Insight: “We do not consider an individual disciplined when he has been rendered as artificially silent as a mute and as immovable as a paralytic. He is an individual annihilated, not disciplined.” —Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori (1870-1952)

The BIG Lie, Part I: “At minimum, the recent downpours in Texas probably offer a glimpse of what certain parts of the U.S. can look forward to in the coming decades. As the planet continues to get hotter, in large part due to human activity, warmer air in the atmosphere will hold more moisture. This is expected to alter weather patterns and lead to more frequent and more intense instances of extreme precipitation.” —The Huffington Post’s James Gerken (Ironic, considering most of the state was in the midst of a severe multi-year drought.)

The BIG Lie, Part II: “The best climate scientists in the world are telling us that extreme weather events like hurricanes are likely to become more powerful. When you combine stronger storms with rising seas, that’s a recipe for more devastating floods. Climate change didn’t cause Hurricane Sandy, but it might have made it stronger.” —Barack Obama (How then do we explain the Great Colonial Hurricane of 1635 — nearly 380 years ago — that was considerably stronger than Sandy? Or any number of similarly strong pre-21st century storms?)

Demo-gogues: “It is a liberating feeling in the sense that the amount of time I have left, it concentrates the mind, and I think a lot of folks have been surprised at the degree to which we are moving and pushing and trying whatever we can to advance the goals of making sure that every American in this country and every child in this country, if they’re willing to work hard, can get ahead, and that opportunity and prosperity is broad-based.” —Barack Obama, a.k.a. The Food Stamp President