Monday, March 10, 2008
Updated; May 19, 2008
I really have been lame in getting the numurous aphorisms and epigrams up here that I'd like to but, for now, I've added a few to my "Random Observations" (...as of March 10, 2008) and "Noteable Observations by Others" (...as of May 19, 2008).
Monday, January 23, 2006
A, thus far, incomplete enterprise
This site is primarily for compiling notes and ideals. New entries will be added over time...
Sunday, January 22, 2006
TOPICS:
Why do Canada and Mexico have such massive, powerful, and expensive militaries? To protect them from the "greatest danger to world peace" that lies at their borders. (Yes, this is a joke).
If anyone hasn't noticed, the "great hegemon" that is accused of being so threatening and aggressive doesn't seem to arouse any genuine fear at all to sane people in neighboring countries.
It's not the job of the American president to help France regain its sense of glory. If the French truly wish to reestablish a sense of significance, they'll need to start by scraping that stagnant social bureaucratic scheme they've adopted.
It's better to be a rich country with some poor people than a poor country with some powerful politicians.
The reason America has been, and will likely continue to be, a wealthy and powerful country is that those with superior potential, intelligence, and ambition are simply free to do superior things -- which eventually benefit many. This is only a problem to those who resent the very concept of varying ability or degrees of engagement in life. Such resentment is no more than, what Ayn Rand called, "Hatred of the good, for being the good."
Europeans who despise American “hegemony” do so more out of a fear and awareness of their own weakness rather than a perception of America’s strength.
Patriotism is when you wave a flag. Nationalism is when you try to plant it in another country.
When one says that they "despise Americans," which of the almost 300 million people do they hate most? -- The Blacks, Hispanics, Whites, rich, poor, intellectuals, men, women, laborers, scientists, artists, Republicans, Democrats...et al., or is it just anyone in America who doesn't obey that mini-tyrant in the socialist critic's head?
The heroes of America are those who will not be told what to do. They are the free spirits who create artworks, music, literature (and smut), sky scrapers, technology, and medical miracles...and who sometimes just sit down, drink a beer and do nothing -- because that's what they've chosen to do.
The Germans… (obviously not all Germans): They used to favor National Socialism. Now many (if not most) favor International Socialism. Their only difference over time is that now they'd like to see their collectivist authoritarian ideology cover a wider area.
Listen to John Kerry, Al Gore, and Ted Kennedy and you'll hear the common sound of angry and bitter guys who wanted to be President, thought it was their right and destiny...and didn't get their way.
Why is an American’s appreciation of their country, “blind patriotism” and a French citizen’s appreciation for France enlightened superiority.
POLITICAL FORCES
Civilization hovers somewhere in that Freudian realm between absolute abandon and absolute control. When a fervent outpost is reached on either end one can expect its opposite to eventually manifest. It is the country that wanders on the fine line between chaos and restraint that is most successful in survival and worldly achievement.
To say that all history is a series of class struggles is like saying that history is a pattern of people eating. True as both may be, in and of themselves, such observations aren't particularly insightful or profound.
With all the fancy charts, schemes, and tomes one finds from Marx and his followers, the philosophy ultimately comes down to the simple and undramatic observation that, "It's not fair that life isn't fair."
If there's one thing a Marxist hates more than a Capitalist, it's an intelligent proletarian.
The tragedy and paradox of Marxism's allure lies in its ability to con youthful idealists into believing that Socialist rule is somehow "revolutionary." To the contrary, it’s the most stoic of inflexible and archaic ideals -- that individual expression should be crushed before the "needs" of "society" (the State). Marxist authoritarian rule seeks to indeed "meet the needs" of its slave caste, to merely subsist as drones in a bland ant hill of regressive conformity.
The Communist party doesn't seem to be aware that a party is supposed to be fun.
The communist "revolutions" have not been revolutions at all but mere coup de etats. They did not bring about revolutionary changes in government or society but merely transferred power from one authoritarian clique' to another -- same statist authority, different names.
A communist "revolution" is when one group (socialists) corners the market on everything. Historically, that group has been comprised of disgruntled intellectuals speaking in the name of various "oppressed" groups they care little for. The socialist method of obtaining universal monopoly has always been through mere coercion and violence. Persuasion alone would never get them the power they demand.
The only way a Marxist economy can develop new technology is by the same method they use to acquire assets in general -- theft.
Any political authority that refers to outlawed opposition as, “enemies of the people” or “counter-revolutionaries,” is probably not going to be very open and tolerant to anyone in general.
A communist ranting about their "right to free speech" is like a wolf proclaiming the virtues of a vegetarian diet.
One of communism's many paradoxes (hypocrisies, actually) is that, while in a free society, its followers will obsessively call for, "change" while supporting a style of government that, once established, will not permit change of any kind.
The best thing a communist government can do is give up their allegiance to that old-time religion imported from Europe (Marxism) and then "wither away" the way the state is supposed to do according to Marx.
Some Marxists and their ideas seem to never die, but I wish they would “fade away.”
In the left's new extrapolation from its original doctrines, a Muslim-Fascist police state is a type of freedom and our constitutional republic and concept of self-government are types of "oppression." – Some things never change.
The classic Marxist story-line; the pampered, lazy, and unproductive lecture and chastise the people who have created and maintained developed and dynamic open society. Why? For daring to lack obedience to the former.
The following should be a common sense insight but, among some, it is not:
A dictatorship will always, in some way, mistreat a large segment of its population. In dealing with other nations it will always be untrustworthy, and it will always present a potential – and usually manifest – threat.
It should take equal common sense to see that such institutions should be dealt with sooner rather than later, as they will inevitably have to be dealt with at some point, typically on less than favorable terms to civilized and open societies.
The key to successful foreign policy is in recognizing that there are both good and bad governments and that you deal with them differently.
An unelected political “authority” is not legitimate – ever!
Only in the warped minds of Leftland is sympathy for dictatorship seen as a moral virtue.
With the left's new found appreciation for Muslim religious (and political extremism) we find that they finally support the prophet motive.
Regardless of the sibling rivalry and heated animosity between Communists, Fascist, and Nazis, a person would have to be a total fool (or hypocritical partisan) to not recognize them all as virtually identical in character and behavior.
Capitalism uses the carrot. Socialism uses the stick...
It is no coincidence that a country's economic strength tends to parallel the extent to which business-minded people are encouraged to stay (and thrive) vs. being motivated to giving up or simply leaving altogether.
