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Mencken-based De-Programming

In honor of the start of the Nuremburg Rally portion of our quadrienniel power dance, a few quips from the only modern journalist that Mark Twain might have approved of, H.L.Mencken... "Each party steals so many articles of faith from the other, and the candidates spend so much time making each other's speeches, that by the time election day is past there is nothing much to do save turn the sitting rascals out and let a new gang in. " " Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance. " " For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong." " I believe that it is better to tell the truth than a lie. I believe it is better to be free than to be a slave. And I believe it is better to know than to be ignorant." " It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public offi...

A Day on a Train – Canada 1985

2 September morning At the Gâre Central in Montréal on Friday morning I was given a fine taste of mis-directed Gallic temper. As I was gathering my pack to descend the stairs, an irate Québequoise accosted me with a steely glare and said, “To ze back of ze line, young man! I have been waiting for an ow-ware.” A bit shocked at her rudeness, not to mention her mistake, I did not say what I was thinking and merely pleaded my case in an offended tone. The Americans who had been waiting next to me for an hour backed up my story. She went down the stairs to board The Canadian in a huff, sure in her mind, I supposed, that she had been victimized once again by an American-led Anglo-Saxon imperialist conspiracy. I should have pointed out to her that two Francophone girls had indeed jumped the queue, but why stir up an international incident on such a fine Sunday morning, eh? Anyway, wasn't it true that an ancestor on my Dad's side had indeed participated in the ill-fated proto-A...