g From:	IN%"minow@bolt.enet.dec.com"  "Martin Minow, ML3-5/U26  14-May-1990 0946" 14-MAY-1990 10:14:52.09 
 To:	_TERRY CC:	 Subj:	carl3.txt   G Received: from CUNYVM.BITNET by SPCVXA.BITNET; Mon, 14 May 90 10:14 EDT O Received: from CUNYVM by CUNYVM.BITNET (Mailer R2.03B) with BSMTP id 9891; Mon,   14 May 90 10:04:27 EDT N Received: from decpa.pa.dec.com by CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU (IBM VM SMTP R1.2.2MX) with!  TCP; Mon, 14 May 90 10:04:18 EDT H Received: by decpa.pa.dec.com; id AA01652; Mon, 14 May 90 07:01:12 -0700D Received: from bolt.enet; by decpa.enet; Mon, 14 May 90 07:01:14 PDT! Date: Mon, 14 May 90 07:01:14 PDT K From: "Martin Minow, ML3-5/U26  14-May-1990 0946" <minow@bolt.enet.dec.com>  Subject: carl3.txt To: address@bolt.enet.dec.com 1 Message-id: <9005141401.AA01652@decpa.pa.dec.com>  X-Envelope-to: terry  J "Largely because it is so tangible and exciting a program and as such willH serve to keep alive the interest and enthusiasm of the whole spectrum ofJ society...It is justified because...the program can give a sense of shared3 adventure and achievement to the society at large." C - Dr. Colin S. Pittendrigh, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"  %%N The challenge of space exploration and particularly of landing men on the moonL represents the greatest challenge which has ever faced the human race.  EvenM if there were no clear scientific or other arguments for proceeding with this L task, the whole history of our civilization would still impel men toward theL goal.  In fact, the assembly of the scientific and military with these humanJ arguments creates such an overwhelming case that in can be ignored only byK those who are blind to the teachings of history, or who wish to suspend the L development of civilization at its moment of greatest opportunity and drama.C - Sir Bernard Lovell, 1962, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"  %%K The idea of man leaving this earth and flying to another celestial body and K landing there and stepping out and walking over that body has a fascination L and a driving force that can get the country to a level of energy, ambition,G and will that I do not see in any other undertaking.  I think if we are J honest with ourselves, we must admit that we needed that impetus extremelyF strongly.  I sincerely believe that the space program, with its mannedH landing on the moon, if wisely executed, will become the spearhead for aG broad front of courageous and energetic activities in all the fields of G endeavour of the human mind - activities which could not be carried out L except in a mental climate of ambition and confidence which such a spearhead	 can give. I - Dr. Martin Schwarzschild, 1962, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"  %%K Human society - man in a group - rises out of its lethargy to new levels of E productivity only under the stimulus of deeply inspiring and commonly L appreciated goals.  A lethargic world serves no cause well; a spirited worldH working diligently toward earnestly desired goals provides the means andF the strength toward which many ends can be satisfied...to unparalleled social accomplishment.? - Dr. Lloyd V. Berkner, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"  %%O The vigor of civilized societies is preserved by the widespread sense that high J aims are worth-while.  Vigorous societies harbor a certain extravagance ofD objectives, so that men wander beyond the safe provision of personalK gratifications.  All strong interests easily become impersonal, the love of P a good job well done.  There is a sense of harmony about such an accomplishment,+ the Peace brought by something worth-while. G - Alfred North Whitehead, 1963, in "The History of Manned Space Flight"  %%N I do not believe that this generation of Americans is willing to resign itself> to going to bed each night by the light of a Communist moon... - Lyndon B. Johnson  %%& Life's the same, except for the shoes.
 - The Cars %%
 Purple hum
 Assorted cars  Laser lights, you bring     All to prove You're on the move
 and vanishing 
 - The Cars %%& Could be you're crossing the fine line% A silly driver kind of...off the wall    $ You keep it cool when it's t-t-tight) ...eyes wide open when you start to fall. 
 - The Cars %% Adapt.  Enjoy.  Survive. %%, Were there fewer fools, knaves would starve. - Anonymous  %%L Humanity has the stars in its future, and that future is too important to beB lost under the burden of juvenile folly and ignorant superstition. - Isaac Asimov %%M And the crowd was stilled.  One elderly man, wondering at the sudden silence, I turned to the Child and asked him to repeat what he had said.  Wide-eyed, H the Child raised his voice and said once again, "Why, the Emperor has no clothes!  He is naked!"  - "The Emperor's New Clothes"  %%H "Those who believe in astrology are living in houses with foundations of
 Silly Putty."  -  Dennis Rawlins, astronomer  %%7 To date, the firm conclusions of Project Blue Book are: H    1. no unidentified flying object reported, investigated and evaluatedE       by the Air Force has ever given any indication of threat to our        national security;F    2. there has been no evidence submitted to or discovered by the Air@       Force that sightings categorized as UNIDENTIFIED representB       technological developments or principles beyond the range of+       present-day scientific knowledge; and F    3. there has been no evidence indicating that sightings categorized4       as UNIDENTIFIED are extraterrestrial vehicles.H - the summary of Project Blue Book, an Air Force study of UFOs from 19501   to 1965, as quoted by James Randi in Flim-Flam!  %%H Those who believe that they believe in God, but without passion in theirD hearts, without anguish in mind, without uncertainty, without doubt,E without an element of despair even in their consolation, believe only ! in the God idea, not God Himself. 3 - Miguel de Unamuno, Spanish philosopher and writer  %%B Doubt is a pain too lonely to know that faith is his twin brother. - Kahlil Gibran  %%= Doubt isn't the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith. / - Paul Tillich, German theologian and historian  %%; Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd. 
