April 2006

"They will be happy to get a new statute of autonomy, but they'll be even happier to [win] the Champions League trophy in Paris next month. Right now Arsenal, not Madrid, is the enemy."

"Standing still is rarely an option in this insurgent-plagued metropolis beset by roadside bombs, rocket fire and the worst sniper threat on the planet."

"Since last November, the seven largest parties and the Maoist guerrillas have had an understanding that would see the rebels give up the gun in return for elections to an assembly that would rewrite the constitution"

"it will not be self-evident to future generations of Americans why the imperial might and international reputation of the United States are so closely aligned with one small, controversial Mediterranean client state"

"Freedom of the Press: the due reward for all who responsibly report the virtues of Our Glorious Leader"

"What Hong Kong and Singapore children need at a very early age is a strong foundation in mathematical probability -- not phony mother tongues and useless second languages"

"Every possibility is in play except for an acknowledgment that they might have been wrong about something"

"It had fed right through Mark's sock. Twenty minutes later he felt another on the same ankle. Fantastic! It's always best to have 2. One for dissections and one for DNA work."

"The American culture of science fiction not only failed to understand him, it never had a chance to. He did not translate well."

I have feminine reading tastes: I'd take the Brontës, Eliot, Austen over Camus, Salinger, Vonnegut any day

"Diet book hucksters are in a similar category to get-rich-quick schemers. There's always going to be a baseline level of guillibility in the population."

"Kandaharis have reached an astonishing conclusion: The United States must be in league with the Taliban"

"at about age 10... soccer is dropped, quickly and unceremoniously, by approximately 88 per cent of all US children. They move onto baseball, football, basketball, hockey, field hockey, and, sadly, golf."

"XHTML delivered as text/html is broken and XHTML delivered as text/xml is risky, so authors intending their work for public consumption should stick to HTML 4.01"

"they have started calling him 'Abu Umar,' a reference to the second Sunni Caliph, whom Shiites deride as a usurper of the office"

"Women, in general, have a tendency to follow the latest 'styles.' Quite often the latest fashion and style may have a deleterious influence on tznius."