Thursday, October 15, 2009

For The Children

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

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

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Good Is Dumb

Marcel MarceauWhen good is dumb, evil will always triumph.

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

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

World Peace

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

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

Monday, October 12, 2009

They Surely Will Abide

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

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


[It didn't turn out that way.]

Friday, October 09, 2009

Getting The Demon Out

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

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

Thursday, October 08, 2009

Insurmountable Opportunities

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

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

Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Memories Of Those Who Cared

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

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

Tuesday, October 06, 2009

A Dizzy Ride

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

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

Monday, October 05, 2009

Paid For Taking Too Much Risk

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

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

Friday, October 02, 2009

Thursday, October 01, 2009

Civil Forfeiture

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

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

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Zelaya

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

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

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Sneak And Peek

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

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

Monday, September 28, 2009

Metal Detectorists

Metal detectorPeople laugh at metal detectorists.

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

Friday, September 25, 2009

Spoiled

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

-- John Gray, author (b. 1951)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Reality

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

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

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

A Soldier

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

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

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

On All The Time

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

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

Monday, September 21, 2009

What We Make It

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

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

Thursday, September 17, 2009

RIP Mary Travers

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

That music speaks louder than words

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