“What we’ve seen the last few days is nothing less than the final verdict on an economic philosophy that has completely failed.”
—Barack Obama
October 2008
19 posts
“Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”
—Will Rogers
via kari-shma < anatomyofamuse
Ah, capitalism!
via kari-shma < anatomyofamuse
Ah, capitalism!
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
—Martin Luther King, Jr.
“During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.”
—George Orwell
d. sedaris on undecided voters →
newyorker.com
I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention?
To put them in perspective, I think of being on an airplane. The flight attendant comes down the aisle with her food cart and, eventually, parks it beside my seat. “Can I interest you in the chicken?” she asks. “Or would you prefer the platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it?”
To be undecided in this election is to pause for a moment and then ask how the chicken is cooked.
“
An animated cartoon theology:
1. People are animals.
2. The body is mortal and subject to incredible pain.
3. Life is antagonistic to the living.
4. The flesh can be sawed, crushed, frozen, stretched, burned, bombed, and plucked for music.
5. The dumb are abused by the smart and the smart destroyed by their own cunning.
6. The small are tortured by the large and the large destroyed by their own momentum.
7. We are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us.
” —E. L. Doctorow, The Book of Daniel
“I feel strongly about this particular point because of a picture I saw in a magazine. It was a photo essay about troops who were serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. And one picture at the tail end of this photo essay was of a mother in Arlington Cemetery. And she had her head on the headstone of her son’s grave. And as the picture focused in, you could see the writing on the headstone. And it gave his awards - Purple Heart, Bronze Star; showed that he died in Iraq; gave his date of birth, date of death. He was twenty years old. And then at the very top of the headstone, it didn’t have a Christian cross. It didn’t have a Star of David. It had a crescent and a star of the Islamic faith. And his name was Karim Rashad Sultan Kahn. And he was an American. He was born in New Jersey, he was fourteen years old at the time of 9/11 and he waited until he could go serve his country and he gave his life.”
—retired General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W Bush
“Well, the correct answer is he is not a Muslim. He’s a Christian; has always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, “What if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?” The answer’s “No, that’s not America.” Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim American kid believing that he or she could be President? Yet, I have heard senior members of my own Party drop the suggestion he’s Muslim and he might be associated with terrorists. This is not the way we should be doing it in America.”
—retired General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W Bush
“He’s thinking about all villages have values, all towns have values—not just small towns have values.”
—retired General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W Bush
“And we have got to say to the world, it doesn’t make any difference who you are or what you are, if you’re an American, you’re an American. And this business, for example, of the congressman from Minnesota who’s going around saying, “Let’s examine all congressmen to see who is pro-America or not pro-America” — we have got to stop this kind of nonsense, pull ourselves together and remember that our great strength is in our unity and in our diversity.”
—retired General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W Bush
“We have two wars. We have economic problems. We have health problems. We have education problems. We have infrastructure problems. We have problems around the world with our allies. So those are the problems the American people wanted to hear about, not about Mr. Ayers, not about who’s a Muslim or who’s not a Muslim. Those kinds of images going out on Al-Jazeera are killing us around the world.”
—retired General Colin Powell, former Secretary of State under George W Bush
“I haven’t left the Republican Party. It left me.”
—Christopher Buckley, son of well-known conservative William F. Buckley, who was known as “the scourge of liberalism”
“I will close Guantanamo. I will restore habeas corpus. And we will end torture and rendition because you will have elected a president who has taught the Constitution and believes in the Constitution and will obey the Constitution of the United States of America.”
—Barack Obama
“The point is, you see, that there is no point in driving yourself mad trying to stop yourself going mad. You might just as well give in and save your sanity for later.”
—Ford Prefect, from Life, the Universe, and Everything, by Douglas Adams
“He had just had a wonderful idea about how to cope with the terrible lonely isolation, the nightmares, the failure of all his attempts at horticulture, and the sheer futurelessness and futility of his life here on prehistoric Earth, which was that he would go mad.”
—Douglas Adams, Life, the Universe, and Everything
“We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world—a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us… No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we’ll kill you. Well, shit on that dumbness. George W. Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world. We didn’t vote for these cheap, greedy little killers who speak for America today—and we will not vote for them again in 2002. Or 2004. Or ever. Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush? They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill “gooks”. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are racists and hate mongers among us—they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis. And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not.
Fuck them.” —Hunter S. Thompson
Fuck them.” —Hunter S. Thompson
“Now is not the time for fear. Now is not the time for panic. Now is the time for resolve and steady leadership. We can meet this moment. We can come together to restore confidence in the American economy. We can renew that fundamental belief — that in America, our destiny is not written for us, but by us. That’s who we are, and that’s the country we need to be right now.”
—Barack Obama
“All of the things they said about Barack Obama in the TV, on the TV, at their rallies, and now on YouTube… John McCain could not bring himself to look Barack Obama in the eye and say the same things to him. In my neighborhood, when you’ve got something to say to a guy, you look him in the eye and you say it to him.”
—Joe Biden
“Senator Obama, as a Chicagoan, how do you explain your relationship with known killer, deep dish pizza?”
—‘Colbert Report’ writers: Questions for the Debates (via jessicat)
Seriously, especially a Gino’s East sausage pizza, which is basically covered entirely with meat. When you get heartburn from one of these, it feels exactly like how they describe a heart attack.
Seriously, especially a Gino’s East sausage pizza, which is basically covered entirely with meat. When you get heartburn from one of these, it feels exactly like how they describe a heart attack.
