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)

No Collusion

[T]he investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.

-- Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his report to Attorney General William Barr, as quoted by Barr in his summary of the Mueller Report for Congress, 24 March 2019

Concluded

I write to notify you pursuant to 28 C.F.R. 600.9(a)(3) that Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III has concluded his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election and related matters.

-- US Attorney General William P. Barr, in a letter to Congress providing notice of the end of the Mueller investigation, 22 March 2019

DevinCow

Consider this: A parody account pretending to be an imaginary cow owned by Representative Devin Nunes, the California Republican, is more popular on Twitter than the congressman, a day after he sued the account (and Twitter) for $250 million.

This is how politics and humor now play out in the strange world of social media.

The parody account @DevinCow had only 1,204 followers on Monday, but it ended Wednesday afternoon with 467,000 [now 610K], surpassing Mr. Nunes's account with its 395,000 followers.

-- Laura M. Holson, "After Devin Nunes Sues @DevinCow, the Twitter Parody Gains a Half-Million Followers", New York Times, 20 March 2019

Meows Loudly

I've ended up calling my cat Brexit.  It wakes me up meowing like crazy every morning because it wants to go out, but as soon as I open the door, it just sits there undecided and then looks angry when I put it outside.

-- France's EU minister, Nathalie Loiseau, joking in an interview with Journal du Dimanche, 17 March 2019

Nameless

He is a terrorist.  He is a criminal.  He is an extremist.  But he will, when I speak, be nameless.  And to others, I implore you, speak the names of those who were lost, rather than the name of the man who took them.  He may have sought notoriety, but we in New Zealand will give him nothing. Not even his name.

-- New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, in an address to Parliament after the slaying of 50 in an attack on 2 mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, New York Times, 19 March 2019

Shining City

I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it.  But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, wind-swept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity.  And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

-- President Ronald Reagan, in his farewell address to the nation, 11 January 1989

Just Not Happening

I believe that many, including many in the press, have done the country a disservice by creating the impression that when he gets done,  Mueller is going to write this scathing, lengthy report detailing what an asshole the president is, even if he's not a criminal.  If my thesis about Mueller is right, then that's just not happening.

-- Paul Rosenzweig, a senior fellow at the R Street Institute think tank who was a senior counsel on the Whitewater investigation, The Atlantic, 12 March 2019

Hereby Terminated

AT THE FIRST SESSION

Begun and held at the City of Washington on Thursday, 

the third day of January, two thousand and nineteen

Joint Resolution

Relating to a national emergency declared by the President on February 15, 2019.

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, pursuant to section 202 of the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1622), the national emergency declared by the finding of the President on February 15, 2019, in Proclamation 9844 (84 Fed. Reg. 4949) is hereby terminated.

-- Text of the joint resolution of Congress that passed the Senate today by a vote of 59 to 41, and which already passed the House by a vote of 245 to 182, 14 March 2019

Changed For The Better

And while the web has created opportunity, given marginalised groups a voice, and made our daily lives easier, it has also created opportunity for scammers, given a voice to those who spread hatred, and made all kinds of crime easier to commit.

Against the backdrop of news stories about how the web is misused, it's understandable that many people feel afraid and unsure if the web is really a force for good.  But given how much the web has changed in the past 30 years, it would be defeatist and unimaginative to assume that the web as we know it can't be changed for the better in the next 30.  If we give up on building a better web now, then the web will not have failed us. We will have failed the web.

-- Tim Berners-Lee, in an open letter about his vision for the future of the Internet, on the 30th anniversary of the Internet, webfoundation.org, 12 March 2019

So We Camped Here

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- French musher Nicolas Petit looked like he was in solid control of the world's most famous sled dog race and about to erase a year of doubts and second-guessing after a last minute misstep cost him the 2017 title.

Then the dogs quit on him Monday morning.

A dog named Joey had been fighting with another dog on the team and jumped it during a break as the team was making its way to the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race checkpoint of Koyuk on the Bering Sea coast.

"I yelled at Joey, and everybody heard the yelling, and that doesn't happen," Petit told the Iditarod Insider website. "And then they wouldn't go anymore.  Anywhere.  So we camped here."

-- Mark Thiessen for Associated Press, 11 March 2019

Paradise Is Obtainable

In a world populated by people who believe that through more and more information, paradise is attainable, the computer scientist is king.  But I maintain that all of this is a monumental and dangerous waste of human talent and energy.  Imagine what might be accomplished if this talent and energy were turned to philosophy, to theology, to the arts, to imaginative literature or to education?  Who knows what we could learn from such people -- perhaps why there are wars, and hunger, and homelessness and mental illness and anger.

-- Neil Postman (1931 - 2003), prominent American educator, media theorist, and cultural critic, associated with New York University for more than forty years, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (1985)

Our Lies Reveal

Our lies reveal as much about us as our truths.

-- John Maxwell Coetzee (1940 -), South African-born writer and academic, 2003 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Slow Man (2004)

Not Perceptible

The people who have sufficient passion for the truth to give the truth a chance to prevail, if it runs counter to their bias, are in a minority.  How important is this "minority?"  It is difficult to say at this point, for, at the present time their influence on governmental decisions is not perceptible.

