notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

HOW TO SOLVE OUR PROBLEMS
**************************************
Tribal divisions are not a verdict without appeal.
All we need is a Mandela.
If Africans can do it, why can’t we?
To those who say,”
Why don’t you apply for the job?”
I say: I am a failure as a writer.
I would be a disaster as a political leader.
My job consists in telling it like it is.
Mandela?
Hell, we couldn’t even come up with an Ataturk.
#
IN PRAISE OF OLD AGE
***********************************
I have been young
and I have been old
and old is better.
*
If you are young and you assume to be right,
you will be closer to the truth
if you assume to be not just wrong
but dead wrong; so wrong, in fact,
that you may have to spend the rest of your life
suffering the consequences of your blunder.
*
One advantage of old age is that
you exercise more freedom
in your choice of misery.
*
I write for dupes and idiots like myself
when young.
#
EXPLANATIONS
***********************************
If you have trouble understanding why
successive American administrations
have refused to recognize the reality of the Genocide
here are some easily accessible explanations:
Even when dead wrong, might is right.
(Please note, I don’t make rules;
I only state them as I see them.)
Empires speaks a language
tribal people don’t understand.
Taking care of #1 is their #1 concern.
Regimes don’t have principles, only interests.
If you refuse to see the light
it may be because you prefer to live in darkness
(isn’t that what we did for 600 years?)
Ignorance is a heavy burden.
Lincoln was wrong.
You can fool all the people all the time.
Consider the long history of organized religions
According to Toynbee
(who quotes the Bible on almost every page he writes)
our demands were unreasonable.
It follows; the Turks did what they did
because they had no other choice.
To those who dismiss my short list
of explanations as bullxxxx,
allow me to quote another familiar proverb:
“Life is a xxxx sandwich.
The more bread you have
the less xxxx you eat.”
#
NOISE
****************************
The Chinese pictograph for noise
is three women under the same roof –
or so I remember to have read somewhere.
The same word in an imaginary Armenian pictograph:
two men.
*
Homo sapiens? Hell, no!
Homo capable of being sapiens? Maybe.
*
Compared to nothingness
(before we were born and after we die)
being is an ephemeral dot so tiny
that it might as well be invisible to the naked eye.
One is almost tempted to say
the reason we exist is to experience
our own insignificance or nothingness.
*
When two selfish individuals meet,
they learn the importance of altruism.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

