Commonplacing

"Inspired by NYT story of reading a book a day for a year, I hereby commit to reading tens of..."

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 22:20:52 -0400

“Inspired by NYT story of reading a book a day for a year, I hereby commit to reading *tens* of tweets daily for a year.”

- Dan Cohen in a tweet about “A Quest to Read a Book a Day for 365 Days”. This is tongue in cheek, of course, because Cohen is a historian. Still, it’s hard to find time to read, which explains the lack of quotes here recently.

"The city is the diplomatic equivalent of the bar scene in the first Star Wars. Its array of trading..."

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 06:49:08 -0400

“The city is the diplomatic equivalent of the bar scene in the first Star Wars. Its array of trading partners and business interests is a gallery of strange bedfellows.”

- Jim Krane writing about Dubai in “American Nuclear Reactors for Dubai, Iran’s Best Friend,” Informed Comment, 8 Sept. 2009.

"Major news organizations need to cover hate the way they once did — as a standalone beat."

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 08:51:39 -0400

“Major news organizations need to cover hate the way they once did — as a standalone beat.”

- Charles Davis, “Unhealthy silence: Best way to beat hatemongering is to report it,” Columbia Daily Tribune, Aug. 18, 2009

"When you lose Walmart for being too crazy-rightwing, you’re just plain too crazy-rightwing."

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:56:30 -0400

“When you lose Walmart for being too crazy-rightwing, you’re just plain too crazy-rightwing.”

- Wisco of Griper News regarding Walmart’s dropping its support for Glen Beck’s show on Fox.

"In order to be fair, we will alternate questions between the badly misinformed, the rigidly..."

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:49:48 -0400

“In order to be fair, we will alternate questions between the badly misinformed, the rigidly ideological, and the actively hallucinating.””

- Announcement at a town hall meeting on health care; political Cartoon by Wassermann, The Boston Globe, reprinted in The Washington Post, August 15, 2009, p. A17.

"I don’t find Canadians particularly scary, but I guess some of the opponents of reform think..."

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 20:54:12 -0400

“I don’t find Canadians particularly scary, but I guess some of the opponents of reform think that they make a good boogeyman.”

- Barrack Obama displaying his wry humor in connection with health care reform, as quoted by Carol E. Lee, “President Obama: Immigration bill coming this year,” Politico, Aug. 10, 2009.

"There’s a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned..."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:41:24 -0400

“There’s a lot of populist anger directed towards Washington, but you know who concerned citizens should be most angry at? Their fellow citizens. ‘Inside the beltway’ thinking may be wrong, but at least it’s thinking, which is more than you can say for what’s going on outside the beltway.”

- Bill Maher, “New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country,” Huffington Post, 8/7/2009

"At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to..."

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 23:25:39 -0400

“At a recent town-hall meeting in South Carolina, a man stood up and told his Congressman to ‘keep your government hands off my Medicare,’ which is kind of like driving cross country to protest highways.”

- Bill Maher, “New Rule: Smart President ≠ Smart Country,” Huffington Post, 8/7/2009 [hat tip]

"There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his..."

Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:01:05 -0400

“There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his conscience. Even the common soldier, serving in the ranks of his army, is not called upon to obey illegal orders.”

- Hartley Shawcross, quoted in Michael R. Marrus, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945–45: A Documentary History (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 88.

"Current law basically allows the Gawkers of the world to appropriate others’ work, repurpose..."

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:02:08 -0400

“Current law basically allows the Gawkers of the world to appropriate others’ work, repurpose it and sell ads against it …”

- Ian Shapira, “The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition),” The Washington Post, August 2, 2009.

"We must establish incredible events by credible evidence."

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:26:05 -0400

“We must establish incredible events by credible evidence.”

- Robert H. Jackson on June 6, 1945 in a report to the president as the allies moved towards trying Nazis for criminal behavior, quoted in Michael R. Marrus, The Nuremberg War Crimes Trial 1945–46 (Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1997), 42.

"What most people would view as truly bizarre, conspiracy theorists find energizing."

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:23:48 -0400

“What most people would view as truly bizarre, conspiracy theorists find energizing.”

- Liz Halloran, “Why Do Doubts About Obama’s Birthplace Persist?,” NPR, July 29, 2009

"Evidence … has been proved to feed conspiracies, rather than kill them."

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:22:42 -0400

“Evidence … has been proved to feed conspiracies, rather than kill them.”

- Liz Halloran, “Why Do Doubts About Obama’s Birthplace Persist?,” NPR, July 29, 2009

"Here chivalry disappeared for always. Like all noble and personal feelings it had to give way to the..."

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:59:06 -0400

“Here chivalry disappeared for always. Like all noble and personal feelings it had to give way to the new tempo of battle and to the rule of the machine. Here the new Europe revealed itself for the first time in combat.”

- Ernst Jünger, quoted in Eksteins, Rites of Spring, 144.

"Nothing could be less conservative than to fight for forms which in the course of time have lost..."

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 10:13:24 -0400

“Nothing could be less conservative than to fight for forms which in the course of time have lost their importance.”

- Wilhelm von Kardorff, quoted in Modris Eksteins, Rites of Spring: The Great War and the Birth of the Modern Age (1989; Boston: Mariner, 2000), 72.

"Countries acquired colonies before World War I much the same way they acquired battleships, and for..."

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:32:13 -0400

“Countries acquired colonies before World War I much the same way they acquired battleships, and for much the same reasons.”

- Leonard V. Smith, Stéphane Aoudoin-Rouzeau, and Annette Becker, France and the Great War 1914–1918 (Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2003), p. 13.

"It should not be necessary to argue that the model of a natural and self-adjusting economy, working..."

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:20:33 -0400

“It should not be necessary to argue that the model of a natural and self-adjusting economy, working providentially for the best good of all, is as much a superstition as the notions which upheld the paternalist model.”

- E. P. Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past & Present 50 (Feb. 1971): 76–136, quote on 91.

"If a man doesn’t get his due in one world, he can always get it in another. It’s a great..."

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 10:01:29 -0400

“If a man doesn’t get his due in one world, he can always get it in another. It’s a great pleasure to see and do new things.”

- Voltaire, Candide, trans. and ed. by Daniel Gordon (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999), ch. 14, p. 68.

"It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about..."

Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:33:32 -0400

“It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about the fact that Mousavi didn’t win, but that’s not the issue. That’s not why they’re protesting. They’re protesting because the government thought it could make fools of them. All this was a play, it was a movie. It wasn’t real. It was a charade. People are hopeless and depressed because they were played with, not because Mousavi lost.”

- From Tehran, 24 June 2009 [10 am Eastern US], Iran Updates, Tehran Bureau

"In essence, the core of the struggle is between two competing views of what this country’s Islamic..."

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 23:15:47 -0400

“In essence, the core of the struggle is between two competing views of what this country’s Islamic revolution sought to achieve.”

- Robert F. Worth, “A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution,” The New York Times, June 20, 2009