Quotes du jour

"Life is visceral rather than intellectual, and the most visceral practitioners of life are those who characterize themselves as intellectuals. Truth to them is 'revealed' rather than logically proved, and the principal infatuations of today revolve around the social sciences, those subjects which can accommodate any opinion and about which the most reckless conjecture cannot be discredited... Education is being redefined at the demand of the uneducated to suit the ideas of the uneducated. The student now goes to college to proclaim rather than to learn. The lessons of the past are ignored and obliterated in a contemporary antagonism known as the generation gap. A spirit of national masochism prevails, encouraged by an effete corps of impudent snobs who characterize themselves as intellectuals."

Any guesses on who said that and when?

Amusing Morsels

Just a little somethin' somethin' to brighten up a rather dreary snowy hump day...

Redneck Haiku du jour:

Wedding night fireworks
as Flo's ex-husband threatens
to bring back the kids*

*from Redneck Haiku by Mary K. White

Quote du jour:

"But you know there's no such thing as the best at anything. Music is subjective. Art is subjective. Beauty is subjective. Do you think that when two ugly people are fucking they're saying 'Ha ha you're the ugliest person I ever fucked in my life?' No, of course not, they see beauty."-- Toto guitarist/vocalist Steve Lukather from his recent interview on Melodicrock.com

I understand, heck I even agree with what Lukather is saying... But DUDE!

Notes for friends Meme

I've been tagged by Barabara for the following meme. Post a quote that speaks from and to your heart and dedicate it to at least three other bloggers.

“What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.” - Henry David Thoreau

I tag Dan, Snooze, and David Amulet.

"Responsibility is the price of freedom"- Elbert Hubbard

I saw that quote earlier this week and thought to myself, "brilliant."

Maybe that's the true crux of the problems of our country. We live in this entitlement culture. We want, want, want... we feel we're "entitled" to the American dream. But it doesn't come free, it doesn't come without hard work-- good old blood, sweat, and tears.

We want the freedom, the liberty-- but we don't want the responsibility that comes with it. It's always someone else's fault when things go wrong. We only seek to take credit for life's successes and the rest of our lives are spent trying to find someone else to blame.

I'm not pointing fingers here, hell I'm just as guilty as the next guy at times. It's what I know after all. When you're surrounded by this "gimme gimme" culture it's hard to keep the walls up and keep it out.

But what price are we paying for all this self-absorption? Wha is the ultimate cost of all of this "entitlement" to freedom without taking responsibility for it?

The trouble is, it's all part of the human condition, the part that we're supposed to overcome on our path to self-actualization or whatever other pop psychology term you choose to use this week. It permeates from our government-- with our congressmen on both sides of the political spectrum so hell-bent on placing blame for everything that goes wrong that neither side is ever making an effort to do right by the people who elected them. It oozes into the media with the pundits and the spin doctors pointing fingers to the left, to the right... no one really providing any answers, no one ever actually discussing the issues... because in the end placing and assigning blame is far easier than actually doing the jobs you're elected or hired to do.

So no responsibility being taken at the highest echelons of our government and our society... we can't really expect responsibilty to be taken at our level either... or can we?

Should we be expecting better of ourselves than we expect of those we elect to represent us? Are WE responsible for their irresponsibility? We keep electing them with their promises that they'll be different and we just keep getting more of the same. What's that old saying-- "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." They've been "Fooling" us over and over again ad nauseum, so I guess... Shame on us.

Congress is a lemon and I want my country back!

Adverbs excerpt

I've been reading Adverbs by Daniel Handler (aka "Lemony Snicket") and thoroughly enjoying his prose. On page 83, I stumbled upon the following passage and thought I'd share:

Love is hourly, too. There are stories about people who have loved someone forever after laying eyes on
them for a few minutes and then nevermore, but these stories have not happened to anyone we know. No, when you love someone you spend hours and hours with them, and then even the mightiest of forces in the netherworld could not say whether the hours you spend increase your love or if you simply spend more hours
with someone as your love increases. And when the love is over, when the diner of love seems closed from the outside, you want all those hours back, along with anything you left at the lover’s house and maybe a couple of things which aren’t technically yours on the grounds that you wasted a portion of your life and those hours have all gone southside. Nobody can make this better, it seems, nothing on the menu. It’s like what the stewardess offers, even in first class. They come with towels, with drinks, mints, but they never say, “Here’s the five hours we took from you when you flew across the country to New York to live with your boyfriend and then one day he got in a taxicab and he never came back, and also you flew back, another five hours, to San Francisco, just in time for a catastrophe.” And so you sit like a spilled drink, those missing hours in you like an ache, and you hear stories that aren’t true and won’t bring anyone back.
Things happen and you never get over them.

Goldwaterisms

Every once in awhile there comes a politician who is unapologetic in his/her views, isn't afraid to call a spade a spade, doesn't mince words, and doesn't follow the party line just to gain more support. These are the ones who see the shades of gray. Their views aren't black and white (or should I say red and blue?)/ Often times these politicians get abandoned by those in their party who insist on following the party line at all costs.

The last Republican who did so was the late Barry Goldwater. While he was defeated by LBJ in a landslide loss back in 1964, it was to the United States detriment that he never served in our highest office.

Below are some of my favorite quotes of Goldwater over the years:

"The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government."

"You don't have to be straight to be in the military; you just have to be able to shoot straight."

"A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have."

"Extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue."

"If everybody in this town connected with politics had to leave town because of chasing women and drinking, you would have no government."

"To insist on strength is not war-mongering. It is peace-mongering."

"We cannot allow the American flag to be shot at anywhere on earth if we are to retain our respect and prestige."

“It's wonderful that we have so many religious people in our party, ... They need to leave their theologies in their churches.” (can I hear an "AMEN!" to this one?)

"I don't have any respect for the Religious Right. There is no place in this country for practicing religion in politics. That goes for Falwell, Robertson and all the rest of these political preachers. They are a detriment to the country."

"However, on religious issues there can be little or no compromise. There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent. If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in "A," "B," "C," and "D." Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of "conservatism."

“The rights that we have under the Constitution covers anything we want to do, as long as its not harmful. I can't see any way in the world that being a gay can cause damage to somebody else,”

“I have little interest in streamlining government or in making it more efficient, for I mean to reduce its size. I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom. My aim is not to pass laws, but to repeal them. It is not to inaugurate new programs, but to cancel old ones that do violence to the Constitution or that have failed their purpose, or that impose on the people an unwarranted financial burden. I will not attempt to discover whether legislation is ``needed'' before I have first determined whether it is constitutionally permissible. And if I should later be attacked for neglecting my constituents "interests,'' I shall reply that I was informed that their main interest is liberty and that in that cause I am doing the very best I can.”

“Where is the politician who has not promised to fight to the death for lower taxes- and who has not proceeded to vote for the very spending projects that make tax cuts impossible?”

"By maintaining the separation of church and state, the United States has avoided the intolerance which has so divided the rest of the world with religious wars...Can any of us refute the wisdom of Madison and the other framers? Can anyone look at the carnage in Iran, the bloodshed in Northem Ireland, or the bombs bursting in Lebanon and yet question the dangers of injecting religious issues into the affairs of state?" (from 1981, but probably just as true today as then!)