Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.
Do you wrestle with dreams?
Do you contend with shadows?
Do you move in a kind of sleep?
Time has slipped away.
Your life is stolen.
You tarried with trifles,
Victim of your folly.
When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.
"Any road followed precisely to its end leads precisely nowhere. Climb the mountain just a little bit to test that it's a mountain. From the top of the mountain, you cannot see the mountain."
What is truth? We must adopt a pragmatic definition: it is what is believed
to be the truth. A lie that is put across therefore becomes the truth and
may, therefore, be justified. The difficulty is to keep up lying... it is
simpler to tell the truth and if a sufficient emergency arises, to tell one,
big thumping lie that will then be believed.
I think this email passes the Turing test on accident:
Hi, how's doing? The answer is lying on the surface. You're dead on your feet, man, I can tell! But chill out, there's plenty of people just like you. Do you know that an immense grow of people suffering from a sexual disorder is observed, it's being counted by millions already. Questioned? It's a modern life style. You get-you pay. Everyth [...]
ah, yuh
that's right
this one's for all the naysayers and dream-slayers
who told the Hawk-man it couldn't be done.
Listen up.
Your momma is so fat, she's got a trashbag for a sock.
She's so hairy she looks like she's got Don King in a headlock.
Your momma is so ugly that her dog won't give her fleas.
You could stick her face in dough and make monster cookies.
Your momma is so da [...]
If a man is offered a fact which goes against his instincts, he will scrutinize it closely, and unless the evidence is overwhelming, he will refuse to believe it. If, on the other hand, he is offered something which affords a reason for acting in accordance to his instincts, he will accept it even on the slightest evidence. The origin of myths is explained in this way.
08/15/07 :: Article :: Portable MP3-DVD player :: All I want is a Walkman type device that plays MP3s on a data DVD, without the added bulk necessary to play DVD-video.
08/14/07 :: Article :: Gender Equality :: Help! Someone stole my penis and gave it to a woman! Then they took it from her and destroyed it!
For every problem involving repetition, there are only three parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end. You usually code once for the middle, and call (Ed.: make a function call) for the beginning and end.
If mankind minus one were of one opinion, then mankind is no more justified in silencing the one than the one - if he had the power - would be justified in silencing mankind.
Alibech turns hermit, and a monk, Rustico, teaches her to put the Devil in Hell. Afterwards she is brought home, and married to Neerbale.
Dioneus listened attentively to the Queen’s discourse, and when she had done and he knew that only he remained to complete the day’s entertainment, without trifling away the time or awaiting a command from the Queen, thus he began.
Gracious ladies, it may [...]
Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty.
A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.
The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government -- lest it come to dominate our lives and interests.
If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you; May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.
03/03/06 :: Article :: Downloading Is Stealing :: Lies, obfuscation, and a deliberate disrespect for parallelism in analogy
These, then, were Srenki, men whose virtue was the excess of vice, who with leaden zest performed quintessential evil and so redeemed their fellows from turpitude.
Fear of serious injury cannot alone justify suppression of free speech and assembly. Men feared witches and burned women. It is the function of speech to free men from the bondage of irrational fears.
The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of majorities and officials and to establish them as legal principles to be applied by the courts. One's right to life, liberty, and property, to free speech, a free press, freedom of worship and assembly, and other fundamental rights may not be submi [...]
I know no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion.
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, [...]
You walk on like a woman in suffering
Won't even bother now to tell me why
You come alone, letting all of us savor the moment
Leaving me broken another time
You come on like a bloodstained hurricane
Leave me alone, let me be this time
You carry on like a holy man pushing redemption
I don't want to mention, the reason I know
That I am stricken and can't let you go
When the heart is cold, [...]
Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices, under which weak minds are servilely crouched. Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on her tribunal for every fact, every opinion. Question with boldness even the existence of a God; because, if there be one, he must more approve of the homage of reason than that of blindfolded fear.
The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere.
[I rarely see the second part quoted, but I think it's important to realize that Jefferson knew the implications of wha [...]
Sometimes it is said that man cannot be trusted with the government of himself. Can he, then, be trusted with the government of others? Or have we found angels in the forms of kings to govern him? Let history answer this question.
The care of every man's soul belongs to himself. But what if he neglect the care of it? Well what if he neglect the care of his health or his estate, which would more nearly relate to the state. Will the magistrate make a law that he not be poor or sick? Laws provide against injury from others; but not from ourselves. God himself will not save men against their wills.
Yet it is easy to foresee, from the nature of things, that the encroachments of the State governments will tend to an excess of liberty which will correct itself, while those of the General Government will tend to monarchy, which will fortify itself from day to day.
When a person turns to wrong, is it a want to be, belong?
Part of things at any cost, at what price a life is lost
At what point do we begin, fighter spirit a will to win
But what makes a man decide, take the wrong or righteous road
Theres a thin line between love and hate
Wider divide that you can see between good and bad
Theres a grey place between black and white
But everyone does ha [...]
You've heard of animals chewing off a leg to escape a trap? There's an animal kind of trick. A human would remain in the trap, endure the pain, feigning death that he might kill the trapper and remove a threat to his kind.
Once, men turned thinking over to machines in the hopes that this would set them free. But that only permitted other men with machines to enslave them.
'That which submits rules.' ... The willow submits to the wind and prospers until one day it is many willows -- a wall against the wind. This is the willow's purpose.
A world is supported by four things ... the learning of the wise, the justice of the great, the prayers of the righteous and the valor of the brave. But all of these are as nothing ... without a ruler who knows the art of ruling. Make that the science of your tradition!
A process cannot be understood by stopping it. Understanding must move with the flow of the process, must join it and flow with it. (The First Law of Mentat)
07/15/05 :: Article :: Meaningless Primary Keys, Arrogance :: You're wrong, I won't tell you why, but the results will be disastrous. *makes "spooky fingers" gesture*
I will dedicate
And sacrifice my everything for just a second's worth
Of how my story's ending
And I wish I could know if the directions that I take
And all the choices that I make won't end up all for nothing
Show me what it's for
Make me understand it
I've been crawling in the dark looking for the answer
Is there something more than what i've been handed?
I've been crawling in the dark [...]
I believe that no government can exist for a single moment without the co-operation of the people, willing or forced, and if people suddenly withdraw their co-operation in every detail, the government will come to a standstill.
06/27/05 :: Article :: Copyright Cooperative :: Private-sector distributed media library with exclusive concurrent control of licensed copyrighted materials