 - Voltaire %%G If only God would give me some clear sign!  Like making a large deposit  in my name at a Swiss Bank. 
 - Woody Allen  %%G I cannot affirm God if I fail to affirm man.  Therefore, I affirm both. H Without a belief in human unity I am hungry and incomplete.  Human unityH is the fulfillment of diversity.  It is the harmony of opposites.  It is. a many-stranded texture, with color and depth. - Norman Cousins %%, To downgrade the human mind is bad theology. - C. K. Chesterton %%I ...difference of opinion is advantageious in religion.  The several sects K perform the office of a common censor morum over each other.  Is uniformity E attainable?  Millions of innocent men, women, and children, since the K introduction of Christianity, have been burnt, tortured, fined, imprisoned; 5 yet we have not advanced one inch towards uniformity. ' - Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on Virginia"  %%K Life is a process, not a principle, a mystery to be lived, not a problem to 
 be solved.M - Gerard Straub, television producer and author (stolen from Frank Herbert??)  %%M So we follow our wandering paths, and the very darkness acts as our guide and   our doubts serve to reassure us.; - Jean-Pierre de Caussade, eighteenth-century Jesuit priest  %%K Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurence of the  improbable.  - H. L. Mencken  %%L And do you not think that each of you women is an Eve?  The judgement of GodL upon your sex endures today; and with it invariably endures your position of criminal at the bar of justice. 9 - Tertullian, second-century Christian writer, misogynist  %%F I judge a religion as being good or bad based on whether its adherents2 become better people as a result of practicing it.! - Joe Mullally, computer salesman  %%- Imitation is the sincerest form of plagarism.  %%. "Unibus timeout fatal trap program lost sorry"H - An error message printed by DEC's RSTS operating system for the PDP-11 %%: How many surrealists does it take to screw in a lightbulb?   I One to hold the giraffe and one to fill the bathtub with brightly coloredr power tools. %%B How many Bavarian Illuminati does it take to screw in a lightbulb?  N8 Three: one to screw it in, and one to confuse the issue. %%I How long does it take a DEC field service engineer to change a lightbulb?M  T4 It depends on how many bad ones he brought with him. %%L It does me no injury for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods or no God.- It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.  - Thomas Jefferson %%J I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish Church, by the RomanM Church, by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, @ nor by any Church that I know of.  My own mind is my own Church. - Thomas Paine %%+ God requireth not a uniformity of religion.a - Roger Williams %%M The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the Supreme Being.K as his Father, in the womb of a virgin will be classified with the fable of L the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.  But we may hope that theN dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away withG this artificial scaffolding and restore to us the primitive and genuine : doctrines of this most venerated Reformer of human errors. - Thomas Jefferson %%I Let us, then, fellow citizens, unite with one heart and one mind.  Let uslF restore to social intercourse that harmony and affection without whichG liberty and even life itself are but dreary things.  And let us reflect I that having banished from our land that religious intolerance under whicheD mankind so long bled, we have yet gained little if we counternance aI political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and capable of a bitter ando bloody persecutions. - Thomas Jefferson %%= I do not find in orthodox Christianity one redeeming feature.o - Thomas Jefferson %%H The divinity of Jesus is made a convenient cover for absurdity.  NowhereC in the Gospels do we find a precept for Creeds, Confessions, Oaths,gG Doctrines, and whole carloads of other foolish trumpery that we find inn
 Christianity.o - John Adams %%F The Bible is not my Book and Christianity is not my religion.  I couldH never give assent to the long complicated statements of Christian dogma. - Abraham Lincolne %%H As to Jesus of Nazareth...I think the system of Morals and his Religion,G as he left them to us, the best the World ever saw or is likely to see;wG but I apprehend it has received various corrupting Changes, and I have,dE with most of the present Dissenters in England, some doubts as to hisi	 divinity.n - Benjamin Frankline %%L I would have promised those terrorists a trip to Disneyland if it would haveG gotten the hostages released.  I thank God they were satisfied with theg2 missiles and we didn't have to go to that extreme. - Oliver North %%O I believe in an America where the separation of church and state is absolute --tJ where no Catholic prelate would tell the president (should he be Catholic)J how to act, and no Protestant minister would tell his parishoners for whomH to vote--where no church or church school is granted any public funds orE political preference--and where no man is denied public office merelyiL because his religion differs from the president who might appoint him or the people who might elect him.lO - from John F. Kennedy's address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association    September 12, 1960.e %%L The truth is that Christian theology, like every other theology, is not onlyJ opposed to the scientific spirit; it is also opposed to all other attemptsH at rational thinking.  Not by accident does Genesis 3 make the father ofJ knowledge a serpent -- slimy, sneaking and abominable.  Since the earliestL days the church as an organization has thrown itself violently against everyK effort to liberate the body and mind of man.  It has been, at all times and J everywhere, the habitual and incorrigible defender of bad governments, badG laws, bad social theories, bad institutions.  It was, for centuries, an M apologist for slavery, as it was the apologist for the divine right of kings.  - H. L. Mencken  %%L The notion that science does not concern itself with first causes -- that itH leaves the field to theology or metaphysics, and confines itself to mereG effects -- this notion has no support in the plain facts.  