All I Think Is That It's Stupid

Dave Barry on laughing at Very Big Government

Glenn Garvin from the December 1994 issue

(Page 6 of 9)

Reason: That's the last question. Let's do a little word association. I'll give you the name of a political figure and you say the first thing that comes to mind.

Barry:: Oh, I hate this.

Reason: Oliver Stone.

Barry:: Am I only allowed to say one word? Shithead. Oliver Stone--did you mean Oliver North or Oliver Stone?

Reason: Oliver Stone.

Barry:: Oh, Oliver Stone. Shithead.

Reason: Janet Reno.

Barry:: Out of her depth. I actually kind of like Janet Reno. She seems like a nice enough lady. But when you're basically going through the entire phone book trying to find women lawyers who don't have maids to pick the attorney general of the United States, how well can you do?

Reno taking responsibility for the Waco thing made me crazy. It enraged. Seemingly nobody wants to know what actually happened. There were some gun violations and we end up in a situation where we are surrounding them. I kept saying, "Why don't they just walk away? Just walk away. Nobody has to die. Walk away. Later on, arrest them when they come out. But walk away."

But no, we can't do it. So we order these tanks to attack this building full of crazy people with kids, and lo and behold, bad things happen. Ha! Knock me down with a feather. It got me when Janet said, "I'll take responsibility." No. You can't say that. And if you mean it, then you have to resign your job right away.

Maybe what she meant was "I'll take political responsibility for it," which turns out to be a big plus. But if you're going to take real moral responsibility for those deaths, then take it. But don't take it and say you're still going to be the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.

That's not what you wanted. You wanted a one-word answer.

Reason: That's OK. Bill Clinton.

Barry:: He's such a putz. He's basically my age; I knew a lot of people like him in college. It starts to really come home to you how inadequately prepared anybody is to be in charge of your life from a distance and to be given a lot of power when that person is basically your age and background. He strikes me as a pathetic figure. Because you can be the smartest person in the world--which he is, and if he's not, his wife is--and care more than anybody else in the world--which he does, I don't doubt that for a minute. And you can care so much that you're willing to be dishonest--you can tell people one thing but do another because you really know it's for their own good. And you'll still screw it all up. Because the whole premise of what you're doing's wrong!

Reason: I was talking to one of your editors as I did my lengthy--lengthy, Virginia!--preparation for this interview.

Comments

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If gender feminists are reactionaries, where does that place equity feminists such as pioneers Elizabeth Cady Stanton ("We ask no better laws than those you have made for yourselves"), Mary Wollstonecraft ("I wish to persuade women to endeavor to acquire strength, both of mind and body"), Maria Edgeworth ("Power is the law of man; make it yours"), and Sommers herself ("I have been moved to write this book because I am a feminist who does not like what feminism has become")?

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Pdf SE|9.6.10 @ 12:49PM|#

Once I came accross the post that was written by the Pulitzer Prize winner. Well, it was not written about something extraordinary. But sometimes the works about common things but with a unique view on them win.

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