#sec

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

At the first screening, there were a lot of areas that we went around and around about. Then we had our second screening. It played better. It's almost a reasonable length film now! ↗

— Terry Gilliam

#almost #areas #around #better #film

Then, as now, it was just uncomfortable. Now, as then, it was a lifted chin and a crooked smile that said more than they would ever allow themselves to communicate. ↗

— Sandi Layne

#second-chances #usmc #communication

You don't want to be first, right? You want to be second or third. You don't want to be - Facebook is not the first in social media. They're the third, right? Similarly, you know, if you look at Steve Jobs' history, he's never been first. ↗

— Malcolm Gladwell

#facebook #first #history #jobs #know

So, it's a very, you know - maybe we're wrong in - you know, we go around thinking the innovator is the person who's first to kind of conceive of something. And maybe the innovation process continues down the line to the second and the third and the fourth entrant into a field. ↗

— Malcolm Gladwell

#conceive #continues #down #field #first

The secret to true happiness is a combination of low expectations and insensitivity. ↗

— Olivia Goldsmith

#expectations #happiness #insensitivity #low #low expectations

As the American public continues to focus more intensely on illegal immigration and securing the nation's borders, the number of members of the House Immigration Reform Caucus continues to grow. ↗

— Virgil Goode

#american public #borders #caucus #continues #focus

My first year in baseball, there were only one or two reporters. My second year, I got to the Triple-A playoffs, there were four or five. When I came up in 1984, I never saw so many people. ↗

— Dwight Gooden

#came #first #five #four #got

The visa lottery system poses a national security threat. Under the program, each successful applicant is chosen at random and given the status of permanent resident based on pure luck. ↗

— Bob Goodlatte

#chosen #each #given #lottery #luck

If the secret of being a bore is to tell all, the secret of pleasing is to say just enough to be - not understood, but divined. ↗

— Remy de Gourmont

#bore #divined #enough #just #pleasing