If it could,rG science would explain the origin of life on earth at once--and there is,K every reason to believe that it will do so on some not too remote tomorrow.aN To argue that gaps in knowledge which will confront the seeker must be filled,I not by patient inquiry, but by intuition or revelation, is simply to giveC3 ignorance a gratuitous and preposterous dignity....i - H. L. Mencken, 1930a %%I The evidence of the emotions, save in cases where it has strong objective I support, is really no evidence at all, for every recognizable emotion has J its opposite, and if one points one way then another points the other way.O Thus the familiar argument that there is an instinctive desire for immortality,nG and that this desire proves it to be a fact, becomes puerile when it isnK recalled that there is also a powerful and widespread fear of annihilation, F and that this fear, on the same principle proves that there is nothingH beyond the grave.  Such childish "proofs" are typically theological, andE they remain theological even when they are adduced by men who like to B flatter themselves by believing that they are scientific gents.... - H. L. Menckena %%J There is, in fact, no reason to believe that any given natural phenomenon,F however marvelous it may seem today, will remain forever inexplicable.E Soon or late the laws governing the production of life itself will belF discovered in the laboratory, and man may set up business as a creatorF on his own account.  The thing, indeed, is not only conceivable; it is even highly probable.s - H. L. Mencken, 1930l %%J The best that we can do is to be kindly and helpful toward our friends andI fellow passengers who are clinging to the same speck of dirt while we are ) drifting side by side to our common doom.t - Clarence Darrowo %%2 We're here to give you a computer, not a religion.> - attributed to Bob Pariseau, at the introduction of the Amiga %%N ...there can be no public or private virtue unless the foundation of action is the practice of truth. - George Jacob Holyoaken %%B "If you'll excuse me a minute, I'm going to have a cup of coffee."K - broadcast from Apollo 11's LEM, "Eagle", to Johnson Space Center, Houston%   July 20, 1969, 7:27 P.M. %%! The meek are contesting the will.  %%I I'm sick of being trodden on!  The Elder Gods say they can make me a man! 8 All it costs is my soul!  I'll do it, cuz NOW I'M MAD!!!, - Necronomicomics #1, Jack Herman & Jeff Dee %%P    On Krat's main screen appeared the holo image of a man, and several dolphins.M From the man's shape, Krat could tell it was a female, probably their leader. O    "...stupid creatures unworthy of the name `sophonts.'  Foolish, pre-sentienttM upspring of errant masters.  We slip away from all your armed might, laughingrL at your clumsiness!  We slip away as we always will, you pathetic creatures.K And now that we have a real head start, you'll never catch us!  What better H proof that the Progenitors favor not you, but us!  What better proof..."L    The taunt went on.  Krat listened, enraged, yet at the same time savoringJ the artistry of it.  These men are better than I'd thought.  Their insultsL are wordy and overblown, but they have talent.  They deserve honorable, slow deaths.; - David Brin, Startide Rising  %%* "I'm a mean green mother from outer space")  -- Audrey II, The Little Shop of Horrorsw %%I Like my parents, I have never been a regular church member or churchgoer.rA It doesn't seem plausible to me that there is the kind of God who B watches over human affairs, listens to prayers, and tries to guideB people to follow His precepts -- there is just too much misery andC cruelty for that.  On the other hand, I respect and envy the people ) who get inspiration from their religions.k - Benjamin Spock %%M Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.o - Andy Finkel, computer guya %%0 Being schizophrenic is better than living alone. %%9 NOWPRINT. NOWPRINT. Clemclone, back to the shadows again.s - The Firesign Theater %%M Yes, many primitive people still believe this myth...But in today's technical L vastness of the future, we can guess that surely things were much different. - The Firesign Theater %%J ...this is an awesome sight.  The entire rebel resistance buried under six. million hardbound copies of "The Naked Lunch." - The Firesign Theater %%6 We want to create puppets that pull their own strings. - Ann Marion %%. I know engineers.  They love to change things. - Dr. McCoyi %%M On our campus the UNIX system has proved to be not only an effective software H tool, but an agent of technical and social change within the University.  - John Lions (U. of Toronto (?)) %%F Those who do not understand Unix are condemned to reinvent it, poorly.0 - Henry Spencer, University of Toronto Unix hack %%N "You know why there are so few sophisticated computer terrorists in the UnitedK States?  Because your hackers have so much mobility into the establishment.vO Here, there is no such mobility.  If you have the slightest bit of intellectualmL integrity you cannot support the government.... That's why the best computer  minds belong to the opposition."D - an anonymous member of the outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity %%G "Every Solidarity center had piles and piles of paper .... everyone wasdH eating paper and a policeman was at the door.  Now all you have to do is
 bend a disk." E - an anonymous member of the outlawed Polish trade union, Solidarity,aL   commenting on the benefits of using computers in support of their movement %%K Clothes make the man.  Naked people have little or no influence on society.J - Mark Twain %%J The sooner all the animals are extinct, the sooner we'll find their money. - Ed Bluestone %% He's dead, Jim.e %%N New York... when civilization falls apart, remember, we were way ahead of you. - David Lettermani %%F You can do more with a kind word and a gun than with just a kind word. - Al Caponen %%N The fountain code has been tightened slightly so you can no longer dip objectsJ into a fountain or drink from one while you are floating in mid-air due to levitation.R  gH Teleporting to hell via a teleportation trap will no longer occur if the( character does not have fire resistance.   # - README file from the NetHack gameh %%J Remember, there's a big difference between kneeling down and bending over.
