Good Quotes

Don Meredith:

Howard made my job so easy, because I knew if I just sat there long enough he was gonna to say some fool thing I could comment on. Howard didn't know a whole lot about football. But it didn't matter, because we were just up there to have a good time anyway. We tried not to let the game get in our way.

James Lileks

Vets v Kerry- Media's Waterloo
There are two tales here: the story, and how the story will be played in the dinosaur old media. [...] This is not about Vietnam. This is about character, and this is about spin. Over the next week there’s going to be a lot of discussion in newsrooms about what this story means, and how the mainstream media’s handling of the charges will affect their image. They can tear the story down to the foundation and root for the truth, or they can hide behind he-said-they-said reportage. It’s their Waterloo. We’ll see.

Update- (From Greg) So far, the media are largely playing this as "he said/they said." When detail is given, it is often blatantly incorrect. Its shocking to watch "legitimate" media report blatant falsehoods with cocky assurance. A local TV newscast(in Dallas) assuredly reported that the Swift Boat Vets were liars "because none of them served with John Kerry." This was broadcast in a news story on the "controversy," implication being that the reporter had researched the story. I have more examples, but you get the picture. With some exceptions, the coverage amounts to either blatant lies or "he said/they said."


Peggy Noonan

I do not think a lot of modern conservatives have taken on their philosophy because they were brought up in it, schooled in it, and swallowed it whole. And I don't think a lot of them became conservatives because they read a book by Hayek or Adam Smith and thought, "Ah ha, this seems sound!"

I think a lot of people in our time who have become conservatives did it because they had a certain and particular kind of mind. To choose just one facet, they have a natural respect and even sometimes love toward human beings, while at the same time having no illusions--none--about who we are. Man is not perfect and is not perfectible, at least by other men.
[...]
You start out there, and then you find yourself hearing something or reading something that you find out is "conservative." You pick up National Review... or you read C.S. Lewis or bump into the autobiography of ... Whittaker Chambers... and suddenly you think, "Oh my God, that's exactly what I think."


Alice Bacchini

Personally, I strongly believe that there is no point
[in making immoral decisions],
because bad things always come back to you anyway,
and nearly always pretty immediately.


Walter Williams

"It’s always been my contention that the conservative vision shows far greater respect for blacks than the liberal you-can’t-make-it-without-us vision."


Mark Steyn

There's a narcissism about the tone of this convention that cuts to the heart of the Democratic Party's difficulties: They don't believe in anything except their monopoly of goodness.


Zeyad of Healing Iraq

We smiled at one another. There was a cool breeze outside and life suddenly felt good. When you are vulnerable and have death waiting around the corner at any moment, it's only better that you try hard to make the most of what you have.