Quotes of the day

Einstein's E=MC2 is an extraordinary concept. So radical: matter and energy are two phases of the same sort of general stuff. There's only one other idea that radical: Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.--Kurt Vonnegut

President Obama rightly says "sacrifices" must be made if GM is to emerge as a viable company. But there's one sacrifice he won't make: his re-election chances, by leaving the fate of the UAW truly up to a bankruptcy judge.--Holman Jenkins

According to the government, GM's Rick Wagoner was forced to resign because of poor performance. That’s embarrassing. You run an organization that loses billions of dollars and then get fired by a guy who heads up an organization that loses trillions of dollars.--Jay Leno

That this story [about Obama administration shaping GM's board] has attracted so little notice as another sign of how numb we have become.--Tyler Cowen

Every bad thing you can think a union can do, the United Auto Workers did.--Kevin Hassett

If Bristol Palin’s actions reflect badly on her mom, why don’t Ashley Biden’s actions reflect badly on her dad?--Simon Scowl

So let's recap - Krugman was wrong about the previous strategy having been "always bonds", wrong about the switch to equities being executed at the market peak, and wrong about possible losses amounting to "hundreds of billions" of dollars, we presume. He also misspelled "Guaranty". But he did find an opportunity to explain how stupid conservatives are. Mission Accomplished!--Tom Maguire

... [Hanna] Rosin's [breastfeeding] article is also usefully read as a study in propaganda and social psychology.--Alex Tabarrok

Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigour, and moral courage which it contained.--John Stuart Mill

Small-town California is one of the country's great incubators of seething resentment, which simultaneously explains both the state's wackadoodle politics and its hotly competitive sports environment.--Tommy Craggs

[Dustin Pedroia's] whole life people have been reacting to him, initially, in a certain manner, and his whole life he's been channeling that and turning it around and laughing as he steps right over them.--Theo Epstein