THE DEFENSE
************************
The Turkish line of defense is simplicity itself:
“We did to the Armenians what you did to your Indians.”
*
The only people who refuse to acknowledge
the finality of this statement are our fund-raisers and
Hai Tahd (Armenian Case) tax collectors.
*
If the Greeks in their Golden Age ...
found Socrates guilty of a capital offense
and executed him,
how dare we hope we can get justice
from a jury of convicted liars and cut-throats?
#
ON STATESMANSHIP
****************************************
You say he was a great statesman?
Tell me, how many of our problems did he solve?
A statesman is first and foremost a man of action:
he formulates and implements policies
which he can do only after developing a consensus.
*
You say Armenians are ungovernable?
In that case a statesman’s function is
to make the ungovernable governable.
If he cannot do what must be done,
he is a failure or, at best, a man not of action
but of contemplation.
He is more like Naregatsi
and less like Gandhi, Churchill, and Mandela.
*
“He was a man of vision, a great patriot,
sincere in his commitments to ideals?”
So were Hitler, Mussolini, and Mustapha Kemal Ataturk.
#
A STORY WITH A HAPPY ENDING
*******************************************
When asked to name his favorite role model,
one of our intellectuals
(let’s call him Comrade Panchoonie)
named one of our benefactors
(let’s call him Jack S. Avanakian)
and was amply rewarded.
*
SHAHAN SHAHNOUR SPEAKS
****************************************
"A French xxxxx is a xxxxx.
A German xxxxx is a xxxxx.
A Greek xxxxx is a xxxxx.
But a xxxxx who writes is an intellectual."
*
QUESTION
***********************
To the anonymous critic
who reads and curses everything I write:
“Are you the one I once called an inbred moron?”
*
JUST A GUESS
**************************
I wouldn’t be surprised if they said:
“Let’s do to our Armenians
what the Americans did to their Indians.”
But I would be surprised
if one of our revolutionaries said:
“What if they do to us
what the Americans did to their Indians?”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Today at 7:13 AM
IT TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE
*************************************
Some of my critics take pleasure in the knowledge
that I am a failure and a loser.
To them I say, that may well be why
I understand the nation.
*
FANS
***************
It is true that our leaders have their share of admirers.
But then so did Nero, Genghis Khan, Hitler, Stalin,
Nixon, and Reagan.
*
LAWYERS AND POLITICIANS
****************************************
Can you finish the following sentence?
“If the world is in deep xxxx today it’s because…”
*
Q
*********
Is it possible that I am the only one
who thinks the world would have been a better place
without Elvis and the Beatles?
*
Q/A
************
What will happen next?
That which you least expect it.
#
RAFFI'S WARNING AND
CHARENTS'S MESSAGE
*************************
To prove to a visiting Venetian painter
what the neck of a beheaded man really looks like,
Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent,
also known as the Lawgiver,
had a prisoner brought before him
and beheaded.
It is said that the Venetian painter
(one of the Bellini brothers)
was so shocked by the bloody spectacle
that he left that same night under cover of darkness.
That is the difference between that Venetian painter and us.
The Venetian left.
We stayed
We stayed even after Raffi warned us
the Ottoman Empire was no place for us
because Turks had no respect for human life.
We ignored Raffi's warning in the 19th century
as we ignore today Charents's final message
concerning our “salvation.”
By “we” I mean less the people
and more the leaders who speechify during the day
about survival and turn into gravediggers
under cover of darkness at night.
#
We are few.
We are weak.
We are vulnerable.
Therefore, we are divided.
Which is like saying:
“I think.
Therefore I am not.”
#
DISAPPOINTMENTS
************************************
What is life if not
an endless series of disappointments?
A monster of human frailties,
my ambition was to achieve perfection.
I wanted to be the wealthiest man on earth
but never made more than minimum wage
with many intervals of unemployment.
As a writer I have failed again and again
to convince my readers that
the smartest man in business
may be an idiot in politics;
in the same way that
the loveliest woman in the world
worshipped from a distance
may be no better than a living corpse –
all because man is not yet equipped
to tell the difference between love and lust.
You want to know more about the human condition?
Take a good look at yourself in the mirror.
#
ON UNDERSTANDING
**********************************
You want to develop your understanding?
Teach yourself to view things through alien eyes
including your worst enemy.
*
Don’t speak of your problems to a friend
unless of course you want to make him happy.
I remember once, many years ago,
when I mentioned a problem to a co-worker
– a cute little blonde – she cut me off
with the words: “I’ve got problems of my own.”
*
Wisdom can be found in the most unlikely places.
*
When I speak of a nation
I mean of course its leaders and their dupes.
The average law-abiding citizen
may not be as smart as his political leaders,
but he will be more honest.
*
Socrates is right: one can guess
how honest a man by his income.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

