Clever turns of phrase, special splashes of wit, provocative insight — all in a sentence or two.
“‘The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people,’ [Tim Barnett of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography] said.”
Report from CNN.
Studies looking at the oceans and melting Arctic ice leave no room for doubt that it is getting warmer, people are to blame, and the weather is going to suffer, climate experts have said.
Link via dangerousmeta!
“Paul Krugman likes to say that if the White House were to announce tomorrow that the world is flat, our press is so disfunctional that the leads the following day would read ‘opinions on shape of earth differ.'”
As quoted at Brad DeLong’s Website
“Ever since the two men [George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton] teamed up to raise money for tsunami victims, Clinton has looked less like Bush’s successor than the United Nations translator for a non-English-speaking foreign head of state: he does all the talking.”
Alessandra Stanley discussing TV coverage of the Super Bowl in The New York Times
From a 1977 Johnny Carson monologue —
August 4th: President Carter has recommended that it should not be a criminal offense to be found in possession of an ounce or less of marijuana.
CARSON: The trouble is that nobody in our band knows what an ounce or less means.
DOC SEVERINSEN: It means you’re about out.
“Jenna Bush yawns and wonders when the Secret Service is going to show up with her Bloody Mary Big Gulp®.”
TBogg captioning a photo that shows Jenna Bush yawning during the swearing-in ceremony.
The President: I, George Walker Bush … do solemnly swear …
Jon Stewart: At which point, 49% of the country also solemnly swore.
From The Daily Show, January 20, 2005
“Don’t get me wrong: I think today’s inauguration is going to cost us dearly, but it’s not the $40 million for the party that I’m thinking of.”
Eric Muller at Is That Legal?
“Prince Harry has embarrassed the royal family yet again. He showed up at a party dressed as the Jets kicker.”
Letterman
“Government is most to be feared when it treats its people as babies…”
Jonathan Raban in The New York Review of Books in an excellent essay, “The Truth About Terrorism.”
“How about a federal program that would let citizens try to sink a basket from midcourt for double or nothing on their Social Security payments? We need to appoint a blue-ribbon presidential commission to research old “Honeymooners” episodes to find can’t-lose, get-rich-quick schemes. The problem for Ralph Kramden was probably in the execution, not the underlying ideas.”
John Schwartz writing about Social Security reform in The New York Times. He also notes that the “k” in 401(k) could stand for keno.
“The long-term cost of the Bush tax cuts is five times the budget office’s estimate of Social Security’s deficit over the next 75 years.”
“Thank God that’s over.”
Eric Alterman commenting on 2004.
“Christmas is a time when people of all religions come together to worship Jesus Christ.”
— Bart Simpson
Thanks to The Sonoran Son.
“But might the people who scammed the country about Iraq also scam you on Social Security?”
“If you are interested in Jon Stewart related merchandise (or as we here at SRWU call them: Holy Relics), then you should check this out.”
“I was awoken at about seven o’clock by my two-year-old son calling to me from his room: ‘Daddy, Daddy, come Daddy!’ It’s nicer than an alarm clock, but there is no snooze button.”
“There is, in fact, nothing about religious opinions that entitles them to any more respect than other opinions get.”
H.L. Mencken (1929) quoted by James Wolcott
“[S]o self-alienated he didn’t even make a reflection in the mirror.”
James Wolcott writing about Peter Sellers and the HBO bio-pic premiering this Sunday
“Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company.”
Mark Twain
“[M]istook the power of incumbency for their own skill.”
Josh Marshall writing about the Democrats of the 1990s, but it would seem to be universal.
“[N]ot pro-life and not pro-choice — I’m pro-football.”
Kinky Friedman, quoted at Bull Moose
“The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.”
— John Ashcroft in his letter of resignation.
Ain’t that good news. No more need for car alarms. No more taking our shoes off at airports.
“I think a large part of the public likes the conservatives’ theme music. Now they will be tested on whether they like the lyrics.”
— Representative Barney Frank quoted at Talking Points Memo
Barney, I fear many already are singing along. Hell, they’re doing Karaoke.
“I’d bet anything that if the election ballots hadn’t had the names Bush and Kerry on them but simply asked instead, ‘Do you watch Fox TV or read The New York Times?’ the Electoral College would have broken the exact same way.”
Tom Friedman, who also wrote, “I felt as if I registered to vote, but when I showed up the Constitutional Convention broke out.”