QuoteLog

“For a directory of employees, press 6. To hear the sounds of a penguin swimming, press 7.”

“As a senator, I worried every day about the size of the federal deficit. I did not spend a single minute worrying about the effect of gays on the institution of marriage. Today it seems to be the other way around. The historic principles of the Republican Party offer America its best hope for a prosperous and secure future. Our current fixation on a religious agenda has turned us in the wrong direction.”

“I say this as a believer. The crimes of Nichols are inexcusable. The serenity of Smith is close to inexplicable. But the message of the Gospels is that God works with the crooked timber of human failure. This was an exceptional moment of redemption. But every day, we have smaller, calmer chances to turn another’s life around, to serve, to listen. How often do we simply not see what is in front of us?”

“Apparently, the religious right is not necessarily more representative of the general population than the ‘Beserkely’ beads and sandals crowd. The right has taken on some of the worst characteristics of the New Left — morally self-righteous, making the personal, political and valuing ends over means.”

“This Congress is getting involved in things they shouldn’t be getting involved in, and not getting involved in things they should be.”

“The day will come when we will outlaw smoking in its entirety. This is a beginning.”

“Conservatism is a philosophy without a party in America any more. It has been hijacked by zealots and statists.”

“How about this for a bellwether? When you read Maureen Dowd, and say to your self, ‘Shit. She is 100% right,’ it is time for some serious soul-searching.”

“The Bush administration and the military insist that any abuse of detainees is a violation of policy and that abusers are being punished. If so, why does it refuse to allow a genuinely independent commission to investigate without fear or favor? Why do Republican leaders on Capitol Hill refuse to launch a proper congressional investigation? And why do my fellow conservatives — those who support the war for all the right reasons — continue to keep silent about a scandal that should have them up in arms?”

“There are probably some smart folks on Capitol Hill who are supporting this legislation knowing that ultimately the courts will strike it down. That way, being the politicians that they are, they will be able to blame the heartless judiciary for the result and still will be able to say to their constituents that they tried their best. It is the politics of cynicism at its very best (or very worst).”

“I don’t mean this sarcastically, but a widowed 26-year-old mother was able to do, in seven and a half hours of talking and praying, what all the cops and all the guns and all the radios and all the agencies could not do.”

“I do not favor extreme remedies — unless no moderate remedies can be found.”

“My archives are full of two classes of post: ones where I gently suggest that something might be better another way (‘0 comments’), and ones where I bite off my tongue, spit blood, make my head spin around, and projectile vomit, nearly all of which include a comment from me saying ‘thanks for fixing it, but you really oughtn’t to encourage me to write posts like this by responding to them.’”

“Georgian Reid Stott — who might fairly be described as a ‘militant independent’...”

“While there certainly will, and should be, steps taken to improve the physical security at the Fulton County Courthouse, early indications, based on statements of at least some county officials, are that the underlying and more important causes of the 3/11 tragedy — sheer and unadulterated human incompetence and lack of understanding — may once again go unaddressed. The finger-pointing and blame-shifting has already begun, just as it did nationally after 9/11.”

“Technorati is now tracking over 7.8 million weblogs, and 937 million links. That’s just about double the number of weblogs tracked in October 2004. In fact, the blogosphere is doubling in size about once every 5 months. It has already done so at this pace four times, which means that in the last 20 months, the blogosphere has increased in size by over 16 times.”

“By the way, from an integrity perception standpoint, many of the bloggers I know would rather be called a used car salesman than a journalist.”

“Soon there are going to be more neoconservative magazines than there are neoconservatives.”

“The denunciation of the young is a necessary part of the hygiene of older people, and greatly assists in the circulation of their blood.”

“Inasmuch as Osama bin Laden and his organization defend terrorism as legal and try to base it on the Quran ... they are committing the crime of ‘istihlal’ and thus become apostates that should not be considered Muslims or treated as such.”

“Because of this fight, there will be no quiet, smooth passage for this bill. Instead, folks are now on record: 58 voted against giving just a little protection for military families set upon by predatory lenders. 74 voted against a 30% usury cap, saying the credit card companies are free to take whatever they can get. 58 voted against treating families beset by cancer and diabetes differently from those that run up bills on fancy vacations and over-priced nonsense.”

“The majority’s cynicism in pushing the bill has been as deep as the pockets of the high-powered lobbyists behind it. Even a proposal to exempt soldiers fighting in Iraq from the tougher bankruptcy rules was defeated, but the egregious ‘millionaire’s loophole’ still stands, allowing wealthy Americans in bankruptcy to shelter huge assets in safe-haven states.”

“Frankly, we expect smoking bans from the folks running New York and California and Cuba. What’s the Georgia GOP’s excuse?”

“If you still want to play by the Marquess of Queensberry rules, fine — but I’ve moved on to brass knuckles.”

“I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else.”

“If we’re exporting detainees for the express purpose that they be tortured under interrogation by another regime, it’s a terrible idea. Any short-term gain that might come out of it won’t be worth the long-term ill impression created by it. We’re promoting democracy across the region, and you can’t have torture by a dictatorial government. You just can’t do it. If you’re an idealist and you believe in democracy, it’s bad policy. It’s hypocritical, and it will blow up in your face.”

“Ward Churchill is a far left idiot, but Jeff Jarvis is Glenn Reynolds’ sucker. Megadittos, Jeff, megadittos. Maybe the cool kids will invite you to the lunch table now.”

“Only an imbecile nation could possibly have elected Bush after what he did to us the first four years. Our fellow citizens are greedy, hateful spiteful bigots. 51% of the voters anyway.”

“Western Europe is undergoing the largest population shift since the 7th and 8th centuries. This is happening just as the advent of a federal Europe, and the decline of traditional faith, are already straining its old identity.”