A fun quiz. See how you do.
1) “Marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could.”
2) "Why should we hear about body bags and deaths? Oh, I mean, it's not relevant. So why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?"
3) "Publicly, we say one thing....Actually, we do another."
4) "It's voodoo economics."
5) "What does an actor know about politics?"
6) "I do not need to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being president. I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
7) "The question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many. So I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the president made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.... Once we had Saddam rounded him up and gotten rid of his government, then the question is what do you put in its place? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable? I think it is vitally important for a President to know when to use military force. I think it is also very important for him to know when not to commit U.S. military force. And it's my view that the President got it right both times, that it would have been a mistake for us to get bogged down in the quagmire inside Iraq."
8) "Religious factions will go on imposing their will on others unless the decent people connected to them recognize that religion has no place in public policy."
9) "Among conservatives there's been too much pseudo-populism, almost too much concern and attention for, quote, 'the people'... After all, we conservatives are on the side of the lords and barons... We...are pulling up the drawbridge against the peasants."
10) "Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are H. L. Hunt (you possibly know his background), a few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
Bonus:
"The necessaries of life occasion the great expense of the poor. They find it difficult to get food, and the greater part of their little revenue is spent in getting it. The luxuries and vanities of life occasion the principal expense of the rich, and a magnificent house embellishes and sets off to the best advantage all the other luxuries and vanities which they possess. A tax upon house-rents, therefore, would in general fall heaviest upon the rich; and in this sort of inequality there would not, perhaps, be anything very unreasonable. It is not very unreasonable that the rich should contribute to the public expense, not only in proportion to their revenue, but something more than in that proportion."
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1) William F. Buckley Jr., closet hippie.
2) Barbara Bush, speaking about American war dead. Way to "support the troops," B!
3) Richard Nixon, just clarifying things a bit.
4) George H. W. Bush, on supply-side theory, before he got the memo.
5) Ronald Reagan, criticizing Ed Asner's views on foreign policy.
6) George W. Bush, public servant.
7) Dick Cheney, pre-rabies.
8) Barry Goldwater, well-known commie-liberal.
9) Bill Kristol's refreshing honesty.
10) Dwight D. Eisenhower, no comment needed.
Bonus: Karl Marx. No wait, it's Adam Smith, well-known socialist. I believe the "invisible hand" just flipped some folks the bird.
But maybe that's just me. Consistency is overrated anyway.
Very Truly Yours,
Porcupine
