“I'm a historian by training and by conviction. And so the thing that has throughout informed my thinking about international relations is history. I think, for example, the reason that I was perhaps able to see sooner than some others that the Soviet Empire in Eastern Europe was decaying--if not disintegrating--was that I came to it through history and through Germany, rather than through Sovietology and through Moscow. And therefore the starting point was that no empire in history has lasted forever, and this one won't either.” IfsThinkingReasonAbleForeverExampleTrainingEuropeRelationStartingInternationalConvictionGermanyEmpiresHistorianSovietEasternInternational RelationsStarting PointMoscowEastern Europe Author:Timothy Garton Ash
“Do you remember the classic example of chutzpah? It's the young man who kills his parents and then asks the judge for mercy on the grounds that he's an orphan. The Bush administration's updated version of that was starting a wholly illegal, immoral, and devastating war and then dismissing all kinds of criticism of its action on the grounds that 'we're at war.” MenKindWarActionRememberYoungAsksParentExampleJudgingCriticismMercyStartingVersionsAll KindsAdministrationYoung ManClassicIllegalImmoralOrphan Book:America's Deadliest Export: Democracy – The Truth about US Foreign Policy and Everything Else Source: America's Deadliest Export: Democracy – The Truth about US Foreign Policy and Everything Else
“The old chess is too limited. Imagine playing cards, black jack for example, and every time the dealer has the same starting hand you have the same starting hand. What's the point?” HandsBlackImagineExampleStartingChessCardsDealerPlaying Cards Author:Bobby Fischer
“Part of what we're trying to do is lay out what really happened. For example, I've been trying to get across that the intelligence leadership did not just keep the country in the dark. They actively misled the country on key issues. When you have someone who heads the NSA saying we don't hold data at all on US citizens, that's one of the most misleading statements I believe that's ever been made about surveillance policy. And I think that now we're starting to get that message across.” ThinkingTryingBelieveMadeCountryI BelieveDarkIssuesHappenedPolicyExampleKeysCitizensMessagesLaysStartingStatementsDataSurveillanceMisleadNsaMisled Author:Ron Wyden
“The iPod is a perfect example of Steve's [Jobs] methodology of starting with the user and looking at the entire end-to-end system.” EndsJobsPerfectExampleStartingUsersIpodsMethodology Author:John Sculley
“What's really interesting, though, is that some people in the Messirya are starting to see Darfuri rebels - so non-Arab, [from the] Justice and Equality Movement - have moved over into Southern Kordofan, which is supposed to be a Messirya stronghold, and started recruiting Messirya to go and fight against the Khartoum government in Darfur. Just another example of how everything in Sudan is interlinked.” PeopleGovernmentFightingJusticeInterestingExampleMovementMovedStartingSupposed To BeSouthernRebelReally InterestingEquality And JusticeSudanStrongholdsDarfur Author:Rebecca Hamilton
“And she [Margaret Thatcher] also had a sort of a way, like a railroad train, of going, taking a breath and starting quite quietly and making a point in a way that you don't really know that this point is going to be made through several examples, and there will be not be a break in the speaking voice at any point.” KnowsWayMadeVoiceBreakExampleBreathsTrainStartingRailroads Author:Meryl Streep