Quotation of the day for December 17, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for December 17, 2016 "In the late 1980s, the satirical New York magazine Spy - perhaps the greatest periodical in the history of the universe - took as its main target a local blowhard real estate developer, Donald Trump. It began referring to him as "short-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump".... In 1989, Spy gave Mr. Trump five spots on its annual list of 100 Most Annoying People, Places and Things. "You'd think Mr. Trump might have moved on in the past 30 years. I mean, that's a lot of gilt under the bridge. And really, he will soon ascend to the White House, thanks to a couple of cloaks placed over mud puddles by his gallant friends in the Kremlin. If ever there is a perch to be magnanimous from, it's that one. But magnanimity does not seem to be part of Mr. Trump's cosmos. "Mr. Trump has not been able to let it go. The derision of his digits makes him crazy. At one of the Republican presidential nominee debates, gently goaded by Marco Rubio, he burst into a furious defence of his hands - and by extension, the unseen part of his anatomy (no, not his heart. He couldn't very well defend the size of that)." - Elizabeth Renzetti, in her essay "Go ahead, laugh: Humour is the weapon in the fight against Trump". [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/go-ahead-laugh-humour-is-the-weapon-in-the-fight-against-trump/article33356471/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Dec. 17, 2016

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Quotation of the day for December 11, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for December 11, 2016 "Perhaps no civic organization has shown its resilience in the face of all odds more than the Drunken Santas, a tight-knit group of New Orleanians who, after a round of drinking games at Madigan's bar one night in 1998, decided to take an activist role in the holidays rather than sit around getting soused by themselves. "So they decided to get soused with others. Spreading the cheer is their aim. So they dress up in Santa costumes (or skimpier facsimiles thereof for the female members of this organization, the Ho-Ho-Hos) and they charter a fleet of limos and they pub-crawl. "These guys are right up there with the Salvation Army and Rex when it comes to giving back to the community this time of year. As Ho-Ho-Ho Natasha Daniel put it, "We have a good time. We push people into garbage piles. Make them take shots with us. You know: all the reindeer games." "Now, I realize that at this point in the story the eyes of the righteous are rolling. Wait until they hear about this in Congress, I hear you saying. Now they're never going to give us that $2 billion we need to rebuild New Orleans." - Chris Rose, from his memoir of post-Katrina New Orleans, 1 Dead in Attic. Submitted by: Terry Labach May 13, 2016

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Quotation of the day for December 1, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for December 1, 2016 "This generally has been called the "hate election" because everyone professed to hate both candidates. It turned out to be the hate election because, and let's not mince words, of the hatefulness of the electorate. In the years to come, we will brace for the violence, the anger, the racism, the misogyny, the xenophobia, the nativism, the white sense of grievance that will undoubtedly be unleashed now that we have destroyed the values that have bound us. We all knew these hatreds lurked under the thinnest veneer of civility. That civility finally is gone. "We all knew these hatreds lurked under the thinnest veneer of civility. That civility finally is gone. In its absence, we may realize just how imperative that politesse was. It is the way we managed to coexist. "If there is a single sentence that characterizes the election, it is this: "He says the things I'm thinking." That may be what is so terrifying. Who knew that so many tens of millions of white Americans were thinking unconscionable things about their fellow Americans? Who knew that tens of millions of white men felt so emasculated by women and challenged by minorities? Who knew that after years of seeming progress on race and gender, tens of millions of white Americans lived in seething resentment, waiting for a demagogue to arrive who would legitimize their worst selves and channel them into political power? Perhaps we had been living in a fool's paradise. Now we aren't." - Neal Gabler, in his essay Farewell, America. [http://billmoyers.com/story/farewell-america/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 30, 2016

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Quotation of the day for November 30, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for November 30, 2016 "Mr. Trump should have laughed off the recount in Wisconsin as a quixotic waste of time from a defeated opponent. Instead, he is treating the matter as a personal affront. How, then, will he react if tensions rise in the South China sea, the Baltics or the Middle East? "It is as though we are all trapped in an abusive relationship with the next U.S. president." - John Ibbitson [http://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/the-two-sides-of-trump/article33083881/] Submitted by: Glenda Wall Nov. 28, 2016

