. . . there is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his. -- Helen Keller
No eternal reward will forgive us now from wasting the dawn -- Jim Morrison, The Doors
Time you enjoy wasting
is not wasted Time -- T.S. Eliot
"Is there evidence somewhere which proves that working is more difficult than not working?" Brian "Non-unanimous" Joyce -- 2012
"Don't learn to do, but learn in doing. Let your falls not be on a prepared ground, but let them be bona fide falls in the rough and tumble of the world." -- Samuel Butler
An atheist is a man who watches a Notre Dame - Southern Methodist University game and doesn't care who wins. Dwight D. Eisenhower
I just came across this paraphrase that -- "Charles Darwin wrote in his book, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, that there are six primary emotions: happiness, sadness, surprise, fear, anger and disgust." I'll be looking for the direct quote on this. -- bj
Love what you do and you'll never work a day in your life. -- The Geico Gecko - 2011
The true system, the real system, is our present construction of systematic though itself, rationality itself, and if a factory is torn down but the rationality which produced it is left standing, then that rationality will simply produce another factory. If a revolution destroys a systematic government, but the systematic patterns of thought that produced that government are left intact, then those patterns will repeat themselves in the succeeding government. -- ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig 1974
The truth knocks on the door and you say, "Go away, I'm looking for the truth." and so it goes away -- ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE by Robert Pirsig 1974
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
I know that George Washington drove a Caddie with nukes pointed in every direction . . . but maybe you should at least consider life on this planet without combustion engines as did so many of the Ancestors of your Histories and Holy Books. -- Brian Joyce
"Around the world, road traffic injuries are taking the lives of 145 people every hour of every day... more than two a minute. And that adds up to something like 1.3 million people dying on the world's roads each year - and a further 20 to 50 million people suffering injuries, often debilitating ones... And at the same time, 74 million new cars are hitting the world's roads each year - which works out to roughly 65 new cars a minute... The World Health Organization predicts that traffic crashes will become the world's 5th leading cause of death by the year 2030. The fifth leading cause of death. That is, unless we take action right now." NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg
"I was a means, through grace assisting me, to stop the flight of those few that then were here with me, and that by my my utter denial to go away . . . . " Roger Conant "First Settler", 1626, of Salem, Massachusetts
If you don't act -- the dangers become stronger. Ai Wei Wei
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/ai-wei-wei/?autoplay
Although Alaska has a national reputation as a region of abundant wildlife, it is a poor land when compared with almost any other state on the basis of pounds of game produced per acre. SHADOWS ON THE KOYUKUK by Sidney Huntington and Jim Rearden. 1993.
OSAMA BIN LADEN: I have already stated that I have no involvement in the events of September 11 and the attacks on the United States. I had no knowledge of these acts. Nor do I consider the killing of innocent women and children and other humans an appreciable act. There exists a government within the government of the United States. That secret government must be asked as to who carried out these attacks. The U.S. should trace the perpertrators of those attacks to those persons who want to make the present century one of their own control who want to enslave other countries. said to be Osama Bin Ladin in BBC interview printed in Pakistan. September 26, 2001. {I'm looking for another source on this. Has anyone any proof that Bin Ladin has actually stood before the world and said "I did it. I played a willing and conscious role in the attacks of September 2001." - bj}
All nature is but Art, unknown to thee;
All Chance, Direction, which thou canst not see. . . Alexander Pope
In the 1930's and 1940's, for every six babies born on the Koyukuk (the Koyukuk River of Central Alaska) only one survived -- the other five died of tuberculosis. SHADOWS ON THE KOYUKUK by Sidney Huntington and Jim Rearden. 1993.
Wildlife Management: "Runs of chum and king salmon had greatly increased under state management. In fact, starting in the sixties, salmon, moose, caribou, black bear, and beaver were abundant; no one could remember when there had been such natural wealth in and around the Koyukuk. SHADOWS ON THE KOYUKUK by Sidney Huntington and Jim Rearden. 1993.
