Quotes

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.."

"They're not protesting me, per se. Not my company, specifically. More like the world that brought my company into being.

Multinational. Globalization. Capitalism. The ninety-nine percent is, I believe, their catchphrase."

"Occupy Wall Street."

"That's the one. Pretty grandiose name, if you ask me. They are not occupying Wall Street so much as a small rectangle of concrete about a thousand feet away from it."

"I think the name is symbolic."

"It's a revolt against things they don't understand. Imagine our hominid ancestors protesting a drought?

This is like that." "A rain dance, you're saying , this protest."

"It's a primitive tribal response to godlike power, yes."

"What's true? What's false?

In case you haven't noticed, the world has pretty much given up on the old Enlightenment idea of piecing together the truth based on observed data. Reality is too complicated and scary for that.

Instead, it's way easier to ignore all data that doesn't fit your preconceptions and believe all data that does.

I believe what you I believe, and you believe what you believe, and we'll agree to disagree. It's liberal tolerance meets dark age denial-ism. It's very Hip right now."

"We are more politically fanatical than ever before, more religiously zealous, more rigid in our thinking, less capable of empathy. The way we see the world is totalizing and unbreakable. We are completely avoiding the problems that diversity and worldwide communication imply.

Thus nobody cares about antique ideas like true or false."

"... sometimes a crisis is not really a crisis at all - just a new beginning. Because... if a new beginning is really new, it will feel like a crisis.

Any real change should make you feel, at first, afraid."

"Religion does have at least one useful purpose, it keeps the poor from murdering the rich."

Texas governor, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, barred the teaching of foreign languages about 80 years ago, saying, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for us."

"Rape or other personal assaults on the job with no legal redress as a condition of your employment (all while asserting that you have no employment "contract") is Republican Tort Reform.

                        30 Republicans voted to keep rape victims from being able to seek justice.

"If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, then we must leave them with something more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning."

                     Lyndon Johnson upon signing the Wilderness Act of 1964

"The motherfucker's have fucked all the mothers." Unknown lament of the times.

"...but do you believe your actions in this life make a difference in the world to come?' "If we're going to be judged on something in the afterlife, I think it'll probably be our inaction's. It's not difficult to live a pious life, if you think about it, imagining you'll be saved if you stick to a few rules. But think of all the good things you could have done but didn't because you were too lazy or complacent. I think we'll be judged on our potential." "I forget where I first heard the idea, but it does stay with you. I think it's somewhere in the Qur'an."

       --The Network

George Bernard Shaw was being his usual male chauvinist piggish self in pronouncing on the superior intellect men had as compared to women, and he turned to his wife for support. Her reply?

"Of course, dear. You married me, and I, you."

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one."

                    --George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one."

                     --Winston Churchill, in response.

A member of Parliament to Disraeli:

"Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."

"That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:

She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison."

He said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?"

                    --Tom DeLay to three young evacuees, at the jammed Astrodome 9/9/05

From Federalist #8, "Consequences of Hostilities Between the States":

"Safety from external danger is the most powerful director of national conduct. Even the ardent love of liberty will, after a time, give way to its dictates.

The violent destruction of life and property incident to war, the continual effort and alarm attendant on a state of continual danger, will compel nations the most attached o liberty to resort for repose and security to institutions which have a tendency to destroy their civil and political rights. To be more safe, they at length become willing to run the risk of being less free.... They [these institutions] would, at the same time, be necessitated to strengthen the executive arm of government, in doing which their constitutions would acquire a progressive direction toward monarchy.

It is of the nature of war to increase the executive at the expense of the legislative authority”... The perpetual menacings of danger oblige the government [of a localized confederacy] to be always prepared to repel it; its armies must be numerous enough for instant defense. The continual necessity for their services enhances the importance of the soldier, and proportionally degrades the condition of the citizen. The military state becomes elevated above the civil. The inhabitants of territories, often the theatre of war, are unavoidably subjected to frequent infringements on their rights, which serve to weaken their sense of those rights; and by degrees the people are brought to consider the soldiery not only as their protectors, but as their superiors.

The transition from this disposition to that of considering them masters, is neither remote nor difficult; but it is very difficult to prevail upon a people under such impressions, to make a bold or effectual resistance to usurpations supported by the military power.”

Two Wolves: One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside all people. He said, "My son, the battle is between two "wolves" inside us all. One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self|pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

Evil is no faceless stranger, living in a distant neighborhood. Evil has a wholesome, hometown face, with merry eyes and an open smile. Evil walks among us, wearing a mask which looks like all our faces.

                       --The Book of Counted Sorrows

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."

We consistently see this administration trying to solve real policy problems by knocking out dissent, as though dissent itself were the problem. The Bushies always remind me of Cousin Claude, a major political thinker. Claude says: "Hell, yiss, I believe in the right to dissent. H'it's in the Constitution! What I can't stand is all this criticism. Criticize, criticize, criticize. Why don't they leave poor Dubya alone and let him fight his war in peace? "We're sendin' our best boys over there, and you know what them Eye-raqis do? They come out at night. Wearin' dirty robes. Not even Christian. If they don't like what we're doin' for 'em, whyn't they just go back where they come from?'"

"Nobody in this country knows how to talk about class. America is like a giant manor estate where the aristocrats don't know they're aristocrats and the peasants imagine themselves undiscovered millionaires."

"Legislation won't change the heart, but it will restrain the heartless."

"... whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because because a man can't ride your back unless it's bent." -- From the speech in a Memphis church the night before he was shot.

"Loyalty to the country, always; loyalty to the government, when it deserves it."

"The citizen who sees his society’s democratic clothes being worn out and does not cry it out, is not a patriot, but a traitor."