-- Leo Szilard (1898 - 1964). Hungarian-American physicist, and probably the first scientist to take seriously the idea of actually developing atomic bombs; he drafted the famous letter sent by Albert Einstein to U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt that was largely responsible for initiating the Manhattan Project to develop nuclear weapons during World War II, "Are We on the Road to War?" Speech at Harvard Law School (17 November 1961)

Last Words

Shit, I'm not going to see the Mueller report, am I?

-- Last words of Mitchell Tendler, as reported by his family in "Elderly Trump Critics Await Mueller's Report -- Sometimes Until Their Last Breath", NPR, 5 March 2019

Brute Force

When in doubt, use brute force.

-- Ken Thompson (1943 -), computer scientist and winner, with Dennis Ritchie, of the 1983 Turing Award, Reflections on Trusting Trust, Communications of the ACM 27 (8), August 1984, pp. 761-763

I Am Bothered

I don't like the nonsense that passes for rational discourse so often in our society.  I am very much bothered by the inaccuracies, ambiguities, code words, slogans, catch phrases, public relation devices, sweeping generalizations, and stereotypes, which are used (consciously or otherwise) to influence people.

I am bothered by the way misinformation, disguised as scholarship, is used in social, political, and educational contexts to affect policy decisions.

I am bothered by the way misinformation is accepted uncritically, and by the way people are unable to recognize it or reject it.

-- Serge Lang (1927 - 2005), French-born American mathematician, The File: Case Study in Correction (1977-1979)

Creative Exploitation Of The Unforeseen

Serendipity is the way to make discoveries, by accident but also by sagacity, of things one is not in quest of.  Based on experience, knowledge, it is the creative exploitation of the unforeseen.

-- Adrian Bejan and Gilbert W. Merkx in Constructal Theory of Social Dynamics (2007), p. 315

Rabid Suspicion

Rabid suspicion has nothing in it of skepticism.  The suspicious mind believes more than it doubts.  It believes in a formidable and ineradicable evil lurking in every person.

-- Eric Hoffer (1902-1983), American writer, The Passionate State Of Mind, and Other Aphorisms (1955), Section 184

Not Carried The Burden

In short, while historical restrictions on women in the military may have justified past discrimination, men and women are now "similarly situated for purposes of a draft or registration for a draft." Rostker, 453 U.S. at 78.  If there ever was a time to discuss "the place of women in the Armed Services," that time has passed.  Id. at 72.  Defendants have not carried the burden of showing that the male-only registration requirement continues to be substantially related to Congress's objective of raising and supporting armies.

-- Gray H. Miller, Senior US District Judge, ruling the Military Selective Service Act's male-only registration is unconstitutional, 22 February 2019

More Money In One Minute

The Walton family makes more money in one minute than Walmart workers do in an entire year.  This is what we mean when we talk about a rigged economy.

-- Bernie Sanders, posting on Twitter as @BernieSanders, 14 February 2019

    +    +    +    +

The Walton family controls 1,508,965,874 shares out of 2,952,478,528 total shares outstanding.  Walmart's most recent quarterly dividend was 52 cents a share, or $2.08 a year; the Walton family earns $3,138,649,017.92 just in dividends a year.

• Entry-level worker (Walmart figure): $22,880 a year
• Walmart average (Payscale): $24,960 year
• Walton family: $25,149 a minute

A Walmart spokesman declined to comment.

-- Glenn Kessler, fact-checking (and confirming) Bernie's claim, Washington Post, 19 February 2019

The Superlative Degree

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

-- Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities (1859), Chapter I - The Period

The Difference

The difference between American parties is actually simple. Democrats are in favor of higher taxes to pay for greater spending, while Republicans are in favor of greater spending, for which the taxpayers will pay.

-- Patrick Jake (PJ) O'Rourke (1947 -), American political satirist, "Letter to Our European Friends" (4 February 2008)

National Emergency

President Trump will sign the government funding bill, and as he has stated before, he will also take other executive action -- including a national emergency -- to ensure we stop the national security and humanitarian crisis at the border.  The President is once again delivering on his promise to build the wall, protect the border, and secure our great country.

-- Sarah Huckabee Sanders, posting as @PressSec on Twitter, Statement on Government Funding Bill, 14 February 2019

RIP Opportunity Rover

It is because of trailblazing missions such as Opportunity that there will come a day when our brave astronauts walk on the surface of Mars.  And when that day arrives, some portion of that first footprint will be owned by the men and women of Opportunity, and a little rover that defied the odds and did so much in the name of exploration.

-- NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine, in a statement marking the end of NASA's Opportunity Rover Mission on Mars, at mars.nasa.gov, 13 February 2019


Designed to last just 90 Martian days and travel 1,100 yards (1,000 meters), Opportunity vastly surpassed all expectations in its endurance, scientific value and longevity.  In addition to exceeding its life expectancy by 60 times, the rover traveled more than 28 miles (45 kilometers) by the time it reached its most appropriate final resting spot on Mars -- Perseverance Valley.

