I find the older I get, the less easily shocked I am and the more easily outraged I become.
"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream" - E. A. Poe
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V
“To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public.” -Teddy Roosevelt
"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess from the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship.
The average age of the world’s great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage."
- attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler "The Decline and Fall of the Athenian Republic" (1776)
"If there is any hope for America, it lies in revolution. And if there is any hope for revolution, it lies in getting Elvis Presley to become Che Guevara." - Phil Ochs
Women are 4 times more likely to be the victims of a sexually motivated murder than men, but men are 10 times more likely to be the murderers. That's just the way it is.
"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them?" -The Buddha
"We need above all, to be shaken out of our indifference — the greatest source of danger in the world…For, remember, the opposite of love is not hate but indifference. The opposite of faith is not arrogance but indifference; the opposite of art is not ugliness but indifference. And the opposite of peace is indifference to both peace and war — indifference to hunger and persecution, to imprisonment and humiliation, indifference to torture and persecution." - Eli Wiesel
"Every man has a right to his opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in
his facts." - Bernard Baruch
Achtung! Das machine ist nicht fur gerfingerpoken und mittengraben. Ist easy schnappen der pringenwerk, blowenfusen, und poppencorken mit spitzensparken. Ist nicht fur gewerken by das dumkopfen, das rubbernecken sightseeren keepen hands in der pockets, relaxen und watchen der blinkenlights.
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Christian Science Monitor - Big natural disasters don't need to be big human disasters. California proved that in its preparation and response to recent catastrophic wildfires – putting New Orleans to shame. But not all the lessons from such calamities have yet to be learned. Just look at Florida.
Rather than allow market signals of higher insurance rates to force changes in where and how people live in hurricane-prone areas, the state recently put taxpayers on the hook by promising to be the insurer of last resort. Government is now the largest insurer in Florida. Another major storm could overwhelm its revenues.
Now, having recognized that Floridians face an unbearable financial hit, state officials are desperately pressuring Congress to set up a subsidized, national "catastrophe fund" that would bail out homeowners who choose to live in disaster-prone areas. A bill is moving quickly on Capitol Hill.
Florida needs to take a cue from California.
Not only has California allowed higher insurance rates to send signals to homeowners who live recklessly in risky danger zones, it is also imposing tougher property standards. In San Diego County especially, officials have learned many lessons from the 2003 wildfires – the largest in California's recent history – that killed 16 people and destroyed 2,458 homes.
In a new defensive policy known as "shelter in place," the county set construction and landscape codes in 2004 for new homes in fire-prone areas. These included the use of noncombustible roof materials, indoor sprinklers, fire-resistant vegetation, and a 100-foot-wide protection perimeter.
The result? In five new subdivisions that met those codes, this month's wildfires raced by them and not a single house was lost.
In addition, San Diego County has removed much of the area's fire-vulnerable underbrush. It set up a mass notification system that helped quickly evacuate more than half a million people in danger of the fast-moving flames.
Fire-fighting help from the state and federal governments was well coordinated. And evacuees were well cared for, especially the 10,000 people who sought refuge in Qualcomm Stadium (unlike the disaster in New Orleans' Superdome after the 2005 Katrina hurricane).
Still, California, like much of the arid West, has much to do to solve the problem of people living close to tinder-dry forest areas. In the past four years, California alone has lost 1.8 million acres to wildfire. In July, Allstate Corp. stopped issuing homeowners' insurance for what it called "catastrophe-prone" California. That has led some of the state's lawmakers in Congress to sound like those from Florida and seek a federal bail-out program for at-risk homeowners.
But such moves need to be resisted until states with a high number of natural disasters use better zoning, building codes, and other measures to reduce risky home building. In the Gulf, for instance, the US Army Corps of Engineers is considering a voluntary buyout of 17,000 houses hit by Katrina and in the most hurricane-prone areas.
Despite the loss of life and homes from the recent fires in California, an example was set for the nation in dealing with disasters. Other states should follow.
