In this video from 1961, President Dwight Eisenhower explained the grave implications of the existence of the military industrial complex. In my opinion, he was spot on in this speech (which was his exit speech from the presidency), and this phenomenon of the MEC explains the horrifically warped U.S. national budget and our equally warped sense of national priorities for decades:
Here are some terrific video clips of President Eisenhower and, more recently, of former Alaskan Senator Mike Gravel. As Gravel plainly states, no president since Eisenhower has dared to talk about the elephant in the room, the military industrial complex. Our leaders rarely speak of it because it has so…
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.…
