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Some good ones from the most recent Bits & Pieces, a wonderful little booklet published 14 times a year by the Economics Press:
The commonest fallacy among women is that simply having children makes one a mother--which is as absurd as believing that having a piano makes one a musician. -- Sydney J. HarrisAnd:
An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made in a very narrow field. -- Neils Bohr
The following is my all-time favorite Bits & Pieces quote. I saw it long ago, and it has stayed with me ever since:
Fear knocked at the door.
Love answered.
Noone was there.
Michael "Lance" Newby of My Cluttered Desk is back on-line after over two weeks of vacation. Welcome back, Lance. I missed you.
What happens when your soul
Begins to awaken
Your eyes
And your heart
And the cells of your body
To the great Journey of Love?
First there is wonderful laughter
And probably precious tears
And a hundred sweet promises
And those heroic vows
No one can ever keep.
But still God is delighted and amused
You once tried to be a saint.
What happens when your soul
Begins to awake in this world
To our deep need to love
And serve the Friend?
O the Beloved
Will send you
One of His wonderful, wild companions ~
Like Hafiz.
I Heard God Laughing -- Daniel Ladinsky
Ann Kellan at CNN - Company aims to preserve Web history: a short article on Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive. Haven't seen Brewster in the news in a while. When I worked at Thinking Machines (no longer in business, think.com is now an Oracle web site), Brewster used to come up behind me while I was hacking and give me a vigorous shoulder massage. He was a joy to work for. I helped build the circuit design language that Brewster and company used to design the CM-2. TMC had 30+ Symbolics Lisp Machines, named after saints. Originally, the Connection Machines were named after Gods, but the marketing department nixed that idea when they discovered that one of the 5-foot high black cubes was named Ba'al. Hi, Brewster. [xray]
Carlo Stagnaro and Daniel D. New at Laissez Faire City Times - Michael New: a Refusal to Obey Orders: Michael New was court-martialed for refusing to wear a U.N. uniform. His case is being appealed to the highest military court, where there is a good chance that the original court-martial will be overturned. This article is an interview with Mr. New's father, the author of the book Michael New: Mercenary ... or American Soldier?
AP via Boston.com - Bronx restaurant owner serves Giuliani a cold shoulder: A Bronx restaurateur refused to take a reservation for Herr Rudy. Good for him. [unknown]
Samuel L. Blumenfeld at WorldNetDaily - Gatto get new book on education: a review of John Taylor Gatto's new book, The Underground History of American Education: A Schoolteacher's Intimate Investigation Into the Problem of Modern Schooling. Not yet available from a major publisher, but see below for instructions on getting the pre-publication edition. [wnd]
John sent me a pre-publication edition in May, and it has taken me weeks to read all of it. And you have to read it all, because you just don't want to miss a word. That's the way John writes, as if he's standing next to you and talking into your ear. And then, I shall probably read it over and over again. It's a breathtaking, sweeping view of what compulsory schooling has done to America....
Growth and mastery come only to those who vigorously self-direct. Initiating, creating, doing, reflecting, freely associating, enjoying privacy -- these are precisely what the structures of schooling are set up to prevent, on one pretext or another.
...
Much of the weird behavior kids display is a function of the periodic reinforcement schedule. And the endless confinement and inactivity slowly drives children out of their minds. Trapped children, like trapped rats, need close management. Any rat psychologist will tell you that.
...
If you want to get the pre-publication edition of the book, send $30.00 plus $4.00 shipping to: Odysseus Group, 295 East 87th Street, New York, NY 10009. In a letter to me, John wrote, "The official edition will be out next January, probably severely shortened, and likely by then to be picked up by a mainstream publisher. But this one is the way I wrote it." So get this uncut version in all its brilliance.
Cletus Nelson at disinformation - Silencing Dissent: The Global Information War: More on the recent proposal by Pino Arlacchi, who fronts the UN International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), to censor drug information. [wnd]
The worldwide effort to eliminate recreational drugs is quickly reaching a new nadir; not only does the prohibition cartel control our bodies, it will soon control our minds.
Freeman Dyson at Edge - Progress in Religion: I read the article I pointed at yesterday. This link is to the print-ready all-in-one version. I haven't formed an opinion on the following. I am pulled both ways. My gut tells me that playing with human genes is likely not a good idea. My head tells me that prohibition doesn't work.
A few weeks ago I was attending Mass in St. Stephen's church in England. In Princeton I am presbyterian, but in England I am catholic because I go to Mass with my sister. The reading from the gospel of St. Matthew told of the angry Jesus driving the merchants and money-changers out of the temple, knocking over the tables of the money-changers and spilling their coins on the floor. Jesus was not opposed to capitalism and the profit motive, so long as economic activities were carried on outside the temple. In the parable of the talents, he praises the servant who used his master's money to make a profitable investment, and condemns the servant who was too timid to invest. But he draws a clear line at the temple door. Inside the temple, the ground belongs to God and profit-making must stop.While I was listening to the reading, I was thinking how Jesus's anger might extend to free markets in human bodies and human genes. In the time of Jesus and for many centuries afterwards, there was a free market in human bodies. The institution of slavery was based on the legal right of slave-owners to buy and sell their property in a free market. Only in the nineteenth century did the abolitionist movement, with Quakers and other religious believers in the lead, succeed in establishing the principle that the free market does not extend to human bodies. The human body is God's temple and not a commercial commodity. And now in the twenty-first century, for the sake of equity and human brotherhood, we must maintain the principle that the free market does not extend to human genes. Let us hope that we can reach a consensus on this question without fighting another civil war. Scientists and religious believers and physicians and lawyers must come together with mutual respect, to achieve a consensus and to decide where the line at the door of the temple should be drawn.
Competitive Enterprise Institute - CEI Unveils New Personal Global Climate Forecasting Model: It's The Official CEI Global Warming Pen. Two spheres on the end of the pen are connected by a channel with a heat-sensitive liquid inside. Hold the bottom to simulate global warming. When the "science" flip-flops again, hold the top to simulate global cooling. Remember those bobbing birds? Same physics, different marketing. Hehe. [market]
Lindsay Perigo's Politically Incorrect Show - 10 July, 2000: During his five week vacation, Lindsay converted to socialism. Not. Today he rants against the tyranny of democracy, quoting Mel Gibson's line from the beginning of The Patriot: "What is the difference between one tyrant 3000 miles away & 3000 tyrants one mile away?" Welcome back, Lindsay.
On Jefferson's memorial are quoted his words, "I have pledged eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the minds of men." I echo that pledge today - and direct it especially against that most insidious form of tyranny, mob rule.
