The Right To Steal...

 "The food we were given was no more than eatable, but the patron was not mean about drink; he allowed us two litres of wine a day each, knowing that if a plongeur is not given two litres he will steal three..." -- George Orwell, 'Down And Out in Paris and London'

Canada, Ukraine and New Yorkistan...

 "This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half..." -- George Orwell, "Animal Farm"

Of Rats And Sinking Ships...

 "One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, 'Natural Cure' quack, pacifist and feminist in England. The Food Crank is by definition a person willing to cut himself off from human society in hopes of adding five years to his carcase; that is, a person out of touch with common humanity ..." -- George Orwell, 'The Road to Wigan Pier"

You All Suck (#42- Random Bits of As*hole and Orwell Edition)

 "I believe in equality. Equality for everyone. No matter how stupid they are or how superior I am to them..." -- Steve Martin

"He is not so ugly, after all, provided, of course, that one shuts one's eyes, and does not look at him..." -- Oscar Wilde, "A House of Pomegranates".

A Nation of Damaged Navel Gazers...

"America wasn't founded so that we could all be better. It was founded so we could all damned well be anything we pleased..." -- P.J. O'Rourke

When You Even Get Revisionist History Wrong...

"Who controls the past controls the future; Who controls the present controls the past" -- George Orwell, "1984"

The Internet of Things And You...

"When we talk about an 'Internet of Things', it's not just putting RFID tags on some dumb things so that we smart people know where that dumb thing is. It's about embedding intelligence so that things become smart and do more than they were proposed to do" -- Nicholas Negroponte, Co-Founder of the MIT Media Lab.

Stupid is the New Black

"In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense. And what was terrifying was not that they would kill you for thinking otherwise, but that they might be right. For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?" -- George Orwell, "1984"

Voices Inside My Head #4

If you care about the "cause" of Global Warming/Climate Change, or you are convinced of the Apocalyptic end of the Planet, then do the logical thing -- rid Planet Earth of your disgusting Carbon Footprint and kill yourself -- show your devotion to the cause, for only after you set the proper example will you have the moral authority to lecture me, Pal.

Voices Inside My Head #3

I have to, with great reluctance, retract something I wrote here recently.

Not because I have to; not because someone complained (as if that would work?); not because I was necessarily wrong. But because I have made a fundamental error in logic that surprises me. It's as if, for a brief moment, my normally superior linear thinking skills deserted me.

Galactic Overlords do not like to admit mistakes. However, one becomes a better Galactic Overlord by admitting them and learning from the experience. Internet Hegemony does not come to those who cannot identify and correct a critical mistake in thought.