 - Frank Zappak %%C I think that all right-thinking people in this country are sick andiB tired of being told that ordinary decent people are fed up in this? country with being sick and tired.  I'm certainly not.  But I'mr' sick and tired of being told that I am.  - Monty Python %%2 "There is no statute of limitations on stupidity.": -- Randomly produced by a computer program called Markov3. %%$ There is a time in the tides of men,/ Which, taken at its flood, leads on to success.t% On the other hand, don't count on it.g - T. K. Lawson %%& To follow foolish precedents, and wink, With both our eyes, is easier than to think. - William Cowper %%8 It is the quality rather than the quantity that matters.* - Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C. - A.D. 65) %%G One may be able to quibble about the quality of a single experiment, or9J about the veracity of a given experimenter, but, taking all the supportiveG experiments together, the weight of evidence is so strong as readily tot merit a wise man's reflection.C - Professor William Tiller, parapsychologist, Standford University,e   commenting on psi research %%2 Nothing ever becomes real until it is experienced. - John Keats %%4 Your good nature will bring you unbounded happiness. %%5 "Our journey toward the stars has progressed swiftly.   rE In 1926 Robert H. Goddard launched the first liquid-propelled rocket, H achieving an altitude of 41 feet.  In 1962 John Glenn orbited the earth.  lH In 1969, only 66 years after Orville Wright flew two feet off the groundF for 12 seconds, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and I rocketed to the moon in Apollo 11." -- Michael CollinsJ    Former astronaut and past Director of the National Air and Space Museum %%K Most people exhibit what political scientists call "the conservatism of thexM peasantry."  Don't lose what you've got.  Don't change.  Don't take a chance,vL because you might end up starving to death.  Play it safe.  Buy just as much as you need.  Don't waste time.   kI When  we think about risk, human beings and corporations realize in their K heads that risks are necessary to grow, to survive.  But when it comes down.C to keeping good people when the crunch comes, or investing money inhH something untried, only the brave reach deep into their pockets and play the game as it must be played.   K - David Lammers, "Yakitori", Electronic Engineering Times, January 18, 1988t %%> "We can't schedule an orgy, it might be construed as fighting" --Stanley Sutton %%# Weekends were made for programming.s - Karl Lehenbauern %%I "Once he had one leg in the White House and the nation trembled under his J roars.  Now he is a tinpot pope in the Coca-Cola belt and a brother to theJ forlorn pastors who belabor halfwits in galvanized iron tabernacles behind the railroad yards."N - H. L. Mencken, writing of William Jennings Bryan, counsel for the supportersI   of Tennessee's anti-evolution law at the Scopes "Monkey Trial" in 1925.  %%G ...we must counterpose the overwhelming judgment provided by consistentyG observations and inferences by the thousands.  The earth is billions ofeE years old and its living creatures are linked by ties of evolutionaryoH descent.  Scientists stand accused of promoting dogma by so stating, butI do we brand people illiberal when they proclaim that the earth is neither E flat nor at the center of the universe?  Science *has* taught us some A things with confidence!  Evolution on an ancient earth is as wellaH established as our planet's shape and position.  Our continuing struggleH to understand how evolution happens (the "theory of evolution") does notF cast our documentation of its occurrence -- the "fact of evolution" -- into doubt.bJ - Stephen Jay Gould, "The Verdict on Creationism", The Skeptical Inquirer,   Vol XII No. 2e %%L This was the ultimate form of ostentation among technology freaks -- to haveH a system so complete and sophisticated that nothing showed; no machines, no wires, no controls.$ - Michael Swanwick, "Vacuum Flowers" %%G Men ought to know that from the brain and from the brain only arise ourhJ pleasures, joys, laughter, and jests as well as our sorrows, pains, griefsN and tears.  ... It is the same thing which makes us mad or delirious, inspiresL us with dread and fear, whether by night or by day, brings us sleeplessness,L inopportune mistakes, aimless anxieties, absent-mindedness and acts that are contrary to habit...6 - Hippocrates (c. 460-c. 377 B.C.), The Sacred Disease %%P Modern psychology takes completely for granted that behavior and neural functionO are perfectly correlated, that one is completely caused by the other.  There isrO no separate soul or lifeforce to stick a finger into the brain now and then andfN make neural cells do what they would not otherwise.  Actually, of course, thisH is a working assumption only....It is quite conceivable that someday theM assumption will have to be rejected.  But it is important also to see that we L have not reached that day yet: the working assumption is a necessary one andK there is no real evidence opposed to it.  Our failure to solve a problem sotI far does not make it insoluble.  One cannot logically be a determinist inc0 physics and biology, and a mystic in psychology.J - D. O. Hebb, Organization of Behavior:  A Neuropsychological Theory, 1949 %%L Prevalent beliefs that knowledge can be tapped from previous incarnations orJ from a "universal mind" (the repository of all past wisdom and creativity)K not only are implausible but also unfairly demean the stunning achievements  of individual human brains. I - Barry L. Beyerstein, "The Brain and Consciousness: Implications for PsieB   Phenomena", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 163-171 %%L ... Fortunately, the responsibility for providing evidence is on the part ofJ the person making the claim, not the critic.  