. . . . there is in this land a mass movement of the far right that comes fairly close to fascism. A broad coalition of libertarians, New Deal haters, Ayn Rand worshippers, confederate nostalgists, old fashioned racists, and Fox News watchers, plus gun lovers, militarists, religious fundimentalists, anti-environmentalists, climate change deniers, gay bashers, xenophobes, resentful loners, sloganeering idealogues, and all around ignoramouses and crackpots [which] has jelled as a force and is constantly expanding.
Short of a military coup, these neo-fascists will stop at nothing in their bid for control. How far can they go is anybody's guess . . . . G.H.Bell in an Editor's Letter to the Boston PHOENIX Sept. 10, 2010?
HOMELESSNESS/EXPLORATION: One sees and hears and smells far more, of course, when one is on foot, but the mechanical monotony of this tremendous walk is something not easily to be understood by a twentieth-century mind; hour after hour, mile after mile and always the same . . . ahead; never to arrive at anywhere really significant; always to get up in the morning with the prospect of doing the same thing all over again. The world narrows in these conditions; one's boots have the disembodied fascination of a clockwork pendulum, weariness is subdued by the dull compulsion of the rhythm, and ground is not ground but simply distance to be put behind one. In this apathy of movement, this concentration upon merely keeping going, this coma of walking, ANY INTRUSION IS RESENTED, and any call upon the mind is an effort. [my emphasis] "COOPER'S CREEK: the opening of Australia" by Alan Moorehead 1963
Insanity is a catchall phrase. It has no medical meaning. Sanity is simply the ability of the mind to adjust to reality. If we can't adjust, we either hide from reality, or we put ourselves above life, where we're super-beings who don't have to follow the rules." === Sidney Sheldon 1970
"I know what this love is . . . . my entire reward has been a kiss and twenty kicks in the backside." CANDIDE by Voltaire 1759
"Up until Elvis joined the army, I thought it was beautiful music and Elvis was for me and my generation what the Beatles were to the '60s. But after he went into the army, I think they cut "les bollocks" off. They not only shaved his hair off but I think they shaved between his legs, too. He played some good stuff after the army, but it was never quite the same, It was like something happened to him psychologically. Elvis really died the day he joined the army. That's when they killed him, and the rest was a living death." John Lennon
"You can't be lucky all the time, but you can be smart everyday"
-Mos Def
"Arrogance is thinking you are better than everyone else, while
Confidence is knowing no one else is better than you." - Robbie Williamson
came into being.
"Tomorrow . . . we have a duel . . . . [T]here is a force stronger than reason. We cry out that war is pillage, barbarism, atrocity, fratricide; we cannot look upon blood without fainting; but just let the French or the Germans insult us and we instantly feel our spirits rise, and with the greatest sincerity start shouting 'Hurrah!' and rush at the enemy; you will invoke God's blessing on our weapons, and our valor will arouse general, and what's more, sincere, enthusiasm. Again it follows that there is a force, which, if not higher, is stronger than ourselves and our philosophy. We can no more stop it than we can stop that cloud moving in from the sea. THE DUEL by Anton Chekhov, 1891
If people don't want to come out to the ball park, nobody's gonna stop 'em . . . Yogi Berra (NY Mets Baseball)
You can die for the ideas of another, but you can live only for your own ideas. Theodor Reik OF LOVE AND LUST circa 1943
. . . who threw their watches off the roof to cast their ballot for an Eternity outside of Time, & alarm clocks fell on their heads every day for the next decade . . . .
HOWL by Allen Ginsberg 1956
What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?