While there is such a thing as "welfare for the rich," a tax cut is not an example of it.
In the eternal debate as to what is to be despised and feared more, business or government, it may be noted that businesses only want your money, and even then one can choose not to give it to them. If only the state and its minions were open to such negotiation.
Criticism of the most productive will always arise from the least productive.
“Some things are just too important to leave to the whims of the market [the ever-changing cumulative effect of millions of individual decisions]”…
Actually, most things are too important to leave to the whims – and compulsory edicts – of politicians, bureaucrats, and philosophers.
Next time let Robin Hood pay with his own money.
A socialist view of economics is where one feels that the cost of an apple should be determined by one's hopes and dreams – this in regard to apples and everything else.
"I'm an independent thinker...I agree with everything my Marxist Professor taught me"
An entire subgroup of frustrated radicals has emerged in our time because they were stupid enough to think that college courses in “woman’s studies,” and “critical theory” et al. would provide them the marketable skills that would maintain the lifestyles of their bourgeois upbringing. Being able to complain about “unfairness” in life is not a marketable skill. The job market has little calling for professional agitators , angry control freaks, or disgruntled spoiled brats.
The old saying is true, “Those who can’t do; teach,” and I would add that, those who can’t teach; teach teachers.
If you can’t read this, thank College Ed Schools, Teacher Unions, and government “education” bureaucrats.
"Some people don't want to be free." -- So that means the others should remain enslaved?
In Left-land it's always about "equality" not quality..., and they'll throw in the dictatorship at no extra cost.
All slaves are "equal" before a slave master.
Calling Islam a “religion of peace” is like calling a wolf a vegetarian.
The government has the power to do right-wing things you don't like because you gave it the power to do left-wing things you do like.
The fact that many people like dictatorship certainly makes life difficult for those of us who share no such perverse affection for bondage.
It is odd that many who praise a mystical worldview are so adamant about having authority and control over the non-mystical / material world.
Government support of any group will always be at the expense of another. Moral judgments regarding government's "role" rest not on some magical insight into what is right, but merely upon which groups one favors.
One of the left's prime motivations is to simply wear the laurels of elitism. They resent capitalism and the capitalist elite that rise to power from the hourly democratic votes of free-market choice. They wish to replace this result of free and individual choice with the drab authoritarian planning of an intellectual elite (themselves), placed in power by "revolution" (force) and maintained by coercion.
As a rule; bitter, depressed, and failing individuals, groups, and nations resent and despise optimistic, happy, and successful individuals, groups, and nations. One's political perspective is largely determined by whether one views the former as victims, or merely bitter, depressed failures.
If it can be said that “all of Western philosophy is a mere foot note to Plato," it’s equally appropriate to say that all of the West’s “experiments” in totalitarian government are footnotes to Plato’s Republic.
Most "skeptics" are not skeptics. skepticism toward one side of an issue isn't skepticism, it's mere partisan politics and is hardly a sign of objectivity or insight.
Why are Nazis called, "neo-Nazis," and neo-communists called, "activists?"
Basic Rule: Those most critical of a conservative worldview will always be the first to show sympathy or benefit of a doubt to dictators and authoritarian governments.
Encroaching attempts to "provide justice" to special interests eventually produces a net effect of injustice for all. Similarly, "redistribution" (confiscation) of wealth ultimately becomes a mere distribution of misery.
Render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar,...and have the common sense to realize that nothing "belongs" to "Caesar."
The left keeps telling us that our worst enemies are those who create, market, and sell ideas, products, and services. I personally think the real triad from hell consists of philosophers, politicians, and bureaucrats. Unfortunately, their occasional "downfalls" from power are always temporary and their rise all to recurring.
Almost anyone can be accused of not liking members of various groups they are not members of, to some degree. The same self-righteous demagogues who so often find "racism" in others have their own bitter hatreds for various groups. Business persons, "the rich," Americans, and Westerners in general, are often despised by many Leftists who would gladly plunder these group's resources or even kill them in what they'd consider just acts of retribution.
The essence of "multi-culturalism" is that the dice roll of birth should become a religious affiliation.
You too can help to create heaven; you need only accept the politics of hell...
There is considerable difference between one who is anti-authoritarian and one who merely wishes to replace one authority with another.
One could perhaps take the "revolutionary's" banter regarding "oppressed" persons more seriously if they actually were among such people themselves.
There are more than a few people who do not like living under collectivist tyranny (socialist, Islamic, or otherwise). The Left is consistently not sympathetic to their plight. In a pseudo-rebel's eyes, the only valid criterion in judging a country's political system is that it has sought to eliminate free commerce and that it plays lip-service to "equality." A person's desire to act and live by their own conscience doesn't concern the Left in the slightest.
When a political "leader" wears a uniform it's generally a bad sign and often indicates that he's eventually going to kill lots of people as a matter of public policy.
Ask the average “anarchist” (someone supposedly opposed to government) what they think of the UN or Cuba. Most so called anarchists are quite happy with the idea of government, bureaucracy, and restrictions upon other people’s lives, meaning they really aren’t anarchists at all but merely garden variety socialists.
There is no one more opposed to freedom than a free person who has done little or nothing in their life with that freedom.
I’ve often had the vague suspicion that those who hype possible connections between “global warming” and human activity, actually want it to be true. If there is genuine human induced global warming, like “racism,” “inequality,” and “poverty,” etc., they can complain about it. The most fervent Jacobins are ultimately motivated by a need to complain, the “issue” itself is not the real point.
One of the more absurd standards in contemporary politics is the image of a young person with an I-Pod, designer jacket, and cell phone decrying the evils of capitalism. Do they really think a socialist state would be satisfying their indulgent – and spoiled – lifestyle, or that a socialist state would want to cut a CD of their favorite band (among its “priorities”)? Name-calling the foolish is appropriate in this instance – they’re stupid.
Amongst the more bizarre paradoxes of political philosophy is the left’s simultaneous hatred and love of authority.
The more one seeks utopia, the more one's fellow citizens will disappoint, and the more danger one will be to them.
When a nation espouses a policy of "peace at any price," you can be certain that the "price" will be high...and will ultimately include peace itself.
As with National socialism, communism, and a host of other radical isms, the contemporary Islamic Jihad is just another branch of Romantic Idealism. A dreaming child -- with a gun. Their gripe is ultimately not with sin, excess, or imperialism, it is with modernity itself.
