You can get assent to almost any proposition so long as you are not going to do anything about it.
I want to find someone on the earth so intelligent that he welcomes opinions which he condemns.
People who love soft methods and hate iniquity forget this, — that reform consists in taking a bone from a dog. Philosophy will not do it.
There are lots of people who cannot think seriously without injuring their minds.
People get so in the habit of worry that if you save them from drowning and put them on a bank to dry in the sun with hot chocolate and muffins they wonder whether they are catching cold.
- John Jay Chapman (1862-1933).
ODD/HUMOR/CURIOSA/TRIVIA
From the rapid-clip, quick-witted, free-associative standup of Kyle Cease 
:
You remember from high-school Chemistry lab, those godawful brown paper towels that were water-repellent?…where you couldn’t absorb the water with them – you had to push it around the table till it fell off?
…
You ever go to restaurants that, whether you want Coke or Pepsi, always seem to have the exact opposite?:
Yes, I’d like a Coke -
- Pepsi OK?
I’ll have a 7-Up -
- Sprite?
…A Slurpee -
- Icee?
I need some salt -
- Mrs. Dash?
Can I speak to your manager -
- Owner OK?
Kiss my ass -
- [BLEEP] your [BLEEP]?
“A collection of cartoons from the issue, plus this week’s Cartoon Caption Contest.”
Scary NY welcome for French tourists: police chase.
Dog plays with a fawn 
. Bulldog adopts tiger. The flying feline. Incredible dog challenge. Palin story sparks GOP family feud 
. Whack-less kitties. Cat chases a kite. Dog does backflips 
.
Oregon man’s wallet returns after 63 years.
“A tale about a recent excursion as a nod to the drama surrounding Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina.”
An example of “that rarest of collector’s items, German wit.”
“YouTube video shows church ‘exorcism‘ of gay teenager: Manifested Glory Ministries denies any wrongdoing but gay advocates demand an investigation.”
WORLD/NATIONAL
In defense of Mark Sanford.
“The true roots of the current economic crisis lie in the privileging of the US dollar as the chief reserve currency during the Cold War—an arrangement that allowed the US to pursue an imperial mission that was greatly to the satisfaction of its partners and allies, but also led to huge macroeconomic imbalances. Until the US renounces this mission, it may be impossible to end them.”
“Nostalgianomics: Liberal economists pine for days no liberal should want to revisit.”
Live-blogging Iran: “There’s great brutality on display but also great humanity and, in as much as this is the kind of material a Stendhal, a Tolstoy or a Dickens would use as their inspiration, its overall impact is as powerful and intense as the great nineteenth century novels. This time, however, it’s a story being written in real-time in blogs, on Twitter and on Youtube.”
“Twittergasms: How much easier it is to raise three–or 3 million–rousing tweets for the demonstrators in Tehran than to mount any sort of political resistance at home!”
“The debates on race and the law surrounding Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s nomination are highlighting a deep inconsistency in the way conservatives approach these issues.”
“An American who arrived as a volunteer rescue worker after the 2005 earthquake that killed 80,000 Pakistanis started a hospital that treats 100,000 annually.”
Five Reasons “Cash for Clunkers” is a Joke.
“Attorney General Eric Holder must make rape-prevention standards mandatory in correctional agencies throughout the country.”
“Keeping the peace in Ramadi calls for a little moral dexterity.”
“A blast in Baghdad tests the endurance of a soldier and his family.”
MEDIA
“Four crowdsourcing lessons from the Guardian’s (spectacular) expenses-scandal experiment.”
SOCIETY
“Employers are begging for specially skilled applicants in fields like critical care nursing and geology.”
A blue-collar renaissance? Why manual labor is making a comeback. Reconsidering Manual Labor. A Hands-On Philosopher Argues for a Fresh Vision of Manual Work.
“Middle-class parents are an insecure, easily gulled consumer group.”
“How to Make It in the Afterlife: As long as you’re alive, there’s always the risk that something could go wrong.”
“Even back in 1980, when Barack Obama 
was a freshman at Occidental College in California, he had clear-cut ideas about style and self-presentation.”
“Although the hospitality industry has outgrown many of its hard-partying ways, nondrinkers and bar or restaurant work don’t always mix easily.”