HOWL by Allen Ginsberg 1956
GEOGRAPHY (The 1942 Siege of Stalingrad): To the north of Stalingrad the Germans had already reached the Volga, to the south they were approaching it. The city spread out over a length of sixty-five kilometers [along the Volga River] was nowhere more than five kilometers wide . . . . [From the eastern bank he] looked across at the west bank of the Volga . . . . There it was---high and steep, like all the western banks of all the rivers in Russia . . . .[A]ll the western banks of Russsian rivers were steep, all the eastern banks sloping, and all the Russian cities stood without exception on the western banks: Kiev, Smolensk, Dnepropetrovsk, Moghilev, Rostov, every town he could think of. Konstantine Simonov in DAYS AND NIGHTS 1945
CHILDRENS' ART found in the ruins of a Stalingrad building during the Nazi siege of WW II: "On the table lay several sheets of paper torn from a notebook and scrawled over with red and blue pencil marks. In the scrawls could be made out drawings of a crooked house, burning Fascist tanks, a Fascist airplane falling with a black trail of smoke behind it, and over everything a small Soviet fighter plane drawn with the red pencil. This had been . . . from time out of mind, every child's picture of war: our side did all the shooting and the Fascists were always destroyed . . . . [B]efore the war too many adults had had a picture of war not very different from this." Konstantine Simonov in DAYS AND NIGHTS 1945
Nature must be a daily experience not a weekend sensation. Walter Gropius as quoted by L.Moholy-Nagy VISION IN MOTION (1946)
". . . with the ideas of liberalism at their very height, the majority [still] feeds, clothes and defends the minority, while itself remaining hungry, ill-clothed, defenseless . . . . if it were possible to saddle the working class with our most unpleasant PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS [AHEM, blogger's emphasis, let me repeat: If it were possible to saddle the working class with our most unpleasant PHYSIOLOGICAL FUNCTIONS!], we should do so, afterward, of course, justifying ourselves by saying that if the best people, the thinkers and great scientists, were to waste their precious time on these functions, progress might be seriously jeopardized."
MY LIFE by Anton Chekhov, 1896
Russian Peasants: "In the shops they palmed off on us workmen tainted meat, moldy flour, and used tea leaves; in church the police shoved us; in the hospitals the feldshers and nurses fleeced us, and if we were too poor to bribe them they took their revenge by bringing us food on dirty plates; in the post office the most insignificant clerk considered himself justified in treating us like animals, roughly and insolently shouting: "You wait! Where do you think you're going?" Even the yard dogs were unfriendly and rushed at us with a particular viciousness. But what struck me above everything . . . was the total absence of justice . . . . Rarely did a day pass without some swindle. The merchants who sold us oil, the contractors, our own men, the people who employed us, all cheated. Needless to say, there could be no question of our rights; we even had to ask for the money we earned as if it were charity, and stand waiting for it at a back door, cap in hand." MY LIFE by Anton Chekhov, Russia 1896.
SPORTS: ". . . nothing would do but that I must keep a Sabbath School. I agreed to do so , and accordingly devoted my Sundays to teaching my loved fellow-slaves how to read . . . . It was understood . . . there must be as little display about it as possible . . . to keep our religious masters . . . unacquainted with the fact, that, instead of spending the Sabbath in wrestling, boxing and drinking whiskey we were trying to learn how to read the will of God; for they had much rather see us engaged in those degrading sports, than to see us behaving like intellectual, moral and accountable beings." Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Lynn, Mass. 1845
TOP TEN FOODS contributing to energy intake in the US Population:
1. Soft Drinks - 7% of all US calories
2. Cake
3. Hamburgers/Cheeseburgers
4. Pizza
5. Potato Chips
6. Rice
7. Rolls
8. Cheese
9. Beer
10. French Fries
HUNGER: "I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people were forced to eat what they killed, there would be no more wars." Abbie Hoffman. REVOLUTION FOR THE HELL OF IT. 1968
CANNABIS: "As the National Institute on Drug Abuse, our focus is primarily on the negative consequences of marijuana use. We generally do not fund research focused on the potential beneficial medical effects of marijuana." NIDA spokeswoman Shirley Simson. Note: NIDA is the only cannabis researcher licensed by the US government.
