Dark influences from the American past congregate among us still. If we are a democracy, what are we to make of the palpable elements of plutocracy, oligarchy, and mounting theocracy that rule our state? How do we address the self-inflicted catastrop...
[I] would argue that native-born blacks are so vastly less "African" than actual Africans that calling ourselves 'African American' is not only illogical but almost disrespectful to African immigrants. Here are people who were born in Africa, speak A...
One of the most popular genital surgeries is labia minora reduction. When a similar procedure is performed on healthy girls in some African countries as a coming-of-age rite to control their sexuality, Westerners denounce it as genital mutilation; in...
Forget the American dream...whats your dream? The thing that keeps you up at night...the thing that makes you happy...the thing that keeps your spirit going. Do that thing. Don't label it a hobby or what you do in your spare time type of thing...labe...
Indeed, the maligned American pastime of baseball may be by-far the greatest and best sport by one criterion, when it comes to emulating and training for genuinely useful Neolithic skills! Think about it. The game consists of lots of patient waiting ...
In my quest to find Green Cottenham, I also discovered an unsettling truth that when white Americans frankly peel back the layers of our commingled pasts, we are all marked by it. Whether a company or an individual, we are marred either by our connec...
Either ‘the group’ is superior or the individual is superior. Marxism, socialism, fascism, and pure democracy are all forms that give power to ‘the group’ and then use violence to force individuals to obey the dictates of ‘the group’. The...
In 1803, President Jefferson oversaw the purchase of this land from the French for $15 million. It doesn't sound like much for an area three times the size of France itself but given that they'd stolen it from the Native Americans in the first place,...
Richard Nixon: I let them down. I let down my friends, I let down my country, and worst of all I let down our system of government, and the dreams of all those young people that ought to get into government but now they think; 'Oh it's all too corrup...
Bob Zelnick: [Impersonating Nixon, discussing Jack Kennedy] That man, he screwed anything that moved, fixed elections, and took us into Vietnam. And the American people, they loved him for it! Whereas I, Richard Milhous Nixon, worked around the clock...
Virginia 'Pepper' Potts: Tony, you have to go to the hospital. The doctor has to look at you. Tony Stark: I don't have to do anything. I've been in captivity for three months. There are two things I want to do. One, I want an American cheeseburger, a...
Ahmet: Where are you going? Why don't you walk the wheel with us? What is the matter my American friend? What has upset you? Oh! I know. The bad machine doesn't know that he's a bad machine. You still don't believe it. You still don't believe you're ...
Del: [talking to Neal on the plane] I always order a special meal. On this airline, I go with the seafood salad. On American, I'll have their kosher plate: a little slice of salami, some roast beef, some turkey, dark rye bread, very nice. Now, if I'm...
[Vice-Marshal Arthur Coningham and General Patton are discussing the lack of supporting air cover the British have been providing for American troops] Air Vice-Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham: I promise you one thing, General. You will see no more Germa...
[Being told he can go home] Private Ryan: Hell, these guys deserve to go home as much as I do. They've fought just as hard. Captain Miller: Is that what I'm supposed to tell your mother when she gets another folded American flag? Private Ryan: You ca...
Helena Markos: [aroused from her snoring slumber] Who is it? Who's there? Ah, I've been expecting you! The American girl! I knew you'd come. You want to kill me! You want to kill Helena Markos! [vanishes, laughing] Helena Markos: You wanted to kill m...
Satan: You have spilt the blood of the innocence, now begins 2,000,000 years of darkness! Chef: [sarcastically] Oh, good job, Mrs. Broslofski! Thanks a lot! Sheila Broslofski: [innocently] I was just trying to make the world a better place for childr...
Pam: Hey, listen to Franklin's horoscope. "Travel in the country, long-range plans, and upsetting persons around you, could make this a disturbing and unpredictiable day. The events in the world are not doing much either to cheer one up." Jerry: That...
Jack: Wait! We're passengers! We're passengers! [flushed and panting, Jack waves the tickets as he and Fabrizio run up the ramp to the 3rd class gangway entrance] 6th Officer Moody: [looks at the tickets as Jack and Fabrizio reach the end of the ramp...
Edward Blake: God damn I love working on American soil, Dan. Ain't had this much fun since Woodward and Bernstein. Dan Dreiberg: How long can we keep this up? Edward Blake: Congress is pushing through some new bill that's gonna outlaw masks. Our days...
Brad Dupree: [reading Lester's job description] "My job consists of basically masking my contempt for the assholes in charge, and, at least once a day, retiring to the men's room so I can jerk off while I fantasize about a life that doesn't so closel...
