Lingua publica
The good and the bad...
web
posted November 26, 2001
"Normally you're a pacifist and you don't want any kind of war at
all. But occasionally something so atrocious happens there's gotta be
some kind of response. I'd like to see the bombing stop but what are you
gonna do, turn the other cheek? ... After the New York attack my attitude
was like, screw you man, just screw you." -- Sir Paul McCartney,
the former Beatle, in an interview with a British newspaper, the Independent
web
posted November 19, 2001
"America-haters have the upper hand on many campuses. They are ever so
sensitive to the feelings of Middle Eastern Muslims and completely insensitive
to the feelings of patriotic Americans. Multiculturalists, feminists and
a variety of other left-wing bigots have destroyed scholarship and turned
education into a campaign against Western civilization. They seduce the
minds of the young and fill them with shame of their country. These home-grown
terrorists in academic garb are a more dangerous enemy than the Taliban
and bin Laden." -- Paul Craig Roberts
"Kill him. Shoot him. I mean it." -- Sen. Joe Biden, chairman
of the Senate's Foreign Relations Committee, on what should be done with
Osama bin Laden
"To tax the Internet for the benefit of the Postal Service is unsupportable
reasoning. The Postal Service needs to survive from its own revenues.
If there is a shortfall, the government can come up with it, as required,
on the same principle as rural free delivery. But to attempt to relieve
its problems by contaminating the Internet is something that any congressman
who has taken an oath to right reason is bound to oppose." -- William
F. Buckley, Jr.
"Thanks to the United Front [AKA the Northern Alliance] and United States,
the people of Afghanistan will be free." -- Afghan refugee Mohammed Rasoull
"During World War II, we moved heaven and earth in the Manhattan Project
to build an atomic bomb before Hitler could -- because we knew our survival
hung in the balance. Today, we have to embrace a similar commitment to
averting nuclear terrorism." -- Steve Chapman
"We claim to be liberators. Every army does. But we can prove it. On
camera. ...This is no time to get lost in the morass of Afghan politics.
Mr. President, take Kabul. The politics will follow." -- Charles Krauthammer
"September 11 has taught Americans that we need to return to being the
confident moral force we once were, and fast -- to act resolutely and
to follow principle. We must expect, but ultimately ignore, the carping;
be polite, but forgo the apologies; and let our critics, not us, worry
only about the tension and hurt that follows." -- Victor Davis Hanson
"Anti-Americanism exalts hyphens and disparages unity." -- Don Feder
"I was on Air Force One the day of the attack, working my way back to
Washington via Louisiana and Nebraska... (LAUGHTER) ... making sure that
the president was safe and secure." -- U.S. President George W. Bush
"Only by removing ourselves from NATO and the UN can we reassert our
fundamental right to defend our borders without the approval or participation
of any international coalition." -- Rep. Ron Paul
"We should understand that how we shape the future depends on understanding
our history, the remarkable experiment of our democracy -- exactly what
we're fighting to protect in this war against 12th century barbarism."
-- Suzanne Fields
"Republicans can't declare a ceasefire while the Democrats proceed with
their partisan sorties any more than America can sleep during Ramadan
while the Taliban refortifies itself. It is suicidal." -- David Limbaugh
"The one place we could be sure of not finding the Taliban was in camps
we had said we were going to bomb. Bin Laden may be waxing his skis in
Tahoe, or chugging absinthe in Paris, but he ain't in those hutments,
methinks." -- Fred Reed
George W. Bush at his Texas ranch with Russian leader Vladimir Putin:"
The president and I have agreed to take a few questions from the students.
I figure this would be a pretty good opportunity for you all to ask..."
Putin (through translator): Only questions. No math questions, please.
(LAUGHTER)
Bush: Good idea. Particularly, no fuzzy math questions."
"Of course, it is very important to be born under a happy star and to
have destiny facing your way. And indeed, I'm in agreement with the president,
perhaps, God was looking quite positively on this. But there are different
approaches to addressing such kind of problem. There are people deeply
religious who usually say that God knows what is to befall a nation of
people or a person. But there are people, no less devoted to God, but
who still believe that the people, a person, should also take care of
their own destiny and lives. And it gives me great pleasure to deal and
to work with President Bush, who is a person, a man who does what he says."
