Well, I'll say.
Poor Mrs. Schindler was quoted today as saying this, and I agree but in a different context.
Schiavo's Parents Suffer More Setbacks
This is reminding me now of the Princess Dianna funeral on speed -- in that case, we saw a riotous two-week outpouring of hysterical grief, followed by an embarassed and somewhat shamefaced return to normalcy. In this case, it has taken only a few days to go through the hysteria phase and reach the embarassed stage, the stage where people see Ms. Shiavo's "baby seal" face and mutter to themselves, please no more. and change the channel.
Except, of course, for Pat Buchannan -- who said tonight on Hardball that President Bush should get federal marshals to burst into Ms. Schiavo's hospice room and scoop her up and take her to a hospital where, presumably at gunpoint, doctors would reinstall the feeding tube by force. When Matthews asked him under what authority the president could do that, Buchannan said, well, he's the president. Oh for heaven's sake, do you guys think you elected a king?
Please, please, stop the insanity!
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
So how are things going in Iraq these days?
John Burns writes in this NYT article, There Are Signs the Tide May Be Turning on Iraq's Street of Fear, about how maybe, just maybe, things are going better on Haifa Street in Iraq.
But the article gives me a whistling-past-the-graveyard feeling. "In the first 18 months of the fighting, the insurgents mostly outmaneuvered the Americans along Haifa Street, showing they could carry the war to the capital's core with something approaching impunity. But American officers say there have been signs that the tide may be shifting. On Haifa Street, at least, insurgents are attacking in smaller numbers, and with less intensity; mortar attacks into the Green Zone have diminished sharply; major raids have uncovered large weapons caches; and some rebel leaders have been arrested or killed."
This is progress? An 18 month battle for a single Baghdad street, where things are so much better now because the insurgents are attacking "in smaller numbers"? Oh wow!
And then there is Today in Iraq's reference to this Asia Times article: Shocked and awed into 'freedom' , which provides an Iraqi-eyed view of daily life now in Iraq:
"Highways in and out of Baghdad are suicidal: the Americans can't control any of them. Anyone is a potential kidnapping target, either for the Sunni guerrilla or criminal gangs. Officials at the Oil and Electricity Ministries tell of at least one attack a day. Oil pipelines are attacked and distribution interrupted virtually every week. There's a prison camp syndrome: almost 10,000 Iraqis incarcerated at any one time, in three large jails, including the infamous Abu Ghraib. . . . The Sunni guerrillas register an average of scores of attacks a day, all over the country. Roadside and car bombs are still exploding in leveled Fallujah. The Baghdad regional police commander was assassinated on Saturday. The resistance has infiltrated virtually all government and police networks . . . "
So I don't think it matters very much whether things are going better for the Americans along Haifa Street.
But the article gives me a whistling-past-the-graveyard feeling. "In the first 18 months of the fighting, the insurgents mostly outmaneuvered the Americans along Haifa Street, showing they could carry the war to the capital's core with something approaching impunity. But American officers say there have been signs that the tide may be shifting. On Haifa Street, at least, insurgents are attacking in smaller numbers, and with less intensity; mortar attacks into the Green Zone have diminished sharply; major raids have uncovered large weapons caches; and some rebel leaders have been arrested or killed."
This is progress? An 18 month battle for a single Baghdad street, where things are so much better now because the insurgents are attacking "in smaller numbers"? Oh wow!
And then there is Today in Iraq's reference to this Asia Times article: Shocked and awed into 'freedom' , which provides an Iraqi-eyed view of daily life now in Iraq:
"Highways in and out of Baghdad are suicidal: the Americans can't control any of them. Anyone is a potential kidnapping target, either for the Sunni guerrilla or criminal gangs. Officials at the Oil and Electricity Ministries tell of at least one attack a day. Oil pipelines are attacked and distribution interrupted virtually every week. There's a prison camp syndrome: almost 10,000 Iraqis incarcerated at any one time, in three large jails, including the infamous Abu Ghraib. . . . The Sunni guerrillas register an average of scores of attacks a day, all over the country. Roadside and car bombs are still exploding in leveled Fallujah. The Baghdad regional police commander was assassinated on Saturday. The resistance has infiltrated virtually all government and police networks . . . "
So I don't think it matters very much whether things are going better for the Americans along Haifa Street.
