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Posts Tagged ‘quotes’


more meme than you require

“Goddamn this war”, he muttered, pulling off his presidential surgical gloves.
~ More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

NOTE: This appeared on page 293 as this book begins on page the book begins on page 237, and I didn’t go for the funny bok, I actually was reading this book in bed last night.

Book meme:

- Grab the nearest book.
- Open it to page 56.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

via Leah Culver who got it from Eric Florenzano’s Blog

11.13.08 read more

why the passing of proposition 8 was a good thing

no on prop 8If you know me, chances are you will look at the headline of this posting and wonder what happened to me to make me believe that the expression of h8te was a good thing. Well the answer is I have seen the last few days in my state. In the aftermath of something as wrong as proposition 8’s passage I have seen a mass of humanity mobilized in a mixture of fear, disgust and disappointment.

“without struggle there is no progress” ~ Frederick DouglassFriends who have never registered to vote, peers who have never spoken up on anything related to current events or politics, and those with political perspectives the opposite of my own have all spoken up in some manner against enshrining hate in our state’s constitution.

So that is why I believe the passing of this proposition was a good thing, sure I would give anything to have seen the proposition defeated and I honestly weeped at it’s passage, at least something positive has grown out of something so wrong.

We have seen marches in all corners of this state and marches in other states. Young, old, gay, straight, republican and democrat and independent alike have all marched in the days after this election to denounce this proposition’s passage.

In the aftermath of something so wrong, this movement for equality and yes change, has dusted itself off and only grown larger, you see I was complacent, possibly like you were. I looked at the polls and looked inwards at myself and believed the rejection of proposition 8 was only days away. I watched the exit polls showing an Obama victory on election night and assumed to have a huge victory at hand.

That was until just after Obama’s speech and I saw the results start to flow in and reality began to set in. While some exulted in the glow of the election of the first black president, others simply could not, while the nation took one gigantic step forward, my state also took a bigger step back.

Even with this step back though, my hope for the future only grows. I look at the exit polling, and I see hope. I compare the results of proposition 22 in 2000, a similarly themed proposition tossed out by the courts, and the results of proposition 8, and I see the tide slowly turning. Most of all however I look at the youth vote, a segment I still call my own and I see true change. Just over 60% of those under 29 voted against the marriage ban, a number we can only hope to see increase.

Change never comes easy in this country, but change is coming to this state and eventually in this country. In my grandmothers lifetime she has seen a world war, the end of segregation, and the fall of a superpower, and now the first black president, so don’t tell her we can’t change.

There is no legally or morally justifiable reason to not extend the right of marriage to all couples, hate and intolerance has a short life span in this country, it is only a matter of time.

11.08.08 read more

Kucinich gets the bail out

The $700 billion bailout for Wall Street, is driven by fear not fact. This is too much money in too a short a time going to too few people while too many questions remain unanswered. Why aren’t we having hearings on the plan we have just received? Why aren’t we questioning the underlying premise of the need for a bailout with taxpayers’ money? Why have we not considered any alternatives other than to give $700 billion to Wall Street? Why aren’t we asking Wall Street to clean up its own mess? Why aren’t we passing new laws to stop the speculation, which triggered this? Why aren’t we putting up new regulatory structures to protect investors? How do we even value the $700 billion in toxic assets?

Why aren’t we helping homeowners directly with their debt burden? Why aren’t we helping American families faced with bankruptcy. Why aren’t we reducing debt for Main Street instead of Wall Street? Isn’t it time for fundamental change in our debt based monetary system, so we can free ourselves from the manipulation of the Federal Reserve and the banks? Is this the United States Congress or the board of directors of Goldman Sachs? Wall Street is a place of bears and bulls. It is not smart to force taxpayers to dance with bears or to follow closely behind the bulls.

As usual Rep. Kucinich gets it, we just don’t get him.

Originally on commondreams.org

09.30.08 read more

business week on the candidates economic policies

I have deeply held beliefs about Obama, however I will leave my ranting out of it and simply leave it to Business Week to lay out this about the plans on the economy that are put forth by McCain and Obama.

Len Burman, a former Treasury tax official who is now a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, says if Obama’s proposals—which include plans to rescind the Bush tax cuts on couples making more than $250,000, close corporate tax loopholes, and tax private equity earnings known as “carried interest” as ordinary income—were adopted in 2009, for example, married couples with earnings in the lowest quintile of the population would see their aftertax income rise 5.8%. Those in the next quintile would see an increase of 4%. Those breaks would be paid for by those with high incomes: the top 1% of taxpayers would see aftertax income fall 8.4%.

Under McCain’s proposals, by contrast—including an extension of the Bush tax cuts for all taxpayers, a corporate tax cut, and a larger reduction in estate taxes than Obama would support—far more of the benefits would go to the top. If his plans went into effect in 2009, married couples in the bottom fifth of the population would see aftertax income go up just 0.2%, while those in the next quintile would see a 0.7% hike. But those in the top quintile would see a bump up in aftertax income of 2.7%.

The complete article can be found here and dugg here

09.06.08 read more

Sacrificing freedom for safety

“The civil libertarians among us would rather defend the constitution than protect our nation’s security.”

That wouldn’t be terribly alarming if it came from the likes of Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity or others of that ilk like Rush Limbaugh but no it came from United States senator Jeff Sessions from Alabama in regards to the debate surrounding the FISA bill before the senate.

Now I will keep myself from going on a rant and just finish this post with a merging of a couple famous quotes from great historical figures.

We can not defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home, if we give up a little of our freedom for a little safety we will have neither ultimately.

If you don’t know what FISA is, then get educated from @ wiki

Oh and thanks digg, and thanks UnamericanRevolution

12.17.07 read more

without struggle there is no progress

Since when is ignorance a valid reason to not answer a question?

We have a president who almost seems to celebrate his ignorance why can’t others?

I say that in jest of course, because say what you will about the president, he has many faults, but he is hardly ignorant.

Still though I digress this isn’t about him, this is about you, or more precisely, those around you.  We all have friends, who theres certain topics you wouldn’t talk about to.  It just happened with me and the president of Iran speaking to Colombia Law School.  There are a number of valid reasons for him to both be allowed to speak and to also be stopped from espousing his views on campus.  It was then that another friend contacted me and rather than continue this topic with that friend I had to stop then due to the fact that honestly they always appear ignorant on foreign affairs and news as a whole.

And isn’t that something this country should condemn, and not encourage?  Instead of celebrating someones knowledge of Hollywood why not condemn their lack of intelligence about the world around them.

I did just now what I am despising so I will admit I am a hypocrite on this but I would bet most are, and we need to change that.  I love my country but at times I feel surrounded by millions of morons, and I hate to say that but its true.

We need to emphasize knowledge in our schools, fail a kid if he’s not up to par, sometimes the best thing for a student is adversity and if its not, well not everyone is a genius, and its time to admit that.  In my educational experience we allow the lowest common denominator to dominate, we teach to the person with the lowest IQ rather than force him or her (usually him) to catch up or take a remedial course and that is wrong.  At times I am the brightest student in the room, others definitely not, but we need to be willing to admit that.

The gift of knowledge is one of the greatest gifts one could receive (cliche much?), we need to spread that gift of knowledge, but in relevant topics.  At one time those using the public airwaves had to serve more than their advertisers and stock holders, they had to serve the public interest, we need to revive that.

In order to better ourselves, our environment, our friends and each other, this acceptance of ignorance needs to stop.  Watch the news, read a newspaper, speak to a friend, and above all else become informed and create your own opinions.  Lastly vote, people died for you to have that right, use it.

09.24.07 read more
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