The Carolina ratification convention impeachment criteria: those are impeachable ‘who behave amiss or betray their public trust.’
Beginning shortly after the Watergate break-in and continuing to the present time, the President has engaged in a series of public statements and actions designed to thwart the lawful investigation by government prosecutors. Moreover, the President has made public announcements and assertions bearing on the Watergate case, which the evidence will show he knew to be false. These assertions, false assertions, impeachable, those who misbehave. Those who ‘behave amiss or betray the public trust.’
James Madison again at the Constitutional Convention: ‘A President is impeachable if he attempts to subvert the Constitution.'”
-Barbara Jordan, “Statement at the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Impeachment Hearings.”
Washington, D.C. – July 25, 1974
Category: quotes
Agree to Disagree or Fight
“‘I don’t believe in argument,” he said…
…’You don’t?’ Erens said, genuinely surprised. ‘Shit, and I thought I was the cynical one.”
‘It’s not cynicism,’ he said flatly. ‘I just think people overvalue argument because they like to hear themselves talk.’
‘Oh well, thank you.’
‘It’s comforting, I suppose.’ … ‘Most people are not prepared to have their minds changed,’ he said. ‘And I think they know that in their hearts that other people are the same, and one of the reasons that people become angry when they argue is that they realize just that, as they trot out their excuses.’
‘Excuses, eh? Well, if this ain’t cynicism, what is?’ Erens snorted.
‘Yes, excuses,’ he said, with what Erens thought might just have been a trace of bitterness. ‘I strongly suspect the things people believe in are usually just what they instinctively feel is right; the excuses, the justifications, the things you’re supposed to argue about, come later. They’re the least important part of belief. That’s why you can destroy them, win an argument, prove the other person wrong, and still they believe what they did in the first place.’ He looked at Erens. ‘You’ve attacked the wrong thing.’
‘So what do you suggest one does, Professor, if one is not to indulge in this futile … arguing stuff?’
‘Agree to disagree,’ he said. ‘Or fight.’
‘Fight?‘
He shrugged. ‘What else is left?’
‘Negotiate?’
‘Negotiation is a way to come to a conclusion; it’s the type of conclusion I’m talking about.’
‘Which basically is to disagree or fight?’
‘If it comes to it.’
-Iain M. Banks, Use of Weapons. London: Orbit, 2008.
Diversity vs. Inclusion
“Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusion is being asked to dance.”
—Verna Myers, Esq. quoted in Daniel Harvey, “Big Tech’s big inclusion problem.” 20 Minutes into the Future. October 22, 2019.
Arguing for a Different Reality
“Always remember that to argue, and win, is to break down the reality of the person you are arguing against. It is painful to lose your reality, so be kind, even if you are right.”
–Haruki Murakami, probably in Colourless Tsukuru Tazaki
Stephen Jay Gould
“But, as we consider the totality of similarly broad and fundamental aspects of life, we cannot defend division by two as a natural principle of objective order. Indeed, the ‘stuff’ of the universe often strikes our senses as complex and shaded continua, admittedly with faster and slower moments, and bigger and smaller steps, along the way. Nature does not dictate dualities, trinities, quarterings, or any ‘objective’ basis for human taxonomies; most of our chosen schemes, and our designated numbers of categories, record human choices from a cornucopia of possibilities offered by natural variation from place to place, and permitted by the flexibility of our mental capacities. How many seasons (if we wish to divide by seasons at all) does a year contain? How many stages shall we recognize in a human life?”
—Stephen Jay Gould, “The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox: Mending the Gap between Science and the Humanities.” New York: Harmony, 2003, p. 82, quoted in s.v. Stephen Jay Gould, Wikiquote.
Scratch: Hip Hop Turntablism Documentary
The important thing to remember is that this basement isn’t packed with treasure. It’s packed with junk. You have to spend the time to sort through the junk to find the treasure. There is no shortcut. There is no algorithm. There is only time, attention, noticing — digging…I like to try to apply this spirit of crate-digging to everyday life. The only way to find the good stuff, the special stuff, the genuine moments and the true inspiration, is to first engage with the everyday, the mundane, the seemingly useless, the things nobody else seems to care about. So engage. There is no shortcut; there is no algorithm. If all you do is track what’s trending, then all you’ll ever know is exactly what everyone else already knew. To discover, you have to dig.”
