Even back then they knew.

If a lump of soot falls into the soup and you cannot conveniently get it out, stir it well in and it will give the soup a French taste.
Jonathan Swift

OMG! Are you serious??!!

From a story on ABCNews website:

Body Found Assumed to Be Missing Yale Bride Annie Le
Investigators searching for missing Yale graduate student Annie Le found what they believe to be the girl’s remains in a wall of a Yale laboratory, police said tonight.
"We did locate the remains of a human. … We are assuming [...]

We are not “granted” anything…

You Don’t Have a Constitutional Right to Free Speech
by Derek Hunter You’ve undoubtedly heard someone, maybe even yourself, say that you have a Constitutional right to free speech, right? While that seems to make sense, it’s not true, or at least wasn’t before the government got so big that it started intruding [...]

Power Corrupts Word of the Day: despot

The history of this word suggests that the old adage, “power corrupts,” must be true. It started out (in Greek) meaning “master of the house.” Then it denoted a Byzantine emperor or prince. Next, a bishop or patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church; next an Italian hereditary prince or military leader. These days, it’s a [...]

Quotes: Heinlein What are the marks of a sick culture?

What are the marks of a sick culture?
It is a bad sign when the people of a country stop identifying themselves with the country and start identifying with a group. A racial group. Or a religion. Or a language. Anything, as long as it isn’t the whole population.
A very bad sign. Particularism. It was once [...]

Quotes

There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.
Will Rogers

Jubal Harshaw

"… the ethics of sex is a thorny problem. Each of us is forced to grope for a solution he can live with–in the face of a preposterous, unworkable, and evil code of so-called ‘Morals.’ Most of us know the code is wrong, almost everybody breaks it. But we pay Danegeld by feeling guilty and [...]

Growing Anger Could Jeopardize Obama’s Standing

What the public wants are results, and they have been hard to come by, especially in ending the recession, reducing unemployment, and muting partisan warfare in Washington. This is particularly disconcerting for independent voters, who tend to decide elections. While Obama’s job approval is still above 50 percent in most polls, that’s because of overwhelming [...]

What a Difference a Letter Makes Word of the Day: precatory

Though it differs from predatory by a single letter, this less common adjective has a meaning all its own and quite removed from its look-alike: "expressing entreaty," or, less grandiosely, begging. Its Latin ancestor, precari, also gives us "pray."

Some Parents Oppose Obama Speech to Students – NYTimes.com

HOUSTON — President Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has set off a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.
The uproar over the speech, in which Mr. [...]