“Pastor Urges His Flock to Bring Guns to Church: In Louisville, Ky., a sign that American gun culture is thriving despite, or perhaps because of, President Obama.”
“The justices ruled, 8 to 1, that Arizona school officials had insufficient reason to search for prescription drugs in the 13-year-old girl’s undergarments.”
Media mom famed for setting tyke solo to free-roam Manhattan blogs at Free-Range Kids, “Giving our kids the freedom we had without going nuts with worry.” “Childhood is, or has been, or ought to be, the great original adventure, a tale of privation, courage, constant vigilance, danger, and sometimes calamity.”
$8 shoe machine for high-heeled seeking comfort.
“The Slave in the Garage: Sold by her parents and smuggled into the U.S., one young girl did a family’s dirty work for two years. And then help arrived.”
Tearing up over Tide: “It feels so good to be able to know that I’ve got clean clothes to put on.” 
– Charlotte, Galveston, TX, on Tide’s Loads of Hope program supplying mobile laundry trucks after natural disasters like Hurricanes Ike and Katrina.
The Most Dangerous Sport: Cheerleading.
“A raid at the Stonewall Inn that galvanized gays was primarily a crackdown on the Mafia.”
“Many teenagers are choosing to create their own jobs rather than rely on a sagging job market.”
“What cigarette manufacturers like Marlboro might do to follow the new marketing rules: embrace the restrictions and make cigarettes look truly dangerous.” 
“Are We Becoming Less Entrepreneurial? That’s what the data show.”
“Our best universities have forgotten that the reason they exist is to make minds, not careers.” “Is College Worth It?” “The four-year college degree has come to cost too much and prove too little: It’s now a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer.” “College-aged students are not interested in literature or philosophy or mathematics. They want to know what prospective employers want them to know so that they can land the job and start buying the things advertised on television during golf tournaments.”
“If oil companies could control more cities they’d all look like this.”
“A Bank Run Teaches the ‘Plain People’ About the Risks of Modernity: Some Amish Lived It Up Until Hard Times Hit; Dinners Out and LED-Appointed Carriages.”
“In Defense of Google Books: Don’t listen to dystopian monopoly-mongers.”
“Have modern American couples let anxieties about children, mortgages and success destroy their passion and romance?”
SCIENCE/HEALTH/MEDICINE/FITNESS/NATURE/ECOLOGY/OUTDOORS
Doctor in 1999 South Pole rescue dies in Mass.
“A bone flute and two fragments of ivory flutes discovered last fall represent the earliest known flowering of music-making in Stone Age culture.”
“Can You Get Fit in Six Minutes a Week?”
“Ida, a fossil celebrity: What’s so special about the squashed-flat remains of an adapiform from the Messel pit?”
First Image of a Memory Being Made.
“Venting rage may feel good, but it can have personal, and cardiovascular, consequences.”
“Evolutionary psychology is being used to try to explain more than it can bear.”
“Being overweight, but not obese, may help you live longer.”
Achieve a Deep, Uninterrupted Sleep. Easy Ways to Catch More ZZZs.
Easy Ways to Improve Your Vision.
“When a two-ton predator caught surfer Todd Endris in its jaws, an unlikely group of swimmers came to his rescue.”
20 memory tricks you’ll never forget.
How a chair, rocks, aspirin, and a scarf can keep you alive in 12 do-or-die emergencies.
“Scientists are beginning to find a connection between bizarre deformities in water animals and abnormalities in humans.”
“A fisherman marvels at another man’s ability to share the consciousness of his catch.”
“A new method of attacking cancer cells, developed by researchers in Australia, has proved surprisingly effective in animal tests.”
A library of the world’s most unusual compounds.
A stingray leaps out of the water as it is hunted by a killer whale.
“A cancer survivor and writer says the ‘cancer community‘ lacks a cohesive political movement.”
Female ducks fight back against ‘raping’ males.
From The Glass To The Brain In Six Minutes.
Gallery of Wild Sharks.
Too Much Sugar Causes Wrinkles.
“New Colorado laws allow residents to begin rainwater harvesting, a practice that water rights laws once prohibited.”
