The People Are The Sovereigns

Since when have we Americans been expected to bow submissively to authority and speak with awe and reverence to those who represent us?  The constitutional theory is that we the people are the sovereigns, the state and federal officials only our agents.  We who have the final word can speak softly or angrily.  We can seek to challenge and annoy, as we need not stay docile and quiet.

-- William Orville Douglas (1898 - 1980), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States; longest-serving justice in the history of the Supreme Court with a term lasting 36 years and 209 days, dissenting in Colten v. Kentucky, 407 U.S. 104 (1972)

10 Years And Counting

10 years ago today, at about 10:20 in the morning, I got a call from my doctor to tell me that a biopsy showed I had prostate cancer.  A few minutes later I walked into a meeting at work.  Over the following decade necessary interventions were made, and I'm still here.

I still get my numbers checked a few times a year.  So far I have been treated well by modern medical science.  

-- Don Appleman, 21 October 2025

The Ending Is A Beginning

All stories have a beginning, a middle and an ending, and if they're any good, the ending is a beginning.

-- James Clavell (1924 - 1994), British novelist, screenwriter, World War II hero and POW, Interview with Don Swaim of CBS Radio (11 November 1986)

Power Belongs

The Power Belongs to the people

In June, millions of everyday Americans from every walk of life peacefully took to the streets and declared with one voice: No Kings.  The world saw the power of the people, and President Trump's attempt at a coronation collapsed under the strength of a movement rising against his abuses of power.

Now, he's doubling down -- sending militarized agents into our communities, silencing voters, and handing billionaires giveaways while families struggle.  This isn't just politics.  It's democracy versus dictatorship.  And together, we're choosing democracy.

All No Kings events adhere to a shared commitment to nonviolent protest and community safety.  Organizers are trained in de-escalation and are working closely with local partners to ensure peaceful and powerful actions nationwide.

-- Text from NoKings.org regarding tomorrow's planned demonstrations against executive overreach by the Trump administration (17 October 2025)

Free And Independent

Today, we join virtually every other news organization in declining to agree to the Pentagon's new requirements, which would restrict journalists' ability to keep the nation and the world informed of important national security issues.  The policy is without precedent and threatens core journalistic protections.  We will continue to cover the U.S. military as each of our organizations has done for many decades, upholding the principles of a free and independent press.

-- Joint statement from ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News, and NBC regarding a new Pentagon policy that limits journalists to information the Defense Department explicitly makes available to them (14 October 2025)

Sharp Nails

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

-- Denis Diderot (1713 - 1784), French philosopher, as quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts : Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations (1908) by Tryon Edwards, p. 338

Verification

The man of science has learned to believe in justification, not by faith, but by verification.

-- Thomas Huxley (1825 - 1895), British biologist, On the advisableness of improving natural knowledge (1866)

A Path Forward

I really commend President Trump and his administration, as well as Arab leaders in the region for making the commitment to the 20-point plan and seeing a path forward for what's often called the day after. 

Let's now support this process and bring it together, not just in a nonpartisan way in our own country, but literally internationally as a great global commitment to try to bring peace, security, stability and a better future to the Middle East. 

-- Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in an interview with Norah O'Donnell of CBS News regarding the Israel-Hamas peace plan brokered by President Trump (10 October 2025)

Compact For Academic Excellence

[T]he Institute's mission of service to the nation directs us to advance knowledge, educate students and bring knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges. We do that in line with a clear set of values, with excellence above all. 

These values and other MIT practices meet or exceed many standards outlined in the document you sent.  We freely choose these values because they're right, and we live by them because they support our mission -- work of immense value to the prosperity, competitiveness, health and security of the United States.  And of course, MIT abides by the law.

The document also includes principles with which we disagree, including those that would restrict freedom of expression and our independence as an institution.  And fundamentally, the premise of the document is inconsistent with our core belief that scientific funding should be based on scientific merit alone.

In our view, America's leadership in science and innovation depends on independent thinking and open competition for excellence.  In that free marketplace of ideas, the people of MIT gladly compete with the very best, without preferences. Therefore , with respect, we cannot support the proposed approach to addressing the issues facing higher education.

-- MIT President Sally Kornbluth, replying to the Education Department's proposed "Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education" (10 October 2025)

Every Act

The law does not expect a man to be prepared to defend every act of his life which may be suddenly and without notice alleged against him.