-- Russian president Vladimir Putin
"Republicans this year sought their old designation as the stupid party."
-- Robert Novak on the recent elections in New Jersey and Virginia
"A phony is a phony. And no overpaid publicist is going to change that."
-- Bill O'Reilly
"[Jesse Jackson] is not sharp enough to slice baloney." -- Jonah Goldberg
"What's the latest on the war? I heard we are now dropping 15,000-pound
bombs. These things weigh 8 tons, they are 5 feet high and 17 feet long,
the largest weapon on Earth. Just yesterday someone was able to sneak
one past security at O'Hare airport." -- Jay Leno
"Bill Clinton resigned from the U.S. Supreme Court bar to avoid
being disbarred over the Monica Lewinsky affair. He didn't have a chance.
The American Bar Association defines sex as a holy and sacred act symbolizing
the billing of a client." -- Argus Hamilton
web
posted November 12, 2001
"Partly as a result of ... leadership, 33,000 Japanese-Americans volunteered
to fight in U.S. forces and 800 died. One result of their patriotism,
however, is that the Second World War, a bitter war between the U.S. and
Japan among other things, actually accelerated the process whereby Japanese-Americans
became full members of the American family. If that is the aim of Muslim-American
leaders, as it should be, it will be attained more quickly and certainly
by unqualified expressions of loyalty and commitment to the common struggle
against terrorism than by incessant demands of the American majority that
they avow a tolerance they have already shown in practice." -- John O'Sullivan
"Terrorism is the worst threat the nation has ever faced, and at the
moment, Americans are solidly united to confront it. The multicultural-therapeutic
left is small but concentrated in businesses that do most of the preaching
to America: the universities, the press, the mainline churches and the
entertainment industry. They will have to be pushed to move away from
sloppy multiculturalism and all-purpose relativism. Let the pushing begin."
-- John Leo
"America's heart and soul is more embedded in our love of liberty, self-reliance,
and tolerance than by our foreign policy, driven by powerful special interests
with little regard for the Constitution." -- Ron Paul
"There is something inherently ridiculous about a man standing in a cave
wearing fatigues and holding a hand-mike and shaking his fist at the entire
civilized world. Osama bin Laden called on his viewers to choose between
'the side of believers and the side of infidels.' But who made his microphone?
Who made the camera? I doubt it was Afghan, given that under the Taliban
you're not allowed to watch TV, never mind host your own jihad-inciting
special. ...If it weren't for Western technology, he'd be just a loser
in a cave shouting to himself. But ... just for a few minutes, he was
the only 11th century guy with his own CNN gig...." -- Mark Steyn
"How many Americans care what is happening to their liberties? Does the
Constitution matter? The new anti-terrorism law, signed by the president,
is the worst attack on the Bill of Rights since World War I." -- Nat Hentoff
"In the September 11 attacks, ... Americans were not the least bit confused
about terminology. We saw the face of evil; it did not require an interpreter."
-- Herbert London
"Bear in mind that our system of government preserves not only the rights
of people but also our authority over government. One way to make sure
this remains so is to avoid open-ended authorization of power in times
of crisis." -- Paul M. Rodriguez
"The media will never admit they were wrong about Mr. Bush, or that they
might have focused too much on superficialities and not enough on the
man's substance. How is it possible for a 'C' student who was a 'party
boy' in college and through early adulthood, to transform himself overnight
into someone who thinks and acts like a president should? It isn't possible
to instantaneously acquire leadership skills, like Popeye eating a can
of spinach for strength. Those skills must have always been there. The
question the press should be asking is how and why they missed them. Instead,
they are predictably writing about the 'new' George W. Bush." -- Cal Thomas
"This war is not going to be won by bombs and ground troops alone. Indeed,
if it is to be won it must be won within the confines of the United States."
-- Lyn Nofziger
"The next attack, catastrophic beyond our imagination, is waiting to
happen. If we do not have the will to go after that threat now, these
sophisticated weapons will fall into the hands of al Qaeda's comrades
and successors. We will be living the 13 days of the Cuban missile crisis
-- our last encounter with the real possibility of genocidal attack on
America -- for the rest of our lives." -- Charles Krauthammer
"It is permissible to burn the American flag on university campuses.
