nationalized religion

"... women of her mother's generation could walk the streets freely, enjoy the company of the opposite sex, join the police force, become pilots, live under laws that were among the most progressive in the world regarding women ... in the course of nearly two decades, the streets have been turned into a war zone, where young women who disobey the rules are hurled into patrol cars, taken to jail, flogged, fined, forced to wash the toilets and humiliated, and as soon as they leave, they go back to do the same thing. Is she aware ... of her own power? Does she realize how dangerous she can be when her every stray gesture is a disturbance to public safety?

Whoever we were--and it was not really important what religion we belonged to, whether we wished to wear the veil or not, whether we observed certain religious norms or not--we had become the figment of someone else's dreams. A stern ayotollah, a self-proclaimed philosopher-king, had come to rule our land. He had come in the name of a past, a past that, he claimed, had been stolen from him. And he now wanted to re-create us in the image of that illusory past. Was it any consolation, and did we even wish to remember, that what he did to us was what we allowed him to do?"
--Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi

station wagon

"Don't they know I am only a station wagon?"
--anonymous writer in creative writing workshop

media jumps the shark

"A Century of News Milestones
2000: Too Close to Call!
Major news networks prematurely 'call' Florida for Al Gore, then prematurely 'call' Florida for George W. Bush, then sit quietly waiting for America to fall asleep. Media officially jumps the shark."
--America: The Book, the Daily Show With Jon Stewart

black thursday

"I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance."
--Thomas Carlysle

eat your fear

"I'm convinced that fear is at the root of most bad writing. If one is writing for one's own pleasure, that fear may be mild--timidity is the word I've used here. If, however, one is working under deadline--a school paper, a newspaper article, the SAT writing sample--that fear may be intense. Dumbo got airborne with the help of a magic feather; you may feel the urge to grasp a passive verb or one of those nasty adverbs for the same reason. Just remember before you do that Dumbo didn't need the feather; the magic was in him."
--On Writing, Stephen King

altruistic corporations

" ... Congress must heed the will of the people. The astute reader may rightly wonder, 'But didn't you just say the people were busy?' Touche. This minor glitch in our representative government is rectified by the white knights of democracy--corporations. These altruistic entities hire lobbyists whose sole job is to insure, through persuasive argument and financial remuneration, that Congress never forgets the people's wishes. Especially the people's wishes for deregulation."
--America: The Book, the Daily Show With Jon Stewart

middle-aged US

"The Ages of Democracy: A Guide
Middle Age: One day, your democracy will look in the mirror and behold a scary sight: Voter turnout is thinning, your welfare system is bloated, you're completely dominated by corporate interests, and you haven't had a proper election in years. When this happens, a nation may go through a mid-life crisis, seeking solace in superficial 'toys,' like satellite-based lasers to shoot down missiles or action stars turned politicians. Don't be surprised if old allies decide to leave you and start referring to you as a 'once great' nation. Ultimately, you will have to decide whether to quietly make peace with your declining power, or to go out in a blaze of glory, taking Mideast peace/world fish stocks/the ozone layer with you. (Tip: Many middle-aged democracies find themselves turning to religion for strength, so don't be too 'embarrassed' to erode church-state separation provisos)."
--America: The Book, the Daily Show With Jon Stewart

dumb question

coworker: This may be a dumb question, but is everyone on NPR gay?
me: yeah, that's a dumb question.

just write

"Writing is a lot like driving a country blacktop highway on a hot summer day. There is a wavery magical spot that shimmers on the horizon. You aim toward it. You speed to get there, and when you do, the 'there' vanishes. You look up to see it again, shimmering in the distance. You write toward that. I suppose some people might call this unrequited love or dissatisfaction. I think it's something better."
...........................................................
"Once writing becomes an act of listening instead of an act of speech, a great deal of the ego goes out of it. Instead of self-consciously thinking about the sentence I have written, I find myself amazed and interested by the sentences that seem to want themselves written. Instead of being an act of pontification, writing becomes an act of revelation. This is true for any writer who lets writing write through him. We the writers, as much as any reader, are in for the treat of discovering what comes next."
--The Right to Write, Julia Cameron

me, joy

"You will soon bring joy to someone."
--Chinese Fortune Cookie

battling ignorance

"At times like this, when Miss Thornton was very tired, she felt that she fought a losing battle with ignorance and was overcome with a sense of futility and helplessness. What sense was there in nagging a boy into memorizing the dates of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire when the boy, grown, would milk cows for a living, as had his father and grandfather before him. What logic was there in pounding decimal fractions into the head of a girl who would eventually need to count only to number the months of each pregnancy? ... But in her mind then, as now, was the hope which kept her at her job, just as it has kept teachers working for hundreds of years. If I can teach something to one child, if I can awaken in only one child a sense of beauty, a joy in truth, an admission of ignorance and a thirst for knowledge, then I am fulfilled."
--Peyton Place, Grace Metalious