Saturday, January 07, 2006
QUOTES OF 2005 - NOVEMBER
* “Even 30 years ago, the sight of Oakes at full gallop was spectacular enough to alert other journalists to the fact that something was up.”—The Bulletin’s Laurie Oakes, a man of heft, recalls Whitlam’s dismissal
* “If I was an idiot, it was for believing in a free press that is able to do its job without fear or favor.”—ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes, who is an idiot for many other reasons
* “My lawyer says I’ll own the guys house when we’re done with him.”—former Greens candidate Thom Lyons on his doomed battle with blogger Tex
* “Viva Israel! Viva freedom!”—15,000 people at a pro-Israel rally in Rome following Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s declaration that Israel “should be wiped off the map”
* “They never responded.”—Timothy Lickness, uncle of Cpl. Jeffrey Starr, whose letter predicting his own death in Iraq had been selectively edited by the New York Times; Lickness’s subsequent letter to the NYT didn’t even earn a reply
* “The Government probably wasn’t prepared enough, didn’t know what to do, still probably finds it very difficult to deal with this situation and firstly and most importantly it took a few days before they realised that they really had a major crisis on their hands.”—a typical editorial slamming Bush in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. No, wait; it’s Pierre Rousselin, editor of Le Figaro, following France’s car-b-que
* “We don’t have the American dream here. We don’t even have the French dream here.”—Rezzoug, a “youth”, interviewed on the tenth day of car-baking
* “France is declaring a curfew. I guess after 12 days, Chirac finally finished the French edition of ‘My Pet Goat.’”—commenter Room 237
* “The Paris riots are actually a splendid demonstration of the successful integration of immigrants into French culture.”—leftist Gwynne Dyer, who apparently struggles with the definitions of “successful” and “integration”
* “It’s what I’m good at. I like making a difference.”—ex-CBS producer Mary Mapes wishes to return to journalism
* “I suppose it’s not beyond the possibility that [John Howard] would say to the state police commission, ‘Well, you know, is there not a raid that could be taking place at this time to justify it?”’—Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison following terrorism raids that arrested 15 in Melbourne and Sydney
* “most seriusly of all”—spelling error by John Valder in a Webdiary post. Alerted to the mistake, Webdiary—which spent $45,000 in three months on, among other things, editing services—changed it to “most seriuosly of all”
* “Fire and blood in France—at least that’s what some foreign media claim is going on. Paris is burning, civil war, war zone, race riots—the headlines, especially on TV, often have no nuance.”—Le Parisien complains about arrogant foreign coverage of domestic events
* “Boys, you should have learnt your lessons, if not, you’re not welcome back. Go back to your Taliban minders. With that said, I demand a full apology from you to the Bahraini people for dragging our name in the mud.”—Bahraini blogger Mahmood on the return of three former Guantanamo detainees
* “If you like, try them for two weeks for free. It’s worth it.”—Tim Dunlop identifies crikey.com.au’s correct market value
* “I saw your post about the proposed celebration at the Bellevue on Friday and your attendance along with that of some other wingnuts. Well I thought in the interests of community spirit that I’d pass along the details to some mates who used to be, amongst other things, BLF members. They were very interested in it and intend on bringing a group to join in the festivities on Friday. They mentioned something about what those blokes did to the channel 7 cameraman is gonna look like a massage when their done.”— commenter T-SAW promises violence. None of his girly friends turned up
* “If you are somebody who wants to live in an Islamic state governed by sharia law you are not going to be happy in Australia, because Australia is not an Islamic state, will never be an Islamic state and will never be governed by sharia law.”—Australian treasurer Peter Costello
* “Dear Dr. Costello, thanks, thanks, thanks of heart. It has illuminated me the day.”—an AltaVista translation of Italian blogger Il Lupo di Gubbio
* “On Web sites such as Powerline, INDC Journal, Allahpundit, and Spacetownusa, the bravehearts of the blogging world worked anonymously.”—Mary Mapes, still getting it wrong
* “Emissions by the United States have actually declined over the last two years.”—Guardian environment correspondent David Adam reveals the shocking truth
* “Yes, I agree with them, yes.”—Muslim cleric Sheikh Mohammed Omran agrees with the Australian government that the war on Iraq does not motivate terrorism
* “I don’t waste my time with blogs, I don’t use the Internet, and I don’t use e-mail. I work.”—Robert Fisk
* “We don’t want them here. Not all Muslims are terrorists, we know that. But beating up television crews ... that’s just un-Australian.”—a Woolworths employee on co-workers who’d been filmed bashing camera crews outside a Melbourne court hearing terrorism charges
* “John Howard is the enemy of my culture, and of every other besides.”—Webdiary chucklehead Hamish Alcorn
* “The great Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is, yet again, humiliating George Bush by showing him how a national leader should act.”—the Sydney Morning Herald’s Andrew West
* “One of my Gold Star Moms had her son commit suicide two years ago as George was smirkingly serving the plastic turkey.”—Mother Sheehan, doofus icon