The ultimate symbol of the bureaucratic state should be a mindless weasel with a clipboard in one hand and a whip in the other.
Those who favor the imposed, impersonal, and inefficient attributes of a "public ~~,"
will always demand that you be compelled to share their admiration for such nonsense
There's nothing more pathetic -- or dangerous -- than a stupid dweeb with a title, a set of rules, and the arbitrary power to enforce them.
Regarding the “War on Poverty” and similar “social” boondoggles:
Supporters should either acknowledge that such programs were successful, have ended poverty, and are therefore no longer needed and should be discontinued or, acknowledge that such programs have failed (over the last forty years) and are therefore useless and should be discontinued.
If there are any words in political discourse more unsuited to be spoken together they are the words "Public" and "Servant." Anyone claiming to be a "servant" of the public will do so only as a pretense to mastery. Whether it be a totalitarian tyrant or the lowliest of bureau functionaries, such characters wish to be servants to no one, the public in particular.
One can be certain that any social “planner’s” attempts to diminish parental authority over children will simultaneously involve the desire to increase the state’s authority over them.
What's so noble about "sacrificing" someone else's freedom to one's own ideals?
A capitalist feels no need to claim a motive beyond the mere acquisition of wealth (usually hoping to also do something they enjoy in the process). A leftist's claimed motive is always some holier-than-thou posturing of self-sacrifice – to "help the poor and oppressed." A leftist's true motives are, in fact, baser than that of an average capitalist. The bottom line for a capitalist is…the bottom line (material wealth). For a leftist, it is raw power and authority over other's lives and the course of all human events. As is always the case, true motives speak louder than words.
If the left-minded "altruist" thinks "sacrifice" is so grand why does he or she never consider how the sheep being sacrificed feels about it?
The greediest form of greed is envy.
Socialism is never voluntary. If it were, those so inclined would form their little commune and leave the rest of us alone.
The Socialist's complaint is not so much with "Capitalism" as it is with human nature in general, for human nature is diverse and unpredictable. It will always manifest infinite possibilities, weak, strong, course, and refined.
A socialist is a little more insightful than a communist in that he or she recognizes that one can't continue to take other people's money if they seize it all at once.
A socialist ultimately wants to have someone else's cake and eat it too.
The Socialist only strives for "equality" as an aside to a more general desire for conformity to their own static vision.
Fascism = Socialism + Nationalism
Communism = Socialism + Internationalism
Their common attributes are inflexibility, the need for absolute control …and, of course, socialism.
Socialism is for people who may reluctantly submit to authority, but enthusiastically support the command that others do so.
In the final analysis, the socialist's programs are no more than schemes to placate envy -- the intellectual's envy that his or her theoretical creations will never match the tangible status, power, progress, and achievements of capitalist materialism.
Socialists are little more than thugs with bigger vocabularies.
Under socialism, what one person is willing to support or tolerate becomes another's imposed condition.
A socialist will always come to the defense of a socialist; the degree of a sect’s coercion or totalitarian violence in not an issue, only that they share a common hatred for capitalism.
The difference between a pack animal and a socialist is that a pack animal is less dangerous to those around it.
While there may be a few poor people smitten by the promise of sharing in the spoils of a socialist conquest, by far, socialism in all its stripes is a cult of the middle class and above. It’s no wondering that those who most despise its nature tend to be of more humble background.
There were clearly too many cars driving around 50,000 years ago. Environmental justice can now be served by rolling back global warming temperatures to the “natural” levels of the last great ice age. To fully “return to natures plan” we can even clone a few wooly mammoths and send Native Americans back to Asia (across the frozen land bridge they were thought to have migrated to the Americas across before the last great period of "global warming."). The fact that Ohio will be covered in a massive sheet of ice will have to be overlooked for the sake of a higher (and paradoxically unnatural) need -- unchanging nature.
A problem with musicians, artists, and entertainers is that some are good at what they do and think it somehow qualifies them as experts in completely unrelated fields like domestic and international political policy.
"Fight the powers that be." -- then, collect a check from them for singing about it.
On nihilism in art: Rolling around naked in mud and calling it "art" is like screaming, "Destroy the system" and calling it, "Political Philosophy." The point can be argued intellectually, but so can murdering a few million people. It appears that the "less intellectual" are often more suited to judging meaning and value in both art and life.
It's odd that many "artists" don't think that a life saving drug created at great expense, risk, and years of research isn't intellectual property, but a four minute song created under the haze of pot and alcohol is.
The history of collectivist political philosophy has been primarily different arguments on how to enslave one's fellow citizens.
When one hears the argument that views in support of freedom are, "Simplistic," one is easily reminded of the complexity of thought that motivated Robespierre, Lenin, Hitler, Mao, Pol Pot, and other collectivist tyrants -- the "complex" ideals of intellectuals have often resulted in the deaths of millions. "Simplistic" minds tend to leave people alone.
Values outside of the political dogmatist’s plans and schemes are a threat to all they hold dear (their egos in particular). So it is that "God," and religion in all its guises, are such threats to rule by philosopher kings. A belief in the deity of choice is just another freedom that the planned society and its masters will not tolerate.
Reading the favored tomes of the left (i.e. Marx and Chomsky) doesn’t make one “well-informed,” as so many leftists would insist; it merely makes one well informed of the left’s biased perceptions. What’s so impressive about that?
There are only levels of “disinterest” (objective and nonbiased appraisal). No one is truly or completely a “disinterested party.” Everyone’s sympathies lie somewhere; one may have to take some time to consider another group’s or individual’s connection to one’s own life but in the end, who they are and what they stand for will be clear, along with their level of threat or friendship to one’s own standards of existence.
“Progressive” intellectuals really should stick to their semi-plausible praise of Scandinavian welfare-socialism and skip their, all too prevalent, defense of and praise for one-party thug states (China, Cuba, Vietnam, and the former Soviet Union). The truth is that, given a choice, many actually prefer the more hard-line manifestations of socialism.
"Geniuses" are overrated. I prefer the simple wisdom of common folks; for their general decency and common sense, as well as the unlikelihood that they'd kill millions of people in some grandiose utopian social scheme.
Regarding "Political Correctness" and humor: Honesty is funnier than patronizing dogma.
Indeed, there is no “I” in “Team” …and there never will be. The “team” is just going to have to deal with it.
