Beautiful Harmony

Since ascending the throne 30 years ago, I have performed my duties as the emperor with a deep sense of trust in and respect for the people, and I consider myself fortunate to have been able to do so.

-- 85-year-old Japanese Emperor Akihito, on the occasion of formally abdicating the Chrysanthemum Throne in a short ceremony at the Imperial Palace, giving way to his son, now-Emperor Naruhito, and ushering in the Reiwa era, meaning "beautiful harmony", Washington Post, 30 April 2019

History Of Evil

[H]e is now part of the history of evil that has been perpetrated on Jewish people for centuries.

-- Parents of a 19-year-old college student suspected of attacking Chabad of Poway synagogue near San Diego on Saturday, in a statement issued Monday 29 April 2019

The Bridge

No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.

-- Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 - 1900), German philosopher, Untimely Meditations, "Schopenhauer as educator," 3.1, R. Hollingdale, translator, p. 129 (1983)

Twice Over

To teach is to learn twice over.

-- Joseph Joubert (1754 - 1824), French moralist and essayist; he published nothing during his lifetime; The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert as translated by Paul Auster (1883)

How Far We Have Strayed

It is good news that there was insufficient evidence to charge the President of the United States with having conspired with a foreign adversary or with having obstructed justice.  The alternative would have taken us through a wrenching process with the potential for constitutional crisis.  The business of government can move on.

Even so, I am sickened at the extent and pervasiveness of dishonesty and misdirection by individuals in the highest office of the land, including the President.  I am also appalled that, among other things, fellow citizens working in a campaign for president welcomed help from Russia -- including information that had been illegally obtained; that none of them acted to inform American law enforcement; and that the campaign chairman was actively promoting Russian interests in Ukraine.

Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders.

-- Senator Mitt Romney as @SenatorRomney on Twitter, reacting to the Mueller report, 19 April 2019

Easter Weekend

Over Easter weekend I was pleased to host a gathering of 21 in Carlyle, IL.  That would be me, my ex, our five kids, our ten grandkids, two sons-in-law, a boyfriend, and a son-in-law's cousin.  The weather was amazing, and everyone got along as well as they have in years.

Blessings counted.

Magic 55K

I broke the magic 55K.  I was too optimistic at first, and after half an hour I needed to set a new, slower pace.  I worked long and hard for this, and the team was right behind me, and now I paid them back.

-- 27-year-old Belgian time-trial champion Victor Campenaerts, after establishing a new hour record at the Aguascalientes velodrome in Mexico, covering 55.089K (about 34.23 miles) in an hour, beating by 563 meters the previous record of 54.526K set by Bradley Wiggins in June 2015, Bicycling Magazine, 16 April 2019

Dethrimental

It's my rule never to lose me temper till it would be dethrimental to keep it.

-- Seán O'Casey (1880 - 1964), Irish playwright and memoirist whose works show his socialist and Irish republican sympathies, The Plough and the Stars, Fluther Good, Act 2 (1926)

Your Quarrel

[I]f you have a problem with who I am, your problem is not with me.  Your quarrel, sir, is with my Creator.

-- Democratic presidential aspirant Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, who is openly gay, speaking at a fundraiser, 7 April 2019

800 Years

It's been 800 years that the Cathedral watches over Paris.  Happy and unfortunate events for centuries have been marked by the bells of Notre Dame.  We can be only horrified by what we see.

-- French historian Camille Pascal speaking to BFM broadcast channel about the blaze at Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, 15 April 2019

No Elephants

Power is mostly the illusion of power.  The Pentagon demanded we destroy our publications.  We kept publishing.  Clinton denounced us and said we were an attack on the entire "international community".  We kept publishing.  I was put in prison and under house arrest.  We kept publishing.  We went head to head with the NSA getting Edward Snowden out of Hong Kong, we won and got him asylum.  Clinton tried to destroy us and was herself destroyed.  Elephants, it seems, can be brought down with string.  Perhaps there are no elephants.

-- Julian Paul Assange (1971 -), Australian computer programmer, he founded WikiLeaks in 2006, and came to international attention in 2010, when WikiLeaks published a series of leaks provided by Chelsea Manning.  He was granted asylum by Ecuador in August 2012 and remained in the Embassy of Ecuador in London until his arrest by British police on 11 April 2019, Repubblica.it interview, 23 December 2016

We Alone

Each of us believes, quite unconsciously of course, that we alone pursue the truth, which the rest are incapable of seeking out and unworthy of attaining.  This madness is so deep-rooted and so useful that it is impossible to realize what would become of each of us if it were someday to disappear.

