Fixed Stick

In the same way that a stick shift is a theft control device for a car, being fixed gear is a theft control device for a bicycle.

Good Tests

Good tests kill flawed theories; we remain alive to guess again.

-- Sir Karl Raimund Popper (1902 - 1994), Austrian and British social and political philosopher, as quoted in My Universe : A Transcendent Reality (2011) by Alex Vary, Part II

The Life That I Intended

I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking.  I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation's destiny.  I leave this life with no regrets.  It was a wonderful life -- full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living.  I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

-- Charles Krauthammer (13 March 1950 - 21 June 2018), American Pulitzer Prize-winning writer and political commentator, in his last column, announcing that he was dying of cancer, "A note to readers" in The Washington Post (8 June 2018)

Inversely

The intelligence of the driver is inversely proportional to the height of the vehicle.

-- Appleman's Law of Driver Intelligence, ca 1982

Wonderful Day

I wanted to win for my people in Colombia, after months of hard work.  All the support I've had from everyone, as well as my family and friends, really helped me today.  We were a bit down in the last days, so we needed this win.  It's a wonderful day today.

-- Nairo Quintana (Movistar), after winning Stage 17 of the 2018 Tour de France, Eurosport, 25 July 2018

Endangered

I think the Endangered Species Act is endangered.  They haven't been able to do this for 20 years, but this looks like their one chance.

-- Andrew Rosenberg, director of the Union of Concerned Scientists, referring to a flurry of measures in the last two weeks by Republican lawmakers determined to weaken the 45-year-old legislation, New York Times, 23 July 2018

Votaries

Hatred, as well as love, renders its votaries credulous.

-- Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712 - 1778), Franco-Swiss philosopher of Enlightenment whose political ideas influenced the French Revolution, the development of socialist theory, and the growth of nationalism, Confessions of Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1765-1770; published 1782), Book V

Reaction

[I]t is not the actions of an individual that define a group.  Rather, it is the group's reaction to those individual actions that define the group.

-- Unattributed, from a non-political discussion about group behavior, May 2018

15 Largest States

David Birdsell, dean of the school of public and international affairs at Baruch College, notes that by 2040, about 70% of Americans are expected to live in the 15 largest states.  They will have only 30 senators representing them, while the remaining 30% of Americans will have 70 senators representing them.

-- From "The Varied -- and Global -- Threats Confronting Democracy", Gerald Seib, Wall Street Journal, 21 November 2017

Strong And Powerful

... My people came to me, Dan Coates, came to me and some others they said they think it's Russia.  I have President Putin.  He just said it's not Russia.

I will say this: I don't see any reason why it would be.  But I really do want to see the server but I have, I have confidence in both parties. ...

I have great confidence in my intelligence people but I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer.

He offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators, with respect to the 12 people.  I think that's an incredible offer.  Ok?  Thank you.

-- President Donald Trump, when asked, "President Putin denied having anything to do with the election interference in 2016.  Every U.S. intelligence agency has concluded that Russia did.  My first question for you sir is, who do you believe?", Helsinki, Finland, 16 July 2018

Avoid Thinking Politically

In my remarks, I have not identified the victims.  When we confront foreign interference in American elections, it is important for us to avoid thinking politically as Republicans or Democrats and instead to think patriotically as Americans.  Our response must not depend on which side was victimized.

The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways.  Free and fair elections are always hard-fought and contentious.  There will always be adversaries who seek to exacerbate our divisions and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us.  So long as we are united in our commitment to the values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.

-- Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, in a statement announcing indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officers for election hacking, 13 July 2018

Woodchucks

My car was eaten by animals.

-- Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI), who recently discovered that woodchucks destroyed the wiring in the car he hasn't used since getting a security detail in 2015, at the Economic Club of Washington, 12 July 2018

Wild Boars

We are not sure if this is a miracle, a science, or what.  All the thirteen Wild Boars are now out of the cave.

-- Post on a Thai Navy SEAL Facebook page announcing the successful rescue of a group of Thai youths and their soccer coach from a flooded cave after 17 days, 10 July 2018

Set Aside Those Views

What matters is not a judge's political views, but whether they can set aside those views to do what the law and the Constitution require.