It is not the responsibilityD of UFO skeptics to prove that a UFO has never existed, nor is it theJ responsibility of paranormal-health-claims skeptics to prove that crystalsJ or colored lights never healed anyone.  The skeptic's role is to point outG claims that are not adequately supported by acceptable evidcence and totH provide plausible alternative explanations that are more in keeping with- the accepted body of scientific evidence. ...uB - Thomas L. Creed, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, pg. 215 %%< "Ada is the work of an architect, not a computer scientist."& - Jean Icbiah, inventor of Ada, weenie %%L Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof.  There are many examples ofI outsiders who eventually overthrew entrenched scientific orthodoxies, butoJ they prevailed with irrefutable data.  More often, egregious findings thatF contradict well-established research turn out to be artifacts.  I haveK argued that accepting psychic powers, reincarnation, "cosmic conciousness,"oF and the like, would entail fundamental revisions of the foundations ofL neuroscience.  Before abandoning materialist theories of mind that have paidI handsome dividends, we should insist on better evidence for psi phenomenaeJ than presently exists, especially when neurology and psychology themselves" offer more plausible alternatives.H - Barry L. Beyerstein, "The Brain and Conciousness: Implications for PsiC    Phenomena", The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 163-171e %%F Evolution is a bankrupt speculative philosophy, not a scientific fact.C Only a spiritually bankrupt society could ever believe it. ... Only * atheists could accept this Satanic theory.> - Rev. Jimmy Swaggart, "The Pre-Adamic Creation and Evolution" %%M Evolution is as much a fact as the earth turning on its axis and going aroundoF the sun.  At one time this was called the Copernican theory; but, whenE evidence for a theory becomes so overwhelming that no informed persongI can doubt it, it is customary for scientists to call it a fact.  That all J present life descended from earlier forms, over vast stretches of geologicJ time, is as firmly established as Copernican cosmology.  Biologists differ= only with respect to theories about how the process operates. 9 - Martin Gardner, "Irving Kristol and the Facts of Life",r7    The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131  %%H ...It is sad to find him belaboring the science community for its unitedF opposition to ignorant creationists who want teachers and textbooks toG give equal time to crank arguments that have advanced not a step beyond G the flyblown rhetoric of Bishop Wilberforce and William Jennings Bryan.b9 - Martin Gardner, "Irving Kristol and the Facts of Life",n7    The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 128-131o %%E ... The book is worth attention for only two reasons:  (1) it attacksfG attempts to expose sham paranormal studies; and (2) it is very well and E plausibly written and so rather harder to dismiss or refute by simpley jeering.@ - Harry Eagar, reviewing "Beyond the Quantum" by Michael Talbot,7    The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. XII No. 2, ppg. 200-201o %% Now I lay me down to sleep I hear the sirens in the streeth  All my dreams are made of chrome I have no way to get back home - Tom Waitsi %%M I am here by the will of the people and I won't leave until I get my raincoatt back.f= - a slogan of the anarchists in Richard Kadrey's "Metrophage"r %%@ How many nuclear engineers does it take to change a light bulb ?  eD Seven:  One to install the new bulb, and six to determine what to do3         with the old one for the next 10,000 years.d %% Mike's Law:f= For a lumber company employing two men and a cut-off saw, thet> marginal product of labor for any number of additional workers9 equals zero until the acquisition of another cut-off saw. # Let's not even consider a chainsaw.i - Mike Dennisont1 [You could always schedule the saw, though - ed.]F %%O As long as we're going to reinvent the wheel again, we might as well try makingl it round this time.c - Mike Dennisonl %%F This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large armsA industry is now in the American experience... We must not fail too> comprehend its grave implications... We must guard against theA acquisition of unwarranted influence...by the military-industrialtB complex.  The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.9 - Dwight D. Eisenhower, from his farewell address in 1961v %%@ This restaurant was advertising breakfast any time. So I ordered  french toast in the renaissance. - Steven Wright, comediana %%F Everyone has a purpose in life.  Perhaps yours is watching television. - David Lettermane %%G A lot of the stuff I do is so minimal, and it's designed to be minimal.wE The smallness of it is what's attractive.  It's weird, 'cause it's sogD intellectually lame.  It's hard to see me doing that for the rest of4 my life.  But at the same time, it's what I do best.I - Chris Elliot, writer and performer on "Late Night with David Letterman"  %%H e-credibility: the non-guaranteeable likelihood that the electronic data= you're seeing is genuine rather than somebody's made-up crap.  - Karl LehenbauerM %%> Whenever people agree with me, I always think I must be wrong.