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Quotation of the day for November 17, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for November 17, 2016 "But what we've learned so far about the least-experienced President-elect in history is as troubling and ominous as his critics have feared. The Greeks have a word for the emerging Trump Administration: kakistocracy. The American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a "government by the least qualified or most unprincipled citizens." Webster's is simpler: "government by the worst people." - Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for The New Yorker, in "Donald Trump's First, Alarming Week as President-Elect", November 16, 2016. [http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/donald-trumps-first-alarming-week-as-president-elect] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 17, 2016

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Quotation of the day for November 9, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for November 9, 2016 "It's hard to be a parent tonight for a lot of us. You tell your kids, 'Don't be a bully.' You tell your kids, 'Don't be a bigot.' You tell your kids, 'Do your homework and be prepared.' Then you have this outcome, and you have people putting children to bed tonight and they're afraid of breakfast. They're afraid of, 'How do I explain this to my children?'" - Van Jones, CNN analyst, on Donald Trump's election victory. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 9, 2016

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Quotation of the day for November 5, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for November 5, 2016 "I recently offered to tutor Donald Trump on nuclear matters. To put things clearly, I went on his website and in the place where you could send comments, I began mine by saying that on these things he did not seem to know his ass from a wheel. I felt that as a person who seems to like straight talk he might appreciate my candor. I then went on to say that while I was not a supporter I would, as a physicist, be willing to tutor him so he would have a clearer understanding of the issue. I have not heard back and the interviews he gave on March 26 to two New York Times reporters--the transcript is available online--show that my services are badly needed." - Jeremy Bernstein, on the Republican presidential candidate's nuclear ignorance. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/05/12/the-trump-bomb/] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Nov. 4, 2016

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Quotation of the day for October 28, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for October 28, 2016 "Once an unstoppable phenomenon who had the media eating out of his controversial-size hands, Trump, in the space of a few hours, had become the mother of all pop-culture villains, a globally despised cross of Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Charlie Sheen and Satan." - Matt Taibbi, "The Fury and Failure of Donald Trump", Rolling Stone 10/14/2016 [http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/the-fury-and-failure-of-donald-trump-w444943] Submitted by: Dorene Smith Oct. 14, 2016

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Quotation of the day for October 15, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for October 15, 2016 "I totally get the Nobel committee. Reading books is hard." - Gary Shteyngart, writer, commenting on Twitter about musician Bob Dylan being awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. [https://twitter.com/Shteyngart/status/786539556594003972] Submitted by: Terry Labach Oct. 14, 2016

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Quotation of the day for October 14, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for October 14, 2016 "The essence of a libel claim, of course, is the protection of one's reputation. Mr. Trump has bragged about his non-consensual sexual touching of women. He has bragged about intruding on beauty contestants in their dressing rooms. He acquiesced to a radio host's request to discuss Mr. Trump's own daughter as a "piece of ass." Multiple women not mentioned in our article have publicly come forward to report on Mr. Trump's unwanted advances. Nothing in our article has had the slightest effect on the reputation that Mr. Trump, through his own words and actions, has already created for himself." - David McCraw, New York Times general counsel, from an October 13, 2016 letter to Marc Kasowitz, the lawyer for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Kasowitz, had complained about the New York Times printing further accounts of Trump's sexual predation. [http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/13/media/new-york-times-response-donald-trump/index.html?iid=EL] Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Oct. 13, 2016