-- Emil Cioran (1911 - 1995), Romanian philosopher and essayist whose work is noted for its pervasive philosophical pessimism, which frequently engages with issues of suffering, decay, and nihilism, The Trouble With Being Born (1973)

Objects Of Desire

And so it is, that both the Devil and the angelic Spirit present us with objects of desire to awaken our power of choice.

-- Jalaluddin Rumi (1207 - 1273), Persian philosopher and poet, "By the Sound of Their Voice", Mathnawi V, translated by Kabir Helminski and Camille Helminski, The Rumi Collection, pg 4 (2005)

Absolutely No For Us

LYNETTE HARDAWAY (DIAMOND, FOX NATION PERSONALITY): Listen, you have to realize that Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, she's reckless, she's clueless, and she have a vacuous mindset.

ROCHELLE RICHARDSON (SILK, FOX NATION PERSONALITY): Right.

HARDAWAY: First of all, civil rights have nothing to do with climate change. First of all. And then second of all, her Green New Deal is a green new scam that we must stay away from. Now, I know that she's worried about climate change, but she need to talk to Mother Nature.

RICHARDSON: That's right.

HARDAWAY: Because with the Earth rotating at 1,000 miles per hour, OK, 365 days of the year, we subject to feel climate changing a little bit. But not to the tune where we have to dismantle everything and start the Earth back over again. It's a absolutely no for us.

-- Fox News' Fox & Friends, 5 April 2019, via Media Matters

Paperwork

When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the plane will fly.

-- Donald Wills Douglas Sr. (1892 - 1981), American aircraft industrialist and engineer

Capitalism

We have to stop allowing economics to be used as a trump card.  Capitalism is like math.  It is amoral.  It is good at producing wealth; it's bad at distributing wealth.  Unless it operates within a moral framework it will produce an unjust society.

-- Charley Reese (1937 - 2013), American syndicated columnist, "Is Economics All There Is?", 18 July 2003

Breaking Barriers

Having a Lori Lightfoot who is not only African American, not only a woman, but is an out lesbian becomes a role model for so many people -- each of those communities.  No one has seen that before.  Once you see it, it keeps breaking barriers.

-- Stephanie Sandberg, executive director of LPAC, an LGBTQ political organization that backed the candidacy of newly-elected Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, the first black female mayor in the city's history, USA Today, 2 April 2019

Unable To Say A Word

Lemony Snicket: (narrating) When someone is a little bit wrong -- say, when a waiter puts nonfat milk in your espresso macchiato, instead of lowfat milk -- it is often quite easy to explain to them how and why they are wrong.  But if someone is surpassingly wrong -- say, when a waiter bites your nose instead of taking your order -- you can often be so surprised that you are unable to say anything at all.  Paralyzed by how wrong the waiter is, your mouth would hang slightly open and your eyes would blink over and over, but you would be unable to say a word.

-- Lemony Snicket, pen name of American novelist Daniel Handler (1970 -), from A Series of Unfortunate Events, Book the Second: The Reptile Room (1999)

A Giant In Your Neighborhood

It's kind of like living with a giant in your neighborhood.  You know it's there.  You know it could cause you problems, but you live in an uneasy compromise.

-- Joyce Corradi, who still lives in the home she was evacuated from 40 years ago today, March 28, 1979, when Three Mile Island's Unit 2 reactor suffered a partial meltdown after a pump stopped sending water to the steam generators that removed heat from the reactor core, NPR, 28 March 2019

Alice All The Time

When I go onstage as Alice to this day, I play Alice to the hilt -- I play him for everything he is worth, but when I'm offstage, I never think about Alice Cooper.  He never occurs to me. ... I walk off stage though and I turn away from the audience, I go back to being me again.  Whenever I see an audience, that's when I turn into Alice.  If there was no audience there, there would be no reason to be Alice. ... If I tried to be Alice Cooper all the time -- I'd either be in an insane asylum or in jail or dead.  Alice is just too intense, and you just can't be Alice all the time.

-- Alice Cooper (4 February 1948 -), American rock and roll musician; born Vincent Damon Furnier, in "Kerby's Exclusive Interview with Metal Icon Alice Cooper" at KNAC.com (22 September 2005)