BAH-HUMBUG
*********************************
Where would the 1% be
without the full cooperation, dedication, and hard work
of the 99%?
*
To be a good Armenian it is not necessary
to be a bad human being with a closed mind.
*
Crooks have their uses:
they make us appreciate the importance of honesty.
*
Being smart also means not repeating idiotlc blunders
like dividing the community
and abusing children by brainwashing them
to brag about our genius for survival.
#
MEMO TO A WRITER
*******************************
If you say the opposite
of what your average reader wants to hear
you can’t go wrong.
*
ON POPULARITY
***********************
Popularity is an American aberration
and best-sellers the surest symptoms of mediocrity.
*
A CRITIC SPEAKS
***************************
“You have been writing for thirty years now
and you have changed nothing,”
a reader writes implying
either shut up or change your tune.
Change begins in the heart
and what happens there doesn’t make headlines,
neither does it penetrate the hick skulls
of those in a position to change things,
especially if the status quo has been good to them.
*
WHY ENGLISH?
*******************************
I write in English because 99% of what I write
would be considered unprintable by our 1%.
#
My greatest liability:
I never mastered the art
of flattering the powerful and the rich --
i.e. the scum of the earth.
#
Was Santa good to you?
*
Both capitalism and communism
have been good to their 1%.
What does that tell you
about ideologies and belief systems?
*
My own answer:
They introduce meaningless divisions
even when they know the result may be
the slaughter of countless innocent victims;
even when they have been warned
“a house divided against itself cannot stand.”
#
TO MY CRITICS
******************************
Gentle reader:
Unlike you, I don’t pretend to speak the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Think of me only as the voice of another school of thought.
*
Knowledge and understanding are not your enemies.
There is no need for you to defend yourself against them.
*
To think that you can speak the truth
and be popular is an American fallacy.
*
So many first-class literary works
have been rejected by publishers
or ignored by the public that
one is tempted to define writing
as composing music for the deaf.
#
A HISTORY OF DECEPTION
***********************************
Turks have been successful in convincing the Yanks
(a) we are their Red Indians, and
(b) whenever we don’t get our way
we engage in acts of terrorists;
which is what happened in the Ottoman Empire
at the turn of the last century and more recently
all over the world including America.
*
DUPES
****************
We are born dupes.
First we believe in the friendly disposition
of the Young Turks and now
we believe our own leaders
when they tell us with our financial support
they will have the Genocide recognized by the Yanks.
*
DUPES (II)
******************
Where would tyrants be
without cowardly dupes?
*
Q
*******************
“Melonsmellonous osculations.”
Can you guess what’s being said
and the identity of the author?
#
LESSONS
*****************
If history teaches us anything it is this:
we can be wrong;
we can be wrong even when we are right;
we can be dead wrong even when
God and the Great Powers are on our side.
*
The #1 concern of our 1% is not to solve our problems
but to defend and protect their powers and privileges,
which means Plan B only for themselves.
*
My ideal reader is one who hates to read;
which means he has been at the mercy
of speechifiers and sermonizers and is thus
virgin territory easily impregnated with new ideas.
*
When I was young, unemployed and unemployable,
two senior members of the Party came to see me.
Someone had told them I love books and reading.
“We are willing to subsidize your university education,”
they said, “provided you agree to work for us.”
Meaning: We have no use for your garbage;
we have our own.
Which may explain my present status
as an abominable no man.
Mart bidi ch’ellank!
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

