Life is a Bungling process...

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek
"What do you most value in your friends? Their continued existence." — Christopher Hitchens (Hitch-22: A Memoir)
"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

"the difference between a negotiation and an argument ... an argument being something you can win." Christopher Buckley (Thank You For Smoking)

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

“You can lead a horse to water, but a pencil must be lead.” Stan Laurel – “Brats”

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

"Half the World spends its time laughing at the other half, and both are fools." from Think Fast Mr. Moto

Saturday, April 17, 2010

"To Destroy You Is No Loss"

To Destroy You Is No Loss: The Odyssey of a Cambodian Family
by JoAn D. Ciddle
The Story of Teeda Butt Mam

"To keep you is no benefit, to destroy you is no loss." The taunting slogan used by the Cambodian Communists to intimidate millions of Cambodians in 1975"

I found this book by accident and story grabbed me immediately. It may be that I've become so terribly attuned to the outrages of government and the indifference to the individual that it creates.
Here was Cambodia, by fate geography and time, that had survived with "When Elephants Fight the Ant moves out of the way philosophy," the French, Japanese, French again, North Vietnamese, Americans, Chinese and Vietnamese Communists to be nearly self obliterated by its own Angkar (organization) Communism.

In a sad ironic twist, the Khmer Rouge, mirrored the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution.


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