an old truth -- a new way

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
--Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

reductionist science

"... once science has reduced a complex phenomenon to a couple of variables, however important they may be, the natural tendency is to overlook everything else, to assume that what you can measure is all there is, or at least all that really matters. When we mistake what we can know for all there is to know, a healthy appreciation of one's ignorance in the face of a mystery like soil fertility gives way to the hubris that we can treat nature as a machine."
--Michael Pollan, The Omnivore's Dilemma

a delightful week in boise

The main event:
The Idaho Shakespeare Festival

And some new and old favorites:
The Bombay Grill
Goldy's
The FlipSide Cafe

pez pundits

"We need anything politically important rationed out like Pez: small, sweet, and coming out of a funny, plastic head."
--Dennis Miller

i love a good storm

Tonight: Windy with isolated thunderstorms this evening, then skies turning partly cloudy after midnight. A few storms may be severe. Low 56F. SW winds at 20 to 30 mph, diminishing to 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 30%.

ultimate romance

Debi: "OK, you can go now."
Marty: "You want me to leave right now? You don't maybe want to watch CNN, Crossfire, something romantic?"
Debi: "No, airplane was quite enough."
Marty: "OK, I'll go. That's fine. I'll go. But this night, tomorrow night, the reunion, is going to be an important step in our burgeoning relationship."
Debi: "You're a f***ing psycho."
Marty: "Don't rush to judgment on something like that until all the facts are in."
--Minnie Driver and John Cusack, Grosse Pointe Blank

how to preside over a house on fire

Today's headlines:
Lebanon death toll 'reaches 900'
Wave of Rocket Attacks Kill 8 in Israel
U.S. General Says Iraq Could Slide Into a Civil War
Suicide Bomber Kills 21 Civilians in Afghanistan
Marines Charged With Assault in Iraq Case

so ....
Bush previews border efforts before vacation

stop, children, what's that sound

There's something happening here
What it is ain't exactly clear
There's a man with a gun over there
Telling me I got to beware

I think it's time we stop, children, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

There's battle lines being drawn
Nobody's right if everybody's wrong
Young people speaking their minds
Getting so much resistance from behind

I think it's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

What a field-day for the heat
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side

It's time we stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down

Paranoia strikes deep
Into your life it will creep
It starts when you're always afraid
You step out of line, the man come and take you away

We better stop, hey, what's that sound
Everybody look what's going down ...

--Buffalo Springfield, "For What It's Worth"
Stephen Stills, 1966

give 'em hell

"Some 37 years ago, as a bunch of us spent a night in a cozy jail cell for protesting the Vietnam War, we noticed the graffiti on a wall of our cell which said: "What do we ask for? Freedom. What do we get? Bologna sandwiches." The phrase has stuck with me: You have to ask for a lot to get a smidgeon of freedom.

And I dare you to ask for a lot, I dare you to hold fast to your ideals and to expound them as publicly and as fearlessly as Martin Luther King and Bill Coffin and Betty Friedan and those dozens of grandmothers arrested a few weeks ago for protesting the war in Iraq.

Most such paradigms of valor and commitment have been galvanized by the belief that you have to give hell to entrenched power when it violates our notions of human justice. So my final message to you is this: Whether it be on the issue of racial integration or gay rights or sexual equality or the pathetic state of health care in this country or one of the dumbest military excursions ever waged by an American government--the Iraq War--your motto should be: Give 'em hell, give 'em hell, give 'em hell!

There are never enough troublemakers fighting for justice, so go out there and give 'em hell to create a better world for you and your children to grow into. You know one of Barnard's mottoes--say it with me: "Change the world, one woman at a time."
--Francine du Plessix Gray, Commencement Address to the Class of 2006 at Barnard College, May 16, 2006