—Rob Walker, “Crate-Dig Reality.” The Art of Noticing. No. 29. September 29, 2019.
This could serve as a mission statement for cafebedouin.org.
Cormac McCarthy’s Tips on How to Write a [Great Blog Post]
“Finally, try to write the best version of your paper: the one that you like. You can’t please an anonymous reader, but you should be able to please yourself. Your paper — you hope — is for posterity. Remember how you first read the papers that inspired you while you enjoy the process of writing your own.”
-Van Savage and Pamela Yeh, “Novelist Cormac McCarthy’s tips on how to write a great science paper.” Nature. September 26, 2019.
tl;dr, roughly paraphrased: Cut out everything unnecessary. There should be two or three points the reader takes away from reading your post or paper. Limit each paragraph to a single idea, (Minto, anyone?) Keep your sentences short. Don’t digress. Don’t overdo it, or try to anticipate and defend against every tangential question. Use the grammar of speech. Use questions, informal speech with concrete examples. If you use math, separate it out. Read the finished draft aloud and fix what doesn’t sound right.
Hour of the Wolf
“[B]ecause I am a romantic, I still believe that we have the potential to be nobler than we know and better than we think. […] So I urge you to keep your heart’s compass on the true north of your dreams. Be free to be romantics, to reject cynicism, to believe that good will prevail and that those who do wrong will be punished, because, when the hour of the wolf comes, as it comes to all of us sooner or later, those are the things that sustain us.”
—J. Micheal Straczynski wrote that speech 20 years ago for Angela Lansbury’s Jessica Fletcher, the protagonist of Murder, She Wrote, quoted in Cord Brooks, “‘Writing Superficially Is Easy’: An Interview with J. Michael Straczynski.” Los Angeles Review of Books. September 21, 2019.
Also:
…”it doesn’t matter where you come from or what you endured or what your resources were or who didn’t believe in you. Your success is the result of your talent, your dreams and the degree to which you are — or are not — prepared to fight for them…
…What mattered to me in the telling was to illustrate that we have choices about how we react to the things that happen to us, that we can choose differently than others would have us choose, and that we can break the cycle of violence or abuse or alcoholism by taking responsibility for ourselves instead of blaming others or indulging in victimhood. If it can help some people understand that there is a way out of the darkness that does not require doing unto someone else as was done unto them, then the book has been worth the effort.”
—ibid.
Alternative Influence
“These strategies reveal a tension underlying the content produced by these influencers: while they present themselves as news sources, their content strategies often more accurately consist of marketing and advertising approaches. These approaches are meant to provoke feelings, memories, emotions, and social ties. In this way, the “accuracy” of their messaging can be difficult to assess through traditional journalistic tactics like fact-checking. Specifically, they recount ideological testimonials that frame ideology in terms of personal growth and self-betterment. They engage in self-branding techniques that present traditional, white, male-dominated values as desirable and aspirational. They employ search engine optimization (SEO) to highly rank their content against politically charged keywords. And they strategically use controversy to gain attention and frame political ideas as fun entertainment.”
-Rebecca Lewis, “Alternative Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right on YouTube.” Data & Society. August 2018.
More than you ever wanted to know about how the “alt-right” uses YouTube, and Google’s role in giving them a “platform”.
h/t O’Reilly
An Interview with Brontez Purnell – Believer Magazine
“Will I be anything? Will I be nothing at all? / The question wastes time. / I focus, get the chores done.”
—Jenn Pelly interviewing Brontez Purnell, “An Interview with Brontez Purnell.” The Believer Magazine. August 1, 2019.
Amazing interview throughout. Also liked:
“We endorse the use of lies but not at the expense of truth.”
—Bikini Kill quoted in ibid.
