I'd grown up in the U.K., where the surveillance apparatus went into place in the 1970s in response to the Troubles with the IRA. When I was a kid, we moved to Chicago, and I was surprised to see you could live in a large city in which you didn't hav...
Robert Burns enriched Scottish song with his genius and is mainly responsible for the rich treasure house of song that we enjoy today. He collected folk songs, retained the melodic line, kept what words were usable and rewrote the rest. He didn't cla...
I've occasionally wished I had Caller ID. Even telemarketers, I hate to hang up on them. I try to explain I'm not interested, but they have all these canned responses so I end up having to hang up on them anyway.
It's now up to the full Senate to move swiftly to confirm John Roberts so he can assume his duties and responsibilities as chief justice when the Supreme Court begins its new term in a matter of weeks. We call on the Senate to confirm John Roberts wi...
We know that if memory is destroyed in one part of the brain, it can be sometimes re-created on a different part of the brain. And once we can unravel that amino chain of chemicals that is responsible for memory, I see no reason why we can't unlock i...
Being raised Catholic in a pressure-cooker household besieged by alcohol and bill collectors enforced and heightened a sense of sentry duty in me, the oldest of five children and the one most responsible for keeping everything from capsizing. Wild in...
If you rely on the media for your information, to educate yourself about the candidates and what issues are facing the country, then you get just part of the equation. I think it's important that we as citizens of this democracy take the responsibili...
There's something about a roller coaster that triggers strong feelings, maybe because most of us associate them with childhood. They're inherently cinematic; the very shape of a coaster, all hills and valleys and sickening helices, evokes a human emo...
When people buy, rescue, or otherwise acquire a dog from unscrupulous breeders or amateur rescue groups, they are making a decision with ethical consequences. They have a profound responsibility to consider their actions; to gauge the dog's behavior,...
I know that being seen as a role model means taking responsibility for all my actions. I am human, and of course, sometimes I make mistakes. But I promise that when I fall, I get back up.
In New York I was always so scared of saying that I wrote fiction. It just seemed like, 'Who am I to dare to do that thing here? The epicenter of publishing and writers?' I found all that very intimidating and avoided writing as a response.
We are all used to paying a sales tax when we buy things - almost 9 percent here in New York City. The application of this concept to the financial sector could solve our need for revenue, bring some sanity back into the financial sector, and give us...
You know what I hate? I hate people who give me plants. The whole giving someone plants - it's like giving someone a pet. I'm giving you responsibility, I'm giving you a thing that you now have to take care of for, like, a year until it dies, and the...
I live a half mile from the San Andreas fault - a fact that bubbles up into my consciousness every time some other part of the world experiences an earthquake. I sometimes wonder whether this subterranean sense of impending disaster is at least partl...
Dr. Jonathan Steele: By signing this, you certify that you were wrong when you stated the boy returned to you by the police was not your son. It further stipulates that the police were right in sending you here for observation and it absolves them of...
Lucius Fox: It emits a high-frequency pulse for mapping an environment and records a response time. Bruce Wayne: Sonar. Just like a... Lucius Fox: [interrupting before he can say "bat"] Like a *submarine*, Mr. Wayne. Like a submarine.
Young Murph: What are you going to do with it? Cooper: I'm going to give it something socially responsible to do. Young Murph: Can't we just let it go? It's not harming anyone. Cooper: This thing needs to learn how to adapt, Murph. Like the rest of u...
Timon: I'm telling you, kid: this is the great life. No rules, no responsibilities... [he reaches into a hole in a log and various insects skitter out, with him holding a blue bug; he points to the rest of the insects] Timon: Ooh! The little cream-fi...
Seth: Dude! That means that by some fate we were paired together and she thought of me. Thought of me enough to want me to be responsible for the entire funness of her party! She wants to fuck me! She wants my dick in or around her mouth!
Doyle Lonnegan: Mr. Shaw, we usually require a tie at this table... if you don't have one we can get you one. Henry Gondorff: That'd be real nice of you, Mr. Lonniman! Doyle Lonnegan: Lonnegan. [Gondorf nods and burps in response]
Marianne Borg: You're a coward. Dr. Evald Borg: Yes. This life sickens me. I will not be forced to take on a responsibility that will make me live for one day longer than I want to. And you know that I mean what I say.
