crackpots

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

To our superpatriots I say: Patriotism and respect for human rights are not mutually exclusive concepts. Homeland is where a man is allowed to work, provide for his family, and express his views freely. I have nothing but contempt for the kind of patriot who treats free speech as an invention of the corrupt and degenerate West. That’s not patriotism but Ottomanism, Sovietism, and fascism.#armenians

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

One of my favorite Jewish jokes goes something like this:
Two old friends meet on a road somewhere in Russia
and after a brief exchange one of them says to the other:
“You tell me you are going to Minsk
because you want me to believe you are going to Pinsk,
but I happen to know you are going to Minsk:
Why must you always lie to me?”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

To rewrite history means to ignore its lessons.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Preston Sturges on his mother: "She was endowed with such a rich and powerful imagination that anything she said three times, she believed fervently. Often twice was enough."

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Perhaps my quarrel is not with readers but with myself, my younger self, when I was innocent and naďve and therefore an ideal target for manipulators.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Racism and diplomacy are mutually exclusive concepts.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

When life becomes unbearable, our need for illusions becomes overwhelming.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Tuesday, July 19, 2016
*******************************
NOTES / COMMENTS
********************************
Trump’s wife, when asked if he listens to her:
“Sometimes he does, sometimes he don’t.”
*
One nation under God; two under the Devil.
*
I once met an Armenian writer
(I forget his name)
who made a comfortable living
as the secretary of a bishop.
He wrote fiction.
*
There is money in Armenian literature
provided you are willing to submit
your intelligence to someone
who may not have enough of it himself.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

One of the functions of lawyers is to defend the lawless.

[arabaliozian]

Re: crackpots

Nations and empires die as surely as individuals.
Scientists tell us the same fate awaits
not only the planet on which we live
but also the universe itself.
I doubt if I or anyone else
can postpone the inevitable final catastrophe
by even a fraction of a second.
Perhaps I write the way I write
not to save anything or anyone or, for that matter, myself,
but to kill time.
#