Weekend Quotables
January 29, 1964, was the day the movie Stanley Kubrick’s comic masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb opened in theaters to both critical and popular acclaim. The movie’s popularity was evidence of changing attitudes toward atomic weapons and the concept of nuclear deterrence.
The movie focused on the actions of a rogue U.S. officer who believes that communists are threatening the “precious bodily fluids” of Americans. Without authorization, he issues orders to U.S. bombers to launch atomic attacks against the Soviet Union.
Close scrutiny of the Dr. Strangelove character indicated that he was probably a composite of three people: Henry Kissinger, a political scientist who had written about nuclear deterrence strategy; Edward Teller, a key scientist in the development of the hydrogen bomb; and Wernher von Braun, the German scientist who was a leading figure in missile technology.
Yesterday also marked 42 years since Deng Xiaoping, deputy premier of China and President Jimmy Carter came together and signed historic new accords that reversed decades of U.S. opposition to the People’s Republic of China and normalized relations. There wasn’t much love lost between the nations. But President Carter and Vice Premier Deng believed that rapprochement would make the world safer and benefit both the U.S. and China.
Man, how times have changed.
Weekend Quotables
Air Force Gen. Michael A. Minihan
“Aim for the head.” Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan struck a Dr. Strangelove pose, urging the troops under his command to be ready to fight China in two years.
“Lethality matters most…When you can kill your enemy, every part of your life is better. Your food tastes better. Your marriage is stronger.” — ScheerPost
Reuters
In recent weeks Western countries have pledged hundreds of modern tanks and armored vehicles to equip Ukrainian forces for a counter-offensive to recapture territory later in 2023.
But delivery of those weapons is months away, leaving Kyiv to fight on through the winter in what both sides have described as a meat grinder of relentless attritional warfare. — Russia claims gains in relentless battles in east Ukraine
Tyre Nichols
“Photography helps me look at the world in a more creative way. It expresses me in ways I cannot write down for people,” he wrote on his website. He preferred landscapes and loved the glow of sunsets most, his family has said.
“My vision is to bring my viewers deep into what I am seeing through my eye and out through my lens,” Nichols wrote. “People have a story to tell, why not capture it.” — Boston Globe
Rodney King's daughter, Lora Dene King
"People wonder where the anger comes from, this is where," Lora Dene King, 38, told NBC News. "If you see someone time and time again, who looks like you, your dad, your brother, how would you feel? It's a pattern and we're still here." — Yahoo News
Pedro Noguera
The sheer number of killings and the glacial pace of the political response “breeds a sense of powerlessness and despair,” said Pedro Noguera, the dean of the school of education at the University of Southern California and a sociologist who has studied gun violence for more than two decades. “I don’t think anybody feels good about where we are at – even gun enthusiasts,” he said. — AP
Selah Goodson Bell, study co-author
Some of America’s largest utilities cut power to millions of struggling customers in recent years even as they spent billions of dollars on stock buybacks, dividend payments to shareholders and executive salaries, a new analysis of industry data has found.
The shutoffs disproportionately affect low-income customers and those from communities of color, and the “harrowing” situation is driven by corporate profiteering, said Selah Goodson Bell, a study co-author and energy justice campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity. — Guardian
R.I.P. Motown’s Barrett Strong. Sang Wall Street’s mantra…