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rascott.com news, views and an occasional blog
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email me at robert@rascott.com
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Quotations
The following quotes have been used on the summary page of this web site. "Having sex is like playing bridge. If you don't have a good partner, you'd better have a good hand."
Woody Allen "Don't knock masturbation - it's sex with someone you love" Woody Allen "The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion but rather by its superiority in applying organised violence. Westerners often forget this fact, non-Westerners never do" Samuel P Huntington "President Bush has said that he does not need approval from the UN to wage war, and I'm thinking, well, hell, he didn't need the approval of the American voters to become president, either." David Letterman Life is uncertain - eat dessert first ! Unknown The wave of the future is not the conquest of the world by a single dogmatic creed but the liberation of the diverse energies of free nations and free men. John F Kennedy One generation plants the trees; another gets the shade Chinese proverb Eighty percent of success is showing up. Woody Allen You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty. Mahatma Gandhi If the Wright brother were alive today Wilbur would have to fire Orville to reduce costs. Herb Kelleher, Southwest Airlines, 'USA Today,' 8 June 1994 I am what I am Popeye Edwina Currie in the Observer in 1988 The proposal contains lots of restrictions and traps. It gives Beijing the de facto power to ban Hong Kong organisations it dislikes. Apple Daily Generally speaking the consultation paper is acceptable. Only troublemakers would spread rumours about the legislation to implement Article 23. Oriental Daily News Attila the Hen Clement Freud on Margaret Thatcher As the biggest earthquake in 10 years hits the centre of England I thought it was the end of the world
and ran round the neighbour's in my pyjamas. I slept straight through it. Experience is that marvelous thing
that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. A man in a hot air
balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below.
He descended a bit more and shouted, "Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a
friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don't know where I am. " The woman
below replied, "You're in a hot air balloon hovering approximately 30 feet
above the ground. You're between 40 and 41 degrees north latitude and between
59 and 60 degrees west longitude." "You must be an engineer," said the
balloonist. "I am," replied the woman, "How did you know?" "Well," answered
the balloonist, "everything you told me is, technically correct, but I've no
idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I'm still lost.
Frankly, you've not been much help at all. If anything, you've delayed my
trip." The woman below responded, "You must be in Management." "I am," replied
the balloonist, "but how did you know?" (with thanks to our Bangalore correspondent)
I'm often asked why I ordered firefighters so far up
the building. But it was our duty to rescue survivors including those just
below the crash site, even though this meant my crew had to climb the stairs
because the elevators were knocked out. To add to our difficulties, the
building's sprinklers and the standpipes for our hoses were out of order, so
no water was getting on the fire. But the operation was a success in the
sense that we rescued almost all the office workers below the impact site.
Unfortunately my crew weren't so lucky. I was unaware of the towers' unique structural flaws and had no idea that it would collapse so quickly. I've talked to a lot of the families who lost firefighters and they accept that. But it's something I'll have to live with. When I gave the evacuation order at 9.25am I had reports of firefighters as high up as the 52nd floor. But the building's repeater system, which boosts the range of our handi-talkies, was knocked out and I got no reply from those up the tower. I later learned that many never heard the order. Just before the building collapsed, it went pitch black and we were pushed out of the lobby by the rush of air generated by the falling debris. The department chaplain, Rev Mychal Judge, who was giving last rites to a firefighter injured by a falling body, died in the lobby, swallowed up in the rubble. We carried him out, feeling our way in the darkness up to the mezzanine floor of a neighbouring building and then out on to the street. It was only then that we saw the south tower had completely collapsed. Joseph Callan, quoted in The Guardian on 11 September 2002 "See, the problem is that God gives men a brain and a penis, and only enough blood to run one at a time !" Robin Williams "That Afghan peasants have the same right to life as New Yorkers is unmentionable, a profanity. The murderous demolition of their villages, with not a Taliban or al-Qa'ida fighter in sight, is "unavoidable". In other words, certain human lives have greater worth than others and the killing of only one set of civilians is a crime. The terrorists of Osama bin Laden and George W Bush are sustained by this ancient lie."John Pilger The New Rulers of the World "It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination". Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide
to the Galaxy "I think that if politics is just about getting your backside on important seats, then it's a pretty worthless endeavor. I think that politics which is just about nudging things this way or that, which is just about process, which is just about trying to win another election, which is just about trying to get in office; I think that sort of politics isn't ever going to do very much to change the world. I think that politics is, above all, about ideas: trying to articulate the ideas that make the greatest sense and which have the greatest relevance to peoples' lives, and then getting out and fighting for them. I hate the way in which so much contemporary politics seems to be driven by seeking to go out and discover what people want and then finding ways in which you can accommodate that. I think that the great politicians and the people who change the world have an agenda and are able to mobilize consent for it. It is not to say that the process doesn't matter, but the process is less important than the outcome. So, what I say to people is that politics has got to be about principle and values above all. Of course, there are times when you have to make accommodations. It's painful and you run the charge of applying double standards and being cynical. But that is the part of politics which provides a bridge between the principle and reality. But do start off by having the principles and the values." Chris Patten Interview (1999): Conversations with History; Institute of International Studies, UC Berkeley 'To be really happy, we must throw our hearts over the bar and hope that our bodies will follow.' Graham Taylor, former Watford and England football manager; now managing Aston Villa. "One of the things Ford Prefect had
always found hardest to understand about humans was their habit of
continuously stating and repeating the very very obvious, as in It's a nice
day, or You're very tall, or Oh dear you seem to have fallen down a
thirty-foot well, are you all right?" "There's nothing like an airport for bringing you down to earth." Richard Gordon "Go placidly amid the noise and the haste, and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons. Speak your truth quietly and clearly, and listen to others, even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story. Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection. Neither be cynical about love; for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment it is as perennial as the grass. Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth. Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune. But do not distress yourself with imaginings. Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness. Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself. You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars; you have a right to be here. And whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should. Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive Him to be, and whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world." Max Ehrmann Samuel Johnson "I took a Viagra and it got stuck in my throat and I've had a stiff neck ever since" Nigel Powers in "Austin Powers in Goldmember" "I'm actually luckier than most. I get to wake up each morning, glad to start a new day--grateful the last one is over." Ally McBeal !
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