ON WEALTH
******************************
Someone like Obama could never be as wealthy
as someone like Romney because, according to Plato,
an honest man will employ only honest means
and a dishonest man will employ honest
as well as dishonest means to amass his fortune.
I am not saying Plato speaks the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but.
All I am doing is paraphrasing an opinion
and an opinion is not a dead end
but only a tentative beginning.
*
ON MORMONISM
*******************************
Shaw says somewhere
all professions are conspiracies against the laity.
Likewise, all religions may be said to be
conspiracies against all other religions.
The same applies to ideologies
and closed systems of thought.
*
MORE ON OBAMA
****************************
He made many mistakes?
Maybe. But had he done the opposite of what he did,
he would have been impeached.
Who wants a pope in the White House?
#
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
****************************************
If you speak the truth you will be contradicted not only by liars but also by dupes and idiots.
*
I don’t understand everything. Only god does; and if god wanted me to understand everything he would have created not men but gods.
*
For every truth there is a lie and sometimes a thousand of them.
*
A man who is his own worst enemy cannot be anyone’s friend.
*
The closer I get to the final answer the more certain I feel of my final failure.
*
Two mosquitoes may achieve more than one; a thousand of them may inflict serious damage.
#
Wednesday, January 01, 2014
**************************************
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!
****************************
...to one and all!
*
ON LEADERSHIP
**************************
Political leaders hate to admit error. Hence the existence of hirelings – meant to say, nationalist historians – and the importance of patriotism which is easily confused with loyalty to the leadership even when the leaders happen to be swine.
*
ON COMFORT & JOY
******************************
When told I am a comfort to our enemies, I say, we are a greater comfort when we divide ourselves.
*
ON HUMAN NATURE
**************************
No matter what you say, you will get on someone’s nerves. Consider what happened to Socrates and Jesus. You say that was then and this is now? I say: technology may change but human nature stays the same. There are as many violations of human rights today as there were in the 5th century BC and 1st century AD.
#
INTOLERANCE
************************
Intolerance makes men stupid. You can guess a man’s IQ fairly accurately by the manner in which he welcomes new ideas.
*
At least once every day we should remind ourselves of the vastness of the universe and our own insignificance in it.
*
Inaction can create as many problems as wrong action.
*
Some of the greatest men in the history of mankind were persecuted, even executed, for daring to challenge the authority of the 1%. What does that tell you about the IQ of mankind?
#
ON POPULAR MUSIC
************************************
Popular music is incapable of achieving greatness.
*
There is something fundamentally wrong in a culture whose musical standards are set by teenagers and the CEOs of the recording industry.
*
I am reminded of the king who, after visiting America, said he was impressed by the manner in which parents obeyed their children.
*
One of the things that I love about America is the readiness with which they acknowledge their “ugly” specimens. There is even a best-selling book titled THE UGLY AMERICAN and a movie based on it with Marlon Brando in the title role.
#
NOTES & COMMENTS
************************************
As a child I don’t remember an adult saying “I don’t know.” What they said was “You’ll find out when you grow up.”
*
I don’t write for readers; I write against them beginning with myself.
*
As a failure I am free; as a success I may be a slave to my success. Isn’t that what happened to Arlen and Saroyan?
*
When we divide ourselves the message we send to our enemies is: “No need to kill us; we are committing suicide.”
*
Armenians may be said to have a Turkish problem. I am that rarest of all Armenians: an Armenian with Armenian problems.
*
In a disagreement, you cannot defeat your adversary by insulting him; you can only expose your own limitations and inability to entertain new ideas.
#
ON WRITING
****************************
The best opening line is the one you delete, according to Chekhov who probably wrote more opening lines than any other writer.
*
I remember to have read somewhere, as soon as you write a brilliant line, delete it. As far as I know, Simenon, one of the most successful and prolific writers of all time, never wrote a single brilliant line in his life.
*
Q
**********
Who benefits from wars, volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis? Surely, not God. Who then? Is Mother Nature in cahoots with the Devil? What else?
*
ON PROFIT
*****************
If you are in the business of making money, your greatest assets are the ignorance and stupidity of the masses. Something similar could be said of politics.
*
PARTY DISCIPLINE
***************************
It has happened to the best of my childhood friends. On their own they were more like wolves; but after joining a political party, they turned into sheep. Were they emasculated by party discipline?
#


