Quotes and Stuff

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by DanaC

I could fill a page with quotes from the late, great Tony Benn.

The other day I was impressed with...

In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person--Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates--ask them five questions:
“What power have you got?
Where did you get it from?
In whose interests do you exercise it?
To whom are you accountable?
And how can we get rid of you?”
If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.

[Sundae]

I admired and even venerated Tony Benn for as long as I've been politically aware.
Of course there were views he held which I didn't; and he never set himself up as some sort of guru that would have demanded it. In fact he would have been revolted by it.

But I have to say in later years it was the way he tied an anti-war message with terrorism which conflicted my views with his.

I can't pull rank. He lived through the Blitz, and through The Troubles.

So if he really felt that Western intervention in Iraq was the reason for Muslims to kill each other, or go overseas and kill civilians (the way the IRA killed other Christians) then I might be missing something.

I'll never deny his was a powerful voice though.
And the world need more like him.
Born privileged, privately and expensively educated.

[DanaC]

Oh, I disagreed with Benn on lots of things. His stance on Europe, for one.

[Sundae]

Born privileged, privately and expensively educated

That was supposed to have a smiley; to comment on where and when and what situation he was born in is completely unfair.

But, yes,
The man dedicated his life to working in politics outside of the strictures of Westminster, which was why he never was all that successful inside it.
If'n you call making a Minister, even a Shadow Minister unsuccessful.

Every interview I've heard, from Red Ken, Degsy and many others on the other side of the political spectrum, they've said they may not have agreed with him on everything. But they got to meet the man, and talk to him, be charmed by him, drink tea with him. And I envy them that.

[Clodfobble]

Originally Posted by Sundae

So if he really felt that Western intervention in Iraq was the reason for Muslims to kill each other, or go overseas and kill civilians (the way the IRA killed other Christians) then I might be missing something.

I wasn't very familiar with the guy, and he may have said other things to indicate he believed this... but based on the quotes above, I got the impression that he wasn't saying we caused their behavior, just that we were no better than them.

[Griff]

Sounds like a sharp mind, I guess he bears further reading.

[xoxoxoBruce]

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.

In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both.

No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare,”

– James Madison, “Political Observations” from Letters and Other Writings.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn.

To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living.

Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food. The body, these waterheads imagine, is a temple that should not be polluted by animal protein. It’s healthier, they insist, though every vegetarian waiter I’ve worked with is brought down by any rumor of a cold.

Oh, I’ll accomodate them, I’ll rummage around for something to feed them, for a ‘vegetarian plate’, if called on to do so. Fourteen dollars for a few slices of grilled eggplant and zucchini suits my food cost fine.

Anthony Bourdain

[Gravdigr]

Bravo, Mr. Bourdain.

[BigV]

Yeah, that's fucked up. It reminds me of the manhunt and searching immediately following the explosions at the Boston marathon. Not the same as hot pursuit.

[Gravdigr]

To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.

~George Mason

[Gravdigr]

If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.

~Thomas Edison

[busterb]

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Alva Edison

[DanaC]

Justice is blind. But only in one eye - Jon Stewart, Daily Show

[Gravdigr]

Marines don’t run around asking about compensation, retirement modernization. That’s not on their mind. As I talk to thousands of audiences, they want to know onto whose neck do we put a boot next...

~Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps Micheal P. Barrett, testifying before Senate Armed Services Committee


'Micheal' is not a misspelling, btw