#cia

I am particularly disturbed that our country is the largest financial supporter of an organization that not only wastes a lot of our money but also seems to be increasingly anti-American in its policies and conduct. ↗

— Mac Thornberry

#am #anti-american #conduct #country #disturbed

Too often we only identify the crucial points in our lives in retrospect. At the time we are too absorbed in the fetid detail of the moment to spot where it is leading us. But not this time. I was experiencing one of my dad’s deafening moments. If my life could be understood as a meal of many courses (and let’s be honest, much of it actually was), then I had finished the starters and I was limbering up for the main event. So far, of course, I had made a stinking mess of it. I had spilled the wine. I had dropped my cutlery on the floor and sprayed the fine white linen with sauce. I had even spat out some of my food because I didn’t like the taste of it. “But it doesn’t matter because, look, here come the waiters. They are scraping away the debris with their little horn and steel blades, pulled with studied grace from the hidden pockets of their white aprons. They are laying new tablecloths, arranging new cutlery, placing before me great domed wine glasses, newly polished to a sparkle. There are more dishes to come, more flavors to try, and this time I will not spill or spit or drop or splash. I will not push the plate away from me, the food only half eaten. I am ready for everything they are preparing to serve me. Be in no doubt; it will all be fine.” (pp.115-6) ↗

— Jay Rayner

#apron #courses #crucial-points #cutlery #deafening-moments

The philosophy of the school was quite simple - the bright boys specialised in Latin, the not so bright in science and the rest managed with geography or the like. ↗

— Aaron Klug

#geography #latin #like #managed #philosophy

For origin and development of human faculty we must look to these processes of association in lower animals. ↗

— Edward Thorndike

#development #faculty #human #look #lower

Statesmanship is harder than politics. Politics is the art of getting along with people, whereas statesmanship is the art of getting along with politicians. ↗

— Fletcher Knebel

#art #getting #harder #people #politicians

I don't even have an agent or manager, but rather have a number of associates who I turn to when needed; or conversely when they hear of someone looking for me they'll contact me. ↗

— Christopher Knight

#associates #contact #conversely #even #hear

Social Security is an extremely complicated program. ↗

— John Thune

#extremely #program #security #social #social security

We must work together to save and strengthen Social Security not just for my father's generation but also for my daughters' generation. ↗

— John Thune

#daughters #father #generation #just #must

I was into playing American music, especially the blues. ↗

— Mark Knopfler

#american music #blues #especially #i #into

I wonder of what you must daily endure in America, having no government to protect you, no one to tell you what to do. Is it true you're given no ration card, that you must find food for yourself? Is it true that you labor for no higher purpose than paper money? What is California, this place you come from? I have never seen a picture. What plays over the American loudspeakers, when is your curfew, what is taught at your child-rearing collectives? Where does a woman go with her children on Sunday afternoons, and if a woman loses her husband, how does she know the government will assign her a good replacement? With whom would she curry favor to ensure her children got the best Youth Troop leader? ↗

— Adam Johnson

#socialism #food