LEGAL BARGAINING: " . . .[The] testimony of witnesses who have been pressured, with threats and/or rewards, to suddenly turn on colleagues and claim that activities that they themselves have engaged in and defended for a long time [then] suddenly appear to be criminal . . . . should be abolished altogether . . . . no self-respecting legal system . . . can tolerate such tactics and still claim to value truth and justice." Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY 2009
When about sixteen years of age I happened to meet with a book . . . recommending a VEGETABLE DIET. I determined to go into it . . . . My refusing to eat flesh occasioned an inconvenience, and I was frequently chid for my singularity . . . . I presently found that I could save half . . . . This was an additional fund for buying books . . . . in which I made the greater progress, from that greater clearness of head and quicker apprehension which usually attend temperance in eating and drinking. The Autobiography of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Part One.
HIER-EDUCATION: "In October 2002, WALL STREET JOURNAL reporter Daniel Golden noted that ties between federal intelligence agencies and American universities had increased substantially after the terrorist attacks of September 11." Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY
"PURITANISM: . . . the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy" . . . . H. L. Mencken
LAW: When the law becomes a trap for the unwary, it becomes an engine of oppression rather than a statement of the moral and ethical requirements of a society's citizens. Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY
ALTERNATIVE ENERGY: "Wood [energy] . . . which within these 100 years might be had at every man's door, must now be fetched near 100 miles to some towns, and makes a very consierable article in the expense of families.
As therefore so mch of the comfort and convenience of our lives . . . depends on the article of fire [energy]; since fuel is become so expensive and . . . will of course grow scarcer and dearer, any new proposal for saving the wood [energy] and for lessening the charge and augmenting the benefit of fire [energy], by some particular method of making and managing it, MAY AT LEAST BE THOUGHT WORTH CONSIDERATION. Benjamin Franklin THE PENNSYLVANIA FIREPLACE (the Franklin Stove)
PERJURY: One of the oddest features of Federal Crimal Law is that, , while it is the felony of perjury to lie when under oath, it is likewise a felony to lie [to a government official] even when not under oath . . . . Nor is it entirely irrelevant to note that there are no similar restrictions on the ability of government officials to lie to citizens with impunity. --- Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY
RELIGION: My answer [to the preacher] was: You know my house; if you can make shift with its scanty accommodations, you will be most heartily welcome. He replied, that if I made that kind offer for Christ's sake, I should not miss of a reward. And I returned: Don't let me be mistaken; it was not for Christ's sake, but for your sake . . . . knowing it to be the custom of the saints when they received any favor, to shift the burden of the obligation from off their own shoulders and place it in heaven, I had contrived to fix it on earth. The Autobiography of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN
CANNABIS: Commenting on the poll results NORML Deputy Director Paul Armentano said: "Marijuana legalization is not a political liability; it is a political opportunity. It is unfortunate that the majority of politicians still fail to acknowledge this fact."
" . . . the FEDERAL JUDICIARY has acted too often as the handmaiden to federal prosectutors( ' ) . . . strategy to prosecute conduct that Congress [has] not yet outlawed. Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY 2009
The supreme misfortune is when theory outstrips performance. - Leonardo Da Vinci
"And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner proposed . . . . Both the house and the ground were . . . expressly for the use of any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say something to the people at Philadelphia; the design in building not being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his service. The Autobiography of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Part Three concerning events in 1739.
