Lingua publica

The good and the bad...

web posted October 21, 2002

"What comes out of a microphone, television, film or video depends on what's put into it. What emerges from a child depends on what goes in. We can drum in virtue, wisdom, love and attention and expect the same in return, or we can expect violence, despair, suicide and alienation when we abandon, ignore and corrupt our youth." -- Cal Thomas

"This is the argument from fear: Dare to take on the bully, and we might get hurt. Which is the kind of threat Saddam Hussein long has relied on -- in Iraq and beyond." -- Paul Greenberg

"The threat of mass death on a scale never before seen residing in the hands of an unstable madman is simply intolerable -- and must be preempted." -- Charles Krauthammer

"We cannot ask what will happen if we act [against Iraq] but, rather, what will happen if we don't." -- Rep. Mark Foley (R-Florida)

"How can we pretend to be serious about protecting our borders when prominent politicians so casually dismiss illegal activity? How can we claim to be fighting the war on terrorism on all fronts when we are unwilling to enforce immigration laws?" -- David Limbaugh

"Congress is in the midst of an unprecedented spending binge. Since 1998, federal discretionary spending has increased on average by nearly 7 percent every year, growth unseen since the late 1960s. Excluding the emergency spending as a result of September 11, federal spending is increasing almost 4 times as fast as inflation, and 50 percent faster than median family income." -- Sen. Phil Gramm

"American values have always included the belief that war must have a moral component. ...Americans believe we fight just wars against aggressors who threaten us or other innocent allied nations." -- Maggie Gallagher

"Perhaps the massive bomb blast on the Indonesian island of Bali will cause some second thoughts -- or perhaps first thoughts -- by those who blamed the United States for having provoked the September 11th attacks by its actions and policies in the Middle East. Very few of those killed in Bali were Americans. What had all the Australians, Swedes, etc., done in the Middle East to provoke such terrorism against innocent tourists? Recently Pakistani Christians were killed in a terrorist attack in Pakistan. What did Pakistani Christians have the power to do, even in Pakistan, much less in the Middle East?" -- Thomas Sowell

"Your terrible suffering is needless. Blood is being spilled for nothing. Change the despotic regime that is leading you from failure to failure, from tragedy to tragedy." -- Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's words to the Palestinian people in his address inaugurating the new session of the Israeli parliament

"Jimmy Carter has long been a favorite of those abroad who are anti-American, and a case could even be made that he was the first anti-American president." -- Thomas Sowell

"There is a whiff of schizophrenia about the Democrat party. When it comes to going to war with a dangerous man possessed of weaponry more lethal than anything the late Adolf Hitler ever had, the Democrats betray an irenic streak: all patience, conciliation and wimpery. But when it comes to going to war with fellow Americans it is war: show no quarter, no holds barred, take no prisoners. If the Democrats were as bellicose toward Saddam Hussein as they are toward the Republicans, Iraq would be a smoking crater." -- R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.

"[Jimmy Carter] has become, in the opinion of many, the greatest ex-President of modern times." -- ABC's Charles Gibson

"Man of peace. Twenty-one years after leaving office, former President Jimmy Carter has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. ... It's so wonderful." -- NBC's Katie Couric

"Honoring a lifetime of peacemaking: Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize." -- CBS's Dan Rather

"Jimmy Carter gets the Nobel Prize for Peace for two decades of service to the world. ... In the mid-1990s...he was occasionally introduced as the only man who has ever used the presidency as a stepping stone to greatness." -- ABC's Peter Jennings

"Is it fair to call him the best former President in, at minimum, modern American history, and perhaps, well, I guess, the last 200 years?" -- CNBC's Brian Williams

"...[T]here is hardly a troubled place in the world he hasn't visited, worked in, in a quest to bring peace and spread democratic values." -- CNN's Aaron Brown

"There is an ex-President who not only sought peace but who achieved peace, who reduced the threat of nuclear annihilation dramatically and liberated tens of millions of people from dictatorship. His name is Ronald Reagan." -- Bill Kristol

"Well, well, well. So the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to former President Jimmy Carter in order to spite current President Bush. In the language of diplomacy: Quelle surprise!" -- John O'Sullivan

"It's hard to know which to take the less seriously today, the Nobel Peace Prize or the Democrats' last honest president, Jimmy Carter. Anyway, since both have become pretty much of a joke, it is only fitting that the prize this year go to the peanut farmer. If it was good enough for the likes of Bishop Tutu and Yasser Arafat and if Bill Clinton aspires to one, then by all means Jimmy should have one, too." -- Lyn Nofziger