 - Oscar Wildee %% My mother is a fish. - William Faulkner %%L The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain itI seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through therJ fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving after rational knowledge.t - Albert Einsteinh %%N The more a man is imbued with the ordered regularity of all events, the firmerM becomes his conviction that there is no room left by the side of this ordered I regularity for causes of a different nature.  For him neither the rule ofeK human nor the rule of divine will exists as an independent cause of natural L events.  To be sure, the doctrine of a personal God interfering with naturalF events could never be refuted, in the real sense, by science, for thisN doctrine can always take refuge in those domains in which scientific knowledge" has not yet been able to set foot.   H But I am persuaded that such behavior on the part of the representativesL of religion would not only be unworthy but also fatal.  For a doctrine whichI is able to maintain itself not in clear light, but only in the dark, willsH of necessity lose its effect on mankind, with incalculable harm to humanG progress.  In their struggle for the ethical good, teachers of religionsI must have the stature to give up the doctrine of a personal God, that is,eG give up that source of fear and hope which in the past placed such vastBH powers in the hands of priests.  In their labors they will have to availI themselves of those forces which are capable of cultivating the Good, the H True, and the Beautiful in humanity itself.  This is, to be sure, a more/ difficult but an incomparably more worthy task.f - Albert Einstein  %%L Anyone who knows history, particularly the history of Europe, will, I think,F recognize that the domination of education or of government by any oneG particular religious faith is never a happy arrangement for the people.a - Eleanor Roosevelte %%I Most non-Catholics know that the Catholic schools are rendering a greateroK service to our nation than the public schools in which subversive textbookseH have been used, in which Communist-minded teachers have taught, and from8 whose classrooms Christ and even God Himself are barred.A - from "Our Sunday Visitor", an American-Catholic newspaper, 1949d %%M Those of us who believe in the right of any human being to belong to whatevertH church he sees fit, and to worship God in his own way, cannot be accusedG of prejudice when we do not want to see public education connected with I religious control of the schools, which are paid for by taxpayers' money.  - Eleanor Rooseveltp %%H Spiritual leadership should remain spiritual leadership and the temporal4 power should not become too important in any church. - Eleanor Roosevelti %%G Truth has always been found to promote the best interests of mankind...a - Percy Bysshe Shelley %%E If atheism is to be used to express the state of mind in which God isoB identified with the unknowable, and theology is pronounced to be aC collection of meaningless words about unintelligible chimeras, then C I have no doubt, and I think few people doubt, that atheists are aso plentiful as blackberries...7 - Leslie Stephen (1832-1904), literary essayist, authorm %%H It is wrong always, everywhere and for everyone to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.1 - W. K. Clifford, British philosopher, circa 1876f %%K Why, when no honest man will deny in private that every ultimate problem isyE wrapped in the profoundest mystery, do honest men proclaim in pulpitsoI that unhesitating certainty is the duty of the most foolish and ignorant?oD Is it not a spectacle to make the angels laugh?  We are a company ofJ ignorant beings, feeling our way through mists and darkness, learning onlyD be incessantly repeated blunders, obtaining a glimmering of truth byG falling into every conceivable error, dimly discerning light enough forrI our daily needs, but hopelessly differing whenever we attempt to describeeI the ultimate origin or end of our paths; and yet, when one of us venturesyH to declare that we don't know the map of the universe as well as the mapH of our infintesimal parish, he is hooted, reviled, and perhaps told that: he will be damned to all eternity for his faithlessness...C - Leslie Stephen, "An agnostic's Apology", Fortnightly Review, 1876f %%F Till then we shall be content to admit openly, what you (religionists)G whisper under your breath or hide in technical jargon, that the ancientrD secret is a secret still; that man knows nothing of the Infinite andH Absolute; and that, knowing nothing, he had better not be dogmatic aboutH his ignorance.  And, meanwhile, we will endeavour to be as charitable asG possible, and whilst you trumpet forth officially your contempt for our E skepticism, we will at least try to believe that you are imposed upono by your own bluster.C - Leslie Stephen, "An agnostic's Apology", Fortnightly Review, 1876c %%4 Marriage is the only adventure open to the cowardly.
 - Voltaire %%K What is tolerance? -- it is the consequence of humanity.  We are all formedfF of frailty and error; let us pardon reciprocally each other's folly --  that is the first law of nature.
 - Voltaire %%J It is clear that the individual who persecutes a man, his brother, because, he is not of the same opinion, is a monster.
