Quotes collected during September 2009

Fiona Kobusingye, coordinator of the Congress of Racial Equality Uganda, notes that Al Gore “uses more electricity in a week than 28 million Ugandans together use in a year” -source

Studies have established that most hate crimes are committed by single or small groups of young males unaffiliated with organized hate groups. -source

Hate crime or boredom attack, my injuries are the same. One thing about being hated, though—you have an identity. You’re a member of a distinct class who is important to the attacker. If you are attacked without reason, you’re nobody— you’re of no importance whatever. Mulling this over makes me question the whole notion of prosecuting hate crimes. Why is a racist thug more dangerous than the man who just feels like beating someone—anyone—up? The racist might send a message to a large population, but the nonracist sends a message to an even larger group, a message that says, “You count for nothing” and “No one is safe.” -source

Technology Is Much More Important Than Rhetoric
Consider the relative effects of Zero Population Growth rhetoric vs. birth control technology at changing the population growth curve of the world. It’s monumental. Technology alters incentives, which is a far more effective way to achieve widespread change than to attempt to fight human biases or change minds. Unfortunately, technology is also much newer in human history than persuasion, and so is a much less intuitive strategy. -source

For well over a decade, I have been sending snail mail from North America to South Africa, where friends and family still reside (and where my accent originates). Having used the Canadian, South African and European equivalent services, I can safely say that there is no viler or more inhospitable dump than the United States Postal Service. The latter is far and away inferior to the aforementioned rival monopolies. -source

Broadly speaking, the religious view is most popular among ordinary citizens, the biological view is held by most actual researchers in the human sciences, and the cultural view is dominant—well-nigh exclusive, in fact—among our non-scientific elites and educators. -source

Ghana is also popular for its witch camp situated in Gambaga in the Northern region. The camp is a sanctuary where women alleged to be witches seek refuge from attack and persecution. Ghana’s witch camp is the first or its kind; in fact, it is only in Ghana and Nigeria that witch camps are known to exist in Africa. Unlike in Ghana. most of those accused or bewitching their neighbours in other African countries do not make it to a refuge camp alive. They are hunted down, killed with clubs or machetes, lynched,. or made to die a slow and painful death.-source

“We are content and happy if Obama can stay forever as president of the United States.” -Colonel Qaddafi of Libya -source

Every month I will collect large or small numbers of quotes from various sources that I read, and provide the source. When a text is in bold, it’s me who is adding emphasis. I will separate them with neat UNICODE symbols, not thought through enough that they are some kind of meta commentary – many I don’t know what they mean in mathematics or engineering or whatever the source.

Related posts:

  1. Quotes from “Studies in Pessimism” by Arthur Schopenhauer
  2. Private: Quotes from the Eagle and the Serpent
  3. Oct.31st – Nov. 1st :: HL Mencken Club 2009 Conference
  4. Mencken Day – September 11, 2010