Michael > Recent Status Updates

"Politics have long been defined as 'the systematic organization of hatreds'" [148]

p.139 - "I never forgot my Indian mother and family - and I never will - but being separated from them didn't create a block that somehow prevented me from pursuing a full and happy life. I'd learned quickly, as a matter of survival, that I needed to take opportunities as they came - if they came - and to look forward to the future."

"The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions, that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than to not be exercised at all. I like a little rebellion now and then. It is like a storm in the atmosphere." - Thomas Jefferson in a letter to Abigail Adams (John Adams' wife)

"...Al and Ethel had been married thirty-seven years, they had never - not once - lived together thirty days in a row. Now in retirement she let him go again to chase the dream of a big year.

“It is a message that neither Reagan nor Johnson had much use for but that thestory of both of their lives confirms: what lies ahead of us is not the certain promise of utopia, but the infinite possibilities of life itself.”

"And like many Westerners, I also get confused by "human" (ningen) adn "carrot" (ninjin), which once caused a lot of puzzled looks during a speech I gave in Tokyo on the merits of internationalization, when I passionately declared that "I am a carrot. You are a carrot. We are all carrots. As long as we always remember our common carrotness, we will be fine" (36)

Montgomery calling Eisenhower and his leadership useless is like the pot calling the kettle black. Remember Monty's slow crawl across Sicily and Italy, his failure to close with the Germans to close the Falaise Gap, and his failure to clean out the Scheldt, never-mind the utter disaster of Market Garden particularly for British First Airborne. He (Monty) should have been relieved long before the winter of 1944.

Two Observations so far:
1. I did not know until beginning this book how intertwined with Japanese government the underworld gangs were; both pre-war and post-war.
2. I find myself almost admiring the way the yakuza leaders built organizations and developed their empires. However, I say almost because they are criminals after all!

"...and after a number of adventures eventually found his way to the Great Nef, an area of the Disc so dry that it actually has negative rainfall, which he nevertheless considered uncomfortably damp." Terton, lengthman on Discworld rim.

"Believe me, Noxon, up to now we've only been dealing with time-shifting, the laws of causality, computers that lie, and perfidious talking mice. Now we'll be dealing with bureaucrats. This is when it gets complicated." - Ram Odin to Rigg Noxon

"That's how Umbo was made. By genetic manipulation conducted remotely, by the mice."

Some aspects of this trilogy make me wonder how much Card has been influenced by Adams and his Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy Series. The answer is 42!

"The word of a Klingon warrior is enough to move planets, to destroy starships, to annihilate suns. But without it, we are nothing!" - Captain Klag of I.K.S. Gorkon