Bob Dylan is a Phony, Unlike Joni Mitchell

[Bob Dylan] is not authentic at all. He’s a plagiarist, and his name and voice are fake. Everything about Bob is a deception. We are like night and day, he and I.

— Joni Mitchell , giving me a soundbite that I can use to stir up the FT Dylan Lovers Club.

I find it fascinating that the leftist progressives say, “Well, what’s the big deal if the whole world become Muslim? What would be wrong with that?” The response to that is, “Well look, what Muslim city would you want to live in?” I like the Muslim world – I spend a lot of time there. I love Amman, I love Cairo, I love visiting . But would I want to raise a family in Cairo? Would I want to try to do business there? Would I want to try to exercise my right to free speech in Jordan, which is supposedly a moderate Muslim state?

— Mark Steyn on what it would be like if the whole world were Muslim.

He knows exactly how smart he is . . . . He’s been bored to death his whole life. He’s just too talented to do what ordinary people do.

— Valerie Jarrett , confidante and adviser to President Obama, securing her nomination for the Toady Hall of Fame.

Getting books back from the prisoners and letting them pick out new ones is a bit of controlled chaos. We stood outside the iron door to the house with our cart and had two prisoners come out at one time, check off their returned book, and pick out a new one. Each prisoner is allowed one book and one magazine. The most popular books are by far James Patterson’s novels, so popular in fact that we have to lock them up after book service because they tend to disappear. I wonder if James Patterson has any idea. National Geographic is the magazine of choice, and there is an entire box of them to choose from, some as far back as the early 80’s.

Jamie Niehof on “A Day Working the Rikers Island Book Cart.”

I just want to take this opportunity to point out that there is no such thing as “spirituality.” Doesn’t exist, has no meaning. It’s just a name for “doing what I want to do and feeling that the universe somehow smiles on me for doing it.

— Alan Jacobs doesn’t think much of spirituality.

The telephone was an aberation in human development. It was a 70 year or so period where for some reason humans decided it was socially acceptable to ring a loud bell in someone else’s life and they were expected to come running, like dogs. This was the equivalent of thinking it was okay to walk into someone’s living room and start shouting. it was never okay. It’s less okay now. Telephone calls are rude.

— Rick Webb , telling the truth about the evils of telephony. Preach on, brother.

Additional sources: Boing Boing , The Browser