Chuckles

And, and God knows number one, I, I wanna help Rod. Number two, I also wanna, you know hope I get a consideration to get that appointment.

-- Illinois Senator Roland Burris in the FBI transcript of a phone call discussing his potential senate appointment with former-Governor Rod Blagojevich's brother Rob, 13 November 2008

Dumbest

Right now, to me he's, like, the dumbest person I ever came in contact with in my life.

-- Wanda Walker, on her brother, James Cromitie, who was charged in a plot to blow up two Bronx synagogues, New York Times, 22 May 2009

Same Age

[S]ince the entire culture is defiantly refusing to grow up, parents and children are all now approximately the same age. We've got the same music on our iPods.

-- Karen von Hahn; I Like to Hang Out With My Teenager; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); 1 September 2007

Eighteen Times

I don't trust a man who uses the word evil eighteen times in ten minutes. If you're half evil, nothing soothes you more than to think the person you are opposed to is totally evil.

-- Norman Mailer (31 January 1923 - 10 November 2007), American novelist, journalist, poet, and playwright, BBC Newsnight, 2 April 2002

Reputation For Generosity

We'd all like a reputation for generosity, and we'd all like to buy it cheap.

-- Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983), American journalist and author

Only Goodness

Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, "the greatest", but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is.

-- Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986), journalist and author, "What's Wrong with Being Proud?" in Pieces of Eight (1982)

AppleTrotts

Saturday evening through early Sunday morning, the AppleTrotts team raised $308.51 selling chili dogs, chips, and drinks at Piatt County Relay For Life, a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. That's 5 members of the Appleman family plus 5 members of the Trott family. Not too bad for a first effort, earned almost entirely on-site the night of the event.

No Difference

If the press is not free, if speech is not independent and untrammeled, if the mind is shackled or made impotent through fear, it makes no difference under what form of government you live; you are a subject and not a citizen.

-- William E. Borah (1865-1940), Republican US Senator from Idaho

Banking Should Not Be Exciting

Banking should not be exciting. If banking is exciting there is something wrong with it.

-- Clay Ewing, president of German American Bancorp., a community bank in Jasper, IN, New York Times, 12 May 2009

Respect That

Our villages are not where the terrorists are. And that's what we keep telling the US administration, that the war on terrorism is not in the Afghan villages, not in the Afghan homes. Respect that. Civilian casualties are undermining support in the Afghan people for the war on terrorism and for the relations with America. How can you expect a people who keep losing their children to remain friendly?

-- Afghan President Hamid Karzai, on Meet the Press, 10 May 2009

Education

What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.

-- Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 - 17 June 1719), English politician and writer, The Spectator magazine, No. 215, 6 November 1711

Furlough

All of my Thursdays are Fridays.

Birthday Redux

Coincidentally, all of the kids in my family (my siblings and I) were born on Wednesdays ... sort of. John was born Wednesday 14 May 1952, Jim on Wednesday 26 August 1953, David on Wednesday 1 January 1958, and I was born on Wednesday 6 May 1959 ... sort of.

From the Illinois Dept. of Public Health web site's FAQ on vital records --

Note: Prior to July 1, 1959, births and deaths were to be recorded on standard time, even though the community in which the birth or death took place was observing daylight savings time. On July 1, 1959, a new law became effective legalizing daylight savings time as being state standard time between the last Sunday in April at 2 a.m. and the last Sunday in October at 2 a.m. Since July 1, 1959, all births and deaths are recorded using the current time.

So prior to 1 July 1959, roughly 4% (1/24th) of births during DST in Illinois were recorded in standard time the day before. Everyone born between midnight and 1am DST had their birth time recorded as between 11pm and midnight the night before, in standard time. This places me among the last to experience this effect, as I was born at 12:23am on Wednesday 6 May 1959 (by the clock on the wall), which was officially recorded as 11:23pm on Tuesday 5 May.

How Old Would You Be?

How old would you be if you didn't know how old you are?

-- Leroy Robert "Satchel" Paige (7 July 1906? - 8 June 1982), American Negro Leagues and Major League baseball pitcher

Unfortunate

It is unfortunate that trees had to die for this story.

-- Dean Baker (13 July 1958-), American macroeconomist, co-founder and co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, on an article on the economy in the New York Times, "Beat the Press" blog, 1 May 2009

100 Days

I am surprised compared to where I started, when we first announced for this race, by the number of critical issues that appear to be coming to a head all at the same time.

-- President Barack Obama, at a press conference on his first 100 days in office, 29 April 2009

Here, Have Some Flu

For the first couple of days this week, the national & local TV news reports did their best to beat the drum of panic regarding "swine flu".

Yesterday, that changed. They started discussing simple, rather than draconian, measures to avoid contracting flu. On both the national news (NBC) and the local news (NBC affiliate) the reporters ate pork on-air, and explained that pork is not a vector for transmission of what they now call "H1N1 influenza". Gotta protect those pork producers. They pointed out that only a fraction of people get the flu, and only a tiny fraction among those get a serious case, with a fraction of those dying.

And they (finally) pointed out that, in an average year, 36,000 Americans die of the flu, with 13,000 fatalities so far in 2009 (>100 per day) from "seasonal flu". That's something on the order of a 12% infection rate and a 0.1% kill rate (among the infected) for seasonal flu.

The big unanswered question for H1N1 is, what's the kill rate? Apparently it's higher ... but they're unsure how high, because so many cases are so mild that they go unreported. We're also entering into summer, which allegedly helps reduce the severity of a flu outbreak. If it kills only a few thousand Americans, its impact may be lost in the noise of average flu fatalities. But because they/we are paying attention to it, it'll come off as a really big deal. Imagine the headlines if we have a month of H1N1 flu with an average of >100 fatalities per day!

I'm not convinced.

EULA

If your advertising giveth and your EULA [license agreement] taketh away don't be surprised if the FTC comes calling.

-- Mary K. Engle, Acting Deputy Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection, quoted in The Wall Street Journal, 28 April 2009

Arlen Specter

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans.

I have decided to run for re-election in 2010 in the Democratic primary. I deeply regret that I will be disappointing many friends and supporters. I can understand their disappointment. ...

The American people do not care which Party solves the problems confronting our nation. And no Senator, no matter how loyal he is to his Party, should or would put party loyalty above his duty to the state and nation. ...

Whatever my party affiliation, I will continue to be guided by President Kennedy's statement that sometimes Party asks too much. When it does, I will continue my independent voting and follow my conscience on what I think is best for Pennsylvania and America.

-- Senator Arlen Specter (D-PA), in an announcement on his campaign web site, 28 April 2009

Game Plan

I don't know what the Taliban's game plan is, but what seems apparent is the state has no game plan.

-- Christina Fair, of the RAND Corporation, on the Pakistan government's paralysis in the face of Taliban advances, New York Times, 24 April 2009