Commonplacing

“It should not be necessary to argue that the model of a natural and self-adjusting economy, working providentially for the best good of all, is as much a superstition as the notions which upheld the paternalist model.”

E. P. Thompson, “The Moral Economy of the English Crowd in the Eighteenth Century,” Past & Present 50 (Feb. 1971): 76–136, quote on 91.

“If a man doesn’t get his due in one world, he can always get it in another. It’s a great pleasure to see and do new things.”

Voltaire, Candide, trans. and ed. by Daniel Gordon (Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 1999), ch. 14, p. 68.

“It’s not because Mousavi lost, but because they believe they were tricked. Sure they’re upset about the fact that Mousavi didn’t win, but that’s not the issue. That’s not why they’re protesting. They’re protesting because the government thought it could make fools of them. All this was a play, it was a movie. It wasn’t real. It was a charade. People are hopeless and depressed because they were played with, not because Mousavi lost.”

From Tehran, 24 June 2009 [10 am Eastern US], Iran Updates, Tehran Bureau

“In essence, the core of the struggle is between two competing views of what this country’s Islamic revolution sought to achieve.”

Robert F. Worth, “A Struggle for the Legacy of the Iranian Revolution,” The New York Times, June 20, 2009

“It is not just Mr Ahmadinejad’s margin of victory that has cast doubt on the result, however, but the speed with which 39.1 million votes were counted – and the fact that the incumbent enjoyed a consistent two-to-one lead even in his opponents’ political strongholds.”

Times Online, 16 June 2009

Talk about clumsy ballot manipulation.

“Listening to Cheney and Rice, it seems that they want to be excused for the measures they authorized after the attacks on the grounds that 9/11 was traumatic.”

Richard A. Clarke, “The Trauma of 9/11 Is No Excuse,” The Washington Post, May 31, 2009.

“How much potential harm justifies suppressing facts, whether from My Lai or Iraq, that might help the public judge the way a war is waged in its name?”

Adam Liptak, “Images, the Law and War,” The New York Times, 16 May 2009.

“Our defense budget is almost half the world’s, even leaving out nuclear weapons, the wars, veterans, and homeland security.”

Benjamin H. Friedman, “The US should cut military spending in half,” Christian Science Monitor, April 27, 2009.

“When we ask if something is torture, the answer is another question: What kind of people should we be?”

Kathleen Parker, “Is It Torture?” Washington Post, April 26, p. A15.

“Most of the banks realize that some of what they’ve done before —the processes being followed—don’t really look very good in the light of day.”

Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.), quoted in Lisa Lerer, “Credit Companies Brace for W.H. visit,” Politico [paper edition], 23 April 2009, p. 17.

That’s an understatement, to be sure, but it’s pretty strong language for a senator from Deleware, where so many credit card companies are located because of the state’s lax laws.