I have ultimate jurisdiction over my own life...
No one can "prove" that I should be a slave to a collectivist ideal, and I can't "prove" that I should be left alone. None the less, I choose to be left alone.
The differences between the Right and Left can be narrowed to very basic passions;
On the Right: A belief in individual freedom.
On the Left: Hatred for a free market in products and ideas (capitalism).
According to the Left: We have a right to everything...but our own values, choices, and lives...
Why should one's willingness to live as a slave to state authority be another's sentence to such bondage?
The socialist state is a place where one person's "compassion" for the "oppressed" leads to another's sentence to oppression.
Contrary to popular criticism, apathy regarding political matters may actually be a healthy sign. In a free society it is striking how many people actually take no interest in politics at all.
A government of minimal significance to one's personal life is far preferable to a society where all matters of one's existence are political issues. There is a long list of governments and ideologies where citizens have been compelled to "care" about politics and share other's obsessions to obey contrived "truths."
An increasing interest in political matters in a society is a sure indication that two types of people have fully emerged; one that seeks to control others and one that needs to defend the right to be left alone.
The nature of big brother is a valid cause for big fratricide.
The barnyard animal approach to compassionate politics: All humans should be supplied with enough grain to feed on.
Creating the socialist state and a belief in Santa Claus are both idealistic, but with a belief in Santa Claus, nobody gets hurt.
Absolute power does corrupt absolutely.
A dictatorship is always a bad thing.
...the left will not recognize this, 'too lost in dreams of "free health care" and "equality."
A tragic and ironic paradox can be seen in the fact that, if pacifists dominated free societies, we’d forever be at war. (considering the nature of who pacifists always wish to appease).
"The war to end all wars" (if such a thing is actually ever possible) will clearly be one that finally eliminates the perennial rebirth of authoritarian governments and the stupid ideologies that feed such institutions.
There are three paths to peace for a Democracy:
1. Defeat the authoritarian enemy (a democracy’s adversary will never be another democracy).
2. Sit on your ass and let an authoritarian institution defeat you and establish its oppressive system of ideals over you, your family, and neighbors.
3. “Establish dialog” (See number 2).
Behind the feigned humility of every treasonous soul is a massive ego that fancies itself above all allegiances (while allying themselves with an enemy committed to death of such traitor's family, friends, and neighbors).
In a time of war, the tendency of dominant Western journalists to be left of center is the greatest resource available to any authoritarian enemy.
If a free society and dictatorship are at war, the left will always side with the dictatorship. If two dictatorships are at war, the left will always side with the one that permits the least economic freedom.
Saturday, January 21, 2006
Random Observations:
Whatever one my say of the "Tabula Rasa" view of humans, I believe that environmental conditioning only works on mice, sheep, and a large percent of the human population.
What am I going to did with my life?
Classical:
Something worth preserving.
Contemporary:
Something that no one knows if it's worth preserving yet.
Be consistent..., Subvert everything.
...With a fist raised to heaven and an extended middle finger waved at the ground below...
It's most natural for humans to be unnatural.
Give a million monkeys infinite time and they just might randomly type out a work by Shakespeare – maybe.
Give a trillion-trillion-trillion, etc…subatomic particles enough time to interact randomly and they will most certainly produce a universe – Shakespeare included.
How many Leftists does it take to screw in a light bulb?
None, they're too busy ranting about the "injustice" of having to screw in a light bulb.
Guilty until proven innocent:
Isn't it an odd semantic quirk when people say, "It was a child," or, "it was a dog,"...and "they're so innocent," the implication being that if you're an adult human, you're automatically guilty of something.
I say we hold trials for all kids under the age of 6 and any animal that looks deceptively cute to determine if they are indeed "innocent" as claimed. If not, they get no treats of any kind for a week. As for the "guilty" adult humans -- make them attend sales meetings at large insurance companies – and Barbara Streisand concerts.
"Come on everyone. Lets all join hands with total strangers of diverse backgrounds, class, and lifestyle for a big insincere group hug."
Miracle saints and lunch items :
The famous grilled cheese sandwich auctioned on e-Bay that had a “miracle” image of the Virgin Mary was actually not so impressive because, in the bible itself (many people don't know this), Mary was actually described as looking somewhat like a grilled cheese sandwich – “and she was of note to be one half cubit in length and breadth and had a complexion akin to lightly toasted bread – and orange colored melted cheese.”
God, who doesn't exist, is laughing at us...for believing that he does exist...
“Bleed the productive…win valuable gifts and prizes.”
Age is youth in motion.
Hollywood has become a mere venue for rich individuals and corporations (the entertainment industry) to bitch about other rich individuals and corporations (every other free market expression of products, services, and ideas).
One picture can attempt to sway thoughts like a thousand words but is often "worth" only one word – "deception."
I like art..and my wife has art on her face.
People who say they “are not taking a side” will typically be taking the opposite side from yours.
Anyone who says they “don't take sides” is probably taking the side of you enemy.
Guess I'm just not a "rebel" ...like everyone else, who is a rebel?
"True love" is what occurs when you basically find someone who can tolerate your nonsense.
Wanting a sex change is perfectly normal. Almost everyone would like a change ...from some sex to more sex.
No one should be "obedient" to anything beyond common civility or efficient productivity. All else is icing of shit on a cake of ass.
The most difficult thing to save someone from is their own stupidity.
The road to hell is paved with good intentions and blatant stupidity.
Clothing or lack of clothing has its effect no doubt but, the sexiest thing a woman can do is to look and act like she wants sex (yes this is from a guy's perspective).
Seeing the object when there appears to be an object allows there to be an object.
Savor all that pleases the moment, and leave leftovers for unpleasing moments.
Regardless of how much free will one may exercise, all events become fate after they have taken place.
Response to those who believe some random guy is or was “God:”
The creator of the universe probably doesn't have hair.
Ultimately, everyone's academic degree is a “B.S.” degree.
If God “made 'man' in his own image” we are faced with the rather odd concept of the creator of the universe modeling monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees similar to his own image.
Don't plug your brain into anything but the thoughts of your choice.
The only true reality occupies the immediate moment,
…and it’s gone already.
Laugh at all nonsense that comes your way...and realize that it occurs everyday.
Steal fun and games and laugh at the fools who left them unnoticed.
