A Solstice of Tweets

I thought there would be fewer tweets for June, since I wasn't paying much attention while I was out of town, but I guess I'm wrong. Here goes.

People are blaming POTUS for inadequate climate policy. But everyone who lives in, or profits from, autosprawl, is complicit. [us too].
By Free Public Transit 

Oh OK ... "_truly_ unique"
By Chris Steller 

"We have to grasp that corporations are not concerned with the common good. They exploit, pollute, impoverish...and lie to make money."
By Nikhil Goyal 

“Asking a professor whether you should do a PhD is inquiring with a lottery winner on whether you should buy a ticket.” (OH)
By Star Simpson  

I wish there was just a single, national smoking area. Maybe in Reno.
By Jonathan Foley 

The "national interest" doesn't mean: "promoting the agenda of political officials".
By Glenn Greenwald 

"The press has a ratings bias that's much stronger than a left or right bias."— Nate Silver at #AspenIdeas
By Nikhil Goyal 

It's a strange thing to be at the top of your career and have no discernible future ahead.
By Tom Tomorrow  

On the attacks on Glenn Greenwald, author of the Guardian stories that used Edward Snowden as a source:

Well if @ggreenwald had a dog bigger than the condo association allowed, I guess I can't really object to the NSA reading my e-mail
By sam  

So is the deal now that every reporter on a big story's past foibles, personal life are newsworthy? Cuz sh*t can get ugly real fast.
By Christopher Hayes  

If your life hasn't been interesting enough for somebody to get an innuendo-filled article out of it, kind of too bad for you.
By Tom Tomorrow

On the Wendy Davis filibuster in Texas:

Hey @CNN, you might want to check your Twitter feed. There's some actual news happening today...
By Jonathan Foley 

In the Third World nation of Texas the ruling fundamentalists have called in police to disperse human rights demonstrators. #standwithwendy
By Harold 

The dinosaurs couldn't tell time either. Look what happened to them.
By mez 

You know what would make this even better? If all the people screaming voted these Republicans out of office. #StandWithWendy
By Hemant Mehta 

Remember, the filibuster is a core part of American democra- WHOA WHO LET SOMEONE USE IT TO SUPPORT WOMEN'S RIGHTS. #standwithwendy
By John Epler

I guess the Texas GOP chose #SitDownWendy because #LieBackandEnjoyIt was already taken and it didn't work out so well last time.
By Jerri Stephenson 

I assume the right-wing went with #SitDownWendy because #LetTheMenfolkSettleThisSweetie was too lengthy.
By Philip Michaels

#SitDownWendy is a great idea. But where? How about the Governor's chair?
By Alex Bowles 

On the Supreme Court's rulings the week of June 24:

So the Supreme Court struck down DOMA, and in his dissent Scalia struck down the concept of irony.
By jay smooth 

The irony of this civil-rights breakthrough a day after VRA debacle is tough.
By Monika Bauerlein 

Good news is Section 5 was not struck down wholesale. The key will be 2014 midterms. Need a new Congress for a new formula.
By Harris-Lacewell 

So they didn't kill Affirmative Action, they just encased it carbonite and now they're shipping it back to Tatooine?
By jay smooth

More general tweets:

How many more deliveries could a truck make per day in a city with no cars? Cars are choking small business.
By Free Public Transit 

"Suburbia is where they bulldoze out the trees, then name the streets after them."- Bill Vaughan.
By Brent Toderian 

25 years ago James Hansen testified 1988 was about to be hottest year on record; After 2013,1988 falls out of top 20 hottest
By seth borenstein 

Media keeps asking "Where's Snowden?" Not as interested in the government abuses he exposed, which are located right here.
By Frank Conniff 

Good thing the USA won the Cold War, otherwise we might be living in a world of mass surveillance and persecution of dissidents.
By Teju Cole 

In watching tonight's "Mad Men" finale, remember: As bad as it looks now, the next time we see Pete Campbell, his hair will be even worse.
By Tim Carvell

