26 posts tagged “quote”

In response to my admission that I have nearly broken our television playing Wii tennis without my glasses on.

Becky: "Hey, you can't let your shitty genetic defects endanger your TV."

Words to live by, right there.

Grey’s Anatomy has been going down the crapper lately (love triangle with a ghost? wtf?), but they have at least stayed consistent with some of my favourite characters.  And Christina (the wonderfully introverted character I relate to most) is thankfully one of them.  In last Thursday’s episode, she and best friend Meredith are fighting.  Meredith’s former best friend, Sadie (still with me?), approaches Meredith and says the following.

We used to be as close as you and Christina, and then Amsterdam happened and you shut me down, and we never got past it.  We still hung out, but not like before.  We’d go dancing, go someplace loud where we didn’t have to talk, and that’s okay.  I’m a rolling stone; I bounce.  But you’re about to do the same thing to Christina and that girl mates for life.  If you don’t make it right, she’ll never talk to you again.

That simple phrase – “she mates for life” – is so accurate for describing an introvert’s my approach toward friendship, it’s a bit eerie.  I have always developed my relationships slowly, carefully inching my way toward lasting rather than temporary bonds.  That’s part of the reason I’ve been able to find some truly awesome friends over the years, I think.  I friend for life.

But it’s also why I’m so shocked when people go the other way and decide to trash that bond.  I can’t fathom how they can throw away the years of deliberate effort it takes to reach a real relationship.  From my perspective, each friendship is precious (the more aged, the better – like fine wine), thus any person who smothers one is the worst kind of traitor.  And, as much as I hate to admit it, there is no going back.

Yes, we introverts are a fiercely loyal bunch, but we don’t take betrayal lightly.  That’s the double-edged sword of our personalities, if you ask me.  And I love the person (or people) on the Grey’s writing staff who intuitively understands that.

Matt Taibbi reflects on this year's election outcome:

We pulled off an amazing thing here, delivering on our society's most ancient promises, in front of a world that still largely thought of us as the home of Bull Connor's fire hose. This dumbed-down, degraded election process of ours has, in spite of itself and to my own extreme astonishment, brilliantly re-energized the American experiment and restored legitimacy to our status as the world's living symbol of individual freedom. We feel like ourselves again, and the floundering economy and our two stagnating wars now seem like mere logistical problems that will be overcome sooner or later, instead of horrifying symptoms of inevitable empire-decline.

For this to happen, absolutely everything had to break right. And for that we will someday owe sincere thanks to John McCain, and Sarah Palin, and George W. Bush. They not only screwed it up, they screwed it up just right.

A quick excerpt from an entertaining Mother Jones interview with Joss Whedon.

...some people might take this as stereotyping, but I’ve described television as feminine and movies as masculine, in the sense that television wants to examine a problem from all sides and talk about it for a long time.  Movies just want to GET TO THE POINT AND THEN LEAVE.  They just want to hit the climax and maybe have a smoke.

“Stuff happens, and it's untidy, and freedom's untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things." – Donald Rumsfeld (about the post-invasion chaos in Iraq)

On Wednesday night last week, Shane and I arrived at Firehall Arts Centre to watch Stuff Happens, our first live theatre experience in Vancouver.  Combining real quotes (from interviews, press conferences, articles, etc.) with imagined dialogue, this play chronicles the lead-up to the Iraq war from inside the Bush and Blair inner circles.

Since we consider ourselves merely amateur political junkies, Shane and I both learned a LOT about the events leading up to the actual invasion; it was great to have someone string together the important moments piece by piece.  And we got some very interesting insight into the possible motives of all the people involved (aside from W. himself, who was hilariously portrayed only as the moronic cowboy he acts like in real life).  But before you go patting us on the back for embracing this three-hour history lesson, I have a confession to make.

The ulterior motive I had in wanting to attend this particular play?  Well, it was the opportunity to see this man play the part of Donald Rumsfeld:

For those of you not schooled in your X-Files mythology, that is Vancouver staple William B. Davis, who played the Cigarette Smoking Man (aka Cancerman) (or, to really display the depths of my nerdiness, CGB Spender) for the duration of the show’s run.  This particular character was a shadowy government figure – the nemesis to Mulder/Scully and Co. – who sought to cover up the ever-elusive Truth.

To say I was amused by the idea of the actor best known for that part now playing the detestable former Secretary of Defense would be an understatement.  Further adding to the entertainment for the evening was the fact that another X-Files alum, Kevin McNulty, took on (brilliantly) the part of Dick Cheney.  McNulty played two small roles on the show, one as Agent Fuller (appearing in “Squeeze” and “Apocrypha”) and another as Dr. Davey (from “Soft Light”).

In fact, once we got home, we I discovered that a good chunk of the cast had played some minor character on X-Files at one point or another (thanks, IMDB!).  Which leads me to believe this was simply the coming-of-age ritual for actors in Vancouver in the 1990s.

I still remember the email that a woman named Robyn sent me after I met her in Ft. Lauderdale.  Sometime after our event, her son nearly went into cardiac arrest, and was diagnosed with a heart condition that could only be treated with a procedure that cost tens of thousands of dollars.  Her insurance company refused to pay, and their family just didn’t have that kind of money.  

In her email, Robyn wrote, 'I ask only this of you – on the days where you feel so tired you can’t think of uttering another word to the people, think of us.  When those who oppose you have you down, reach deep and fight back harder.'

Ohio, that’s what hope is – that thing inside us that insists, despite all evidence to the contrary, that something better is waiting around the bend; that insists there are better days ahead.  If we’re willing to work for it.  If we’re willing to shed our fears and our doubts.  If we’re willing to reach deep down inside ourselves when we’re tired and come back fighting harder.