[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, January 12, 2014
***************************************
THOMAS MANN SPEAKS
**************************************
Where there is too much talk of love, there will be very little love.
Who will dare to disagree with Thomas Mann (who probably wrote more about music than any other major modern writer) when he said:
“The past half century has witnessed a regression of humanity, a chilling atrophy of culture, a frightening decrease in civility, decency, sense of justice, loyalty, and faith, and of the most elementary trustworthiness.”
#
ON MARRIAGE
**********************
Even if you marry the most beautiful woman in the world,
sooner or later she will stink of garlic.
Richard Burton on Elizabeth Taylor in his recently published diary:
“She stinks of garlic – who has garlic for breakfast?”
He probably stank of booze morning, noon, and night.
#
AS I SEE IT
***********************
There is no such thing as a lovable nation.
For every American who loves Armenians
there will be at least two or more who love Turks.
*
I was the most disappointed man on earth
when I met my first Turk.
He was short, skinny, and timid.
No fez. No yataghan. No shalvars. No bloodshot eyes.
*
When a face in the crowd smiles and says hello,
the chances are it’s to the fellow behind you.
*
Books changed my worldview
but music changed my life.
I became a church organist.
*
Where the art of advertisement is developed,
the brain will be underdeveloped.
*
There is an Armenian Christian heresy that believes
the world was created not by God but the Devil.
The evidence is overwhelming.
*
A generation of dupes will be followed by another.
#
FAMILIAR QUOTATIONS
**********************************
“Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!”
“I could have been a contender.”
Can you identify the following two? “Gee, I wish we had one of those doomsday machines!” and “The cat is in the bag and the bag is in the river.”
#
ON COWARDICE
*****************************
If you speak in the name of patriotism, do so only in time of peace.
Attack only individuals who are in no position to defend themselves.
Attack anonymously and from a safe distance.
*
ON BEING AN ARMENIAN WRITER
***************************************
As a failure you will be despised. As a success you will be hated unto death.
*
TWINS
******************
To be corrupt and incompetent are Siamese.
*
MEN AND WOMEN
****************************
On their own they can be good; it’s when they get together that the excrement hits the ventilator.
*
YOU WANT TO BE POPULAR?
**************************************
Recycle a fashionable propaganda line – like Bolshevik xxxx under Stalin and Nazi crap under Hitler…
*
POLITICS
*********************
To be in politics means to expose the double-talk of the opposition and to cover your own triple-talk.
#
CONSPIRACY
****************************
Ever since I was born as an Armenian,
there has been a carefully orchestrated conspiracy
to convince me that being an Armenian
is a rare privilege and I should consider myself
the luckiest of men.
The question that I cannot answer to this day is:
Are members of this conspiracy
our saviors or our grave-diggers?
*
If “a man is another man’s wolf,”
is not an Armenian another Armenian’s Turk?”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, January 26, 2014
**************************************
THE BLAME GAME…
AMONG OTHER THINGS.
*****************************************
If you master the rules of the blame-game
you can easily represent yourself as a statesman of vision
and the opposition as a cesspool
of corruption, incompetence and stupidity.
*
When in doubt
I always do that which is against my own interests.
*
Whatever I have done,
I have done out of necessity and under duress.
The choice was thrust on me
the way subservience is thrust on the 99%.
*
Bishops, imams, rabbis:
they share a common wish to be trusted and respected,
but they neither trust nor respect one another.
*
If a single man can be wrong,
so can two or two thousand or two million,
especially when they speak of
