither the wit to speak well, nor the judgement to hold their tongues.

-- Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696), French essayist and moralist, "Of Society And Conversation", Les Caractères (1688)

A Hundred Times

Any trouble I get myself in now -- even an honest mistake -- will be a hundred times worse than if any normal person did it.

-- 30-year old Ahmed Abdul Qader, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was 17 at the time of his arrest, after his relocation to Estonia, New York Times, 29 July 2016

Wait, What?

Before Obama came along, we didn't have any successful radical Islamic terrorist attacks inside the United States.

-- Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, at an event for Donald Trump in Ohio, 15 August 2016

Closed Doors

It's hugely disappointing.  A trial is the one place where the system really gets tested.  Everything else is done behind closed doors.

-- Judge Jed S. Rakoff, a 20-year veteran of the Manhattan federal bench, on the sharp decline of jury trials, New York Times, 8 August 2016

Very Truly Yours

As Director of the Public Defender System, I can only hire attorneys when I have the funding to do so. ...  To avoid having to close one or more offices, the remaining option is to consider the use of Section 600.042.5, which gives the Director of the Public Defender System the authority to "[d]elegate the legal representation of any person to any member of the state bar of Missouri." ....

[P]ursuant to Section 600.0425 and as Director of the Missouri State Public Defender System tasked with carrying out the State's obligation to ensure that poor people who face incarceration are afforded competent counsel in their defense, I hereby appoint you, Jeremiah W. (Jay) Nixon, Bar No. 29603, to enter your appearance as counsel of record in the attached case.

Very truly yours,

-- Michael Barrett, Director of the Missouri Public Defender System, in a letter assigning a case to Governor Jay Nixon, 2 August 2016

Refugee Olympic Team

Madam Tegla gives us a chance for other people to know the history of our lives.  And we can forget what happened before.

-- Yiech Pur Biel, 21, an 800-meter runner who fled his village in South Sudan in 2005, on Tegla Loroupe, a Kenyan marathoner who is leading a group of 10 displaced athletes, known as the Refugee Olympic Team, to Rio, New York Times, 5 August 2016

Life Doesn't Suck

Very occasionally, if you really pay attention, life doesn't suck.

-- Joseph "Joss" Hill Whedon (23 June 1964 -), American screenwriter, film and television director and producer, Liner notes to the cast album Once More, with Feeling (2002)

Lost Track

Anyone who has lost track of time when using a computer knows the propensity to dream, the urge to make dreams come true, and the tendency to miss lunch.

-- Tim Berners-Lee (1955-), Inventor of the World Wide Web and director of the World Wide Web Consortium, interview by Kris Herbst for Internet World (June 1994)

Completely Different

I've also learned that my memory may be completely different than reality.  I've decided that my brain did that for a good reason (perhaps survival of that moment) or maybe it's just being an asshole again.  In either case, it's made me more humble and less insistent that I'm correct.  I've also put less weight on the past.  There's nothing I can do about it, except learn from it.  And I feel like I can learn no matter how I might mis-remember my alternate universe self, so I care less about what really happened.

-- Wendy, July 2016, http://wendria.blogspot.com/

Another First

And so it is with humility ... determination ... and boundless confidence in America's promise ... that I accept your nomination for President of the United States!

-- Hillary Clinton in her speech at the Democratic National Convention, becoming the first woman at the top of a major party ticket, 28 July 2016

More Yesterdays

Those of us who have more yesterdays than tomorrows tend to care more about our children and grandchildren.

-- Former President Bill Clinton in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, 27 July 2016, echoing a phrase he used on his 50th birthday, 19 August 1996

Quiet

There's nothing like a quiet ball park on the road.

-- Baseball announcer Tim McCarver, as the Cardinals tied the New York Mets 4-4 in the 9th inning at New York, 27 July 2016

Every Morning

I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves -- and I watch my daughters -- two beautiful, intelligent, black young women -- playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.  And because of Hillary Clinton, my daughters -- and all our sons and daughters -- now take for granted that a woman can be President of the United States.

