Slogans to live by (or suffer through)

Principes Non Homines, Latin for "Leaders, not [merely] Men" (Webb School of California)


In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen, Latin for "In Your [i.e., God's] light we shall see the light" (a paraphrase of Psalm 36:9) (Columbia University in the City of New York)


Veritas liberabit vos, Latin for "The truth shall make you free" (John 8:32, King James Version) (Southern Methodist University)


Zur Verpflegung der deutschen Sprache im Ausland und zur Förderung der internationalen Zusammenarbeit, German for "For Sustaining of the German Language Abroad and for the Promotion of International Cooperation" (Goethe-Institut)


Vox, veritas, vita, Latin for "Voice, Truth, Life" (The California State University)



Laborare Pugnare Parati Sumus, Latin for "To work or fight: we are ready" (California Maritime Academy)

Evidently One Can

Words of a truly great American, West Point graduate, soldier, general Dwight David Eisenhower, who managed to avert World War III, on leadership and war:

The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office.

Leadership is a word and a concept that has been more argued than almost any other I know. I am not one of the desk-pounding types that likes to stick out his jaw and look like he is bossing the show. I would far rather get behind and, recognizing the frailties and the requirements of human nature, would rather try to persuade a man to go along, because once I have persuaded him, he will stick. If I scare him, he will stay just as long as he is scared, and then he is gone.

I hate war as only a soldier who has lived it can, only as one who has seen its brutality, its futility, its stupidity.

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.

What Academia Continues to Degenerate Into

Perhaps "decay" might be a better term...strictly speaking, "degenerate" means "to return to an earlier state," but academia is hardly doing that. Rather, it's rotting and corrupting itself, irretrievably. Mr. Sailer's characterization is spot on. I was in the middle of this academic food chain. As a UC Davis graduate student, I would have eventually, had all gone optimally, landed a position at some dump like Cal State L.A., PC-Valhalla.

[Most students] don't understand it's all a big pyramid scheme. The Harvard professors' graduate students become the UCLA professors whose graduate students become the Cal State LA professors whose students become the schoolteachers who browbeat their more gullible pupils into believing that everybody should go to college, no matter how obvious a waste of money and time it will turn out to be.

Can One Like the Military but not War Itself?

Eine der schönsten Soldatentugenden ist die Kameradschaft. [...] Dieser Gedanke der Kameradschaft umschließt die nationale und die soziale Aufgabe der Wehrmacht. Die nationale Aufgabe, das ist die alle Volkskreise umfassende und einigende Pflicht der Landesverteidigung. Die soziale Aufgabe, das ist die Verbundenheit der Wehrmacht mit den Schicksalen aller Volksschichten.



One of the most sublime soldierly virtues is that of camaraderie. [...] This thought of camaraderie encompasses the national and social mission of the Army. The national mission--that is the the the duty of defending our country, a duty which concerns and unites people from all walks of life. The social mission--that is the Army's being linked to the fates of every segment of society.

--General Kurt von Schleicher, "Der Reichswehrminister in einer Rundfunkansprache über Wehrmacht und Reichspolitik", 26 July 1932

[Der Kaiser Franz Josef] hatte Kriege nicht gern (denn er wusste, dass man sie verliert), aber das Militär liebte er, das Kriegsspiel, die Uniform, die Gewehrübungen, die Parade, die Defilierung und das Kompanieexerzieren.



[Kaiser Franz Josef] didn't like war, for he knew that one could lose them, but he loved the military, war games, the uniform, the rifle exercises, the parade, marching in formation and company exercises.

--Joseph Roth, "Radetzkymarsch", 263

George Carlin, R.I.P.

One of the best; despite being an atheist, he departed from us at just over threescore-and-ten. From memory:

There are a lotta stupid people out there. You'll be talkiing to some guy, and you'll realize, This guy is fucking stupid!Other people, they're not fuckin' stupid...they're fulla shit! You'll be talking to him, and say to yourself, he's not fucking stupid, he's fulla shit! Other people, they're not fucking stupid, they're not fulla shit...they're FUCKING NUTS! And some people...are all three!

So true.



"Some people are really fucking stupid...Look at it this way: think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize that half of them are stupider than that!"

Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt

Noch was, bitte!

Fürst Iwan Warankoff,
War einst ein Millionär.
Hei, sprach Fürst Warankoff,
Das ist schon lange her.
Sein Freund sprach:
O mein Fürst,
Heut weiß ich ein Lokal,
Wo Du dich fühlen wirst
Wie anno dazumal.
Hei, dort tanzt als Star,
Sonja in der Bar.
Hei! Hei! Hei!

Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Ist man gleich verliebt,
Weil es keine schön're Frau,
Als die Sonja gibt.
Ja, wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Fühlt man ihre Glut.
Wolga, Wodka, Kaukasus,
Liegen ihr im Blut.
Sogar der Vladimir,
Das alte Trampeltier,
Er läßt den Wodka steh'n,
Nur um sie anzuseh'n.
Ha! Ha! Ha!
Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Schreit der ganze Saal:
Sonja, Sonja,
Sonja, Sonja,
Sonja, noch einmal.

Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Ist man gleich verliebt,
Weil es keine schön're Frau,
Als die Sonja gibt.
Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Fühlt man ihre Glut.
Wolga, Wodka, Kaukasus,
Liegen ihr im Blut.
Sogar der Vladimir,
Ist ganz verrückt nach ihr.
Er läßt den Wodka steh'n,
Nur um sie anzuseh'n.
Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Brüllt der ganze Saal:
Sonja, Sonja, Sonja, Sonja,
Sonja, noch einmal.

Svoloch', chto za shum! Dyevy, chto za krik!
Ya lyublyu i ya umru za ulybku tvayu.
Ya lyublyu i ya umru za ulybku tvayu.
Svoloch', chto za shum! Dyevy, chto za krik!
Ya lyublyu i ya umru za ulybku tvayu.

Sogar der Vladimir,
Ist ganz verrückt nach ihr.
Er läßt die Wodkaflasche stehn,
Nur um die Sonja anzusehn.
Wenn die Sonja russisch tanzt,
Brüllt der ganze Saal:
Sonja, Sonja, Sonja, Sonja,
Sonja, noch einmal. Hei!