[possible source: bbc broadcast april 4, 1942]

I got hold of a copy of the video that showed how Saddam Hussein had actually confirmed himself in power. This snuff-movie opens with a plenary session of the Ba'ath Party central committee: perhaps a hundred men. Suddenly the doors are locked and Saddam, in the chair, announces a special session. Into the room is dragged an obviously broken man, who begins to emit a robotic confession of treason and subversion, that he sobs has been instigated by Syrian and other agents. As the (literally) extorted confession unfolds, names begin to be named. Once a fellow-conspirator is identified, guards come to his seat and haul him from the room. The reclining Saddam, meanwhile, lights a large cigar and contentedly scans his dossiers. The sickness of fear in the room is such that men begin to crack up and weep, rising to their feet to shout hysterical praise, even love, for the leader. Inexorably, though, the cull continues, and faces and bodies go slack as their owners are pinioned and led away. When it is over, about half the committee members are left, moaning with relief and heaving with ardent love for the boss. (In an accompanying sequel, which I have not seen, they were apparently required to go into the yard outside and shoot the other half, thus sealing the pact with Saddam. I am not sure that even Beria or Himmler would have had the nerve and ingenuity and cruelty to come up with that.)

Christopher Hitchens

Technology is the drug of choice for most Americans. Source unknown Theory: when you have ideas. Ideology: when ideas have you.

Source Unknown

It was physically difficult, adjusting to wheelchair life, but I remember a great relief and happiness that I was finally getting somewhere, finding musicians to work with that were sympathetic.

Robert Wyatt

About the only problem with success is that it does not teach you how to deal with failure.

Tommy Lasorda

'Tis in ourselves that we are thus or thus

William Shakespeare

Night falls fast. Today is in the past.

John Green

It is always so pleasant to be generous, though very vexatious to pay debts.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Although Salinger had long since cut me out of his life completely and made it plain that he had nothing but contempt for me, the thought of becoming the object of his wrath was more than I felt ready to take on.

Joyce Maynard

Farrah Fawcett had courage, she had strength, and she had faith.

Jaclyn Smith

I wanted only to try to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?

Hermann Hesse, Demian: The Story

Like when I'm in the bathroom looking at my toilet paper, I'm like 'Wow! That's toilet paper?' I don't know if we appreciate how much we have.

Alicia Silverstone

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

Johann von Goethe