Mark Morford weighs in on the undecideds.

And let's just say it outright: Even if you can't tell much difference between Obama's and McCain's tax policies or approaches to Pakistan or whatnot, the difference in intuitive energies, in sheer vibrational attitude, between the calm, deeply intelligent Harvard-trained senator and the curmudgeonly war hawk with a nasty temper are so profound as to keep entire nations awake at night. It's a bit like choosing between a glass of wine and a beer bong full of turpentine and carpet tacks. Sure you can ingest them both, but come on.

We really need more articles like Paul Krugman's recent "Blizzard of Lies":

Did you hear about how Barack Obama wants to have sex education in kindergarten, and called Sarah Palin a pig? Did you hear about how Ms. Palin told Congress, “Thanks, but no thanks” when it wanted to buy Alaska a Bridge to Nowhere?

These stories have two things in common: they’re all claims recently made by the McCain campaign — and they’re all out-and-out lies.

Yes, yes they are.

The first presidential election I was eligible to vote in was the notorious 2000 election.  After plenty of research (and some college-inspired soul-searching), I proudly cast my first ballot for Al Gore.  I have voted dutifully in every election since (presidential, primary or otherwise), albeit with an ever-increasing sense of hopelessness.  Seeing as how my political awareness coincides directly with the years George W. Bush has been President, can you blame me?

I simply never paid attention to any of our country’s leaders before Bush.  I never had a reason to; my teenage years felt as far removed from politics as possible.  I was much more focused on my education and religion – areas of my life that demanded daily attention.  So it wasn’t until I was able to vote that I took the time to care.  And caring these last eight years has been anything but easy.

I could go on and on about the reasons why I think Bush and his cronies have royally screwed America over.  But if I had to choose one over all the others, it would be this: I hate how they have made sport over dividing the country.  Sure, we were divided before, but Bush’s brand of Republican seemingly celebrates our most contentious issues – abortion, gun control, gay marriage – and makes us feel like two nations instead of one.  You know: the Red America and the Blue America, the conservatives and the liberals, the beer-drinkers and the latte-sippers.

Enter Obama.  Here (finally) is a politician who chooses to emphasize the similarities over the differences.  The theme running throughout his speeches, throughout his whole campaign is one of unity.  And really, isn’t that the first step on the road to true progress?  (And perhaps the real reason Republicans want to keep us so angry at each other?)

From his recent DNC speech (emphasis mine):

“We may not agree on abortion, but surely we can agree on reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies in this country.  The reality of gun ownership may be different for hunters in rural Ohio than for those plagued by gang-violence in Cleveland, but don't tell me we can't uphold the Second Amendment while keeping AK-47s out of the hands of criminals.  I know there are differences on same-sex marriage, but surely we can agree that our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters deserve to visit the person they love in the hospital and to live lives free of discrimination.  Passions fly on immigration, but I don't know anyone who benefits when a mother is separated from her infant child or an employer undercuts American wages by hiring illegal workers.  This too is part of America's promise - the promise of a democracy where we can find the strength and grace to bridge divides and unite in common effort.”

Let me tell you: for someone as young as me who has never in her political life heard a presidential candidate earnestly speak about the importance of people COMING TOGETHER to solve common issues, this feels exciting and ground-breaking and new.  Obama is not only looking to change how the government works, but to change how we view ourselves - to help us see America again as ONE people and ONE nation.

This is what restores my hope.

Another excerpt, this time from Sarah Vowell’s The Partly Cloudy Patriot:

“The protagonist in a recent movie called The Contender, about the confirmation hearing of a vice presidential replacement, admits that she’s an atheist but says that she has a religion.  Her faith is the idea of American democracy itself.  It’s what she believes, believes in.  I was struck by that, because that’s how I feel too...

...Look up the word suffrage in the dictionary.  In mine, after noting the main meanings – the privilege of voting, the ‘exercise of such a right,’ the third interpretation is this: ‘A short intercessory prayer.’  Isn’t that beautiful?  And true?  For what is voting if not a kind of prayer, and what are prayers if not declarations of hope and desire?”

Voting for me, too, is a kind of prayer – a small gesture undertaken in the hope of creating something larger and better.  So when I go to the polls this November (or rather, fill in my ballot at my kitchen table abroad), I will be voting for Obama.  I will be hoping to further the Democratic agenda.  But I will also be casting my ballot for unity, in the hope that America can someday be a place where what unites us is stronger than what divides us, where we overcome our biggest problems by finding common (and higher) ground, where we can ALL be proud to call ourselves Americans.  That is the country I choose to believe in.

"America, this is our moment.  This is our time.  Our time to turn the page on the policies of the past.  Our time to bring new energy and new ideas to the challenges we face.  Our time to offer a new direction for the country we love.

The journey will be difficult.  The road will be long.  I face this challenge with profound humility, and knowledge of my own limitations.  But I also face it with limitless faith in the capacity of the American people.  Because if we are willing to work for it, and fight for it, and believe in it, then I am absolutely certain that generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment when we began to provide care for the sick and good jobs to the jobless; this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal; this was the moment when we ended a war and secured our nation and restored our image as the last, best hope on Earth.  This was the moment - this was the time - when we came together to remake this great nation so that it may always reflect our very best selves, and our highest ideals."

Soaringly idealistic?  You bet.  But GODDAMN is it incredible to hear this powerful, hopeful sentiment from our presidential nominee.  I think I need a tissue (or ten)...