-- First Lady Michelle Obama in a speech at the Democratic National Convention, 25 July 2016

Humbly And Gratefully

Friends, delegates and fellow Americans: I humbly and gratefully accept your nomination for the presidency of the United States.

-- Donald Trump, accepting the Republican nomination for president of the United States, 21 July 2016

Vote Your Conscience

We deserve leaders who stand for principle, who unite us all behind shared values, who cast aside anger for love.  That is the standard we should expect from everybody.  And, to those listening, please don't stay home in November. 

If you love our country, and love our children as much as you do, stand, and speak, and vote your conscience, vote for candidates up and down the ticket who you trust to defend our freedom, and to be faithful to the constitution. 

-- Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), speaking at the Republican National Convention, 20 July 2016

The Real Damage

The real damage from terrorist attacks doesn't come from the explosion.  The real damage is done after the explosion, by the victims, who repeatedly and determinedly attack themselves, giving over reason in favor of terror.  Every London cop who stops someone from taking a picture of a public building, every TSA agent who takes away your kid's toothpaste, every NSA spook who wiretaps your email, does the terrorist's job for him.  Terrorism is about magnifying one mediagenic act of violence into one hundred billion acts of terrorized authoritarian idiocy.      

-- Cory Doctorow (1971-), Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author, "BBC photographer prevented from shooting St Paul's because he might be 'al Qaeda operative'", 30 November 2009

Rough Year

It's been a rough year for the media experts.  It must be humbling to be so wrong about so much for so long.

-- Willie Robertson, star of A&E's "Duck Dynasty" at the Republican National Convention, 18 July 2016

A Rocket

If you take all the machinery in the world and dump it in the ocean, within months more than half of all humanity will die and within another six months they’d almost all be gone; if you took all the politicians in the world, put them in a rocket, and sent them to the moon, everyone would get along fine.      

-- Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983), American philosopher and systems theorist, Norie Huddle interview (1981)

We Cannot Let Terrorists Decide

You're speaking with, at one side a very happy man, and at the other a very sad man.  It's a very sad day I woke up to the terrible news from Nice, and it was a very just question as to whether we should race, but I think it was a just decision to race today.  I think we cannot let terrorists decide our lives in our society.

-- Tom Dumoulin, after claiming his second stage win at this year’s Tour de France, 15 July 2016

Crazy Ideas

Mostly, the most crazy ideas work the best.

-- Sjoerd Hoogendoorn, a security consultant who originated a program in the Netherlands of training eagles to intercept small drones midair, New York Times, 29 May 2016

Political Issues

All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred, and schizophrenia.      

-- George Orwell (1903-1950), pen name of British novelist Eric Arthur Blair, "Politics and the English Language" (1946)

Everything

There must be more to life than having everything!

-- Maurice Sendak (1928-2012), American writer and illustrator of children's literature,  Higglety Pigglety Pop! or, There Must Be More to Life (1967)

Super Duper

So it'd be super-duper if the death threats could stop.

-- Urbana, IL resident Bryton Mellott, on Facebook, after he earlier posted photos of himself burning a US flag with the hashtag #ArrestMe, for which he was arrested and quickly released, 4 July 2016, 1:12am

The Opposite

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.  The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it's indifference.  The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference.  And the opposite of life is not death, but indifference between life and death.

-- Elie Wiesel (30 September 1928 – 2 July 2016), writer, professor at Boston University, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor, US News & World Report (27 October 1986)

Fixed Star

Freedom to differ is not limited to things that do not matter much.  That would be a mere shadow of freedom. The test of its substance is the right to differ as to things that touch the heart of the existing order.  If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion.

-- Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, writing for the majority in West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (319 U.S. 624), ruling that public school children could not be compelled to salute the U.S. flag (1943)

No Charges

[N]o charges are appropriate in this case.

-- FBI Director James Comey, announcing the conclusion of an FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, 5 July 2016

The World Isn't Fair

The world isn't fair, but as long as it's tilting in my direction I find that there's a natural cap to my righteous indignation.

-- Scott Adams (1957-), American cartoonist and satirist, most famous for his Dilbert series of comic strips and books, in The Dilbert blog, The Benefits of Getting Old, 22 August 2006