Why would you invest a barrel of oil equivalent to get a barrel of oil? Answer, because cars need it in liquid form. #tarsands
By Free Public Transit 

So the government can spy on every email & call we make. But doing a background check to buy a semiautomatic rifle impinges on our freedom?
By Jonathan Foley

Getting information freely from the web is a universal human right. That's why the web is so disruptive. Spying on private messages is not a right.
By Edward Tufte

Want to build better democracy? Fight for good health care; bicycle paths; public transit. The abstract word is useless.
By Anil Bhattarai 

I want a public discussion in America about who "The Bad Guys" are, since stopping them seems more important to us than freedom.
By John Perry Barlow

Paula Deen reminds me how much money there would be in teaching rich white dummies not to be foolish, were they self-aware enough to pay it.
By Alyssa Rosenberg 

Pretty sure "a mix of self-reflection & obliviousness" describes most privileged people's attempts to discuss race.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker 

I am in San Francisco! I just flew here, sitting in a chair in the sky. Like a Greek god!
By Aron Pilhofer 

When a man tries to hit on me by saying, "C'mon! Let's see your smile!" It is natural for me to say, "Hi! Let's see you castrated!"
By Molly Priesmeyer 

I did an extensive study showing admissions data used in our PhD program showed no (as in zero) correlation with performance in grad school.
By David B Collum 

A peaceful protest, viciously attacked by police, is not a "riot."
By Free Public Transit 

Carbon dumping is free. Bank bailouts are free. Now is the time for #freetransit. No more welfare for autos and sprawl.
By Free Public Transit

Widely cited stat that 1 in 3 women 35-39 won't be pregnant after a year of trying is sourced to data from 1670-1830.
By elizabeth gettelman 

Trying to understand the psychology of someone who surveys the US political scene & decides FOOD STAMPS are the big problem.
By David Roberts

More ellipses have been created in the last three years than ever existed in all previous human history ... I'm pretty sure.
By Chris Steller 

I think Obama sees his foreign policy of more limited interventions (drone strikes, special ops, etc) as an alternative to perpetual war.
By Josh Barro 

The only way to have an organized sock drawer is to just own 2 socks. Otherwise: chaos.
By Kristen Schaal 

T-shirt sighting: "Save the Earth, it's the only planet with chocolate."
By Brooke Jarvis 

Before anything else, just remember that Cory Booker is friends with Michelle Rhee.
By Nikhil Goyal 

Women can't lean in without domestic workers to lean ON.
By shailjapatel 

Judy Blume on getting kids to read a great book. Tell them “I’m not sure you’re ready for that.”
By GalleyCat

RT @HaroldItz Iranian government extended voting hours because of long lines. That's more than Republicans are willing to do.
By Nikhil Goyal 

Those born in top 20% of income who didn't graduate college are 2.5x more likely to be in top 20% than those born poor who did graduate.
By Mike Konczal 

Change is a threat when done TO people, but an opportunity when done BY them. Choice & voice reduce resistance.
By Rosabeth Moss Kanter 

Just made the mistake of eating a madeleine. Wasted the whole morning remembering Proust's childhood.
By Tim Carvell 

Sidewalk clipboarders are real-life spammers.
By Julia Robinson

People of America! A humble request from TV producers the world over: When you shoot your awesome amateur video, *put your phone horizontal*
By Christopher Hayes

MILLION DOLLAR IDEA: FOURSQUARE FOR DOG POOP.
By Christopher Hayes

I work for a not-for-profit and we pay our interns. What the hell is a for-profit's excuse for not paying theirs?
By Calvin 

As Simone de Beauvoir said, you cannot rule a people humanely against their will.
By Joshua Eaton 

It's gonna be pretty fun watching Peter King lose his seat in 2014.
By Christopher Hayes 

Mass public transit initiatives would solve the drunk driving problem much more efficiently than banning 18-21 year old alcohol consumption.
By Al Reinhardt 

