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Thursday, March 03, 2011
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MEGALOMANIACS
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They brag about our heroes but they are afraid of free speech.
They hate to be called cowards but they don't mind behaving like gutless worms
on the assumption that if the people are stupid enough to believe in their propaganda
they will be stupid enough not to see their cowardice.
That's the way it is with all autocratic regimes:
they demand heroism in action and cowardice in thought;
and what is even more astonishing, they get it.
350,000 Armenians died in World War II.
How many dared to raise their voice against Stalin and his commissars?
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Armenians who say they are for democracy
and Turks who refuse to recognize the Genocide
are dupes who believe all politicians are liars except their own.
They believe it is their duty as good citizens
to believe what they are told,
especially if what they are told flatters their vanity.
It is this kind of aberration that allows
the Ben Alis, Mubaraks, and Gadhafis of this world
not only to hang on to power long after they have outlived their usefulness
but also to establish dynasties like the Bourbeons and Romanovs
and to rule their nation to the end of time.
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Friday, March 04, 2011
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MEMO TO EDITORS
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To be for democracy and to be against free speech is a contradiction.
If you can't see this you must be blind...and
when the blind lead the blind both shall fall into the ditch.
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MEMO TO FORUM MODERATORS
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As a critic I am willing to admit that I can be wrong
because I am only a human being.
If you think as a moderator you can assert infallibility
you must be an arrogant fool.
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MEMO TO OUR RULERS
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Turks ruled by intimidation and got away with it for 600 years.
Are Turks your role models?
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MEMO TO FUND-RAISERS
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Do you know
(a) who will handle the distribution and
(b) what is his cut?
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MEMO TO MY CRITICS
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If you have a closed mind
your criticism is without merit.
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Saturday, March 05, 2011
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FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
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In today's paper I read Russians are more afraid of the police than of criminals.
The situation in Armenia is not mentioned
probably because no one gives a damn about Armenians,
not even Armenians.
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My quarrel is not with God Whom i neither know nor understand,
but with the god of popes, imams, and rabbis.
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Truth may also be defined as a lie that you believe in.
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Stalin, Mao, and Franco died in bed.
Gadhafi ruled for 43 years.
Those who are in power today cannot tell with any degree of certainty
how long they are going to last.
But they will never forget the wisdom of the old Chinese saying:
"No banquet under heaven is endless."
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The central preoccupation of Armenian intellectuals today
is how to get closer to the money tree and
to obstruct the path of those with similar ambitions.
I remember once when I insulted one of our national benefactors
in the presence of several academics,
there was a stunned silence as though I had a committed a capital offense.
The Turks say, "Among ten men nine or sure to be women."
I suspect in our case eleven would be a more accurate esdtimate.
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