the Incomprehensible and the Unknowable.
*
The Scriptures tell us to turn the other cheek
not to drop our pants...
*
We are midgets perched on the shoulders
of lesser midgets.
*
We are told there are two kinds of statistics,
lies and damn lies.
What about belief systems?
#
ALPHA MALES
****************************
Bosses, bishops, benefactors:
alpha males whose #1 concern is #1.
The rest is propaganda.
*
PATRIOTISM
*****************************
There are Armenians – and I know some of them myself –
who view intolerance, ignorance, and stupidity
as authentic expressions of their patriotism
and moral superiority.
*
DIALOGUE
*******************
In dialogue there are no losers
because both sides learn from each other.
Which may explain why dialogue
happens to be quintessentially un-Armenian.
*
WRITING
*********************
I write.
It’s an inexpensive hobby – the cheapest I know.
It costs me nothing.
#
ON WHAT WE KNOW
*************************************
Nobody knows everything about anything.
Some of the worst blunders in the history of mankind
were committed by very smart men
(self-assessed, of course) who thought
they knew all there is to know about the enemy.
*
We know now that even Wall Street
doesn’t know everything about Wall Street.
*
The 99% hate the 1% -- their secret role models.
*
The 1% are at their best
when it comes to deceiving and exploiting the 99%.
*
We like to pretend we know more about ourselves
than anyone else until we are cornered, assaulted and defeated
by our own irrational impulses.
*
Once upon a time we were ruled by kings.
We are now ruled by moneyed morons
with the charisma of apes.
*
There are always two schools of thought
and we tend to favor the school
that is more favorable to our vanity.
*
We say “xxxx happens”
even when we micro-managed the catastrophe.
#
AS I SEE IT
******************************
Leaders: Blind men who pretend to have 20/20 vision.
*
There are two kinds of failures:
(a) those who make less than minimum wage
(Armenian writers come readily to mind) and
(b) those who make a million a day (guess who).
*
In the eyes of the 99% the 1% might as well be Turks.
*
Speaking of Turks:
We know what they did to us.
My question is: What did we do to them?
If something, what?
If nothing, why not?
*
You tell me I simplify complexities?
Am I then the only one?
*
More on the 1%:
Two reasons they are free men:
(a) They can afford a dream team, and
(b) they know the judge.
*
A headline in my morning paper:
“Neanderthal genes found in modern humans.”
So what else is new?
#
PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS
***********************************************
Justice is on the side of the more competent lawyers
in the same way that victory is one the side of bigger battalions.
*
Turks don’t need a dream team.
They have Yanks on their side.
*
My philosophy of writing?
To be readable.
*
I don’t write to make you feel good.
What I do is hold up a mirror
and make you wish you were dead.
*
Some problems don’t get solved
because we don’t have a clear awareness of their existence.
*
There are truths which we take for granted
until we consider their contradiction.
*
The 1% are dead men who will do anything
to keep their money beginning with staying alive.
*
Progress is possible in all branches of human endeavor
except religion.
*
A single pope can brainwash millions of Catholics
but not a single imam.
#
A WORTHY AMBITION
********************************
The secret ambition of every Muslim terrorist
is to defeat America and to acquire a harem
of Hollywood starlets.
*
THE TYRANNY OF RELATIVITY
***************************************
Virtues like self-reliance, initiative, originality and perseverance
in the wrong hands become dangerous vices.
*
85% VERSUS 86%
******************************
We are told 85% of TV commercials are misleading
and the law can’t put a stop to that
because law-makers (i.e. politicians)
mislead the people 86% of the time.
*
WHAT THEY SHARE
*****************************
Defeats are planned as carefully as victories.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