-- John Marshall (1755 - 1835), American statesman and jurist, fourth Chief Justice of the United States, serving from February 4, 1801 until his death, In the Trial of Aaron Burr, August 1807

Try To Learn

Try to learn something about everything and everything about something.

-- Thomas Huxley (1825 - 1895), British biologist, A favorite comment, inscribed on his memorial at Ealing, quoted in Nature Vol. XLVI (30 October 1902), p. 658

What We Do Not Know

Our conjectures pass upon us for truths; we will know what we do not know, and often, what we cannot know: so mortifying to our pride is the base suspicion of ignorance.

-- Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694 - 1773), British statesman and man of letters, Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774) entry for 14 December 1756

Untethered To The Facts

In sum, the President is certainly entitled "a great level of deference," in his determination that he "is unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States." 10 U.S.C. § 12406(3).  But "a great level of deference" is not equivalent to ignoring the facts on the ground.  As the Ninth Circuit articulated, courts must "review the President's determination to ensure that it reflects a colorable assessment of the facts and law within a 'range of honest judgment'".  Here, this Court concludes that the President did not have a "colorable basis" to invoke § 12406(3) to federalize the National Guard because the situation on the ground belied an inability of federal law enforcement officers to execute federal law.  The President's determination was simply untethered to the facts.

-- US District Judge Karin J. Immergut, granting a Temporary Restraining Order against Trump's efforts to deploy National Guard troops to Portland, OR, in State of Oregon, City of Portland v Trump, et al (4 October 2025)

The Alchemists Were Right

Seekers after the glitter of intelligence are misguided in trying to cast it in the base metal of computing.  There is an amusing epilogue to this analogy: in fact, the alchemists were right.  Lead can be converted into gold by a particle accelerator hurling appropriate beams at lead targets.  The AI visionaries may be right in the same way, and they are likely to be wrong in the same way.

-- Terry Winograd (1946 -), American professor of computer science at Stanford University, and co-director of the Stanford Human-Computer Interaction Group, "Thinking Machines: Can there be? Are we?", in The Boundaries of Humanity: Humans, Animals, Machines (1991), ed. James J. Sheehan and Morton Sosna, p. 216

Palpable Misunderstanding

Everything above in this section is necessary background to frame the problem this President has with the First Amendment.  Where things run off the rails for him is his fixation with "retribution." "I am your retribution," he thundered famously while on the campaign trail.  Yet government retribution for speech (precisely what has happened here) is directly forbidden by the First Amendment.  The President's  palpable misunderstanding that the government simply cannot seek retribution for speech he disdains poses a great threat to Americans' freedom of speech.  It is at this juncture that the judiciary has robustly rebuffed the President and his administration.

I fear President Trump believes the American people are so divided that today they will not stand up, fight for, and defend our most precious constitutional values so long as they are lulled into thinking their own personal interests are not affected.

Is he correct?

-- William G. Young, Judge of the United States, ruling in AAUP et al v Rubio, Noem, and Trump et al that the Trump administration's effort to deport pro-Palestinian academics is a deliberate attack on free speech (30 September 2025)

RIP Jane Goodall

Confrontation can be counter productive.  Change happens by listening and then starting a dialogue with the people who are doing something you don't believe is right.

-- Dame Jane Morris Goodall DBE, born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall (3 April 1934 - 1 October 2025), English primatologist, ethologist, and anthropologist most famous for her study of chimpanzee social and family life in the Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania, interview at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa (26 August 2002)

Expert Discernment

The supreme end of education is expert discernment in all things -- the power to tell the good from the bad, the genuine from the counterfeit, and to prefer the good and the genuine to the bad and the counterfeit.

-- Charles Grosvenor Osgood (1871 - 1964), editor and translator, in the preface to Boswell's "Life of Johnson" (1917)

One Of The Best

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

-- Giuseppe Marc'Antonio Baretti (1719 - 1789), Italian literary critic, poet, writer, and translator, during his years in England often known as Joseph Baretti, quoted in Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson

More Frequently

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750 - 1752) No. 2 (24 March 1750)

Perversion And Exorbitance

No oppression is so heavy or lasting as that which is inflicted by the perversion and exorbitance of legal authority.

-- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), British author, linguist, and lexicographer, The Rambler (1750–1752) No. 148 (17 August 1751)