New batch of quotes

I collect my quotes from many sources. When I have about a dozen favorites, I publish them at this website. This is where you'll find hundreds more of my favorites. “Holding onto anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” ~ Buddha "The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." Utah Phillips And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.” Thomas Jefferson – May 28 1816 Letter to john Taylor. http://www.snopes.com/quotes/jefferson/banks.asp All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law; directors should not be permitted to use stockholders' money for such purposes; and, moreover, a prohibition of this kind would be, as far as it went, an effective method of stopping the evils aimed at in corrupt practices acts. Not only should both the National and the several State Legislatures forbid any officer of a corporation from using the money of the corporation in or about any election, but they should also forbid such use of money in connection with any legislation save by the employment of counsel in public manner for distinctly legal services. Theodore Roosevelt “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.” Plato "Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand." Bodie Thoene “Ten people who speak make more noise than ten thousand who are silent.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte "If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -James Madison You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do. Anne Lamott “We’ve bought into the idea that education is about training and “success”, defined monetarily, rather than learning to think critically and to challenge. We should not forget that the true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers. A culture that does not grasp the vital interplay between morality and power, which mistakes management techniques for wisdom, which fails to understand that the measure of a civilization is its compassion, not its speed or ability to consume, condemns itself to death.” ― Chris Hedges, Empire of Illusion: The End of Literacy and the Triumph of Spectacle “Throw off your worries when you throw off your clothes at night.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by stupidity. Unknown, Hanlon's Razor “Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don't really matter.” ― Francis Chan, Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God Libertarianism: (noun) One who believers that oppression is best handled by the private sector. Anon "When the white man came we had the land and they had the Bible. They taught us to pray with our eyes closed and when we opened them, they had the land and we had the Bible." Jomo Kenyatta (1889 - 1978), prime minister of Kenya, “Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet. Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.” ― Napoleon Bonaparte "In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane." - Oscar Wild Science is arranging experience in the most economical way. Ernst Mach

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Leaking information to the public now appears to be a federal crime.

Glenn Greenwald comments on some disturbing information recently obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request.

It seems clear that the US military now deems any leaks of classified information to constitute the capital offense of "aiding the enemy" or "communicating with the enemy" even if no information is passed directly to the "enemy" and there is no intent to aid or communicate with them. Merely informing the public about classified government activities now constitutes this capital crime because it "indirectly" informs the enemy. The implications of this theory are as obvious as they are disturbing. If someone can be charged with "aiding" or "communicating with the enemy" by virtue of leaking to WikiLeaks, then why wouldn't that same crime be committed by someone leaking classified information to any outlet: the New York Times, the Guardian, ABC News or anyone else? In other words, does this theory not inevitably and necessarily make all leaking of all classified information - whether to WikiLeaks or any media outlet - a capital offense: treason or a related crime?

Continue ReadingLeaking information to the public now appears to be a federal crime.

U.S. drones raining terror from the skies over Pakistan: Your tax dollars at work

We are our own worst enemy with regard to the way we use armed drones. We are refusing to acknowledge the damage being done to the U.S. given our indiscriminate use of these weapons. This new article at Huffpo gives some details:

A new study . . . contends that the U.S. use of drones to target suspected militants in Pakistan has had a "damaging and counterproductive effect" on the country and has killed far more civilians than previously acknowledged . . . Working with the activist group Reprieve, the team of professors have added to the growing body of literature that argues, contrary to Obama administration claims, that numerous civilians have been killed, and many more traumatized, by the drone strike program. "Drones hover 24 hours a day over communities in northwest Pakistan, striking homes, vehicles and public spaces without warning," the report said. "Those living under drones have to face the constant worry that a deadly strike may be fired at any moment, and the knowledge that they are powerless to protect themselves." Relying on data compiled by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the study's authors say that between 2,562 and 3,325 people have been killed in Pakistan since June 2004, and between 474 and 881 of them were civilians.

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Pediatricians warn about trampoline use

Sure, I chuckled at the episode of the Simpsons where hundreds of neighborhood children were injured on Bart's trampoline, in a scene reminiscent of "Gone with the Wind." But how dangerous are trampolines? It turns out that they are quite dangerous.

Trampolines are too dangerous for children to use, the American Academy of Pediatrics said Monday. Citing nearly 100,000 injuries in 2009, the academy issued the warning  in a statement published in Pediatrics and noted that  the safety nets added in recent years don’t make much of a difference.

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