Yes!
Every time I start feeling that our civilization is crumbling, something like this gives me hope.
This Catholic bishop originally refused a Catholic funeral for a gay bar owner. Now, following protests organized by Americablog among others, and obviously some soul-searching, the bishop has changed his mind, saying he now realizes his condemnation was unjust. Its impressive to see that people CAN change, isn't it. Bishop apologizes for barring Catholic funeral of gay nightclub owner
This Catholic bishop originally refused a Catholic funeral for a gay bar owner. Now, following protests organized by Americablog among others, and obviously some soul-searching, the bishop has changed his mind, saying he now realizes his condemnation was unjust. Its impressive to see that people CAN change, isn't it. Bishop apologizes for barring Catholic funeral of gay nightclub owner
Monday, March 21, 2005
It only hurts when I laugh
Rumsfeld Cautions Iraqis on New Government
This made me laugh -- "[Rumsfeld] warned that Iraqis had to 'be darned careful about making a lot of changes just to be putting in their friend or to be putting in someone else from their tribe or from their ethnic group. This is too serious a business over there and the United States has got too much invested and too much committed and too many lives at stake for people to be careless about that.'
So here is Rumsfeld warning Iraq against hiring people just because they're friends or from a particular tribe -- when the United States screwed up the Iraq economy and reconstruction because it insisted on hiring people to staff the coalition provisional authority office whose only qualification was that they were Republicans who had sent their resume to the White House or posted it on the Heritage Foundation website. The Washington Post reported last June that "most CPA hiring was done by the White House and Pentagon personnel offices, with posts going to people with connections to the Bush administration or the Republican Party. The job of reorganizing Baghdad's stock exchange, which has not reopened, was given in September to a 24-year-old who had sought a job at the White House. "It was loyalty over experience," a senior CPA official said."
Read this entire WP article to refresh your memory about the miserable history of the Iraq occupation -- and see if you agree that the insurgency is really all Turkey's fault because Turkey wouldn't let the US send 30,000 troops into Iraq from the north, as Rumsfeld also said this weekend, or whether this is just one more ass-covering remark from an incompetent administration.
This made me laugh -- "[Rumsfeld] warned that Iraqis had to 'be darned careful about making a lot of changes just to be putting in their friend or to be putting in someone else from their tribe or from their ethnic group. This is too serious a business over there and the United States has got too much invested and too much committed and too many lives at stake for people to be careless about that.'
So here is Rumsfeld warning Iraq against hiring people just because they're friends or from a particular tribe -- when the United States screwed up the Iraq economy and reconstruction because it insisted on hiring people to staff the coalition provisional authority office whose only qualification was that they were Republicans who had sent their resume to the White House or posted it on the Heritage Foundation website. The Washington Post reported last June that "most CPA hiring was done by the White House and Pentagon personnel offices, with posts going to people with connections to the Bush administration or the Republican Party. The job of reorganizing Baghdad's stock exchange, which has not reopened, was given in September to a 24-year-old who had sought a job at the White House. "It was loyalty over experience," a senior CPA official said."
Read this entire WP article to refresh your memory about the miserable history of the Iraq occupation -- and see if you agree that the insurgency is really all Turkey's fault because Turkey wouldn't let the US send 30,000 troops into Iraq from the north, as Rumsfeld also said this weekend, or whether this is just one more ass-covering remark from an incompetent administration.
Playing snakes and ladders
Google Search: Conservatives Looking through the Google Search at the Conservative convention news of the last three days, it shows a party which avoided most of the snakes and seized the ladders.
They finally, finally, appear to have realized that being pro-choice is not the same as being pro-abortion (except for Elsie Wayne, but why would that be a surprise). They voted down a divisive rule change which would have split the party between Alliance and PC. Though the media didn't report on this, its likely that they also fleshed out many of their other paper-thin policy positions -- I hope at least they changed that insulting "we support farmers, loggers, and fishermen" reference from their election platform last year.
