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Showing posts from February, 2012

Gandhi on truth!

By AlatiphA - February 29, 2012

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.... Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time.... What may appear as truth to one person will often appear as untruth to another person. But that need not worry the seeker.... Truth and untruth often co- exist; good and evil often are found together.... Use truth as your anvil, nonviolence as your hammer and anything that does not stand the test when it is brought to the anvil of truth and hammered with nonviolence, reject it.... Truth and nonviolence demand that no human being may debar himself from serving any other human being, no matter how sinful he may be.... Truth is the first to be sought for, and Beauty and Goodness will then be added unto you.... Truth without humility would be an arrogant caricature.... The quest of truth involves self-suffering, sometimes even unto death.

Why people turn to violence!

By AlatiphA - February 27, 2012

'McVeigh said he blew up the building in Oklahoma City to protest the federal government's actions in Waco -- and he was quickly apprehended, tried, and punished for his crime. That was proper, even if you might disagree with the morality of the death sentence. However, not a single FBI or BATF agent was arrested for their role in the fiery deaths of 86 people at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas. There should not be one standard of justice for ordinary Americans, and another for government officials. Until that injustice is eliminated, many Americans will continue to view their government with suspicion, fear, and bitterness. People tend to turn to violence only when they feel they have no other way to be heard. When Americans feel they have a role in the political system, they will work through the political system to make productive changes. When that avenue is blocked -- either by restrictive ballot access laws, legal curbs on political speech, exclusion from deba...

Dangerous politicians!

By AlatiphA - February 27, 2012

The most dangerous man, to any government, is the man who is able to think things out for himself, without regard to the prevailing superstitions and taboos. Almost invariably he comes to the conclusion that the government he lives under is dishonest, insane and intolerable, and so, if he is romantic, he tries to change it. And if he is not romantic personally, he is apt to spread discontent among those who are.' - H. L. Mencken

Liberty is more than wealth?

By AlatiphA - February 21, 2012

'If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.' - Samuel Adams

Give me liberty or give me death!

By AlatiphA - February 21, 2012

"They tell us, Sir, that we are weak---unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power ... I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! " - Patrick Henry

Coping with formidable adversary!

By AlatiphA - February 13, 2012

Principles of life!

By AlatiphA - February 13, 2012

Dream big. Don't be a follower but a leader. Don't be easily convinced until proven wrong. Don't do things just because everyone is. Have principles which does not only guide you but reflects on your life. Chose who to make friendship with not them chosing you. Live a day at a time because life can't be rushed. Chose to stay happy and don't make other peoples business yours but show concern towards others. Life is like an egg when you fall you may get a crack, so hold onto yourself to never fall. Sometimes in life one goes through certain challenges to wake him/her up. One must understand that in life every one is on their own. You make or unmake yourself by your choices. Every mistake made should be a lesson learnt. You have all the opportunities to correct or makeup all lost or wasted times but only if one is up to the task of responsibility. No one is born lucky till you play life's game of chance. Your chances of failing is the same as your winnings, s...

Dictators!

By AlatiphA - February 09, 2012

"You see these dictators up on their pedestals, surrounded by the bayonets of their soldiers and the truncheons of their police. They're afraid of words and thought. ... They make frantic efforts to bar our thoughts and words. ... A state of society where men may not speak their mind -- where children denounce their parents to the police -- where a businessman or small shopkeeper ruins his competitor by telling tales about his private opinion. Such a state of society cannot long endure if it is continually in contact with the healthy outside world." - Winston Churchill,

Saddest lesson in history!

By AlatiphA - February 09, 2012

“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It’s simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we’ve been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you almost never get it back.” ― Carl Sagan

Anger and confusion!

By AlatiphA - February 09, 2012

“You know, it's pretty easy reading this book to see why I was angry and confused for all those years. I lived my life being told different stories: some true, some lies and I still don't know which is which. Children are born innocent. At birth we are very much like a new hard drive - no viruses, no bad information, no crap that's been downloaded into it yet. It's what we feed into that hard drive, or in my case "head drive" that starts the corruption of the files.” ― Nikki Sixx

Mencken's Creed!

