The Top Ten Quotes of the Year

"Fred Shapiro, associate librarian at Yale Law School, has released his sixth annual list of the most notable quotations of the year:" 1. "We are the 99 percent." — slogan of Occupy movement. 2. "There is nobody in this country who got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there — good for you! But I want to be clear. You moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because of police forces and fire forces that the rest of us paid for." — U.S. Sen. candidate Elizabeth Warren, speaking in Andover, Mass., in August. 3. "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress." — Billionaire Warren Buffett, in a New York Times op-ed on Aug. 15. 4. "I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy." — Presidential candidate Jon Huntsman in an Aug. 18 tweet. 5. "Oops." — Presidential candidate Rick Perry after unsuccessfully attempting to remember the third federal agency he would eliminate during a Nov. 9 debate. 6. "When they ask me, 'Who is the president of Ubeki-beki-beki-beki-stan-stan?' I'm going to say, 'You know, I don't know. Do you know?'" — Then-presidential candidate Herman Cain in an interview by Christian Broadcasting Network on Oct. 7. 7. "I am on a drug. It's called 'Charlie Sheen.' It's not available because if you try it once, you will die. Your face will melt off and your children will weep over your exploded body." — Actor Charlie Sheen in a February interview with ABC News. 8. "Oh wow. Oh wow. Oh wow." — Apple co-founder Steve Jobs' last words on Oct. 5, as reported by his sister Mona Simpson in her eulogy. 9. "I can't say with certitude." — Then-U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner on June 1 when he was asked whether a lewd photograph was in fact him. 10. "Instead of receiving the help that she had hoped for, Mr. Cain instead decided to provide her with his idea of a stimulus package." — Lawyer Gloria Allred on Nov. 7 discussing Herman Cain's alleged sexual harassment of her client. Link: http://news.yahoo.com/99-percent-chosen-years-top-quote-171947746.html

A long-overdue first in America--and with a local touch, too

There is a fascinating article in the first section of The New York Times Sunday, pointing out that the US is finally getting one college in the country--one--that will offer a major in Secularism.


I found that stunning.


One college or university in the entire country.


It is Pitzer College in Southern California--Orange County.  It's part of the Claremont College group.


One college or university in the entire country that has a major in Secularism.


Not one at Harvard or Yale or any Ivy League school.  No where.


Ignorance, it seems, is bliss.


I assume no faculty dared advance such an idea, for fear of an uproar from any local or national religious groups.


From the article:


Colleges and universities have long offered majors in religion or theology. But with more and more people now saying they have no religion, one college has decided to be the first to offer a major in secularism.


Starting this fall, Pitzer College, a small liberal arts institution in Southern California, will inaugurate a department of secular studies. Professors from other departments, including history, philosophy, religion, science and sociology, will teach courses like “God, Darwin and Design in America,” “Anxiety in the Age of Reason” and “Bible as Literature.”


The department was proposed by Phil Zuckerman, a sociologist of religion, who describes himself as “culturally Jewish, but agnostic-atheist on questions of deep mystery.” Over the years he grew increasingly intrigued by the growth of secularism in the United States and around the world. He studied and taught in Denmark, one of the world’s most secular countries, and has written several books about atheism.


Studying nonbelief is as valid as studying belief, Mr. Zuckerman said, and the new major will make that very clear.


I thought this important, too:


“It’s not about arguing ‘Is there a God or not?’ ” Mr. Zuckerman said. “There are hundreds of millions of people who are nonreligious. I want to know who they are, what they believe, why they are nonreligious. You have some countries where huge percentages of people — Czechs, Scandinavians — now call themselves atheists. Canada is experiencing a huge wave of secularization. This is happening very rapidly.


“It has not been studied,” he added.


So good on Mr. Zuckerman and Pitzer College.  This should be studied and, as I said in the title, it's long overdue.


Now, for the local link:


Mr. Zuckerman said he immediately heard from three students interested in the major. One of them was Kiley Lawrence, a freshman from Mission Hills, Kan., and a pre-med student at Scripps College, one of the seven Claremont Colleges.


Ms. Lawrence attended an Episcopal school through eighth grade and was well versed in the Bible, but she said she became a skeptic early on. Now she plans to declare a double major in biophysics and secular studies, because, she said, “each enhances the other.”


Ms. Lawrence, 19, said, “I feel as though I’m being included in something really exciting and innovative, and perhaps even historic.”


And good on you, Ms. Lawrence.  Pave the way for the future.


Links:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/us/08secular.html?_r=1&src=me&ref=us
http://www.pitzer.edu/

Quote of the day--on unfair, imbalanced taxation

“How can hedge-fund managers who are pulling down billions sometimes pay a lower tax rate than do their secretaries?” ask the political scientists Jacob S. Hacker (of Yale) and Paul Pierson (University of California, Berkeley) in their deservedly lauded new book, “Winner-Take-All Politics.”   --Frank Rich, in his column "Who Will Stand up to the Superrich?" Sunday, The New York Times

Links:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/14/opinion/14rich.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=a212
http://books.simonandschuster.com/Winner-Take-All-Politics/Jacob-S-Hacker/9781416588696