random quotes ... to amuse, inspire, enrage:
All who are not lunatics are agreed about certain things. That it is better to be alive than dead, better to be adequately fed than starved, better to be free than a slave. Many people desire those things only for themselves and their friends; they are quite content that their enemies should suffer. These people can be refuted by science: Humankind has become so much one family that we cannot insure our own prosperity except by insuring that of everyone else. If you wish to be happy yourself, you must resign yourself to seeing others also happy.
tagged: happiness, justice
—Bertrand Russell
Archive for August, 2008
Monday, August 18th, 2008
optical communicationsPeter Dizikes writes about a number of right-wing myths about oilландшафт in today’s Salon.com.
Unbelievably enough, there are people who believe:
# There’s more oil in Alaska than in the Middle East
# The Chinese are about to start drilling — or are already drilling — off the coast of Florida (the Cuba/China menace — Russia/Cuba [...]
Tagged
environment,
anti-environmentalism, denialism, oil, right-wing.
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400 views |
1 Comment »
Saturday, August 16th, 2008
It’s like they just cut and paste the weather forecast — every goddamn day.
WEATHER FORECAST
This Afternoon…Mostly cloudy with a slight chance of showers and thunderstorms early…then partly sunny with showers and thunderstorms likely. Some thunderstorms may produce frequent lightning and small hail…then some thunderstorms may produce gusty winds…frequent lightning and small hail. Highs in [...]
Tagged
personal,
bitching, Boston, weather.
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221 views |
No Comments »
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
So this flight attendant is suing a televangelist who assaulted her, and in addition to emotional damages and hemorrhoids, the flight attendant is claiming she is owed damages for loss of faith. Broadsheet, Salon.com, 8/8.
Obviously the First Amendment is going to pose real problems for the plaintiff — American courts establishing a monetary value [...]
Tagged
religion,
litigation, religion, televangelists, tort law.
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230 views |
No Comments »
Friday, August 1st, 2008
This article (”Dark Night for Bats”, Kirsten Weir, Salon.com) compares the current wave of bat deaths with bees’ colony collapse disorder. I’d add the precipitous decline in frogs, as well.
Tagged
environment,
bats, bees, environment, frogs, hell in a handbasket, science.
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248 views |
No Comments »