July 4, 2008
- On How, For the Good of the Country, One July 4th per Year Isn't Enough
“Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. (…)
May 6, 2008
- On Truth and the Public Trust
When an honest writer discovers an imposition it is his simple duty to strip it bare and hurl it down from its place of honor, no matter who suffers by it; any other course would render him unworthy of the public confidence.-Mark Twain, A Tramp Abroad
The writer is best when he is the impostor's worst enemy. (…)
April 27, 2008
- On Elections, Politics, and Human Nature
“If we would learn what the human race really is at bottom, we need only observe it in election times.”-Mark Twain, Autobiography
Elections reflect the highest ideals of society, executed by the lowest means of human nature. (…)
April 22, 2008
- On Justice - Sweet and Terrible
”The rain …falls upon the just and the unjust alike; a thing which would not happen if I were superintending the rain's affairs. (…)
April 15, 2008
- On Honesty and the Tax Man
“There isn't a rich man in your vast city who doesn't perjure himself every year before the tax board.”-Mark Twain
Many a tall tale will be told today. (…)
March 31, 2008
- On War and Its Endless Justifications
“We build a fire in a powder magazine, then double the fire department to put it out. (…)
March 12, 2008
- On Governors, Morals, and Ladies of the Night
“Morals consist of political morals, commercial morals, ecclesiastical morals, and morals.”-Mark Twain
Strangely, it is not unique. (…)
March 4, 2008
- On Experiencing True Cold - And the Strange Things That Happen When You Do
“The captain had been telling how, in one of his Arctic voyages, it was so cold that the mate's shadow froze fast to the deck and had to be ripped loose by main strength. (…)
February 2, 2008
- On Party and Patriotism
“No party holds the privilege of dictating to me how I shall vote. If loyalty to party is a form of patriotism, I am no patriot. (…)
January 2, 2008
- On New Years Resolutions
“Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. (…)
December 19, 2007
- On Frustration with Democrats in Congress
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of congress. (…)
December 11, 2007
- On the Value of Questioning Authority
“Irreverence is the champion of liberty and its only sure defense”-Mark Twain
Any power, belief, idea, or proclamation can only prove its worth through contempt and, if worthwhile and right, redemption. (…)
November 25, 2007
- On "Patriotism" and the Conscience of a Nation
“We have a bastard Patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque; but we have no such thing as a public conscience. (…)
October 9, 2007
- On Congressional Debate of MoveOn.org and Rush Limbaugh
“…the smallest minds and the selfishest souls and the cowardliest hearts that God makes.”-Mark Twain, letter fragment, 1891
MoveOn.org’s ad and most of what I hear Limbaugh say is designed to provoke. (…)
October 3, 2007
- On Intelligent Design
“It now seems plain to me that that theory ought to be vacated in favor of a new and truer one…the Descent of Man from the Higher Animals.”
-Mark Twain, The Lowest Animal
A theory such as Intelligent Design seems to fall short in explaining the madness endemic in human behavior. (…)
September 24, 2007
- On University Degrees
“Now then, to me university degrees are unearned finds, and they bring the joy that belongs with property acquired in that way; and the money-finds and the degree-finds are just the same in number up to date–three: two from Yale and one from Missouri University. (…)
September 19, 2007
- On the Iraq War
“A wanton waste of projectiles”-Mark Twain, The Art of War (speech)
It seems that police departments in America are experiencing a “lack of bullets” (something to strive for, perhaps, in world we can only hope to achieve) becuase of the bullets are going to the war effort in Iraq. (…)
September 12, 2007
- On Politicians and Promises
“Better a broken promise than none at all.”-Mark Twain
No good politican is worth his or her salt without a good promise or two to pacify and seduce the body politic. (…)
August 13, 2007
- On the Responsibility of the Citizen in a Republic
“Citizenship is what makes a republic; monarchies can get along without it. (…)
August 7, 2007
- On the Importance of Glaciers
…a man who keeps company with glaciers comes to feel tolerably insignificant by and by. (…)
