Not Spending Money On That

As to climate change, I think the president was fairly straightforward: We're not spending money on that anymore.

-- Mick Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, New York Times, 17 March 2017

All Points

As long as one does not call his own position into question but regards it as absolute, while interpreting his opponents' ideas as a mere function of the social positions they occupy, the decisive step forward has not yet been taken ... the general form of the total conception of ideology is being used by the analyst when he has the courage to subject not just the adversary's point of view but all points of view, including his own, to the ideological analysis.

-- Karl Mannheim (1893 - 1947), Hungarian-born social philosopher and sociologist, Ideology and Utopia (1929), as translated by Louis Wirth and Edward Shils (1936)

Two Ways

There are two ways of confronting the country's problems.  One is through a management style based on adventurism, instability, play-acting, exaggerations, wrongdoing, being secretive, self-importance, superficiality and ignoring the law.  The second way is based on realism, respect, openness, collective wisdom and avoiding extremism.

-- Mir-Hossein Mousavi Khameneh (1942-), Iranian reformist politician, painter and architect, reformist candidate for the 2009 presidential election and eventual opposition leader, currently under house arrest, as quoted in "Ahmadinejad lashes out at Iran's ex-presidents", CNN (4 June 2009)

Article 50

The Article 50 process is now underway, and in accordance with the wishes of the British people, the United Kingdom is leaving the European Union.

-- British Prime Minister Theresa May, informing the House of Commons that she has begun the formal process of withdrawing the U.K.'s membership from the European Union, 29 March 2017

The Pen And The Sword

The pen and the sword together will guide you on your way.

-- "Karate Nerd" Jesse Enkamp of KarateByJesse.com, on the WhistleKicksMartialArtsRadio Podcast, Episode #174, 27 March 2017, referring to ...

It is said the warrior's is the twofold Way of pen and sword, and he should have a taste for both Ways.

-- Miyamoto Musashi (c. 1584 – 13 June 1645), Japanese swordsman, in Go Rin No Sho [The Book Of Five Rings] (1645)

Tradition

Tradition is the handing down of the flame and not the worshipping of ashes.

-- Auguste Marie Joseph Jean Léon Jaurès (1859 - 1914), French Socialist leader (attributed)

Foreseeable Future

We're going to be living with Obamacare for the foreseeable future.

-- House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-WI), acknowledging that he could not muster enough votes to pass the Republican bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, 24 March 2017

Bulwarks Of Liberty

The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.

-- George Mason (1725 - 1792), Virginia planter, politician, delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, and father of the United States Bill of Rights, Virginia Declaration of Rights, Article 12 (12 June 1776)

Be Critical

Be critical.  Don't simply accept your own declarations about yourself, about who you are.  Prove it through your actions.  Prove to yourself Who You Are.

-- Don Appleman, talking to his teenage daughter, 8 September 2016

1 In 750

Michael Madigan retains his power over the 12.8 million citizens of Illinois as a result of running unopposed in the recent election, having garnered 17,155 votes (65.18%) in a 4-way primary held on 15 March 2016 (Source: Ballotpedia). 

Five Most Important Things

Of the five most important things in life, health is first, education or knowledge is second, and wealth is third.  I forget the other two.

-- Charles Edward Anderson "Chuck" Berry (18 October 1926 - 18 March 2017), American guitarist, singer and songwriter, and pioneer of rock and roll music

The Real Struggle

The real struggle is not between East and West, or capitalism and communism, but between education and propaganda.

-- Martin Buber (1878 – 1965), Jewish philosopher, theologian, story-teller, and teacher, as quoted in Encounter with Martin Buber (1972) by Aubrey Hodes, p. 135

Negative Effects

The negative effects of the president's actions and their repercussions are grave, and the benefits to defending the Constitution by removing her from office are overwhelmingly large.

-- Acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-mi at a hearing where South Korean President Park Geun-hye was removed from office, according to South Korean news agency Yonhap

Vague, But Exciting!

28 years ago yesterday, the World Wide Web was conceived.

On 12 March 1989, Tim Berners-Lee submitted a proposal for an information management system to his boss, Mike Sendall.  "Vague, but exciting", were the words that Sendall wrote on the proposal, allowing Berners-Lee to continue.

-- From "Tim Berners-Lee's Proposal" at CERN
http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html



Coincidentally, my first signon to the PLATO computer system at the University of Illinois in Urbana was created on 12 March 1975

Terms And Conditions

You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture, or production of nuclear, missile, or chemical or biological weapons.