And, of course, they remain purposefully ignorant about gay marriage and the Canadian supreme court and the notwithstanding clause -- this is the snake that they just cannot seem to get past, and it will continue to pull them down.
They finally, finally, appear to have realized that being pro-choice is not the same as being pro-abortion (except for Elsie Wayne, but why would that be a surprise). They voted down a divisive rule change which would have split the party between Alliance and PC. Though the media didn't report on this, its likely that they also fleshed out many of their other paper-thin policy positions -- I hope at least they changed that insulting "we support farmers, loggers, and fishermen" reference from their election platform last year.
And, of course, they remain purposefully ignorant about gay marriage and the Canadian supreme court and the notwithstanding clause -- this is the snake that they just cannot seem to get past, and it will continue to pull them down.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
Digby says it all
In The Days of Our Lives, Digby points out the facts that the American public are NOT seeing on their television screens today:
1. ". . . George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday. "
2. ". . . republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug . . . on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country."
3. ". . . the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far. "
4. ". . . the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming."
5. '. . . this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative. "
1. ". . . George W. Bush signed a law in Texas that expressly gave hospitals the right to remove life support if the patient could not pay and there was no hope of revival, regardless of the patient's family's wishes. It is called the Texas Futile Care Law. Under this law, a baby was removed from life support against his mother's wishes in Texas just this week. A 68 year old man was given a temporary reprieve by the Texas courts just yesterday. "
2. ". . . republicans have voted en masse to pull the plug . . . on medicaid funding that pays for the kind of care that someone like Terry Schiavo and many others who are not so severely brain damaged need all across this country."
3. ". . . the tort reform that is being contemplated by the Republican congress would preclude malpractice claims like that which has paid for Terry Schiavo's care thus far. "
4. ". . . the bankruptcy bill will make it even more difficult for families who suffer a catastrophic illness like Terry Schiavo's because they will not be able to declare chapter 7 bankruptcy and get a fresh start when the gargantuan medical bills become overwhelming."
5. '. . . this grandstanding by the congress is a purely political move designed to appease the religious right and that the legal maneuverings being employed would be anathema to any true small government conservative. "
Don't believe what they say
MSNBC - U.S. misled allies about nuclear export
This is a huge story.
When meeting with China, Japan and South Korea five or six weeks ago, the Bush administration tried to bolster their demonization of North Korea and scare everyone by accusing North Korea of having sold nuclear materials to that rogue state Libya.
They lied. On purpose.
Actually, North Korea had sold the materials to US ally Pakistan. It was Pakistan's Abdel Qadeer Khan who then sold the materials to Libya, without North Korea's knowledge.
US intelligence showed all along that it was Pakistan that made the sale. But the Bush administration wanted to scare everyone, so they lied about what their intelligence said.
"The Bush administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, instead left allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings omitted essential details about the transaction, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said in interviews. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbors and the United States. In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks today in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea."
As the story points out, this is just the latest of several lies about US intelligence findings -- "The new details follow a string of controversies concerning the Bush administration's use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. In the run-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003, the White House offered a public case against Iraq that concealed dissent on nearly every element of intelligence and included interpretations unsupported by the evidence."
In fact, the world will realize now that there's a pattern of lying here, using inflated intelligence to promote political agendas. And no one will believe the Bush administration anymore.
This is a huge story.
When meeting with China, Japan and South Korea five or six weeks ago, the Bush administration tried to bolster their demonization of North Korea and scare everyone by accusing North Korea of having sold nuclear materials to that rogue state Libya.
They lied. On purpose.
Actually, North Korea had sold the materials to US ally Pakistan. It was Pakistan's Abdel Qadeer Khan who then sold the materials to Libya, without North Korea's knowledge.
US intelligence showed all along that it was Pakistan that made the sale. But the Bush administration wanted to scare everyone, so they lied about what their intelligence said.
"The Bush administration's approach, intended to isolate North Korea, instead left allies increasingly doubtful as they began to learn that the briefings omitted essential details about the transaction, U.S. officials and foreign diplomats said in interviews. North Korea responded to public reports last month about the briefings by withdrawing from talks with its neighbors and the United States. In an effort to repair the damage, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is traveling through East Asia this weekend trying to get the six-nation talks back on track. The impasse was expected to dominate talks today in Seoul and then Beijing, which wields the greatest influence with North Korea."