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Quotation of the day for October 13, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for October 13, 2016 "The guy says stuff nobody would find tolerable if they were applying for a job at 7-Eleven." - Barack Obama, U.S. President, on Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, 10/11/2016. Submitted by: Dorene Smith Oct. 12, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 28, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 28, 2016 AMY GOODMAN: How much have you interacted with him? He's got a lot of names for you. GARRY TRUDEAU: No, I've observed him in the wild numerous occasions, most recently at the New Hampshire debates. He came out into the press area, and I could not take my eyes off the back of his head. It is something that photography just can't quite capture. It's like a panel of gossamer that has been lacquered onto the back of his head with a kind of golden slurry. And I wanted to find the words or the imagery to share that with my readers, but really drawing Trump is a journey. It's not a destination. You just have to keep after it. - Garry Trudeau, 'Doonesbury' cartoonist, on drawing Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, in an interview with Amy Goodman. [http://www.democracynow.org/2016/8/5/30_years_of_doonesbury_on_donald] Submitted by: Terry Labach Sep. 27, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 17, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 17, 2016 "Imagination and sentiment, which quite properly delimit the dimensions of the novelist's realm, are a dangerous medium, however, through which to approach the subject of battle. Indeed, in that sub-world of imaginative writing which Gillian Freeman has called the undergrowth of literature, calculated indulgence in imagination and sentiment have produced, and regrettably continue to produce, some very nasty stuff indeed, which at its Zap-Blatt-Banzai-Gott im Himmel-Bayonet in the guts worst may justifiably be condemned by that overworked phrase, 'pornography of violence'." - John Keegan, historian, in The Face Of Battle. Submitted by: Terry Labach Sep. 15, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 16, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 16, 2016 "And so it's hard to swallow Apple's use of the word "courage" to describe the corporate ethos that pushed the company to remove the headphone plug from the newest iPhone while offering a new pair of jack-free earbuds that will run you $160. Removing a headphone jack or adding 20 headphone jacks does not require courage; engineers are very smart, but their job does not typically require much bravery. Courage is more often found in, say, running into a burning school to rescue the students and class rodent. Or, maybe, you could call courageous the act of paying the many billions you owe around the world into the system that ensures those students have all of the resources they need in order to learn and grow. Just a hint: Collaborative spreadsheet software doesn't count." - Sam Biddle, on Apple's latest hardware standards and old tax avoidance strategy. [https://theintercept.com/2016/09/07/paying-taxes-is-a-lot-better-than-phony-corporate-courage-apple/] Submitted by: Terry Labach Sep. 13, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 15, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 15, 2016 "We watch 25 square miles, so you see lots of crimes," he said. "And by the way, after people commit crimes, they drive like idiots." - Ross McNutt, the president of Persistent Surveillance Systems, which collects aerial surveillance images. [https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/new-surveillance-technology-can-track-everyone-in-an-area-for-several-hours-at-a-time/2014/02/05/82f1556e-876f-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html] Submitted by: Terry Labach Sep. 14, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 14, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 14, 2016 "A sense of security, of well-being, of summer warmth pervades my memory. That robust reality makes a ghost of the present. The mirror brims with brightness; a bumblebee has entered the room and bumps against the ceiling. Everything is as it should be, nothing will ever change, nobody will ever die." - Vladimir Nabokov, in Speak, Memory: A Memoir. Submitted by: Terry Labach Sep. 12, 2016

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Quotation of the day for September 13, 2016

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Quotation of the Day for September 13, 2016 "I have had the privilege to live in France with my family for more than six years. The days of beans and rice are far behind. Yet the scars of Guantanamo are never far from view. I wonder, at times, whether I will ever be free of the sense of pain and loss I feel. I also wonder what scars burden the soldiers who were ordered to mistreat us, now that they know it was in error, and I hope they are cared for and given the opportunity to learn from those mistakes. I am struck by the angry political rhetoric that continues to surround Guantanamo in the United States, and I truly hope that America, like me, will someday have the chance to put Guantanamo into its past and to resume a constructive existence." - Lakhdar Boumediene, an Algerian who was held for over seven years at an American prison camp in Guantanamo. He was released when a review showed there had been no credible evidence of any wrongdoing on his part. Quoted in Astro Noise: A Survival Guide. Submitted by: Mike Krawchuk Sep. 12, 2016

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