Reagan's Famous (Ridiculous) Nine Words

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government, and I'm here to help.'" -- Ronald Reagan

Unless a hurricane just hit your state. Or a flood. Or tornadoes. Or an earthquake. Or. . .  St. Ronnie is a construct of right-wing revisionist history. This guy was not as popular as they claim he was. Does anyone remember the Ollie North/Iran Contra hearings? Reagan was affable, and telegenic for an old guy. But he probably could not be elected to dogcatcher in today's Republican Party.

Frivolity Break: Toto, I Don't Think We're in Kansas Anymore!

Who knew this line was used so much?

Most Overused Movie Line Ever? "You Look Like Sh*t!"

Actually I always thought it was "Let's get outta here" or a variation, but there you go. . .

Great Quotes by Famous People #2: Frank Zappa

Photo from Zappa.com

There was a lot more to this guy than Valley Girl. Found today on the Democratic Underground forums:

"The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way, and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theatre." --Frank Zappa

Great Quotes by Famous People #1: George Orwell

Photo of George Orwell ThirdWorldTraveller.com

Posting on the weekends is rough work, as I've mentioned before. And it isn't like I haven't tried. I've been in front of the computer for a couple of hours, and just haven't dug up anything interesting enough to share.

On a break, I started leafing through a book called True Lies, a book by Anthony Lappé and Ian Inaba from something called "The Guerrilla News Network." I am not familiar with GNN. But what drew me to the book was a forward by Greg Palast, and blurb from Fast Food Nation author Eric Schlosser. Palast and Schlosser would be at the top of the list of writers I admire.

Anyway, the point of this post (and I do have one), is a great quote at the beginning of the book:


". . .we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on the battlefield."--George Orwell, "In Front of Your Nose"

Reading this quote, I couldn't help but think that Karl Rove probably should have put down his dog-eared copy of Orwell's 1984, and picked up In Front of Your Nose. Manufacturing reality works for a while, but then reality smacks you in the face. Thankfully, many people are getting smacked, and finally are waking up.

This will hopefully be a new semi-regular feature here. I'll be on the lookout for other notable quotes. And I'll also be checking out Guerrilla News Network, and see what that's all about.