I prefer bad people to stupid people, because bad people sometimes give it a rest"
José Ortega y Gasset

The problem with the French is that they don't have a word for entrepreneur."
George W. Bush

"Do you have blacks in Brazil, too?"
George W. Bush, to Brazilian President Fernando Cardoso

"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully." George W. Bush

"If you look at the U.S., you look at who we’re electing to Congress, to the Senate—they can’t read. I’ll bet you a bunch of these people don’t have passports. We’re about to start a trade war with China if we’re not careful here, only because nobody knows where China is. Nobody knows what China is." Michael Bloomberg (ht Doonesbury)

C.E.O.’s of the largest American companies earned an average of 42 times as much as the average worker in 1980, but 531 times as much in 2001. Perhaps the most astounding statistic is this: From 1980 to 2005, more than four-fifths of the total increase in American incomes went to the richest 1 percent. Nicholas Kristof - New York Times

What this election suggests to me is that the United States may have finally lost its ability to adapt politically to the systemic crises that it has periodically faced. America emerged from the Civil War, the depression of the 1890s, World War I, and the Great Depression and World War II stronger than ever—with a more buoyant economy and greater international standing. A large part of the reason was the political system’s ability to provide the leadership the country needed. But what this election suggests to me is that this may no longer be the case.
John B. Judis - The New Republic