 - Voltaire %%F I simply try to aid in letting the light of historical truth into thatC decaying mass of outworn thought which attaches the modern world tohI medieval conceptions of Christianity, and which still lingers among us --oH a most serious barrier to religion and morals, and a menace to the whole normal evolution of society.F - Andrew D. White, author, first president of Cornell University, 1896 %%J The man scarce lives who is not more credulous than he ought to be.... TheO natural disposition is always to believe.  It is acquired wisdom and experienceoB only that teach incredulity, and they very seldom teach it enough. - Adam Smith %%N I put the shotgun in an Adidas bag and padded it out with four pairs of tennisN socks, not my style at all, but that was what I was aiming for:  If they thinkL you're crude, go technical; if they think you're technical, go crude.  I'm aK very technical boy.  So I decided to get as crude as possible.  These days,:E though, you have to be pretty technical before you can even aspire to 
 crudeness.$ - Johnny Mnemonic, by William Gibson %%C However, on religious issures there can be little or no compromise.hH There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religiousG beliefs.  There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate thaniI Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being.uC But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalfeB should be used sparingly.  The religious factions that are growingD throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom.I They are trying to force government leaders into following their positiono> 100 percent.  If you disagree with these religious groups on aG particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of.D money or votes or both.  I'm frankly sick and tired of the politicalJ preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to beF a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C," and "D."  Just who doA they think they are?  And from where do they presume to claim therH right to dictate their moral beliefs to me?  And I am even more angry asE a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group whonE thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every rollrF call in the Senate.  I am warning them today:  I will fight them everyE step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all ( Americans in the name of "conservatism."L - Senator Barry Goldwater, from the Congressional Record, September 16, 1981 %%; "I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell's ass." H - Senator Barry Goldwater, when asked what he thought of Jerry Falwell'sK suggestion that all good Christians should be against Sandra Day O'Connor'ss nomination to the Supreme Court  %%H ...And no philosophy, sadly, has all the answers.  No matter how assuredG we may be about certain aspects of our belief, there are always painfulrM inconsistencies, exceptions, and contradictions.  This is true in religion asfL it is in politics, and is self-evident to all except fanatics and the naive.H As for the fanatics, whose number is legion in our own time, we might beI advised to leave them to heaven.  They will not, unfortunately, do us theuA same courtesy.  They attack us and each other, and whatever their J protestations to peaceful intent, the bloody record of history makes clearH that they are easily disposed to restore to the sword.  My own belief inI God, then, is just that -- a matter of belief, not knowledge.  My respecteD for Jesus Christ arises from the fact that He seems to have been theL most virtuous inhabitant of Planet Earth.  But even well-educated ChristiansD are frustated in their thirst for certainty about the beloved figureF of Jesus because of the undeniable ambiguity of the scriptural record.A Such ambiguity is not apparent to children or fanatics, but every J recognized Bible scholar is perfectly aware of it.  Some Christians, alas,/ resort to formal lying to obscure such reality.oB - Steve Allen, comdeian, from an essay in the book "The Courage of&   Conviction", edited by Philip Berman %%E ...it still remains true that as a set of cognitive beliefs about thesD existence of God in any recognizable sense continuous with the greatA systems of the past, religious doctrines constitute a speculativeu4 hypothesis of an extremely low order of probability.
 - Sidney Hook  %%M A fanatic is a person who can't change his mind and won't change the subject.y - Winston Churchills %%E We're fighting against humanism, we're fighting against liberalism...oD we are fighting against all the systems of Satan that are destroying4 our nation today...our battle is with Satan himself. - Jerry Falwello %%H They [preachers] dread the advance of science as witches do the approachG of daylight and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subversionss# of the duperies on which they live.s - Thomas Jefferson %%E Saints should always be judged guilty until they are proven innocent.u - George Orwell  %%G As I argued in "Beloved Son", a book about my son Brian and the subjectoG of religious communes and cults, one result of proper early instructionhB in the methods of rational thought will be to make sudden mindlessG conversions -- to anything -- less likely.  Brian now realizes this andsC has, after eleven years, left the sect he was associated with.  ThepG problem is that once the untrained mind has made a formal commitment topH a religious philosophy -- and it does not matter whether that philosophy> is generally reasonable and high-minded or utterly bizarre andA irrational -- the powers of reason are suprisingly ineffective inb changing the believer's mind.mB - Steve Allen, comdeian, from an essay in the book "The Courage of&   Conviction", edited by Philip Berman %%J Nothing is easier than to denounce the evildoer; nothing is more difficult than to understand him.t - Fyodor Dostoevskii %%F We may not be able to persuade Hindus that Jesus and not Vishnu shouldF govern their spiritual horizon, nor Moslems that Lord Buddha is at theH center of their spiritual universe, nor Hebrews that Mohammed is a majorB prohpet, nor Christians that Shinto best expresses their spiritualC concerns, to say nothing of the fact that we may not be able to getnE Christians to agree among themselves about their relationship to God.fH But all will agree on a proposition that they possess profound spiritualB resources.  If, in addition, we can get them to accept the furtherH proposition that whatever form the Deity may have in their own theology,G the Deity is not only external, but internal and acts through them, andiG they themselves give proof or disproof of the Deity in what they do andnE think; if this further proposition can be accepted, then we come thata4 much closer to a truly religious situation on earth./ - Norman Cousins, from his book "Human Options"s %%G The Messiah will come.  