QuoteLog

“There is a clear conflict of interest when the attorney general appointed by the president is called upon to investigate possible illegal acts by the vice president or other high-ranking administration officials.”

“It’s really a good thing those no-good weasels ran me off...”

“Let me make this as plain as possible -- I was an unpaid advisor for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, and I know and respect some high-ranking people in the administration. And none of that changes the following: if George W. Bush knew about or condoned this kind of White House activity, I wouldn’t just vote against him in 2004 -- I’d want to see him impeached. Straight away.”

“Arnold ... The only salvo the opposition can summon so far is some ‘wild behavior’ in his twenties. Hey, I’ll tell you how deranged I was in my twenties, I might have voted for Gray Davis.”

“Even though I’m a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.”

“Basic research is what I am doing when I don’t know what I am doing.”

“The trouble with being punctual is that nobody’s there to appreciate it.”

“Bin Laden’s terrorist attacks are completely against Islam, completely contrary to the conventions of jihad and without any justification whatsoever. His grievances, whatever they may be, cannot be addressed by acts of injustice and violence against innocent people in America.”

“I don’t want to be another dead comic.”

“People, the web is a big place now. And not every website needs to be understood by every person. Some sites exist purely for the joy of their creator. Some exist for a very specific audience. It’s myopic and arrogant to assume that every site out there needs to be understood, needs to make money, needs to be usable. Maybe, if you don’t get it, it’s not the site’s problem.”

“Friedman’s first rule of Middle East reporting: What people tell you in private is irrelevant. All that matters is what they will defend in public.”

“The occupation was chaotic, the American soldiers were hated and they were facing threats from the surviving supporters of the dictator, whose whereabouts were uncertain. Washington seemed unwilling to pay the enormous bill for reconstruction, and the president didn’t appear to have any kind of workable plan to manage the transition to democracy. European allies, distrustful of the arrogant American outlook, were wary of cooperating.”

“We are bits of stellar matter that got cold by accident, bits of a star gone wrong.”

“Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.”

“This is only one example of the rifts that divide the military from the CPA, led by Ambassador L. Paul Bremer. It was apparent during our visit that the CPA has done little to help the men and women in uniform; some joked that the agency’s initials stand for ‘Can’t Provide Anything.’”

“It’s stunning to me that the E.U., misled by France, could let itself be written out of the most important political development project in modern Middle East history. The whole tone and direction of the Arab-Muslim world, which is right on Europe’s doorstep, will be affected by the outcome in Iraq. It would be as if America said it did not care what happened in Mexico because it was mad at Spain.”

“The same people who accuse America of coddling dictators are sputtering with bilious fury because we actually deposed one.”

“Were you one of the whiners who said after 9/11 that if the U.S. just treated everyone else in the world better, then we wouldn’t be so hated? So now GWB wants to spend $87B helping to reconstruct Iraq and get them into a more open form of government and you complain about that too! So let me get this straight ... nothing the GWB administration does will be helpful in your mind. I think you need to pull the GWB log from your eye and take another look around.”

“I’ve never made any picture, good or bad, without paying for it in emotional turmoil.”

“Jewish Barbie dolls, with their revealing clothes and shameful postures, accessories and tools are a symbol of decadence to the perverted West. Let us beware of her dangers and be careful.”

“I fantasize about showing up at the office of one particular client wearing my PJs and dragging a sleeping bag behind me. ‘Who the hell are you? You can’t smoke in this office.’ ‘I was your designer, but now I’m homeless due to non–payment of my invoice of August 2001, so I’m moving in. Dear me, we’ll have to do something about those fluorescent lights.’ ”

“Part of the problem is the investment we’ve made in the idea that the Americans had it coming, or at least are only making the problem worse by fighting back. This makes it even more difficult to swallow that we too are targets. The implications are too shattering for our worldview, so we take the easy way out, and downplay the danger. The terrorists will be more than willing to allow us this illusion - up to the very moment they strike.”

“We are very interested in American deaths in Iraq. If we were as passionate about our own elderly, we would have had fewer victims. If the Americans are as moved by our deaths as we are by their deaths, they’ll soon make a landing in France to stop the massacre. It’s just that, and we will never admit it, every American soldier killed in Iraq causes, if not happiness, at least a certain satisfaction.”

“We’ve done a lot of liberation in Europe after other Europeans had occupied parts of Europe.”

“It is not the American war machine that should be of the utmost concern to Muslims. What threatens the future of Islam, in fact its very survival, is American democracy.”

“If there are three words that need to be used more in American journalism, commentary, politics, personal life ... it’s the magic words ‘I don’t know.’ ”

“This is why I left Metafilter right after 9/11. They don’t mind if you’re angry. You can be angry about important things, like Microsoft security lapses and Ashcroft crusades. But 200 stories of skyscraper falling to the ground? Thousands dead, ten thousand orphaned, ten million mourning? Dude. Get a grip.”

“Every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

“Almost every instance of defeat, retreat or regression is straightaway blamed on a concocted conspiracy - Zionist, of course - which inflicts heavy damage upon a suspiciously helpless Muslim population of over one billion. Is it just me, or is it very strange that so few can keep so many, so consistently, down in the dumps?”

“Whoever did this is pure evil. The UN, an assassination in front of Imam Ali’s shrine. You wonder what will come next. If you ask me I think it will be media.”

“You look at Rumsfeld, and beyond all the rationale, spoken and unspoken, he just dislikes the Army. It’s just palpable ... You always have to wonder if when Rumsfeld was a Navy lieutenant junior grade whether an Army officer stole his girlfriend.”

“Bottom line: If you’re going to sling it ... then stand up to some fire. If not, shut up and don’t be ridiculous.”