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Batshit crazy quote of the day

It's with that in mind that we have to view the proposal to build the Ground Zero Mosque. It's a very strange enterprise that says, "We want to increase religious tolerance and understanding, and if you don't agree with that, we're going to increase religious tolerance and understanding whether you like it or not."

-Former U.N. Ambassador and
would-be 2012 Presidential candidate John Bolton,
September 11th, 2010.


Also on John Bolton's shitlist:

  • Enterprises to cure cancer--whether you like it or not.
  • Enterprises to put humans on Mars--whether you like it or not.
  • Enterprises to put and end to war--whether you like it or not.
  • Enterprises to end injustice--whether you like it or not.
  • Enterprises to end poverty--whether you like it or not.
  • The starship Enterprise--whether you like it or not (except the NX-01, which he likes alright: John Bolton is a pretty big Scott Bakula fan going back to Quantum Leap, whether you like it or not).
  • Adorable, adorable puppies--whether you like them or not.
  • Christmas--the Whos down in Whoville might like it a lot, but John Bolton doesn't care for it, doesn't like it one jot!



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vince said…
Pamela Geller was at that stupid thing as well. My level of dislike has moved to despise for idiots like Geller and Bolton, and Beck and Palin and Angle and all their ilk.
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 2:07:00 PM EDT
Nathan said…
Ya'know...when I saw it was a quote of the day, I thought you'd be going after Newt for that whole "Obama thinks like a Kenyan Anti-Colonialist" bit. But Bolton's cool too! He does have the most terrifying moustache in public life!
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 5:08:00 PM EDT
Nathan said…
Little known fact about Bolton: During his tenure at the U.N., he regularly passed love notes to other delegates while the General Assembly was in session. They were always personalized, but the general gist, was always along the lines of, "Don't forget -- we can blow your pissant country off the face of the Earth without making a noticeable dent in our arsenal. Love, John"
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 5:15:00 PM EDT
Eric said…
Newt's comment about alien Kenyan anti-colonialists wasn't batshit crazy in the sense that I'm pretty sure Newt doesn't believe it and was choosing his words carefully in order to throw crazy right-wingers a bone while coding it in such a way that it's not necessarily self-evidently racist, if you know what I mean. (I.e. it is self-evidently racist, but it's nuanced in a way that won't be apparent to Newt's intended audience and in a way that gives him and his pundits plausible deniability.)

So Newt's line is just part of that cynical tradition of Nixonian/Atwaterian politics. It's ugly, but it's not crazy.

Bolton's line, though, was so nuts that when I saw it quoted, I actually had to look for a transcript because I had to wonder if he was quoted out of context, and when I couldn't find a transcript I had to see if I could find video. I mean, the guy actually suggests that tolerance and understanding, generally considered universal virtues even if understandings differ about what constitutes tolerance and understanding, are bad things that might have to be forced down someone's throat. And this isn't something where he's being misquoted or he misspoke--I mean, the guy stumbles a little on the second "tolerance" (he starts to say "intolerance" then corrects himself), but it's pretty clear he thinks he knows what he's saying. It's not a malapropism, in other words.

What can you say? The man's a national treasure.
Monday, September 13, 2010 at 5:37:00 PM EDT
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