“I know that it's probably not a good idea for a comedian, especially a satirist, to support a public policy group or a politician. This is something I learned only too well years ago when I did a fundraiser for Pol Pot. A few years later I saw 'The Killing Fields,' and I've got to tell you, I just felt like a schmuck.” KnowsYearsWellsIdeasFeltSupportSawsGroupsPolicyFieldsPoliticianYears AgoKillingComedianPotGood IdeasPublic PolicySatiristFundraiserSchmucks Author:Al Franken
“Wood heat is not new. It dates back to a day millions of years ago, when a group of cavemen were sitting around, watching dinosaurs rot. Suddenly, lightning struck a nearby log and set it on fire. One of the cavemen stared at the fire for a few minutes, then said: Hey! Wood heat! The other cavemen, who did not understand English, immediately beat him to death with stones. But the key discovery had been made, and from that day forward, the cavemen had all the heat they needed, although their insurance rates went way up.” WayYearsMadeSaidMillionsFireGroupsMinutesKeysNeededBeatsHumorousSittingDiscoveryYears AgoStonesRateWoodsHeyHeatLightningDinosaursSitting AroundCavemenInsurance Rate Author:Dave Barry
“If you had told me 28 years ago that the largest organization in the world touching the lives of gays and lesbians would be a church, I would not have believed you. So many members of the lesbian and gay community feel they have had violence done to them by religious groups that it is very difficult to evangelize any members of our community. But we do evangelize.” IfsWorldFeelsYearsDoneWould BeDifficultCommunityChurchReligiousViolenceGroupsGayMembersYears AgoOrganizationTouchingOur CommunityGay Community Author:Troy Perry
“You can begin to see an amalgamation of cultures, the real beginning of one world. Ten years ago, it would have been impossible to imagine a Cockney singing group with a Southern Negro style and Indian and electronic music. I wonder if people have even noticed what a tremendous cultural signal the Beatles are.” PeopleIfsWorldYearsHas BeensRealCultureWonderImagineImpossibleGroupsStyleTenSingingYears AgoIndianSouthernSignalsElectronic MusicCockneysAmalgamation Author:Alan Arkin
“Because of the spin-meisters and the focus groups and the way politics is run now. It's run by polls and focus groups. So it's even more true today, I think, than it was some 40 years ago.” ThinkingWayYearsRunningTodayComedyFocusGroupsYears AgoPollsFocus Groups Author:Bob Newhart
“The media is all over this Oui interview that Arnold did 25 years ago. Now, he's admitted he smoked pot, had group sex and didn't mind dating a girl that was out of shape and kind of fat if she satisfied him sexually. So, his handlers have stopped comparing him to Reagan and started comparing him to Clinton.” IfsYearsMindKindGirlSexGroupsMediaShapesYears AgoDatingClintonSatisfiedFatsCompareInterviewsPotSexually Author:Bill Maher
“[M]y conception of liberty does not permit an individual citizen or a group of citizens to commit acts of depredation against nature in such a way as to harm their neighbors and especially to harm the future generations of Americans. If many years ago we had had the necessary knowledge, and especially the necessary willingness on the part of the Federal Government, we would have saved a sum, a sum of money which has cost the taxpayers of America two billion dollars.” IfsWayYearsDoeTwoGovernmentAmericaIndividualLibertyGenerationsGroupsCitizensCostYears AgoDollarsHarmNeighborBillionsSavedCommitWillingnessConceptionPermitElectricityConservationFederal GovernmentFuture GenerationTaxpayers Author:Franklin D. Roosevelt
“A new poll out taken by a Republican group that shows most Democrats prefer socialism to capitalism. Those terms don't mean what they did maybe 40, 50 years ago.” YearsMeanShowsTermTakenGroupsRepublicanCapitalismYears AgoDemocratSocialismPolls Author:Chris Matthews
“We made our debut in Japan about few years ago and when we went on a morning show there to promote our album, I did a brief interview in Japanese using simple expressions such as "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu." But one of the members of our group said, "Stay quiet if you can't speak Japanese! It's embarrassing!" So that's when I told myself that I'd show how good I am by studying Japanese hard.” IfsYearsMadeSaidHardShowsSpeakSimpleMorningStudyGroupsExpressionQuietMembersYears AgoAlbumsInterviewsJapanEmbarrassingDebut Author:Seungri
“Years ago, after I'd answered several questions from a group of teens, one of them asked how I could stay optimistic and keep on going. I answered that instead of getting sad, I get mad.” YearsGroupsYears AgoMadOptimisticTeensStay Optimistic Author:Jayni Chase
“I worked at a group home for a survival job years ago, and kids who have a rough home life have always tugged at my heart-strings. I also care a lot about animal cruelty.” YearsHeartHomeCareKidsJobsAnimalGroupsMy HeartSurvivalYears AgoCrueltyStringsRoughAnimal CrueltyHome LifeHeart Strings Author:Mike Colter
