Television is part of the American political problem, but not only for the obvious reasons. See Ebonmuse's review of Al Gore's new book, The Assault on Reason. Here's an excerpt: [T]elevision is a time- and space-limited medium with high barriers to entry, making it in its essence a medium of…
There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.TANSTAAFL.
Anybody recognize that? Where it comes from? What it refers to?
This past weekend was the 100th birthday of Robert A. Heinlein. I was not there, though I’d wanted to be. You see, Robert A. Heinlein was one of the greatest science fiction writers in the world, and when I was a child, his books informed my apprehension of just about everything. It might be questioned whether one man deserves the kind of press Heinlein gets. Even when he was alive (he passed away in 1988) he was controversial but there were still many places you could walk into where not a soul would know who he was. I think he’s important because, in a way, he made modern America.
What? A science fiction writer? Made America?
Such a statement demands clarification.
A biography is soon to be out by a gentleman named Bill Patterson. You can read it, read about the man who once wore the title “The Dean of Space Age Fiction”, and judge for yourself. I won’t go into huge detail about his life or work here. I want to make a smaller, more pointed observation.
In 33 novels and a significant number of short stories, Robert A. Heinlein established a didactic approach to science fiction that has been copied, improved, debated, revered, and hated since he began his career in 1938. Heinlein was born in Missouri. He graduated from Annapolis. He received a medical discharge from …
Long before political Bush-bashing became popular, or even widely accepted, critics still jabbed him repeatedly for his speech. Books of "Bushisms", videos of Bush's misspeakings spliced together, and comedic reproductions of the man's halting, confused language have always dominated the pop culture reception of the President. I use the word…
If you Google “Paris Hilton Jail” you’ll get 15 million hits. If you Google “Downing Street Memo” you'll get only 800,000 hits. A terrifying real-world topic, “Greenland ice sheet,” will only return 900,000 hits. I suppose it’s because there are no videos of memos or glaciers having sex. What brought…
I collect my favorites from various sources, though I was reminded of many of these quotes by The Quotations Page (which offers quotes of the day). There is a condensed book in every good quote:
Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it.
Mahatma Gandhi (1869 – 1948)
With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.
Steven Weinberg (1933 – ), quoted in The New York Times, April 20, 1999
I’ve always found paranoia to be a perfectly defensible position.
Pat Conroy (1945 – )
It’s not a matter of whether or not someone’s watching over you. It’s just a question of their intentions.
Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive, 03-24-07
In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.
Johann von Neumann (1903 – 1957)
It has been my experience that folks who have no vices have very few virtues.
Abraham Lincoln (1809 – 1865)
To do just the opposite is also a form of imitation.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742 – 1799)
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway (1899 – 1961)
Men have become the tools of their tools.
Henry David Thoreau (1817 – 1862)
Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.
Einstein
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.…