#nat

Tens of thousands of brave Americans died to break the chains of British tyranny so that the principles of our Declaration of Independence could take fold and flourish in the birth of a new nation. ↗

— Jim Gerlach

#brave #break #british #chains #could

I find it both fascinating and disconcerting when I discover yet another person who believes that writing can't be taught. Frankly, I don't understand this point of view. ↗

— Elizabeth George

#believes #both #disconcerting #discover #fascinating

I should perhaps warn you that I am about to faint from anxiety and general depression, though. The film I saw last night was especially grueling, a teen-age beach musical. I almost collapsed during the singing sequence on surfboard. ↗

— John Kennedy Toole

#age

Blind metaphysical necessity, which is certainly the same always and every where, could produce no variety of things. All that diversity of natural things which we find suited to different times and places could arise from nothing but the ideas and will of a Being, necessarily existing. ↗

— Isaac Newton

#evolution #id #intelligent-design #macroevolution #naturalism

Each environment has its own signature. Sound tells a story: You make choices about what you're hearing, where to look, how you want to feel about what's going on. ↗

— Stephen Hopkins

#choices #each #environment #feel #going

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity. ↗

— Edward Gibbon

#feelings #humanity

It is a fundamental principle of American democracy that laws should not be public only when it is convenient for government officials to make them public. They should be public all the time, open to review by adversarial courts, and subject to change by an accountable legislature guided by an informed public. If Americans are not able to learn how their government is interpreting and executing the law then we have effectively eliminated the most important bulwark of our democracy. That’s why, even at the height of the Cold War, when the argument for absolute secrecy was at its zenith, Congress chose to make US surveillance laws public. Without public laws, and public court rulings interpreting those laws, it is impossible to have informed public debate. And when the American people are in the dark, they can’t make fully informed decisions about who should represent them, or protest policies that they disagree with. These are fundamentals. It’s Civics 101. And secret law violates those basic principles. It has no place in America. ↗

— Ron Wyden

#law #national-security #secrets #surveillance #change

Radio football is football reduced to its lowest common denominator. ↗

— Nick Hornby

#common denominator #denominator #football #lowest #radio

Spending on programs such as national defense and funding the operating budgets of all federal agencies represent only 39 percent of our yearly budget, an all-time low. ↗

— Paul Gillmor

#all-time #budget #budgets #defense #federal

You will be pleased to know I stand obediently for the national anthem, though of course I would defend your right to remain seated should you so decide. ↗

— Ira Glasser

#course #decide #defend #i #know