no. 575

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires"

Susan B Anthony.

no. 574

“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”

Camus

no. 573

"As long as you hate, there will be people to hate."

George Harrison

no. 572

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child."

 Cicero

no. 571

"But see, that's the trick. That's how the GOP have this narrative. They constantly play the aggrieved underdog. They kick a homeless guy in the ribs and then say he attacked them and broke their foot. And the media, somehow, inexplicably, buys it every time."

Chuck Wendig

no. 570

“Historically, the most terrible things—war, genocide, and slavery—have resulted not from disobedience, but from obedience.” 

Howard Zinn

no. 569

“Most Canadians' response to Trump's Justin Trudeau tantrums: "Meh." If it were Obama, Bush, or Romney, it would feel more serious. But no one takes Trump seriously.

Gold comes out of gold mines, lava comes out of volcanoes, and shit comes out of assholes. Commensurate with expectations.”

Ali A. Rizvi

no. 568

"A revolution is coming – a revolution which will be peaceful if we are wise enough; compassionate if we care enough; successful if we are fortunate enough – but a revolution which is coming whether we will it or not. We can affect its character; we cannot alter its inevitability."

Robert F. Kennedy, 1966

no. 567

"I just want to hang on to the tiger and ride it as long as I can."

Anthony Bourdain, who, sadly, committed suicide yesterday.

no. 566

"The gloom had lasted until Gus Moynihan, a retired college professor who was renovating one of the grand old Victorians on Upper Main Street, wrote a guest newspaper editorial decrying the town’s mordant defeatism and criticizing the current Republican administration’s unspoken policies, which could be summed up, he claimed, in nine words: No Spending. None. Ever. On Anything. Under Any Circumstances. Why not string one last banner across the street, he suggested: LET’S EAT DIRT."

From Richard Russo's novel, Everybody's Fool. 

no. 565

“Please understand that a lot of what the right does, and it’s maybe their greatest genius, is they’ve created a code of conduct that they police, that they themselves don’t have to, in any way, abide.”

Jon Stewart

no. 564

"Veiled threats work better when they don't promise a better quality of life."

Mike, speaking in the comic "Something Positive" (12/19/17)

no. 563

“Calling you "racist" isn't political correctness run amok. It isn't an attempt to shut down debate. It isn't even really meant as an insult (even though, yes, it is one). It's a way of defining your beliefs. If you think that people should be treated differently because of the color of their skin or if you voted for leaders who believe that and act on it, then what else should you be called? I mean, "Republican" works, too, except that there are still one or two Republicans who aren't motivated by hatred of non-whites. So "racist" is just a shorthand way to describe an ideology. And, yeah, I do think racists are bad people because, well, they're racists. But that's not racism on my part.”

The Rude Pundit

no. 562

“I feel this beginning to happen...a sign that an epiphany is imminent, followed by inevitable changes. This is a very good thing. 
Nodus Tollens: The realization that the plot of your life doesn't make sense to you anymore.”

from "The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows"

no. 561

“If humans could fly, they’d consider it exercise and never do it”

Nick Offerman

no. 560

“All governments lie, but disaster lies in wait for countries whose officials smoke the same hashish they give out.”

I. F. Stone  In a Time of Torment (1967)

no. 559

"Every day seems to deepen the severity and magnitude of our never-ending national facepalm."

John Pavlovitz in his essay, "The United States of Embarrassment"

no. 558

The pattern is astounding in its consistency:
They have no interest in contributing to the common good.
They will never build—they will only subtract.
They are incapable of creating anything meaningful or beautiful or life-giving.
They only know how to destroy.
They only know how to take.
They only know how to use up.
That is what cancerous things do.
They pollute.
They kill.

John Pavlovitz discussing Donald Trump and the Republican Party (e.i., the Party of "No")

no. 557

"If you insist that the needs of other children aren’t everyone’s responsibility, then you insist that children have no intrinsic value to society until they prove profitable. 

Eventually society will believe you."

Julius Goat on Twitter, discussing Republicans' concern for human life actually being a need to control.

no. 556

“I am opposing a social order in which it is possible for one man who does absolutely nothing that is useful to amass a fortune of hundreds of millions of dollars, while millions of men and women who work all the days of their lives secure barely enough for a wretched existence.”

Eugene Debs