"He said in a statement" is like "He wrote in a writing"
By Chris Steller 

Hearing a lot about oaths… Weird that some pundits talk only about secrecy oaths, never about oaths to uphold Constitution.
By Barry Eisler

Journalists: If you're going to defend government secrecy and defame whistleblowers, why don't you just go into PR instead?
By Joshua Eaton 

"It always seems impossible until it is done." - Nelson Mandela
By Rula Jebreal 

Free transit is not a handout. Letting cars pollute, that is a handout.
By Free Public Transit 

Tweet of the century RT @JayGabler: Why do all the recipes call it "heavy cream," but none of the cartons say that?
By Chris Steller 

Shit we can do: dole out billions to subcontractors to spy on people. Shit we can't: prevent the middle class from becoming the poor.
By umair haque 

I say: If the NSA is going to read all my emails, the least it could do is answer them, too.
By Rosa Brooks 

I'm hearing St. Francis was a sissy.
By Alec Sulkin 

I would like the Fourth Amendment to be more than vestigial when my son is grown.
By Tom Tomorrow 

Military justice is to justice as military music is to music. And military PowerPoint is to stupid as nothing else.
By Edward Tufte 

Privacy, like virginity, is something you can choose to give away, but it's traumatic if someone takes it from you. #NSA
By Nell Scovell 

Imagine if 95 percent of the people working on breaking news started devoting their time to investigative journalism.
By Nikhil Goyal 

An American cow produces 21,697 lbs of milk a year -- nearly triple the production of 50 years ago.
By Quartz 

That’s it. This exists with no sense of irony. Humanity has officially jumped the shark.
By Alex Wintermute

Home Alone (1990, Comedy) Two burglars attempt to murder an abandoned 8-year-old child
By Horton 

Can't believe the people who force-feed prisoners held without trial and operate secret torture facilities would snoop on my Facebook feed.
By Maciej Ceglowski 

I don’t want breaking news. I want slow, thoughtful, deeply researched news. Especially now.
By Mandy Brown 

I love how people are shocked that the Patriot Act applies to them as well as "those people."
By Tammy G 
Whoever leaked this PRISM stuff knowing Manning's mistreatment, press surveillance, and the very capabilities they were leaking, is a hero.
By Steve Randy Waldman

Things you might say if you flunked Intro Probability & Statistics: "Everything happens for a reason."
By Neil deGrasse Tyson

I love when "flying car" is used as a vision of the future. All the stress of air travel, with the planet-destroying mundanity of driving!
By Anil Dash

Why do "victims" of IRS scandal get to testify but victims of military sexual assault don't?
By ThingsThatMakeUGoHm

Black people and white people use pot at roughly the same rates. Black ppl are 4 times as likely to be arrested.
By Christopher Hayes 

Inherited money should come with an exploding dye pack like stolen bank cash, only the dye stays on you until you accomplish something.
By Kevin Seccia

When food waste is 30-50%, and we turn 40% of crops into feed or fuel, we can get much more food out of current system.
By Jonathan Foley 

For first time in human history, 1 out of 3 persons is older than 40.
By Chip Giller 

Do SCOTUS rulings take effect immediately or only after Nina Totenberg voices the opinion?
By Chris Steller 

If you desire to write.....write.....why talk yourself out of writing each time?
By The Real bell hooks 

Why do folks keep expecting technology to fix social issues that society hasn't been able to fix?
By danah boyd 


This. Is. Spectacular.
By Richard Oliver

In 2012 (again), more Americans died crushed by their TVs or furniture (16) than from terrorism (10).
By Micah Zenko 

Sweet dreams are made of cheese, who am I to diss a Brie. I cheddar the world and the feta cheese, everybody's looking for Stilton.
By Anna-Siobhan Wilcox

There is something adorable about anti-corporate punks who also smoke.
By Sanden Totten 

Adam Ant ruined the word adamant for a generation.
By Chris Steller