"Liberals are constantly wrong. In fact, that's how you rise to the top in liberalism, by being wrong. If you are wrong, and if you are consistently wrong, it's even better. You're really one of them if you're really wrong all the time. Look at Jimmy Carter." -- Rush Limbaugh

"Sen. Jim Jeffords, who traded to the Democrats last season (nominally, he's an independent), made the novel argument that Saddam wouldn't use weapons of mass destruction after he has 'paid so dearly' to acquire them. As the saying goes, when Jeffords switched parties, it improved the average IQ of both parties." -- Ann Coulter

"Well, that's because you're delusional on this matter." -- Bernard Goldberg to Phil Donahue on his statement that conservatives control the media

"Mariachi politics." -- Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe disparaging President Bush's outreach to Hispanics and Hispanic Americans

"The notion that disarming ordinary citizens who pose no threat to anyone will somehow deter a psychotic who is gunning down total strangers, apparently for no reason at all, is as ridiculous as the idea that 'controlling' hunting knives would have saved Nikole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman -- or that a ban on box-cutters would have stopped the September 11 hijackers. ... The person responsible for the recent spate of killings [in Maryland] probably did not buy his weapon over-the-counter. It's doubtful he patiently filled out the reams of paperwork required of law-abiding gun purchasers. No background check would have impeded his dastardly agenda. Such a person will always obtain the tools of his trade, regardless of what the law says. That's why they are called 'criminals,' after all." -- Washington Times

"All of us on this see through the glass darkly. In retrospect, I conclude that was not the correct decision." -- House Democrat Leader Dick Gephardt doubting the wisdom of his 1991 opposition to fighting Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein

"...[It was] probably the hardest decision I've ever had to make." -- Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton Rodham on her vote for authorizing the president to use force against Iraq

"A kick in the leg." -- Nobel Committee Chairman Gunnar Berge, on what the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Jimmy Carter was actually meant to deliver to President Bush and his administration

"Today producers of the game show "Hollywood Squares" said that they have asked former President Bill Clinton to be the center square on the show -- and Clinton is considering it! How humbling is that? The same week that Jimmy Carter gets the Nobel Peace Prize you are asked to be the center square on 'Hollywood Squares.'" -- Jay Leno

"Saddam Hussein was re-elected Tuesday by a huge margin in a yes-or-no vote with nobody else on the ballot. He's indestructible. Over the years, only Teddy Kennedy has ever gotten bombed that often and still carried ninety-five percent of the vote." -- Argus Hamilton

web posted October 14, 2002

"It's simple: We've become a nation increasingly ruled by emotions and feelings -- in a word, feminized. Men and women have different psychological make-ups. Women tend to be more nurturing, sensitive and submissive. They demonstrate greater feelings of love and tend to exhibit grief to a greater extent than men. On the other hand, men tend to be more competitive, aggressive and hostile than women. ... Female characteristics are vital to a well-ordered society, for they exert a civilizing influence. I'd never want to live in a society where women didn't have a major role in the rearing of children and management of the household. However, sensitivity, nurturing and a capacity to exhibit grief are not the best characteristics for political leadership." -- Walter Williams

"We refuse to live in fear. This nation -- in World War and Cold War -- has never permitted the brutal and lawless to set history's course. Now, as before, we will secure our nation, protect our freedom and help others to find freedom of their own." -- U.S. President George W. Bush

"Too many Americans think of 9/11 as past tense. 9/11 is present tense." -- Bruce Herschensohn

"The United States did not start this war but we had better finish it. That is the only strategy that will give peace a chance. President Bush is right to be pursuing war against Iraq and anyone else who means us harm." -- Cal Thomas

"U.S. strategy has sought to remain militarily engaged overseas in order to shape world events in ways that minimize threats to American security." -- William R. Hawkins

"If Saddam Hussein is around five years from now, we are in deep trouble as a country." -- Joe Biden, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman

"The question is not whether to go to war, for war has already been thrust upon us. The only choice is between victory and defeat. And let's be clear, we must choose victory, a victory that cannot be secured at the bargaining table." -- House Majority Whip Tom DeLay

"Leadership in the right direction finds followers and supporters." -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld

"In national crises, curtailments of liberties are sometimes necessary, and in the long run not necessarily harmful. But it's a bad idea to buy them wholesale." -- Michael Kelly

