“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything”
I’m sorry Senator, I don’t recall that either…
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On Congressional Hearings
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On Why It Seems We’ve Been Here Before
“It is not worth while to try to keep history from repeating itself, for man’s character will always make the preventing of the repetitions impossible.”
It is a question philosophers have debated for millennia; is history a straight line or does humanity run around in circles. Mark Twain, being our American Philosopher, addressed that question too. And judging from what’s happend in the world since he wrote these words, it would seem as if he got it right.
Mark Twain on Four Years of War in Iraq
“Statesmen will invent cheap lies, putting blame upon the nation that is attacked, and every man will be glad of those conscience-soothing falsities, and will diligently study them, and refuse to examine any refutations of them; and thus he will by and by convince himself that the war is just, and will thank God for the better sleep he enjoys after this process of grotesque self-deception.”
Cheap lies become “faulty intelligence” and any reasonable doubt of ensuing policy – the call for war – is ascribed as sedition, “a validation of the enemy” – nothing short of treason.
When a nation justifies immoral acts through a self-proclaimed moral justification, too easily it becomes the truth that is the enemy, and to whom treason has been committed. Self-deception on the grandest scale.
Four years later, down the rabbit hole we have ventured, and none can find a way out.
On Staying Organized
“Have a place for everything and keep the thing somewhere else; this is not advice, it is merely custom.”
Now, where did I put my keys?
On Taking Responsibility for Your Own Opinion
“A person who won’t read has no advantage over one who can’t read.”
Having an opinion is one thing; having an informed opinion is hard work
On the Growing Scandal Surrounding Alberto Gonzales
“A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar.”
Is it then time for Mr. Gonzales to be truthful?
mark twain politics alberto gonzales current events attorney general
On Accusations of Patriotism
“My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders”
More than anything, the United States is an idea. It is good to remember that since its inception, a rancorous debate has ensued on how to best express that idea. None today are likely to accuse any of our founding fathers of a lack of patriotism, though they certainly did of each other.
Could it be possible – barring the purely mean and self-serving voices on all sides – that both liberals and conservatives can not only consider themselves but, oddly enough, each other as patriots?
Perish the thought that there may be some common ground from which to work through the issues of the day.
mark twain A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court patriotism partisanship government ann coulter
On International Women’s Day
“What, sir, would the people of the earth be without woman? They would be scarce, sir, almighty scarce”
Today is international Woman’s Day.
Mark Twain understood that women truly rule the world, or at least if they did, it would probably be a better world.
On Faith in Government
“Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.”
It has been said that the only form of government worse than a democracy is every other form of government. And how often it is that Congress proves the point.
On Keeping an Open Mind
“Loyalty to petrified opinions never yet broke a chain or freed a human soul.”
Holding on to an idea that has long since worn through its own logic only serves to dampen the spirit of all who still cling to it.