PJ O'Rourke is one of the biggest influences I've had in forming my political opinions. Fiscal conservatism mixed with libertarianism.
Parliament of Whores and
Holidays in Hell spoke to me in my 20's.
Here's a great, long article on the aftermath of the 2008 election. We have all of this going for us, worldwide. And yet we chose to
deliver our sermons only to the faithful or the already converted. Of course the trailer park Protestants yell "Amen." If you were handling rattlesnakes and keeping dinosaurs for pets, would you vote for the party that gets money from PETA?
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To go from slime to the sublime, there are the lofty issues about which we never bothered to form enough principles to go out and break them. What is the coherent modern conservative foreign policy?
We may think of this as a post 9/11 problem, but it's been with us all along. What was Reagan thinking, landing Marines in Lebanon to prop up the government of a country that didn't have one? In 1984, I visited the site where the Marines were murdered. It was a beachfront bivouac overlooked on three sides by hills full of hostile Shiite militia. You'd urge your daughter to date Rosie O'Donnell before you'd put troops ashore in such a place.
Holy fuck! He's on fire. Too many good quotes to mention.
ReplyDeleteNaomi Klein's Shock Doctrine is right in one sense: these unforeseen disasters have a distinctive way of sharpening one's attention and writing skill.
Indeed. When this guy rolls up his sleeves, great things happen. His humour disguises his sheer brilliance in a way.
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