Lingua publica
The good and the bad...
web posted April 23, 2001
"So this is the 21st century to which Bill Clinton built a bridge, a nation with a growing and entrenched lifelong chasm between those (like Chelsea Clinton) who grow up in ambitious families and attend demanding schools, and those who don't have such luck; a nation where a stunning 60 percent of poor children and minority children are shoveled through the schools and out the other end, largely illiterate and innumerate, all set for--hurrah! -- that good life at Burger King." -- Michael Kelly on "school reform"
"This country was far more literate before education became a state province than it is today. In fact, if education had remained private, any proposal to turn it over to the state would shock all lovers of liberty. But by now Americans are inured to the intellectual serfdom of state education." -- Joseph Sobran
"Mr. Bush's handling of the [Red China] crisis was -- in a word the Bushes hate, the one that was used to spoof his father--prudent. But one wonders what the world will conclude from his prudence. Some may conclude that he is patient and cool-tempered. Some may conclude he can be rolled. In this sense his crisis was the opposite of Ronald Reagan's response to his first crisis, a domestic one with international implications. A federal workers' union said it would break the law and strike for higher wages. Mr. Reagan said: 'If you do, I will fire you.' They struck. He fired them. When the world saw what Mr. Reagan had done with the flight controllers' union, it began to conclude that the cowboy was not a creampuff." -- Peggy Noonan
"It's high time that we send Washington, D.C., a clear message that when the states came together in 1787, they created the federal government as their agent. As such the federal government is a creature of the states -- not the other way around. It's going to take brave and principled Americans to send that message; but, alas, bravery and principle are in short supply these days." -- Walter Williams
"Bush inherits a world at peace and an economy, which while sliding down hill is still in reasonably good shape. But all of this is offset by the fact that he also inherits a Democratic party the leaders of which are determined to make life difficult for him on the grounds that he is an illegitimate president. Because of this Bush came into office with two choices: Make nice or put a chip on his shoulder. He has chosen for now to make nice. If that doesn't work he will have another two choices: fight or roll over. Under those circumstances Reagan would fight. It will be interesting to see what road Bush will take if making nice doesn't work." -- Lyn Nofziger
"They want an apology? I've got an apology for them -- I'm sorry we ever passed PNTR." -- Rep. Tom Tancredo on China's demand for a formal apology over the spy plane incident
"Poor blacks and black businesses are being pushed out of Harlem in favor of elite whites. Bill Clinton is a perfect symbol of the reality of the white takeover. He is opening the floodgates now for complete gentrification of Harlem." -- New Black Panther Party spokesman Malik Zulu Shabazz: on Bill Clinton's leasing of an 8 300 square foot office in Harlem
"A tax cut is an argument for freedom." -- Paul Craig Roberts
"The government taxes you when you bring home a paycheck. It taxes you when you make a phone call. It taxes you when you turn on a light. It taxes you when you sell a stock. It taxes you when you fill your car with gas. It taxes you when you ride a plane. It taxes you when you get married. Then it taxes you when you die. This is taxual insanity and it must end." -- Rep. J.C. Watts
"Congress and the American people do not share the same goals. The real enemy of tax reform is the spending culture in Washington. Let me repeat: we will never have tax reform in this country until Congress changes its spending habits." -- Rep. Ron Paul
"China's behavior has, if anything, only gotten worse with all this making nice. What the appeasement model didn't take into account was the reality of evil and the need to restrain it." -- Chuck Colson
"...[F]reedom is priceless. ...You cannot understand what it means to have freedom unless you have lost it. Freedom is quite simple. You can say what you want and go where you want to go." -- Harry Wu
"Global warming has become dogma by a certain crowd of international elitists who, like most fanatics, care a great deal more about their dogma than about people or truth." -- Charley Reese
"Indeed, nothing seems to offend champions of 'diversity' so much as ideas different from their own." -- Paul Greenberg
"The other day, George W. Bush did something momentous and marvelous: nothing. Specifically, he did nothing to exploit the return of the 24 military men and women whose release he had won from China." -- Michael Kelly
"If Bill Clinton were still president, he'd be in Cincinnati this week, biting his lip, getting misty, making up stories about how much the Cincinnati riots of the 1960s changed his life." -- Jonah Goldberg
"If a constituent has an opinion, no matter how stupid we think it is, we still treat that like gold." -- Bernard Readmond, aide to Sen. Demo Robert Torricelli
"No one should have to leave their hometown, their families and their roots to find a good job in America." -- Arkansas native Hillary Clinton and now New York Senator in remarks on the Senate floor
"A little government and a little luck are necessary in life, but only a fool trusts either of them." -- P.J. O'Rourke
"Indeed, if I understand this global-warming business correctly, the danger is that the waters will rise and drown the whole of Massachusetts, New York City, Long Island, the California coast and a few big cities on the Great Lakes -- in other words, every Democratic enclave will be wiped out leaving only the solid Republican heartland. Politically speaking, for conservatives there's no downside to global warming." -- Mark Steyn
"There was a study and the study indicates that New York City is now a classier, more prestigious place to live. That's right. They used those words: New York City -- classier, more prestigious place. Of course, you know, the study was done before the Clintons moved in." -- David Letterman
web posted April 16, 2001