Comeback to a faceless bureaucrat: "I'm sorry, what exactly was the role I had asked you to play in my life?"
If you "can't judge a book by its cover" it makes one wonder why books have covers (?)
Comedy, philosophy, and the arts are all channels that allow us to cry, laugh, and stand awestruck at the daily things and events we see around us that we are so accustomed to that we miss them for their impact or beauty.
Ambiguity is everywhere and when things are otherwise even that is transient. Inhale the vapors, refine the vision, and lie still in epiphanies large and small.
See the writing on the wall,…and start editing it.
That's all he terrorists are fighting "for" -- hoping to get the 72 virgins "in heaven" that they can't get here. In more mundane circumstances we usually just call such folks losers. But more fervent. They're just plain, "sore losers."
"Reality is perhaps too obvious. So it is that works of the creative imagination (Art) bring such satisfaction. They are ultimately stealth depictions of reality. The most fanciful or bizarre creative work on some level reminds us of the absolute marvel of the mundane that surrounds us daily. No one marvels at a supermarket, but put that supermarket on another planet and stock it with the same items morphed to another paradigm with shoppers of the same variety as those we see daily -- albeit more wondrous form -- and we are "entertained."
Somewhere there's a drought and somewhere there's a flood and somewhere someone is tucking in a toddler and another is savagely spilling blood. In the end it all means that numbers increase possibilities. Often tragic when it's your number. A mere column in a newspaper when it's someone else's.
Find a person who sees vast intrigues and conspiracies in world events and you'll find someone whose personal life is dramatically uninteresting.
The future may be in the same book, but it's a different chapter now.
I want to start a religion where you get the 72 virgins now (actually they don't have to be virgins – I never did quite understand that aspect of Muslim "paradise").
(In reference to a common astrology saying); "The stars do not compel but impel" -- and meteors just fall on your head.
Frustration…Self-induced failure leads to aggression.
Everything in moderation is for people who can tolerate the deprivation of moderation.
I must confess that the most significant branch of my philosophy is I'm-pissed-o-mology.
Being “wrong” means not being right, according to someone else…
Shyoga-nai…Nai! (You have to live in Japan and disagree with one of its major cultural ideals to understand this).
Reality only occupies the immediate present…and it (the immediate present) is gone already.
Are not all events that touch our lives but mere catalysts to those that follow?
Pretend you're in a movie. Know your pretending, know it's a movie, ...and all will be fine.
Friday, January 20, 2006
Notable Observations By Others
"...The cognitive behavior of Western intellectuals faced with the accomplishments of their own society, on the one hand, and with the socialist ideal and then the socialist reality, on the other, takes one's breath away. In the midst of unparalleled social mobility in the West, they cry "caste." In a society of munificent goods and services, they cry either "poverty" or "consumerism." In a society of ever richer, more varied, more productive, more self-defined, and more satisfying lives, they cry "alienation." In a society that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians to an extent that no one could have dreamed possible just fifty years ago, they cry "oppression." In a society of boundless private charity, they cry "avarice." In a society in which hundreds of millions have been free riders upon the risk, knowledge, and capital of others, they decry the "exploitation" of the free riders. In a society that broke, on behalf of merit, the seemingly eternal chains of station by birth, they cry "injustice." In the names of fantasy worlds and mystical perfections, they have closed themselves to the Western, liberal miracle of individual rights, individual responsibility, merit, and human satisfaction. Like Marx, they put words like "liberty" in quotation marks when these refer to the West..."
-- Alan Charles Kors, from the essay "After Socialism"
"At the height of the Cold War, it was common for American 'liberals' to defend Communists as being just 'liberals in a hurry.' I agree with that. and I paricularly agree with its logical corollary: That 'liberals' are just slowed-down communists."
-- Dr. John Ray, on his web site, Dissecting Leftism
"Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark.
A large group of professionals built the Titanic."
-- Unknown
“Immoral acts by individuals do not become moral when practiced by a million people calling themselves ‘society’.”
-- Unknown source, but I’m quite certain it was either Ayn Rand or a follower of hers.
“Society: A mystical entity that is no one in particular and everyone but yourself.”
-- Unknown source, but I’m quite certain it was either Ayn Rand or a follower of hers.
"The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else."
-- Frediric Bastiat, Essays, 144
"A man who would consider himself a bandit if, pistol in hand, he prevented me from carrying out a transaction that was in conformity with my interests has no scruples in working and voting for a law that replaces his private force with the public force and subjects me, at my own expense, to the same unjust restriction."
-- Frederic Bastiat, Harmonies, 463
“Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows or both…The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.”
-- Frederick Douglass (quoted by Edward Cline)
You have to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.
-- Aaron Tippin
(French bureau-autocrat's cluelessness and arrogance in one quote)
"I have always been aware that what is good for the nation is not always popular with the public."
-- Jean-Pierre Raffarin, after resigning as prime minister (quoting Charles de Gaulle).
“…it’s clear that the death penalty really does deter crime. The recidivism rate among executed murderers is a perfect zero percent.”
-- Mark W. Smith, from his book, “The Official Handbook of the Vast Right-Wing conspiracy.”
“For a tree’s branches to reach to heaven, its roots must reach to hell.”
-- Medieval alchemical dictum, as quoted by Stephen Arroyo in his book, “Astrology Karma & Transformation…”
“The individual may strive after perfection but must suffer from the opposite of his intentions for the sake of his completeness.”
-- C.G. Jung, as quoted by Stephen Arroyo in his book, “Astrology Karma & Transformation…”
“Weakness defines a power relationship not a moral attribute.”
-- Robert Kaplan
“…in the conflict between totalitarian regimes and democracy, you must not hesitate to declare which side you are on.”
-- Adam Michnik, a leading figure in the Solidarity movement of Poland, as quoted by Clifford May in an online essay
“When PETA [People for the ethical treatment of animals – a radical animal rights group] is able to prevent animals from eating other animals, I will stop eating animals.”
-- Jim K. responding to foxnews.com regarding commentary on “political correctness.”
“…For the proletariat this will, in reality, be nothing but a barracks: a regime, where regimented workingmen and women will sleep, wake, work, and live to the beat of a drum [Mikhail Bakunin is prophetically describing the communist state that Marx sought to create]...
...There will be slavery within this state, and abroad there will be war without truce, at least until the “inferior” races, Latin and Slav, tired of bourgeois civilization, no longer resign themselves to the subjection of a State, which will be even more despotic than the former State, although it calls itself a People’s State.”