Sunday, January 26, 2014



**************************************



THE BLAME GAME…



AMONG OTHER THINGS.



*****************************************



If you master the rules of the blame-game



you can easily represent yourself as a statesman of vision



and the opposition as a cesspool



of corruption, incompetence and stupidity.



*



When in doubt



I always do that which is against my own interests.



*



Whatever I have done,



I have done out of necessity and under duress.



The choice was thrust on me



the way subservience is thrust on the 99%.



*



Bishops, imams, rabbis:



they share a common wish to be trusted and respected,



but they neither trust nor respect one another.



*



If a single man can be wrong,



so can two or two thousand or two million,



especially when they speak of



the Incomprehensible and the Unknowable.



*



The Scriptures tell us to turn the other cheek



not to drop our pants...



*



We are midgets perched on the shoulders



of lesser midgets.



*



We are told there are two kinds of statistics,



lies and damn lies.



What about belief systems?



#



ALPHA MALES
****************************
Bosses, bishops, benefactors:
alpha males whose #1 concern is #1.
The rest is propaganda.
*
PATRIOTISM
*****************************
There are Armenians – and I know some of them myself –
who view intolerance, ignorance, and stupidity
as authentic expressions of their patriotism
and moral superiority.
*
DIALOGUE
*******************
In dialogue there are no losers
because both sides learn from each other.
Which may explain why dialogue
happens to be quintessentially un-Armenian.
*
WRITING
*********************
I write.
It’s an inexpensive hobby – the cheapest I know.
It costs me nothing.
#



ON WHAT WE KNOW
*************************************
Nobody knows everything about anything.
Some of the worst blunders in the history of mankind
were committed by very smart men
(self-assessed, of course) who thought
they knew all there is to know about the enemy.
*
We know now that even Wall Street
doesn’t know everything about Wall Street.
*
The 99% hate the 1% -- their secret role models.
*
The 1% are at their best
when it comes to deceiving and exploiting the 99%.
*
We like to pretend we know more about ourselves
than anyone else until we are cornered, assaulted and defeated
by our own irrational impulses.
*
Once upon a time we were ruled by kings.
We are now ruled by moneyed morons
with the charisma of apes.
*
There are always two schools of thought
and we tend to favor the school
that is more favorable to our vanity.
*
We say “xxxx happens”
even when we micro-managed the catastrophe.
#



AS I SEE IT



******************************



Leaders: Blind men who pretend to have 20/20 vision.



*



There are two kinds of failures:



(a) those who make less than minimum wage



(Armenian writers come readily to mind) and



(b) those who make a million a day (guess who).



*



In the eyes of the 99% the 1% might as well be Turks.



*



Speaking of Turks:



We know what they did to us.



My question is: What did we do to them?



If something, what?



If nothing, why not?



*



You tell me I simplify complexities?



Am I then the only one?



*



More on the 1%:



Two reasons they are free men:



(a) They can afford a dream team, and



(b) they know the judge.



*



A headline in my morning paper:



“Neanderthal genes found in modern humans.”



So what else is new?



#



PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATIONS



***********************************************



Justice is on the side of the more competent lawyers



in the same way that victory is one the side of bigger battalions.



*



Turks don’t need a dream team.



They have Yanks on their side.



*



My philosophy of writing?



To be readable.



*



I don’t write to make you feel good.



What I do is hold up a mirror



and make you wish you were dead.



*



Some problems don’t get solved



because we don’t have a clear awareness of their existence.



*



There are truths which we take for granted



until we consider their contradiction.



*



The 1% are dead men who will do anything



to keep their money beginning with staying alive.



*



Progress is possible in all branches of human endeavor



except religion.



*



A single pope can brainwash millions of Catholics



but not a single imam.



#



A WORTHY AMBITION



********************************



The secret ambition of every Muslim terrorist



is to defeat America and to acquire a harem



of Hollywood starlets.



*



THE TYRANNY OF RELATIVITY



***************************************



Virtues like self-reliance, initiative, originality and perseverance



in the wrong hands become dangerous vices.



*



85% VERSUS 86%



******************************



We are told 85% of TV commercials are misleading



and the law can’t put a stop to that



because law-makers (i.e. politicians)



mislead the people 86% of the time.



*



WHAT THEY SHARE



*****************************



Defeats are planned as carefully as victories.



#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

AS I SEE IT
**************************
Tell a fool to stop behaving like one
and he will say: “I don’t need critics;
I need solutions.”
*
When it comes to solving problems
we have a tendency to export our best men
and to keep the worst.
*
Either our critics have been systematically silenced
or they have given up explaining things
to readers who refuse to understand.
*
After centuries of practice
our speechifiers and sermonizers
have mastered the art of deception
to such a degree that you feel justified
in suspecting they believe in their own lies.
*
You cannot contradict a man
who speaks in the name of God.
*
On wars: the rich pay for them
and the poor die in them.
#

[lampron]

Re: elegy

Either our critics have been systematically silenced
or they have given up explaining things
to readers who refuse to understand.
*
After centuries of practice
our speechifiers and sermonizers
have mastered the art of deception
to such a degree that you feel justified
in suspecting they believe in their own lies.
*
#

Part deception, part self-deception!