"Anything that is 'bipartisan' is almost certain to have mushy reasoning, if it has any reasoning at all." -- Thomas Sowell

"Liberals believe they are best qualified in war and peace and forced busing because they aren't going to suffer the consequences. Thus, they can act freely for 'humanity.' If it turns sour, like their adventure in Vietnam, they can always drop it and pin the blame on others." -- Ann Coulter

"Without memory, the reservoir of reverence, what of the nation survives?" -- George Will

"At some point voters begin to wonder that, all issues aside, if the Democrats can't run a political campaign, how in the world are they going to run a war on terror?" -- Hugh Hewitt

"Here is a rule you can rely on: The kind of politician who insists he is in 'public service' and not in 'politics' is the kind of politician who'll ultimately think that his constituents owe him." -- Peggy Noonan

"We are slowly surrendering our constitutional representative democracy to a system of lawyer run governance. Our forefathers pledged their lives, fortunes, and sacred honor to obtain freedom and throw off the shackles and unjust burdens of an unelected, life-tenured king. Did General Washington's army make those sacrifices and win a glorious victory, only to have trial lawyers and unelected, life tenured judges take the king's place, sack the rule of law, and turn our representative democracy into governance by litigation? We must preserve our constitutional heritage and right to representative democracy. To do less than this would be to stand idly by and watch the end of the greatest revolution in freedom that the world has ever known." -- Malcolm Wallop

"My wife has a sign on her office wall and it says, 'Won't it be a great day when the Air Force has to hold bake sales to get a new bomber and the schools have all the money they need?'" -- Charles Gibson, to which Diane Sawyer responded, "I love your wife! I love her for many reasons. Love that sign!"

"It hasn't been until the last decade and a half that there have been more conservative views in the media, and there still aren't enough." -- Peter Jennings in a rare, perplexing moment of accurate analysis to Sean Hannity

"Why should we strictly enforce a statute and penalize the voters, whose right it is to participate in the democratic process and have a real choice between two candidates?" -- One of the justices on the New Jersey Supreme Court on why they voted to allow former Sen. Frank Lautenberg to replace Robert Torricelli on the ballot after the deadline had passed

"If Columbus had an advisory committee he would probably still be at the dock." -- Justice Arthur Goldberg

"Election years are tough on vegetarians -- all the turkeys talk baloney about pork." -- Bob Thaves in the comic strip "Frank & Ernest"

"Word going around the House of Representatives is that Jim McDermott was under duress when he went to Iraq and accused the president of lying. Someone held a camera to his head." -- Lyn Nofziger

"David Bonior and Jim McDermott, dim bulbs amidst the bright lights of the House minority caucus, are home from Baghdad, where they did amateur-night impersonations of Jane Fonda to the applause of nobody. Saddam Hussein, who can recognize a third-stringer when he sees one, wouldn't even let them get their picture taken astride one of his anti-aircraft batteries." -- Wesley Pruden

"The Iraqi vice president has called for a duel with pistols between President Bush and Saddam Hussein to settle their differences. A duel with pistols? Bush is from Texas so I'm not worried -- but a game of Scrabble, then we'd have to worry." -- Jay Leno

"Saddam Hussein showed signs of deteriorating sanity ... when he issued a statement from Baghdad in which he challenged President Bush to a duel. The president is the more experienced gunslinger. He beat Al Gore in a draw, didn't he?" -- Argus Hamilton

web posted September 30, 2002

"You know, it's hard to pay attention to what Al Gore says because it's so hard to know what Al Gore really believes, given how many times he's changed his position on Iraq. . . . My point is that Al Gore changes his story and his tune so often, on so many different issues, that it's not an effective use of time to pay much attention to what he says." -- White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer

"I hate Saddam Hussein. I don't hate a lot of people. I don't hate easily, but I think he's, as I say, his word is no good and he's a brute. He's used poison gas on his own people. So there's nothing redeeming about this man. I have nothing but hatred in my heart for him." -- Former President George Bush

"Sometimes it is necessary to avoid peace. Now is such a time. ...A peace worth having is a peace worth fighting for." -- Tony Blankley

"The attractions of appeasement did not end when the 1930s did. It's as if we never learn." -- Paul Greenberg

"Had it not been for a few little old ladies baffled by the butterfly ballot in Palm Beach, American foreign policy today would be made by Gore-Reiner instead of the Bush brain trust. Who says God doesn't smile upon the United States of America?" -- Charles Krauthammer, referring to former Vice President Al Gore's foreign policy consultations with director/actor Rob Reiner

