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.
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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.
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Author Archives: Pat Greene
Fear and Loathing
I’ve been angry, lately. Well, more than lately, but you know what I mean. I suppose I have become one of those “angry bloggers” that you read about in the newspapers. My anger comes from pain and sometimes intense fear, … Continue reading
Torture: once more with feeling.
In the comments to my post “Obscenity,” Anonymous asks Are you REALLY REALLY saying that you would not torture One person to SAVE the innocent lives of many THOUSAND others. We will never hide behind our children but we really … Continue reading
Healthy Anarchy.
I went to a college which had an exchange program with MIT. There was this one MIT student who used to hang around my dorm sometimes — he dated two different women on the same floor (generally considered tacky, but … Continue reading
Rent, San Francisco: a review.
This post is going to be of limited interest because it is of a production that has already closed. Oh, and it has spoilers. And it is really, really long. But I have to write it anyway, because I’m obsessed. … Continue reading
Obscenity.
There is profanity. You hear profanity a lot these days. My kids hear it in the streets and on the school buses. You see it on the Internet a lot. Comedy Central has quite a few shows which feature profanity … Continue reading
I don’t know how to quit you.
I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t leave the Internet. More importantly, I decided that I would be better off not doing it. Not this week, anyway. I am terribly isolated, in many ways, and Live Journal and Blogger, not to … Continue reading
I have a series of posts on capital punishment in draft form. I have a post on why I love the music of Stephen Sondheim that I am about half through with. I have a review of a local production … Continue reading
Why I hate SUVs.
Screeech. Thud. Scream. And there was a eight-year old boy struggling to his knees, then to his feet, his lower face a bloody mess. He had been struck by a young man in an Izusu Trooper who had been going … Continue reading
They’re called “CAPTCHA”s — Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. (That name, by the way, is trademarked by Carnegie-Mellon University, just in case you were wondering.) They are those distorted boxes of text that you … Continue reading
A letter to Barbara Boxer.
Dear Senator Boxer: When you campaigned for Senator Joe Leiberman during the Connecticut primary, I was appalled. Here was a man who had been a firm supporter of the war even after it became clear that the war was a … Continue reading
Leiberman concedes in Connecticut
Thus continues the long, long slog to regain the soul of the Democratic Party. Damn, this feels good. One thing has confused me about all this — over the years when the left has bitched and moaned about the influence … Continue reading
I have not been blogging much about the Middle East because a) other people are doing a much better job of it and I have nothing to add that would add much light to it and b) it’s very hard … Continue reading
Death and Madness
In a Houston courtroom a few days ago, Andrea Yates was found not guilty by reason of insanity in the drowning of her five children. Although many conservative bloggers were outraged by Yates’s “walking free,”* most people recognize the verdict … Continue reading
When is a killing a killing?
In my LiveJournal, wcg makes the very reasonable statement that comparing fatalities is not useful; people are not potatoes. And, for the most part, I think he’s right. In this case, however, I think the comparison of numbers of fatalities, … Continue reading
There is blame on both sides, people say. Israel has a right to defend herself, people say. Hezbollah is at fault, the American government says. The Israelis define anyone who doesn’t flee before them as being in cahoots with Hezbollah, … Continue reading
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