June 2011
May 2011
“Have you ever noticed that the only metaphor we have in our public discourse for solving problems is to declare war on it? We have the war on crime, the war on cancer, the war on drugs. But did you ever notice that we have no war on homelessness? You know why? Because there’s no money in that problem. No money to be made off of the homeless. If you can find a solution to homelessness where the corporations and politicians can make a few million dollars each, you will see the streets of America begin to clear up pretty damn quick!”
—George Carlin (via loveyourchaos)
Whitey On the Moon
Scott-Heron, Gil
Gil Scott-Heron — Whitey On the Moon
50 Quotes of Albert Einstein →
centeredlibrarian.blogspot.com
- “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
- “Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
- “Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love.”
- “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.”
- “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
- “The only real valuable thing is intuition.”
- “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
- “Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character.”
- “I never think of the future. It comes soon enough.”
- “The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility.”
- “Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing.”
- “Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
- “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
- “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
- “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
- “Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one’s living at it.”
- “The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources.”
- “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
- “The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking.”
- “Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological criminal.”
- “Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.”
- “The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.”
- “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
- “Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.”
- “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.”
- “Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.”
- “Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present, but an equation is something for eternity.”
- “If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut.”
- “Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure about the the universe.”
- “As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”
- “Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.”
- “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.”
- “In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above all, be a sheep.”
- “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
- “Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves.”
- “Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism — how passionately I hate them!”
- “No, this trick won’t work…How on earth are you ever going to explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love?”
- “My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.”
- “Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever.”
- “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking…the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.”
- “Great spirits have always found violent opposition from mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and courageously uses his intelligence.”
- “The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
- “Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.”
- “You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat.”
- “One had to cram all this stuff into one’s mind for the examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific problems distasteful to me for an entire year.”
- “…one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness, from the fetters of one’s own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective perception and thought.”
- “He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.”
- “A human being is a part of a whole, called by us ‘universe’, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest… a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.”
- “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.”
Compiled by: Kevin Harris 1995
That’s 49 actually.
“I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and bid defiance to the laws of our country.”
—Thomas Jefferson, 1816 letter to George Logan. (via letterstomycountry)
Top Ten Craziest Things Said by Glenn Beck →
madmikesamerica.com
10. “God is giving a plan I think to me that is not really a plan. The problem is that I think the plan that the Lord would have us follow is hard for people to understand. Because of my track record with you who have been here for a long time. Because of my track record with you, I beg of you to help me get this message out, and I beg of you to pray for clarity on my part.”
– April 20, 20109. “I don’t think we came from monkeys. I think that’s ridiculous. I haven’t seen a half-monkey, half-person yet.”
– May 18, 20108. “I know the progressives are using progressive tactics. They’re not using Nazi tactics. The real answer is the Nazis were using early American progressive tactics. And that’s not my opinion, that’s historic fact.”
– Jan. 20, 20117. “You know, we all have our inner demons. I, for one – I can’t speak for you, but I’m on the verge of moral collapse at any time. It can happen by the end of the show.”
– Nov. 6, 20066. “This president I think has exposed himself over and over again as a guy who has a deep-seated hatred for white people or the white culture. I’m not saying he doesn’t like white people, I’m saying he has a problem. This guy is, I believe, a racist.”
– July 28, 20095. ”There are a lot of universities that are as dangerous with the indoctrination of the children as terrorists are in Iran or North Korea. We have been setting up reeducation camps. We call them universities.”
– Sept. 1, 20104. “I’m thinking about killing Michael Moore, and I’m wondering if I could kill him myself, or if I would need to hire somebody to do it. No, I think I could. I think he could be looking me in the eye, you know, and I could just be choking the life out. Is this wrong? I stopped wearing my What Would Jesus — band — Do, and I’ve lost all sense of right and wrong now.”
– May 17, 20053. “The only [Katrina victims] we’re seeing on television are the scumbags.”
– Sept. 9, 20052. “You know, it took me about a year to start hating the 9/11 victims’ families. It took me about a year. Just like, oh, shut up. I’m so sick of them because they’re always complaining. […] I didn’t think I could hate victims faster than the 9/11 victims.”
– Sept. 9, 20051. “They [Democrats in Congress] believe in communism. They believe and have called for a revolution. You’re going to have to shoot them in the head. But warning, they may shoot you.”
– June 9, 2010
Play
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According to the Citizens for Tax Justice, if the Bush tax breaks for the top 2 percent are extended, these are some of the people who will benefit and what kind of benefits they will receive: Rupert Murdoch, the CEO of News Corp, would receive a $1.3 million tax break next year. Mr. Murdoch is a billionaire. Do we really think he needs that? Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase, is doing just fine. Vikram Pandit, the CEO of Citigroup, the bank that got a $50 billion bailout, would receive $785,000 in tax breaks. Ken Lewis, the former CEO of Bank of America - a bank that got a $45 billion bailout - the guy is already fabulously wealthy - would receive a $713,000 tax break. The CEO of Wells Fargo; these are the largest banks in America, the CEO of these banks are already making huge compensation. John Stumpf, who is the CEO of Wells Fargo, would receive a $318,000 tax break every single year. The CEO of Morgan Stanley, John Mack, whose bank got a $10 billion bailout, would receive a $926,000 a year tax break. The CEO of Aetna, Ronald Williams, would receive a tax break worth $875,000.
I constrast that, as I did earlier, to the fact that two days ago, the Presiding Officer and I and a total of 53 members of the Senate said, you know, maybe we should provide a $250 check this year to seniors on Social Security and to disabled vets because they haven’t gotten a COLA for two years - a $250 check. People making $14,000, $15,000 a year desperately need a little bit of help. We couldn’t get one Republican vote. But when it comes to the CEO of a major bank who is already a multimillionaire - we are talking about $6 million, $7 million, $8 million a year in tax breaks… this is not what we should be doing as a nation.
Furthermore, I know President Obama and others have said, Well, let’s not worry, because these tax breaks are just temporary - just temporary. They are only going to be given for two years. I have been in Washington long enough to know that when you give a temporary tax break for two years, you are, in fact, given a long-term tax break or maybe even a permanent tax break. Because two years from now, the same arguments will be made: if you do away with those tax breaks for the rich, you are raising taxes. Do you want to raise taxes, a terrible thing to do? That same argument will be made.
But there is one difference. The difference is that when President Obama ran for President and since he has been President, he has time and time again come out against those tax breaks. He does not believe in them. I believe him, and I know that he doesn’t. But if he is the Democratic candidate for President and he says: Reelect me to be President because in the future I am going to really get rid of these tax breaks, I am afraid his credibility is not very high because that is what he said last time. I guess there is a limit as to how many times you can cry wolf.
” —Senator Bernie Sanders. December 10, 2010. (via pantslessprogressive)