• Thomas Friedman is to economics, what Ken Burns is to documentaries, what Kenny G is to Jazz.
• Existential surrealism is the refuge of a disenfranchised polity. When costumes of superheroes show up –cheered and celebrated– at political rallies, the escapist reveries of surrealism have effectively trumped the aspirational ambitions of symbolism.
• My fellow husbands (redux): Albeit with a huge disparity in the severity of the circumstance, there is undoubtedly a commonality between Bin Laden’s wife rushing an armed commando and Wendi Murdoch rushing a foam-pie-evil-doer. Both women, outstanding women by any regard, are the epitome of warrior-wives; that is, women of a certain character who, among other things, appear to take their marital vows very seriously. So the question again, a little differently: My manly friends, Is your spouse a warrior-wife willing to throw herself in front of bullet or foam pie to keep you from harm?
• Clowns are important. They provide distraction and entertainment prior to the main event. A good ringmaster knows when to bring in the clowns, and, more importantly, when to take them out. Yet at the moment, it seems the ringmasters are on leave. As it is, the clowns are freelancing and are enjoying themselves much more than we enjoy them. Could someone please call curtains on the clowns?
• If something can be lowered why can’t it be highered?
• Weaselopochtli: The conniving, ne’er-do-well, half-brother of the Sun God Huitzilopochtli
• From the Audacity Of Hope to the Paucity Of Nope. From nowhere to nowhere in no time at all.
• Texpertise: It’s what makes every Texan uniquely qualified to give advice or opinion on any subject. We are all Texperts.
• Good or bad is defined by whose fingers are on the purse strings.
• It always impresses to see the depth of conviction of those who take a principled stance – without irony – to exercise their inalienable right to be idiots.
• Morality, in and of itself, does not pose an intrinsic problem when considered as a general fundament for ethical behavior. What is a problem is when ascribed morals come into play. Typically, ascribed morals advance subjective notions of moral imperatives and moral implications, which eventually end up as hidebound moral hazards: a compounded pile-up of interpretive values purported to be significant, legitimate qualifiers of circumstance. All in all, an abject denial of common sense.
• Truth is inevitably distorted by consensus.
• It is disingenious to celebrate the outcome of an election when 93% of the electorate does not show up to vote.
• My fellow husbands: Could you declare, with complete certainty, that your wife would willfully rush an armed commando in an effort to save your life? For that matter, would you do the same for her?
• This is a nation of immigrants. Any notion to the contrary is benightedly delusional.
• There’s a thing for everything.
• In societies that allow utopian constructs, intellect tends to be untethered by context. In dystopian formulations of society, context is what drives intellectual conceits. In both cases, the outcomes are extreme and fallible. Yet, of both, it is only dystopia that allows random quirks fancies and foibles into its equational sequences.
• It is when ignorance colors judgement, that judgement can only distinguish black or white.
• Yo no niego la cruz de mi parroquia. Pero de hecho tengo muchas parroquias y no veo razón alguna para guardarle devoción a solo una.
• In the absence of grand gestures there are no magnificent failures, just the periodic petering-out of ineptitude.
• It’s surprising how general theories frequently apply only to the most specific of circumstances.
• Celebrity for a cause invariably subjects any cause to the vagaries of celebrity.
• On its own, fortuitous circumstance is a weak foundation for sustainable enterprise.
• At the intersection of art and non-profit is where art becomes diminished.
