Thought of the Day

With [the French] it's wit and badinage that's aye the joke. With [we English] 'tis ever action and that war between our words and what we be which they across the channel have named hypocrisy. And what we be is all mixed up with alien blood and refugees from tyranny like a bag pudding boiled within the pot we call the British Isles. 'Twas ever thus: 'twill ever be; a ragamuffin race of scoundrels born of pirates on the run.

-- Tom Sharpe, The Throwback, on Being English. 1978

I'm sure that Salman didn't carry out such an act but there are hidden hands behind this, security authorities doing something against the Libyan community especially the youth there.

-- Ramadan Abedi, father of Salman Abedi, the alleged bomber at the Manchester Arena, appearing to say that his son was in some way set up by UK security forces wanting to damage the reputation of Libya.

Economic activity in Europe has yet to fully recover nearly eight years after the global financial crisis

-- IMF 15 May 2017, ignoring that the statement establishes that the crisis is not actually over.

I like to keep my personal life personal. We couldn't have children. We dealt with it and we moved on. I hope nobody would think that mattered. I can still empathise and understand people and care about fairness and opportunity"
-- Therese May, UK Prime Minister, after criticism from some that as a childless, middle aged woman, she was not qualified to speak on various matters.

I'm a big advocate of freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of thought

-- Jimmy Wales, founder, wikipedia (sic) which has demanded Burger King apologise for inserting the true contents of their Whopper product into that website's description of the company and its products.

Stealing from capitalism is not like stealing out of our own pockets. Marx and Lenin have taught us that anything is ethical, so long as it is in the interest of the proletarian class and its world revolution.

-- Nicolae Ceausescu, Communist leader of Romania. Tyrant.

He who protests is an enemy; he who opposes is a corpse.

-- Pol Pot, Communist leader of Cambodia

One must not be right against the Party. One can be right only with the Party, and through the Party, for history has created no other road for the realization of what is right.

--Lev Davidovich Bronstein a.k.a. Leon Trotsky. It is not clear if he was speaking honestly or sarcastically attempting to defend himself against charges of disloyalty.

War to the death against the peasants.

-- Joseph Stalin justifying his policy of forced famine which killed an estimated 7 million "kulaks" in Russia in 1932-33

I come to the categorical conclusion that precisely at this moment we must give battle to the Black Hundred clergy in the most decisive and merciless manner and crush its resistance with such brutality that it will not forget it for decades to come. The greater the number of representatives of the reactionary clergy and reactionary bourgeoisie we succeed in executing for this reason, the better.

-- Vladimir Lenin, translated, found in The Unknown Lenin : From the Secret Archive (1996) edited by Richard Pipes

An injustice has been done today. I think he was found guilty because of political pressure and mobocracy - the pressure of the mob. This is bad for freedom of speech in Indonesia. I think this is a very sad day for democracy.

-- Bambang Harymurti, senior editor, Tempo magazine, on the conviction and jailing of Basuki Tjahaja Purnama ("Ahok") on blasphemy charges instigated by a political opponent.

I'm surprised by how much material is now available

-- TV report from Aftonbladet in Sweden about the quantity of antiquities being sold by Da'esh / ISIS

It was an argument between the crew and the couple who were flying in economy and wanted to be up-graded to executive

-- Portuguese air port spokesman after the BA plane was forced to divert and land

It's more than a Christmas miracle - Michael Schumacher can walk again.

-- The false statement published by Bunte magazine for which it has been ordered to pay the driver €50,000 in damages.

Slowly but surely English is losing importance in Europe

-- European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker addressing a conference in Italy. In French.