This Week In Quotes: Feb 26 – Mar 4

by John Hawkins | March 5, 2010 12:56 am

Most people would say the success of Jersey Shore is a clear signal that the human race should just pack it in and hand the planet over to the dolphins, but for Nicole “Snooki” Palazzi it’s all good news… — Agent Bedhead[1]

If none of the advice given by ACORN on those videotapes constitutes conspiracy or aiding or abetting a crime, see this column next week for my opus: “10 Detailed Plans to Kill George Soros and Why This Might Be Right for You.” — Ann Coulter[2]

(Hillary) Clinton has demonstrated, not the first time, strikingly poor judgment as Secretary of State. While currying favour with a third rate kleptocracy in Latin America, she is alienating America’s most loyal and valuable friend at a critically important time. She also underestimates the resolve of the British people, who will never negotiate the future of the Falkland Islands. If the Argentines want the Falklands they will have to fight for them, and if they choose to do so they will be emphatically defeated, just as they were in 1982. Hillary Clinton can cry for Argentina if she wants to, but the Falklands will be forever British. — Nile Gardiner[3]

Still, as I noted last week in a column, China envy is really just a form of power worship. Indeed, the very idea that China is well-governed is both evil and stupid. The evilness should be obvious. It’s the stupidity that too many people get away with. China has massive corruption problems. It has no transparency. Building codes, food-safety regulations, environmental standards, and countless other hallmarks of good governance are severely diminished (never mind the fact that in American parlance good governance has something to do with democracy, free speech, and the rule of law). Just last week, we learned that Apple’s Chinese contractors were using child labor. Huzzah for Chinese good governance! — Jonah Goldberg[4]

They [House] gotta pass the bill that’s written by the Senate word-for-word. The President signs it. Everybody says, ‘Yay!’ And House democrats have to assume that their democratic colleagues in the Senate through reconciliation are going to change the bill after it’s a law and they didn’t agree with the first bill to begin with. Who’s the dumbest guy in town: the Senator who rejected the House bill to begin with who votes to change it back to the way they didn’t like or the House guy who votes to send it to the Senate hoping the Senate will change it? — Lindsey Graham[5]

“You have personalities who have bet the farm, bet their reputations, on shoving a health care bill through the Congress. It’s no longer about health care reform. It’s all about ego now. The president’s ego. Nancy Pelosi’s ego. This is about personalities, saving face, and it has very little to do with what’s good for the American people.” — Former Democratic Congressman turned Republican, Parker Griffith[6]

An idealistic America may now decide that it does not want or need special allies like Britain. But that diffidence will eventually mean we have more enemies than ever – as the watching world makes the necessary adjustments and joins those who unabashedly promise them support and protection. — Victor Davis Hanson[7]

And don’t imagine that we do not coldly calculate the price of a human life. In 1974, the speed limit was lowered to 55 mph to conserve oil. That also led to a dramatic drop in traffic fatalities — approximately 3,000 lives every year. This didn’t stop us, after the oil crisis, from raising the speed limit back to 65 and beyond — knowing that thousands of Americans would die as a result.

The calculation was never explicit but it was nevertheless real. We were quite prepared to trade away a finite number of human lives for speed, and for the efficiency and convenience that come with it. — Charles Krauthammer[8]

We don’t want the budget gimmickry (on health care) that gives you six years of benefits for 10 years in taxes. I mean, that’s crazy. That’s Bernie Madoff accounting. — John McCain[9]

Here’s the sad truth: For all the shining they did at last week’s White House “summit” on health care, when it gets down to actually putting the brakes on the Big Gummint Express, most of today’s Republicans are AWOL. They’re great at the debate society. But making the fight on something concrete, really saying no when it means grinding redistribution to a halt, means taking the slings and arrows. No thanks, they say… — Andrew McCarthy[10]

These Democrats are a bunch of wusses. They don’t have the courage of their convictions. They won’t stand and fight. It’s embarrassing, it’s disgusting and I won’t have it anymore. I’m sick of them. — Michael Moore[11]

Bipartisanship is a two-way street. A bill can be bipartisan without bipartisan votes. Republicans have left their imprint. — Nancy Pelosi[12]

The president was in his favorite role, the long-winded professor trying hard to be patient with half-bright students who hadn’t done their homework. Like most liberals, he suffers from a severe occupational hazard. Anyone who disagrees with him must be dumb, unlettered and redneck crazy. If Lamar Alexander, John McCain and Eric Cantor had only gone to the right Ivy League university they could understand the prescription for what’s good for them. It’s a fatal mindset that afflicts the cult. — Wesley Pruden[13]

Our PRIVATE SECTOR is the superpower. Our public sector is the jockey that takes the credit. The problem is, our 100 lb jockey now weighs in at about 300 lb, and the horse is going to die of exhaustion if the jockey doesn’t go on a crash diet pretty soon. — RepublicanGopher[14]

Dick Cheney’s heart’s a political football. We ought to rip it out and kick it around and stuff it back in him. — Ed Schultz[15]

Think of Greece as California: Every year an irresponsible and corrupt bureaucracy awards itself higher pay and better benefits paid for by an ever-shrinking wealth-generating class. And think of Germany as one of the less profligate, still just about functioning corners of America such as my own state of New Hampshire: Responsibility doesn’t pay. You’ll wind up bailing out anyway. The problem is there are never enough of “the rich” to fund the entitlement state, because in the end, it disincentivizes everything from wealth creation to self-reliance to the basic survival instinct, as represented by the fertility rate. — Mark Steyn[16]