The following began life as a comment on Charles’s blog, but I thought it was worth reproducing here:
That reminds me – I’ve been reading Novalyne Price Ellis’s memoir One Who Walked Alone, and just came across the following incident (p. 183) from her days as a high school speech coach:
I bawled out one of Mary’s judges because she caused Mary to get third. The dumb woman! I told her Mary should have had first place because she was by far the best in the senior girls finals! The woman opened her mouth and said, “Well, I guess you can blame me for that. The other two judges wanted to give her first place, and I talked them out of it.”
I controlled an impulse to slap her, for she was bigger than I was. With icicles hanging on every syllable, I asked her why she’d done it.
“Your girl was too perfect, and that’s what I objected to,” she said haughtily, moving her big black purse on her fat stomach. “I want to know that they’re just high school students saying a memorized oration that somebody else wrote. Your girl sounded as if the words were her very own! I want them to make mistakes and be just exactly what they are – high school students. I think, young lady, you trained your girl too well. You wouldn’t let her make mistakes ….”
(The Randians used to have a “Horror File” for stuff like this.)
back against a Homeland Security takeover of San Francisco in the wake of a 9/11-style terrorist bombing. (
There’s a certain obscenity in McCain’s gassing about the “decency” of the United States when outside the hall his cops were brutalising innocent people. But my favourite line was this one: “if you’re disappointed with the mistakes of government, join its ranks and work to correct them.” Try substituting “the Mafia” (or “the Gestapo,” or “the Sith,” or “the Hosts of Hell”) for “government” in that sentence.
ARI has 