"I saw a Banner there upon the mist. Circling and circling, it seemed to scorn all pause. So it ran on, and still behind it pressed. a never ending rout of souls . . . . that retrograde and faithless crew . . . never born and never dead . . . " Dante. The Inferno. The first phenomenon upon entering the Gates. c.1304
"This court will not deny the equal protection of the law to the unwashed, unshod, unkempt and uninhibited." NYC Criminal Court Judge Herman Weinkrantz. re: Hippies 1967
"In 2004 . . . 90 percent of all criminal defendants brought before the U.S. District Courts were convicted, with 96 percent of those convictions resulting from guilty pleas." Harvey Silverglate THREE FELONIES A DAY: How the Feds Target the Innocent (2009)
Death of heart disease is as unnecessary as dying of drug abuse. Dr. Julian Whitaker
When I detect a beauty in any of the recesses of nature . . . . The beauty there is in mosses must be considered . . . . Henry David Thoreau "Health in Nature"
. . . animal products in our diet are the primary culprits not only in heart attacks but in strokes as well. Howard F Lyman MAD COWBOY
[My wife] wasn't at all pleased the day I came in with so much herbicide on my clothing that my mere presence killed off the houseplants. Howard F. Lyman MAD COWBOY
Sometimes the drugs that I used to inoculate cattle were eventually determined to be dangerous to human heath and were banned. But the government always seemed to be sufficiently cooperative with agribusiness to make sure that the stockpiles of the suspect drug inventoried by the drug companies were sold before the ban went into effect. Once the banned drugs were in farmers' hands, they were used until exhausted. Howard F. Lyman MAD COWBOY
. . . in Wildness is the preservation of the World . . . . The story of Romulus and Remus being suckled by a wolf is not a meaningless fable . . . . It was because the children of the Empire were not suckled by the wolf that they were conquered and displaced by the children of the northern forests who were. Henry David Thoreau "Wildness"
Scarlet Oak Leaves;
What a wild and pleasing outline, a combination of graceful curves and angles ! The eye rests with equal delight on what is not leaf and on what is leaf ----- on the broad free, open sinuses, and on the long, sharp bristle-pointed lobes. A simple oval outline would include it all, if you connected the points of the leaf; but how much richer is it than that, with its half-dozen deep scallops, in which the eye and thought of the beholder are embayed ! If I were a drawing-master, I would set my pupils to copying these leaves, that they might learn to draw firmly and gracefully. Henry David Thorea "The Scarlet Oak"
Will you live? or will you be embalmed? Will you live, though it be astride of a sunbeam; or will you repose safely in the catacombs for a thousand years?
Henry David Thoreau "Will You LIve?"
Show me the man and I'll find you the crime. Lavrenti Beria, KGB head
Millions for Defense; not one penny for tribute. ----- founding father John Jay
Billions for Defense; every cent IS tribute. ---- Brian Joyce
"...cencorship is the strongest drive in human nature;
sex is a weak second." -Philip Kirby of LA Times
Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable -- as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead. . . Friedrich von Schiller
It is the first death which infects everyone with the feeling of
being threatened. It is impossible to overrate the part played by
the first dead man in the kindling of wars. Rulers who want to
unleash war know very well that they must procure or invent a first
victim. It need not be anyone of particular importance, and can even
be someone quite unknown. Nothing matters except his death; and it
must be believed that the enemy is responsible for this. Every
possible cause of his death is suppressed except one: his membership
of the group to which one belongs oneself. . . Elias Canetti 1960
TEAMS SUCK
I don't like ass kissers, flag wavers or team players. I like people who buck the system. Individualists. I often warn kids: "Somewhere along the way, someone is going to tell you, "There is no "I" in team." What you should tell them is "Maybe not. But there IS an "I" in independence, individuality, and integrity."
Avoid teams at all cost. Keep your circle small. Never join a group that has a name. If they say, "We're the So-and=Sos," take a walk. And if, somehow, you must join, if it's unavoidable, such as a union or a trade association, go ahead and join. But don't participate; it will be your death. And if they tell you you're not a team player, just congratulate them on being so observant. George Carlin 2004
[State sponsored education] is a mere contrivance for
moulding people to be exactly like one another; and as
the mould in which it cast them is that which pleases
the predominant power in the government, whether this be
a monarch, a priesthood, an aristocracy or the majority
of the existing generation, in proportion as it is
efficient and successful, it establishes a despotism
over the mind . . . John Stuart Mill, ON LIBERTY, 1859
A creator is not in advance of his generation but he is the first of his contemporaries to be conscious of what is happening to his generation. Gertude Stein
The beneficiaries of keeping prisoners:
". . . the trustees, wardens, death-house maintenance men, millions of policemen, uniform makers, court recorders, criminal court judges, probation officers, and district attorneys whose children joyously unwrap Christmas presents under the tree bought with money earned by keeping other men from seeing their child's face beam at a cottton angel . . ." Lenny Bruce
I never did see one stag film where anybody got killed in the end. Or even slapped in the mouth. Or where it had any Communist Propaganda. Lenny Bruce
I don't smoke pot . . . . The reason I don't smoke it is because it facilitates ideas and heightens sensations -- and I've got enough of that shit flying through my head without smoking pot. Lenny Bruce.