As the story points out, this is just the latest of several lies about US intelligence findings -- "The new details follow a string of controversies concerning the Bush administration's use of intelligence on weapons of mass destruction. In the run-up to the Iraq invasion in March 2003, the White House offered a public case against Iraq that concealed dissent on nearly every element of intelligence and included interpretations unsupported by the evidence."
In fact, the world will realize now that there's a pattern of lying here, using inflated intelligence to promote political agendas. And no one will believe the Bush administration anymore.
Best line of the day . . .
. . . from Steve Gilliard, speaking about people who think abstinence education is working: "Is there ANY area of science besides ballistics that these people pay any attention to?"
From Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Yet another study shows abstinance fails:
From Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Yet another study shows abstinance fails:
Saturday, March 19, 2005
Iraq war protests worldwide
Here, for my American readers, are photos of the Iraq war protests around the world today -- just in case the American media doesn't cover this story, I can't imagine why not:
New York
Chicago
San Francisco
Mexico City
Rome
Sao Paulo
Madrid
Copenhagen
Athens
Glasgow
Istanbul
Lahore, Pakistan
Sophia, Bulgaria
Tokyo
Manila
Seoul
and two stories, from The Globe and Mail and from Yahoo.
New York
Chicago
San Francisco
Mexico City
Rome
Sao Paulo
Madrid
Copenhagen
Athens
Glasgow
Istanbul
Lahore, Pakistan
Sophia, Bulgaria
Tokyo
Manila
Seoul
and two stories, from The Globe and Mail and from Yahoo.
And I hate it when reporters don't do their jobs
Read this CP story Former Winnipeg mayor named to head round table on economy and environment. Or see this one in the Star Phoenix, entitled in a more inflammatory way PM's Patronage appointment outrages opposition MPs, and beginning with "Despite promising to end political "cronyism", Prime Minister Paul Martin announced Friday he will ignore the conclusion of a parliamentary committee and proceed with one of his most controversial patronage appointments by naming defeated Liberal candidate Glen Murray to a federal advisory agency on the environment."
What you will not find in either story is an elementary fact which the reporter who wrote it or the editor who edited it could easily have found out: the Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development has five (5) Liberal members, including the chair, and seven (7) opposition members (4 conservative, two bloc and one NDP).
Excuse me folks, but is it any surprise that a majority of the committee tried to play a political game by voting against Murray? And that Martin ignored both the game and the vote?
What you will not find in either story is an elementary fact which the reporter who wrote it or the editor who edited it could easily have found out: the Commons Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development has five (5) Liberal members, including the chair, and seven (7) opposition members (4 conservative, two bloc and one NDP).
Excuse me folks, but is it any surprise that a majority of the committee tried to play a political game by voting against Murray? And that Martin ignored both the game and the vote?
Media circus du jour
The Medical Becomes Political for Congress
One aspect of the Schiavo case that I haven't read about yet is how it basically makes the case for medicare. I hope the republicans remember. This NYT story says "Many Congressional Democrats were biting their tongues Friday as they witnessed what they considered an egregious misuse of power by Republicans. They pointed to public opinion polls that show support for Mr. Schiavo's right to decide his wife's fate, but they also fear the power of the mobilized right. Plus, lawmakers of both parties say they have been moved by the videotapes they have seen of Ms. Schiavo, viewing themselves as the last barrier between her and a death sentence. Yet, as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, warned her colleagues this week as they considered a bill that would move the case to federal court, the mix of politics and mortality can be volatile. "We change the nature of all these things to put this in the political arena," she said."
That's for sure.
If they are going to force the Florida hospital to keep her alive, well, maybe they should be paying for her care for the next 40 years.
And how many other braindamaged people are there who the US government should also be caring for? And, come to think of it, how many other people are there in the US who need medical care of all kinds, but who cannot get it? Maybe their government should care enough about them, all of them, to put its money where its mouth is, and introduce decent medicare for every american.
Oh, fat chance. I'm just being sarcastic as usual.
