Month: October 2001
A minor clarification to prevent a homophonic error
“MR. BOUCHER: Where and how he was exposed is not known. He is currently hospitalized and is being treated. All of our mail handling employees have been placed on antibiotics, ciprofloxacin. QUESTION: All mail-handling employees? MR. BOUCHER: Female ones, too. All of our mail handling employees have been placed on antibiotics as of yesterday.”
This constant denigration of each other by Afghan leaders is not new
“I am not sure that the air campaign will work, at least as it is going on now. Before the attacks started, the Taliban’s people were very nervous, and their support in the population was very low. Everyone was afraid. But once the bombing started, people began to say, ‘Well, it’s not so bad. We…
So now we know. Pigs are horses. Girls are boys. War is Peace.
“People rarely win wars, governments rarely lose them. People get killed. Governments moult and regroup, hydra-headed. They first use flags to shrink-wrap peoples’ minds and suffocate real thought, and then as ceremonial shrouds to cloak the mangled corpses of the willing dead. On both sides, in Afghanistan as well as America, civilians are now hostage…
Urbanites didn’t really need to be told to wash their hands before eating
“The Afghans were very news hungry. They really trusted the BBC. After years of abuse of the media under various regimes, the BBC was seen as more trustworthy than the national service. Some thought it was the national service. They hadn’t a clue where it was located. People would often tell me they thought the…
If I’m not guilty, why are you keeping a record on me?
“We have gone from a nation of people whose motto was ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ to one where citizens don’t mind so much being trod upon as long as it doesn’t take much time
Terrorism did not arise in a vacuum but sprang from a soil of discontent
“Countering terrorism is a job for civilian security services, intelligence gathering, tackling money-laundering, freezing assets and policing borders. Throwing bombs at it is like trying to defeat the Mafia by attacking Sicily.”
What?, 20 yards. I’m guessing. I’m not a mensurator, as we say
“Disinformation is an ugly, difficult word, because no one likes to be fooled. And I know you don’t like to be fooled, in particular. And we, on our side, in looking at information don’t like to be fooled. But it’s something that is a weapon in the arsenal of our adversary, and it is used…
I am the lucky holder of a US passport, the golden document
“But I’m still not Palestinian enough to know that this is not normal, no one should have to get used to this and I need a break. Everyone needs a break. So a group of friends
What we (America) must do is kill 6,000 innocent people. Giuliani said that?
“The words of [Prince Al-Walid] did not, of course, please the Jewish lobby in the home of the largest Jewish community in the world. Because the governor [sic] of the Big Apple is a Jew, he refused [to accept the donation] and caused a storm.”
The lights dim. This is the biggest production value of the evening
“The waits continued, the show seemingly lasting forever. Most of the performers have to enroll their kids in the DC school system. Rod Stewart is now a naturalized U.S. citizen. Whomever you came with you’re now legally married to. DMV employees in the audience have gotten impatient and left. The stadium is totally out of…