There is never a lie because there is never a truth. Lenny Bruce
Lenny Bruce (1963)
A uniform is an important means to instant acceptance.
A man is no longer just a man; he is part of an institution -- milkman, postman, diaper man -- he has conquered the suspicion of being a stranger by acquiring a kind of OFFICIAL anonymity. He is associated with a definite mission. He means business.
Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the
unanimity of the graveyard. . . .U.S. Supreme Court -
West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette (1942)
Success is the ability to go from one failure to
another with no loss of enthusiam. -Winston Churchill
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they
fight you, then you win. -Mahatma Ghandi
Cannabem liberemus . . . Allen St. Pierre
You should look at certain walls stained with damp, or at
stones of uneven color. If you have to invent some back-
grounds you will be able to see in these the likeness of
divine landscapes, adorned with mountains, ruins, rocks,
woods, great plains, hills and valleys in great variety,
and then again you will see there battles and strange
figures in violent action, expressiveness of faces and
clothes and an infinity of things which you will be able
to reduce to their complete and proper forms. In such
walls the same thing happens as in the sound of bells, in
whose stroke you may find every named word which you can
imagine. . . Leonardo da Vinci
Common Sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by
age eighteen. . . Albert Einstein
How wars start:
“. . . . they have to be quick;
this business of killing does not admit of even a moment's hesitation.
And the enemy is there, ready to their hand.
It was he who first pronounced the sentence, who first said “You shall die”
. . . . It is always the enemy who started it.
Even if he was not the first to speak out,
he was certainly planning it;
and if he was not actually planning it, he was thinking of it;
and, if he was not thinking of it,
he would have thought of it. . . Elias Canetti 1960.
Though there are obvious differences between the fanatical Christian, the fanatical
Mohammedan, the fanatical nationalist, the fanatical Communist, and the fanatical
Nazi, it is yet true that the fanaticism which animates them may be viewed and
treated as one. The same is true of the force which drives them on to expansion and world dominion. . . . However different the holy causes people die for, they perhaps
die basically for the same thing.
Eric Hoffer 1951
For one that comes with a pencil to sketch or sing, a thousand come with an axe or rifle. . . . our life should be lived as tenderly and daintily as one would pluck a flower. H.D.Thoreau "God's Own Horses"
The only reason for time is so all things don't happen at once. Einstein
There's more to life than just speeding it up. Gandi
Hell is other people. Jean-Paul Sartre
The only people who have never made a mistake are those who've
never tried something new. Unknown
. . . . And Charles VIII, sire, inspired by the same sentiments, passed that beautiful and severe ordinance which enjoined the judges to punish witches according to the exigencies of the case, under a penalty of being themselves fined or imprisoned, or dismissed from their office; and decreed, at the same time, that all persons who refused to denounce a witch, should be punished as accomplices; and that all on the contrary, who gave evidence against one should be rewarded. - "Request of the Parliament of Rouen to the King (Louis XIV)" 1670
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; [however] it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one. . . . Charles Mackay "Extrordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds"
1852
A just man's purpose cannot be split on any Grampus or material rock, but itself will split rocks until it succeeds. HDThoreau "After Shipwreck"
Often men working in one gang found that another gang was receiving less than they. Then a riot would break out . . . . President Jackson had to use federal troops to break up a gang war on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal job. Laborers from one county in Ireland fought those from another county. It was just the fighting spirit of the Irish, the contempory critics said. But these riots were of economic origin in almost every case. . . . THE COMING OF THE GREEN by Leonard Patrick O'Connor Wibberley. Selection from American Heritage Magazine August 1958
We did not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrowed it from our decendants. . . . Helen Caldicott 1992
In my book, a "pioneer" is a man who turned all the grass upside down, strung barbed wire over the [resultant] dust that was left, poisoned the water and cut down the trees, killed the Indian who owned the land and called it progress. If I had my way, the land would be like God made it, and none of you sons of bitches would be here at all . . . . Charlie Russell, cowboy artist, 1923
The environmentalists are promoting an antigrowth movement - Americans did not fight and win the wars of the 20thcentury to make the world safe for green vegetables . . . . Richard Darman, director White House Off. of Man. and Budget at Harvard 1990
They asked not what the weaknesses and abuses of the economic structure had been, and how they could be corrected, but instead paid millions to tell the public that nothing was wrong and that grave dangers lurked in . . . proposed remedies. . . .1940's Senate LaFollete committee on the NAM
When we want culture more than potatoes, and illumination more than sugarplums, then the great resources of the world are taxed and drawn out, and the result, or staple production, is, not slaves, or operatives, but men, ---- those rare fruits called heros, saints, poets, philosophers, and redeemers.