“I did a pilot for Judd Apatow when I was 20 years old, so 18 years ago. The same year that he did that pilot, he made another pilot called Freaks And Geeks.Judd felt bad for me because I was living in L.A. by myself. Not only did he put me in an episode of Freaks And Geeks, but he was like, "Hey, just come hang out. I'm on set, getting to know everybody." I started hanging with everybody, and they were all either my age or a little younger. Seth and I just got along really well - Jason Segel and I, too - and before you know it, it was a really strong, solid group of friends.” KnowsYearsWellsLittlesMadeAgeStrongFeltGroupsYears AgoHeyHanging OutFreakPilotsEpisodesGeekJasonGroup Of Friends Author:David Krumholtz
“As a matter of fact if you think about [Donald Trump press conference after visit to Mexico], that could have been may be one of the Gang of Eight, the bipartisan group that in the Senate some years ago passed a bill that said border security. It said thousands of new border guards to deal with the porous border. It talked about a pathway to legalization for the 11 or 12 million undocumented that live in this country.” IfsThinkingYearsMayHas BeensSaidCountryMatterFactsDealsMillionsGroupsSecurityTrumpYears AgoBillsPressesEightBordersSenateMexicoConferencesGangCould Have BeenPathwaysMatter Of FactBipartisanPress ConferencesBorder Security Author:Jose Diaz-Balart
“About four years ago I made a list, for my own amusement, of the playwrights, the contemporary playwrights, by whom critics said I'd been influenced. I listed twenty-five. It included five playwrights whose work I didn't know, so I read these five playwrights and indeed now I suppose I can say I have been influenced by them. The problem is that the people who write these articles find the inevitable similarities of people writing in the same generation, in the same century, and on the same planet, and they put them together in a group.” PeopleKnowsWritingYearsHas BeensMadeSaidI CanProblemTogetherMy OwnFiveFourGenerationsGroupsCenturyPlanetsYears AgoTwentiesCriticsListsContemporaryInevitableArticlesFour YearsAmusementPlaywrightSimilarityTwenty Five Author:Edward Albee
“While Newt Gingrich was running for president four years ago a controversy bubbled up regarding his campaign finances. You see, in December of 2011 a watchdog group filed an FEC complaint alleging the campaign paid Gingrich himself $42,000 for his mailing list. Now, the group claimed that payment was not disclosed on his FEC filing.” YearsRunningPresidentFourGroupsYears AgoPaidListsCampaignsFinanceFour YearsComplaintsControversyPaymentDecemberFilingNewtsCampaign FinanceMailing Author:Chris Hayes
“If you ignore somebody's record and only focus on something that happened 25 years ago when all they were doing even then was trying to stand up for a minority group that felt excluded and discriminated against, then I don't - I think that is a distortion of a person's record. I mean, a person's record is full, not just the parts that you want to use against them.” IfsThinkingWantTryingYearsMeanPersonsUseFeltRecordsFocusHappenedGroupsYears AgoMinoritiesDistortionExcludedMinority Groups Author:Keith Ellison
“The Iranian government is the government that supplied the arms on the Karin-A to the Palestinian Authority several years ago, they are the world's largest central banker for terrorism, if they thought it was in their interest to give a terrorist group a nuclear weapon to use against America or against Israel, I don't think they'd hesitate.” IfsThinkingWorldGivingYearsUseGovernmentAmericaInterestGroupsArmsAuthorityWeaponsYears AgoIsraelTerrorismNuclearTerroristNuclear WeaponsPalestinianBankersIranianTerrorist Groups Author:John Bolton
“We can see, from California to New York, from Maine to Florida, Seattle to New Mexico - everywhere there are women's groups. Everywhere there are women who have gotten together to examine global warming, and women who have gotten together to prepare each other for single parenting - there are women who have come together to be supportive to those whose mates are in prison, male or female, partners are in prison. All sorts of gatherings of women. I mean, I'm just celebrating my 80th year on this planet, and I look back 50 years ago and there was nothing like that.” YearsLooksMeanTogetherGroupsNew YorkPlanetsFemaleYears AgoPrisonMalesPartnersCelebrateCaliforniaGlobal WarmingMatesMexicoFloridaSupportiveGatheringSeattleMaineSingle ParentNew Mexico Author:Maya Angelou
“We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; because a small and tenuous species, arising in Africa a quarter of a million years ago, has managed, so far, to survive by hook and by crook. We may yearn for a ‘higher answer’– but none exists” YearsMayAgeEarthReligionAnswersMillionsGroupsAtheismEvolutionHigherCreaturesYears AgoSpeciesAtheistFishesLegsIceOddPeculiarQuartersHookAnatomyCrooksIce AgeFins Author:Stephen Jay Gould
“[Speaking to a group of wealthy New Yorkers] A million years ago, the cave man, without tools, with small brain, and with nothing but the strength of his body, managed to feed his wife and children, so that through him the race survived. You on the other hand, armed with all the modern means of production, multiplying the productive capacity of the cave man a million times — you are incompetents and muddlers, you are unable to secure to millions even the paltry amount of bread that would sustain their physical life. You have mismanaged the world, and it shall be taken from you.” MenWorldYearsMeanChildrenBodyHandsRaceBrainMillionsTakenWifeGroupsModernAmountCapacityYears AgoToolsProductionsBreadSecureProductiveWealthySurvivedCavesNew YorkersMultiplying Author:Jack London