Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love… true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in.  — Secondhand Lions

We have to keep our ideals, if for no other reason than to use as a measuring stick against our wants and desires. If what I want doesn’t measure up to my ideals, then I need to take a good hard look both at that want and at what I see in the mirror. In my life, it’s usually when I don’t measure up that things go bad, or when I do the measuring, see that either I or what I want isn’t in line with how I want my life to go, and still go ahead with it.

Adrian Cronauer:[impersonating an Intelligence Officer] We’ve realized that we’re having a very difficult time finding the enemy. It isn’t easy to find a Vietnamese man named “Charlie.” They’re all named Nguyen, or Tran, or…
Adrian Cronauer: [as himself] Well, how are you going about it?
Adrian Cronauer: [as Intel Officer] Well, we walk up to someone and say, ‘Are you the enemy? And, if they say yes, then we shoot them.”

Good Morning Vietnam

If you all only knew how close this is to reality. A lot of the training I had in the 1990’s basically relied on the bad guys walking around talking and acting like Boris Badinov. It can take months or years for an intelligence worker to become a professional and an expert in his or her field, and, especially in the military, people bop around from one assignment to another so often that by the time they learn how to do their job effectively, they’re getting ready to move on.

The flip side of this is the person who’s been at the same job for years and years, knows everything there ever will be to know about it (just ask them), and resists the thought that the target may evolve or that methods and sources might too.  In becoming an uber-expert on their job, they had lost flexibility and perspective.

There has to be a happy medium.   If you’re going to need six months to a year to become more than proficient at a job, then a two year tour is probably too short.  But if you’ve spent 10 years at the same place and have grown into the office furniture, then maybe it’s time for you to broaden your horizons a bit.

We’re standing here in Philadelphia, the, uh, city of brotherly love, the birthplace of freedom, where the, uh, founding fathers authored the Declaration of Independence, and I don’t recall that glorious document saying anything about all straight men are created equal. I believe it says all men are created equal.  — Philadelphia

Rights for one means rights for all. It doesn’t matter whether the person is gay or straight, white or black, male or female. This the political ideal that I believe in, and if you disagree, please consider what about your own life could be used to strip you of your rights. Saying that someone isn’t worthy of free exercise of their God-given rights because of something in their life is a slippery slope to having our rights dictated to us.

One of the stumbling blocks for us is that we have an obligation to respect the rights of those who want to take our rights away to express that opinion.  Saying “You shouldn’t say that no-one should own a gun.” is, to me, as wrong as saying “You shouldn’t be able to own a gun.”.  Demanding that our rights be respected signs us up to respect the rights of those who disagree.  We can debate them, prove them wrong, and do our level best to thwart their efforts, but we must never fall into the trap of denying the rights of others in order to preserve our own.

Hello handsome. You’re a good looking fellow, do you know that? People laugh at you, people hate you, but why do they hate you? Because… they are jealous. Look at that boyish face. Look at that sweet smile. Do you wanna talk about physical strength? Do you want to talk about sheer muscle? Do you want to talk about the Olympian ideal? You are a God. And listen to me, you are not evil. You… are… good.  — Young Frankenstein

If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

Flattery is sometimes necessary. Sometimes the only thing keeping you from getting ripped limb from limb, metaphorically or realistically, is a smile, some small talk, and giving the other person reason to believe that you believe they are a special person and that you admire them. Of course, it never hurts for that to be true.

I may not have a brain, gentlemen, but I have an idea. — Monsters Vs. Aliens

I know of a lot of people who should have this on their business cards and e-mail taglines. It’s always entertaining to see the hare-brained ideas that will come along without someone actually giving them a lot of thought. Most of them are of the “Wouldn’t it be great if….?” variety, and while the result of the idea would usually be laudable or at least enjoyable, the process of getting from the Lollipop Woods to the Candy Castle in their personal game of CandyLand always seems to slip through the cognitive cracks. Of course, every so often, someone comes up with a great idea and actually puts in the thinking and planning necessary to make it come to fruition, but then again, people like that are less likely to say something like this.

 Wednesday, look at all of the other children, their freckles, their bright little eyes, their eager, friendly smiles. Help them.  — Addams Family Values

One of the things I bring to most encounters is an ability to bring everyone else back down to earth. I’ve spent too many years tilting at windmills, chasing rainbows, and trying to make the latest great idea work to not look at something with a jaundiced eye.  I do try to make, hopefully, constructive suggestions. Maybe I don’t drink a lot of kool-aid anymore, but I try to not go off on flights of ecstasy when something I want to happen turns out to be a complete cluster.

Of course, watching the faces of the devoted as they realize that the sun continues to set in the west, no matter how much they believe or how fervently they devote themselves to their cause of making it set in the east, is a priceless experience.

You know how Sister Berthe always makes me kiss the floor after we’ve had a disagreement? Well, lately I’ve taken to kissing the floor whenever I see her coming, just to save time. — The Sound of Music

There’s nothing wrong with making sure you’ve done what you need to do in order to be able to do the things you have to do, even if it’s having a knock-down-drag-out argument with a superior. Having the unpleasant part of work out of the way quickly will make the rest of a task a lot more fun.

My pet, resting’s the sort of thing you’ve got to work up to gradually… very dangerous to rest all of a sudden. — Topper

Tonight is the end of my end-of-year vacation, and I’m exhausted.  We took one overnight trip, but I feel like I’ve been on the move for two weeks.  For some reason, I just can’t seem to relax and recharge this time around.

What’s funny is that when I was younger, even after the kids came along, a long weekend of working or playing hard would leave me feeling rejuvenated and motivated.  Now, a week and a half of playing with Boo, reading, and helping Irish Woman clean out the basement have left me spent.  One day we need to take a real vacation, long enough that even if I putter around for a week, I still feel justified in just sitting and watching the world go by for a few days.

Hey, a man can dream, can’t he?

Paco Hernandez: This whole thing is racist. Abscam? “Arab-scam”? It’s completely racist!

Richie DiMaso: So what do you have to worry about, Sheik? You’re Mexican.

— American Hustle

Is it correct to be offended for another group, or is it just silliness?  Should team names and mascots that are arguably offensive to a group be lumped in with those that merely use the name of that group?   Do people who are not part of the group in question have standing to be offended?

From where I sit, if members of a group complain that a name is offensive to them, then their objections should at least be considered.  And yes, there are some terms that are blatantly offensive, and their use should get maximum discussion and scrutiny.  But going to the extreme where calling your team “Seminoles” or “Sioux” gets you in trouble with the NCAA is taking things too far.  And if you have no connection to the group that the name refers to, then do us all a favor and develop other hobbies than being professionally offended.

Honestly, don’t we have better things to argue about?

I love em’, but one day I’m gonna knock him on his ass.  – Johnny Dangerously

Like I said, I’ve been like a bear with a sore head for the past couple of weeks.  It finally took a multi-hour ‘discussion’ between Irish Woman and me to get me to start  on the way to being human again.  My loving wife doesn’t understand why I’ve been in such a bad mood since Christmas, and to be honest, I’m not sure myself.  Her version of tough love is exactly what I need at times like this.  It’s somewhere between “I love you so very much” and “If you don’t pull your head out of your fourth point of contact, then I’m going to be forced to terminate your existence”.

It’s the same successful approach she takes, to varying degrees, with all of the mammals in our home.  She has a strong hand and a gentle touch, and she’s a lot better than I am at this.