HDThoreau "Resources"
Perhaps the most important advantage of "useless" knowledge is that it promotes a contemplative habit of mind. There is in the world much too much readinesss, not only for action without adequate previous reflection, but also for some sort of action on occasions on which wisdom would counsel inaction. Bertrand Russell "Useless" Knowledge.
. . . a system which demands exceptional qualities of human beings will only be successful in exceptional cases. The badness of such a system is not disproved by the existence of rare instances in which its evils do not appear.
Bertrand Russell "Architecture and Economics"
Fascism . . . does not accept the greatest happiness of the greatest number as the right principle in statesmanship, but selects certain individuals, nations and classes as the "the best," and as alone worthy of consideration. The remainder are to compelled by force to serve the interests of the elect. Bertrand Russell "Scylla and Charybdis"
. . . if Socialist propaganda were conducted with less hate and bitterness, appealing not to envy but to the obvious need of economic organization, the task of persuasion would be enormously facilitated, and the need for force correspondingly diminished. Bertrand Russell "The Case for Socialism"
. . . since education is, in the main, controlled by the State, it has to defend the status quo, and therefore must, as far as possible, blunt the critical faculties of young people, and preserve them from "dangerous thoughts." Bertrand Russell "The Case for Socialiam"
The Romans Seem to have invented the virtue of devotion to the impersonal State as opposed to loyalty to the person of the ruler. Bertrand Russell "Western Civilization"
. . . representative government . . . . is important because it has for the first time made it possible that the government of a large empire should appear to the governed to have been chosen by themselves. Bertrand Russel "Western Civilization"
Wherever a conventional code prescribes the infliction of suffering (e.g. in the prohibition of birth control), a kindlier ethic is thought to be immoral; consequently those who allow knowledge to influence their ethics are held by the apostles of ignorance to be wicked. Bertrand Ruseell "Western Civilization"
. . . the effective religion of our age . . . consists of patriotism. The average man is willing to sacrifice his life to patriotism, and feels this moral obligation so imperative that no revolt appears to him possible. Bertrand Russell "Western Civilization"
Those who during the war averred that they were combating militarism became at its conclusion the leading militarists in their respective countries. Such facts have made it obvious to all intelligent young men that patriotism is the chief curse of our age and will bring civilization to an end if it cannot be mitigated. Bertrand Russell "On Youthful Cynicism" 1929
Those who are subject to authority become either submissive or rebellious, and each attitude has its drawbacks. . . . Thus an unduly authoritative education turns the pupils into timid tyrants, incapable of either claiming or tolerating originality in work or deed. Bertrand Russell "Education and Discipline"
. . . . believers in a future life tend to emphasize, rather than minimize, the horror that would attach to death if their beliefs were unfounded, and so to increase fear in those who do not feel absolute certainty. Bertrand Russell "Stoicism and Mental Health"
Lenny Bruce:
When I talk on stage, people often have the impression that I make up things as I go along. This isn't true I know a lot of things I want to say; I'm just not sure exactlly when I will say them. This process of allowing one subject spontaneously to associate itself with another is equivalent to James Joyce's stream of consciousness.