There will be a resurrection of the dead -- all G the things that Jews believed in before they got so damn sophisticated.e - Rabbi Meir Kahanec %% The world is no nursery. - Sigmund Freudl %%C If one inquires why the American tradition is so strong against anyeC connection of State and Church, why it dreads even the rudiments ofeA religious teaching in state-maintained schools, the immediate and ) superficial answer is not far to seek.... B The cause lay largely in the diversity and vitality of the variousE denominations, each fairly sure that, with a fair field and no favor,rD it could make its own way; and each animated by a jealous fear that,@ if any connection of State and Church were permitted, some rival+ denomination would get an unfair advantage.g/ - John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher,n'   from "Democracy in the Schools", 1908% %%F Already the spirit of our schooling is permeated with the feeling thatE every subject, every topic, every fact, every professed truth must be A submitted to a certain publicity and impartiality.  All profferedhF samples of learning must go to the same assay-room and be subjected toD common tests.  It is the essence of all dogmatic faiths to hold thatF any such "show-down" is sacrilegious and perverse.  The characteristicC of religion, from their point of view, is that it is intellectuallyo< secret, not public; peculiarly revealed, not generall known;A authoritatively declared, not communicated and tested in ordinarye@ ways...It is pertinent to point out that, as long as religion isG conceived as it is now by the great majority of professed religionists, A there is something self-contradictory in speaking of education inaC religion in the same sense in which we speak of education in topicseC where the method of free inquiry has made its way.  The "religious" > would be the last to be willing that either the history of the@ content of religion should be taught in this spirit; while thoseC to whom the scientific standpoint is not merely a technical device, D but is the embodiment of the integrity of mind, must protest against% its being taught in any other spirit.s/ - John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher, '   from "Democracy in the Schools", 1908. %%D In the broad and final sense all institutions are educational in theF sense that they operate to form the attitudes, dispositions, abilitiesF and disabilities that constitute a concrete personality...Whether thisE educative process is carried on in a predominantly democratic or non-lH democratic way becomes, therefore, a question of transcendent importanceC not only for education itself but for its final effect upon all the H interests and activites of a society that is committed to the democratic way of life.. - John Dewey (1859-1953), American philosopher %%K History shows that the human mind, fed by constant accessions of knowledge, F periodically grows too large for its theoretical coverings, and burstsE them asunder to appear in new habiliments, as the feeding and growingyD grub, at intervals, casts its too narrow skin and assumes another...D Truly the imago state of Man seems to be terribly distant, but every moult is a step gained... - Charles Darwin, from "Origin of the Species" %%D ...I would go so far as to suggest that, were it not for our ego andB concern to be different, the African apes would be included in our family, the Hominidae. - Richard Leakey %%G It is inconceivable that a judicious observer from another solar system F would see in our species -- which has tended to be cruel, destructive,C wasteful, and irrational -- the crown and apex of cosmic evolution.cD Viewing us as the culmination of *anything* is grotesque; viewing usE as a transitional species makes more sense -- and gives us more hope.i0 - Betty McCollister, "Our Transitional Species",&   Free Inquiry magazine, Vol. 8, No. 1 %%D "Well, you see, it's such a transitional creature.  It's a piss-poor% reptile and not very much of a bird." E - Melvin Konner, from "The Tangled Wing", quoting a zoologist who hass= studied the archeopteryz and found it "very much like people"r %%N "You need tender loving care once a week - so that I can slap you into shape." - Ellyn Mustard  %%D "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to
  create him.".  -Arthur C. Clarke %%1 "Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?"   -Ronald Reagant %%E "There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old thingsh  we don't know yet."  -Ambrose Bierce %%+ "Plan to throw one away.  You will anyway."l' - Fred Brooks, "The Mythical Man Month"t %%L You need tender loving care once a week - so that I can slap you into shape. - Ellyn Mustardt %%D "It may be that our role on this planet is not to worship God but to
  create him."   -Arthur C. Clarke %%1 "Why should we subsidize intellectual curiosity?"   -Ronald Reagani %%E "There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old thingse  we don't know yet."  -Ambrose Bierce %%L The Middle East is certainly the nexus of turmoil for a long time to come --G with shifting players, but the same game: upheaval.  I think we will beoC confronting militant Islam -- particularly fallout from the IranianoD revolution -- and religion will once more, as it has in our own moreL distant past -- play a role at least as standard-bearer in death and mayhem.O - Bobby R. Inman, Admiral, USN, Retired, former director of Naval Intelligence,cJ   vice director of the DIA, former director of the NSA, deputy director of7   Central Intelligence, former chairman and CEO of MCC.  %%H ...One thing is that, unlike any other Western democracy that I know of,G this country has operated since its beginnings with a basic distrust ofiJ government.  We are constituted not for efficient operation of government,I but for minimizing the possibility of abuse of power.  It took the eventsrK of the Roosevelt era -- a catastrophic economic collapse and a world war --tI to introduce the strong central government that we now know.  But in mosttF parts of the country today, the reluctance to have government is stillF strong.  I think, barring a series of catastrophic events, that we canE look to at least another decade during which many of the big problems H around this country will have to be addressed by institutions other than federal government.oO - Bobby R. Inman, Admiral, USN, Retired, former director of Naval Intelligence,eK   vice director of the DIA, former director of the NSA, deputy directory ofo7   Central Intelligence, former chairman and CEO of MCC.eO [the statist opinions expressed herein are not those of the cookie editor -ed.]e %%2 "I have just one word for you, my boy...plastics." - from "The Graduate"h %%9 "There is such a fine line between genius and stupidity."u! - David St. Hubbins, "Spinal Tap"h %%H "If Diet Coke did not exist it would have been neccessary to invent it." -- Karl Lehenbauer %%J I am approached with the most opposite opinions and advice, and by men whoH are equally certain that they represent the divine will.  I am sure thatJ either the one or the other is mistaken in the belief, and perhaps in some respects, both.   sI I hope it will not be irreverent of me to say that if it is probable thatnI God would reveal his will to others on a point so connected with my duty,e7 it might be supposed he would reveal it directly to me.s - Abraham Lincolne %%# In space, no one can hear you fart.o %%! Brain damage is all in your head.t -- Karl Lehenbauer %%K Wish and hope succeed in discerning signs of paranormality where reason andl" careful scientific procedure fail.2 - James E. Alcock, The Skeptical Inquirer, Vol. 12 %%