Friday, March 31, 2017

Rent

"We used to own our slaves; now we just rent them"
--Attributed by Edward R. Murrow to an unnamed farmer in "Harvest of Shame", CBS Reports (November 24, 1960)

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Product IV

"The notion that journalism can regularly produce a product that violates the fundamental interests of media owners and advertisers and do so with impunity simply has no evidence behind it."
--Robert McChesney
Research Professor in the Institute of Communications Research and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Pretending

"Humans--who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals--have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them--without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us."
--Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Correctness II

"Political correctness is simply tyranny with manners."
--Charlton Heston
(1924- ) American actor, former president of National Rifle Association

Monday, March 27, 2017

Invention

"A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it."
--Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Interview, Playboy Magazine, July, 1973

Sunday, March 26, 2017

Merciful

"The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it."
--Margaret Sanger,
Founder of Planned Parenthood,
"Woman and the New Race"

Saturday, March 25, 2017

Conspiracy

"Now I am prepared to maintain," said Chaffery, proceeding with his proposition, "that Honesty is essentially an anarchistic and disintegrating force in society, that communities are held together and the progress of civilisation made possible only by vigorous and sometimes even violent Lying; that the Social Contract is nothing more or less than a vast conspiracy of human beings to lie to and humbug themselves and one another for the general Good. Lies are the mortar that bind the savage individual man into the social masonry...Were I not of a profoundly indolent, restless, adventurous nature, and horribly averse to writing, I would make a great book of this and live honored by every profound duffer in the world."
--H.G. Wells,
"Love and Mr Lewisham" (1899)

Friday, March 24, 2017

Defined III

"Never be defined by your past. It was just a lesson, not a life sentence."
--Author Unknown

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Patience IV

"The key to everything is patience. You get the chicken by hatching the egg, not by smashing it."
--Arnold H. Glasow

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Flirting

"Flirting with madness was one thing; when madness started flirting back, it was time to call the whole thing off."
--Rohinton Mistry, "A Fine Balance"v

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Changed

You were supposed to have been in the Sector when the adjustment began. Because of an error you were not. You came into the Sector late--during the adjustment itself. You fled, and when you returned it was over. You saw, and you should not have seen. Instead of a witness you should have been part of the adjustment. Like the others, you should have undergone changes.

"I get the picture." His voice was almost inaudible. A chilling premonition moved through him. "I was supposed to be changed like the others. But I guess something went wrong."
   
"Something went wrong. An error occurred. And now a serious problem exists. You have seen these things. You know a great deal. And you are not coordinated with the new configuration."

--Philip K. Dick,
"Adjustment Team"

Monday, March 20, 2017

Control IV

"Give me control over a man's economic actions, and hence over his means of survival, and except for a few occasional heroes, I'll promise to deliver to you men who think and write and behave as I want them to."
--Benjamine A. Rooge

Sunday, March 19, 2017

Facts III

"Facts are ventriloquists' dummies. Sitting on a wise man's knee they may be made to utter words of wisdom; elsewhere, they say nothing, or talk nonsense, or indulge in sheer diabolism."
--Aldous Huxley,
"Bruno Rontini" in "Time Must Have A Stop" (1944).

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Foolish II

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'"
--Dave Barry

Friday, March 17, 2017

Artist IV

"Too often in the past, we have thought of the artist as an idler and dilettante and of the lover of arts as somehow sissy and effete. We have done both an injustice. The life of the artist is, in relation to his work, stern and lonely. He has labored hard, often amid deprivation, to perfect his skill. He has turned aside from quick success in order to strip his vision of everything secondary or cheapening. His working life is marked by intense application and intense discipline." 
--John F. Kennedy,
LOOK magazine, "The Arts in America'" December 18, 1962

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Believers II

"Many of the deliberate con artists are the "true believers" of fanatical religious or political sects who actually accept the dogma that it is a mortal sin for you to take care of yourself and your family first and in any way exercise your right to the pursuit of happiness while their precious cause is in any way neglected, underfunded or even unaccepted."
--Rick Graber
Source: Selfishness vs."Selfishness"

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Traitors

"Traitors who prevail are patriots; usurpers who succeed are divine emperors."
--Gore Vidal,
"Julian"

Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Chose

"Those who created this country chose freedom. With all of its dangers. And do you know the riskiest part of that choice they made? They actually believed that we could be trusted to make up our own minds in the whirl of differing ideas. That we could be trusted to remain free, even when there were very, very seductive voices - taking advantage of our freedom of speech - who were trying to turn this country into the kind of place where the government could tell you what you can and cannot do."
--Nat Hentoff

Monday, March 13, 2017

Nothing VII

"Later, when they sat down and went over the figures closely, they found an interesting pattern. Adamowski had received fifty-one percent of the votes, cast by white persons. But the enormous black vote had given Daley his victory. The people who were trapped in the ghetto slums and the nightmarish public housing projects, the people who had the worst school system and were most often degraded by the Police Department, the people who received the fewest campaign promises and who were ignored as part of the campaign trail, had given him his third term. They had done it quietly, asking for nothing in return. Exactly what they got."
--Mike Royko,
"Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago"

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Children II

"Children, as persons, are entitled to the greatest respect. Children are given to us as free-flying souls, but then we clip their wings like we domesticate the wild mallard. Children should become the role-models for us, their parents, for they are coated with the spirit from which they came- out of the ether, clean, innocent, brimming with the delight of life, aware of the beauty of the simplest thing; a snail, a bud...."
--Gerry Spence,
"Give Me Liberty: Freeing Ourselves in the Twenty-First Century"

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Designed II

"The First Amendment was designed to protect offensive speech, because nobody ever tries to ban the other kind."
--Mike Godwin,
Staff counsel, Electronic Freedom Foundation

Friday, March 10, 2017

Precedents

"To follow foolish precedents, and wink
with both our eyes, is easier than to think."
--William Cowper
(1731-1800) English poet, hymnodist

Thursday, March 09, 2017

Everyone III

"They're trying to kill me," Yossarian told him calmly.

"No one's trying to kill you," Clevinger cried.

"Then why are they shooting at me?" Yossarian asked.

"They're shooting at everyone," Clevinger answered. "They're trying to kill everyone."

"And what difference does that make?"

--Joseph Heller, "Catch 22"

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Group

"Sadly today, much of the political Left has become a hate group. As a hate group, they truly believe they alone have the unique right to censor others, to defame others, even to violently attack and murder others whose speech they don’t like. This is now evident everywhere throughout Leftist culture, including in Hollywood and the Oscars. With Google clearly being run by Leftists, and Facebook run by Leftists, and most of the internet gatekeepers dominated by intolerant Leftists, the shocking realization is that none of us are safe from the hatred, intolerance and censorship of the techno-liberals who tell themselves “the ends justify the means” to silence Trump supporters and defame those who support Trump."
--Mike Adams
Editor of Natural News
2/28/2017

Tuesday, March 07, 2017

Undermine

"Just as any moron can destroy a priceless Ming vase, so the shallow and ill-educated people who run our schools can undermine and destroy from within a great civilization that took centuries of dedicated effort to create and maintain."
--Dr. Thomas Sowell
(1930- ) Writer and economist

Monday, March 06, 2017

Sidelines

"The future will not belong to those who sit on the sidelines. The future will not belong to the cynics. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams."
--Paul Wellstone

Sunday, March 05, 2017

Eternity II

"We are being sucked into the body of eternity."
--Terrence McKenna

Saturday, March 04, 2017

Balances

"Science-fiction balances you on the cliff. Fantasy shoves you off."
--Ray Bradbury,
"The Circus of Dr. Lao" Introduction (1956).

Vultures

"You wait for the war to happen like vultures. If you want to help, prevent the war. Don't save the remnants. Save them all."
--Isaac Asimov,
"The Gentle Vultures" in Super-Science Fiction (December 1957)

Thursday, March 02, 2017

Squalid

"What seems fair enough against a squalid huckster of bad liquor may take on a different face, if used by a government determined to suppress political opposition under the guise of sedition."
--Judge Learned Hand
(1872-1961), Judge, U. S. Court of Appeals
Source: United States v. Kirschenblatt, 1926

Wednesday, March 01, 2017

Evidence II

"The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right."
--George Orwell