“It is in fact healthier to be unambitious; dogged persistence can lead to despair.”
“Beekeeping is illegal in New York City, but some people take the risk and tend hives on rooftops or in backyards.” “The Beekeepers Ball, held Monday night at the Water Taxi Beach in the South Street Seaport, drew advocates for local beekeeping along with their friends, many in costume.” Slideshow. 
“‘Worm porn’ video shows details of nematode sex.”
“Scientists are coming ever closer to understanding the cellular navigation tools that guide birds in their unerring, globe-spanning migrations.”
HOME/LIVING/TECHNOLOGY
America’s Most Expensive Homes.
Blame dishwasher? Fail: yours.
Decoding Battery Life for Laptops.
“The garden of Wijlre castle, a 17th-century castle near Maastricht in the Netherlands, is considered one of the “top eight” gardens in Europe.”
“Acer’s Everywhere. How Did That Happen?: In the PC industry’s worst slump ever, a Taiwanese company is taking aim at both Dell and Hewlett-Packard.”
“Mozilla’s latest upgrade to its Firefox browser became available today [June 30]. Increased speed, native video playback and more privacy controls are some of the browser’s new features.”
“The Eastman Kodak Company announced it would retire Kodachrome, its oldest film stock, because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age.”
13 Things Your Waiter Won’t Tell You. 13 Things Your Pizza Guy Won’t Tell You. 17 More Things Your Pizza Delivery Guy Won’t Tell You. 13 Things Your Dry Cleaner Won’t Tell You. 13 Things Your Grocer Won’t Tell You. 16 More Tips From Your Grocer. 9 Car Safety Features to Look Out For. 74 Car Care Tips To Keep Your Automobile in Top-Notch Condition. 6 Car Repairs You Can’t Afford to Skip. Cut Car Costs: Save on insurance, repairs and, yes, even gas. 13 Things Your Car Mechanic Won’t Tell You. 13 More Things Your Auto Mechanic Won’t Tell You. Airline Pilot Speaks Out On Flight Delays. 41 Secrets Your Doctor Would Never Share. 13 Things Your Pharmacist Won’t Tell You. 13 Things Your Bank Won’t Tell You. 7 More Secrets from Your Bank. 13 Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You.7 Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You. Turn Your Computer Into a Cash Machine. How to Be a Winner on eBay. How to stay cool and save money. Cheap and nontoxic ways to get rid of bugs.
FOOD
“If your pantry is stocked with staples, you can cook for a week with just 10 ingredients.”
“One reason for the myriad health problems in America is our industrialized agriculture system, and it should be under scrutiny — by the government as well as consumers.”
Water Content of Foods.
World’s Most Popular Candies. 
Coffees sold through Amazon.com, sorted by highest average customer review. Beverages thus. Canned & Packaged Goods. Condiments, Sauces & Spreads. Herbs, Spices & Seasonings. Pasta & Grains. Snacks. Pet Supplies. Boxed Meals & Side Dishes.
POP
Michael Jackson: The Man Who Wasn’t There. News of Jackson’s death first spread online .
“If “The Hurt Locker” is not the best action movie of the summer, I’ll blow up my car.”
Medical examiner: Pitchman Mays had heart disease. “It Slices, It Dices. But Wait, There’s More!: TV Infomercials We Can’t Resist.”
BOOKS, ARTS AND HISTORY
“Authors, scientists, economists are packing venues as more and more people turn to a lecture for a good night out.”
“If you want to understand the United States and its people, you need to visit Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia.” 
“The new passion of the science fiction writer Ray Bradbury is raising money for California’s libraries.”
Virginia Woolf’s first contribution to The Times Literary Supplement: review of The Thackeray Country by Lewis Melville and The Dickens Country by F. G. Kitton, published March 10, 1905.
1938: Hitler’s Gamble by Giles MacDonogh is “a powerful account of the Fuhrer’s annus mirabilis.”
“Though the music was terrific…the Sixties in Britain..produced no great books.” “A brisk and witty take on the 1960s addresses the decade’s radical changes and age-old dilemmas.” “Jenny Diski was there, she can remember them and, what’s more, make sense of them too.”
“‘Literary London’ is dead. Good riddance.”
