Never Enough Sig Quotes Department

For my sig quote collection:

"Why of course the people don't want war... But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

-- Hermann Goering At the Nuremberg trials.

Damn, Goering taught us well. Too bad we always blank out on the final exam.

Never Enough Shoes That Fit Department

Nobody who knows me well is surprized to know I collect shoes and boots. But most are in my size. I might grab a pair of cute vintage shoes for someone I know who wears that approximate size, but the only exceptions are a pair of black open-toe velvet stillettos from the 40s, worn with full-fashioned stockings by my mannequin legs, and this odd pair I normally wouldn't have kept. They were fake leather, chunky heeled--at the time, a minus--and were thrown away for no apparent reason. They had no wear, no stains, no flaws other than the few I mentioned. And they weren't really my style. But something compelled me to hold onto them. Considering I was couch-surfing at the time, desperately trying to find an apartment, shoes I couldn't wear and didn't care for much should've been awfully low on my list of things to hold onto. Yet I did.

Last week, Cynthia and I were sorting through the chaotic mess of my room, when she stumbled upon these shoes, and asked about them. I muttered something to the effect of the story above and kept on delving.

She then tried them on. And they fit, perfectly.

And, on her, they are HOT.

Do I really need any more hints that she is The One?!? Not that I am complaining...!

Never Enough Gender Wedgies Department

From today's New York Times, a story on how Enron was mostly men and how a bunch of women were largely responsible for its downfall:

Only 10 years after Mattel put out Teen Talk Barbie whining "Math class is tough," we have women unearthing the Rosetta stone of this indecipherable scandal.

What does this gender schism mean? That men care more about inflating their assets? That women are more caring about colleagues getting shafted?

It is men's worst fear, personally and professionally, that women will pin the sin on them, come "out of the night like a missile and destroy a man," as Alan Simpson said during the Hill-Thomas hearings.

There has been speculation that women are more likely to be whistleblowers ? or tattletales when they are little ? because they are less likely to be members of the club.

Some men suggest that women, with their vast experience with male blarney, are experts at calling guys on it.

At Enron, it was men who came up with complex scams showing there was no limit to the question "How much is enough?" And it was women who raised the simple question, "Why?"

Never Enough Mathematician Monks Department

My friend Rev. Superkate of slackware.com turned me on to this essay, and it just blows me away. In summary: A medieval monk has now two distinct claims to fame in Western Civilisation: He wrote the poem that was turned by Carl Orff into "O Fortuna" (e.g. the main theme from *Excalibur*), and he began work in the 13th Century on probability theory that lead to approximations of Pi and the Mandelbrot set (e.g. a "fractal dragon").

Combine this with the descriptions of a monk's life, and MAN...! Party all night, spend all day coming up with weird mathematics 700 years ahead of its time. Sounds like a better gig than tech support, to be sure.

THE MANDELBROT MONK

Never Enough Beautiful Bible Quotes Department

From How to Fight the Religious Right: A guide to defending yourself against Fundamentalist Christians:

Of course, you can also just quote these two verses one right after the other:

"God is not like men, who lie; He is not a human who changes his mind. Whatever he promises, he does; He speaks and it is done." - Numbers 23:19

"So the Lord changed his mind and did not bring on his people the disaster he threatened." - Exodus 32:14

Owie.