March 11, 2006

Kurt Vonnegut Speaks

“Well,” says Vonnegut, “I just want to say that George W. Bush is the syphilis president.” The students seem to agree. “The only difference between Bush and Hitler,” Vonnegut adds, “is that Hitler was elected.” “You all know, of course, that the election was stolen. Right here.”

“I’m lucky enough to have known a great president, one who really cared about ALL the people, rich and poor. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. He was rich himself, and his class considered him a traitor."

“We have people in this country who are richer than whole countries...They run everything."

“We have no Democratic Party. It’s financed by the same millionaires and billionaires as the Republicans....So we have no representatives in Washington. Working people have no leverage whatsoever."

“I’m trying to write a novel about the end of the world. But the world is really ending! It’s becoming more and more uninhabitable because of our addiction to oil...Bush used that line recently, I should sue him for plagiarism.”

Things have gotten so bad, he says, “people are in revolt again life itself.”

Our economy has been making money, but “all the money that should have gone into research and development has gone into executive compensation. If people insist on living as if there’s no tomorrow, there really won’t be one."

“War is a very profitable thing for a few people. Jesus used to be so merciful and loving of the poor. But now he’s a Republican."

“Our economy today is not capitalism. It’s casino-ism. That’s all the stock market is about. Gambling."

“You meet saints every where. They can be anywhere. They are people behaving decently in an indecent society.

“I’m going to sue the cigarette companies because they haven’t killed me.”

He says his son lived out his dream to be a pilot and has spent his career flying for Continental --now they’ve “screwed up his pension.”

“You’re all perfectly safe, by the way. I took off my shoes at the airport. The terrorists hate the smell of feet. "

From the Columbus Free Press (via Buzzflash)

4 comments:

Hume's Ghost said...

One of my biggest regrets from college was not going to see Kurt Vonnegut when he came to do a lecture. The cost of addmission was two dollars if I recall correctly.

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

You are hereby linked to Poetic Justice, my freind...

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

Tom

Unknown said...

Vonnegut is right on. I am an optimistic person and I am having trouble keeping upbeat in the current political reality!
I thought Nixon and Reagan were the supreme liars and hypocrites but this present administration is nothing short of astounding in its malevolence and deceit!
Your blog title is so apt!