A witty saying

The modern conservative is engaged in one of man's oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.

Attributed to John Kenneth Galbraith

Shorter David Warren

For today's shorter, I was tempted to use this little gem from CanWest-Global's most flatulant gasbag, with a minor editorial modification:

Horrid Little Game

"The idea that I know nothing about [this subject], and therefore should not write about it, occurred to me just before starting this sentence, but I will not let that slow me down."

That, while humourous (maybe even "funny") would be a bit of a cheap shot, especially if you actually read the piece. This, however, would not be:

New governor

Finally, Canada has a governor general who is a posh white man.

And the biggest problem facing Pakistan is . . .

Poverty?

Inflation?

Low literacy?

Enmity with India?

Relations with America?

An electricity grid that can't cope with demand and a water system that never could?

According to some, it's none of the above. Nope, apparently the biggest problem facing Pakistan today is too much religious pluralism. . .

The biggest problem facing Pakistan is the cruel stupidity of a chunk of its population.

Slow, methodical, cruel

From Ha'aretz:

Gestures to the Palestinians

Israel declares huge amounts of private Palestinian land as firing zones and expels the residents under the false and self-righteous guise of concern for their welfare, lest they be harmed by the military training; but these firing zones are always to be found solely on Palestinian land, and never on settlement land. Have you ever heard of any settlers being expelled from their homes because their settlement was declared part of a firing zone? But against these wretched shepherds in the Jordan Valley, anything goes. This is Israeli justice, this is equality as practiced by the Israel Defense Forces.