Friday, April 01, 2005
Quotes to Ponder from Those Gone Yonder
Arthur Miller (1915 - 2005)
I find myself interested in what I'm looking at.
The only thing that I am reasonably sure of is that anybody who's got an ideology has stopped thinking.
You have to learn how to duck, because they're gonna throw it at you.
I could write about failure only because I could deal with it. Most of my work before Death of a Salesman, 98 percent of it was a failure. By the time Willy Loman came along, I knew how he felt.
Some failures are right. And some people fail because society isn't ready for them. That's what makes it so difficult.
You should read because it's a pleasure. Or go to the theater because it's a pleasure. That's what it's about, basically—even the pleasure of misery, if that happens to be the nature of the beast.
Whenever I hear somebody's in touch with God, I look for the exit.
Politicians are us, which is very dangerous. If they weren't us, it would be a lot better.
We have never, in my opinion, met up with this kind of an administration, which is extremely intelligent and has terrific control over the political life of the country. They are representing the rich people in a way that I didn't think was so blatantly possible. It's almost sociopathic. As though, Okay, if you can make it, you're one of us; if you can't make it, too bad, Jack. Some of the monkeys fall off the tree.
Hunter S. Thompsn (1939 - 2005)
So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here—not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.
When I went into the clinic last April 30, George Bush was about 50 points ahead of his closest Democratic opponent in next year's Presidential Election. When I finally escaped from the horrible place, less than three weeks late, Bush's job-approval ratings had been cut in half -- and even down into single digits, in some states -- and the Republican Party was panicked and on the run. It was a staggering reversal in a very short time, even shorter than it took for his equally crooked father to drop from 93 percent approval, down to as low as 43 percent and even 41 percent in the last doomed days of the first doomed Bush Administration. After that, he was Bill Clinton's punching bag.
The Rumsfield-Cheney axis has self-destructed right in front of our eyes, along with the once-proud Perle-Wolfowitz bund that is turning to wax. They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are losers, and that is the one unforgiveable sin in America.
It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. . . We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows?(9/12/01)
The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now— with somebody— and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.(9/12/01)
"I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. "
Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
Arthur Miller (1915 - 2005)
I find myself interested in what I'm looking at.
The only thing that I am reasonably sure of is that anybody who's got an ideology has stopped thinking.
You have to learn how to duck, because they're gonna throw it at you.
I could write about failure only because I could deal with it. Most of my work before Death of a Salesman, 98 percent of it was a failure. By the time Willy Loman came along, I knew how he felt.
Some failures are right. And some people fail because society isn't ready for them. That's what makes it so difficult.
You should read because it's a pleasure. Or go to the theater because it's a pleasure. That's what it's about, basically—even the pleasure of misery, if that happens to be the nature of the beast.
Whenever I hear somebody's in touch with God, I look for the exit.
Politicians are us, which is very dangerous. If they weren't us, it would be a lot better.
We have never, in my opinion, met up with this kind of an administration, which is extremely intelligent and has terrific control over the political life of the country. They are representing the rich people in a way that I didn't think was so blatantly possible. It's almost sociopathic. As though, Okay, if you can make it, you're one of us; if you can't make it, too bad, Jack. Some of the monkeys fall off the tree.
Hunter S. Thompsn (1939 - 2005)
So much for Objective Journalism. Don’t bother to look for it here—not under any byline of mine; or anyone else I can think of. With the possible exception of things like box scores, race results, and stock market tabulations, there is no such thing as Objective Journalism. The phrase itself is a pompous contradiction in terms.
When I went into the clinic last April 30, George Bush was about 50 points ahead of his closest Democratic opponent in next year's Presidential Election. When I finally escaped from the horrible place, less than three weeks late, Bush's job-approval ratings had been cut in half -- and even down into single digits, in some states -- and the Republican Party was panicked and on the run. It was a staggering reversal in a very short time, even shorter than it took for his equally crooked father to drop from 93 percent approval, down to as low as 43 percent and even 41 percent in the last doomed days of the first doomed Bush Administration. After that, he was Bill Clinton's punching bag.
The Rumsfield-Cheney axis has self-destructed right in front of our eyes, along with the once-proud Perle-Wolfowitz bund that is turning to wax. They somehow managed to blow it all, like a gang of kids on a looting spree, between January and July, or even less. It is genuinely incredible. The U.S. Treasury is empty, we are losing that stupid, fraudulent chickencrap War in Iraq, and every country in the world except a handful of Corrupt Brits despises us. We are losers, and that is the one unforgiveable sin in America.
It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy. . . We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once. Who knows?(9/12/01)
The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now— with somebody— and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.(9/12/01)
"I understand that fear is my friend, but not always. never turn your back on fear. It should always be in front of you, like a thing that might have to be killed. "
Jesus! Where will it end? How low do you have to stoop in this country to be President?
I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they've always worked for me.
