Mush Alerts

I was browsing the Conservative Forum and ended up on their Mush Alert quote page. A striking tribute to the honesty of people who are occasionally willing to say what they usually pretend isn't true. Some of the good ones are below with my commentary. More are available here.

Education and Social Engineering:

We really don't know how to raise children. If we want to talk about equality of opportunity for children, then the fact that children are raised in families means there's no equality. ... In order to raise children with equality, we must take them away from families and communally raise them.
Mary Jo Bane - Former Assistant Secretary of Administration for Children and Families in the Department of Health and Human Services of the Clinton administration
Because all children must become doctors. No I don't know what is wrong with your car.

[Government social engineering in northern Canada] gives us a chance to build the kind of society we want, without repeating the mistakes of the past. Jean Chrétien - Liberal prime minister of Canada
Number one reason we don't want the Liberals to get into power ever again. They're so "successful" (or sadistic).

We can build a collective civic space large enough for all our separate identities, that we can be E Pluribus Unum -- Out of One, Many. Al Gore - VP of the U.S.
Because we all have the right to define our own universe (Even illiterates). The central tenant of an Inconvenient Truth.

All our lives we fought against exalting the individual, against the elevation of the single person, and long ago we were over and done with the business of a hero... Lenin - Premier of the USSR
How do you say "I told you so" in Russian?

Education is thus a most powerful ally of humanism. What can the theistic Sunday schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching? C.F. Potter - American educator and humanist
Why we homeschool.

... education should aim not so much at acquisition of knowledge... there is less need to know the content of information. ... [Capitalism] lays the foundations of rivalry and aggression and encourages exaggerated consumption, making man a slave of ambition and status symbols. ... [Lifelong learning promotes] equality of end result, and not merely of opportunity... and fosters equality in terms of opinions, aspirations, motivations, and so on. United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization
" fosters equality in terms of opinions, aspirations, motivations" now I really, really, really have the creeps. I've got to have equal aspirations to the dead-beat in the back row? (Cookie cutter here we come, marching on marching on, every thought and every deed, approved by the authorities)

The secret of the superiority of state over private education lies in the fact that in the former the teacher is responsible to society... The result desired by the state is a wholly different one from that desired by parents, guardians, and pupils. Lester Frank Ward - Sociologist
Glad to know you're selling a product no one wants, perhaps people will eventually stop buying. I hope, I hope.

Freedom:

[Description of homosexuals as 'abnormal' is] of a critical and discriminatory (although not abusively discriminatory) nature. ... In Canada we respect freedom of speech but we do not worship it. Canadian Broadcast Standards Council
Descriptions of conservatives as vampire-ish (not the good Twilight kind), child-disemboweling, abnormally certifiable, fill-in-the-blank-with-words-my-Mother-says-ladies-don't-use, is however probably responsible reporting.

I'm not going to have some reporters pawing through our papers. We are the president. Hillary Clinton - Former First Lady of the U.S.A.
You gotta love that We. Too bad for her it never became an I (in which case it would be an I not a We you understand)

You know the one thing that's wrong with this country? Everyone gets a chance to have their fair say. Bill Clinton - President
You know, I might almost go for this, if "We" were to apply it to "Ourselves" first before "We" tried to dictate to anyone else.

We can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans... Bill Clinton - President
One fixation I wasn't aware that "We" were overly fixated on.

The children who know how to think for themselves spoil the harmony of the collective society that is coming, where everyone would be interdependent. John D. Dewey signator of The Humanist Manifesto (1933) and "the father of progressive education"
Someone didn't predict the rise of the internet.

Morality:

The idea of good and evil is a myth created by the politicians, the priests, and all those who have an interest to keep it at their mercy. Brock Chisolm - First Director-General of the World Health Organization
But abstinence only sex-ed is wrong, wrong, double-fascist-wrong.

I am not ideologically opposed to anything unless it doesn't work. Brian Mulroney - Prime Minister of Canada
The defining quote of politics today.

[Environmental activism] We have to offer up scary scenarios, make simplified dramatic statements, and make little mention of any doubts we may have. Each of us has to decide what the right balance is between being effective and being honest. Stephen Schneider - Former Department Director and Head of Advanced Study Project at the National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder,
And we were surprised by Climategate?

Just for Laughs:

I'm not interested in patronage because I'm a Liberal. Jean Chrétien - Liberal prime minister of Canada
One word - gag.

As a woman, I fear that the gradual Americanization of our society might mean that I could not get on a subway alone. Adrienne Clarkson - Governor-General of Canada
Because....

That's not a lie, it's a terminological inexactitude. Alexander Haig - General
Which is why we want universal education so no one will know what that means and they will just accept our statements by faith.

Our job is to give people not what they want, but what we decide they ought to have. Richard Salant - President of CBS News
I should get a million dollar contract to analyze why the media is failing, turn in this quote, and then retire in the Bahamas.

Gun Control:

We must be able to arrest people before they commit crimes. By registering guns and knowing who has them we can do that ... If they have guns they are pretty likely to commit a crime. Mary Ann Carlson - Vermont Senator
Jury, I would like to convict this man for first degree murder which he would have shortly committed. Evidence in support... (drum-roll)... this rifle registration. Yes that's it. Yes Your Honour I am feeling quite well. No Your Honour I do not know why security is presently approaching me.

This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!
Ten points for anyone who identifies this quote. Alright I'll tell. It was a Toronto Star reporter. No, I lied, it was Adolf Hitler. Really it was. I'll prove it.

Waiting periods are only a step. Registration is only a step. The prohibition of private firearms is the goal. Janet Reno - Attorney-General of the United States
Because we expect a revolution soon..... ours. (Cue evil laugh)

Gender:

[Advocating hiring policies that favour women] Ninety-nine times out of 100 it's going to happen the other way around so a little bit of redress doesn't hurt. Adrienne Clarkson - Governor-General of Canada
Which really explains a whole lot about... things.

Women fail to understand how much men hate them. Germaine Greer - The Female Eunuch
Except of course for Germaine Greer.

Women should be supported regardless of proof. Anita Hill - Former assistant to Justice Clarence Thomas
Anita Hill tried to murder me. I'm a woman. Now Anita are you going to support me or not?

Canada:

There can be no question of my addressing a message to Canada to celebrate its centennial. We can have good relations. We must have excellent relations with French Canada. But we are not obliged to offer congratulations for the creation of a state based on our past defeat and on the integration of part of the French people into a British system. Charles de Gaulle - French Prime Minister on Canada's Centennial
I'll be watching the mail for the U.N. resolution demanding the return of Canada to France. After all based on their attitude towards Israel....

I will not leave Ottawa until the country and the government are irreversibly bilingual. Pierre Elliot Trudeau - prime minister of Canada
The goal for future generations? Make a liar out of Trudeau.