I think one develops a stlyle like that from talking to oneself. I don't actually talk to myself out loud -- "Hello, Lenny, how are you today?" -- rather, it's a form of thinking. And out at sea you have a lot of time to think. All day and all night I would think about all kinds of things.
Sometimes I would talk out loud up on the bow, where tons of water actually bend the shield plate. You would never figure water to be so hard that it could bend steel, but I've seen it happen.
In the spring, however, the Atlantic Ocean is very pleasant, and the trip isn't so bad. The first land you sight is a thrilling experience. I must have played Columbus hundreds of times. It was relly fun, standing those bow watches all alone. Lenny Bruce. How to Talk Dirty and Influence People. 1963
There are few offenses more heinous in the eyes of partisians than a secretly directed revolt. from "Boss" Tweed by Denis Tilden Lynch 1927
". . . the mob is an old Narcissus, adoring itself. . . " unknown
Ludlow Street Jail (NYC), being built for debtors, lacks the severity of a prison for felons, and inmates are not subjected to the rigors of prison life. Their quarters are comparatively comfortable, and those able to pay for luxuries enjoy them. Daily visits are permitted, and there is no censorship of mail, incoming or outgoing, either as to contents or quantity, and all forms of reading matter may be kept by the prisoners. The average man sent to Ludlow Street Jail has been guilty usually of only one crime -- being poor. from "Boss" Tweed by Denis Tilden
Lynch. 1927
Here's all you need to know about men and women: Women are crazy and men are stupid. And the main reason women are crazy is that men are stupid. It's not the only reason, but it's a big one. And by the way, if you don't think men are stupid, check the newspaper. Ninety-nine percent of all the truly terrifying shit going on in this world was initiated, established, perpetuated, enabled or continued by men. And that includes the wave and the high five, two of history's truly low points. George Carlin 2004
Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and [for] exposing the country to greater danger. Hermann Goering at the Nuremberg Trials
I've never seen a homeless guy with a bottle of Gatorade. George Carlin 2004
PENITENT: Bless me Father, for I have sinned. Yesterday, I killed my third priest in a month. The first time it scared me. The second time I had no feelings at all. The third time . . . I actually began to like it.
PRIEST: I'm not really a priest, son. I'm just cleaning the confessional. George Carlin 2004
Never use a hammer to smooth out the lumps on a newborn baby's head. Instead, wrap a soft clean cloth around a ten-inch length of wood and pound each lump repeatedly until the larger ones are gone and the area is smooth. Follow up by rubbing vigorously with a wire brush. Remember, never use a hammer on a child of any age, especially an infant.
George Carlin 2004
And by the way, isn't it ironic that shopping bags (and shopping carts) -- symbols of plenty -- should be the objects most preferred by people who have nothing at all? I guess if you have nothing, you need something to carry it around in. Especially if you're crazy. George Carlin 2004
I wanted to be a Boy Scout, but I had all the wrong traits. Apparently, they were looking for kids who were trustworthy, loyal, helpful, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent. Unfortunately, at that time, I was devious, fickle, obstructive, hostile, rude, mean defiant, glum, extravagant, cowardly, dirty and sacrilegious. So I waited a few years and joined the army. George Carlin 2004
I'M IN THE MORAL MINORITY
I don't think there's really such a thing as morality. I think it's a human construct designed to facilitate the control of people. Values, ethics, legal standards == all of these things are human generated, and they're lumped under some vague idea called morality. But suppose humans got it wrong? Suppose there's no actual, objective morality? Suppose there's just a natural, worldly, secular, common=sense standard of behavior whose purpose is what's best for getting along and what's best for survival? That would be a good system. Why should a system like that be overlaid with a sense of spooky, mystical, judgemental, oversight? George Carlin 2004
so much depends
upon
a red wheel
barrow
glazed with rain
water
beside the white
chickens.
-William Carlos Williams
Brian Joyce
P.O.Box 8313
East Lynn, MA 01904
Phone:
339 970 4760
email:
AncientOrderOfLonghairs@hotmail.com
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