Raw Meat is a quoteblog by Aaron Swartz.

Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a recent statement that “I am pleased to call Fred Malek my friend,” and that except for his experience compiling a list of Jews for Nixon, “he has no record of being anti-Jewish.” Both [Malek’s spokesman] and a spokesman for the ADL declined to say whether Malek had contributed money to the group.

Attribute the best possible motive consistent with the facts.

One day when I was a junior medical student, a very important Boston surgeon visited the school and delivered a great treatise on a large number of patients who had undergone successful operations for vascular reconstruction. At the end of the lecture, a young student at the back of the room timidly asked, “Do you have any controls?” Well, the great surgeon drew himself up to his full height, hit the desk, and said, “Do you mean did I not operate on half the patients?” The hall grew very quiet then. The voice at the back of the room very hesitantly replied, “Yes, that’s what I had in mind.” Then the visitor’s fist really came down as he thundered, “Of course not. That would have doomed half of them to their death.” God, it was quiet then, and one could scarcely hear the small voice ask, “Which half?

Erdogan has recently discovered why Israel-bashing is the recreational drug of choice for Islamic political leaders - it’s cheap, it makes you feel good and you can fit in with the crowd. But it does have side effects and you do tend to find yourself doing it over and over again instead of getting on with more productive work.

Karl Marx knew little about penguins, but he did acknowledge, in the sexist terminology of 1852, that ‘Men make their own history’