-- President Donald Trump, announcing Brett Kavanaugh as his nominee to the Supreme Court, 9 July 2018

Outstanding

I have accepted the resignation of Scott Pruitt as the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.  Within the Agency Scott has done an outstanding job, and I will always be thankful to him for this.  The Senate confirmed Deputy at EPA, Andrew Wheeler, will...

...on Monday assume duties as the acting Administrator of the EPA.  I have no doubt that Andy will continue on with our great and lasting EPA agenda.  We have made tremendous progress and the future of the EPA is very bright!

-- President Donald J. Trump on Twitter as @realDonaldTrump, 5 July 2018

Terrifying

There is nothing more terrifying than hearing multiple people get shot while you're under your desk and then hear the gunman reload

-- @PhilDavis_CG on Twitter, Courts/Crime reporter Phil Davis for the Capital Gazette newspaper, describing a shooting at the newspaper that killed 5, 2:46 PM 28 June 2018

Notification Of My Decision

My dear Mr. President,

This letter is a respectful and formal notification of my decision, effective July 31 of this year, to end my regular active status as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, while continuing to serve in a senior status, as provided in 28 U.S.C 371 (b).

For a member of the legal profession it is the highest of honors to serve on this Court.  Please permit me by this letter to express my profound gratitude for having had the privilege to seek in each case how best to know, interpret, and defend the Constitution and the laws that must always conform to its mandates and promises.

Respectfully and sincerely,
Anthony M Kennedy

-- Resignation letter of Supreme Court Justice Anthony M Kennedy, 27 June 2018

Animus Rex

Taking all the relevant evidence together, a reasonable observer would conclude that the Proclamation was driven primarily by anti-Muslim animus, rather than by the Government's asserted national-security justifications.  Even before being sworn into office, then-candidate Trump stated that "Islam hates us," warned that "[w]e're having problems with the Muslims, and we're having problems with Muslims coming into the country," promised to enact a "total and complete shut down of Muslims entering the United States," and instructed one of his advisers to find a "lega[l]" way to enact a Muslim ban.  The President continued to make similar statements well after his inauguration, as detailed above. ...

Unlike in Masterpiece, where the majority consid­ered the state commissioners' statements about religion to be persuasive evidence of unconstitutional government, the majority here completely sets aside the President’s charged statements about Muslims as irrelevant.  That holding erodes the foundational principles of religious tolerance that the Court elsewhere has so emphatically protected, and it tells members of minority religions in our country "that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community." ...

I dissent.

-- Associate Justice of the Supreme Court Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent to the majority opinion upholding President Trump's travel ban in Trump v Hawaii, 26 June 2018

Epidiolex

This is an important medical advance.  Because of the adequate and well-controlled clinical studies that supported this approval, prescribers can have confidence in the drug's uniform strength and consistent delivery.

-- FDA Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb in a statement accompanying FDA approval of Epidiolex, a treatment for some forms of epilepsy, and the first FDA approved treatment derived from marijuana, CNN, 25 June 2018

Progress Of Science

As Justice Brandeis explained in his famous dissent, the Court is obligated -- as "[s]ubtler and more far-reaching means of invading privacy have become available to the Government" -- to ensure that the "progress of science" does not erode Fourth Amendment protections.  Here the progress of science has afforded law enforcement a powerful new tool to carry out its important responsibilities.  At the same time, this tool risks Government encroachment of the sort the Framers, "after consulting the lessons of history," drafted the Fourth Amendment to prevent.

We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier's database of physical location information.  In light of the deeply revealing nature of CSLI, its depth, breadth, and comprehensive reach, and the inescapable and automatic nature of its collection, the fact that such information is gathered by a third party does not make it any less deserving of Fourth Amendment protection.

-- Chief Justice Roberts in the Supreme Court's majority opinion in Carpenter v US asserting that law enforcement needs a warrant to obtain cell phone location data, 22 June 2018