"We will not simply look away, hope for the best and leave the matter for some future administration to resolve." --Dick Cheney on the Bush administration's proactive assault against terrorist nations

"After tiring themselves out all summer yapping about how Bush can't invade Iraq without first consulting Congress, now the Democrats are huffy that they might actually have to vote. On 'Meet the Press' a few weeks ago, Sen. Hillary Clinton objected to having to vote on a war resolution before the November elections, saying, 'I don't know that we want to put it in a political context'." -- Ann Coulter

"I have a simple answer to any American patriot who claims that there is no conflict between his love of country and his desire to hitch our fate to the United Nations: 'You're mistaken.' And, therefore, I'm thinking of adding this corollary to my General Rule of patriotism: The more intellectually consistent and pro-UN you are, the less patriotic you are likely to be." -- Jonah Goldberg

"America is fighting for its survival and the Democrats are obsessing over why barbarians hate us." -- Ann Coulter

"I'm on the side of the -- the men who invented the country. They believed in the Second Amendment, and I believe in it, too." -- Charlton Heston

"The great 19th century economist, Frederic Bastiat, taught us that most government programs have seen benefits and unseen costs. So it is with mass immigration, a federal program devised by Ted Kennedy in 1965." -- Don Feder

"A pudding with no theme but much poison. Such was the foreign policy speech Al Gore delivered in San Francisco. ... It was a disgrace -- a series of cheap shots strung together without logic or coherence. Most of all, it was brazen. It was delivered as if there had been no Clinton-Gore administration, no 1990s." -- Charles Krauthammer

"The Clinton administration and Democrats in Congress tried to divide people and pit them against one another. It was almost like a civil war from '93 to 2000. So divided was this country, the only thing missing were bullets." -- Rush Limbaugh

"As the Bush administration makes its case for attacking Iraq, President Bush and his staff have finished formalizing their strategy.... And it does lay out a far more aggressive approach than at any time since Ronald Reagan was President." --Peter Jennings attempting to negatively associate Bush with Reagan's foreign policy

"The situation hasn't been this lopsided in terms of one breakout superpower on the planet in quite some time. ...[W]e'd have to go back to the days of the [Roman] Empire, and that gives the U.S. obvious military swagger. Does it give them any kind of moral courage above anyone else and anyone's world, and isn't that world view part of what got the United States in trouble September 11th?" -- CNBC anchor Brian Williams

"[Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate] Bob Ehrlich opposes affirmative action based on race. Slavery was based on race. Lynching was based on race. Discrimination was based on race. Jim Crow was based on race. Affirmative action should be based on race." -- Maryland Democratic candidate Kathleen Kennedy-Townsend on how "two wrongs" make a right

"We must stop thinking of the individual and start thinking about what is best for society." -- Hillary Clinton Rodham, mirroring a famous pronouncement by Nikita Khrushchev: "Comrades, we must abolish the cult of the individual decisively, once and for all."

"I find George Bush and Dick Cheney frightening. Donald Rumsfeld and John Ashcroft [are] frightening.... I find bringing the country to the brink of war unilaterally five weeks before an election questionable -- and very, very frightening." -- Barbra Streisand, frightened of the president's cabinet, but not Saddam Hussein

"The more inventively you try to 'explain' the Islamist psychosis as a rational phenomenon to be accommodated, the more you risk sounding just as nutty as them." -- Mark Steyn

"The New York Times reports that Gore wrote the speech 'after consulting a fairly far-flung group of advisers that included Rob Reiner.' The current foreign policy of the United States is the combined product of Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Paul Wolfowitz and the president. Meanwhile, the pretender is huddling with Meathead." -- Charles Krauthammer

"The Bush administration is no longer debating whether to launch a war against Iraq. The only question now is which empty gesture to make before attacking." -- Jacob Sullum

"Last week Ted Kennedy came out against war on Iraq. You see Saddam has three wives and three mistresses, so he figures they might be related. It might be possible." -- Jay Leno

"Senator John McCain agreed to host NBC's Saturday Night Live on October 12th. So while the U.S. Senate is debating the new Homeland Security Department, John McCain will be rehearsing comedy routines that make Washington D.C. lawmakers look like idiots. It seems like an enormous duplication of effort but that's government for you." -- Argus Hamilton

 

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