By AlatiphA - February 08, 2012

I believe that no discovery of fact, however trivial, can be wholly useless to the race, and that no trumpeting of falsehood, however virtuous in intent, can be anything but vicious. I believe that all government is evil, in that all government must necessarily make war upon liberty... I believe that the evidence for immortality is no better than the evidence of witches, and deserves no more respect. I believe in the complete freedom of thought and speech... I believe in the capacity of man to conquer his world, and to find out what it is made of, and how it is run. I believe in the reality of progress. I - But the whole thing, after all, may be put very simply. I believe that it is better to tell the truth than to lie. I believe that it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe that it is better to know than be ignorant.

Selfish ignorance!

By AlatiphA - February 08, 2012

"Too many people are only willing to defend rights that are personally important to them. It's selfish ignorance, and it's exactly why totalitarian governments are able to get away with trampling on people. Freedom does not mean freedom just for the things I think I should be able to do. Freedom is for all of us. If people will not speak up for other people's rights, there will come a day when they will lose their own." - Tony Lawrence

Freedom!

By AlatiphA - February 08, 2012

"In every country where man is free to think and to speak, differences of opinion will arise from difference of perception, and the imperfection of reason; but these differences when permitted, as in this happy country, to purify themselves by free discussion, are but as passing clouds overspreading our land transiently and leaving our horizon more bright and serene." - Thomas Jefferson

Be a citizen not a subject!

By AlatiphA - February 06, 2012

“Our institutions are too big; they represent not the best but the worst characteristics of human beings. By submitting to huge hierarchies of power, we gain freedom from personal responsibility for what we do and are forced to do - the seduction of it - but we lose the dignity of being real men and women. Power corrupts; attracts the worst and corrupts the best. ... Refuse to participate in evil; insist on taking part in what is healthy, generous, and responsible. Stand up, speak out, and when necessary fight back. Get down off the fence and lend a hand, grab a-hold, be a citizen - not a subject.” ― Edward Abbey

Where will your loyalty lie?

By AlatiphA - February 06, 2012

I say, this may be the right scandal that the people needed. It certainly brings people face-to-face with the tangled reality of their amusement, based as it is on a self-seeking, self-perpetuating commercial oligarchy issued licenses to exploit the people as they please. Whether the people care is another matter: one of the reasons Ghanains have embraced economic liberalisation so fervently is a shoulder-shrugging resignation about the efficiency and integrity of their institutions. Given the choice between the Socialists and the Capitalists, where would your loyalties lie?

Good nurtured!

By AlatiphA - February 06, 2012

“I am not, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, a good-natured man; that is, many things annoy me besides what interferes with my own ease and interest. I hate a lie; a piece of injustice wounds me to the quick, though nothing but the report of it reach me. Therefore I have made many enemies and few friends; for the public know nothing of well-wishers, and keep a wary eye on those who would reform them.” ― William Hazlitt

Attah's achilles heel!

By AlatiphA - February 06, 2012

The socialists were quoted as saying, 'When the Liberals came to rule us, they said everything we were doing were wrong, inferior in whatever way.' But the serious critique of socialists is not about who is right or wrong, superior or inferior. It is about good governance, and this is a universal value, as relevant to an African village as it is to Westminster. If you are unable to keep your appetites in check, you are inevitably going to live beyond your means. And this means you are going to become vulnerable to patronage and even corruption. That is why Wayomegate has become Attah's achilles heel.”

Evil exists for itself!

By AlatiphA - February 04, 2012

“Evil is not just a theory of paradox, but an actual entity that exists only for itself. From its ether of manifestation that is garlanded in perpetual darkness, it not only influences and seeks the ruination and destruction of everything that resides in our universe, but rushes to embrace its own oblivion as well. To accomplish this, however, it must hide within the shroud of lies and deceit it spins to manipulate the weak-minded as well as those who choose to ally themselves with it for their own personal gain. For evil must rely on the self- serving interests of the arrogant, the lustful, the power-hungry, the hateful, and the greedy to feed and proliferate. This then becomes the condition of evil’s existence: the baneful ideologies of those who wantonly chose to ignore the needs and rights of others, inducing oppression, fear, pain, and even death throughout the cosmos. And by these means, evil seeks to supplant the balance of the universe with its perverse nature. And once all tha...