Wednesday, June 05, 2013 *********************************** Adultery should be condemned in all men except politicians on the grounds that the more they f*** women the less they will f*** the nation. * Anti-Semites always proceed from the erroneous historical assumption that Jews are the only people on the planet who occupied a territory by force of arms and abused the rights of the natives. * My bad memories outnumber the good ones. Which is why I look forward to Alzheimer’s. * Descriptions of experiences are like shadow of shadows. When a friend’s mother died, I shared his grief. But when my mother died I wanted to die. * Democracy has also been defined as the tyranny of the masses. # IN BRIEF *********************** There are casualties of war as surely as there are casualties of peace and we are casualties of both. * After eating Turkish and Russian shit we are now asked to eat our own. * In case you don’t like blunt talk, allow me to inform you that no one is paying me to engage in diplomatic palaver. * To be a dupe of political propaganda means to be a moron who is brainwashed to believe he is smart. * Ever since I gave up on my fellow Armenians they have stopped disappointing me. * To be a born-again human being is more important than being a good Armenian. # PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS ************************************************ It must be obvious by now that when it comes to solving problems, politicians may not the best men for the job. One could even go further and say they may well be the worst. * An idiot will be more receptive to the words of a crook and a liar than to those of an honest witness. * Turks quote me: in the eyes of my critics, it follows I must be in cahoots with the Sultan, Talaat, and Kemal. * The mother tongue of both political and religious leaders is propaganda. * Theology is a systematic effort to understand and explain the unknown, the unknowable, and the incomprehensible. * If I knew how to solve problems, I would begin with my own. * Most so-called solutions are based on the general theory that one man’s hocus pocus may well be better than another's abracadabra. # FREE SPEECH, ARMENIAN STYLE ******************************** Once when I dared to criticize one of our cultural organizations I was told by one of its hirelings: “Who the hell do you think you are?” He was not questioning my opinion. What he was questioning was my right to have one. In his view the function of someone in my position is to recycle propaganda. Only qualified people have a right to an opinion. * One does not bite the hand, or any other part of the anatomy, that lays the golden egg. * To rely too much on god is almost to surrender to the devil. * Nothing works as planned even when it works as planned. * Some of the worst things in life happen when you least expect them. * Your best friend may be your worst nightmare. It happens in the Bible. It happens in life. It happens among Armenians. It has happened to me. I am not questioning the validity of Armenian friendship. I am questioning my naiveté and status as a dupe. #