“For William Masters and Virginia Johnson 
, this biographical account reveals, it was all sex all the time, but love was a forbidden word.”
“This memoir of reading the 51-volume Harvard Classics in one tumultuous year deftly reconciles lofty thoughts with earthly pain.”
“This engaging study of the figures behind the global rise of industrialism overflows with fascinating human portraits.”
“Gore Vidal: Literary feuds, his ‘vicious’ mother and rumours of a secret love child.”
“They might be the zit-ridden little brothers of science fiction geeks, but fantasy readers still deserve our respect.”
“The Belgian painter James Ensor, who has a survey of hilarious, gruesome beauty at the Museum of Modern Art, is a puzzle to fans and strangers alike.” Audio Slideshow. 
“Holocaust: The Ignored Reality: If we concentrate on Auschwitz and the Gulag—generally taken to be adequate or even final symbols of the evil of mass slaughter—we fail to notice that over a period of twelve years, between 1933 and 1944, some 12 million victims of Nazi and Soviet mass killing policies perished in a particular region of Europe, one defined more or less by today’s Belarus, Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia.”
“The glamour of the movies 
is a far cry from the sordid reality behind the robbers and gunmen of 1930s America.”
“A fascinating blueprint for a more civilised world.”
“An elegant and insightful account of the unlikely partnership behind the foundation of the state of Israel.”
“The KGB’s infiltration of America started earlier and went deeper than we thought.”
“Forgotten evolutionist lives in Darwin’s shadow.”
William Hazlitt: “On The Pleasure Of Hating.”
“When Americans first yearned to transform themselves and save the world.”
“What I’d really like to tell the bores in my life.”
“Reconciling the myth of Ronald Reagan with the reality.”
“Lincoln Center, the product of a lot of obsolete ideas, marks its first half-century with a year-long celebration and an ambitious rebuilding program.”
“The Bard of Berkeley: A former poet laureate on haiku and the responsibilities of writers.”
“The ‘little red schoolhouse‘ of legend, whatever its flaws, made more sense than the warehouse-schools of today.”
“Higher Fidelity: The long and winding road to the hyper-refinement of recorded sound.”
“Putting Man Before Descartes: Human knowledge is personal and participant–placing us at the center of the universe.”
“I’m Thomas Thwaites and I’m trying to build a toaster, from scratch – beginning by mining the raw materials and ending with a product that Argos sells for only £3.99. A toaster.”
“Year One is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Violent sacrifices and excremental snacks.”
Love that Three-Martini Breakfast. I’ve got to get me one of those. ; )
I’m not quite sure how that fits with the Critchley piece, which I also like:
Why doesn’t it make much better sense to live in such a way — to act kindly, fairly, courageously, decently — in such a way that happiness is something that others might ascribe to you after you are gone?
This has been my theory of life for some time now. I guess I’ll have to leave it to the survivors, if any, to decide if it worked! In general, though, it feels pretty good to me, and I think that the closer to this ideal I get, the more I’m experiencing the maximum happiness possible in any given circumstance. As I said, not sure if that can be made congruent with gin-soaked bliss in the morning light on the kitchen floor. . . . One may hope!
And then there was this, which cost me many a pang in passing, from “When the Heart Pays the Price”: . . . the sort of satisfaction of which he was so fond ultimately did him in, both in health and life. Expressing his anger didn’t benefit him at all. . . . My patient obtained “real satisfaction” by drawing his sword — but ultimately slashed his existence to a sliver of what he might have become.
Yes, I’m familiar with people who are convinced that anger is a (precious?) substance, to be hoarded and then unleashed on the world. It has taken me many years and much effort to undo that belief in myself. It’s not pretty, watching angry people get old. This is why I persevere with my meditation project!
In conclusion (though I’m scarcely halfway down the roster), I’ve been mentally checking off the items I found myself before you tagged them for us. Although still a minor percentage, it is scarily large! Oh dear . . . .
I have always loved the dolphins saved someone stories. That was a modest one, but still good.
I wonder if the writer defending Sanford would still write it knowing he has been dallying with other women? Sounds like a chronic problem.
The important part of the cancer fighting article is the emphasis on the point that most drugs fail in humans. Very disappointing.
Steve
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