-- Excerpt from the 20,669-word, 2005 iTunes Terms & Conditions, cited by Sian Cain in an article about Robert Sikoryak, who used the text in his graphic novel "Terms and Conditions", The Guardian, 8 March 2017



https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/mar/08/terms-and-conditions-itunes-t-and-c-graphic-novel-robert-sikoryak-interview

The Grass Is Dry

The grass is dry on both sides, so it only takes a very small match to light it on fire.

-- Ari Fleischer, former press secretary to George W. Bush, on the volatile relationship between the Trump White House and the news media, New York Times, 25 February 2017

It Isn't A Failure

Think of everything as a pilot.  If it doesn't work, it isn't a failure.  It's data.

-- Dorie Clark, Forbes Magazine 28 February 2017

The Gap Is Closing

400 hours -- Number of hours of content being uploaded to YouTube every minute.  The aggregate amount of time the human race spends watching web videos is still below the time spent watching television, but the gap is closing very fast.  YouTube viewers world-wide are now watching more than 1 billion hours of videos a day, threatening to eclipse U.S. television viewership.

-- Walt Hickey in FiveThirtyEight's "Significant Digits", citing a 27 February 2017 Wall Street Journal article by Jack Nicas

Addictive

I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy,  We need an independent media to hold people like me to account.  Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive, and it's important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.

-- Former President George W Bush, "Today" show interview, 27 February 2017

Carpe Momentum

Everything that is broken in our country can be fixed. Every problem can be solved. And every hurting family can find healing and hope. Our citizens deserve this, and so much more, so why not join forces and finally get the job done and get it done right? ...

I am asking all citizens to embrace this renewal of the American spirit. I am asking all members of Congress to join me in dreaming big and bold and daring things for our country. I am asking everyone watching tonight to seize this moment. Believe in yourselves. Believe in your future. And believe, once more, in America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless the United States.

-- President Donald J Trump in his first address to a joint session of Congress, 28 February 2017

Nothing Ever Changes

The general condition of the pensions operating under the laws of Illinois may be correctly described as one of insolvency. That is to say, viewed from the standpoint of sound finance and of having the necessary reserves to carry out the payment laws, there are immense deficiencies in the existing funds. In short, the financial provisions are entirely inadequate for paying the stipulated pensions when due.

-- Report of Illinois Pension Laws Commission, by Illinois Pension Laws Commission, George Ellsworth Hooker (1917), p 272

Top Three Killers

Drivers in cars, trucks, minivans and SUVs put a record 3.22 trillion miles on the nation's roads last year, up 2.8 percent from 3.1 trillion miles in 2015.

It's the fifth consecutive year of increased miles driven on public roads and highways, reflecting a strengthening economy, but it also "underscores the demands facing American's roads and bridges," according to a statement from the Federal Highway Administration, "and reaffirms calls for greater investment in surface transportation infrastructure." ....

Another downside to more traffic is more crashes. The National Safety Council says traffic fatalities increased 6 percent last year and topped 40,000 for the first time since 2007, but only part of that sharp increase can be attributed to the less than 3 percent growth in vehicle miles traveled. What's even more troubling is that the rate of fatal crashes is increasing at a time when vehicles mechanically are becoming safer. Experts cite speed, distracted driving, and alcohol as the top three killers on the road.

-- David Schaper of National Public Radio, "Record Number Of Miles Driven In U.S. Last Year" (21 February 2017)

ACL And Meniscus

On a personal note, the MRI of my right knee shows:

1. Complete ACL tear.
2. Oblique tear of posterior horn of medial meniscus articulating with inferior articulating surface.
3. Small suprapatellar bursa effusion.
4. Mild prepatellar bursitis.

This is the result of landing a jump-turning kick while sparring in Tae Kwon Do class the evening of Friday 20 January.  The surgeon is giving it another month to settle down before I can get on his calendar for ACL Reconstruction surgery.  As luck would have it, this is the same guy who gave me good results for left shoulder surgery in February 2002.  Post-surgery recovery time for the ACL is 9 months to become fully active, and 12 months to return to the activity that caused the injury.

The Simpler The Trap

The more cunning a man is, the less he suspects that he will be caught in a simple thing.  The more cunning a man is, the simpler the trap he must be caught in.

-- Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821 - 1881), Russian novelist, short story writer, essayist, journalist and philosopher, Crime and Punishment (1866)

One Man's Ways

One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.

-- Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), English novelist, Persuasion (1818), Ch. 13

Hospital Parking Lots

Here locally, people are shooting up in hospital parking lots in case they overdose.

-- Steve Moran, a deputy coroner in Jefferson County, KY, which includes Louisville.  In a span of 32 hours last week, emergency workers in Louisville responded to almost two calls per hour for overdose patients, New York Times, 14 February 2017

I Read Them Openly

Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves.  To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence.  And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms.  Young things ought to want to grow.  But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development.  When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so.  Now that I am fifty I read them openly.  When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up.

-- C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963), Irish author and scholar of medieval literature, "On Three Ways of Writing for Children" (1952), in Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories (1967), p. 25

World-Size Robot

Broadly speaking, the Internet of Things has three parts. There are the sensors that collect data about us and our environment: smart thermostats, street and highway sensors, and those ubiquitous smartphones with their motion sensors and GPS location receivers. Then there are the "smarts" that figure out what the data means and what to do about it. This includes all the computer processors on these devices and -- increasingly -- in the cloud, as well as the memory that stores all of this information. And finally, there are the actuators that affect our environment. The point of a smart thermostat isn't to record the temperature; it's to control the furnace and the air conditioner. Driverless cars collect data about the road and the environment to steer themselves safely to their destinations.

You can think of the sensors as the eyes and ears of the Internet. You can think of the actuators as the hands and feet of the Internet. And you can think of the stuff in the middle as the brain. We are building an Internet that senses, thinks, and acts.

This is the classic definition of a robot. We're building a world-size robot, and we don't even realize it.

-- Bruce Schneier (1963-), American cryptographer, computer security professional, privacy specialist, and writer, New York Magazine, "Security and the Internet of Things" January 2017

Depolarize

In 2016, we saw how technology could be used to polarize ourselves to extreme levels.  The most important thing we could do is figure out how to use technology to depolarize the nation.

-- Sam Altman, who runs the start-up incubator Y Combinator, on how Silicon Valley has been galvanized into greater political participation in recent weeks, New York Times, 7 February 2017

All Possess Alike

The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation.  All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.  It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.  For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

-- George Washington (1732 - 1799), first President of the United States, Letter to the Hebrew Congregation of Newport, Rhode Island (1790)

Shameless Enough

If you're shameless enough, you can sell anything.

--  Ryan Holiday, a former marketer for American Apparel, who has remade himself as a spokesman for the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, New York Times, 8 December 2016

Scoundrels

The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels.  For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.

-- H. L. Mencken, as quoted by Representative Jim Moran (D-VA) in the Congressional Record for 17 July 2001

In My Grill

Since Obamacare and these issues have come up, the women are in my grill no matter where I go.  They come up -- "When is your next town hall?"  And believe me, it's not to give positive input.

-- Representative Dave Brat (R-VA), at a meeting of conservative groups in Hanover, VA, 28 January 2017. Brat made no public appearances in his district in 2016

Speeding Train

[T]he speeding train of one’s own mortality, against the slow apprenticeship and blossoming of art.

-- Andre Dubus III (1959-), American novelist, in his Introduction to the Kindle edition of Thomas Williams's "The Hair of Harold Roux"

The First Requirement

Teach the child to respect that which is not respectable and you teach the child the first requirement of slavery: submission to unjust authority.

-- Gerald Leonard "Gerry" Spence (born 8 January 1929), American lawyer and writer, Give Me Liberty! (1998) Ch. 14 : The Magical Weapon : Withholding Permission to Be Defeated, p. 160

19,032 Days Straight

After 19,032 days straight, world record holder Ron Hill calls time on longest recorded running streak

The longest recorded running streak in history ended on Saturday when England's Ron Hill completed a one-mile run. The 78-year-old former Olympian did not run on Sunday for the first time in 52 years and 39 days - a streak that dates back to December 21, 1964.

-- Headline and snippet from the Sydney Morning Herald, 31 January 2017


http://www.smh.com.au/sport/athletics/after-19032-days-straight-world-record-holder-ron-hill-calls-time-on-longest-recorded-running-streak-20170131-gu24re.html

The Homeless, Tempest-Tost

Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!

-- Excerpt from Emma Lazarus's sonnet "The New Colossus" (1883), inscribed since 1903 on a plaque on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty

The Smarter You Get

The more injuries you get, the smarter you get.

-- Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov (27 January 1948-), Soviet-born Russian American dancer, choreographer, and actor, in an interview with Barbara Isenberg, "To Mikhail Baryshnikov, time is a great teacher", Los Angeles Times, 30 August 2009

I Can't Imagine

Absolutely not.  Moreover, I can't imagine that I would be asked that.

-- Now-CIA Director Mike Pompeo, when asked at his confirmation hearing, "If you were  ordered by the President to restart the CIA use of enhanced interrogation techniques that fall outside of the Army Field Manual, would you comply?",  12 January 2017

Pain Nourishes Courage

Pain nourishes courage.  You can't be brave if you've only had wonderful things happen to you.

-- Mary Tyler Moore (29 December 1936 - 25 January 2017), American actress and comedian, as quoted in The Reader's Digest, Vol. 128 (1986), p. 137

3,391 Guns

3,391 guns

You cannot bring guns onto an airplane in a carry-on bag.  That line in the airborne social contract was apparently news to the flyers responsible for the 3,391 guns confiscated by the Transportation Security Administration in 2016.  That’s a record and up 30 percent from 2015.  Eighty-three percent of them were loaded.

-- Walt Hickey, in FiveThirtyEight's "Significant Digits" newsletter, 17 January 2017, citing USA Today as its source

USA Today does note that TSA screen 738 million passengers in 2016, up just 6 percent from 2015

Alt Right Alt Facts Alt Reality

A fact is a piece of information presented as having objective reality.

-- @MerriamWebster on Twitter, noting "Lookups for 'fact' spiked after Kellyanne Conway used the phrase 'alternative facts.'" 11:32 AM 22 January 2017

POTUS 45

From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land.  ... The time for empty talk is over.  Now arrives the hour of action.

-- Donald J Trump, 45th President of the United States, in his inaugural address, 20 January 2017

Present

I am confident that my vote represents the view of the vast majority of my constituents.  In that respect, the decision was easy.  Unfortunately, I have learned that what is popular with constituents does not always align with what is popular in Springfield.

-- Illinois Representative Scott Drury (D-Highwood), on voting "Present" on Michael Madigan's reelection as House Speaker, 11 January 2017

Change Them Yourself

They always say that time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.

-- Andy Warhol (1928 - 1987), American painter, filmmaker, publisher, actor, and major figure in the Pop Art movement, The Philosophy of Andy Warhol (1975) Ch. 7: Time

The Time Is Always Right

The time is always right to do what’s right.

-- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 - 1968), American Baptist minister, doctor, civil rights activist, and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize of 1964, Speech delivered in Finney Chapel at Oberlin College (22 October 1964), as reported in "When MLK came to Oberlin" by Cindy Leise (The Chronicle-Telegram, 21 January 2008)

First Essential Step

The Information Age offers much to mankind, and I would like to think that we will rise to the challenges it presents.  But it is vital to remember that information -- in the sense of raw data -- is not knowledge, that knowledge is not wisdom, and that wisdom is not foresight.  But information is the first essential step to all of these.

-- Sir Arthur Charles Clarke (1917 – 2008), British author, inventor, and futurist, as quoted in "Humanity will survive information deluge -- Sir Arthur C Clarke" in OneWorld South Asia (5 December 2003)

Not You

Not you.  Your organization is terrible. ...  I'm not going to give you a question.  You are fake news.

-- President-elect Donald Trump, to CNN reporter Jim Acosta during a press conference, 11 January 2017

None Of This Happens On Its Own

Our democracy is threatened whenever we take it for granted.  All of us, regardless of party, should be throwing ourselves into the task of rebuilding our democratic institutions.  When voting rates in America are some of the lowest among advanced democracies, we should be making it easier, not harder, to vote.  When trust in our institutions is low, we should reduce the corrosive influence of money in our politics and insist on the principles of transparency and ethics in public service.  When Congress is dysfunctional, we should draw our congressional districts to encourage politicians to cater to common sense and not rigid extremes.  But remember, none of this happens on its own.  All of this depends on our participation, on each of us accepting the responsibility of citizenship, regardless of which way the pendulum of power happens to be swinging.

-- President Barack Obama in his farewell address, 10 January 2017

One Pair Of Pants

You can only wear one pair of pants at a time.

-- Charles F. Feeney (1931-), Irish-American businessman and philanthropist, named by Forbes as the #1 most generous philanthropist, based on giving as a percentage of current net worth, with lifetime giving of $7.5 billion (373,000% of current net worth)