But don't try waving one." -- Paul Craig Roberts
"The elites in our society who openly condemn difficult decisions and
sacrifice usually do so because they prefer a comfortable life where no
real sacrifice is required of them. This is the life that our society
has allowed them for a very long time." -- Sterling Rome
"Will the Arab street hate us for fighting in Afghanistan during Ramadan?
Sure -- but they will hate us for not fighting too. The cry about the
sanctity of Ramadan is the dishonest mouth-warfare of the inflamed. Mohammed
fought during Ramadan in 624. In 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel
during Ramadan, which also coincided with Yom Kippur -- a twofer. In 1982,
Iran launched 'Operation Ramadan,' an attack on Iraq. If one is willing
to take lives in battle, then the cause must be of sufficient gravity
to excuse relatively trivial profanations; or one has no good cause, in
which case fighting on holidays only underlines the transgression. If
the enemy turns mosques into arsenals, then they become legitimate targets,
for the same reason. In World War II, the Allies fought a pitched battle
for the Abbey of Monte Cassino, which was reduced to rubble. The Nazis
lost then, even as their heirs will lose now, whatever the calendar says."
-- National Review
"They certainly are taking us to the places they want us to see, but
nobody is checking our scripts. Nobody is standing here as I do this discussion
with you on the roof of the foreign ministry building." -- ABC's Dan Harris
in Kandahar on how the Taliban is not forcing reporters to report stories
with a pro-Taliban slant, not that they have to
"And I think that there is only one answer to that and that is some form
of real retribution and justice -- and you do that militarily." -- Tom
Brokaw
"It could compromise our objectivity. We have people of every faith and
culture walking into this building, and we want everybody to feel welcome."
-- Marcellee Gralapp, Boulder, Colorado, Public Library's art director,
on why employees may not drape their nation's flag above the library's
front entrance
"What would bug the Taliban more than seeing a gay woman in a suit surrounded
by Jews." -- Ellen DeGeneres
"Now a major newspaper in Pakistan has received an anthrax package. No
doubt it's from some pro-life extremists in Utah." -- Andrew Sullivan
"Whoever is dumping anthrax into the U.S. mail is a pretty clever fellow.
Or clever woman, as the case may be. Nobody panics like a politician or
a journalist." -- Wesley Pruden
"Anyone who watches C-Span as it televises the live press conferences
at the Pentagon quickly arrives at the obvious conclusion that the reporters
are the biggest bunch of idiots to be gathered in one place for the purpose
of learning about the progress of this war. They ask questions of such
astounding stupidity they have occasionally stunned the Secretary of Defense
into a momentary speechless state." -- Alan Caruba
"Did you see President Bush last night at the World Series? He threw
out the first pitch. It was a perfect strike. They said that was the best
athletic performance by a member of the government since Janet Reno sacked
John Elway in Super Bowl 37." -- Jay Leno
"At the World Series, President Bush threw out the first pitch.
The White House claimed it was a perfect strike, and the Taliban claimed
that it missed and killed innocent people." -- David Letterman
"The Washington Post editorialized that the outbreak of flag-waving
patriotism is good for America. It's been especially good for China. Just
on what they've made sewing U.S. flags in the last six weeks, they've
been able to buy a dozen F-16s." -- Argus Hamilton
web
posted November 5, 2001
"Patriotism is not an outmoded concept. It is not jingoistic. It is not
the cause of this war -- the terrorists are. But our patriotism will help
to keep us united and focused as we face the enemy. Most of us don't love
America simply because we are its citizens. Patriotism for us is not some
mindless emotional attachment to our nation. While it generates visceral
feelings of pride it has intellectual moorings as well. It springs forth
from a deep devotion to our founding principles, chief among them being
our glorious freedom safeguarded by the rule of law. Patriotism is vitally
important because it is about more than mere survival. It emboldens us
in our struggle to preserve our distinct way of life, because it understands
that peace is not 'so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains
and slavery'." -- David Limbaugh
"If we really are at war, let us perhaps have pity upon our doomed enemies.
But after what we suffered on September 11, if we are not at war, then
we should have pity upon ourselves for what we have become." -- Victor
Davis Hanson
"If we are serious about this war on terrorism, Congress ought not only
to declare war, but warn that any terrorist caught in the U.S. on a mission
of massacre will go before a military tribunal and be put to death quickly
and in secret...." -- Pat Buchanan
"War is an act of destruction, not urban renewal. We need to steel ourselves
to that truth now, or we might find that partway into the battle, even
as we remain under catastrophic threat, we lack the stomach to see it
through." -- Charles Krauthammer
"The Taliban and Al Qaeda are unlikely to take a holiday. Given the fact
that they have killed thousands of Americans and people from 50 or 60
other countries, and given the fact that they have sworn to continue such
attacks, we have an obligation to defend the American people, and we intend
to work diligently to do that." -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
on whether the U.S.-led attacks against the Taliban would stop during
Ramadan
"Let's work with our democratic allies first, and turn to friendly tyrannies
only as a last resort." -- Michael Ledeen
"It seems perverse to focus too much on the casualties or hardship in
Afghanistan. As we get good reports from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan,
we must redouble our efforts to make sure we do not seem to be simply
reporting from their vantage or perspective. We must talk about how the
Taliban are using civilian shields and how the Taliban have harbored the
terrorists responsible for killing close to 5,000 innocent people." --
Walter Isaacson, chairman of CNN, perhaps moving away from his "Bad
News for America" coverage
"It's important that government protect its citizens. But that shouldn't
be a pretext for growing government." -- Kenneth L. Connor
"The axiom guiding conservatives ought to be that when tax dollars pay
for it, the public has a right to see it, subject only to reasonable,
but necessarily narrow exceptions for national security, law enforcement
and legitimate personal and commercial privacy concerns. When movement
conservatives thus become the FOIA's [Freedom of Information Act's] best
friends, not only will it help create a crucible of public exposure for
the bureaucracy with its cozy relationship with the special interests,
the national news media will have countless more reasons to come calling
at your doors." -- Mark Tapscott
"America is free because it protects dissent. Dissent doesn't create
freedom, but it is an essential byproduct of freedom." -- Debra Saunders
"You're not paranoid if you think people are persecuting you when they
actually are. When you begin to imagine reactions based on fear, that's
a disproportionate reaction. And that's exactly what the terrorists are
counting on -- a disproportionate reaction." -- Suzanne Fields
"Civilization has faced 'the evil ones' before. Intelligent, resolute
action against them has always triumphed." -- R. Emmett Tyrrell
"America could use some confidence-building measures right now." -- Cal
Thomas
"...[E]ven the wealthiest of scoundrels cannot buy respectability with
their blood money." -- Debbie Schlussel
"If there was ever a time for the American people to understand energy
independence, it's now." -- Rush Limbaugh
"Relentlessly impressed by Clinton's compassionate poses, daring behavior
and glib intellectualism, the many journalists with a soft spot for this
rogue missed the point. Bill Clinton was a small man for a small time,
a panderer and pollster and not a leader, a man who was not up to the
challenge of a major war against terrorism." -- Brent Bozell
"Sure, people are angry and upset. I am angry and upset. But that doesn't
mean what you do is go out and immediately fly off and bomb the other
side. ...It's a very complicated situation." -- Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Washington)
questioning actions on the Afghanistan front in the War on Terrorism.
"The Internet is the happiest intellectual, journalistic and educational
development in history, and the thought of letting the weeds of prehensile
government crawl about it struck some as on the order of enforced shutters
on sunlight, or taps on waterfalls." -- William F. Buckley, Jr.
"The ad clearly crosses the line between reasoned debate and inflammatory
hate mongering." -- Text from leaflets left replacing over 1,000 stolen
copies of the University of California, Berkeley, student newspaper The
Daily Californian, after politically correct Leftists objected to an Ayn
Rand Institute sponsored advertisement in the papers. The ad was titled,
"End States Who Sponsor Terrorism," urging elimination of "terrorist sanctuaries"
in Iran, as "What Germany was to Nazism in the 1940s, Iran is to terrorism
today"
"Liberals are up to their old tricks again. Twenty years of treason hasn't
slowed them down. Earlier prescient advice from the anti-American crowd
has included: dismantling government intelligence agencies 'brick by brick';
toppling the Shah of Iran and giving Islamic fundamentalism its first
real foothold in the Mideast; turning the U.S. armed forces into a feminist
consciousness-raising session; demanding continued dependence on Arab
oil in order to preserve mud flats in Alaska; indignantly opposing a missile
defense shield; promoting endless due process rights for aliens who are
illegal, diseased or criminal; disarming the public; and purging the nation
of insidious references to God. Most people would be embarrassed at a
track record like that, especially after Sept. 11. But instead of hanging
their heads in shame, liberals have boldly returned to their typical hysteria
and defeatism." -- Ann Coulter
"The Pentagon as a legitimate target? I actually don't have an opinion
on that." -- ABC President David Westin
"When writing about terrorism, remember to include white supremacists,
radical anti-abortionists and other groups with a history of such activity."
-- Society of Professional Journalists content guidelines for providing
"balance" in terror reportage, conveniently ignoring groups like eco-terrorists
"Perhaps the school systems across the country really should be thinking
about renewing a lesson about tolerance." -- NBC reporter Ann Curry on
New York schools reinstating the Pledge of Allegiance
"A thought: Why don't we spray Osama bin Ladin's hideouts with anthrax?"
-- Lyn Nofziger
"Then it hit me.... Beam 'Monday Night Football' to the countries that
hate us so we can find common ground in just hating Dennis Miller as a
color commentator." -- Wiley Miller in the comic strip "Non Sequitur"
"Police officers are so occupied with extra security details that
cops in New Jersey are now asking black people to pull themselves over."
-- Jay Leno
"This is a good day! I woke up, took my Cipro, then I irradiated
my mail. Your e-mail isn't safe either! I logged on my computer this morning
and the AOL guy said, "Welcome, you've got anthrax"! .... More and more
is coming out about Osama bin Laden. They say he could have as many as
five wives. Figures -- a guy in a cave is doing better than I am."
-- David Letterman
"Tony Blair admitted the war in Afghanistan isn't going the way
we thought it would. The bad news is, the Taliban is still in business.
The good news is, the Red Cross has offered to meet us aboard the USS
Missouri if we'll stop bombing them." -- Argus Hamilton
web
posted October 29, 2001
"As emotionally satisfying as it would be, the vast majority of Americans
never will have the privilege of dropping a bunker-buster bomb on an al
Qaeda training camp. However, every American can play a small -- and perhaps
pivotal -- part in the War on Terror by volunteering income or information
to help annihilate these assassins. Victory should involve each one of
us." -- Deroy Murdock
"History is taking its measure of us as a nation and as individuals."
-- Linda Bowles
"Respect for facts has a tenuous hold on the allegiance of public policymakers,
journalists, academics, and many others with agendas unsupported by the
facts." -- Paul Craig Roberts
"...[B]oth words and deeds are needed to fight against evil. They remind
us all that this is no time to be a passive bystander." -- Suzanne Fields
"This is going to be a long twilight struggle: dirty and dangerous, cynical
and self-interested. Yes, the ultimate objective is a freer world. But
actually fighting this war, like the Cold War, will involve many compromises
with freedom, even with decency. War is an act of destruction, not urban
renewal. We need to steel ourselves to that truth now, or we might find
that partway into the battle, even as we remain under catastrophic threat,
we lack the stomach to see it through." -- Charles Krauthammer
"The most far-reaching peril is that Congress, tempted to do something,
will do the wrong thing at the expense of our freedoms and liberties."
