Back from the beyond
?The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.?
-Herman Goering at the Nuremberg Trial
Lots of good stuff over at Liberal Slant.
For all of us who love language, a visit to The Apostrophe Protection Society is imperative. Don’t miss the examples.
I was fascinated with Sparky’s recounting of his dreams, and even told him I was a little disappointed that I rarely remember mine. And when I do, they’re pretty standard anxiety dreams that usually involve something like losing my class schedule in high school.
But then coincidentally, I found in some old files something I’d written about a dream I had. Obviously I wrote it out because I so rarely remember them, and I wanted to remember this one. So here it is:
I was this vain, good-looking movie action star. I was shooting a sort of medieval Mad Max movie, where the setting was sort of medieval but there were guns and motorcycles. There was this group of people trying to kill me because they thought my movies glorified violence. Some of them may have been extras on the movie set. I remember trying to look in a mirror because I wanted to see what I looked like, so I looked at my reflection in a window. I looked sort of like me, but a good-looking version of me. At one point I did a thing I called “running the gauntlet,” which meant riding my motorcycle down this street that was lined with screaming fans, and they were all trying to touch me and get me to talk to them. Also people had baskets that they would hold out, hoping I would toss change into them, sort of like people hoping for candy tossed to them along a parade route. Then on the set, once in a while an extra would come out of the crowd and try to attack me, and I would use karate moves to fight them off.
Watched the two-hour “West Wing” premiere tonight, which I taped from last night. It was good, generally, but I think it would have been better as just an hour. With two hours, Aaron Sorkin predictably gave in to his tendency to over-emphasize the policy-wonk sections of the story, shortchanging the human side that I love.
I must admit, though, that I’m tremendously entertained with how they’re skewering GWB’s triumphant no-nothing attitude in the persona of James Brolin’s Gov. Ritchie. Let’s hear it for a smart, articulate, thoughtful person in the White House. When exactly did that become a bad thing?
Could the Navy lower my self-esteem any further?
“If they wrote a book about your life, would anyone want to read it?”
-Navy recruiting commercial
Just a thought
Isn’t it strange how we call Saddam Hussein “Saddam”? Isn’t that sort of like Harry Truman calling Stalin “Joe”?
35 questions. (via Tuesday, who kicks some serious ass in her commentary about them)
Related: Al Gore (remember him?) on Dubya’s plans.
Movie dialogue of the week
“I’m a really good handjob-giver.”
-Goldie Hawn, “The Banger Sisters”
Get Into His Head
(idea courtesy of Arthur)
Ladies and gentlemen, I never knew being president would be this hard. I just thought it would be sort of fun, carrying on the family tradition and all that. And think about it, who wouldn’t want to be president? The limos, the state dinners, maybe get your face on a coin. But now, when I can’t get away to the ranch, I just spend my days in all kinds of meetings where everyone is mad at everyone else. It’s frustrating and not fun at all, and I don’t think people are really listening to me. It’s not like in Texas, where talking over good barbecue could solve a lot of problems. And everyone’s always quizzing me all the time – my nerves are shot. Don’t get me wrong, Dick and Don and Condie have been great. But it’s just too much. Maybe if we can get in there and get Saddam, things will calm down. I hope so.
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