Death on High Heels

"Don't be so humble - you are not that great."
- Golda Meir (1898-1978) to a visiting diplomat

"Anything that is too stupid to be spoken is sung."
- Voltaire (1694-1778)

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men."
- Charles de Gaulle (1890-1970)

First they came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.
-Martin Niemoller

"And don't tell me God works in mysterious ways", Yossarian continued. "There's nothing mysterious about it. He's not working at all. He's playing. Or else He's forgotten all about us. That's the kind of God you people talk about, a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed. Good God, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of Creation? What in the world was running through that warped, evil, scatalogical mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did He ever create pain?"
-Joseph Heller (Catch22)

"In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."
- Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968)

War is a quarrel between two thieves too cowardly to fight their own battle; therefore they take boys from one village and another village, stick them into uniforms, equip them with guns, and let them loose like wild beasts against each other.
-Thomas Carlyle

"The difference between 'involvement' and 'commitment' is like an eggs-and-ham breakfast: the chicken was 'involved' - the pig was 'committed'."
- unknown

"The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good."
- Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)

Monsters cannot be announced. One cannot say: 'here are our monsters', without immediately turning the monsters into pets.
-Jacques Derrida

He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would fully suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, senseless brutality, deplorable love-of-country stance, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action! It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.
-Albert Einstein

'Is it worth it? Should we just pull back, forget the whole thing as a bad idea and take care of our own problems at home?'
'No. We have to stay here and there's a simple reason why. Ask ten different scientists about the environment, population control, genetics and you'll get ten different answers, but there's one thing every scientist on the planet agrees on: Whether it happens in a hundred years or a thousand years or a million years, eventually our Sun will grow cold and go out. When that happens, it won't just take us. It'll take Marilyn Monroe and Lao-Tzu and Einstein and Morobuto and Buddy Holly and Aristophenes...and all of this...all of this was for nothing unless we go to the stars.'
-Sinclair being interviewed by Mary Ann Cramer (B5 'Infection')

“The most precious gift we can offer others is our presence. When mindfulness embraces those we love, they will bloom like flowers.�
-Thich Nhat Hanh

Article 19. Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
-United Nations, Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted Dec.10, 1948

“Life can be found only in the present moment. The past is gone, the future is not yet here, and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment, we cannot be in touch with life.�
-Thich Nhat Hanh

"Learning is what most adults will do for a living in the 21st century."
- Lewis Perelman

Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to...) - Queen
Money - Jesca Hoop
How Am I Different? Aimee Mann
Jaded - Aerosmith
The Coast is Always Changing - Maximo Park
Down At McDonnellzzzzzz - Electric Six
With a Little Help From My Friends - Across the Universe Soundtrack (The Beatles)
Say It Ain't So - The Tallywood String Quartet (Weezer)
Redemption Day - Sheryl Crow
Colorblind - The Counting Crows
Staying Alive - Cursive
Where Does the Good Go? - Tegan and Sara
The City Consumes Us - The Delgados
Mad World - Gary Jules
I Can't Get Behind That - William Shatner
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
Because - Across the Universe Soundtrack (The Beatles)
Colors of the Wind - Alan Menken & Stephen Schwartz
More Adventurous - Rilo Kiley
Do You Realize? - The Flaming Lips
Ooh La La - Rod Stewart

If all this doesn't explain it to you, I don't think I can.