-- Wesley Pruden
"In the aftermath of the Cold War, the country said, 'Hey, it's beach
time'." -- Former CIA Director James Woolsey
"The question the government and people of the United States must address
immediately is: Should we regard Israel as a vital strategic ally in the
war on terrorism and refrain from repeating the mistakes made by Britain
towards France six decades ago? Or can we safely indulge in a deceit similar
to that earlier time's -- that concessions that weaken, perhaps mortally,
one of our most important bulwarks against a common enemy can be made
at no peril to our security?" -- Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
"Start with the radical assumption that Afghans do not like starving
in poverty under the rule of psychopaths. What would happen if the United
States made it possible for them to live, not under American rule, but
under a sane self-rule, with material assistance from this nation? What
would happen, in short, if the United States rescued the Afghans?" --
Michael Kelly
"The story of America vindicates the power of conscience. And the American
conscience has borne great fruit for the world. We have stood in a position
to terrorize the earth, and instead we have offered the earth its liberty.
It is wise for us to remember this now. Of course, in America there remain
challenges of justice and human dignity for us to overcome. But we are
a people who have time and again proven that, though we are of the same
mixed nature as all other human beings, given the chance, we will eventually
do what's right." -- Alan Keyes
"...[I]t's a lot easier to avoid stepping into an abyss than to climb
out of it. It's a lot easier to avoid making enemies than to defend yourself
when they want to kill you." -- Joseph Sobran
"America does not like to think of itself in terms of social classes,
but there are elites, and these elites sometime seem to be holding themselves
aloof from the work of defending the nation at time of great peril." --
John Leo
"Go to work. Don't ask your doctor for Cipro. Don't buy a gas mask. Take
the kids to the park; take your wife to a restaurant. Open your mail.
Boycott Drew Barrymore's movie (you know it's no good anyway)." -- Michael
Kelly
"It is a key balancing act we have to engage in as a nation right now.
It would be very easy to forget about personal liberties and worry only
about the national security." -- Rep. Bob Barr
"Before the 11th of September, [campaign finance reform] was the lowest
thing on the American radar screen for people outside of Washington, D.C.
And my guess is that it is even further lower now than it was then." --
Rep. Dick Armey
"Saddam Hussein has killed more Muslims than we ever have, as has Bin
Laden. ... Yet these people consider us to be the focus of evil in the
modern world." -- Rush Limbaugh
"The fear now: that the cycle of revenge will only escalate in that part
of the world." -- NBC anchor Tom Brokaw on how Israel's acts of self-defense
against attacks on its innocent citizens are somehow morally equivalent
to Palestinian terrorism
"What this country needs is...a national identification card with a photo
but also a fingerprint and some other piece of unique information, such
as an iris or retinal scan. That way, you can prove you are who you say
you are." -- Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen
"The American flag stands for intimidation, censorship, violence, bigotry,
sexism, homophobia and shoving the Constitution through a paper shredder.
Whom are we calling terrorists here?" -- author Barbara Kingsolver
"When you climb into a 'coalition' bed you've got to be ready for the
bad breath of the devil." -- Barry Farber
"Did you know that the American CIA Director is actually Egyptian? ...Yes,
Egyptian ... because he had responsibility for the disaster of Sept. 11
and actually kept his job. Only an Egyptian could do that!" -- Joke appearing
in a major newspaper in Cairo, Egypt
"Congressmen already have their gas masks.... Now Congress has its supplies
of Cipro, and the rest of us, who don't, can relax. If danger imperils
the rest of us, that's just a risk congressmen are willing to take." --
Wesley Pruden
"The rudeness of New Yorkers is almost a tourist attraction. It's a phony
one. New Yorkers at least have the consideration not to subject you to
saccharine smiley-fascism. They're not cuddly. That's why I like them.
You can talk to N'Yawkers without feeling as if you had grabbed a sticky
doorknob. The city can be rough, but it's human." -- Fred Reed
"The ground war in Afghanistan has begun. The big thing now is who
will have the power in Afghanistan once the Taliban is removed. I have
an idea -- I have an idea! How about Al Gore? He's not doing anything,
he needs a job, and he already has a beard." -- Jay Leno
"Well it's official! CBS has finally got anthrax in the mail. As
usual, we're number three." -- David Letterman
"The Navy apologized Friday for an anti-gay slur written on one
of the bombs dropped on Afghanistan last week. It was both offensive and
out of place. If Americans want to watch gay bombs, they can set their
VCRs for Ellen's new sitcom." -- Argus Hamilton
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