Goals

"Guard your honor. Let your reputation fall where it will. And outlive the bastards."
--Lois McMaster Bujold, "A Civil Campaign", 1999

Peaceniks

"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that! "
--Tom Lehrer

Attitude

Optimism is for those people who cannot face the world.

Pessimism is for those people who refuse to give the world a chance.

--Author Unknown

Happiness

"Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities."
--Aldous Huxley

Jump

"No animal should ever jump up on the dining room furniture unless absolutely certain that he can hold his own in the conversation."
--Fran Lebowitz

Risk IV

To laugh is to risk appearing a fool,

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental

To reach out to another is to risk involvement,

To expose feelings is to risk exposing your true self

To place your ideas and dreams before a crowd is to risk their loss

To love is to risk not being loved in return,

To hope is to risk despair,

To try is to risk to failure.

But risks must be taken because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.

The person who risks nothing, does nothing, has nothing is nothing.

He may avoid suffering and sorrow,

But he cannot learn, feel, change, grow or live.

Chained by his servitude he is a slave who has forfeited all freedom.

Only a person who risks is free.

The pessimist complains about the wind;

The optimist expects it to change;

And the realist adjusts the sails.


- William Arthur Ward, "To Risk"

Favor

"Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in."
--Mark Twain

Decorum

"The penalty for laughing in a courtroom is six months in jail; if it were not for this penalty, the jury would never hear the evidence."
--H.L. Mencken

Audacity

"I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, other-centered men can build up."
--Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Television III

"One of the few good things about modern times: If you die horribly on television, you will not have died in vain. You will have entertained us."
--Kurt Vonnegut, "Cold Turkey", In These Times, May 10, 2004

Happy Presidents Day

"God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. ... And what country can preserve its liberties, if it's rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure."

--Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

Source: November 13, 1787, letter to William S. Smith, quoted in Padover's Jefferson On Democracy

Faith II

"A casual stroll through a mental asylum shows that faith proves nothing."
--Friedrich Nietzche

Can

The question is not, "Can they reason?" nor, "Can they talk?" but rather, "Can they suffer?"
--Jeremy Bentham

Bookstores

"A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking."
--Jerry Seinfeld

Point

"All animals except man know that the ultimate point of life is to enjoy it."
--Samuel Butler

Remembering

"The nation which forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten."
--Calvin Coolidge

Eyes II

"I saw deep in the eyes of the animals the human soul look out upon me. I saw where it was born deep down under feathers and fur, or condemned for a while to roam four-footed among the brambles. I caught the clinging mute glance of the prisoner and swore that I would be faithful."
--Henry David Thoreau

Begin

'Begin at the beginning,' the King said gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'
--Lewis Carroll (Alice in Wonderland)

No

"UFOs"

"Today, America would be outraged if U.N. troops entered Los Angeles to restore order. Tomorrow they will be grateful! This is especially true if they were told that there were an outside threat from beyond, whether real or promulgated, that threatened our very existence. It is then that all peoples of the world will plead to deliver them from this evil. The one thing every man fears is the unknown. When presented with this scenario, individual rights will be willingly relinquished for the guarantee of their well-being granted to them by the World Government." ---Henry Kissinger, Bilderberger Conference, Evians, France, 1991

Acquiescence

"If you fear making anyone mad, then you ultimately probe for the lowest common denominator of human achievement."
--Jimmy Carter [James Earl Carter] (1924- ) 39th US President

Inaction

"Iron rusts from disuse; water loses its purity from stagnation . . . even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind."
--Leonardo da Vinci, artist and architect

Ethel Kennedy: Why I'm Supporting Barack Obama

Why I'm Supporting Barack Obama
by Ethel Skakel Kennedy

Over these past few years, I've watched Senator Obama inspire Americans from all walks of life to believe in real change and a new sense of hope and possibility. He's a magnetic force, drawing the nation together for the common good and galvanizing us all to help shape our country's future.

Barack is so like Bobby, who struggled for the rights of the poor in the Mississippi Delta and Appalachia, traveled to California to stand in solidarity with Cesar Chavez and farm workers and fought to end another war that cost so many lives.

Today, we crave a leader with vision who can help us regain our lost humanity and rekindle our inherent generosity. With courage, caring and charisma, Senator Obama is leading us toward a kinder, gentler world.

Senator Obama's candidacy sends out "ripples of hope" that can build a "current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance." I am proud to support Barack Obama, and look forward to him leading this country toward a brighter, more hopeful future.


Source: Huffington Post, February 2, 2008

Failure

"I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying."
--Michael Jordan

Going II

"Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car."
--Laurence J. Peter

Hillary Clinton Remained Silent As Wal-Mart Fought Unions

In six years as a member of the Wal-Mart board of directors, between 1986 and 1992, Hillary Clinton remained silent as the world's largest retailer waged a major campaign against labor unions seeking to represent store workers.
An ABC News analysis of the videotapes of at least four stockholder meetings where Clinton appeared shows she never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions.

A former board member told ABCNews.com that he had no recollection of Clinton defending unions during more than 20 board meetings held in private.

Source, and full story: ABC News, January 31, 2008

Fascism In Alabama: A Primer

Another Political Prosecution in Alabama by Glynn Wilson

February 1 - The morning calm in the small Alabama town of Toney, near Huntsville, was broken at 6:15 Thursday morning when a team of five FBI agents, accompanied by a prison matron, pounded on the door. When the man of the house answered, he was forced into the yard, shirtless in the early morning cold.

They came for his wife, Sue Schmitz, a diminutive, 63-year-old retired social studies and civics teacher who has lived in the town for 38 years. She was dragged out of her bathroom, where she was taking a shower, and handcuffed - breaking her flesh and scraping her wrists as she was hustled off to prison.

Who was this threat to society? Sue Schmitz is a well-respected state legislator who is loved in her community and by her students and is truly legendary for her passion for civics and outreach to the disadvantaged. The dream of her life was to let the fire of civic spirit catch on in communities and among families on the margin of society, where the danger of drug abuse and criminality are the highest. She dedicated her life to it.

She launched a program called “We the People,” designed to build civic spirit and interest in participatory democracy among school children. And Ms. Schmitz’s advocacy of civic engagement led directly to her conflict with U.S. Attorney Alice Martin, who considers it to be a criminal act.

Full article, Locusfork Journal, February 1, 2008

Means

"A good man would prefer to be defeated than to defeat injustice by evil means."
--Sallust, 'Jugurthine War,' 41 B.C.

Nightfall

"As nightfall does not come at once, neither does oppression. In both instances there is a twilight where everything remains seemingly unchanged, and it is in such a twilight that we must be aware of the change in the air, however slight, lest we become unwitting victims of the darkness."
--Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas