August 4, 2010
"An initiative measure adopted by the voters deserves great respect. The considered views and opinions of even the most highly qualified scholars and experts seldom outweigh the determinations of the voters. When challenged, however, the voters’ determinations must find at least some support in evidence. This is especially so when those determinations enact into law classifications of persons. Conjecture, speculation and fears are not enough. Still less will the moral disapprobation of a group or class of citizens suffice, no matter how large the majority that shares that view. The evidence demonstrated beyond serious reckoning that Proposition 8 finds support only in such disapproval. As such, Proposition 8 is beyond the constitutional reach of the voters or their representatives."

— Chief Judge Vaughn R. Walker (Perry v. Schwarzenegger)

August 1, 2010
"Well, I don’t need to see GDP numbers or to listen to economists. All I need to do is listen to the American people…"

(John Boehner)

Right, because what do economists know about economics? For that matter, why should we listen to electrical engineers about electricity? Or anesthesiologists about anesthesia? In fact, maybe he thinks “the American people” should design the airplanes he flies on?

These. People. Are. Idiots. Dangerous idiots.

July 12, 2010
"In the end, glorification of splendid underdogs is nothing other than glorification of the splendid system that makes them so."

— Theodor Adorno

May 28, 2010
"This loss of historical continuity in values and beliefs, taken together with the reduction of the work of art to a text stressing discontinuity and allegory, poses all kinds of problems for aesthetic and critical judgment. Refusing (and actively ‘deconstructing’) all authoritative or supposedly immutable standards of aesthetic judgment, postmodernism can only judge the spectacle in terms of how spectacular it is."

— David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, p. 56-57

May 20, 2010
"In other words, [Rand Paul] prioritizes the property rights of whites who only had their property in the first place because of generations of government intervention on their behalf, over the human rights of people of color to be given equal opportunity."

— Tim Wise (via newleft)

March 24, 2010

I, like an usurp’d town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth’d unto your enemy;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

February 9, 2010
Better Late Than Never

Well, somehow I missed my traditional winter quoting of Ezra Pound with the first nasty storm of the season, but as we’re heading into round 12839 of SnOMG 2010, the lack has become painfully glaring. Sing:

Winter is icumen in, 
Lhude sing Goddamm, 
Raineth drop and staineth slop, 
And how the wind doth ramm!
Sing: Goddamm. 
Skiddeth bus and sloppeth us, 
Freezeth river, turneth liver, 
An ague hath my ham. 
Damm you; Sing: Goddamm.
Goddamm, Goddamm, ‘tis why I am, Goddamm,
So ‘gainst the winter’s balm.
Sing goddamm, damm, sing goddamm, 
Sing goddamm, sing goddamm, DAMM.

February 9, 2010

February 7, 2010
Famous Directors Direct the Superbowl.

January 31, 2010
"On Broadway ticket prices are continually rising and, ironically, as each season grows more disastrous, each season’s hit makes more money. As fewer and fewer people go through the doors, larger and larger sums cross the ticket office counter, until eventually one last millionaire will be paying a fortune for one private performance for himself alone."

— Peter Brook, The Empty Space