Lileks

John Hawkins has a nice round-up of John Lileks money quotes over the last year or so. These are my few fav'rites:

"Commentators now fear an "upsurge" in the old dependable "cycle of violence" you know, Hamas sends someone to drive ball bearings through children on a bus and Israel responds by killing the people who hatched the plot. It takes a particularly Olympian viewpoint to view this as tit for tat, but moral equivalence is the dusty chipped prism through which the press regularly views the conflict."

"Getting bombed by al-Qaida because you helped topple a fascist regime is a stark reminder that you did the right thing. You have the right enemies. A country should worry when al-Qaida doesn't regard it as a target, because that would mean it appeared to be a house of rotten wood, easily collapsed when the time is right."

"As the strongest nation in the world, we are apparently required to do what the weakest ones want, lest we waste their most precious commodity: sympathy. It's a common theme for those who value process over results and admire impotent international institutions whose primary output is thick, creamy paper stamped with interesting signatures and lovely official seals."

"It goes without saying that President Bush emanates a mind-warping energy field. You've seen it in action: Perfectly rational people who pride themselves on their nuanced, sophisticated opinions fall to the ground and begin frothing and barking when the subject turns to Bush; you expect them to succumb to Sudden Rumplestiltskin Syndrome, grab a leg in each hand and rip themselves in two."

"The United Nations will probably agree, once again, to do the wrong thing together rather than the right thing alone. A single death, after all, is a tragedy. A million deaths is a U.N. committee report. Nicely bound. With graphs and pictures."

Read more here.