-- Mikhail Bakunin (Anarchist), written in 1872, as cited in Marx & Friends In Their Own Words
“…Whiners, if given power, readily become tyrants. Marx was seen by his contemporaries as a potential tyrant. Giuseppe Mazzini (1805-72), the Italian revolutionary, and a rival of Marx’s in the International Workingmen’s Association in the mid- 1860’s, once described Marx as ‘a destructive spirit whose heart was filled with hatred rather than love of mankind . . . extraordinarily sly, shifty and taciturn. Marx is very jealous of his authority as leader of the Party; against his political rivals and opponents he is vindictive and implacable; he does not rest until he has beaten them down; his overriding characteristic is boundless ambition and thirst for power. Despite the communist egalitarianism which he preaches he is the absolute ruler of his party; admittedly he does everything himself but he is also the only one to give orders and he tolerates no opposition’"
-- Gary North, as cited in Marx & Friends In Their Own Words
“You may be interested to know that global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes,
and other natural disasters are a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of
Pirates since the 1800s. For your interest, I have included a graph of the
approximate number of pirates versus the average global temperature over the
last 200 years. As you can see, there is a statistically significant inverse
relationship between pirates and global temperature.”
-- Bobby Henderson; Passed on to me in an e-mail from a friend
“…That some 5% of the world's population creates 25% of the world's wealth…” (emphasis mine)
-- Tim Worstall, in an essay from Tech Central Station
In a recent interview, General Norman Schwartzkopf was asked if he thought there was room for forgiveness toward the people who have harbored and abetted the terrorists who perpetrated the 9/11 attacks on America. His answer; “I believe that forgiving them is God's function. Our job is to arrange the meeting.
“Here's my strategy on the Cold War: We win, they lose."
-- Ronald Reagan
"The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they're ignorant: It's just that they know so much that isn't so."
-- Ronald Reagan
"Of the four wars in my lifetime none came about because the U.S. was too strong."
-- Ronald Reagan
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it."
-- Ronald Reagan
"No arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women.”
-- Ronald Reagan
“History is evoked more and more these days, even as fewer of us read it…”
“…So the next time someone quotes philosopher George Santayana for the umpteenth time that ‘Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it,’ just assume that what follows will probably be wrong. Having a Rolodex of cocktail party quotes to beef up an argument is not the same as the hared work of learning about the past.”
-- Victor David Hanson, cited in The Tanuki Ramble blogsite
“Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.”
-- Ayn Rand (John Galt’s speech in Atlas Shrugged)
“…all Muslims are not terrorists, but almost all terrorists are Muslims.”
-- Neal Boortz
“Being right too soon is socially unacceptable.”
-- Robert Heinlein
“…The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire. The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surely curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
-- Robert Heinlein
“Responsibility cannot be shared.”
-- Robert Heinlein
"...virtue cannot be genuine without the freedom not to be virtuous. If that freedom does not exist, then the result is not virtue; it is just coercion. This is why Muslim criticisms of Western immorality ring hollow, because they would replace Western libertinism not with genuine virtue, but with enforced conformity and fear."
-- Robert Spencer, in an interview with Front Page Magazine, paraphrasing a concept articulated by Dinesh D'Souza
"...If Che's world vision had prevailed, it's safe to say that Apple founder Steve Jobs would have never brought us the iPod. After all, it's tough to innovate when you're stuck behind a donkey farming turnips for the proletariat..."
-- Ryan Clancy, freelance writer
“Tolerance is the virtue of people who do not believe in anything.”
-- G.K. Chesterton
“...to different individuals and groups the common good is bound to mean different things.”
-- Joseph Schumpeter
“...Leftists want to make us 'better' while at the same time denying that there is any such thing as 'better!!...”
-- Dr. John Ray
"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it."
-- Michaelangelo
"...Name me a society that has degenerated into famine and misery and fear because it has adopted the teachings of Spinoza and Jefferson and Einstein. Dare you say that these and other men had no ethics because they self-consciously rejected a personal or intervening deity?..."
-- Christopher Hitchens, quoted at frontpagemag.com
"Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results. The greatest scientist s in history are great precisely because the broke with the consensus."
-- Michael Crichton, as quoted "Nealz Nuze at Boortz.com
"Revolution is certainly the most authoritarian thing there is; it is the act whereby one part of the population imposes its will upon the other part by means of rifles, bayonets and cannon."
-- Friedrich Engels – from his controversy with the Anarchists, as quoted on the blog site, Dissecting Leftism
“...The thing I like best about being a conservative is that I don’t have to lie. I don’t have to pretend that men and women are the same. I don’t have to declare that failed or oppressive cultures are as good as mine. I don’t have to say that everyone’s special or that the rich cause poverty or that all religions are a path to God. I don’t have to claim that a bad writer like Alice Walker is a good one or that a good writer like Toni Morrison is a great one. I don’t have to pretend that Islam means peace.
Of course, like everything, this candor has its price. A politics that depends on honesty will be, by nature, often impolite. Good manners and hypocrisy are intimately intertwined, and so conservatives, with their gimlet-eyed view of the world, are always susceptible to charges of incivility. It’s not really nice, you know, to describe things as they are...”
-- Andrew Klavan
"...I can't imagine what it must be like to hold an ideology where Wal-Mart outrages me more than the slaughter of 600 people..."
A writer's comments at the blogsite, "Libertas" commenting on the left's acceptance and adoration for Che Guevara and his actions as leader of firing squads at the beginning of Cuba's "revolution."
“Madonna believes in man-made global warming. Ok, now I'm convinced.”
-- Neal Boortz
“We love government because it enables us to accomplish things that if done privately would lead to arrest and imprisonment. For example, if I saw a person in need, and took your money to help him, I'd be arrested and convicted of theft. If I get Congress to do the same thing, I'm seen as compassionate.”
-- Economist Walter Williams
“Speakers of both the left and right who dare defy the intellectual Taliban of academia and support Israel or speak in support of American values are routinely harassed, drowned out and intimidated socially, academically and even physically. This is a universal characteristic of totalitarians of any stripe, they are more comfortable with other totalitarians, no matter how diametrically opposed their ideas, than they are with those who can see and point out the absurdity of their slavery to empty ideas and pathetic rationalizations.”
