For election day

I miss how I felt at 18 where I had convinced myself of a clear view of the world. Now I have a clear view, but it is much much sadder and I don't feel it can change nor that it ever could. I don't know if the middle class is a myth, but people able to think on issues and have balanced beliefs seems to be fading towards mythical. Anyway, here are some of my favorite quotes from a really funny book I read earlier this year - in honor of "well I guess i'll vote for that guy?" day. (fyi, this guy still claims to be a conservative republican, so though these quotes are funny be warned not all his ideas are great or leaning on free thought, but he is better than most or at least understands the concept of picking which battles are worth fighting.)

Don’t Vote: It just encourages the bastards. 

P.J. O'Rourke

“I was brought up in Republican circumstances, firmly grounded in convention. I was swept out to Marxist sea by a flood of sex. I was trying to impress cute beatnik girls. Then, one day, I found myself beached on the shore of jobs and responsibilities and I was a Republican again.”

“We didn’t kill liberalism because that would have meant killing power. And we wanted the power for ourselves. Nor did we offer therapy to the public for its crippling liberalism. Successful treatment would have meant a public cured of its dependence on government. Which was now us.”

“Take just one example of our unconserved tendency to poke our noses into other peoples business: abortion. Democracy, be it howsoever conservative, is a manifestation of the will of the people. We may argue with the people as a man may argue with his wife, but in the end we submit to the fact of being married”

“If the citizenry insists that abortions remain legal – and, in a passive and conflicted way, the citizenry seems to be doing so – then give the issue a rest.”

“The law cannot be made identical with morality. Scan the list of the Ten Commandments and see how many could be enforced even by Rudy Giuliani. ‘Honor thy father and thy mother.’ My daughter Muffin would get the chair.”

“Anyway, a low tax rate is not – never mind the rhetoric of every conservative politician – a fundamental principle of conservatism. The principle is fiscal responsibility.”