REWIND - A Week of Quotes and Cartoons
SUNDAY
Quote of the Day
May 5, 2013
'One church on Long Island, near New York, has gone as far as to recommend that its attendees refrain from asking young people "what do you do?" Instead, as a recent church bulletin advised (pdf), it's better to ask the more generic "So, tell me about yourself." You know we've reached a tipping-point when you can't ask even twentysomethings about their work.'
Assistant Editor Heather Long
The Guardian (UK)
May 4, 2013
Toon of the Day
Capitol Cannibals
Tom Toles - Washington Post
MONDAY
Quote of the Day
May 6, 2013
'Our investigators have been in neighboring countries interviewing victims, doctors and field hospitals. According to their report of last week, which I have seen, there are strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated.'
'... This was use on the part of the opposition, the rebels, not by the government authorities.'
Carla Del Ponte, a member
of the United Nations
independent commission
of inquiry on Syria
New York Times
May 6, 2013]
Toon of the Day
http://tinyurl.com/cvhq9xw
Liberty and Justice
KAL - The Economist
TUESDAY
Quote of the Day
May 7, 2013
' ... it's worth asking why so many of Obama's initiatives have dropped out of public view. Obama has called for raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. Many Democrats in Congress think, correctly, that it should be set at $10. Would it be so hard for Obama to come out fighting for the minimum-wage increase - and for other steps to bolster the incomes of those stuck at the bottom of the economy? Why not expose that none of this is happening because of GOP opposition?
'Obama wants to provide universal pre-K education. That ought to be a bipartisan idea. Many Republican governors have embraced the concept in their states. Shouldn't the president be pushing harder to get it on the media's radar by way of forcing a debate in Congress?
'The president believes we need to spend more on our infrastructure to boost job creation now and to make us competitive for the long run. He's right. But he needs to make clear it is something that's genuinely important to him.'
Columnist E.J. Dionne Jr.
Washington Post
May 6, 2013
Toon of the Day
Flat Earth
Matt Bors
WEDNESDAY
Quote of the Day
May 8, 2013
'Alec MacGillis reports on the lavish rewards for college students participating in It's Up To Us, yet another tentacle of the deficit-scold octopus, this time mobilizing the young. If you read the front organization's site, it seems to imply that universities - not just individual student organizations - are involved, and my understanding is that it looks that way at some of the schools too; in effect, political advocacy is being masked as general public service, because of course promoting Simpson-Bowles is the patriotic thing to do, right?
'Austerity mania, it turns out, isn't just a disaster on intellectual and policy grounds; it has also turned into an ethical morass.'
Economist Paul Krugman
New York Times
May 8, 2013
Toon of the Day
The Market's High
Patrick Chappatte
THURSDAY
Quote of the Day
May 9, 2013
'The main barrier to confronting the climate crisis isn't lack of knowledge about the problem, nor is it the lack of cost-effective solutions.
'It's the lack of political will by most world leaders to confront the special interests that have worked long and hard to block the path to a sustainable low- carbon future. Until this changes, we're not going to see the action we need.'
Alden Meyer, director of strategy
at the Union of Concerned
Scientists who has attended
virtually every climate negotiation
over the past 19 years
Inter Press Service News
May 9, 2013
Toon of the Day
Arf, Arf
Mike Luckovich
FRIDAY
Quote of the Day
May 10, 2013
'My favorite slogan from the Occupy movement was "Wake up from the American Dream. Create a livable American reality." That is the challenge We the People face in the 21st century. And we have to face it with little help from our political elite and none from capital. We have to do it ourselves. It will take social movements and prolonged struggle. It will take courage and bold experimentation. And for starters, it will take speaking the truth: The American Dream is over. For good or ill, history will move on without it.
'Postscript: Besides this dominant American Dream, there is an alternative one in the background. It has its roots in the 18th century Enlightenment and was expressed in the French Revolution with the slogan "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity." That was the dream of a society in which all could live in community, a society of mutual support among equals, where each individual was free to develop his/her human capacities supported by the community. The basic values of that vision are deeply rooted in the American culture. It can be the basis of an alternative - sustainable - American Dream.'
Cliff DuRand, research associate at
the Center for Global Justice, professor
emeritus of philosophy at Morgan State
University in Baltimore, and coauthor
and co-editor of Recreating Democracy in a
Globalized State.
Truthout
'The American Dream Is Dead; Long Live
the New Dream'
May 10, 2013
Toon of the Day
Washington Witch Hunt
David Horsey - Los Angeles Times
SATURDAY
Quote of the Day
May 11, 2013
' The problem is simply stated: the power of the fossil fuel companies is too great. Among those who seek and obtain high office are people characterised by a complete absence of empathy or scruples, who will take money or instructions from any corporation or billionaire who offers them, and then defend those interests against the current and future prospects of humanity.
'This new climate milestone reflects a profound failure of politics, in which democracy has quietly been supplanted by plutocracy. Without a widespread reform of campaign finance, lobbying and influence-peddling and the systematic corruption they promote, our chances of preventing climate breakdown are close to zero.
'So here stands our political class at a waystation along the road of idiocy, apparently determined only to complete the journey.'
George Monbiot
The Guardian (UK)
May 10, 2013
Toon of the Day
Toasting Success
Joel Pett - Lexington Herald-Leader
Spread the word