-- Yaacov Ben Moshe, from his blogsite; Breath of the Beast
“Damn that [President George] Bush! He's made people who hate our guts not like us.”
-- Ann Coulter
"An individual can become so secure within his own being that he becomes insecure within his false sense of security."
-- Steve Lynch
Civilization is the progress toward a society of privacy. The savage's whole existence is public, ruled by the laws of his tribe. Civilization is the process of setting man free from me. - Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
“If we don't change direction, we're likely to end up where we're headed.”
-- Chinese Proverb
“You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don’t ever count on having both at once.”
-- Robert Heinlein
(In reference to the phony "anti-torture" lobby when they direct their scorn at the U.S. -- in incidents that can hardly be called torture); It's not torturing they criticize, it's America. If they opposed torture they'd be lobbying for an American victory in Iraq to insure torturers don't swarm the country.
-- the Libertas web site
(Regarding “Climate Change”) “Climate change” isn’t like predicting Italian coalition politics. There are only two options so, whichever one predicts, one has a 50 percent change of being right. The planet will always be either warming or cooling.”
-- Mark Steyn
“Communism doesn't work because people like to own stuff.”
-- Frank Zappa (1940- 1993)
Regarding 9/11 conspiracy theories and, specifically, the popular conspiracy theory film, “Loose Change” :
...if the United States government had no trouble killing so many people in the attacks themselves, there was nothing to stop them from bumping off one college student who thought he'd cracked the case...”
-- from the Wikipedia entry regarding the conspiracy film, “Loose Change” with a reference to the web site observations of “Maddox” on the site, “The Best Page in The Universe.”
"Government is the Entertainment Division of the military-industrial
complex."
-- Frank Zappa
When men are pure, laws are useless; when men are corrupt, laws are broken. - Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)
When you put off paying war's price, you pay compound interest in blood.
-- Ralph Peters, Writer for the New York Post
"Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and gospel of envy."
-- Sir Winston Churchill
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
-- Arthur Clarke
Every generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it. - George Orwell (1903- 1950).
"Sometimes the first duty of intelligent men is the restatement of the obvious."
-- George Orwell
“The truth of a proposition has nothing to do with its credibility. And vice Versa.”
-- Robert Heinlein
“... The peaceniks love to ask: When and where will it all end? The answer is easy: It will end with the surrender or defeat of one of the contending parties. Should I add that I am certain which party that ought to be?...”
-- Christopher Hitchens on the Iraq conflict and those who oppose it
We love death. The U.S. loves life. That is the difference between us."
-- Bin Laden
"…the European Union is the creation of bureaucrats, by bureaucrats, for bureaucrats…"
-- Theodore Dalrymple
"…Having overwhelming military force on your side, and letting your enemies know you have the guts to use it, is being genuinely antiwar, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain's appeasement brought on World War II and Ronald Reagan's military buildup ended the cold War…"
-- Thomas Sowell
"...policies to redress economic inequality hardly affect true inequality at all. Policymakers and economists rarely denounce the scandal of inequality in work effort, creativity, talent, or enthusiasm. We almost never hear about the outrage that is America’s inequality in leisure time, love, faith, or fun—even though these are things that most of us value more than money. To believe that we can redress inequality in our society by moving cash around is to have a materialistic, mechanistic, and totally unrealistic understanding of the resources that we truly care about..."
-- Arthur C. Brooks in a City Journal essay
“…We forget that once war breaks out, things usually get far worse before they get better. We should remember that 1943, after we had entered World War II, was a far bloodier year than 1938, when the world left Hitler alone. Similarly, 2005 may have brought more open violence in Iraq than was visible during Saddam’s less publicized killings of 2002. So it is when extremists are confronted rather than appeased…”
-- Victor David Hanson on the Iraq conflict
“Anyone who isn’t a liberal when young doesn’t have a heart. And anyone who isn’t a conservative when older, doesn’t have a brain.”
-- Winston Churchill
“It is clear to me that people often want incompatible things. They want danger and excitement on the one hand, and safety and security on the other, and often simultaneously. Contradictory desires mean that life can never be wholly satisfying or without frustration.”
-- Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, in an interview at Front Page Magazine
“…in other words who have no religious belief and no intellectual interests to stimulate them, self-destruction and the creation of crises in their life is one way of warding off meaninglessness. I have noticed, for example, that women who frequent bad men - that is to say men who are obviously unreliable, drunken, drug-addicted, criminal, or violent, or all of them together, have often had experience of decent men who treat them well, with respect, and so forth: they are the ones with whom their relationships lasted the shortest time, because they were bored by decency. Without religion or culture (and here I mean high, or high-ish, culture) evil is very attractive. It is not boring.”
-- Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, in an interview at Front Page Magazine
“Political correctness is communist propaganda writ small. In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, nor to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better. When people are forced to remain silent when they are being told the most obvious lies, or even worse when they are forced to repeat the lies themselves, they lose once and for all their sense of probity. To assent to obvious lies is to co-operate with evil, and in some small way to become evil oneself. One's standing to resist anything is thus eroded, and even destroyed. A society of emasculated liars is easy to control. I think if you examine political correctness, it has the same effect and is intended to.”
-- Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, in an interview at Front Page Magazine
"How can we make the world a safer place for dictators and one-party police states?"
-- Paraphrasing the values and daily statements made by the United Nations and Left-wing political observers everywhere
“Modern man particularly - or so it seems to me - is particularly bad at recognizing that much of his unhappiness or discontent stems from this inevitable source. Rather, he blames the structure of society and thinks that a perfection that will resolve all contradictions and eliminate all frustrations can be achieved, if only we abolished private property or followed the example of the 7th century followers of Mohammed. The attempt to force people to do so gives meaning to their existence, and of course a lot of sadistic pleasure into the bargain.”
-- Dr. Theodore Dalrymple, in an interview at Front Page Magazine
“…Really, do we need more of these experiments to prove the critical importance of freedom to human security? Doctors, you know, stop an experiment when it proves deadly to the control group.”
-- Dr. __________Rummels on the communist social “experiment”
“I left the appalling tragedy of Russia with a lasting hatred and distrust of communism and of intellectuals, gifted with intelligence, but without simple common sense.”
-- Malcolm Muggeridge, a correspondent for the Manchester Guardian, reporting on the great famine in Russia under Stalin
“If you talk to God, you are praying, if God talks to you, you have schizophrenia.”