Like all the other "right to life" cases, the proponents don't really give a damn about Schaivo or her family or medicare issues or anything other than "winning". This all reminds me of the media frenzy over the Elian Gonzales case. But unlike that case, this one cannot be solved by an early morning raid. Because it will take weeks for her to die, some judge or politician somewhere will always find some way to continue Mrs. Shaivo's life.
At some point, her husband will give up and divorce her, leaving her to her parents. And then all her newfound friends will move on to pray on the streets about something else, like, say, the Roy Moore Ten Commendments case coming up at the Supreme Court. They will leave Mrs. Shiavo to live on and on in her vegetative state, breaking her parents' hearts as she continues to not recover from her unrecoverable brain damage. In a few years, we will see a couple of plaintive news stories from the parents wondering why all their friends have disappeared.
UPFATE: So now the whole thing will be moved to federal court, where the husband can start all over again, though the Supreme Court has already refused to hear the case. Will a federal judge decide the case differently from innumerable Florida judges? And how many more years will the circus continue now?
One aspect of the Schiavo case that I haven't read about yet is how it basically makes the case for medicare. I hope the republicans remember. This NYT story says "Many Congressional Democrats were biting their tongues Friday as they witnessed what they considered an egregious misuse of power by Republicans. They pointed to public opinion polls that show support for Mr. Schiavo's right to decide his wife's fate, but they also fear the power of the mobilized right. Plus, lawmakers of both parties say they have been moved by the videotapes they have seen of Ms. Schiavo, viewing themselves as the last barrier between her and a death sentence. Yet, as Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, warned her colleagues this week as they considered a bill that would move the case to federal court, the mix of politics and mortality can be volatile. "We change the nature of all these things to put this in the political arena," she said."
That's for sure.
If they are going to force the Florida hospital to keep her alive, well, maybe they should be paying for her care for the next 40 years.
And how many other braindamaged people are there who the US government should also be caring for? And, come to think of it, how many other people are there in the US who need medical care of all kinds, but who cannot get it? Maybe their government should care enough about them, all of them, to put its money where its mouth is, and introduce decent medicare for every american.
Oh, fat chance. I'm just being sarcastic as usual.
Like all the other "right to life" cases, the proponents don't really give a damn about Schaivo or her family or medicare issues or anything other than "winning". This all reminds me of the media frenzy over the Elian Gonzales case. But unlike that case, this one cannot be solved by an early morning raid. Because it will take weeks for her to die, some judge or politician somewhere will always find some way to continue Mrs. Shaivo's life.
At some point, her husband will give up and divorce her, leaving her to her parents. And then all her newfound friends will move on to pray on the streets about something else, like, say, the Roy Moore Ten Commendments case coming up at the Supreme Court. They will leave Mrs. Shiavo to live on and on in her vegetative state, breaking her parents' hearts as she continues to not recover from her unrecoverable brain damage. In a few years, we will see a couple of plaintive news stories from the parents wondering why all their friends have disappeared.
UPFATE: So now the whole thing will be moved to federal court, where the husband can start all over again, though the Supreme Court has already refused to hear the case. Will a federal judge decide the case differently from innumerable Florida judges? And how many more years will the circus continue now?
Becoming soulless people
Un-Volunteering: Troops Improvise to Find Way Out
One soldier's journey to a conscientious-objector application: " Here's what happened: I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people."
One of the horrible things about this war is the horrible things that the American military has done in Iraq -- shooting families whose only crime was to be driving in the wrong place, crashing into people's homes and arresting them on rumour and hearsay, destroying towns street by street like the city of Fallujah, throwing men and women and children into prison and not letting them out again even when their innocence is proven, arresting wives to make their husbands surrender -- acting, in other words, just the way the Nazis did in France and Holland and Czechoslovakia.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War are marching this weekend at Fort Bragg. I hope they realize how many others are with them in spirit.
Also on the IVAW website I came across a reference to Codepink's coverage of the conviction and imprisonment of Iraq war resistor Camilo Mejia. In his writings from prison, Camilo quoted this poem, written by a Nazi war resistor Albrecht Hanshofer as he awaited execution:
GUILT
The burden of my guilt before the law
weighs light upon my shoulders; to plot
and to conspire was my duty to the people;
I would have been a criminal had I not.
