Reading and Hat Collecting

OK...so my holiday included some time at Guild Wars collecting holiday headgear. The pumpkin head is my dervish, Fractal Zed, dancing up a storm waiting for the festivities to begin. At some point, maybe I will put up an image of all my various characters, without non-traditional headgear, but not right now.

Other than this, I have been reading and came across a few things, though if they are thoughts for the new year or not, I will let you decide.

"In the democratic centuries that are about to begin, I think that individual independence and local liberties will always be a product of art. Centralization will be the natural form of government. " p.796, Tocqueville, Democracy in America

"Uniformity reigns in studies as in everything else; diversity, like liberty, is vanishing day by day." p.805, Tocqueville, Democracy in America

"Newspapers seek to inform their readers quickly rather than to inform them well. Truth is not the beneficiary in this setting of priorities." p.32, Camus, Camus at Combat

I was trying to decide if I should comment on these as well, and thought about it. In the end, I won't comment, and let the reader decide whether these quotes have any relevance.