-- Thomas Szasz
"A communist is someone who reads Marx. An anti-communist is someone who understands Marx."
-- Ronald Reagan
"...The odd thing, of course, is that real progress in the world is almost never achieved by self-proclaimed "Progressives." They generally make things worse rather than better. (See all the mad utopian schemers from Bin Laden to Stalin and Ahmadi-Nejad.) As a group, they are strikingly ill-equipped to even understand the world in any depth. Rather, it's farmers, business people, engineers, teachers, laborers, scientists, soldiers, cops, doctors, writers, inventors, all of whom create real progress --- or who keep the world from sliding back into barbarism..."
-- James Lewis, writing in The American Thinker
"...Communist Russia comprised Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant. China's huge population, it was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people.
The average Japanese individual prior to World War 2 was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving"?
History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence."
-- From the blog site, "Snake Hunters"
All the radicals in the world together have not created as much economic progress as the inventor of Diet Coke or the Post-It Note. I'm sorry, but it's plainly true. So the "Progressive" ego trip is really only an ego trip.
“When the Swiss are for nonintervention in war, they are called “neutral.” When Americans are for nonintervention, they are called ‘isolationists’ [and, I would add that when the U.S. is not “isolationists,” they’re called “warmongers”].
-- Thomas Szasz
"...Kirk identified six elements that make the conservative mind: belief in a transcendent order that "rules society as well as conscience"; attachment to "the proliferating variety and mystery of human existence" as against the routinizing and leveling forces of modern society; the assumption that "civilized society requires orders and classes"; the conviction that "freedom and property are closely linked"; faith in custom and convention and consequently a "distrust of the 'sophisters, calculators, and economists' who would reconstruct society upon abstract designs"; and a wariness of innovation coupled with a recognition that "prudent innovation is the means of social preservation." The leading role in this mix that Kirk attaches to religion marks him as a social conservative; his insistence that religion provides the indispensable ground for individual liberty marks him as a modern conservative...."
"...Famously, at least in libertarian circles, Hayek, an Austrian-born economist who became a British citizen and then immigrated to the U.S. in 1950, wrote a postscript to "The Constitution of Liberty" (1960), explaining why he was not a conservative. For him, "true conservatism"--which he confused with European reaction--was characterized by "opposition to drastic change" and a complacent embrace of established authority. Because his overriding goal was to preserve liberty, Hayek considered himself a liberal, but he recognized that in the face of the challenges presented mid-century by socialism, he would often find himself in alliance with conservatives. As a staunch member of the party of liberty, Hayek was keen to identify the political arrangements that would allow for "free growth" and "spontaneous change," which, he argued, brought economic prosperity and created the conditions for individual development. This meant preserving the tradition of classical liberalism, and defending limited, constitutional government against encroachments by the welfare state and paternalistic legislation..."
-- Peter Berkowitz, describing "The Conservative Mind" in an essay in The Wall Street Journal Editorial Page
"Human beings are born equal but cultures are not,...They are human made and for the most part man-made. There is nothing sacred about cultures and nothing blasphemous about reforming them."
-- Irshad Manji, a Canadian-Muslim feminist
"The isolationists on the Right are afraid the world is bad for America, while the isolationists on the Left think America is bad for the world..."
-- Norman Podhoretz
"Ever since Rousseau, the left has regarded the family as an obstacle to the revolutionary transformation of human nature they seek..."
-- Thomas Lifson, at The American Thinker
Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't
-- Margaret Thatcher
"In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be."
-- Hubert H. Humphrey (1911-1978)
"From cradle to grave was their promise; and little by little, the graves started outnumbering the cradles." (In regard to European socialism)
-- Guy Millière
"He who robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul's support"
-- George Bernard Shaw
"I am an optimist. But I am an optimist who takes his raincoat."
-- Harold Wilson
"What's great about this country is America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest. You can be watching TV and see Coca-Cola, and you can know that the President drinks Coke, Liz Taylor drinks Coke, and just think, you can drink Coke too. A Coke is a Coke and no amount of money can get you a better Coke than the one the bum on the corner is drinking. All the cokes are the same and all the Cokes are good."
-- Andy Warhol
"Our founders Marx and Engels believed that the government was endowed with unalienable rights to regulate life, ration liberty, and dispense happiness – and that to secure these rights, government must decide what's best for the governed, redistribute their property, and indoctrinate their children."
-- The writers at, The People's Cube
"...Once you understand the Multicultural Pyramid of Oppression, you can begin to understand how to turn to your advantage certain circumstances that are beyond your control; such as where you were born, the type of genitalia you were born with, into what race you were born, and the religion of your parents. You see, the fewer things you have in common with The Oppressor, the more you can cast yourself as The Victim. And, as The Victim, you are virtuous, so there are certain things you can get away with that others can't; like actually oppressing people..."
-- Mark Steyn
"The difference between people who 'do it' and those who don't is that those that do just do it!"
-- Donald Zydorczyk
"People are sick of the same old bullshit, they want a new kind of bullshit."
-- Donald Zydorczyk
"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." [I'd add that doing something inefficiently that shouldn't be done at all is useless and blatantly stupid, but tell that to a bureaucrat or any other lover of the state].
-- Peter Drucker
"A person is smart,...people are... and stupid"
-- Paraphrased from a line in the movie, "Men in Black" when Will Smith's character asks, "Why the big secret. People are smart. They can handle [information regarding aliens]."
"In the beginning there was nothing, and it exploded..."
-- Unknown
It can be justly asserted that any country which erects monuments to leaders still living is probably not a free society. (paraphrased)
-- Donald Zydorczyk
[The following is an example of "unsophisticated" contemporary American culture]:
"The Truck is packed. The house is sold. The trees don't care. These woods were never mine, they just lent themselves awhile. No one can truly own the woods any more than you can own another's thoughts. Today my dream is to know the mind of a tree."
"To that end I hereby decree that I will be buried in a pine box with an acorn in my mouth. An oak will grow from my head, pressing its roots like flowers within my ribs, piercing my skull and slithering deep into the earth. I want my boughs to shelter children a hundred years from now. I want to be a tree where pilgrims trek for knowledge. I want lovers to caress each other in the soft ground beneath my shade. I want to withstand snow and wind, rain and drought, fire and hail. I want to thrive in the woods and die in the woods, return to the woods and become born in the woods."
"I want to stay home."
"I am ready to leave."
-- Chris Offutt