I am guilty, though not the way you think,
I should have done my duty sooner, I was wrong,
I should have called evil more clearly by its name
I hesitated to condemn it for far too long.
I now accuse myself within my heart:
I have betrayed my conscience far too long
I have deceived myself and fellow man.
I knew the course of evil from the start
My warning was not loud nor clear enough!
Today I know what I was guilty of…
One soldier's journey to a conscientious-objector application: " Here's what happened: I spent six months over there, and I came back and thought about it. What I know is that it's inhumane. It's turning 18-year-old men and women into soulless people."
One of the horrible things about this war is the horrible things that the American military has done in Iraq -- shooting families whose only crime was to be driving in the wrong place, crashing into people's homes and arresting them on rumour and hearsay, destroying towns street by street like the city of Fallujah, throwing men and women and children into prison and not letting them out again even when their innocence is proven, arresting wives to make their husbands surrender -- acting, in other words, just the way the Nazis did in France and Holland and Czechoslovakia.
The Iraq Veterans Against the War are marching this weekend at Fort Bragg. I hope they realize how many others are with them in spirit.
Also on the IVAW website I came across a reference to Codepink's coverage of the conviction and imprisonment of Iraq war resistor Camilo Mejia. In his writings from prison, Camilo quoted this poem, written by a Nazi war resistor Albrecht Hanshofer as he awaited execution:
GUILT
The burden of my guilt before the law
weighs light upon my shoulders; to plot
and to conspire was my duty to the people;
I would have been a criminal had I not.
I am guilty, though not the way you think,
I should have done my duty sooner, I was wrong,
I should have called evil more clearly by its name
I hesitated to condemn it for far too long.
I now accuse myself within my heart:
I have betrayed my conscience far too long
I have deceived myself and fellow man.
I knew the course of evil from the start
My warning was not loud nor clear enough!
Today I know what I was guilty of…
Friday, March 18, 2005
How do you spell...
G-R-A-N-D-S-T-A-N-D-I-N-G.
If they had actually been serious, the congress would have passed these bills a week ago.Yahoo! News - House GOPs Want Feeding Tube Reinserted
Its not as though they had other things to do -- oh, no, wait, they had to interview Mark McQuire about steroids and vote to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge!
Never mind.
If they had actually been serious, the congress would have passed these bills a week ago.Yahoo! News - House GOPs Want Feeding Tube Reinserted
Its not as though they had other things to do -- oh, no, wait, they had to interview Mark McQuire about steroids and vote to drill for oil in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge!
Never mind.
Don't you just hate it
When you do a "blog this" post, and get it all written, with bunches of extra links. Then, when you go to hit "publish" you hit the "x" box by mistake -- and poof! its gone!
I just did a brilliant post pointing to a brilliant My Blahg post about the war on terror and including various great links to the New York reaction to the republican convention and... oh well, I guess the world will just have to suffer the loss. Go see My Blahg anyway.
I just did a brilliant post pointing to a brilliant My Blahg post about the war on terror and including various great links to the New York reaction to the republican convention and... oh well, I guess the world will just have to suffer the loss. Go see My Blahg anyway.
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Mencken quotes
TBRNews.org has this great H.L. Mencken quote: As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.Here's some more of the things that H.L. Mencken said:
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
All men are frauds. The only difference between them is that some admit it. I myself deny it.
All successful newspapers are ceaselessly querulous and bellicose. They never defend anyone or anything if they can help it; if the job is forced on them, they tackle it by denouncing someone or something else.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood.
Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.
Faith may be defined briefly as an illogical belief in the occurrence of the improbable.
Giving every man a vote has no more made men wise and free than Christianity has made them good.
I believe that all government is evil, and that trying to improve it is largely a waste of time.
In the United States, doing good has come to be, like patriotism, a favorite device of persons with something to sell.
It is even harder for the average ape to believe that he has descended from man.
It is hard to believe that a man is telling the truth when you know that you would lie if you were in his place.
It is impossible to imagine Goethe or Beethoven being good at billiards or golf.
It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office.
Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
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