In My Position

Something unusual happened to me yesterday.  Actually, for me it wasn't just unusual -- it was a first.  I was made an offer I couldn't refuse.  Or at least that's what the top people at the National Enquirer thought.  I'm glad they thought that, because it emboldened them to put it all in writing.  Rather than capitulate to extortion and blackmail, I've decided to publish exactly what they sent me, despite the personal cost and embarrassment they threaten.

[Email from Dylan Howard of AMI describing semi-nude selfies of Jeff Bezos and his mistress Lauren Sanchez]

Well, that got my attention.  But not in the way they likely hoped.  Any personal embarrassment AMI could cause me takes a back seat because there's a much more important matter involved here.  If in my position I can't stand up to this kind of extortion, how many people can?

-- Jeff Bezos in a blog post at medium.com, "No thank you, Mr. Pecker", accusing David Pecker and AMI, owner of the National Enquirer, of extortion,  7 February 2019

Quit Bugging Me

Looking to get yourself a present this Valentine's Day?  The El Paso Zoo has you covered.  It will name a cockroach after your ex and then feed it to a meerkat live on camera.

You can message the zoo on Facebook with your ex's name, then wait patiently for February 14 to watch the roach get devoured during the "Quit Bugging Me" meerkat event, which will live-stream on Facebook and the zoo's website.  The names of those exes will also be displayed around the meerkat exhibit and on social media starting February 11.  The zoo calls it "the perfect Valentine's Day gift."

"This is a fun way to get the community involved in our daily enrichment activities," El Paso Zoo event coordinator Sarah Borrego told CBS News. "The meerkats love to get cockroaches as a snack and what better way to celebrate Valentine's Day than by feeding them a cockroach named after your ex!"

-- Reported by Sophie Lewis of CBS News, 7 February 2019

Round-The-Clock Liturgy

It was one of the longest religious ceremonies ever recorded, lasting for more than three months and involving nearly 1,000 pastors and priests.

But on Wednesday afternoon [30 January], a Dutch church's nonstop 96-day vigil finally came to an end after its organizers received confirmation that a family of refugees sheltering inside the church would no longer face immediate deportation from the Netherlands.

Taking advantage of an obscure Dutch law that forbids the police to interrupt church services, ministers at Bethel Church in The Hague had been running a round-the-clock liturgy since Oct. 26 in order to prevent the five members of the Tamrazyan family from being arrested and sent back to Armenia.

-- Patrick Kingsley, New York Times, "96 Days Later, Nonstop Church Service to Protect Refugees Finally Ends", 30 January 2019

RIP John Dingell

The Lovely Deborah is insisting I rest and stay off here, but after long negotiations we've worked out a deal where she'll keep up with Twitter for me as I dictate the messages.  I want to thank you all for your incredibly kind words and prayers.  You're not done with me just yet.

-- Former Representative John Dingell (D-MI) (8 July 1926 - 7 February 2019), American politician and all-time longest-serving member of Congress (59 years), posting on Twitter as @JohnDingell, in his final public words, 4:41 PM on 6 February 2019

State Of The Union

What will we do with this moment?  How will we be remembered?

I ask the men and women of this Congress: Look at the opportunities before us!  Our most thrilling achievements are still ahead.  Our most exciting journeys still await.  Our biggest victories are still to come.  We have not yet begun to dream.

We must choose whether we are defined by our differences -- or whether we dare to transcend them.

-- President Donald J. Trump, in his second State of the Union Address, 5 February 2019

To The Grave

A cryptocurrency exchange in Canada has lost control of at least $137 million of its customers' assets following the sudden death of its founder, who was the only person known to have access to the offline wallet that stored the digital coins.

In a sworn affidavit filed Thursday by Jennifer Robertson, widow of QuadrigaCX's sole director and officer Gerry Cotten, Robertson testified that Cotten died of Crohn's disease in India in December at the age of 30.

Robertson testified that Cotten stored the cold wallet on an encrypted laptop that only he could decrypt.  Based on company records, she said the cold wallet stored $180 million in Canadian dollars ($137 million in US dollars), all of which is currently inaccessible to QuadrigaCX and more than 100,000 customers.

-- Ars Technica, "Digital exchange loses $137 million as founder takes passwords to the grave", 2 February 2019

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/digital-exchange-loses-137-million-as-founder-takes-passwords-to-the-grave/

3 Times In 13 Months

Dow just crashes through 25,000. Congrats! Big cuts in unnecessary regulations continuing.

-- President Donald Trump, posting as @realDonaldTrump, 9:48 AM - 4 January 2018



The Stock Market hit 25,000 yesterday. Jobs are at an all time record - and that is before we fix some of the worst trade deals and conditions ever seen by any government. It is all happening!

-- President Donald Trump, posting as @realDonaldTrump, 4:46 AM - 14 July 2018



Dow just broke 25,000. Tremendous news!

-- President Donald Trump, posting as @realDonaldTrump, 3:54 PM - 30 January 2019