or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
•
"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
April 21, 2005
"Justification"
It always catches my attention when the same words are used repeatedly by the same types of people over and over again. For instance, I think it's interesting to see the repeated use of "justification" by national security types who want to invade other countries.
Yes... interesting.
1. This is from the cover page of the infamous "Operation Northwoods" memo (pdf file). This was the 1962 plan by the Joint Chiefs of Staff to stage attacks on American military personnel and civilians, and then blame them on Cuba so we could invade them. (Kennedy turned the Joint Chiefs down.)
2. This is the notorious passage from "Rebuilding America's Defenses" (pdf) by the Project for a New American Century.
3. This is from an article about Mickey Herskowitz, a journalist and Bush family friend who has written an authorized biography of Prescott Bush and for a time worked on the authorized biography of George W. Bush. Herkowitz said that in Bush circles, starting wars was seen as good for your political career:
Finally, here's a definition of "justification" from the 1996 Mirriam-Webster Dictionary of Law:
Hmmm.
Posted at April 21, 2005 02:05 PM | TrackBackOh, great! Now I'm going to have "Justify My Love" stuck in my head all day.
Posted by: saurabh at April 22, 2005 06:19 AM