"[Leftists] need to come to terms with their dysfunctional approach to human rights and the rule of law. If 'human rights' is to have real meaning, it must be more than a weapon wielded by left-wingers against politicians they dislike. The left can get away with political murders because of the presumed morality of their goals. The ends justify the means as long as the policy -- land redistribution, for example -- meets with the intelligentsia's approval. If the policy does not meet with the left-wing's approval -- such as ... privatization of Social Security and socialized industries -- the human-rights weapon is unsheathed. The two-faced nature of 'human rights' deprives the cause of credibility." -- Paul Craig Roberts
web posted April 2, 2001
"I listened to senator after senator doing their Colonel Kurtz act, writhing and moaning on the Senate floor about having to raise money; how they need to shower after making fund-raising phone calls; how all they do all day every day is raise money, raise money, raise money. Oh, the horror. I have a suggestion for any Senator who finds this too difficult: Don't run again. You'll never have to raise another dime. And you can give up your taxpayer-supported staff, your taxpayer supported office space, your taxpayer supported office equipment, your taxpayer supported postage and supplies; and your taxpayer supported overseas travel. You can also give up being fawned over by lobbyists, give up being swooned over by constituents, and give up being ego-boosted by television talk show bookers. You can drive your own car, book your own travel, balance your own checkbook, and actually work five days a week. United States Senators take the business of being a senator very, very seriously. If they thought they could get away with it, they would wear togas." -- Rich Galen
"McCain makes a common mistake among politicians, especially senators. He confuses excessive media coverage with popular political support. But if that was how things worked, O.J. Simpson would be president by now and the cast of 'Survivor' would be in the Senate." -- Jonah Goldberg
"This is a budget that generously funds our nation's commitments while giving real tax relief back to those who were overcharged. It offers relief from the marriage and death taxes, doubles the per-child tax credit and gives the across-the-board relief to all taxpayers." -- Rep. J.C. Watts
"Genetically, more Republicans are rich than Democrats." -- Democratic Senate Leader Tom Daschle
"Tax cuts do not have to be justified. It's government spending that that has to be justified." -- Sheldon Richman
"Are the sort of men who rule this country today the sort of men who built this country in the first place?" -- Joseph Sobran
"I think in retrospect if we could have done one thing differently, I would have started the campaign off in Tennessee. Perhaps that would have allowed us to spend more resources in the Vice President's home state and given the people there a better opportunity to see him as one of their own and not as an outsider." -- Gore campaign chief Donna Brazile
"A prime example of government not listening to people happened a few months ago, when -- in their final hours -- the previous administration suddenly designated over one million acres of national monuments. In 2000, the total amount of monument land designated equaled the size of the state of Connecticut." -- Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton
"President Bush wants to spend millions of dollars on 'character' education in government-run schools. My parents gave me mine for free." -- Cal Thomas
"Free speech is supposed to be our national passion. I don't see it. The Senate debates a bill to stifle free political speech through federal control of campaign finance, and respectable organs of opinion nod in agreement." -- Bill Murchison
"The debate on campaign finance 'reform' that would vastly expand government regulation of political communication will measure just how much jeopardy the First Amendment, and hence political freedom, faces. Recent evidence is ominous. ... Campaign finance reform is about abridging the freedom of everyone but incumbents -- and their media megaphones." -- George Will
"Most Americans today pride themselves on being 'nonjudgmental.' It hasn't yet dawned on most of them that the body count in our high schools is their reward." -- Mona Charen
"The big problem in the long process of dumbing down the schools is that you can reach a point of no return. How are parents who never received a decent education themselves to recognize that their children are not getting a decent education?" -- Thomas Sowell
"He did it. Barely two months into his administration, George W. Bush has just done what even the Gipper never could: He told the American Bar Association to take a hike. ... For its part, the ABA's claim of a firewall that keeps the Standing Committee 'separate, independent, and insulated' from the causes embraced by its House of Delegates has come to have all the credibility of tobacco-industry studies showing no link between smoking and lung cancer. Even Martha Barnett, the ABA president, has trouble keeping a straight face here. At a press conference following a private meeting with Bush officials a few days before the White House made its announcement, she conceded that 'some people' might think the ABA has a 'political or liberal agenda.' In fact, she declared, there might even be 'positions we've taken that could be characterized as liberal'." -- Wall Street Journal
"I know about the Salem Witch Trials. I could sort of identify with those witches. Since I seem to have survived I feel uncomfortable taking the analogy too far." -- Bill Clinton entertaining his fans at Salem State College
"To those people, I say.... (pausing and looking over to V.P. Cheney) Dick, what do I say?" -- George Bush, responding to a reporter's suggestion that Dick Cheney is really calling the shots
"Come on, you're kidding. Clinton isn't a role model for adults, let alone children. This is just insane." -- Morris Martin, a member of the United Federation of Teachers, which will be awarding Bill Clinton its highest honor -- The John Dewey Award -- in May
"I don't want to get off on a rant here, but like an infestation of cockroaches, a drunken party guest or a super-virulent strain of antibiotic-resistant [disease], the Clintons are proving almost impossible to get rid of." -- Dennis Miller
"Jesse Jackson mistress is going to write a tell-all book. She says that Jesse gave her 400,000 dollars in hush money. This could hurt Jesse since two of his organizations are non-profit. The tough part is finding a mistress that is non-profit!" -- Jay Leno
