Quotes
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Joke of the moment
From a Reason article on the future of Russia.
Answering a question about the future of democracy in Russia, Shevtsova said: “To add some optimism to my conclusions, I’ve got my favorite joke that, it seems to me, reflects the ambiguity of our democratic movement.
A sick man is picked up by an ambulance. He asks the doctor, ‘Doctor, where are you taking me?’ The doctor replies, ‘To the morgue.’ The man says, ‘But I’m not dead yet!’ The doctor says, ‘But we’re not there yet.’”
If this is Russian-style optimism, I’d hate to see what the pessimism looks like.
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Quote of the moment
If Bush ends up being right about Iraq, it will be through luck and accident and God’s grace, not through any skillful calculation of his own. Success there will make him a great president the way Powerball makes crackheads rich: they have the money to show for it, but they’re not fooling anyone.
I don’t quite agree with this, largely in that I don’t think the current endeavor is something that can be done well. It’s quite the zinger though.
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Thought of the moment
Problems are avoided, not solved.
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Lines of the moment
Once the game is over, the King and the pawn go back in the same box.
– Italian ProverbI’m not saying I beat the devil but I drank his beer for nothing
-Johnny Cash -
Lines of the moment
Those who would wish to take Jimmy Carter and his ideas seriously will find little assistance in this book.
It’s a soothing gargle of antiseptic mouthwash prior to flossing with a razor blade.
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Words you don’t expect to ever see together
From Mark Steyn, who has an eye for vivid prose
If you’re going to be attacked, it’s best to be attacked by a relatively advanced enemy. Compared with being force-fed Grandfather Smurf’s genitals, having his village strafed in some clinical air strike is about the least worst option for Baby Smurf.
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Qutoe of the moment
Originality is the fine art of remembering what you hear but forgetting where you heard it.
– Laurence J. Peter -
Pithy quote
From an old article by Jesse Walker
But if I had to speak in terms of that map, I’d say the most successful culture warriors come from the blue states. The authoritarian conservative wants to maintain the old taboos. The authoritarian liberal wants to introduce some new ones, and he’s had a lot more success. The religious right may despise homosexuality and pornography, but the gay movement is thriving, despite last week’s losses, and porn is more freely available than ever before.
The liberal puritans, by contrast, are riding high in the media and in the courts. For many Americans, the Democrats are the party that hates their guns, cigarettes, and fatty foods (which is worse: to rename a french fry or to take it away?); that wants to impose low speed limits on near-abandoned highways; that wants to tell local schools what they can or can’t teach. There is no party of tolerance in Washington — just a party that wages its crusades in the name of Christ and a party that wages its crusades in the name of Four Out Of Five Experts Agree.
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Well put
From Dr Sowell
It is a shame that ancient history is seldom taught in our schools. Finding out that people thousands of years ago were basically pretty much the way they are today — people of every race, color, creed, national origin, political ideology and sexual orientation — would reduce our chances of having Utopian hopes for big changes any time soon.
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A useful vicious
This month’s winner for biting commentary comes, not surprisingly, from Jeff Clark who dubbed The Aristocrats “an endurance contest for chronic masturbators”.
I haven’t actually seen the movie., but I haven’t heard much good about it.
And speaking of endurance contests, September is conspiracy to stop me from getting more than 5 hours of sleep a night. I finally have a light day and I get a new client with a crash and burn project that keep me up till 5:30, writing a blog post while files upload.