Who I am…
I am a lawyer, former mother of teenagers, and a quixotic seeker after and champion of factual truth.
I make the best damn brownies you have ever had that are not regulated by the federal government.
I love movies, Broadway, and intelligent conversation.
I think in song lyrics and movie and television quotes.
I believe in the use of proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar even in text messages. I am willing to debate the use of the Oxford comma, if you know what the Oxford comma is. It also makes me very happy if people use the subjunctive mood when appropriate.
I have been told I intimidate people. I am really just a fluffy-centered teddy bear. Really.
- It's all my fault. No, really. The views expressed in this blog are mine and mine alone and in no way whatsoever represent the views of anyone else, including any past, present, or future employer.
- Follow The Wild Winds of Fortune on WordPress.com
Wild Winds of Fortune Feed
Search this blog
Archives
April 2026 S M T W T F S 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 
Words to live by ….
“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8.
“Pray for the dead, fight like hell for the living.” Mary Harris (“Mother Jones”).
“Don’t boo. Vote.” Barack Obama.
“Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.” Reinhold Niebuhr.
“No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We’re always one of Us. It’s Them that do the bad things.” Sir Terry Pratchett.
“Damning facts are still facts.” Steven C. Holtzman.
“If you don’t stick to your values when they’re tested, they’re not values — they’re hobbies.” Jon Stewart.
“Darkness never sustains, even though it sometimes seems it will.” Doctor Who.
“Writing is a form of mischief.” Stephen Sondheim.
“An idea is not responsible for the people who believe it.” Don Marquis.
“If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path.” Joseph Campbell.
“Truth is our strongest ally, our biggest weapon, and our best defense.” Me.
“Reality has a well-known liberal bias.” Stephen Colbert.
“The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” Jonathan Larson.
“We live through times when hate and fear seem stronger.
We rise and fall, and light from dying embers
Remembrances that hope and love last longer.
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love;
Cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Lin-Manuel Miranda.“If I can’t dance, I don’t want to be part of your revolution.” Emma Goldman.
“No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.” Samuel Beckett.
“I believe that the God who made (among other things) light, and space, and number, and time, and the spiral curve of Fibonacci numbers, must be acknowledged to understand more than I do about why there’s pain in the world.” Teresa Neilsen Hayden.
“No, it’s not fair. You’re in the wrong universe for fair.” John Scalzi.
“Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African-Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet, ‘Liberal,’ as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work, because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.” Lawrence O’Donnell
“So keep fightin’ for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don’t you forget to have fun doin’ it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin’ ass and celebratin’ the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.” Molly Ivins.
- Art Beadwork Blogging Books Culture (popular and otherwise) Family Feminism Food God faith and theology Health History Justice KIds Kids in all their glory Miscellany Music My life and times nothing special Personal Relationships Politics Science SCOTUS Social Issues Sports The Internet and its perils The World Travel (real or imaginary) Who I am Work! Writing
Tags
- abortion
- Antarctica
- anti-vaxxers
- architecture
- Art
- baseball
- blogging
- Books
- Broadway!
- Capital punishment
- chinchilla races
- computer
- elections
- Everybody talks about the weather
- Feminism
- first
- first-world problems
- Florida
- football
- Gamergate
- Geeks! Geeks! Geeks!
- Get your red hot links here!
- GMOs
- God faith and theology
- Gratitude
- guns
- hehehe
- hehehehe
- History
- LGBT rights and issues
- life
- life sucks sometimes
- Look what I made!
- mental health
- Mindfulness
- Mom
- Moooom!!!!!
- movies
- Music
- My friends are the coolest people
- NASA
- neil-gaiman
- news
- notes to self
- People worth listening to
- poetry
- Politics
- privacy
- Profundities
- Railfan
- really cool things
- recipes
- Reprehensible people
- Space
- technology
- television
- The Interminable Job Search
- The Not-So-Little Drummer Boy
- The NSLDB
- The Red-Headed Menace strikes again
- The Rocket Scientist. the field season
- the search for truth
- The Voice
- The wonderful Penwiper
- things I believe
- torture
- Tragedy
- Trivia
- Unions
- Voting
- What did I do now?
- What I like
- writing
- you have *got* to be freaking kidding me
-
Join 303 other subscribers
Contact info:
Email me at wwf@lithic.net
Author Archives: Pat Greene
I am torn. I don’t know which way to turn, what to blog about. I am resolving the dilemma by giving myself permission to not blog about the thing foremost on my mind — the Military Commissions Bill, more colloquially … Continue reading
Have you registered?
I think this fall’s election is going to be crucial to the future of our Republic. I think we’re in a constitutional crisis, and I think we need to take action. And the first, most important action is to vote, … Continue reading
Ahoy there, matey!
This here be September 19, also known round these parts as “Talk Like A Pirate Day.” We be lucky enough to know the Pirate Guys WebWench, Pat Kight, online, and to have actually met her; and a beauty she be, … Continue reading
Sometimes, if you procrastinate, things get done without you. Or you decide that since other people have already done them better than you why reinvent the wheel? I have been trying to find a way to write about torture, and … Continue reading
I have not written here about 9/11. My experiences were pretty much the same as many others across the country who did not have loved ones in harm’s way. Unlike Katrina, where I had definite emotional ties to the places … Continue reading
Twenty Statements. Plus One.
Over at Of Course, I Could Be Wrong, MadPriest has been letting slip a little more information about himself. I thought I would do likewise.* Things you should know about me: I like okra. Even boiled. I think the Rolling … Continue reading
Strike up the band!
To every thing there is a season,and a time to every purpose under the heaven. Eccl. 3:1 Spring, fighting off winter’s rain and chills, brings baseball season. Fall, basking in the loveliest weather of the year, brings marching band season. … Continue reading
The only thing we have to fear.
There is no escaping the fact. We have become a nation of fearful men and women. A year ago, armed deputies stood on the bridge to Gretna, Louisiana, and fired shots over scared, shivering refugees seeking food and shelter from … Continue reading
New looks for fall! A more serious color scheme for a more serious time. I am going back to using a dark background, but blue instead of black, and with light grey font, and with all the font changed to … Continue reading
Truth to power: Keith Olbermann answers Donald Rumsfeld
On his show of August 30, 2006, Olbermann said: The man who sees absolutes, where all other men see nuances and shades of meaning, is either a prophet, or a quack. Donald H. Rumsfeld is not a prophet. Mr. Rumsfeld’s … Continue reading
One year later.
There is a crime here that goes beyond denunciation. There is a sorrow here that weeping cannot symbolize. There is a failure here that topples all our success …. and in the eyes of the people there is the failure; … Continue reading
A Debt We Owe.
On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was certified as having been ratified, and signed into law. Three years earlier, in October, 1917, Alice Paul was sentenced to seven months in the D.C. Jail for obstructing traffic on sidewalks. She … Continue reading
Little known heroes of American history, #37592
On August 18, 1920, the Tennessee legislature engaged in a fierce debate over the Anthony Amendment, which would give women the right to vote. Thirty-five other states had ratified the amendment, and if Tennessee followed suit, it would be enshrined … Continue reading
Holiday cheer.
Several years ago, Staples ran television back-to-school ads with the Andy Williams Christmas hit “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of The Year” showing a dad cavorting down the aisles of the store, followed by a couple of sullen pre-teens. My … Continue reading
We write letters….
Dear Sirs, Peter Ligeti (Letters, August 21) says: “I wonder how federal Judge Anna Diggs Taylor and all members of the ACLU will feel when the next major terrorist act hits the United States. Judge Taylor obviously has not learned … Continue reading
The Wild Winds of Fortune 