no. 417

via


If I had been paying attention, I would have made this quote number 420. That folks, is poor planning.

no. 416

“Anyone who has ever struggled with poverty knows how extremely expensive it is to be poor.”

James Baldwin

no. 415

no. 414

"I find it interesting that while destroying the NEA seems to be one foundations of education “reform”, no one has suggesting destroying the AMA for healthcare reform."

Jake the snake commenting at Balloon Juice.

no. 413

This man, whom I once thought of as a romantic hero--a brave shining white knight, or the dark knight as he said. He’s not a hero, he’s a man with serious, deep emotional flaws, and he’s dragging me into the dark. Can I not guide him into the light?

"That pretty much sums up everything that's wrong here. This love conquers all bullshit that so much of modern pop culture seems to be built around. You can't change a man into a better person by just staying in an abusive relationship: staying in the relationship is just positive reinforcement of his abusive tendencies. The idea that we should glorify an abusive relationship into a romantic one is just fucked up and wrong."

Samurai Frog, from one of his in-depth, chapter-by-chapter dissections of "50 Shades Of Grey"

no. 412

Conservative, n - A person who believes that the poor are to blame for their problems while his own problems are the fault of the government.

Gin And Tacos

no. 411

April is the cruelest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain...

T. S. Eliot



It's also my birthday month

no. 410

“Plot idea: 97% of the world’s scientists contrive an environmental crisis, but are exposed by a plucky band of billionaires & oil companies.”

Scott Westerfeld

no. 409

“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

Martin Luther King Jr.

no. 408

"If you still dream about having a Rolex when you turn 50, your life failure".

Boulet, responding to French publicist Jaques Seguela, who said "If you dont own a Rolex when you turn 50, your life is a failure", while defending the purchase of a 13,000 Euro Rolex by French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

no. 407

“If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by.”

Sun Tzu

no. 406

"But all forms of prejudice are based on the same principle: you pre-judge somebody based on one most likely irrelevant fact, and you refuse to change your opinion based on actual, observable fact. It's the opposite of rational, liberal-minded thinking—and we don't mean liberal in any political sense. We mean liberal in the way Austen (and other writers of her time) used it: open-minded, willing to change your ideas, and interested in facts rather than opinions. You know—exactly the opposite of prejudiced."

from a Shmoop discussion of Pride And Prejudice

no. 405

no. 404

"The people most enthusiastic about rules are the ones who gain power through them."

me

no. 403

"Science advances one funeral at a time."

attributed to Max Planck


Actually, according to Wikiquotes, he said something more along this line: "A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it." But really, he said the original in German, so consider the above to be a loose, boiled-down translation, maybe.

no. 402

"If you are a complete fucking asshole, Rush Limbaugh tells you exactly what you want to hear. He says that all the Others are stupid, lazy, cheating, inferior, and most importantly that any way you hurt them is their fault and they have no right to expect any sympathy or self-control from you whatsoever. That latter is particularly important. It’s the reasoning of the domestic abuser, and the reasoning of the cultural conservative."

Frankensteinbeck, commenting on Balloon Juice

no. 401

“Men and nations behave wisely when they have exhausted all other resources.”

Abba Eban, an Israeli politician and diplomat




(citation)

no. 400

"The Rude Pundit doesn't give a damn how we got this information about our government's spying on us. What enrages him is being told he shouldn't worry about it, that he should just go about his business and let the professionals do their work. He naively believes that the failure to call "bullshit" on bullshit just because you like the bull is how you help democracy die faster."

The Rude Pundit

no. 399

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."

Clarence Darrow

no. 398

"Debate is impossible because American Conservatism is a cult. Period. Full stop. Its main trait is now nothing more than broad-spectrum reality denial and its main weapon in the fight to keep reality at bay is THE DECIBEL."

Driftglass